Anything worth doing... is worth overdoing...

Rewind time....  As I await (mega) loan approval, I ask myself, how did we get here?  How did we get to building a "LEED Platinum of Bust" home when this started with a discussion about building a modern home, all on one level (better for aging in place for both humans and dogs...), on acreage, with a shop / guesthouse building for our hobby activities.

Sounds simple right?  Find an architect, back and forth with some plans, make tough decisions like maple or cherry.... and start building.

I knew it wouldn't be that easy, but I am a fan of gross oversimplification, so that was the hope.

Anyone that knows my DH (dear husband) knows that he's the epitome of the title of this blog post.  He's not a "good enough" kind of guy.  He's an engineer.  His brain works differently than mine.  I am perfectly comfortable with a 80% solution as long as it meets my overall goals (that can include a time / cost / effort element).  DH is a 100% kind of guy.  We kinda did this when we built our first house.  We had contracted with a builder who was to build us a "custom" home.  Little did he know what he was getting into, and we were not all that smart about what custom meant.  Apparently, custom in a neighborhood meant: painted spindles for your railings, or stained?  I don't think either of us were well prepared.

So - as we started off on this venture with the rather simple requirements above - I should have known we'd build in complexity.  I knew we would be building a house that is energy efficient - our current home was built to a standard that far exceeded code, and we built that when gas was $1.30 a gallon.  We're not cheap - we're "frugal" and we believe that we should embrace low operating costs to ensure that things like our heat / light bill does not get totally out of hand should we see big increases in energy costs.  We also would like to be good stewards of the environment.

The energy efficiency path had a more natural fit to LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design).  Often, things like this are just buzzwords.  "Green" is one of my most nonfavorite words.  Too nebulous.  Homebuilders all over are calling themselves "green" and yet there's still tons of garbage being generated, VOCs streaming around in paint and cabinetry, formaldahyde in cabinets, etc.  But hey - we're "green"....  But LEED quantifies your decisions and takes a much more holistic approach to homebuilding.

LEED has 4 levels - Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum....  you see where I am going with this, don't you?  Next time we'll talk about our building materials decisions.....