One Client’s Lindal Experience…

by Michael Harris

For over thirty years, Maggie has built her career as a world-class creative director, collaborating with renowned visionaries in fashion, pharmaceuticals, and technology. Instantly recognizable industry icons—champions of change—rely on Maggie to translate their visions into well-understood motivational communication to thousands of employees worldwide—designers, production engineers, marketers—in order to build the universal understanding, enthusiasm, and momentum required to transform the vision into successfully launched reality.

But Maggie had never faced the challenge of translating her own personal vision into reality until she transformed her Lindal into an Industrial Buddhist Barn. (more…)

The NAHB wrote a nice article about the first Washington home to be certified to their National Green Building Standard. For those of you who want to know more about how the system works, the article does a great job of describing the home’s “green” features, and how it met the standard through an independent third-party verification process.

(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)

Just a reminder about this Saturday’s July 18th Open House at Wendy Jans’ NAHB-certified green home in southeast Seattle, WA! If you would like a tour of the home to learn about the building process, “green” elements, and how you can start planning your own green home, please contact Tom Schuch at Seattle Cedar Homes: 206-725-7111 (leave a message if he is not there, and he’ll get right back to you).

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!