Real Estate Investing

This should tell you the potential for greening your home. A 1948 ranch-style home in Minnetonka, Minnesota has been awarded the U.S. Green Building Council’s first-ever LEED for Homes Platinum Certification. That is the top possible rating in the points system that ranks structures based on their eco-friendly features.

The remodeling project, coordinated by environmental organization Live Green, Live Smart, ran into some obstacles early on. Planners were told there was absolutely no way to remodel the house and achieve any significant LEED rating. Those authorities were wrong, apparently.

“Two years later, we know that green remodeling is going to provide an essential contribution to our planet’s survival by preserving existing resources and fostering more sustainable systems and practices in both remodeling and new construction of homes,” said Live Green, Live Smart CEO Peter Lytle.

This house in the Minneapolis suburbs is truly extraordinary. Of course, you’ve got your solar panels, low-water landscaping, low-emitting paint and other standard eco-friendly features. But this house is oh-so-much more.

We’re talking about geothermal wells stretching 135 feet beneath the earth’s surface and transmitting the earth’s heat through pipes laid underneath the front walkway. The energy from the earth’s heat is actually used to heat and cool the house. It’s really remarkable, and this doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what they’ve done with this house. Check out the full details and pictures here, and get inspired.

So I received a press release yesterday about the weeHouse. Though not a particular fan of press releases (chalk it up to my newspaper background), this I had to share. Alchemy Architects is offering the weeHouse and its appearance is pretty amazing. I’d move into one tomorrow, but my husband is a different story.

Anyway, the web site states that building costs per square foot is about 20 percent less than a traditional custom home. Of course, pricing depends on things like building size and how much customization the buyer requests on the existing prefab model, but the web site is saying $125 to $200 per square foot.

Though hesitant to associate the esteemed name of architecture great Frank Lloyd Wright to these “good, cheap and fast” weeHouses, that’s really what these designs resemble. They are like building blocks laid next to each other or stocked atop each other, with cool features like floor-to-ceiling windows. These homes have a very retro, art deco feel that make you just want to slap some Eames chairs on the front porch and call it done.

I like weeHouses for three reasons:

1) They look cool, and what’s not to love about that boxy Frank Lloyd Wright style?

2) They are eco-friendly. Of course, the houses can be customized to any buyer’s green wishes, but the company tries to use low-emitting paint and other green-certified materials at least. Of course, the very nature of prefab housing is eco-friendly because the product is built in one location instead of trucking laborers and materials all over the place. As for Alchemy Architects, they try to operate a paperless company as much as possible, also good for the environment. All relevant info is posted on their web site.

3) These houses are smaller and more streamlined, yet still appear functional. This from Alchemy Architects’ web site:

We hope to offset the suburban trend towards overbuilding by instilling value in modern yet efficient living.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan just said in an interview Sunday with George Stephanopoulos that the housing market would take a while to become buoyant again, but that it would happen when builders stopped overbuilding. For this reason and because of growing concern over the earth’s condition, prefab is the massive wave of the future. And weeHouse is one example of just how exciting that can be. As more people learn the new truth about prefab housing and break out of their long-held preconceived notions, prefab is bound to catch on tremendously.

You may have heard a lot about LEED certification without understanding what it really means. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Development, is essentially a rating system set up by the U.S. Green Building Council to gauge the “green”-ness of buildings. The LEED rating system has tiered levels, based on points accumulated for different building features. It offers basic certification, then the gradually higher silver, gold and platinum levels. Consumer Reports offers a more in-depth explanation on its web site:

“These levels correspond to the number of points earned in eight categories: Innovation and design, location and linkages to the larger community, sustainable sites, water conservation, energy efficiency, materials and resources, indoor air quality, and consumer education.”

LEED certification is highly sought after by commercial, government and industrial buildings. Basic LEED techniques, like low-emitting paint and Low E (energy-efficient) windows, are actually being implemented on a regular basis by many new homebuilders nowadays. This trend is part of a growing awareness that a few simple steps, sometimes at no extra construction cost, can go a long way toward helping the environment.