Green Home

Exterior

• Siding:
• Hardie Plank
We chose the lapped-siding look; it's low maintenance (factory painted), durable (fiber-cement construction), and fire resistant. It's just the look and feel we wanted.


• Roof:
• Metal
Fire resistant and snow shedding. The perfect answer for us, living in a pinion forest at 7,500 feet.
• Solar Tubes
We wanted the daylight skylights bring without the heat-loss in the winter. We completely enjoy them.


• Windows:
• Crestline metal-clad wood windows, We chose metal-clad would because it reduced our maintenance tasks. It has been shown that vinyl doesn't hold up well to either our intense solar radiation or to forest fires, so we rejected them. We also went with 3'x6' fixed over awning windows so that we could have our views unobstructed by screens. If we were doing this again I'd put the awning window above the fixed window. The size was a wildland fire consideration; smaller windows withstand the heat associated with forest fires better than larger windows do.


• Landscaping:
• I brought in composted top soil and added pea gravel on top, giving us rich, water-retaining soil that's held down by the gravel. High Country Gardens was our source for xeric ground cover that's deer and rabbit resistant

Interior

• Kitchen Appliances:
• Dakor gas range and burners. We have been very pleased so far.
• Asko dishwasher that is so quiet I can stand right beside it while it's running and easily have a phone conversation.
• Whirlpool Sidekicks, side by side refrigerator and freezer


• Laundry Room Appliances:
• Asko washer and dryer


• Heating:
• We have a Weil McLain Gold GV boiler that's 80-90% efficient for our in-floor radiant heat. We used PEX piping for the heat distribution. Rather than have a conventional water heater we added a side-arm to the boiler, giving us ample hot water whenever we want it.


• Counter Tops:
• Linoleum
, made of cork, resins, jute and other natural things.
• Forbo marmoleum
• Armstrong marmorette


• Toilets:
• Caroma low-flush


• Flooring:
• Floating cork floor:

The preferred flooring for wood-like covering for in-floor radiant heat seems to be floating floors. (We didn't want tile or concrete flooring because it is hard and noisy. And we feel that the materials going into that kind of floor are less environmentally sound because they aren't renewable resources.) Cork is a renewable resource, unlike wood, and is wonderfully comfortable and warm under foot. Our next option was cross-cut bamboo because it takes five years to grow stocks big and strong enough to use for flooring, unlike 30+ yeas to grow trees that are big and strong enough to use for flooring.

If we were to do it again we would coat the floor with the water-based Diamond Coat Varathane Urethane floor product, not just rely on the factory finish.



• Cabinets & Finish:
• Alder solid doors and frame, plywood box
• Diamond Coat Varathane Urethane, water based
-- this product is easy to apply, easy on the lungs, and gives a diamond-hard finish.

• Trim:
• MDF -- Medium Density Fiber -- boards.
They chip and break easily. We had more damage moving in than I would have ever anticipated, having only worked with wood before. And as we gently use the house chips appear regualarly too. unlike anything I've ever experienced with wood. It doesn't seem to hold paint well, scuffing easily as we vacuum, and washing off as we clean.

• Interim Home:
• We bought a 20' diameter yurt. The Colorado Yurt Company was good to work with. Living in a yurt is a phenominal experience too. We had luxury quarters, especially for a temporary home. We divided the space into wedges. One wedge was our completely encrlosed bathroom, another was the kitchen, adjacent to the dining wedge. Tours were easy and fun. I loved the way I felt connected to nature, hearing the wildlife as they passed by and the rain and snow as they fell on us.