Made in USA Gaining Traction with Homebuilders
Posted by adrian in Articles, City Cabins, Green Home Building on October 18, 2011
Exterior sealing City Cabins
Made in USA Gaining Traction with Homebuilders
A September 2011 article written by Kirk Johnson published by the New York Times about a Bozeman Montana general contractor whose goal is to build a new home made entirely of materials made in America has influenced other builder around the country.
The article is written about general contractor Andres Lewendal’s plan that would help the struggling construction industry and would offer relief towards the nation’s economic recovery.
“The point is that little things can add up,” mentions Lewendal. “I think we could solve this recession if everyone shifted just 5 percent of their purchases to U.S.-made products.
Cedarland Homes owner Tarek Saad who builds in Oklahoma was inspired after reading an article about a home being built in Bozeman Montana made entirely of American products. Saad is now committing his business to the Boston Consulting Groups challenge that predicted “that if every builder used five percent more American products, the United State would see 220,000 more jobs right now.
Most builders would agree the cost of buying USA made products may add 1-3% more to the total cost of building yet, some builders believe their getting a better product, seemingly a small concession that could create more jobs.
Seattle builder Martha Rose, president of Martha Rose Construction, agrees, her company focuses on sourcing as much locally made materials as possible for their City Cabins project in Seattle.
Queen Anne Real Estate Price Trends
Posted by adrian in City Cabins, Marketing on October 14, 2011
Queen Anne Real Estate Price Trends
The median single family home price as of October 14, 2011 East Queen Anne (zip code 98109) is $800,000.
The median single family home price as of October 14, 2011 West Queen Anne (zip code 98119) is $711,000.
Using Median Price is often a very good proxy for indicating real-time market activity because sellers in a market will typically price their home according to other similar homes in that market. This is not a perfect science, yet most sellers with help from their real estate agents tend not to overprice their homes choosing to price closer to where it will eventually sell.
Both zip codes, 98109 & 98119, have showed steady price increases since the beginning of the spring market. While West Queen Anne 98119 is showing signs of rising pricing East Queen Anne just started showing signs that it may be starting a seasonal “flattening.”
For a more detailed breakdown by zip codes contact me Adrian Willanger
Green Jobs on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill
Posted by adrian in City Cabins, LEED, Marketing on October 13, 2011
Green Jobs on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill
Success breeds success particularly when you are continually looking to raise the bar in green home building. Builder Martha Rose, president of Martha Rose Construction in Seattle Washington, builds spec homes that are approaching net-zero and is gaining a reputation as leading builder in the race to build net-zero homes.
Green Jobs on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill. The homes at Fish Singer Place were awarded the Built Green “Green Hammer Award” for small communities in 2010, for their sustainable development, stormwater management, building and energy conservation practices.
Rose mentions “the biggest energy saving features of her homes is to use as little energy as necessary.” This doesn’t mean walking around the house in the cold seasons with the temperature turned down and a sweater on. By building a super-insulated house, with energy saving components; lighting, heating & cooling equipment, HRV, hot water tank, windows & doors and appliances all collectively make a huge difference in the amount of energy that are consumed during peak heating and cooling seasons.
City Cabins, is one of the most anticipated high-performance home projects this year, located in the heart of Seattle in the Queen Anne neighborhood. The two homes take advantage of Queen Anne’s unique topography by offering dramatic views of surrounding Fisherman’s Terminal and Salmon Bay.
Homes will be completed in late 2011. We encourage all interested homebuyers to register online for future timelines and updates or alternatively visit CityCabins.com or contact Adrian Willanger 206 909-7536 for more information.
The New Green Appraisal Addendum
Posted by adrian in Articles, Green Home Building, Marketing on October 11, 2011
Last month the Appraisal Institute published their green addendum which can be attached to any appraisal. The addendum won’t guarantee that the homeowner or builder will get their increased property value for the green features added but what is guaranteed is that it will at least be looked at.
The new addendum can be downloaded filled out and submitted as part of the appraisal to the lender. Some of the key points are to make sure that the energy saving features are listed accurately and if you can provide any records of energy production or savings these would be documents that should be included.
Any third party certifications (LEED, Energy Star, Built Green, Earth Advantage) documentation should also be included for review. Appraiser using the new addendums will be better equipped to compare like features and properties much easier when determining value.
Seattle builder Martha Rose mentions that she already filled out both the Appraisal Institutes’ Residential Green and Energy Efficient Addendum along with the High Performance Home Addendum from Earth Advantage filled out for her new homes, City Cabins. “I typically will include any third party energy estimated usage reports along with lots of photos of the construction methods we use.” “Typically we won’t get full credit for all the components that go into building a high-performance home but it’s a good start” comments Rose.
The Juniper Connection on Queen Anne Hill
Posted by adrian in Articles, City Cabins, Marketing on October 10, 2011
Once Martha Rose, president of Martha Rose Construction, learned about ecological benefits that are derived from the harvesting of western juniper from Oregon’s high desert it was clear that this would be natural fit to use.
The juniper in 1934 barely covered 1 million acres in Central Oregon today they cover 6 million acres. The main concern with the growing juniper’s growing population is its thirst. Junipers pull moisture out of the ground all year long. Which results in the prairie grasses which provide food, shelter and erosion control don’t get enough water to survive. By thinning the junipers, mostly young trees, the underground wells are able to produce more water especially during the late season mid-July through September when the high desert really needs more water, helping to increase the spring output to 3-5 gallons per minute, which during the dry months is a lot of water.
Rose likes the juniper’s’ rustic characteristic, durability, its environmental credentials and thought it would add an element of authenticity to her City Cabins project in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood. The juniper natural rot- and decay-resistances makes it an exceptional choice for decking, retaining walls, fencing and landscaping at City Cabins.
City Cabins are the newest next-gen high performance multi-green certified homes in Seattle are scheduled to be completed in December of 2011. For more information and availability visit CityCabins.com or contact Adrian Willanger 206 909-7536.
City Cabins –The Urban Hybrid
Posted by adrian in Articles, City Cabins, Green Home Building, Marketing on October 9, 2011
City Cabins solar equipment
City Cabins –The Urban Hybrid
By merging the world of traditional architecture with leading-edge building science and hi-performance construction you get the new “urban hybrid” City Cabins in Seattle’s Queen Neighborhood. The unique design building combination is a pure comingling of the best of the past and the optimum of the next-gen building movement.
The “Cabins” are packed with smart design features that could easily go-unnoticed, yet these features are perfect solutions to enhance the occupant’s creature comforts and reduce yearly utility costs. The super-insulated well sealed homes our partnered with a high-efficient heat-recovery ventilator (HRV) that supplies the homes with fresh filtered-air into the living areas and bedrooms 24/7 while simultaneously exhausting the stale air. Workings in harmony with the HRVs are the Mitsubishi Mini-Split heating/cooling systems that provide zonal heating and cooling throughout the homes.
Strategic window placement increases the natural daylighting and breath-taking views of Fisherman’s Terminal, Salmon Bay and beyond to the Olympic Mountains. Incorporating a wide range of lifestyle components into every detail makes these home truly special from the all-electric systems, the use of unmatched re-claimed tongue groove wood planking, LED lighting, movable kitchen island are all part of the new “get-used-to-it must-haves” the new buyers are looking for.
City Cabins are currently under construction and scheduled for a mid-December release. For more information visit CityCabins.com or contact Adrian Willanger 206 909-7536.
City Cabins Locked-Up
Posted by adrian in Articles, City Cabins, Marketing on October 6, 2011
Green Built Homes in Seattle, City Cabins
City Cabins Locked-Up
Two of the last remaining defenses used to divert moisture penetration in new construction are the windows, doors and exterior cladding. The siding and windows are being completed this week at City Cabins in Seattle Washington.
The final windows are being installed this week completing the “lock up” phase. The selection of Serious Windows was made because of their overall thermal and acoustic performance.
Controlling rain water and moisture penetration is especially important when Seattleites experience seasonal rainfall and dampness without many sun breaks that would normally allow for installed materials periods to dry out. To mitigate these concerns, builder Martha Rose and her architectural team have designed a comprehensive building envelope, roof overhangs, advance sealing techniques, custom made stainless steel window pans all designed to help avoid water and or moisture infiltration.
Each exterior layer designed for a specific purpose; yet working together they provide an advantageous, long-term wall assembly that will aid in reducing long-term maintenance costs and increase the indoor air quality (IAQ) of the homes.
An important item to note is that during the construction of City Cabins it has been one of driest summer/fall seasons in recent Seattle history helping to avoid lengthy drying out periods between construction applications.
City Cabins are the latest high-tech high-performance homes built by Martha Rose Construction, conveniently located in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood with close proximity to the bustling South Lake Union neighborhood as well a short distance to The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Fremont, Ballard and downtown Seattle.
City Cabins are scheduled to be completed in the 4th quarter of 2011, for more information visit CityCabins.com or contact Adrian Willanger 206 909-7536.
Electrified Green Homes in Seattle
Posted by adrian in Articles, City Cabins, Marketing, Public Relations on October 5, 2011
City Cabins solar equipment
Martha Rose, president of Martha Rose Construction, continues to push the energy envelope living up to her industry leading standards for sustainable development and green building. Martha Rose is the first builder in the area to include wiring for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations.
Rose’s multi-certified green homes, City Cabins, on Seattle’s Queen Ann Hill will be hard wired for plumbed for charging stations, the stations can be added as add on option. One of the new City Cabins has a 1.97KW Solar rooftop array which will be could produce enough electrical power to drive 7000-10,000 miles per year depending on your electrical vehicle.
The garages will be wired for electric charging stations and equipped with data lines for online monitoring. Having a house, or more specifically a garage, that is ready to take advantage of the emerging eclectic car market could be one of the many environmental forward features Rose has designed into her new homes that could help them gain a competitive market advantage.
On August 5, 2009, ECOtality was awarded a $99.8 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to embark on this Project. Named the EV Project was officially launched on October 1, 2009 and will continue approximately 36 months. ECOtality’s goal is to install approximately 14,000 chargers in 18 major cities and metropolitan areas located in six states and the District of Columbia: California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C. The major goal is to monitor the first 8300 charging stations and take the lessons learned to help pave the streamlined deployment of the next 5,000,000 EVs.
The EV Project will qualify 8,300 LEAF and Volt customers for participation based upon home electrical power capabilities. Because a significant amount of vehicle charging will take place at EV driver residences, a portion of The EV Project funding supports home charging units, or more correctly called “Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment” (EVSE). Participants will receive the home EVSE and up to $1200 credit toward the installation in exchange for allowing the collection of vehicle and charge information at home and publicly available EVSE.
City Cabins on Queen Anne Hill will be completed in Fall of 2011 and are now available for pre-sale. For more information contact Adrian Willanger 206 909-7536.
High-Stepping into a Discretionary Buyer’s Market
Posted by adrian in Articles, City Cabins, Marketing on October 4, 2011
City Cabins on Queen Anne Hill
Although there are over 15,000 Passive houses in Europe the concept is just starting to gain traction in the United States. Martha Rose, of Martha Rose Construction, is building two homes on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill that are utilizing Passivhaus techniques.
The next-gen all electric homes will have multi-green certifications and are inching closer to the magical net-zero barometers, meaning they produce as much electricity as they use.
This is particularly challenging with a spec built home, meaning the builder is building the home on speculation someone will pay the asking price for the finished product. The buzz has begun, that the innovative City Cabins aren’t quietly meeting the new home market demands but high-stepping into a discretionary buyer’s market where the high-tech high-performance housing supply has not been met as of yet.
In order for Rose’s City Cabins to get to the net zero-number they need to produce as much electricity as they consume, they’ve already gone through great strides to reduce the homes energy demands by building a super-insulated virtually air tight envelope. All that is need is enough solar equipment to get them over the hump to net-zero. Preliminary estimations are that on the southern City Cabin a 5KW photo-voltaic system should do it, the home is wired and plumbed for the system and is available as upgrade.
For more information on visit the website CityCabins.com or contact Adrian Willanger 206 909-7536.
Heating and Cooling is The New “SEXY” in New Homes
Heating and Cooling is The New “SEXY” in New Homes
City Cabins the latest high-tech high-performance homes being built in Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill neighborhood by award winning green builder Martha Rose are “totally electrifying”. The all electric homes will be introducing several systems and appliances that will help lower the owners cost of ownership by reducing utility costs while improving comfort and overall livability.
One of the most exciting systems to be added to the City Cabins is Mitsubishi Mr. Slim a split-ductless A/C and Heat Pump by Mitsubishi Electric. One of its newest features is the intergraded i-see sensor that automatically adjust the room temperatures by directing either cool or warm air to the spots that need it, way cool!
The sleek, thin compact Mr. Slim also offers Platinum Deodorizing and Anti-Allergy Enzyme filters for added indoor air purifying. Heating and cooling zones within the home are operated independently from the rest of structure which can be controlled with a wireless remote.
The Mr. Slim unit is just one of the new innovative features that can be found in the “Queen Anne Plan” of City Cabins.
City Cabins are currently under construction and are slated for completion in the 4th quarter of 2011. For more information regarding availability visit the website CityCabins.com or contact Adrian Willanger 206 909-7536.
