Why is Indoor Air Quality Important

I have asthma. We will have 2 small children when we move in. I'm concerned with air quality. I learned that carpet doubles its weight in one year from all the crap that is collected in it. A dyson won't change that. dust is not my friend. I can smell everything. I think I can smell the formaldehyde leaching from particle board furniture from Target. I just can. So that is our focus. Indoor Air Quality. that is our number one focus and it happens to be Green.

Siding

We are doing a full cedar shake siding application. No hardiplank. Hardiplank is considered somewhat green for its long lifecycle and little maintenance. It holds paint really well. There is no current way to recycle it though and it may just end up in the landfills.

Cedar is a natural material. Granted some would say not very renewable, but it is local. I'm all for things that are natural. But we will have to stain/coat it every so often and that isn't really "green", but we like it and so we are doing it.

Instructions to the team

This is posted inside the house:

Thank you for working on our Green Home


Please remember all sealants, caulk, mortar, and adhesives used inside the house, need to be Low Toxic or “Green”.

One thing my Green consultants taught me was to be onsite and look at the products being used and ask questions. I'm learning a lot and the workers know that I'm serious about this. Our contractor is happy to explain anything I ask about what is going on. We also started the project with a statement to everyone that this was a Green home with a specific Goal. I think that helped let everyone know our vision.

Insulation

Our insulation will be fiberglass. I didn't want to use fiberglass but we are restricted by budget. Luckily fiberglass has come a long way. They now make a formaldehyde free product that is the mainstream choice among subcontractors. It is called Greenguard. They carry it at Lowe's! Fiberglass is also encapsulated now, so less is flying around in the air when it is installed.

We are going to vacuum the interior walls prior to installation so there is very little dust left behind the drywall. The subcontractors are being instructed to make sure they fill every nook and cranny and to NOT compress the insulation.

We are also asking them to use a Green certified, low VOC, Formaldehyde free caulk and foam. I'm waiting to hear if they found it - OSI Green Seal is the name.

Lights

We will have some energy star rated fixtures to be listed here and many CFLs or Energy efficient bulbs. We are working on choosing them now...

I found a really cool website for a light fixture company in Oregon to share: www.schoolhouseelectric.com I love their unique bungalow lighting. Not sure if it fits in with our design.

I'm starting to like lights from a company called www.dolandesigns.com
here is the one I like for the island http://www.lampsusa.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=955 We'd do 2 of them.
I'm using magazines to find the look we want and then sourcing where they got their products. Magazines are sooo helpful and practically free!

Today, 2/26, I had to decide where to place our ceiling mount fixture above the future dining room table. Because we have this open floor plan, it was really hard to nail something down. Originally I was going to just do all canned lighting, but I don't think that will really give us enough light while eating or entertaining. My builder helped us make this decision by showing me a home he built around the corner. For some reason, this decision stressed me out. I'll have to report back if it looks good when we move in.

Exterior Door

Using local materials is another green concept. We live in the wood capital of the US. Both door companies we are looking at are located here. Buffelen and Simpson. We are looking at a solid wood door because it fits our taste. Wood is a natural material and looks nice.

The Roof

Our Roof is a 30 year Composition Roof made with recycled materials. Using a 30 year product is considered Green Because it won't come off and go into the landfill sooner. Longer lasting products is a Green concept.

I need to find the brand and add a link to the exact one we selected.

How it all began...

In 2000, my husband and I purchased a tiny house in Kirkland, WA. We were ecstatic to own our first home. The house was only 680 square feet, but had a beautiful yard. Over the years we discussed many times what we should do to gain more square feet. Should we remodel? Move to a larger home? Tear it down? We went back and forth for years until 2007 when we decided that we would investigate a complete tear down and new construction. It was mostly my idea. My dream was to build a home that had superior indoor air quality and used recycled eco-friendly materials.

We didn't know where to start. My motto was "Just keep moving forward in the process and we'll eventually figure it out." We interviewed architects. They all seemed expensive. We interviewed a couple "Green" builders. They too were expensive and egotistical in some cases. I kept saying "let's just keep moving forward, at some point, we'll just know things are right".

One afternoon I went to an open house around the corner. It was a spec home. I confessed to the realtor that I wasn't interested in buying, in fact I wanted to find a builder. He gave me the card of his builder/friend and told me to call him. So I did. We found our guy. Right away I knew he was different. He just had something no one else did. He didn't own a large company with tons of overhead. He was very involved with his projects. He listened, he offered ideas. He had an architect for us!

I told him about my Green idea and he kind of rolled his eyes. He sort of thought the term "Green" was overused and marketing. He personally used Green building techniques and didn't think anyone needed to follow some checklist to be held accountable. I wasn't daunted. I was going to continue to learn more about Green and ask him to work with me on it.

We started working with the architect who turned around plans in no time. And at a very reasonable price. How could this be? Maybe these people were just honest and not looking to rake us over for money.

Next I knew I needed some Green help. So I found a consultant online and asked her to meet with me. She owned a business helping people go green and understand what it meant. She taught me a ton. She prepped me in a lot of ways for the overall project. She gave me referrals. I was so grateful to have her help and in a lot of ways, the project is a result of her initial guidance.

We decided to build our home to be certified as 4 star green with Built Green, or the King County Master Builder's Association.

Next step was permitting. I decided to take this on myself and wallow through the process. I think mainly because I had one builder scoff at me for suggesting that I could do it. I wanted to prove that even an inexperienced layperson could figure this out, and I did. The City of Kirkland was more than happy to answer all my questions in the 6 months it took to get our permit. I think it was 6 months. It took forever.

We had to have an arborist survery our trees. The city has a big tree retention policy. We had asbestos. On the outside. It had to be removed. The city could not find out sewer hookup. We had several plan revision rounds. We had to get special permission to keep our driveway gravel, as it does not meet code. I had to write a letter and have them sign off on it. We had to fence in our trees.

Finally we had our permit and could begin! In December! Oh great! and then we had a huge snow storm. So the project started....

I decided to start this blog to keep record of our Green decisions and the choices we had. To document the things I have personally learned and to share resources.