When you live in Colorado, it’s kind of hard not to be inspired by your surroundings. It’s amazing how much surroundings matter. It’s not only the temperature, wind, weather and altitude. It’s the trees, the mountains, the snow, and the amazing beauty that is the backdrop for everything we do.

Architectural Digest’s feature using one-sentence quotes by architects is a simple way to get inspiration for your own personal home.

Among some of the comments:

“The use of bold color in spaces that you only spend a short amount of time in, such as a foyer, breezeway or gallery, will make them more memorable and interesting.” —John Barman

Focus your energy and budget on the rooms where you and your family spend most of your time. The kitchen, family room and bathrooms should be as beautiful—if not more beautiful—than the living room or dining room. —Allan Greenberg

Allow for the “in-between” spaces to occur by employing light and shadow as a material. —David Jameson

And one of our favorite quotes, which we also have on our Web site, is from Henry David Thoreau: “It’s not what you look at what matters, it’s what you see.”

If you’re wondering about how to judge whether a product is green, here’s five good tips from Residential Design & Build magazine’s John D. Wagner.

1. Improves indoor air quality.

2. Uses recycled/recyclable materials.

3. Reduces water consumption.

4. Is sustainably harvested.

5. Reduces fuel consumption (carbon footprint) during manufacture, delivery, installation and use.

As Wagner writes, it’s easy to separate what’s “green” from what’s “greenwashed” if you keep these 5 basic green principles in mind: “When you do this, you’ll find that green building really is a rather old-fashioned approach to building. It produces tight, well-vented, low-maintenance structures that don’t use lots of fuel to heat and cool themselves, and contain nontoxic products and materials that don’t permanently deplete their sources when harvested.”

Shane Aschan, owner of The Foamers Inc., which is based in Silverthorne, managed the insulation process for Breckenridge’s first custom Net Zero home. He sprayed a high-density closed cell foam insulation under the slabs of the home before the concrete was poured.

We wanted to ensure that the inside of the home was insulated to the highest degree possible and that the in-floor radiant heat will perform efficiently.

The exterior walls of the home were insulated with 3 to 3 ½ inches of polyurethane closed cell foam. The roof was insulated with 6 ½ inches of polyurethane closed cell foam.

Ashcan says: “One of the builder criteria we needed to meet was to produce an event flat surface of the finished foam to help the other subcontractors do their work efficiently.”

Colorado Building Co. insulated the exterior of the home using Dow Building Solutions Styrofoam Residential Sheating.

Karen Durfee with Dow Building Services, which is based in Denver, says that one square foot of properly installed Styrofoam insulation of one inch thick can avert more than 1 ton of CO2 emissions during a building’s average life.

Plenty of other publications and organizations are paying attention to going green in homes, and that includes National Geographic.

Here are few of the tips from National Geographic’s “True Green Home” book on how to limit the need for air conditioning in your home, and they’re things you should consider during the design process.

• Position your home in relation to daily sunlight and wind flow. That will help you use nature to your benefit, National Geographic says.
• Plant trees with a plan, on the sides of the house that get more sun, to reduce the need for artificial cooling.
• Embrace the openness, with patios, courtyards and fountains that can “help create a more comfortable, livable habitat without having to rely on artificial cooling.”

We worked with Joe Sundquist of Sundquist Design Group in Conifer to reduce the need for additional energy in the Breckenridge’s first custom Net Zero home.

“To address the owners and builder’s desire to make this building energy efficient, we wanted to minimize unnecessary framing, while allow for increased insulation wherever possible,” Sundquist says.

We used manufactured lumber products purchased through the Breckenridge Building Center.

• Heavy timer members create the structural framing system.

• Exposed wood beams function as structural support elements.

• Boise Cascade engineered wood products typically uses only half of the wood fiber compared to ordinary lumber. The increased stud spacing and greater insulation coverage, which allowed the home to have about 30 percent more insulation.

Next week we’ll be focusing on the insulation and other areas of the home.

The journey of building Breckenridge’s First Net Zero home by design-build firm Trilogy Partners didn’t ignore details from the inside and outside. The design needed to fit the upscale look of the homeowners in the Timber Trail neighborhood.

One of the first challenges was how to work with a beautiful and intricate architecture and meet the goal of a zero energy home.

One of our partners on the project was Andy Walker and Renee Azerbegi of Denver’s Ambient Energy, which provided an analysis of how much energy is needed to power the home’s lighting, heating, cooling and other daily living needs.

“Our greatest challenge was making a significantly-sized home energy efficient and renewably powered,” Renee says.

They determined how to reduce the life cycle energy use of the home and save more than $58,000 in energy costs over the life of the home.

They calculated how to provide 100 percent of the house’s energy use fro on-site renewable energy systems, with a combination of a large solar electric PV array and a geo exchange system for space heating.

Check back later this week for details about how the framing made the home as energy efficient as possible.

Home energy use accounts for 21 percent of the nation’s carbon footprint, which is twice the carbon emissions of passenger cars, according to a San Jose Mercury News article.

But as the movement toward sustainability in home design and construction is gaining steam, green-tech experts tell the paper they’re expecting a banner year. It notes that even President Obama has proclaimed insulation “sexy.” 

In fact, the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board has found that there are 100 million homes in America, and energy-saving measures like insulation, caulking, and heating and cooling system upgrades can reduce household energy consumption by 10 percent to 40 percent.

We are focusing on sustainability with our Breckenridge’s first zero energy luxury home, and we hope to inspire others to consider their impact on the nations’ carbon footprint in home design as well.

To follow up on our invitation to join us at Saturday or Sunday’s free seminar about Breckenridge’s first zero energy luxury home, here’s a few more details about a zero energy home.

A Zero Energy Home produces its own energy—as much or more than it needs, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

It combines state-of-the-art, energy-efficient construction and appliances with commercially available renewable energy systems.

The Department of Energy identifies four major advantages:

Improved comfort: An energy-efficient building envelope reduces temperature fluctuations

Environmental sustainability: The home saves energy and reduces pollution

Energy security: A home that produces energy protects from spikes in energy prices

Reliability: The home can be designed to continue functioning even during blackouts

We look forward to seeing you this weekend!

If you started out strong by hitting the gym during January, but are now finding you just don’t have the time to drive to a gym before or after work or to exercise during your lunch hour, the best thing may be to create a space to workout at home.

Exercise rooms can be located in all different places in your home, from basements to bedrooms, and we can discuss what type of space you may need depending on how you work out.

But consider this: Experts tell the Associated Press to put the gym in an area that will keep you active, engaged and coming back for more.

Would this set-up inspire you to workout at home?

Some home gyms have steam rooms, remote lighting and sound, tilt-mounted TVs, ballet bars, refrigerators and several types of equipment, the AP reports.

Having a home that fits with your workout routine can help you remain fit, too.