Modern. Sustainable. Atlanta. 404.303.7280

    • February

      9

      2022
    • 523
    • 0
    Spring Cleaning Is Around The Corner! Here’s How To Prep Your Sandy Springs Home

    Spring Cleaning Is Around The Corner! Here’s How To Prep Your Sandy Springs Home

    One of the best ways to show off your new custom Sandy Springs home to your guests is by giving it a good, full cleaning. But where do you even start? Check out this top-to- bottom cleaning schedule you can actually stick to. Click here to read more.

    • April

      21

      2021
    • 477
    • 0
    How To Care For Elephant Ears in Your Alpharetta Custom Home Yard

    How To Care For Elephant Ears in Your Alpharetta Custom Home Yard

    A popular plant in many Alpharetta homes are elephant ears. These plants truly make a statement in your Alpharetta custom home yard and taking care of that landscaping can be easier with these tips and tricks: Click here to read more.

    • January

      28

      2014
    • 2240
    • 0

    Passive House Skylights Now Available in the US – PR Web (press release)

    Passive House Skylights Now Available in the US PR Web (press release) Efficiency of the Lamilux FE Energysave model made it the first to achieve class A certification from the Passive House Institute of Germany, creators of the Passive House building standard – a certification which demands some of the most rigorous …

    • October

      27

      2013
    • 2248
    • 0

    Little Green House: A Whole Family in 540 Square Feet — Jessica Helgerson Interior Design

    When Jessica and Yianni bought this tiny vacation house on Sauvie Island, just north of Portland, they decided, instead of expanding on its 540 square feet, to remodel the house to make the best use of the space available. In this modest footprint they created a retreat with ample room for their young family AND for guests, using …….

    • June

      9

      2013
    • 2010
    • 0

    ‘ The Greenest Home ‘ : A Window on 18 Super – Eco Dream Houses – The Great Energy Challenge

    The Greenest Home : A Window on 18 Super – Eco Dream Houses The Great Energy Challenge What is a passive house ? “Simply said,” Moskovitz writes, “a Passive House is a building that is very well insulated, virtually airtight, and primarily heated by the sun.” The interior temperature is designed to stay at 68 degrees Fahrenheit, and to …

    • March

      21

      2013
    • 1925
    • 0

    5 Ways To Kick Off Your Green Spring Cleaning With Feng Shui Principles

    HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for winter to come to an end. Adios thermal underwear, hello shorts! Happily, the spring equinox occurs on March 20th this year, which is today! The equinox marks the two times each year at which day and night are equally balanced. In Feng Shui philosophy, the vernal equinox indicates the moment at which the excess of dark, cold, passive yin energy shifts into balance with the bright, hot, active yang energy. We move away from the extended hours of darkness and move into the longer daylight hours. Most importantly, it symbolizes a time for a new cycle of growth and ………………….. Read The Rest Here.

    • February

      10

      2013
    • 2013
    • 0

    Sam Rodell | Architect AIA Publishes Groundbreaking Paper

    Sam Rodell | Architect AIA Publishes Groundbreaking Paper PR Web (press release) In his paper, “The Beauty of Passive Design: Post Industrial Simplicity in Architectural Systems,” Rodell challenges the public to seriously consider emerging building practices, such as Passive House Design and SIREWALL, to reduce oil dependency and … and more

    • February

      10

      2013
    • 2320
    • 0

    5 Ways to Celebrate Chinese New Year with Feng Shui

    This year, Chinese New Year falls on Sunday, February 10th. We say goodbye to the dragon and welcome the year of the snake. There are magnificent parades, dancing in the streets, dragon costumes all around, and the entire continent of Asia is in celebration. But what is Chinese New Year all about? This momentous occasion marks the beginning of spring in the Lunar calendar, a time for new beginnings and renewal. To ring in this new year, why not make some feng shui adjustments to bring some balance to your home? Feng shui is an Asian art……..

    • January

      13

      2013
    • 1770
    • 0

    Efficiency Tax Credits Are Back Just in Time

    Just in time for tax season, Congress has given American homeowners and businesses a chance to keep a little more of their hard-earned money. Late on January 1, 2013, the “fiscal cliff showdown” ended with the House passing a bill to avert income tax increases for Americans and large cuts in spending for government programs. What many might not have noticed is that the bill, titled the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, includes extensions …..

    • January

      13

      2013
    • 2570
    • 0

    The Butler-Nissen Passive House replaced a Walker and Weeks mansion

    The bigger question raised by the Nissen-Butler house is whether the architectural requirements of Passive House design have negative implications ……..

    • December

      16

      2012
    • 1753
    • 0

    Energy efficiency within reach

    A Building Revolution: The Super Insulated Passive House is a guide to the methods that builders, architects and homeowners around the U.S. and Europe have used to drastically reduce home energy consumption. The movement isn’t new, and neither are most of the construction practices, which, as the film states, were first employed in the U.S. and Canada in the 1970s when the first energy crisis reared its head, threatening greatly increased home heating and cooling bills. The change was short-lived, waning in …….

    • November

      18

      2012
    • 1716
    • 0

    Tips for Buying an Energy Efficient House

    Buying an energy efficient home can be a great investment that will save you money on energy costs in the long term in addition to increasing the resale value of your home, when you’re ready to move on. With increasing consumer awareness of environmental issues, it’s growing much easier to find energy efficient homes, but it helps to be armored with some tips before you set out on your home buying journey. Savvy buyers can find the perfect house for their needs and negotiate……

    • November

      18

      2012
    • 2482
    • 0

    Low-Tech Rainscreen with Charred Wood

    Low-Tech Rainscreen with Charred Wood Jetson Green Zero Cottage — a net-zero energy project pursuing Living Building Challenge, LEED Platinum, Green Point Rated, and Passive House certifications — is finishing nicely. Part of the exterior has a handsome rainscreen of vertical cedar battens and …

    • September

      8

      2012
    • 2996
    • 0

    New Mexican Adobe, German Efficiency Style

    I’ve seen several projects pursue both LEED Platinum and Passive House certification, but I can’t think of any that actually went through with the aim other than this Passive House, Platinum-certified home in Taos, New Mexico. The 2,400 square-foot home has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a garage, and 1.1 acres of land with a serene, scenic view of Taos Mountain to the east, Truchas Peaks to the South, and pasture land to the west.

    • August

      22

      2012
    • 1498
    • 0

    Zero Net-Energy Ready Homes to be Certified by Energy Department Partnership

    For people who think Passive House is a Fad.

    On Monday, August 20, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a newpartnership between the DOE Challenge Homeprogram and the Passive House Institute US to cooperate on the promotion of various levels of high-performance buildings on the path to zero net-energy.

    This news is a huge development for the passive house community and for PHIUS. The endorsement of PHIUS+ passive house certification through the DOE instantly makes passive house the most energy efficient option for builders, designers and developers who want to achieve a zero energy building. This recognition will go a long way toward making passive house mainstream.

    This took a lot of time and effort, and we owe thanks to Sam Rashkin, Chief Architect at the DOE, whose knowledge, vision and determination were critical to the effort. (Sam was the keynote at last year’s North American Passive House Conference.)

    So, how does this partnership change current PHIUS+ passive house certification and what do consultants need to know?

    In a nutshell: not much. A passive house already fulfills most of the Challenge Home requirements – certification essentially remains the same process with a few minor additions! Those additions are very good improvements, making the home even better. Indoor air quality requirements ask for low VOC materials and the water efficiency requirements establish a reasonable savings baseline, all good things.

    The Challenge Home requires rigorous third-party, on-site verification, which already is part of PHIUS+. PHIUS+ certified RESNET Raters already use an advanced passive house checklist created specifically for passive houses. (This testing protocol is actually more rigorous than the one the Challenge Home is using.)

    What Challenge Home brings to the table that PHIUS+ did not before is a more formalized exterior water management and flashing checklist. Having seen quite a few bad water management details during certification so far, we are happy to add a more formalized process to assure the long term durability of the house. QAQC is crucial to assure quality in execution, actual performance and peace of mind for the client we found.

    • June

      23

      2012
    • 1842
    • 0

    Zehnder America, Inc. is Recognized for its Cutting-edge Residential Heat

    Zehnder America announces that it has completed the 3rd party testing of the Zehnder ComfoAir 350 HRV and has joined the Home Ventilating Institute (http://www.hvi.org) who is making these test results public. This breakthrough is the confirmation that Zehnder America is leading the way of the next generation of Heat and Energy Recovery Ventilation Systems in North America. Zehnder’s ComfoAir 350HRV with its counter flow heat-exchanger recovers over 90% of the room temperature. As a result, during a cold winter day, the incoming fresh air into the ho

    • June

      2

      2012
    • 4762
    • 0

    Light 12-Glazed Window on the Horizon, at R-38

    In the USA, most windows are probably single- or double-glazed and some builders will use triple-glazed windows for Passive House and other high-performance homes. But in Hanover, Germany, a 12-glazed window prototype by Mariusz Paszkowski and Antoni Kostka was the star of the recent International Passive House Conference, according toDer Standard. Check out these windows with aerogel!

    The two scientists, in conjunction with SUPERWINDOWS, showcased INVIS160stack and INVIS160tweed, and both of the prototypes are about 160 mm thick, though they weigh no more than a double- or triple-glazed window unit.

    • April

      15

      2012
    • 1721
    • 0

    Energy Efficient Buildings in Demand Worldwide

    We cannot sustainably keep pace with the world’s continuously growing hunger for energy if we continue along our current path. Especially in the building sector, however, there exists an enormous potential for energy savings where we can reduce energy use by 80 to 90% without any reduction in comfort.

    Countries around the world are realizing this. Only “Net zero energy buildings” will be built inSouth Korea and California as of 2020 and throughout Europe, all new builds will have to be constructed as “nearly zero energy buildings” by 2020. Europe’s future energy efficiency directive also calls for high annual retrofit rates of public building stock

    • January

      22

      2012
    • 2214
    • 0

    Video: The Passive House Revolution By Charles Hoxie

    Video: The Passive House Revolution By Charles Hoxie.Twenty years ago, German physicists erected a home that demonstrated how little energy a building would need if built with, among other things, thick insulation and airtight walls. The so-called “ Passive House ” (or “Passivhaus” in German) was soon …

    • January

      22

      2012
    • 1884
    • 0

    Resilient Design: Passive Solar Heat

    a resilient home is extremely well-insulated, so that it can be kept warm with very little supplemental heat–and if power or heating fuel is lost, for some reason, there won’t be risk of homeowners getting dangerously cold or their pipes freezing. If we design and orient the house in such a way that natural heating from the sun can occur, we add to that resilience and further reduce the risk of the house getting too cold in the winter.

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Costs of Custom Homes

The first thing most people want to know is: What does it costs to build a 3000 sqft custom home in the Atlanta, GA. market?  The first thing you have to calculate is the square footage you want.  Once you have that, the numbers below give you a good starting point.

Adjusted Square Foot Calculation:

New Construction:

Renovations:

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