FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES IN HOUSING

I have been involved in my family’s business for nearly 50 years and recall many market downturns after which all returned to normal. In contrast, this emerging recovery is into a fundamentally changed world with new long-term priorities in housing:

• Energy efficiency will remain a high priority as costs continue to rise
• Sustainability and the efficient use of material will grow in priority as worldwide demand and costs increase Demand for smartly designed flexible, naturally lit and ventilated interiors, compensating for continued downsizing will be highly valued
• Mortgage financing will be available but with greater restriction
• Simplicity in both process and design to mitigate the growing demands of concurrent professional, community, family, and personal priorities

LINDAL HAS PLANNED FOR TODAY

Planning for a renewed and changed market, we have worked purposefully to refine our products and services. We have:

• Introduced over 25 new designs that are under 3000 square feet. Over half of our library of standard designs is now under 2500 square feet
• Updated every Classic Lindal design to enhance efficiency and modernized many floor plans
• Introduced the modern Turkel Designs for the Dwell Homes Collection and the efficient Elements designs. Lindal now offers the largest portfolio of modern designs available from any producer
• Improved the energy performance of windows and other components Become America’s first Green Approved building system; sponsored the education of Lindal dealers as Certified Green Professionals
• Held material prices at pre-recession levels, despite increased energy, insurance, and other costs, and upgraded standard specifications

ONLY LINDAL: GUARANTEED!

Only Lindal has a network of over 100 well-trained independent dealers throughout North America to guide you caringly through the design, planning, and construction process. Only Lindal provides a Lifetime Structural Warranty.

Lindal’s design team has decades of experience matching homes with the personal needs of the families that will live in them while taking advantage of the attributes of each specific property. We understand that our clients lead demanding lives with many priorities. We also understand that every client is anxious to see their personalized design take shape, to confirm that it captures their vision, and to know that it can be built within the limitations of their budget.

THE BEST VALUE: GUARANTEED!

We have invested our human and financial resources to ensure that we remain the best value in custom housing. Your Lindal Experience will include:

• Personalized site evaluation Expert design guidance
• The largest portfolio of modern and classic post and beam designs to personalize or the option to design a one of a kind Lindal… and the award-winning Turkel Design Lindal plans for the Dwell homes Collection
• The caring service and guidance of a skilled independent Lindal dealer
• The legendary Lindal post and beam building system utilizing the most beautiful natural materials available, all covered by a lifetime structural warranty
• Energy efficiency and reduced lifecycle costs
• The first NAHB Research Center Green Approved building system in America
• Assistance in selecting the general contractor best suited to you
• Full time customer and builder service with professional consultation during the construction process
• A variety of design service options that make it easy and cost-effective to confirm that the design and its cost are what you expect before you spend months of time planning every detail

I am pleased to announce that we are now offering groundbreaking savings on all of our homes. Contact your local dealer to find out how we are making it easier than ever to get into the Lindal cedar home of your dreams.

For sixty-six years, Lindal’s mission has always been to provide the best value in custom housing; we have changed as the world has changed.

You will know when the time is right for you to begin. We look forward to the privilege of working with you.

Sincerely,

Bob Lindal
President
Lindal Cedar Homes

House plan number 39787 in Suncadia, Washington, featured in MSN.com's kit home review.

Lindal materials are pre-cut and delivered to your building site in containers. During delivery, your Lindal dealer will take a careful inventory to ensure they meet the high quality standards expected of Lindal materials, and the correct quantity of material has arrived. In the unlikely event something is missing or damaged (we try our best to avoid this!), the matter is promptly corrected by the Corporate Office, and if replacement materials cannot be supplied in a timely manner a refund for local purchase is issued. Your home is then constructed on-site, usually utilizing a general contractor and experienced builder familiar with the Lindal home construction process, orchestrated by your local Lindal dealer.

Designed by Lindal Cedar Homes’ Seattle Cedar Homes, several covenants dictated the overall look of this home, as well as strict requirements for energy efficiency. To find out more about this home, and see more photos and the floor plan, contact your local independent Lindal dealer.

> See the MSN.com slideshow review of kit home suppliers

> Locate your local Lindal dealer on the Lindal.com web site

(Photo courtesy of the NAHB)

I visited the home during last Saturday’s open house. Located a block from Lake Washington, there is a peek-a-boo view of the lake from the second-floor master suite, and the rear of the house overlooks a greenbelt. Most of the basement is a light-filled yoga studio that opens onto the back yard, and a second kitchenette and bathroom.

The landscaping is yet to be finished, and a few interior light fixtures need to be installed, but the homeowner is anxious to get moved in, so we should have lots more pictures soon, and hopefully more press coverage!

Some of the more notable (and noticeable) “green” features:

• Dual-flush toilets and low-flow faucets
• Sustainably-harvested bamboo and cork flooring
• In-floor radiant heat
• Zero-VOC paint
• Low-E argon-filled triple-pane Lindal windows (lots of them!)
• Energy-star rated lighting and appliances
• Cellulose insulation batts (samples were on-site during the open house)
• Composite decking
• “Green” cabinetry using sustainably harvested wood and low-emission adhesives (custom crafted in the Seattle area)
• Solar hot water system using solar rooftop panels (to be installed at a later date)

At the open house, there will be a point-by-point checklist detailing how the project met the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standards to become certified by the NAHB. To paraphrase Tom in the original press release, many of the items “are simply smart things to do when you build a quality home.”

If you are in the Seattle area, don’t miss out on this great opportunity to experience an energy- and resource-efficient green built home!

The TD3 2400, designed by Joel Turkel for Lindal Cedar Homes, and included in the 2009 Dwell Homes Collection. Learn about this home plan and others during the green home building webinar, tonight at 6pm Pacific.

Live, from the comfort of your own computer, Joel Turkel of Turkel Designs (architect of the Dwell Homes Collection for Lindal Cedar Homes, as mentioned in a previous post) will be presenting his designs and talking about their intelligent use of circulation, shared space, structure, volume and light and how they incorporate many principles of environmentally conscious design.

Joel has offered this webinar several times in the past, and each time it is a little bit different. I saw it for the first time at our Annual Dealer Meeting in January, and his presentation style is very understandable and informative. Even if you do not end up choosing one of his designs, it is worthwhile to tune in just so you can learn about how the siting and layout of your home can make a difference in energy consumption.

These home plans were also selected by TIME magazine for their annual Green Design 100 this year… Lindal Cedar Homes being the only residential home supplier in the list!

Webinar Details

Lindal’s 2009 Designs for Living LIVE Online Webinar
Tuesday, July 14, 6pm Pacific

Online registration, access instructions and computer requirements for the July 14th webinar:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/208462322

If you would like more information about Joel’s webinars, and see additional dates and times it is being offered, you can visit the Lindal Events page on Lindal.com. As of writing this, it is being offered 3 times this summer, and I will post a quick reminder the day of each event… so don’t forget to subscribe to updates at the top right of this page!

If you are located in the Seattle area, and are interested in the plans designed by Joel Turkel for the Dwell Homes Collection, you are welcome to attend our open house at the Seattle Cedar Model Home on July 15th at 6:30 PM.

Joel Turkel will be presenting his plans and design process, showcasing several homes that are in the planning phase right now. Also, Sam Grawe, Editor in Chief of DWELL magazine, will talk about the advantages of modern prefab design in terms of design, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability, and how Lindal is a natural fit within the Dwell Homes Collection of sustainable and standardized modern prefab homes.

Light refreshments will be served, so your RSVP is appreciated. You can call us at 800 508-1833, or email blog (at) lindal (dot) com (replace the at’s and dot’s with their appropriate symbols), and let us know your names, number of attendees, and your building time frame/where you plan to build.
 

The designer, Joel Turkel, will be presenting the home plans (including the one pictured above) selected by DWELL magazine for the Dwell Home Collection.

Working with her dealer, Tom Schuch of Seattle Cedar Homes, and a verifier from Green Dog Enterprises, her home was able to earn certification from the NAHB, as well as by the government-backed ENERGY STAR® Homes program and by Built Green®, a non-profit program of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties. Professional salvager Olympia Salvage partnered with expert green builders of MC Construction to deconstruct her old home and recycle or re-use all of the material in her new custom Lindal home.

Read all the details about this home, including how to see it at a public open house on July 18th, in this press release:
Lindal Home is First in State to Receive National Green Certification

I read this article in TIME magazine (yes, the same magazine that recognized Lindal Cedar Homes in their May 2009 Green Design 100), outlining the efforts of world governments to regulate and control false and misleading claims by companies. Much like the way “low-calorie” was touted in the health-conscious ’90′s, countries are now taking steps to make it easier for citizens to make smart, green decisions – not knee-jerk reactions to marketing claims.

How does this relate to Lindal? you ask… Well, it’s hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison between custom housing and household cleaners, but the very fact that you are reading this obviously means that you want to educate yourself on what being green really means. Here at Lindal, our goal is to make it easy to be green. (Are you listening, Kermit T. Frog?)

The National Association of Home Builders has developed the National Green Building Program. It is similar to LEED, but allows for “levels” (or shades) of green that you can incorporate into your new home. The main reason for Lindal being chosen as the first systems-built home manufacturer in this program is because we can supply you, with little effort on your part, with the minimum requirements to build a NAHB-certified Bronze level green home.

Obviously, you will need to make your own decisions on the type of clothes washer, water heater and floor finishing products (among other things) that will ultimately be placed in your green home, but it sure helps to know that, with a Lindal home, you are starting with a home that is, quite literally, “green from the ground up.” And, with the help of your NAHB Certified Green Professional Lindal dealer, your new home can easily achieve the NAHB’s Silver or Gold status.

To learn more about the NAHB’s Green Building Program, visit their web site at www.nahbgreen.org. You will be impressed by their plain-speaking descriptions of what is a green home, their green home scoring tool, and resources for selecting green products for your home. (All links open in a new window, so you can close it to come back here when you’re done.)

Stay tuned… The first NAHB standards-verified green Lindal home in Washington state will be announced here soon!

January 2009: The Dwell Homes Collection was “soft-launched” with a full page ad in DWELL magazine. The calls and inquiries came flooding in, and just prior to the Dwell on Design show DWELL officially announced their partnership with Lindal and Marmol Radziner Prefab for this year’s Dwell Homes Collection:

“Dwell and Lindal Cedar Homes have tapped Joel Turkel of Turkel Designs, a veteran prefab architect, to design three new architectural designs that will be manufactured through the partnership with Lindal Cedar Homes known for their experience building environmentally responsive houses of natural materials. The Lindal/Turkel design team will also offer clients a custom home option in the Dwell Homes spirit.  The partnership between Lindal and Turkel  has already won them accolades as one of the 2009 Design 100, the  best designed green products by Time Magazine (May 2009).” (Excerpted from DWELL press release.)

In February, Lindal Cedar Homes became the first green systems builder approved by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) as part of their National Green Building Program:

“Green building has arrived, and Lindal is clearly prepared to embrace it. Over the decades, Sir Walter Lindal’s leadership in this direction has been clear. He is an industry pioneer who has set a deliberate path in energy- and resource efficiency—the fruits of which are becoming more and more apparent today.” -  Joel Robson, chairman of NAHB.

As part of this recognition, over 80% of Lindal dealers have become NAHB Certified Green Professionals after completing an intensive 5-day course on green design and construction. Interesting to note is that much of the material covered in the courses was already part of Lindal’s comprehensive and ongoing dealer training program, such as the importance of siting a home properly on the land, not just so the house has the best view, but also to take advantage of the natural features that will allow for passive solar gain in the the winter, use of the prevailing winds to help cool the home in the summer, and to minimize disturbance of the site during construction.

In conjunction with these partnerships, we released a new “mini” planning booklet, called The Lindal Experience 2009. It contains 9 new home plans, including those in the DWELL Homes collection, as well as details about our partnerships with the NAHB and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (WFHM). In addressing the difficulties that some people face when trying to finance a custom home, our partnership with WFHM makes it easy for our customers to secure financing with a mortgage lender that understands the Lindal process and building system.

It’s great to be recognized by these prominent organizations. Even with this recognition, however, one of the questions that was asked several times during the Dwell on Design show was “What makes Lindal ‘green’?” As I mentioned above, one of the most important, yet often overlooked, aspects of green home design is proper siting of the home on your building lot. But with Lindal it goes beyond that. Being a pre-engineered, pre-cut building package of architectural-grade materials that is delivered to your building site, there is far less waste than with conventional stick-built homes. Our customers often remark on the fact that they “barely filled a dumpster during construction of our 2400-square-foot home!” Also, the Lindal building system, utilizing post-and-beam construction, allows for large, open spaces that facilitate air circulation, and can also reduce the surface area of the home which in turn reduces the amount of building materials.

Lindal is also commited to the sustainability of our building materials and, in the name of each of our homeowners, has planted enough trees through the Global ReLeaf program to replace those used to construct our homes.

Finally, I just want to give a shout out to the following blogs for their coverage of sustainable “green” products, and recognition of good design, including Lindal Cedar Homes! (Links open in a new window):

• Great coverage of the Dwell on Design show: inhabitat: design will save the world
• A glowing review of the new Turkel Designs at apartment therapy: saving the world, one room at a time
• latimes.com blogs: L.A. AT HOME
• In-depth review of the Dwell Homes Collection at Low Impact Living: The low down on living green

The word is out! Lindal is leading the pack when it comes to sustainable, environmentally-friendly green building practices. With over a dozen Turkel plans in the planning stages, and several scheduled for delivery this summer, I have it on good authority that the first open house for a Turkel-designed Lindal home in Washington state is just around the corner! Subscribe to updates via email or RSS feed, and you’ll be the first to know when and where…

Our simple yet elegant booth setup.

Last weekend’s Dwell show was a huge success, with over 12,000 attendees over the course of 3 days.  Our booth was near the back in the CB2 Outdoor Café, which was where all of the “outdoor” products were gathered: sheds, patio furniture, houses, landscaping, even barbeques. Across from our booth was a gleaming Airstream trailer, which I think would match nicely with the steel accents siding on the Lindal TD3 2100 plan!

The TD3 2100 - Can you see this with the matching Airstream out front?

The response to Lindal’s Turkel plans was overwhelmingly positive.  We had over 700 people pick up an invitation to the next live webinars by Joel Turkel this summer, and several people met at length with our dealers at the booth. Speaking of which… a big thank you to area dealers Gary Myers of Santa Barbara Cedar Homes, Frank Vingiano of San Diego Custom Homes, and Dennis Sanford of Rainbow Valley Cedar Homes for taking three long days away from their offices and staffing the booth! I think they’ll agree that the response was overwhelmingly positive!

Okay, enough words… Pictures!

See these photos and more on the Lindal Cedar Homes PhotoStream on Flickr.