Author Archives: SuperDuper

What is a Passive House?

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While building uber-efficient airtight homes sounds a little obsessive, it’s actually become the “right thing to do” and the next milestone for many designers/builders in Seattle and around the globe. Better known as Passivhaus in Europe, the Passive House building standard is one of the most rigorous in the world when it comes to energy efficiency, yet it’s catching on like wildfire because it makes so much sense.

While it’s not likely we’ll all be living in passive houses any time soon, understanding the basic concept will make you stop and wonder why we haven’t been building homes like this all along. Check out this 90 second video!

Picture this! A modern, comfortable house with no cold drafts from unknown places in the winter, no sweltering rooms in the summer, no temperature variations from room to room, no need to close the blinds to prevent all your body heat from being sucked out the windows, and virtually no heating or cooling bills. Well, that’s a Passive House folks! And, the coolest part is they can be built in any climate or geographical region, and stay at a comfortable temperature year round with minimal energy inputs.

The prescription for achieving this level of comfort in a house (or any building for that matter!), without using expensive “active” technologies like photovoltaics or solar hot water systems, is relatively straight-forward (watch the video).

  • Super-insulated
  • No thermal bridges
  • Airtight envelope
  • Energy- or heat-recovery ventilation
  • High-performance windows and doors
  • Efficient systems
  • Passive solar and internal-heat gains

The result? “All heating needs in a typical Passive House can be met by a heater the size of a hair dryer. Heat from people, lights, appliances and the sun does the rest.” Mastering these principles and getting a project Passive House certified is not for the feint of heart though, which is why we’re lucky to have a growing number of architects, builders and consultants in Seattle with Passive House expertise. Their projects include:

NKArchitects_ParkPassive_hero_tcm138-2076553

Park Passive in Madison Park
Designed by NK Architects, built by Sloan Ritchie of Cascade Built, and with the assistance of Passive House Consultant Rob Harrison, this became the 1st certified Passive House in Seattle.
Now home to the Ritchie family!

Ballard Passive House

Ballard Passive House
Designed by VELOCIPEDE architects and built by Hammer & Hand in 2013.

courtland-featured

Courtland Place Passive House in South Seattle
Designed & Built by Passive House Consultant/Builder Dan Whitmore in 2012,
this was the first project to be built to Passive House standards in Seattle.

Recent Passive House News
City’s first certified passive house is also a fun family home – Seattle Times, May 9th 2014
Passive House: The House of the Future – Huffington Post, May 7th 2014
Designing a passive house for Seattle that’s ‘resourceful, replicable and beautiful’ – MNN, April 23rd 2014

Must See Projects! 2014 Green Home Tour

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The 2014 Northwest Green Home Tour is just a few weeks away, and instead of taking place both Sat and Sun, this year’s tour will be one day only – Saturday, April 26th, from 11 am to 5 pm. With 35 sites all around Seattle, plus a handful of fun Sustainability Stops, there’s a lot to see! So here’s our list of must-see homes!

NWGHT

Drinking Rainwater in Ballard
This 100 year old home in Ballard was remodeled for ‘low consumption’, and now has the first legal whole house rainwater catchment and filtration system in the city of Seattle. Thanks to a 2280 watt solar PV array, LED lighting, energy efficient appliances and habits, the homeowners have also reduced their annual electric bill to just $125, and now get paid for the electricity they produce. 7703 26th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98117

If you’re interested in rainwater systems, don’t stop there! Head over to RainWise – NW Seattle, another site with an impressive 5 cisterns (diverting 50k+ gallons of rainwater a year) and beautiful/functional rain gardens. 2034 NW 60th St, Seattle 98107

Lifestream Backyard Cottage
This backyard cottage in Maple Leaf was built to demonstrate a new model in healthy home construction by integrating innovative wall systems, non-toxic materials, shielded electrical systems, fiberglass re-bar slab, & energy efficiency features, and will be particular interesting to those concerned with chemical &/or electromagnetic sensitivities. 9100 15th Ave NE, Seattle, 98115

There are a handful of backyard cottages (in all shapes & sizes) on the tour this year, so head on over to the North Seattle Backyard Cottage in Greenwood, the Falcon’s Nest is Ballard, and the Baker Cottage in Fremont.

Burke-Gilman HouseBurke-Gilman House
Strikingly modern yet sensibly smart, this modern home was designed for an active couple looking to stay put as their mobility decreases. It also includes passive solar orientation and cold roof design, a high performance building envelope and energy saving systems, as well as water saving fixtures and underground rainwater cisterns. 3334 NE Blakeley Street, Seattle, WA 98105

HOME reclaimed
How do you transform the beauty, resources and intrinsic value of a 1938 Tudor into a modern dwelling? While also achieving a 5 Star Built Green rating, a certified HERS index score of 55, ENERGY STAR qualification and Water-Sense certification? Well, you’ll just have to visit this amazing remodel project in Seward Park to find out. 4007 49th Ave, Seattle, WA 98118

While in the neighborhood, also stop by the Opperman-Lee Deep Green Remodel, an exquisite remodel of a severely neglected 1952 house by owner/designer/builder Vicky Opperman.

Historic House Deep Green Remodel
The challenges involved in remodeling, restoring and energy retrofitting this beautiful 1904 Capitol Hill home were immense, but were overcome with perseverance, humor, ingenuity and painstakingly detailed work. Don’t miss this opportunity to see the impressive result of a job well done. 716 17th Avenue E, Seattle, WA 98112

But don’t stop there! Browse all Northwest Green Home Tour Sites, use the interactive maps, and go get inspired! The Northwest Green Home Tour is free and open to the public, thanks to the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild and Built Green, as well as a host of amazing sponsors.

Seattle Green Builders – Selling in 2014!

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When the Seattle real estate market began improving by leaps and bounds last year, we took a closer look at Seattle green builders who were “raising roofs to meet the demand” in a post entitled Seattle Green Builders – Now Selling!. Now almost a year later, those same builders are humming along, but we’ve got some new editions we thought you should know about. All the builders listed here are not only green, but have homes currently for sale or about to hit the market!

Build Urban
With 10 projects under their belts, and 3 more ‘on the boards‘, Build Urban caught our attention when they recently broke ground on their Canopy at Maple Leaf project. Not only did they preserve the towering cedars on the lot, and incorporate existing features (like the curved driveway), the homes themselves will be a mix of both traditional and modern architecture (less likely to stand out like sore thumbs!), and they’ll all be 5-Star Built Green.

West Seattle - 48th

West Seattle – 48th

R. Thoreson Homes
While they call themselves small, and focus on a limited number of projects each year, R. Thoreson Homes specializes in energy efficiency, and using existing infrastructure to minimize environmental and neighborhood impact. Their latest projects include West Seattle – 48th (4 new modern townhomes), and a more traditional Mt Baker Residence, which was just written up as a Built Green Featured Home.

LimeLite Development

LimeLite Development
Bright. Green. Living. is their motto and they seemingly live up to that by building and rehabbing green homes all over Seattle. Their latest projects now under construction include 4 Star Built Green townhomes in both the Central District and Beacon Hill, but they’ve got a slew of other interesting projects. If you like sleek, modern, clean & green, check these guys out – their project gallery will delight!

As always, give us a call if there’s a project or home you’d like to see!

Don’t Miss the 2013 Green Building Slam!

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10 projects x 10 slides x 10 minutes! That’s the recipe for an exciting, high-energy evening of presentations by some of the Puget Sound’s best green home designers and builders. Hosted by the Seattle Chapter of the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild, and emceed by Roger Faris (best known for his home repair show on KUOW), this year’s Green Building Slam is an evening you won’t want to miss.

Saturday, Nov 16th, 5-10pm
University of Washington, Kane Hall (2nd Floor)

Park Passive

Park Passive by Cascade Built

Here’s the schedule:

5:00 p.m. – Registration, Drinks & Appetizers, Networking
6:30 p.m. – SLAM begins (15 minute intermission around 7:45 p.m.)
9:00 p.m. – Networking, Dessert & Coffee

And, here are a few of the projects/presenters:

Park Passive House – Joe Giampietro of NK Architects & Sloan Richie of Cascade Built
City Cabins at Columbia Station –
Martha Rose of Martha Rose Construction
Historic House Deep Green Remodel – George Ostrow of Velocipede Architects & Jon Alexander of Sunshine Construction

We hope to see you there!

Ballard Built Green

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Main FloorWe just listed a fabulous townhome in the heart of Ballard! This beauty was built in 2007 by Noland Homes and has the distinctive contemporary architecture and quality finishes that became their signature style. It’s a street-side, south-facing unit with a fully fenced garden patio and alley access to the garage. Being west of 24th Ave NW makes this particular locale quieter then central Ballard, yet the home is steps from the new QFC, coffee shops, pubs and the Burke Gilman Trail. It actually has a Walkscore of 92 – a Walker’s Paradise, so this is definitely urban living at it’s best!

3BR | 2.5BA | 1270sf | 1-Car Garage | $450,000

Special features:Office

  • Certified 3-Star Built Green
  • Pre-wired for solar hot water & photovoltaics
  • Energy efficient appliances, lighting & heating
  • IceStone kitchen countertops (concrete & recycled glass)
  • Custom cabinets (in kitchen & baths)
  • Heat & Glo high-efficiency, free-standing fireplace
  • Brazilian Cherry hardwoods & custom tile
  • Entertaining deck w/ glass & metal railing

We held an open house this past weekend and the feedback was great! “This place was remodeled right? It looks brand new!”, “What a great kitchen, love the countertops & cabinets!”, and “This place has a really good feel to it!”.

We agree! Noland Homes built this place right, and the homeowner has taken excellent care of it. See our Ballard Built Green featured listing for more photos & all the details. We’re reviewing offers July 3rd @ 5pm, so contact Danielle @ 206.679.0185 for more info.

Seattle Green Builders – Now Selling!

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Now that building season is once again open and buyers are eagerly anticipating each and every new listing, we thought you’d like to know which Seattle green builders are raising roofs to meet the demand. There are certainly many more builders, and all sorts of impressive green projects under construction, but we featured these guys and gals because they have homes ready to sell.

Green Canopy Homes
These guys have created a wildly successful model for bringing green homes to market, and have so many projects in their pipeline, they can’t fit them all on their website! Visit their Our Homes section to see their upcoming gorgeous green remodels and new homes, all around Seattle.

Martha Rose Construction
The ‘Queen of Green’ has been working feverishly all spring to bring her latest project ‘City Cabins’ to market. These high-performance townhomes in Columbia City were featured on the 2013 NW Green Home Tour, and are now available for presale.

Dwell PassivHaus

Dwell PassivHaus

Dwell Development
Modern, modern, and more modern, but while these guys may have started out ‘light green’ they have come full circle with the first spec home to meet PassivHaus standards in the Northwest, and are now consistently building to 5-Star Built Green standards. In Seattle and now on the Eastside, check out Dwell’s latest projects.

gProjects
5-Star Built Green and modern, but always with a sustainable twist! Whether it be reclaimed wood siding, salvaged concrete walkways, rainwater recycling for flushing toilets or edible community courtyards. You won’t find upcoming project info on their website, but they do indeed have a full pipeline. Follow gProjects on Facebook to get the latest updates.

Isola Homes
These guys have hit the ground running this year with Built Green projects ranging from single family craftsmans to ultramodern rowhomes, and of course a feature project on the NW Green Home Tour. Check out Isola’s new homes around the Puget Sound, which is definitely long, and getting longer every day!

Playhouse Design Group
Lickety-Split, Stereo Sons, Cookies & Cream! Dubbed ‘one-of-a-kind architectural solutions for every seeker of chic’ Playhouse is creating modern, green living spaces, and has teamed up with the well-versed Greenleaf Construction to turn these dream homes into reality.

Ready for an in-person tour of upcoming green projects? Give us a call today!

It’s Time for Resilient Design!

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The entire Fall 2010 issue of YES! Magazine was dedicated to A Resilient Community, and they covered everything from Just the Facts :: Why Build Resilience? to a Crash Course in Resilience. Fast forward to 2013 and we now have the building and architecture industry showing considerable interest in resilience as an essential part of sustainable design.

In fact in 2012 Alex Wilson, founder of GreenBuilding Inc and executive editor of Environmental Building News, started the Resilient Design Institute, with the goal of advancing the many facets of resilience at personal, community, and regional scales.

Resilience is the capacity to bounce back after a disturbance or interruption of some sort. At various levels —individuals, households, communities, and regions — through resilience we can maintain livable conditions in the event of natural disasters, loss of power, or other interruptions in normally available services.

Relative to climate change, resilience involves adaptation to the wide range of regional and localized impacts that are expected with a warming planet: more intense storms, greater precipitation, coastal and valley flooding, longer and more severe droughts in some areas, wildfires, melting permafrost, warmer temperatures, and power outages.

Resilient design is the intentional design of buildings, landscapes, communities, and regions in response to the these vulnerabilities.

As much as we’d like to think that living sustainably is about green homes & gizmos, hybrid cars and solar panels, the reality is it’s also about continuing to thrive in the face of adversity and rapid change. But, how do we do that?

We learn from buildings and communities designed before the age of oil and electricity; from cities devastated by natural disasters; and from building programs like Passive House and Living Building, which drastically reduce resource use. Resilient design explores these ideas and more, and calls on each and every one of us to actively participate in preparing ourselves, our homes and our communities for a very uncertain future.

Interested in learning more? Alex Wilson will be in Seattle May 14th addressing resilient design in the context of a transition toward sustainability. He will cover a wide range of practical solutions, from boosting energy performance of homes to maintaining livable conditions during extended power outages, to redesigning communities to function without gasoline and encouraging local food production.

For your additional reading pleasure, more on Resilient Design…

Building Green Is No Longer Enough, It is Time To Build Resilient – TreeHugger

Will the Resilience Movement Help the World Cope With the Resource Crunch? – IMT Green & Clean Journal

Seattle’s Tool Libraries – Open for Lending!

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Seattle’s tool lending libraries are yet another inspiring example of how our neighborhoods (and our neighbors!) are taking sustainability and resilience into their own hands. A ‘sharing economy’, ‘collaborative consumption’, or ‘underused asset utilization’, call it what you will, because sharing is contagious!

These tool libraries offer pay-what-you-can community access to a wide range of tools, training, and advice, as well as ongoing classes & workshops, fixer collectives, and neighborhood gatherings. They also aim to inspire people to participate in community projects such as park restorations, and pursue sustainability at home through energy improvements, water harvesting and edible landscaping.

West Seattle Tool Library
Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW, Seattle, WA 98106
Membership $40 (discounts for seniors, students and low income)
library@sustainablewestseattle.org or (206) 317-4671

ToolLibraryPNA Tool Lending Library
Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave N, Seattle, WA 98115
PNA membership – individual ($30-$99), household ($60-$99), business & more. PNA members may borrow tools for a modest suggested weekly tool maintenance fee listed with each tool. (206) 783-2244

NE Seattle Tool Library & Bike Shack
10228 Fischer Pl NE
Membership $40 (discounts for seniors, students and low income)
info@neseattletoollibrary.org or (206) 524-6062

Capitol Hill Tool Library
1552 Crawford Place, between Pike and Pine
Membership by donation

Ballard Tool Library
7549B 15th Ave NW
Membership $35

Interested in starting a tool library in your community? A good first step is to contact your local neighborhood association and see what’s already in the works. Additional resources include the Tool Library Starter Kit, created by Share Starter and the West Seattle Tool Library, and ‘How to start a tool library in your community’, an online webinar featuring a number of tool library founders around the country.

For your additional reading pleasure, tool library headlines…

Tools are costly and take up space. Tool libraries are popping up so people can share – Washington Post

DIY Heroes: 10 Backyard Builders Changing the World – Popular Mechanics

Must See Projects! 2013 Green Home Tour

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The 3rd annual Green Home Tour, hosted by the Seattle Chapter of the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild and Built Green, is an event you absolutely don’t want to miss! Dozens of homes in and around Seattle, an impressive display of green & healthy systems and features, do-it-yourself information and resources, tour guides and project teammembers on-site to answer questions, and it’s all FREE!

Saturday, April 27th, 11am to 5pm

There will be upwards of 30 projects on the tour this year (so we can’t list them all!), but here’s our selection of must-sees!

Ballard Passive House by Hammer & Hand | Velocipede Architects
The impressive and rigorous German Passivhaus standard is said to be the ‘bar’ for energy efficient homes, and this 1880 sf home in Ballard is one of only a handful that have been built to this standard in Seattle to-date. Can a home really be heated by a system as small as a blow dryer? Well, go see for yourself!

Madison Park Remodel by Green Canopy Homes
These guys are experts at taking tired old homes and affordably re-vitalizing them! The details of this latest project haven’t been released yet, but rest assured it won’t disappoint! Get do-it-yourself ideas on how to improve your home’s energy efficiency, comfort and aesthetics on a tight budget.

MRCCityCabinsCity Cabins at Columbia Station by Martha Rose Construction
Martha Rose has been pushing the green building envelope here in Seattle for over a decade now, and her latest project of 4 high-performance townhomes, dubbed the ‘City Cabins’ is no exception. South facing, super energy efficient, wired for solar pv, and as icing on the cake, detached garages with vegetated roofs!

Clearwater Commons by Cascade Built | Banyon Tree Designs
Yes, we’re a little biased here as we’re helping to market this project, but now that phase 1 construction of 4 new green homes is complete, it’s worth a peak! This 7 acre site is also home to the Mini-B Passive House, a community workshop and gardens, and an impressive stream restoration project.

Grow Community Bainbridge by Asani Development | Davis Studio Architecture + Design
This is an exciting new Bainbridge Island neighborhood of net-zero energy, solar powered homes, endorsed as the first residential One Planet Community in the country. Carbon independence, resource sharing, walkability and healthy living! Who could resist?!

For a full list visit of tour sites in Seattle, on the Eastside and beyond, visit www.nwgreenhometour.org. Maps will be provided closer to the date!

Maybe we’ll see you out and about!

More Listings Needed in Seattle!

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We had to laugh when we saw the recent Redfin post 2013: Calling All Sellers! (Where are you?!?), as this is our sentiment exactly. According to the NWMLS the number of active listings in January was up 1% from December, but down a stunning 44.7% from January 2012, leaving us with a meager 1.4 month supply of homes (a 6 month supply is a balanced market).

We’ve been experiencing this first-hand as we work with buyers who are well-qualified and raring to go, but have nothing new to see! Yes, the market typically slows during the holiday season, and takes a while to build itself back up, but 2012 was nothing like a typical market. The theme was a continually increasing demand combined with an ever dwindling supply, which of course drove home values up all the way through December.

TimetoSellJanuary’s stats compiled by local real estate appraisers Alan L Pope & Associates shows 72% of homes on the market in King County receiving an offer. That’s the highest absorption rate we’ve seen in almost a decade, the second highest being 66.4% in March 2005.

The message is seemingly clear! If you’re a homeowner thinking about selling, now is the time. Competition is slim, market times are short, and multiple offer scenarios are the norm. In other words, it’s most definitely a sellers’ market in Seattle right now. So, what’s the problem?

Well, it’s pretty simple really…

Many homeowners either need to wait, or just plain want to wait to sell their home!

Underwater Homeowners. Many who bought during the housing bubble don’t have the ‘wiggle room’ to sell yet, as they risk losing a chunk of their down payment or even walking away with negative equity.

The Waiting Game. If there is no pressure to sell (job change, growing family etc…) and the market is on a steady rise from the bottom, then many homeowners would rather wait to see if they can get a higher price for their home in a year or two.

Renting Instead. The rental market in Seattle remains strong, with no indication that rents will go down in the next few years, so some homeowners are opting to go ahead and buy now, but rent instead of sell their current home.

So, will 2013 be dubbed the year Seattleites waited to sell? Maybe, but we certainly hope not! These are all valid reasons not to sell right now, but there are also many advantages to jumping into the market, versus waiting until all your friends and neighbors do too!


For your additional reading pleasure, recent real estate headlines…

Brokers report brisk sales, but rising frustration for home buyers – NWMLS

City-by-city look at U.S. house prices – WSJ Marketwatch

Signs of a Housing Recovery Point to a Stronger Economy – NYTimes.com

The Year Everyone Was Wrong (Again) About Home Prices – WSJ