U r b a n T r e k k e r

Second Life for Most C&D Materials

You probably heard this term before the 3Rs of waste management strategy 'reduce, reuse, recycle.'  The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has a searchable online database  for reuse and recycle construction material. (you can also download the recycling guide here -pdf).

According to MWCOG, most construction and demolition (C&D) materials are reusable or recyclable. These are things like metals, concrete, bricks, asphalt, untreated wood, cardboard, appliances, fixtures, carpet, and more.

Furthermore, by recycling, it actually helps buildings earn 'green' certification. 

Projects that recycle 50% of their waste can earn 1 point. A 75% recycling rate can earn a second point. An innovation credit point is available for projects achieving 90%+ recycling. To earn construction waste management points, projects must develop a construction waste management plan, identify recycling goals, and quantify waste generated and recycled either by volume or by weight.

[via MWCOG]

I think you can also purchase some of the construction materials from stores listed in the directory. For example, there are stores (here and here) that sell antiques and architectural salvage items, i.e. pre-1960 doors, bathtubs, stained glass, etc.

Oops. Bloopers..

Indoor Air Quality

We got into this discussion of indoor air quality (IAQ) last night at my relative's house. This particular relative of mine has not opened the windows of her house - for ages.  This is so true. I would say more than 10 years! She may have opened the windows once in a blue moon. But that's about it. So, I am on a mission today to write something about IAQ.

What she didn't realize (until last night) is that poor ventilation can put her at immediate or long term health risks. The Surgeon General states that "Poor indoor air quality contributes to cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and other illnesses." According to EPA, one of the three ways to improve IAQ is through improved ventilation.

Inadequate ventilation can increase indoor pollutant levels by not bringing in enough outdoor air to dilute emissions from indoor sources and by not carrying indoor air pollutants out of the home. High temperature and humidity levels can also increase concentrations of some pollutants.

The other two ways to improve the quality of indoor air is 1) to eliminate the single source of pollution or to reduce their emission, and 2) using air cleaners.

The Office of Surgeon General has issued "Call to Action to Promote Healthy Homes" on Tuesday which outline simple steps, for example, to check gas and appliances, fireplaces, chimneys, and furnaces yearly and change furnace and air conditioning filters regularly. 

Here are some resources you can check into on creating healthy homes:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Environmental Protection Agency
• HUD Office of Healthy Homes
• American Lung Association

Or, the easiest way is to take this quick indoor air quality tour, courtesy of EPA, where you can go room-by-oom to learn the key pollutants and how to take care of them. (just click on the image below for the tour )

By the way, this is not going to be the last time (previous posts here and here)  I'm writing about this topic, because interestingly EPA cited the fact that  "five out of 10 Americans are not aware of this fact."

Building Green Floors and Closets

Continuation from the show Building Green via PBS that I've posted (among others) here, here.

Weekly Real Estate News Roundup

Commercial Real Estate Defaults: You Ain't See Nothing Yet

We proved yesterday that the internet is obsessed with commercial real estate, as everyone's just waiting for that market to collapse.

Not-So-Tricky Split: The Home Buyer Tax Credit

THE NEW-AND-IMPROVED version of the First-Time Homebuyer Credit offers rookie home buyers (or those who simply haven't owned a home in the past three years) a chance to get a federal income tax credit of up to $8,000. Thanks to this year’s Stimulus Act, you don't have to repay the credit like you did with last year’s version.

Dirt-cheap loans on new homes

Would you buy a brand-new home if you could lock in an interest rate of, say, 3.63 percent on a 30-year mortgage? Homebuilders who've offered to "buy down" buyers' interest rates hope your answer will be yes.

Refinance If You Can

Refinance your mortgage now and you may capture the lowest interest rate of your lifetime. But unlike a couple of years ago, when it seemed all you needed was a pay stub (if that) and an eager mortgage broker, today's process can be tedious.

 House Price Puzzle: Mid-to-High End

I've linked to a few pieces of the puzzle below.

Bank of America's Lewis Drops Vacation-Home Price

 The housing slump has come home for Bank of America chief executive Kenneth D. Lewis. The South Carolina vacation house his family shares with a restaurant executive remains unsold more than two years after its first listing, and Mr. Lewis has just cut the price 13%, to $3.3 million

 Green Patios, Walkways & Driveways of Porous Pavements and Pervious Concrete

Although concrete lasts a long time — creating durable patios, driveways and roads, plus foundations for houses — the production of concrete takes a lot of energy. And that’s not the only problem with concrete: Whenever the ground is covered with it, rain doesn’t seep into the soil. As the rain accumulates and water starts flowing off the concrete, it can create problems. But materials are now available to provide a solid base and still allow water to seep through.

Save This Old House, Yours for $1

From the popular back page of TOH magazine, these low-cost beauties are still available for the homeowner who's willing to save them.

Even to Save Cash, Don't Try This Stuff at Home

When the toilet in Carol Taddei’s master bathroom began to break down a few months ago, she decided it would be cheaper to buy a new one than pay for repairs. Ever frugal in this dismal economy, Ms. Taddei, a retired paralegal, then took her economizing a step further, figuring she could save even more by installing the new toilet herself.

ADDITIONAL NEWS FROM AROUND THE WASHINGTON DC REGION:

• Program Offer Housing Help, but Who's Buying? [Washington Post]
• Ten Ways to Play in St. Mary's County [Chesapeake Life]
  
• Moran Puts $2.35 Million for F.C. in Fed Budget Proposal [FCNP]
  
• Springfield town center in sight [Fairfax Times]
  
• Fenty issues inclusionary zoning regulations [Washington Biz Journal]
  
• City: Bunkerlike DC church can be demolished [WTOP]
  
• Planning board debates future of Columbia's downtown [Baltimore Sun]
• Area commuter train services becoming more bike-friendly [Examiner]
  
• New and expanded ART service coming in June [Commuter Page]
  
• Eastern Market Set to Reopen June 26 [DCist]

Free: Energy Efficient, Healthy House Plans

You can now get free energy efficient and healthy house plans from FreeGreen. Free. Seriously. No joke. The guys at FG offer two types of plans: 1) official house plans and 2) plans offer via the open source network. The official house plans have 9 product lines depending on the size ranges. 

For example, the Modern Cube design, is targeted for lot in urban places, sloped and narrow, with size ranges from 2,700 to 3,200 s.f. Estimated price to build this kind of home is between $260k to $360k. 

The intent of the Modern Cube House Plans is to mix function and aesthetics with simplistic, easy to build forms. These House Plans modern exteriors fit well with their semi-open floor plans and unique 3-story roof deck options. The Modern Cube House Plans can be clad in a variety of different materials. Natural wood siding gives this home a clean Scandinavian feel. Fiber cement paneling is a durable budget friendly option that can be painted for a more colorful fresh look. Corrugated galvanized metal is another option and would give the home an industrial modern aesthetic. With their R-Control SIPs and Wolfers Lighting plan pre-packaged in, these house plans are some of the most energy efficient FreeGreen has ever created.

Using this house plan, you have two design options where design 1 uses cedar siding and the other design is more on industrial look uses corrugated metal and concrete. From here, you can customized the plan to your taste or simply download the plan. 

Modern Cube Design 1 (Cedar Siding)

Modern Cube Design 2 (Corrugated metal and concrete)

Furthermore, the plans give you the R control SIP layout, lighting ideas, open floor plan living room, ideas for kitchen, and annual energy savings performance if - you build your house with this plan. 

living room

Click on images for  (+) larger view

When you customize the house plan, it gives you also sample of customization and prices. So, you can figure it out if you want to use the freebie plan or customize it. 

I love the idea that people have choices available out there without breaking their bank, if one day they decided to build their own energy efficient and healthy homes. My favorite among the 9 plans, is Suburban Loft. With the low housing prices in our area, it's possible to find lot under $300k (tear down distressed properties) close-in. If we stick to the cube design, expect to spend approximately somewhere in the hood of $500k building this type of home from the ground up. 

By the way, if you are into home design, you can spend the whole day on the site just playing around with the plans imagining of what could be... (at least I warn you). 

images: FreeGreen

Weekly Real Estate News Roundup

The iHouse, story on Jetson Green

Home Works: Preserve Your Paint
Before electric lighting and clean heat sources, home interiors built up a layer of soot during cold-weather confinement. Back then, washing the walls was a mainstay of spring cleaning.

On a Rock in a Hard Place
On a cold, drizzly, late November morning in downtown Seattle, prefab buildings are not the first thing on most people’s minds—a roaring fire in a cozy cabin is more like it. But for Peter and Mark Anderson, of Anderson Anderson Architecture, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Prefab, with its ambitious ideal as an everyman’s architecture, holds the promise of making that cozy cabin dream both accessible and affordable.

Easy Home Makeovers
You've stared at the bare spot above the couch for one too many years. Until you find art you can commit to―or in place of it―try a quick, inexpensive, attractive, and changeable-with-your-mood alternative: a framed piece of fabric.

5 home repairs you shouldn't ignore
You might be tempted to put off fixing your home until the economy rebounds. Rebuild the patio? Sure, right after your 401(k) rallies. But some problems, if left unchecked, can lead to thousands of dollars in repairs (rebuilding a foundation wall, for instance) and might even compromise your family's health, such as mold contamination.

RESIDENCE: Passive Solar "Cascade House"
Having moved from Arizona to Toronto, the owners of this modern home looked to Toronto-based architectsPaul Raff Studio to create a passive solar design that would maximize daylighting for a bright interior reminiscent of their previous sunny abode.

First-time buyers benefit from housing slump
Kostas Kalaitzidis wanted to buy a home when he moved to Phoenix in 2008, but between his modest salary and the expensive market, he couldn’t swing it.

Want to Sell Your Home? Lower Your Price
One of the hardest things a home seller has to do is lower the asking price. Not only does it mean making less money on the sale, but it also shows weakness in an increasingly competitive market. A price reduction is often a red flag to home buyers that the seller is in no position to negotiate and that further reductions are possible.

Recession Remodeling
AS THE LOUSY ECONOMY makes large homes tough to maintain—and the tight credit market makes them even tougher to sell—the rules for remodeling are undergoing their own extreme makeover.

Train and The City
One exciting ripple effect of President Barack Obama's commitment to high-speed rail, which he demonstrated with an $8 billion pledge in federal stimulus money, is the promise of economic development in the areas surrounding transit hubs.

ADDITIONAL NEWS FROM AROUND DC REGION:

• Wiehle Ave. Metro gets stimulus money [Washington Business Journal]
• Seller, Salesman [Washington Post]
• Letter from Baltimore: Preserving the Preakness [Metropolis POV]
• Dumpy Brightwood Building Gets $4.6 Million Makeover [Housing Complex]
• Merrifield Development Authority Seen as One-Time County Effort [Fairfax Gazette]
• America's Top 25 Towns To Live Well [Forbes]
• A recession lesson for policymakers: There's a big upside to having fewer cars on the road [Examiner]
• Emission set to double in Germantown [Gazette]
• A Waterfront Hideaway That Grows [Washington Spaces]

Carpeted Wonderland to Eco-Friendly Bathroom Makeover

Cobweb is First Indicator of Leakage..

That's right, according to this video below. So, whenever you see cobweb on your attic that should alert you.

Over at Green Light, they questioned if one day utilities will retrofit your home for free? I am skeptical about that idea. Because someone complained to me this morning about how much they spend monthly on utilities. Their house is of a decent size (3,000 s.f.), not one of  McMansions kinda house. But, according to this client, they spent on average $1,000 a month!

Now, you think utilities will sacrifice their cash cow for free? That will be great if they do.

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• You: The Top 7 Ways to Conserve Money, Energy (via ABC News: ABCNews) (abcnews.go.com)

You're Right, But..

Reader Rick Adair commented on this post:

Actually, if you go the the government's tax rebate section at the Energy Star Web site, you'll find that for these types of systems in both existing and new construction, an uncapped 30-percent tax credit is allowed through 2016:

Geothermal Heat Pumps
Solar Panels
Solar Water Heaters
Small Wind Energy Systems
Fuel Cells

For the following, you are allowed a 30-percent tax credit that is, indeed, capped by $1,500 applicable for 2009-2010 only, and only as upgrades to existing homes:

Windows and Doors
Insulation
Roofs (Metal and Asphalt)
HVAC
Water Heaters (non-solar)
Biomass Stoves