Did you know April is considered New Homes Month? If you’ve been thinking about planning and building a new home, now is definitely a great time find information on constructing your dream home! Current homeowners looking to build a new home and prospective homeowners alike can find lots of beneficial information on the National Association of Home Builders website. There you can find resources on the home building process, as well as the basics on financing a home and so much more information that can help make the process of becoming an educated consumer a lot less stressful.

Trilogy Partners can help you create the home of your dreams! Since 1998, we have partnered with our clients to create custom homes throughout the Colorado mountains. We use an integrated design-build process to serve our clients from concept to completion. Visit our website or contact us to learn how we can help you build the mountain home you’ve always dreamed of!

Contact Trilogy Partners to begin planning your new home!

Image Courtesy of Trilogy Partners.

Last month we told you about the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) survey study that was presented at the NAHB International Builders’ Show, which revealed what builders expect new homes to be like within the coming years. That survey study predicted that homes will become greener and smaller by 2015. Recently, the NAHB told Builder magazine exactly how small they expect homes to be in a matter of two years.

According to Builder magazine, the average home is currently about 2,380 square feet in size, but the NAHB expects that number will drop to 2,150 square feet by 2013. Stephen Melman, the director of economic services for the NAHB, noted that affordability is driving all the decisions when it comes to new homes. He said that home buyers, especially those looking at custom homes, are saying “This is how much I can spend. How can we make it fit?”

One way smaller homes will achieve an open feeling as the average home size decreases is through a spacious, open floor plan. Many consumers have noted that a great room, as opposed to several smaller rooms, is the No. 1 item on their wish list for a new home. Additionally, walls are being eliminated, ceilings raised, and brighter, more interesting materials are being used to make spaces fee larger.

We found this information to be very interesting and intriguing. If you would like to read more, check out the article “The Shrinking New Home” on the Builder magazine website.

Photo credit: Nahb.org.

Have you connected with Trilogy Partners on Facebook yet? If not, be sure to stop by our page the next time you log into your Facebook account and click the like button on our page. By liking our Facebook page, you’ll receive our posts in your newsfeed, so you’ll never miss an update. Our Facebook page is the place to be for all the news and information in sustainable building practices, design tips and trends, events and happenings, and so much more!

Once you’ve liked our page, do us a favor by suggesting it to all of your Facebook friends. We currently have 78 people following us on Facebook, and we’d love to see that number rise to 100 over the weekend, but we need your help to accomplish that goal. Also, be sure to like The Haitian Orphan Rescue Program on Facebook, too. The Haitian Orphan Rescue Program is a charity co-founded by Trilogy Partner Michael Rath that provides permanent shelter for orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti.

We hope to see you around the Trilogy Partners Facebook page soon!

We like to keep up with everything that’s going on in the world of LEED certification here at Trilogy Partners, so we found this news to be really cool. Students studying architecture at Tulane University, along with their professors, have built the first LEED-certified residential project for a first-time home buyer in New Orleans.

According to Editor at Large, this project was a collaboration between URBANbuild, a design-build program at Tulane University in which students take part in, designing and constructing prototypical homes in neighborhoods throughout New Orleans, and the Neighborhood Housing Services.

The home’s owner, Tami Hills, was thrilled to receive a certificate honoring her home’s energy-efficient design. She noted having insulation as one of her favorite aspects of her home because for the first time since she began living in New Orleans, she is “warm in the winter and cool in the summer.”

The porch of Tami Hills' LEED-certified home in New Orleans.

Additional green features of this LEED-certified home include low-E windows, Energy Star electrical features, an energy-saving air conditioner, and sustainable materials such as bamboo flooring and zero-VOC interior paint.

We think this is awesome news for the LEED program! You can learn more about this project at Editor at Large.

Photo credit: Editoratlarge.com.

Last week the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) exhibit “Neighborhoods Go Green! Scaling up Sustainability” opened in Washington, DC. The exhibit models LEED for Neighborhood Development, which is the first comprehensive benchmark for green neighborhood design and is a framework to investigate the elements needed in a sustainable community. The exhibit is on display at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) headquarters.

"Neighborhoods Go Green!" will be on display at the American Institute of Architects headquarters until April 21.

The exhibit features text, photos, and illustrations that represent the features of a model green neighborhood, according to a press release from the USGBC. It also showcases several successful LEED-certified projects from around the nation.

Rick Fedrizzi, the president, CEO, and founding chair of the USGBC, said “’Neighborhoods Go Green!’ celebrates the projects around the world that are helping transform our neighborhoods into walkable, sustainable and economically thriving communities. This exhibit highlights the link between the importance of sustainability and the places where we live and work.”

“Neighborhoods Go Green!” will be on display in Washington, DC, until April 21, 2011, after which it will tour the U.S. You can learn more about the exhibit at www.usgbc.org/ngg.

Photo credit: Usgbc.org.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) recently completed a survey study to determine how new homes will shape up over the next several years. The study, presented annually at the NAHB International Builders’ Show, surveyed builders on consumer preferences and revealed that Americans have changed their views of what they would like to see in their next home.

68 percent of builder surveyed suggest that homes will include more green products, features, and technology such as low-E windows; engineered wood beams, joists or tresses; water-efficient features like dual-flush toilets and low-flow faucets; and EnergyStar rating for the whole house by 2015.

Additionally, the study predicts that home sizes will decrease. To save on square footage, homeowners are eliminating spaces like living rooms, foyers, and dining rooms. However, about 54 percent of builders reported that family room size is likely to increase by 2015, according to the NAHB’s assistant vice president for survey research, Rose Quint.

You can learn more about the housing trends that are expected to be present by 2015 on the NAHB website, or you can check out the full study at Housingeconomics.com.

Photo credit: Nahb.org.

Every once and a while I think it’s probably a good idea to take a step back and think about why we’re doing what we’re doing. For instance, I’m currently in LA at the Design Bloggers Conference. I’m meeting people who work in the design world, like myself, who are also spending a lot of time these days writing, or blogging, about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Which begs the question: why am I writing this little piece right now? What’s this blog all about? It’s a question I think I know the answer to.  We at Trilogy Partners are different than most other firms in our industry when it comes to design and build because we are fully integrated and truly a “one stop shop.” We see it from all angles. We are designers and ditchdiggers. We are builders, planners, and accountants. We are carpenters and tradesmen and we are passionate about how things look and feel. We are storytellers. In effect, we wear a whole lot of hats around here for one reason. So that we can serve our clients fully and completely. And we want people to know that. But there’s more to it than just what we do.

We’ve been doing this for quite a while now. In the course of each project we learn a whole lot, and I want to take the time now to pass along some of what we’ve learned. The good lessons, the hard lessons. Each project is a journey and is its own story. Building a home is a rather long process that grows from concept to creation to a lasting realization of a vision and a dream. These journeys oftentimes take years, and during the course of these years things happen that are worthy of words and remembrance. Each project brings with it a separate wisdom. So I’m here to pass along the stories, and the knowledge of what it takes to design and build homes because, honestly, I couldn’t find anyone else who was. This is the only place where you can get a complete picture of both sides of the home design and build process that I’ve yet to find.

I can tell you this: designing, building, it’s hard work and harder still to do really well. But it’s a lot of fun. And it’s really rewarding to drive by a spot where once nothing stood and see, now, a wonderful home alight and alive with the people that live within its walls. That’s also what I want to write about. The joy and the how of what we do. And the gratitude we feel for being allowed to do what we truly love. With the hope that some out there will read our words and benefit from what we’ve learned. And be inspired to move forward, with confidence, in pursuit of their dreams.

Enjoy!

Today we would like to spotlight one of our favorite subcontractors on our blog. Trilogy Partners has had the pleasure of working with Colorado Custom Wood Floors in many of our homebuilding projects for more than 10 years, and today we would like to share a little bit about this company with you.

Colorado Custom Wood Floors strives to sell the best products in the industry. They offer a great deal of experience and utilize the latest technology and innovations in the hard wood floor industry to each job. Additionally, all of their techs are experienced professionals and employees of Colorado Custom Wood Floors who provide excellent craftsmanship and service on each job.

Colorado Custom Wood Floors provides installation services, as well as dustless sanding and refinishing, repair, and restoration services. They also offer hardwood stair installation services and custom carpentry in hardwood floors.

Trilogy Partners is proud to have Colorado Custom Wood Floors as a partner on so many of our projects. You can learn more about our valued partners by visiting the Colorado Custom Wood Floors website.

We’ve mentioned plenty of times on the Trilogy Partners blog how useful and wonderful reclaimed building materials are. Reclaimed building materials provide unique and interesting alternatives to the traditional building materials that are available today. Take a look at a few of the benefits reclaimed building materials can offer you:

Reclaimed building materials are a perfect choice for any home.

• Financial Benefits – While reclaimed materials could be more expensive than a new item initially, take into consideration that the value of your purchase is likely to increase over time, which means buying reclaimed materials are a better investiment in most cases.
• Aesthetic Benefits – Your home is a place where you can express your individuality, and one-of-a-kind pieces are often a great way to incorporate a little character and history into your home. Properly refurbished and installed fixtures can last for many years and shine just as brightly as a new product.
• Environmental Benefits – Reclaimed building materials are an excellent choice for the environmentally conscious. Producing new materials requires a lot of energy, and puts a lot of unnecessary stress on our environment. Using items that already exist might require a little more effort to remove and re-install on our part, but the impact on the environment is significantly less than that which comes from producing new materials.

Reclaimed materials offer a multitude of benefits to homeowners. If you’re planning a new home, consider how you can incorporate reclaimed materials into your plans!

Information adapted from Service Magic.

Photo credit: Planetgreen.discovery.com.

Did you know that the U.S. Green Building Council has reached one billion square feet of LEED-certified construction? The announcement was made by President and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council Rick Fedrizzi at the 2010 Greenbuild conference. While this is a huge accomplishment, Fedrizzi noted that this is just the beginning of a long journey of green building.

According to Architecture Week, the U.S. Green Building Council will continue that journey with a few new programs.  The U.S. Green Building Council has launched two new green building rating systems, LEED for Healthcare and LEED for Retail, which will add to the amount of LEED-certified spaces and encourage further development of green building practices. The LEED Volume Program is another new program from the U.S. Green Building Council, which is a certification program designed to streamline the LEED certification process and make it more manageable for high-volume property developers.

It is exciting to see how far the LEED certification program has come and the new ways that buildings can become LEED-certified. Trilogy Partners is proud to have contributed to one billion square-feet of LEED-certified spaces and we look forward to contributing to the next one billion square-feet of LEED-certified construction!

Photo credit: Greencollarenvironmentalist.com