Building Green in Clackamas, OR

by Lisa Pickert

Currently, Miranda Homes is building energy efficient, durable, environmentally sensitive homes in Clackamas, Oregon. Why Clackamas some ask? Green homes aren't just for urban areas. We need them in the suburban areas too. So what has attracted our home buyers to Clackamas? Location, location, location. We’re off 132nd and Sunnyside, in a development called Bella Ponte Cino. Check out the view from some of the lots!

In addition, the area boasts a protected greenbelt on one side, a public soccer and basketball park a block away and schools within walking distance. Did I mention the open air market in Clackamas? It features fresh produce and art every Sunday from April through October.

The second thing that has attracted our buyers is the quality and speed of our construction. Miranda Homes builds “green”. Green building means consideration of the environmental impact of how we build as well as the ongoing use of the home. That's important, especially as we see daily reminders of the ever widening environmental impact of the man-made gulf oil spill.

At Miranda, we build with 100% recycled steel instead of wood for the structure. We use insulated concrete forms on our foundations which minimize the labor and waste of temporary forms and we apply spray foam insulation that effectively and efficiently seals the home from unwanted air infiltration. As for speed, once ground is broken, we can complete the house in 45 days! Stay tuned for a blog posting on how Vertical Integration makes this all possible.

So what are you waiting for? Come check us out our most recently finished home at 14009 SE Sierra Dr. Call me for a personal tour at 503-208-4663. If you're looking for a builder we can use your plans or ours to build you what you want wherever you want it.

Environmentally Certified Homes

By Lisa Pickert

Previously I talked about how green building programs differ from code built homes (see Blog May 20). Now I’d like to go deeper into their methods and value.
Every green building program requires extensive third-party verification that a home built to their standards (typically higher than existing building code) indeed meets those standards. Most green building programs have their own employees who go on-site to provide actual testing and an independent rating of various aspects of the home’s actual achieved (vs. modeled) energy efficiency. These include testing for things like unplanned air infiltration, HVAC duct leakage and carbon monoxide leakage. For example, Earth Advantage technicians came to our Riverview model home and used a blower door to test to identify that our home had less than 0.6 air changes per hour vs. the required maximum allowed 7 air changes per hour.

Another method of third party verification is through compliance forms that are required to be signed off by suppliers or installers. This ensures that what is specified for the home during the planning stages actually gets delivered during the construction phase. For example, at Miranda, we use a hardwood flooring called Tigerwood. When this wood is delivered to our site, we look for a stamp on the bundle from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The Forest Steward Council has specific criteria that describe how the forests have to be managed to meet the social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of present and future generations

So what does this mean to the buyer of Miranda Homes? It translates to money back in your pocket when you pay smaller utility bills for our homes as opposed to the cost for the same square footage from builders who don't subscribe to these higher standards. Third party verification means you can count on actual health benefits in a Miranda Home because the conditioned air you breathe inside the home will be planned and filtered at all times. See Rob’s blog on May 26.

Best of all, buying a home that is third party certified “green” is proving to provide better resale for our homeowners when they decide to sell. See this recent study in the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce entitled, “Green Homes Outselling Rest of Market” for more details. http://www.djc.com/news/en/12015059.html

Come to the Open House This Weekend. 11-6 Saturday and Sunday

We have a newly completed home available for sale. This is the home you've seen featured recently in our Blog. We had the blower door test done and scored an amazing 1.67 ACH. That translates to huge energy savings for the future owners.

The home is located at 14009 SE Sierra Drive in Clackamas, Oregon and features a classic look with a covered front porch and craftsman style posts. Despite its classic look it has modern features like year-round climate control, under and over cabinet lighting, and Hardie siding with a 15 year paint guarantee.The floor plan has formal and informal dining areas adjacent to the kitchen making everyday living and entertaining easy. The main floor ceilings are 9' high to enhance the open feeling of the great room and kitchen. The main floor also includes a centrally located powder room. As you've seen from earlier posts we've installed solid Tigerwood hardwood floors and a gas fireplace with a mantle and marble surround.
Upstairs are four bedrooms including a master suite with a vaulted ceiling, double doors, walk in closet and master bathroom with granite counter tops and two sinks. The laundry room is also conveniently located upstairs next to the second full bathroom.

If you've been following our Blog you've seen all of the methods and materials used in this house (and all Miranda homes). The Earth Advantage Certificate for this house will be posted soon, as well as our Energy Performance Score.

If you'd like to come see it for yourself, give us a call at 503-208-4663. We'll also have it open on weekends from 11:00 am until 6:00 pm.

Mark Mecklem - Miranda Homes

Now Offering Custom Homes

Until now, we've been building a library of home plans for buyers to choose from. We've selected floor plans that we feel will satisfy a range of customers while incorporating all of the features you've been reading about here.

Well, now we're offering custom homes too. Buyers can bring us a floor plan from their architect, a plan book or a website. We will re-engineer the plans to incorporate all of the things that make a Miranda Home a Miranda Home.

We'll apply all of our methods and materials to build your dream home in a way that reduces the impact of construction on the environment and provides you with a home that is long-lasting, comfortable, low maintenance and energy efficient.

We're still expanding the library of "in-house" designs and will continue to offer a growing variety to choose from. But, if you've been wishing you could have a Miranda Home with your custom plan, now you can.

Mark Mecklem - Miranda Homes

Is a tight house dangerous?

Only if it is improperly designed. To give you a comparison, can you imagine if the drinking water that came out of your faucet came from under your door jams, dirty window sills, off of your garage floor, down from your roof with bird poop on it, without going through any filtration process before you drank it? Your water is filtered and goes through a controlled process before you drink it. Why do you allow the air you breathe to be handled any differently?

Consumers today confuse a tight house with a house that doesn't breathe and thus would get stale and moldy. If the builder doesn't mechanically ventilate the house, then they're right.

Air entering a tight house with a fresh air intake, high off the ground, going through a filtration system and then being forced out of the house mechanically is the key. It removes dust, allergens, and other pollutants before you breathe them. The tight house closes off the passages that allow dirty air in. Just as you wouldn't drink dirty water, you shouldn't breathe dirty air.

Rob Boydstun - Miranda Homes

Sorting through the Green Building Programs and Certifications

• Earth Advantage Homes Silver, Gold and Platinum
• Energy Star Homes
• LEED for Homes
• Homes Built to Code
• Oregon Energy Code

I'm in the building industry and I have a hard time keeping all of these new programs straight!

Let's start with the easy part, the least energy efficient building program. Surprisingly, building to current residential building code in Oregon creates the least energy efficient home! What!?! How can this be possible? Sadly, it's because building codes take a long time to be adopted and the process for changing them is even longer.

Instead of waiting for code to change or trying to influence this process, the eager beavers in energy performance for buildings decided to take the problem into their own hands. These various entities gathered the latest research on sound building science and created optional, prescriptive building paths. Earth Advantage, Energy Star, and LEED for Homes are all examples of these incentive based programs. These programs, while meeting code, guide and inform a builder on how to build a better, more energy efficient home; in other words, a home that will use less energy and cost the owner less to operate.

So what is the best green building program? After examining all the programs mentioned above, along with similar programs in California and their Title 24 Energy Code, my own education and research brought me to Miranda Homes. Exciting! Stay tuned while I do my best to sort them out.

Lisa

Earthquakes and Steel Framed Homes

On occasion, we get questions about how our homes will react in an earthquake. Luckily for all of us, none of our homes have been put to the real world test of a high magnitude earthquake. However, there has been scientific testing and real world testing of strong ground movements on light gauge steel buildings. Nucon Steel has recently published an article in NuTimes magazine that outlines the benefits of steel as they relate specifically to earthquakes. The article covers both commercial and residential use of light gauge steel in construction. These benefits also transfer to other types of disasters as well as regular wear and tear that homes undergo year after year. Steel structures simply remain dimensionally and structurally stable much longer than wood ones. Steel is not a food source for termites, ants or mold and it's not combustible so it doesn't contribute fuel to a fire. As we've said before, there are reasons commercial buildings are made of steel. The same reasons apply to residential construction.

You can read the full article on pages 9 and 10 of NuTimes Magazine HERE or by clicking on either of the pictures above.

Mark Mecklem - Miranda Homes

How to Follow Your Own Home Being Built

We've started something new for our customers. For each pre-sold home we will have a dedicated blog with regular updates about where we are in the process. It will be mostly photographs but there will be the opportunity for the home owners, or anyone else, to ask questions and make comments.

How many builders do that? We only know of one. (It's us...)

Of course, we'll still be keeping up on our regular blog here but a dedicated blog for each home will be a great way for people to see the progress of their home and to easily share it with friends and family.

You can visit www.miranda-colby.blogspot.com to see the first of what will be many dedicated blogs to come. Mark it as a favorite and watch it all come together.

Give us a call at 503-208-4663 if you'd like to visit one of our completed homes or a home in process.





Mark Mecklem - Miranda Homes

Newly Completed Miranda Home Available

We have a newly completed home available for sale. This is the home you've seen featured recently in our Blog. We had the blower door test done yesterday and scored an amazing 1.67 ACH. That translates to huge energy savings for the future owners.

The home is located at 14009 SE Sierra Drive in Clackamas, Oregon and features a classic look with a covered front porch and craftsman style posts. Despite its classic look it has modern features like year-round climate control, under and over cabinet lighting, and Hardie siding with a 15 year paint guarantee.The floor plan has formal and informal dining areas adjacent to the kitchen making everyday living and entertaining easy. The main floor ceilings are 9' high to enhance the open feeling of the great room and kitchen. The main floor also includes a centrally located powder room. As you've seen from earlier posts we've installed solid Tigerwood hardwood floors and a gas fireplace with a mantle and marble surround.
Upstairs are four bedrooms including a master suite with a vaulted ceiling, double doors, walk in closet and master bathroom with granite counter tops and two sinks. The laundry room is also conveniently located upstairs next to the second full bathroom.

If you've been following our Blog you've seen all of the methods and materials used in this house (and all Miranda homes). The Earth Advantage Certificate for this house will be posted soon, as well as our Energy Performance Score.

If you'd like to come see it for yourself, give us a call at 503-208-4663. We'll also have it open on weekends from 11:00 am until 6:00 pm.

Mark Mecklem - Miranda Homes

Introducing Lisa Pickert

We've added a new associate to our team. Lisa Pickert will be hosting our open houses as well as providing education about what we do and why we do it. She comes from a background of sustainable building practices and materials. Hit her with your toughest questions and I'm sure you'll find her expertise impressive.

Lisa will also be contributing to our blog on a regular basis. Below is Lisa's first post of what will be an ongoing series.

It's all about the "green", but what exactly is "green" building anyway?

Many years ago, my soft heart and worried mind gave me a sense of urgency about how to protect the environment when building. I've studied "green" building for a number of years now and it is complex. So here it is in a nutshell.

Green Building encourages a "whole-systems" approach, through design and building techniques, to minimize environmental impact and reduce the energy consumption of buildings while contributing to the health of its occupants. It evaluates the impact of construction, the impact of the building's use for its entire lifespan and the impact of its disposal at the end of its lifespan.

I told you it was complex!

So just what is a "whole system" approach? It is the premise that a building is more than the sum of its parts. Only by understanding how each part of a house functions in relation to the other parts can you understand how to build the highest quality house. At Miranda, this means engineering every aspect of the building process and making important decisions about the products that go into it.

How can builders minimize their environmental impact? At Miranda, one example of how we minimize impact is by forming 100% recycled steel studs in our plant to the exact measurements needed. The only waste created is from the punched holes for electrical and plumbing service. The small amount of waste we do create is sorted and recycled. At the end of its lifespan the steel we use is 100% recyclable as well.

Reducing the energy consumption of the final product is another huge driver at Miranda. By using our processes and products like insulated concrete forms, spray foam insulation and energy saving windows we are able to cut the home-owner’s energy use by an estimated 40%.

So, now that you know what Green Building is, you should know this: I think Green Building is important. That's why I've joined Miranda Homes.

Lisa Pickert - Miranda Homes