What is the LEED Home Rating System?

Ever heard of it? Maybe. Thought of it much? Probably not. If you're about to have a home built to your specifications I'd strongly suggest you educate yourself regarding the eco-friendly  LEED Home Rating Certification program. If you're in the market for a new home, condo, apartment, et cetera...seek out a dwelling with the LEED certification for a multitude of reasons.

Okay...you might be asking yourself, "What the heck is LEED?" LEED stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design and it is administered by the U.S. Green Building Council. It's some serious stuff with stringent guidelines but certainly not unattainable goals for environmentally-minded homebuilders and their customers.

 

There's a new home on the horizon that's currently under construction and it's going to be a 'beaut'! The style of the home will showcase Victorian style architecture as it was intended. It's being built by Bonner Custom Homes on a lot once occupied by two-50's brick ranch style homes. Those two homes were demolished to make way for this very large project for the new owner.

Regular readers might recognize the Bonner Custom Homes brand from my extensive coverage of the English cottage-style home that they built in 2006. This new home will be as true to Victorian architecture as the homeowners will allow them to build it. Jerry Bonner, his son Rhett, and the rest of the staff are committed to staying true to Victorian style, just as they were true to English cottage style with his personal home...the English cottage.

Sandy and I (the home-stalkers) have visited hundreds of newly constructed homes over the years. To my amazement, I can recall seeing only two pot filler faucets, aka kettle faucets, installed above a cooktop. Why is that? Pot fillers are nothing new...but they are a growing trend in today's gourmet kitchens.

One occasion was fairly recently while checking out a few extraordinary homes in Harbour Point Yacht Club on Lake Lanier, and once while I was checking out some homes on my own about a year ago in Anderson Farm at Keeler Woods.

It's probably one of the more unique features we've noticed in the gourmet kitchens they frequent and one that I would think would be installed more often due to the inherent simplicity and functionality of them.

Get ready for some more dumb homebuilding ideas to come your way. We've come across a few recently and here's another candidate.

We think Jack and Jill bathrooms are a great feature to include in a home plan for the kids rooms...when there's room for it! Some of the best Jack and Jill plans we've seen always...always include double vanities, water closet with a door, tub/shower, linen closet and elbow room.

I want to emphasize that last point...ELBOW ROOM!

Once again I've stumbled upon a great little neighborhood in the making. This subdivision offers attractive craftsman-style homes for homebuyers.

I was in-between errands and had about 45 minutes to kill so I let the steering wheel take me in whichever direction it hadn't been before.
I don't need no stinking GPS!

This new neighborhood is named Summerlyn and it's located in thriving Paulding County, Georgia. Summerlyn is just getting started but there are a couple of homes already finished. All 40 homes will be craftsman-style home plans, designed by the award-winning* home design firm of Frank Betz Associates, on some really choice lots.

I subscribe to way too many e-newsletters about homebuilding, home fix-it and organization. You name it, it shows up in my email...or so it seems. It's a love-hate thing. I get tons of great ideas but there are also a lot of 'throw-aways' that I dump in the trash. Who has the time? Well, I make time to read most of them and come away a more informed consumer/homeowner for my benefit and yours. Nah...it's all about me!

One of the newsletters I received recently was about kitchen clutter and ideas to organize your kitchen cabinets. As I'm reading it, I realize..."hey, we're already doing some of these things here in our little abode". You see, my better half has terrific organizational skills...or mad skilz! (Ok...so I'm not exactly 'street' so I'll refrain myself from that flavor of linguistic banter.) We have a small kitchen and lots of stuff. Where to put it all? It was time to de-clutter!

Links to more great organization and storage solutions at the bottom of this post.