For a list of certified green homes in the Portland metro area, please visit Portland Green Homes.

If you are interested in touring any of these great homes, please contact Amber Turner at (503) 804-1261, or amber@livingroomrealtors.com.

Photos from October’s tour of The Commons, plus a write-up on Jeffrey Tufenkian’s Shared World Blog.

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Join us for a personal tour from homeowners Peter and Kas Guillozet who took their existing 2bedroom/1 bath, 800 square foot home and completely overhauled it into a 1,500 ft sq. house with 800 ft sq. ADU.
“New” features include:

Basketball floors, bleacher trim
Recycled cabinets and doors
Fiberglass windows
Stucco/Hardi/cedar siding
Metal roof
Radiant heat
HRV
Spray foam insulation
ADU below (Auxillary Dwelling Unit)
Low VOC paint

Please meet at the house at 10:30. Possible discussion lunch afterward at nearby Laughing Planet Burritos.

TO RSVP, CLICK HERE.

It’s my belief that too many people pass up new construction for the “charm” of an older home.  However, it’s also my hunch that 99% of those people have never given a new home WITH character a chance.  This architect-designed custom home on full size lot (5,000 sf) is smack in the middle of old bungalow heaven, yet you get the benefit of energy efficiency only today’s standards can provide.  Love the built-ins from older era homes?  This one has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves right in the midst of a wonderfully open kitchen-to-dining room-to-living room floorplan.  Master suite, 2nd floor laundry (nice feature!), exposed beams, set back from street for privacy, AND a detached garage.  Fall in love with the ease and comfort of a lovely green infill project.

• 2125 sf
• 3 bedrooms
• 2 1/2 bath
• Den / bonus room

Energy Efficiency Features Include:  90% high efficiency furnace, 75% of home installed with energy efficient lighting, dual flush toilets and low flow faucets, low VOC paint, water heater 93% efficiency rating, and windows with 30U or better ratings.

Location: Located on a private dead end street one block from hip Division Street shopping, dining, and boutique neighborhood, Sunnyside School District, walk to popular Clinton and Hawthorne shopping, arts and dining neighborhood, access to several city parks including Laurelhurst and Mt. Tabor parks, convenient TriMet transportation access.

3572 SE Caruthers (Division/Clinton Neighborhood) | $499,000 | ML# 10086669

Interested in a look?  Call Amber at 503-804-1261 for your private tour.

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Sustainable building practices must continue to move into the mainstream. What are the benchmarks that enable us to evaluate progress and impacts? Green Day Forum 2010 takes a critical look at how we measure the momentum of building sustainably and the resulting market transformation, while exploring innovative strategies that seek to bridge industry gaps and scale up efforts to mitigate climate change.

One of the keynote speakers will be Edward Mazria, Founder Architecture 2030.  Edward Mazria is an internationally recognized architect, author, educator and visionary with a long and distinguished career. His award-winning architecture and planning projects span 35 years and each employs a cutting-edge environmental approach to design. He is the author of numerous published works, including the ‘bible’ of solar design, “The Passive Solar Energy Book,” which is currently in use worldwide.

Most recently, Mr. Mazria has reshaped the national and international dialogue on climate change to incorporate building design and the building sector. He is the founder of Architecture 2030, an innovative and flexible research organization focused on protecting our global environment. He developed and issued the 2030 Challenge, a measured and achievable strategy to dramatically reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and fossil-fuel consumption by the year 2030.

Date:November 4th, 2010
Location: Gerding Theater
128 NW Eleventh Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97209
Cost: $125

Register at www.greendayforum.org, or contact ahenige@earthadvantage.org, 503-968-7160 x 20

Living in Oregon means valuing a home with year-round abundance of natural light.  You’ll find it in this two-story corner Penthouse suite with floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall Smartglass, low-E windows on both levels.

The main level offers stunning dining, gas fireplace, full bathroom, and kitchen with a balcony large enough for a dinner party. The lower level is all master suite space with the same great views, including a bedroom, sitting room, office area, a second gas fireplace, and another full bathroom with stackable washer and dryer. The building has a cooling eco-roof, separate storage just for bicycles, central efficient hot water, and dual flush toilets. PLUS, unit has updated mini-split ductless AC units on both floors including 2 brand new heat pumps! 

Come view this hot condo in person and you won’t believe the $269,900 pricetag. A great investment steps to PSU, Portland Art Museum, the street car, the Park Blocks, and Farmer’s Markets. 

1410 SW 11th Ave. #806 | 894 sf | ML#10072916

Call Amber Turner for a special showing: 503-804-1261

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The Commons is designed to reach beyond today’s highest green building standards and become the first U.S. home to meet the Living Building Challenge. The Commons will generate all its own energy – without fossil fuels, reclaim all its water, be free of unhealthy materials and be a place of beauty and community.

A collaboration between two brothers, Dustin and Garrett, both from the NW having grown up in rural Washington state, about an hour North of Seattle. With seven years separating them, they fought tooth and nail growing up, but as they’ve aged (and arguably matured) they’ve begun to appreciate each other quite a bit, so much so they’ve decided to start a collective (res communis design), build a house and live in it together.

This will be an in depth and highly educational tour. To RSVP please visit us our GreenPDX events page.

Join us for lunch discussion after, too!

Learn more about the project and recent updates at http://pdxlivingbuild…

Love modern asymmetry and appreciate anything that can save you up to 90% on your heating and cooling costs?  The Corehaus is the only home designed to the ultra efficient Passive House Standard that is currently for sale in Portland!  This ultra cool home lets you live with a small footprint, plenty of light, and central to everything we love about the east side.  Architect Robert Hawthorne and builder Bart Bergquist put hundreds of hours of perfectionist thought, study, and sweat into this one-of-a-kind home.  To see footage of the blower door test they did to test the air tight envelope, check it out here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1XEpXKbT5c   

The Basics:

• 3 bedroom, 2 bath
• Efficient 1,407 SF floor plan
• Off-street parking
• Separate storage shed
• Private landscaped yard with irrigation
• Custom details including translucent closet doors, laminated wood stairs with cable railing, exposed concrete floors, and tiled bathrooms
• Prewired for A/V

Passive House Features:

• Ultra-efficient building envelope (walls, floor, and roof insulated at least twice code requirements)
• Ultra-efficient and durable fiberglass windows- one of the most efficient windows on the market
• Building envelope designed to significantly reduce and eliminate thermal breaks
• Optimized sizing and orientation for solar access
• Air-tight construction (Approximately 10x tighter than conventional construction)
• Heat Recovery Ventilator provides continuous filtered fresh air without losing heat
• Total heat load: 5,500 BTU/hr maximum

Other Sustainable Features:

• Optional photovoltaic system
• Low-VOC paints and materials
• Energy-star and Earth Advantage rating anticipated
• Low-flow plumbing fixtures
• 300 gallon rainwater cistern for irrigation
• Fully operable windows
• Tankless water heater provides unlimited hot water with no storage losses
• Durable, low-maintenance metal roof and cementitious siding
• Complete website and Blog: http://corehauspdx.com/

(And just steps to my favorite cafe, Seven Virtues) 

The members of GreenPDX were given a private tour of this house a few weeks ago to learn more about the Passive House standard requirements and what it took Rob and Bart to achieve the standard on the Corehaus. (See the full scoop and photos from the tour here.)

This home is For Sale for $330,000, so please call me for a showing today:  Amber Turner 503-804-1261

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I’ll admit it, the word “green” sometimes feels passe.  It’s been used and over-abused to a point where it’s almost unreliable.  The Passive House standard that’s becoming more prevalent in Portland, however, doesn’t mention green anywhere.  It’s strictly about cutting energy consumption to next to nothing, making a home Net Zero, and saving enough on your energy bills to afford an electric bike, or even an electric car!  It is reliable, it’s about getting our priorities straight – and I’m fascinated.

First, however, let’s be clear that Passive House Standard and Passive Solar design, while they work well together, have two different definitions.  Passive Solar design places the majority of its windows on south facing walls to maximize heat gain.  It also incorporates elements such as tile flooring to absorb and slowly distribute that heat, or seasonal foliage to protect from too much sun. 

PassiveHaus incorporates passive solar design, but is also calls for an unbelievably air tight and super insulated envelope.  To achieve this usually requires several important changes above and beyond standard building codes.  Some of the main components that make up a PassiveHaus include thicker walls and doors for added insulation, higher quality (lower U-value) windows to prevent heat loss,  and advanced framing techniques that reduce thermal bridging.    Add to this an efficient heat pump and HRV (heat recovery ventilator) and you have yourself a “passive”, contained machines that breathes controlled volumes of air with near perfect efficiency. 

Here are a few excerpts defining the Passive House standard from the Passive House Institute US:

“The Passive House concept represents today’s highest energy standard with the promise of slashing the heating energy consumption of buildings by an amazing 90%. Widespread application of the Passive House design would have a dramatic impact on energy conservation.  These homes are primarily heated by passive solar gain and by internal gains from people, electrical equipment, etc. Energy losses are minimized. Any remaining heat demand is provided by an extremely small source. Avoidance of heat gain through shading and window orientation also helps to limit any cooling load, which is similarly minimized. An energy recovery ventilator provides a constant, balanced fresh air supply. The result is an impressive system that not only saves up to 90% of space heating costs, but also provides a uniquely terrific indoor air quality.”

So far, Portland only has a hand-full of PassivHaus homes, and all of them are privately owned or being custom built. To experience some of these super homes in person, I recommend the upcoming 2010 Build it Green home tour.

For more local articles and resources, check out these links:

 www.buildinggreen.com

http://djcoregon.com/news/2010/05/14/passive-house-popular-in-portland/

http://www.phnw.org/Passive_House_Northwest.html

This one is a recipe for success – cute through and through, but with green tricks up its sleeve to boot.  First, you have soothing plaster walls, a cleanly updated kitchen, a charming, covered wrap around porch overlooking garden beds, and then you couple it  with lovely green features and you have yourself one a dandy gem.  Radiant heat, new wood windows, reclaimed materials throughout, paperstone counters, marmoleum floors, and system upgrades.  This 3 bedroom, 2 bath home is listed with Karim Alaeddine of ReMax.

Call me for a showing before this one is gone, baby, gone.  Amber Turner 503-804-1261

832 N. Emerson Street | 2,068 sf | ML# 10063243

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