HGTV – which builds dream homes for give away has built its first green home. At the HGTV website you can watch a series of videos that explain their choices from start to finish, and how they built a LEEDS certified home this year. There are a lot of practical ideas in these videos, and HGTV claims you can build a green home at an additional cost of only 1%-2% over the cost of a conventional home. One thing I learned while watching these...

There are times when we are thinking of convenience or saving room that we don’t always think through consequences. For instance; when you open your pantry door and your refrigerator door at the same time do they hit each other? Or, does your washing machine door open to the right or to the left, and is your plumbing set up correctly? These are small things that sometimes we forget to think about in the overall building process. Then we...

Local Building Codes, Boca Building Codes, HUD Building Codes….now soon to be Green Building Codes. Codes are meant to standardize the building industry so that the consumer knows what they are paying for and if what they get meets that expectation. Sometimes they can be confusing. It might even take an engineer to figure out if a building code has been met. With all of the Green Building claims in the construction industry it is no...

I know…it’s only the beginning of the fall season, but this is the best time to prepare for the upcoming winter. Use what we have left of the warm weather to do the work you need to face the cold weather to come. Bob Vila has a pretty good checklist to follow for all homeowners. This is a suggested bi-annual list to prepare for the seasons. Modular home owners will keep their homes in tip top shape following these maintainence tips....

I thought I was running across something new when I read about Xeriscaping – or landscaping that is conscientiously water saving. Then I realized it’s been around since 1980 and is a registered trademark of Denver Water. I’ve just had my head in the sand because I live in the Northeast and we have comparatively few issues with water supply. As people all over the nation are becoming more green savvy, xeriscaping is also...