Did you ever have a flamboyant friend whose home seemed inexplicably staid? Or one who is always pulled together in appearance but whose home seems anything but pulled together?

There’s a disconnect, right?

“It’s always great when you enter into a home and the atmosphere captures the essence of what the person that lives there is all about,” says designer Stephen Saint-Onge. “Whether it be mementoes from travels, use of vibrant colors or some other specific theme that captures the energy of what that person’s personality is.”

Already you have a starting point for a concept that Saint-Onge recommends when decorating or renovating your home — ask friends what they imagined your home would be like before they actually saw it. This might seem like a small thing, a nice little technique to help define your style. Same with Saint-Onge’s suggestion to take a cue from rooms you see in films or his idea of creating a ‘look book.’

But there’s a big payoff from taking these small steps. For Saint-Onge, it’s all about this: “Good home design has the power to change lives.”

It is this theme of empowerment that comes through in Saint-Onge’s recently released book called No Place Like Home, not only written by the designer but lovingly photographed by him. The photos are mesmerizing, evoking a feeling of warmth and comfort as he illustrates ideas and shows people living in the environments they’ve created.Yes, power. And by “good” he doesn’t mean pricey or slick or showroom-y. He means congruent with your life and how you choose to live it on a daily basis. He means aesthetically pleasing to you as you move from one room to the next, making dinner, feeding the dog, whipping up a batch of lemonade, watching a movie.

And while all of that is undoubtedly appealing — as is his work as a former columnist for Better Homes and Gardens and on television (i.e., The Oprah Winfrey Show, the Today show, Fox News) — it is Saint-Onge’s stories about his life that really make him special and lure one in. The elderly neighbor whom he loved as a boy and whose house shaped his own sense of style. The trip to Ethiopia he took with his wife recently to bring creativity tools to children. Or, in progress now, both of them working to help the Boys and Girls Clubs of America raise money to save a 120-acre camp in upstate New York that provides inner-city kids a chance to enjoy nature.

It all meshes spiritually — the person and the work and the actions — to bring forth a vision and philosophy that help him and hopefully his clients and readers build a consistent and enduring ‘stage set’ for life.

“We came back to the states with a new appreciation for the simple things in life and it just happened to be right at the time of my finishing up my book and doing some final rewrites,” Saint-Onge says of his return from Ethiopia. “It was interesting taking the rough drafts with me on the plane to Africa, pages filled with my ideas and descriptions about All-American life and home design. Then, coming back, the words took on new meanings and I certainly appreciated all that we have to enjoy here at home. Giving great meaning to its title, No Place Like Home, which seemed even more fitting.”

When one feels life, it translates in the creative work. That is why it is no surprise that Saint-Onge – named one of America’s top 15 designers under 40 by House Beautiful magazine — learned early on the value of listening deeply when engaging clients.

“What fascinates me is what I can learn from what I hear,” he says. “Sometimes there is an emotional charge to what they say that makes me realize that the home needs to be about making them feel comfortable, safe or surrounded by good things. Each situation is different – as each home is different.

“I did a project for television with Jane Pauley a few years back for a soldier that had been hit by a suicide bomber in Iraq. He was hospitalized for almost a year and was soon to be returning home to Arkansas. The emotional charge to me was that he had survived and that his home needed to be safe and loving again for him and his family.”

In addition, working in television gave Saint-Onge a sense of how important it is to follow intuition, to go with gut instinct.

“Having done many room makeovers on television, with TV cameras rolling and tight deadlines to turn things around – you had to be creative on your feet and just move towards the idea quickly,” he says. “If I chose to go in a direction that didn’t feel right, things usually didn’t fall into place. Yet, when I followed that initial concept and direction – things did work out.”

He has witnessed countless situations where people seemed transformed by finally taking action after long periods of indecision.

“Change or seeing things in new ways can set the wheels into motion towards new vantage points and fresh perspectives,” he says.

And then, the ripple effects begin.

As Saint-Onge says on his Web site, “You are creating a lifestyle.”

Yes. And what power in that.

Source: Fox Business By Nancy Colasurdo Published February 25, 2011

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site iswww.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.

Sustainability is the only way forward for industry that does not lead to an environmental dead-end. Waste recycling has its place, but researchers in France suggest that from the outset the design of a product should consider the whole life cycle to offer any chance of sustainability. Writing in the International Journal of Design Engineering, the team explains how this approach might best be adopted by industrial and other designers.

“The concept of sustainable development was proposed as a solution to this situation during the 1980s,” the researchers explain, “This concept calls upon each actor, especially industry in its role as the pillar of developed societies, to strike a balance between the social, economic and environmental dimensions of its activity.” It is an increasingly critical factor to be addressed in the face of a rising global population, diminishing resources and climate change.

Dominique Millet and Nicolas Tchertchian of the Design and Ecodesign Methodology Lab, at SUPMECA in Toulon, working with Daniel Brissaud of the INPG, GSCOP Laboratory, in Grenoble, point out that there are many “eco design” tools on the market. However, very few of these are actually used by design teams because few help in green design and do not offer good results in terms of radical environmental improvements.

Others have suggested that addressing environmental issues earlier in the process offers designers more chance of success. However, there is a current lack of off-the-shelf design tools and decision-making methods available to simplify this process from the start. Such tools could help close the loop of materials, energy, waste and other criteria, such as pollution, Millet and colleagues explain.

Moreover, such tools if they existed would be the only ones that could contribute to a radical strategy of environmental improvement which would not be a mere “green fix” further into the manufacturing process and would not improve environmental credentials to the detriment of functionality and cost to the consumer.

The team has now developed a design tool that encapsulates the following principles: the ability to correctly define the performance of product, usability, effectiveness of the method in assessing environmental performance, ability to provide new solutions, possibility to review the design activities, and ability of the method in fitting into a certain design process.

Their tool incorporates the following five steps into a computer program.

1. A product model is defined generically based on existing products on the market.
2. The design team considers what might be improved in the generic model.
3. Suggested improvements are validated based on technical and economic factors and user attractiveness.
4. Environmental performance and ecological indicators are assessed.
5. Design results and experiments are interpreted as a hierarchy and assessed.

“We are convinced that only this type of approach will enable true eco-innovations to emerge,” the team concludes.

Source: Science Daily

Upgrades are no friend to Budget Management

At Trilogy Partners, my brother and I and everyone who works here goes to great lengths to satisfy our clients. We feel that the best way to honor and respect our clients is to build fantastic high quality homes. And if for an instance we feel that our clients aren’t completely happy, we have trouble sleeping at night. We are in fact a bit compulsive in how much we care about how our clients feel about us. The clients might not always be right, but we certainly treat every issue as though client satisfaction is the utmost priority.

Sometimes, however, as hard as we try, our clients feel let down. They become overwhelmed by the homebuilding process and though this period of confusion and doubt generally passes as the project nears completion, it is a difficult time for client and all of us at Trilogy. And the usual cause of disappointment or friction is a project that exceeds its budgeted amount.

The Budget. I’ve certainly written about how important an accurate construction budget is. And how important it is to stick to that budget. At Trilogy every financial transaction is calculated and compared to the budgeted amount, virtually in real time. We pride outselves in providing accurate and timely financial analysis during the building process. We feel that it is essential for the builder and the client to know at all times the true financial circumstances of the project. Given accurate reporting and a high level of costing accuracy, why should the client ever become disappointed by the finances of the project? Well, just because we have an accurate budget and just because we feed cost information to the client constantly and just because we warn the client that additional expenditures will put the project over budget does not mean that the client will listen to any of this.

Even if we at Trilogy bring in all costs at the budgeted amount, projects generally go over budget. How is this possible? Well, very few clients don’t feel an almost irrestistable need to upgrade their homes during the construction process. A small upgrade in flooring here. A little upgrade in appliances there. A few thousand more for doors or trim details or a room full of bookcases and the project is suddenly tens of thousands of dollars or more over budget. And who has the wonderful task of delivering this news to the client? The builder does. Our accounting department does in the form of a cost report. And it is seldom if ever that the client is joyous over the results of a cost report if it includes the clients most recent spending spree.

We have all heard the expression, “don’t shoot the messenger.” Or most of us have. There are certain people, apparently, who have not because on more than one occassion we’ve had to duck under the table as the client fires away over budgetary issues.

What I love about a Cost Plus contract is that the client must approve all costs before they are paid. In other words, the client is in charge of how much money is spent. How is it then, after the client goes on a spending spree, that they can be so disapointed and confused that they blame the builder and the budget for their financial overages? I don’t know. But it certainly seems like every time we have a client who decides to significantly upgrade during construction we end up with a disapointed client. The more upgrades, the more disapointment.

The message here is simple. If you are a going to be building a home, build a good, accurate budget first. Figure out your upgrades and fit them into the budget before construction begins. Give yourself a line in the budget, call it UPGRADES, and put a good healthy number in that line item. And choose to use it, or not use it. And if you are a client, remember this: your relationship with your builder is not only dependent on the actions the builder takes, but also on the actions that the client takes. We recommend our clients take an active roll in the finances of each project. And remember that ultimately, how much the home costs is as much the responsibility of the client as it is the builder.

Many homeowners here in the mountains of Colorado opt to include some type of outdoor living space in the plans for their home. Enjoying the cool mountain breezes while spending time with family and friends is a favorite activity among many residents here in our region. For us, it is just as important to include eco-friendly materials in outdoor living spaces as it is within the homes we build. Recently, Elle Décor featured a short article on the top trends for eco-friendly flooring materials for outdoor living spaces. If you’re thinking about adding an outdoor living space to your home, you may want to consider using some of these materials for your flooring.

• Gravel – Gravel has been a staple product for landscapers for many years, and it’s expected to make a big comeback this year. Crushed stone is suggested over pea gravel, as pea gravel is a nonrenewable resource.
• Pavers – Pavers made of local stone enhance the look of the native plants in your landscape, plus it’s better for the environment than a stone imported from far away.
• Decomposed Granite – Decomposed granite is very much like sand and is a slight shade of pink, which Elle Décor suggests would be a great accent for outdoor dining rooms.

It's just as important to include eco-friendly materials in your outdoor living spaces as it is to include them inside your home.

You can check out more ideas at Elle Décor.

Image Courtesy of Stephen Orr via Elledecor.com.

Figuring out Energy-Efficient Mortgages and Making Room for Green Building Budget No Matter How Big or Small.

Whether you are building on a shoestring or have an abundance to spend on the green design home of your dreams; We must all have a budget for sustainable building and renovation expenses planned out before the real work begins. Like all budgets, a sustainable building/renovation budget will keep your expenses in check and will allow you to make improvements efficiently as possible.

Some of the questions you must ask before starting the green building project is how are you going to pay for it all? Another important question that potential builders and home owners must consider is the federal tax breaks and incentives for green building and remodeling. As President Obama made a point in his 2011 State of the Union address, green building is becoming a core part of the “American Dream” and rightly so. So how do we come up with the money and how do we utilize that money to save us money in the long term?

While some builders might have couple of thousands of dollars in savings, most do not have tens of thousands needed to complete most big green building  jobs. Some of the budget could be offset by loans such as home equity loan or home equity line of credit, says John Barrow and Lisa Iannucci of “Complete Idiots Guide to Green Building and Remodeling”. Good news is there are several specific loans for energy-efficient upgrades like Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEMs) and Energy Improvement Mortgages (EIMs). Both of these options lets homeowners finance such green upgrades as part of their monthly mortgage bill.

Energy Efficient Mortgages

EEM has a regulation that all homeowners should be aware of. In order to qualify for an EEM, homeowners must first have a Home Energy Ratings Systems report on your home by a qualified Home Energy Ratings Systems (HERS) evaluator. A HERS evaluator will come to a potential home for energy upgrade and will determine if the energy-efficient renovations will make sense financially. The rater will also provide home owners and mortgage companies the recommended upgrades and the estimates of such upgrades. To find a HERS evaluator, check out Residential Energy Services Network.

Three different types EEM loans are available which are through Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Veteran’s Administration (VA) and Conventional loans. An EEM can only be applied to single-home and  condominium which is occupant’s primary residence. “One of the primary benefits of an EEM is that it increases the amount of money you can borrow,” says Barrow and Iannucci.  Other benefits of energy-efficient upgrade includes

• It allows homeowners to include the total cost of improvements into the total mortgage amount.
• The value of home will go up due to the energy-efficient upgrade
• Home owners will also get tax-deductible interest on mortgage payments
• Home owners will also benefit from lower heating and cooling cost. According to Georgia power, home’s heating and cooling requirements account for more than 50% of the average monthly energy bill.

Tax Credits for Energy-Efficient Upgrades

Here’s the rundown of 2011 Tax Credit according to Energy Star. It’s important to note that not all Energy Star appliances qualify for a tax credit.

Tax Credit:10% of cost up to $500 or a specific amount from $50 – $300Expires:December 31, 2011Details:Must be an existing home & your principal residence. New construction and rentals do not qualify.Save your receipts and the Manufacturer’s Certification Statement for your records.Submit Form 5695 with your taxes.

For more info, Go to Energy Star Consumer Energy-Efficiency website.

Three Categories of Green Building/Remodeling Cost

There are three different categories of expenses in green building and remodeling: construction costs, verification costs and certification fees, according to Michelle Desiderio, Director of Green Building Programs, NAHB Research Center. “These additional costs may deter builders from considering building a green-certified home,” Desiderio says, “But there are ways to significantly reduce or eliminate additional construction costs — and even reduce typical construction and operational costs”.

• First, figure out where you stand. Check out the free Green Home Scoring Tool provided by NAHB which provide rates for residential green building projects. Consider the frame of the build. Consider using panels or trusses which are both energy and labor efficient. Prefabricated houses are becoming more popular and have the added bonus of thermal efficiency over stick frame.
• “Another simple method for cutting costs is to develop a cut list — a set of cutting instructions and guidelines for your field crew that ensures the material you purchased for a particular application is used for the intended purpose,” says Desiderio.
• Optimizing duct works, placing HVAC systems within the confines of the home, creating smaller living space, designing efficient plumbing system and quality assurance are all key factors of building a great and budget friendly green home or building.

Coming up with a budget for such large task of green building is no easy matter. There are home loans to consider. What upgrades would best suit each home or building. Then there is the bigger matter of paying for it all. With some government relief such as the EEMs and EIMs along with federal tax breaks. Green builders and home owners can find some assistance and relief. As we figured out in Week 1, going small in green building is an important step. Then using Bioclimatic Design for green design phase of building, then debunked some green building myths and now figured out a budget to pay for it all. Next series, we will take a closer look at sustainable materials.

Source: Green Building Elements

Source: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Building and Remodeling, Energy Star, Professional Builder

Photo Source: stockxchange: iprole, svilen001

A recent study conducted by the National Association of Realtors has revealed a great deal of information about the types of neighborhoods Americans wish to live in. The Community Preference Survey showed that an astounding number of Americans would prefer to live in a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood, otherwise known as smart growth neighborhoods, over those that require them to drive between work, home, and recreational activities, according to Residential Design + Build magazine.

77 percent of Americans surveyed by the National Association of Realtors said they look for neighborhoods with pedestrian-friendly features like this one in Florida.

The survey’s results revealed that 77 percent of the respondents said they look for neighborhoods with sidewalks and pedestrian-friendly features, while 50 percent noted they would like to see improvements to existing public transportation over new roads and developments. The survey also revealed that consumers would willingly sacrifice square footage space for less driving.

Ron Phipps, the President of the National Association of Realtors, said “Realtors care about improving communities through smart growth initiatives… Realtors understand that different home buyers are looking for all kinds of neighborhood settings and that many home buyers want walkable, transit-accessible communities.”

Image Courtesy of EPA Smart Growth/Flickr via Switchboard.nrdc.org.

Interior design is a multi-aspect career in which technical and creative solutions are related within a structure in order to attain a constructed interior setting. The interior designing procedure follows a coordinated and systematic methodology, including analysis, research, and assimilation of knowledge into the artistic process, whereby the resources and needs of the customer are met in order to create an interior area that satisfies the project objectives.

There is a broad assortment of employment opportunities and working conditions within interior design. Tiny and large businesses frequently hire interior designers to work for them on a regular working time. Designers for smaller companies typically work per job basis or on a contract. Self employed interior designers, which are 26 percent of all interior designers, typically work the largest amount of time. Interior designers frequently work under stress in order to meet deadlines, meet customer’s needs, and stay on the budget. In some situations, licensed experts check the work and authorize it prior to passing the design to the construction permitting or clients for approval. The necessity for a licensed verification and signature differs by relevant legislation, range of work, and locality. Their career has the tendency to involve a huge deal of travelling to visit various studios, locations, or offices and homes of the client. A lot of interior designers are employed by bigger architecture companies. With the assistance of new technology, the procedure of calling clients and getting design options across has become simpler and needs less travel. A number would argue that essential makeovers have reformed interior design from a client viewpoint, making the designing process more exciting and interactive, in a fairly technological yet labour intensive setting.

A theme or style of an interior design is a continuous idea utilized throughout a space in order to create a sense of completeness. Themes are not to be mistaken as design concepts or the higher level party, which involved a deeper comprehension of the architectural framework, the programmatic and the socio-cultural needs of the customer. These styles frequently follow era styles. Examples of these are Art Deco, Indian Mughal, Gothic, English Georgian, Minimalist, Mid Century Modern, International, Feng Shui, Islamic, Victorian, Louis XVI, Louis XV, and a lot more.

The development of interior decoration styles has now bred to include styles not necessarily dependable with a certain era theme permitting the combination of pieces from various eras. Every element has to contribute to function, form, or both and keep up a constant standard of quality and blend to create the wanted design. An interior designer develops an interior and home architecture design for a client that has a theme and style that he mentally relates to and personally likes. For the past ten years, architects, designers, and decorators have been discovering the innovative fixtures that were created post war of the 50s and 60s from the new supplies that were created for military functions. A number of the trendsetters include Herman Miller, Knoll Miller, Ray Eames, and Charles Eames.

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.