KDH Residential Designs

Psychological Design – A Series on the Home Design Evolution Revolution - Issue 2 Isolation

2011-06-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

Psychological Design – A Series on the Home Design ~~Evolution~~ Revolution - Issue 2 Isolation

In the last issue we discussed how as a society, our lifestyles have continued to change and become more informal and relaxed for the most part. Technology has greatly downsized a lot of our electronics making us a little more versatile. Computing can easily be done from anywhere in the house. A growing number of people are now working from home after they leave the office and if they want to be included during entertaining situations they can generally conduct business by the pool or if they need privacy they can find a quiet space in the home to conduct business. We also discussed some reasons why some rooms make us feel uncomfortable. The biggest reason being the feeling of isolation. We spoke about how the old formal living rooms or studies are cold isolated rooms. We also have valuable square footage that is being taken up in formal rooms. The fact that formal dining rooms only usually get used once or twice a year is the reason why people are gravitating to more practical designs. We are going to explore isolation in a different way in this issue.

During our research on psychological design we uncovered a very disturbing fact about mobility. Studies have shown that 80% of people will end up in a wheelchair sometime in their life, whether it is temporary or permanently. This fact shows that it will be very likely that you or someone close to you will incur mobility issues during the course of their lifetime. If we extend this thought to crutches and walkers the numbers are even higher. This is still only a fraction of the items that factor into universal design aspects.

The isolation that we are talking about in this issue is the isolation caused by poorly thought out floor plans. We generally never realize that there is a problem with our homes until we have some sort of traumatic event happen. A broken arm, a broken leg, a visual impairment, or a back injury could uncover some interesting things in our houses. Most houses will have some tell-tale signs by the way of having small toilet rooms or more than three steps to the front porch or from the garage. Some homes will have small doorways into bedrooms and bathrooms. Kitchens may have some flow problems or have a lot of upper cabinet storage and not enough natural light. These small items can result in big problems in the event of an injury or some kind of degenerative disease. Having difficulties moving your house can be very frustrating and a lot of these issues could have been avoided. Using universal design concepts when designing a new home or remodeling your existing home can pay high dividends in the quality of life category.

Universal design is defined as the concept of designing an environment to be aesthetic and usable to the greatest extent possible by everyone, regardless of their age, ability, or status in life. A well thought out floor plan will have features in it that most people won’t even realize. A wider hallway, an extra window, a lever handle doorknob, zero clearance thresholds, wider doorways and light switches with motion sensors are all examples of universal design. These are practical features that are intended for one reason, the ease of livability. Anyone of any age or ability will be able to take advantage of these features.

Your home should be your safe haven, a place of refuge. Hopefully you will never lose mobility or any of your five senses, but if you did wouldn’t it make you feel better that your home would not limit you.

Psychological Home Design

2011-06-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

A Series on the Home Design ~~Evolution~~ Revolution

We have been designing several remodels lately and my clients will tell me that they just need more space. What most of them need is to use the space that they have more effectively. I have also seen houses that are for sale sitting for long periods of time in neighborhoods where homes have been selling because of these same old dated floor plans. I read an article the other day about what the most important item that potential home buyers are looking for in a house. I was pleased to see that the number one answer was a well designed floor plan. A house that is properly designed for proper site orientation is important, but having it custom designed to how a modern family will live in it will be incredible.

If we look at older house floor plans we will notice that homes were designed for a more formal lifestyle. Let’s look at society in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. It was commonplace for men to wear a suit and fedora to watch live sporting events. The men were usually the bread winners and worked from eight to five during the week. Women generally stayed home to take care of the children and the cooking and cleaning duties. Children had no reason to play in the house and were generally spending their leisure time outside. Typically, the women stayed in the kitchen which was segregated from the parlor or formal living room, where the men usually gathered. These floor plans were specifically designed to section off certain activities, custom made for the lifestyles of the day.

What you may or may not have noticed is that most of today’s houses have these similar design traits. Our houses still have formal living rooms and formal dining rooms, large soaking tubs in the master bath and segregated kitchens. Our lifestyles however have completely changed. Both spouses generally work full time jobs that spill into our home lives and usually share the household chores. Our children would rather stay inside and play video games than ride their bikes down to the park. Not to mention that because each household has several vehicles, most of the parks are within driving distance rather than safe biking distance. Today the only person at a live sporting event with a suit on is an NBA basketball coach or the players as they enter or exit the locker room.

Over the years I hear the same things from most of my clients when I ask them what they don’t like about their existing house. The number one answer is that they only use their formal dining room on holidays or special events. They eat and then immediately leave the room and gather in the kitchen or living room. This is a wasted room in a house because of the room’s psychology. The formal dining room is usually at the front of the house, open to the foyer with a small door to the kitchen or butlery. It normally overlooks the driveway or the street front. As people with generally informal lifestyles, we want to be in open spaces where we can multitask and interact with our families. We want to watch television while we clean the kitchen and help our children with their homework. To go hand and hand with the formal dining room concept we still have a separate breakfast room for everyday eating and usually a raised bar for even more informal dining. That’s three places in our home to eat. I guess that this is how was decided to get the best of both worlds. So now we have two informal dining areas and a formal dining room only for special occasions or because (and I love this one) it’s needed for resale, through years and years of brainwashing. Depends of who is buying I guess; Eisenhower’s - Definitely, Baby Boomers - Maybe, Gen X - Not really, and Gen Y - No Way.

Price isn't always the reason homes sell slow

2011-04-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

Recently we have been brought in to evaluate why some homes have not been selling as quickly as desired. These homes were all in very nice subdivisions that homes have been moving in. Before speaking with us the only avenue that the sellers and Realtors had explored was to continually drop the price of the homes.
The first thing that KDH Residential Designs looks at is the exterior of the home. Does the exterior make us want to stop the car and look inside? If not, we evaluate what kind of things that we can do to update the facade of the home to make it more appealing.

Next we look at the floor plan. If the floor plan is out of date and doesn't fit today's lifestyle, we try to find inexpensive ways to make the flow of the home more desirable. We also try to find any undesirable features of the property and make them less obvious to prospective clients. For instance if the home has a rear terrace that is in direct sunlight (southern exposure) all day, then we try to add porches or shade trees. If the home is in an area where there is some road noise, we try to add screen walls with water features or heavy landscaping sound buffers.

With a little forward thinking you can turn negatives into positives and make your home more appealing to prospective buyers without having to drop your selling price. Once a few items have been addressed, the seller has the option of actually doing the remodel or to simply just show prospective buyers how they can easily improve these situations to make the home their own. Sometimes all that is needed is a visual representation of what could be done to sway a potential home buyer. If you have a home that you would like us to evaluate send us some pictures or drop us a line at kevin@kdhdesign.com

Good Luck and Happy Selling!!!

Five Myths about Green Building for Homes

2011-03-24T05:51:00.001-07:00

By Kevin Holdridge KDH Residential Designs, LLC

1. Green Building is a Fad.

Green building is a fad an much as high energy costs are a fad. This always gets compared to the 1970’s gas crisis and the emergence of solar panels on homes. The truth is that the ruling bodies in residential building code creation are pushing to have net zero homes by 2030. When organizations like ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers) and USGBC (United States Green Building Council) are setting goals for homes to be net-zero by 2030, I would say that green building is going to become the new standard and trying to sell an old energy pig will be very difficult in the near future. Because of this updating and remodeling older homes to be more energy efficient will continue to be a growing trend.

2. Building Green is Expensive

Green Building is about education. Yes on the surface certain items that go into a green home can be expensive. Some people will even try to sell these features to you by saying that they have a great pay back. These are things that I call gadgets. Getting the latest technology gadgets will always be expensive and that is true with anything. The latest cell phone may cost $500 and a year later, when something better is out, you can buy it for a quarter of the price. The education comes into building as a way to save money in one area in order to be able to spend it in another. This is general accounting. The home can be designed in such a manner as to maximize the materials used. This cuts down on waste and saves in framing costs. An experienced home designer and builder can work together with the trades to make sure that the home is designed and built in the most efficient manner. A little up front planning will go a long way in saving on construction costs, usually enough to keep some gadgets in the budget. Be smart with your gadgets. A solar photovoltaic system that costs $20,000.00 may only save you $70 a month in energy bills so it may be that there are other less expensive ways to save on monthly utility bills like installing a high efficiency pool pump or low flow water fixtures. Generally you can pay for high efficiency items with pre-planning design or by simply making the house smaller. Having your designer work with your builder to create a team around your project is a key. If they refuse to work together, my advice is to find a new team. Also, make sure that you look at the whole house as a system, as your framing costs go down your insulation costs may go up but your HVAC costs should also come down.

3. A tight house will trap toxic fumes

In order to have an energy efficient home we must be able to control the air exchanges. The biggest argument against building a tight home that I hear is that a house needs to breathe. This is true, but how does it breathe is the question. I equate this to my boat theory. Every boat needs a drain plug. One hole that you can control when it is open and closed. What the theory of “let the house breathe” equates to on my boat is that it’s ok to have a few holes (that you can’t see) that will let in some water because when you lift the boat out of the water it should just leak right back out the same hole. Never mind that because you can’t see the leaks you can’t tell what kind of damage it is doing to your boat. Is the water getting trapped, so when it freezes it will expand making my problem worse next year? Chances are you never know the answer to questions like these until it becomes a larger problem. In humid climates we have to use air conditioners to pull the humidity out of the air. Think of all of that unwanted humidity that is coming into your leaky house every time the air conditioner kicks on. The rule of thumb that needs to be followed here is, “Build Tight, Ventilate Right”. Common sense should take over here. Have your lot tested for things like radon and if you have radon you should simply design a radon mitigation pipe into you home. Make sure that all of your combustion appliances and fireplaces are properly vented and accounted for in your HVAC calculations. Building a tight home makes the HVAC system more efficient by taking out the random variables of leaky construction. It also solves a lot of the maintenance issues that occur from having unwanted air and water intrusion. Remember that wherever air can go so can water.

4. Green Building techniques can’t be done to custom houses

This is the biggest myth of them all. Large or small, green building techniques can be instituted on every house built. Custom designing your home to your lifestyle needs is the best way to be efficient. The designer can specifically tailor the home to your needs thus reducing wasted unused spaces and rooms. This coupled with using design techniques that use the building materials to their maximum to reduce construction waste should be enough to pay for the design itself twice over. Advanced framing techniques and value engineering alone can save 15%-20% of the overall framing package. The most important part of designing and building a custom home is to have a team of professionals that are well versed in building science and green building techniques.

5. There is too much paperwork for certified homes

Certifications are important to have as proof of building an energy efficient home. There are several different certification programs, each with the same basis premise of energy efficiency. LEED is probably one of the most well know and was originally just for commercial buildings. Now the LEED for Homes is out and this seems to be the most arduous program for paperwork and fees. There are other programs out there that are a little more builder friendly like NAHB Green, EarthCraft, Healthy Built Homes and some locations have their own local green building programs. Generally it is best to have your designer speak with a local third party verifier early in the design process to see which program would best suit your needs. The verifier should do a lot of the documentation and testing but will ultimately define the duties of each of the build team members. Building a team of professionals around your building process is the best way to insure that your home will perform at a high level.

Green Building and Remodeling Starts with Thoughtful Design

2011-03-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

Green Building starts with thoughtful design by Kevin Holdridge
    A good home design should take into account the most efficient use of space and be fit to the lifestyle of the end-user as well as having a great proportional aesthetic exterior. Many of our custom home design clients get hung up on price per square foot numbers when building a house. The theory is that if a house is too expensive then the natural reaction would be to make the home smaller. I can agree with this theory to a point and then I think it's just hooey. I used to say that there are two ways to save money on building a house, square footage and specification levels, but now I have learned a few more ways to save money while building a new home.
    This is where having a good design firm pays off. Designing a custom home should be just that, custom. A potential client should be prepared to tell their designer not only what style home they are looking for but how they plan to use the space. If the residential designer doesn't ask you questions about your family size, whether you like to entertain large gatherings, how many vehicles you have, is this a primary residence, and the most important question how long do you plan to live at this residence, then you will not get a custom home. With these basic questions left unanswered the design process can be disastrous. A good design firm should get to know their client's personality and offer up traffic patterns in the floor plan that match the client's lifestyle. When thinking about designing a home a client should begin by taking pictures or finding items in magazines as to convey their tastes to a designer. I personally never design a home unless I can walk the lot with the client first. I also like to see the home that they are currently living in and how they use the space. This holds key pieces of information as we are creatures of habit. If a client tells me that they saw a picture of a fireplace in a Master Bedroom that they liked but they currently don't have this in their house now. Chances are this feature will never be used so I feel that it is my responsibility to discuss the pros and cons of these type features. I personally do not promote that my clients or even the builders that I work with, ever tell a client to go find an on-line or magazine plan to get started. This is an exercise in futility for a custom home client. This process can consume a tremendous amount of time and leave the client feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. On-line or magazine plan books are designed to appeal to masses of people that want to build a nice house, but not a custom house. As there are many great plans and designers to choose from in this avenue of the home design business, this is not a custom home. These may be used for a client to try to hone their likes and dislikes but don't bring a magazine plan to a custom designer and ask them to fix it to fit your needs. One, that would be copyright infringement to the plan book designer and two, it would be handcuffing your custom home designer's creativeness. An analogy that fits is that a person that would like a custom motorcycle is not going to shop at the local Harley Davidson dealership. Though the Harley Davidson dealership has plenty of great bikes, that person is going to find a custom fabrication shop and is going to tell the bike designer exactly what they want and have the bike fit to thier personality.
   When a home is custom designed to fit a clients needs you will find that there is very little wasted space, maximizing the the use of the square footage is a huge plus. Next the plan must be designed in a way to maximize the building materials to prevent waste. Your designer will have to have a good knowledge of construction practices to achieve the maximum use of the building materials. This is where I differ on the just reduce the square footage thoery. Say the house comes in a little too big and the builder suggests taking 6"-12" out of each room to bring the square footage down. This sounds like a great idea but did it save you any money? That all depends on the floor plan dimensions. More than likely this will just result in more cutting and wasting of building material. Remember the home owner is paying for the material so if I told you that you could have a room that was sixteen feet wide or fifteen feet wide for the same amount of material, which would you want?
   If you are in the market for a custom built home or if you are living in a home that has rooms that you never use call KDH Residential Designs and we can help you end your frustrations. Maximize your custom home purchase by creating a knowledgable team around your project. Whether you have a builder or need to meet a few builders give us a call. 704-909-2755 to set up a consultation. We are also looking for builders that would like to bring thier building costs down in order to be more competitive in thier markets by working smarter rather than harder.

Green Building in the Charlotte Metro Area

2011-02-24T09:09:00.000-08:00

Green Building in the Charlotte Metro Area

A slow moving movement has begun and in the coming months will become a fast paced necessity. Green building has been getting widely accepted by many builders, not only in Charlotte but throughout the country. There are some production builders right now that are going to be displaying a HERS rating score on every house they build to prove the home's efficiency. The new 2012 residential building code is going to up the stakes on energy values throughout the home, and yet I am still seeing opposition from some people in the custom home builders market. The problem stems from trying to take any old house plan that is off the shelf or designed inefficiently and trying to retrofit the home to be energy efficient in the field. This seems like a very frustrating way to do things. I am sure that this would increase costs, have plenty of room for error and slow production. The key thing with green building is that you have to treat each house as a system. The system not only includes the framing, insulation, mechanical systems and the foundation but needs to extend to the designer, home owner, and site conditions. I have spoken to several builders that say that green building is a waste of time or it causes more problems than it solves. To that I say, get better educated or build a better team because you are doing something wrong. Building a tight home does cause other factors of the home to be considered. When building an air tight home, if the builder never accounts for proper ventilation, then the home will fill with moisture and begin to mold. If the HVAC system is not properly sized, then it will not run long enough to dehumidify and will cause a moisture problem. If a sealed crawl space is used without proper positive drainage a water problem will occur. All of these problems can be avoided with proper communication and planning starting with a good home design team. If the HVAC contractor doesn't know that the house is planned for 2x6 studs @ 24" on centers with R-20 spray foam insulation and a conditioned attic then he will not be able to properly size the unit or the duct work. The reverse of that is if the builder specifies these items to the HVAC contractor and for some reason goes back to conventional framing and R-13 batt insulation, then the unit again will not be properly sized. Then we have technical items that will ruin all of the efforts of building green homes like where and how to provide proper drainage planes, flashings and sealants.
    In order to build a truly efficient home, the design and construction documents must be detailed and devised in a way to increase productivity and decrease the amount of resources used in the construction of the home, as well as being an efficient use of space for the way the home owner will live in the home. Assembling a team of professionals that are educated on building science and that will communicate with each other throughout the entire building process is the only way that green building will be cost effective. A proper home design can be made to reduce construction waste by using advanced framing techniques and using proper sheet good dimensions to reduce material cutting. As our industry looks for ways to make green building more affordable, we need to look at changing the ways we do business. It is very inexpensive to have a meeting with the trades to explain what is expected and to educate them on certain aspects of critical installation. It is very expensive and time consuming to ignore this communication which could cause a builder to change out HVAC, plumbing, or lighting equipment if the wrong items were installed or quoted.
      At KDH Residential Designs we have a passion for delivering to our client the best possible system that they can have. A green home doesn't necessarily need expensive gadgets and gizmos. All it needs is to be designed, detailed and built efficiently and tight. Items such as solar panels, geo-thermal heating/cooling systems, spray foam insulation, and recycled building materials obviously factor into building a sustainable home and will continue to become more affordable, but none of these items are needed to build a green home. Call it what you will, a high performance house, a green home, a sustainable home, or whatever catch phase in popular today, the key is to build a team of educated professionals that understand building science. Start with a good home design that is not only tailored to the way the home will be used but tailored to the lot, the climate, the home owner and the overall energy efficiency goals.
     Green is not always something that a consumer can buy. It's a lifestyle change. If you can't afford a 20% water reducing shower head then simply cut four minutes off of your twenty minute shower. If you do buy the water reducing shower head then snow ball the effect by reducing your shower time anyway. If you have solar panels on your house that save you three hundred dollars a year on your energy bill, don't brag to me when buy an Energy Star refrigerator and put the old non rated refrigerator in your garage that costs you four hundred dollars a year to run in a hot unconditioned space. The high performance home is a system and should be properly planned, executed and maintained. The system should include the residential designer, the builder, all of the trades, the mechanical equipment, plumbing fixtures, electrical components, and most of all the home owner. If the home owner doesn't know how to properly maintain or operate the components of the home or if it the system is overly complicated, the system will break down and not be used to it's maximum capacity. It would be like wondering why your car is broken down only to find out that the dealer should have told you that you should change your oil periodically. A true high efficiency home should come with an owner's manual. If you don't have one then you are probably not living in a high efficiency home.
    Feel free to contact KDH Residential Designs and ask for Kevin Holdridge. He will be able to help you unlock your imagination and help you assemble your team to build your next dream home or to remodel your existing home to make it fit your lifestyle and save on energy in the process.

Design to Domicile

2010-12-20T12:06:00.000-08:00

We started with a blank canvas. A vacant lot with some slight topography. Working the current slight right to left fall of the property KDH Residential Designs designed this custom home to maximize the allotted space. Kevin Holdridge designed this home with the garage on the low side of the lot to allow for the ability to work out a split level design on the left side of the property. The design allows for the garage to be located between the first floor and the basement. This home has a home office and recreation room over the garage which is a half of a flight of stairs above the standard first floor elevation. The almost finished front elevation, pictured here, ties this design feature in seamlessly. We were able to get a daylight basement to the rear of the property by using this split level design without a tremendous amount of fall from front to back on this particular lot. The elevated front porch gives the house great presence from the street and from the garage level we are a half of a flight of stairs in from the first floor or the basement. The traffic flow of the floor is wonderfully unique in that from the

home office, the owner is on an intermediate level five feet above the first floor and five feet below the second floor. This home office design allows for quiet and privacy during working hours with the flexibility of being near the family in a moments notice.

KDH Residential Designs is always looking for it's next challenge whether it's a new home design or a remodel to an existing home. Let us help you Unlock Your Imagination. www.kdhresidentialdesigns.com

Ask us about how to design green features into your home without breaking the bank.

Ask a Residential Designer

2010-11-19T08:50:00.000-08:00

Question Small but Funtional Laundry Room

We have made a move to DOWNSIZE our life. And one of the hardest to do was my laundry room. We are a busy, stinky, dirty family of Five that has tons of laundry n a daily bases. So when we moved in to our new home and the laundry room was pint size I have to make some alterations!
First Thing we did was to take down the useless above laundry cabinets. Then we painted it all nice and pretty. They we added a shelf where we could put baskets to sort each family members small items. We made sure the shelf could also accommodate hangers. So now all laundry that comes out of the dryer is either hung up and sorted on the hanging part of the shelf or it is sorted in the baskets. Each day (in an ideal world) my family gets "their" folded and hung clean cloths and takes them to their room. Also I got a "over the door" shoe organizer that I sort each persons socks! If you have any organizing ideas I would love to hear them.

Answer Response
It sounds like you have already done a lot of the right things. At KDH Residential Designs we have been helping people downsize from a larger home to a smaller more sustainable home recently. When we can design for this from scratch we can design to take advantage of every inch of space. We also get involved with remodeling projects and quite often see your exact situation. Staying organized in a confined space is key. The use of the short hanging and basket storage that you have could possibly be more efficient if you were able to run a wooden shelf and rod a little higher than your existing shelf and left a center section for full taller hanging and built simple open faced cubbies on either side. The shelf can be near the ceiling because we aren't trying to access anything on top of it. The cubbies would be down lower and more accessible than the baskets you have now. I don't know the layout of your home but I know that quite often a laundry closet is near an attic or second floor stair. Locating this small area under a stair is useful for easy storage with minimal remodeling. With front load washers a counter top can be installed above the machines and provide you a much needed workspace or folding space also. Our company tag line when designing custom homes and remodels is "Unlock Your Imagination" and sometimes that relates to how you make your existing space work for you. Good Luck, I hope some of this helps. Kevin Holdridge - KDH Residential Designs.

If you have any similar questions that you need answered about how to better utilize space please feel free to drop us a line and we will try to help in any way we can.

Evolved Home Collection Launch

2010-10-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

The launch of our Evolved Home Plan prototype at the Southern Ideal Home Show was a huge success. We won the People's Choice Award and the live model home was toured and admired by thousands of attendees. Furthering the momentum of the Home Show prototype, in October we are launching the second home design in this collection, Evolved Home Plan 2000. Follow this link to veiw all of the homes in the Evolved Home Collection

The Evolved Home Collection brings to life the passion Cobalt DBS has to provide affordable, sustainable housing that never compromises on style. Our designer, Kevin Holdridge at KDH Residential Home Designs
brings a unique vision to the partnership.

KDH Residential Designs and builder Cobalt DBS have team together to create a series of homes that are sustainable, green certified ready and affordable. If you or any of your clients are looking for land or currently own land and are looking to build an energy efficient green home, please check out these sustainable house plans from 1,000 sf to 2,500 sf. These plans are perfect for small infill lots. The feedback that we have received from the Southern Ideal Home Show proved that we reached a large demographic from empty nesters to first time home buyers. These are high performing homes with a tremendous amount of green features designed into the plans and specifications. Designing the home to use less material and have less waste is important but working with a builder to pull everything together is key. Cobalt DBS has teamed up with our firm to come up with a specification level that addresses water efficiency, indoor air quality, high performance windows, high perforamnce HVAC and insulation systems and the use of low maintenance veneers while staying on a very strict budget.

As a mainly custom home design firm, we can also offer any of these green design features to our custom clients that have specific needs. Please feel free to contact KDH Residential Designs at 704.909.2755 or Cobalt DBS at 704.365.3038 if you have any specific needs, comments or questions.

Team Building

2010-10-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

In these times of slow to no development in the real estate market I have seen many of my Realtor contacts lose their positions or go into other forms of work. As one to Charlotte's premiere design firms we are all about team building and offering specials to like minded individuals. We have been running specials and referral fees with our builder clients that are members of the local HBA to build our business network. The one area that our company would like to focus on now is the Realtor market. Recently, I spoke to a few agents and asked them how I could help them sell lots in their subdivision. What we came up with was to design "phantom spec homes". They would give me their "trouble" lots that seemed to be less attractive to their prospective clients due to questions about how to use the site properly. I would design homes to fit these lots to show the clients what type of home could be build on the lot. Advertising the property with a vision of what could be built on the particular site helped the prospective clients to visulalize what their home could look like or how the current topography could be used. This has also worked for clients that need to fix up their homes or make small additions to make their property more desirable for re-sale. We will also create a quick sketch for a prospective client that is preparing to buy a current home but would like to make slight alterations after the purchase. When our Realtor associate hears that a certain client would buy the home if it had a screened porch or if the master bedroom was a little bigger, we can quickly go to the home and draw up what this addition could look like. From the design sketch the prospective buyer can figure into their budget the cost of said renovation and make an educated offer based on their findings. This is generally done by our associte taking a picture of the home and giving us a couple key dimensions. We offer this as a team building exercise right now at no cost to our Realtor associates. The effort is to build better business relationships and help boost new and old home sales. If you are interested about being part of the team please visit http://www.kdhdesign.com/ for our contact information and portfolio of work. Thank you and I look forward to meeting and building lasting relationships with some of our forward thinking associates. Also, I would love to hear if anyone has any other ideas about how our design firm could help you boost sales.

Evolved Home Collection

2010-09-28T06:48:00.000-07:00

Recently KDH Residential Design was asked to come up with what we are calling "The Evovled Home Collection". The first plan in the series was recently built inside The Plaza during the Fall Ideal Home Show in Charlotte. This was a two bedroom / two bath house that was 920 square feet. It featured many luxury upgrades such as granite countertops and bamboo flooring and because of fore thinking and value engineering we were able to keep the price per square foot below $100. The home was designed to have a very high insulation value based on the way we designed the framing and the windows. We will be launching the rest of the series of homes soon to include plans in many different styles and sizes from 1000sf-2500sf. All of the homes will be designed to receive a green ceritifcation and all will have similar specifications. Over the week-end long show we received a tremendous amount of feedback from potential home buyers on this product line. Keep an eye on our website www.kdhdesign.com and the builders website www.cobaltdbs.com for more details.

Green building - Eat what you need

2010-09-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

In past years we would design homes so that the owner could live in the house for up to five years, accumulate some value in the property and sell the home for a profit only to start the cycle again. This cycle has slowed down if not stopped. To me this means we have to change our way of designing a home. Now we are designing a custom home for the long haul. Our clients don't plan on moving again. They want to be comfortable but they don't need 4,000-8,000 square feet anymore. Energy costs are going up fast and the larger inefficient homes aren't going to be desirable anymore. We are seeing a complete market shift forced by lifestyle changes. Will it cycle out? Maybe. But the recent economic downturn has taught us all how to make the dollar stretch a little more.

We also hear this term "Green" everywhere. Whether it's flooring, paints, windows, homes, cleaners, automobiles, newspapers, office buildings, etc. What does it really mean? It probably means something different to everyone. To some of my builder clients it's a scary new place that is untested and different from how they build things now. Scary and new means more expensive to consumers. Granted there is some merit in this because some of the new products on the market are priced a little higher than the lower end items that some builders use in their homes. I equate this to fast food vs. healthy food. Ever wonder why society as a whole is getting fatter and out of shape? It's our economic and lifestyle choices. We need to get home from work and take the kids to soccer practice so we only have time to stop in for a burger and fries. An extra value meal is only five dollars, so why not save time and money. Buying fruits and vegetables is expensive and you may not have time to actually cook a meal before they go bad. We eat quick unhealthy foods because the alternative is time consuming and expensive. This thought process has increased other costs in our lives. Now we need gym memberships or lengthily doctor visits to give us drugs that reduce the effects of our unhealthy lifestyles. It's easy to make bad choices on the fly but now that the dust has settled and the building market is slow, shouldn't we be looking at healthy choices instead of fast food choices. But how we can pay for these expensive healthy items when building a home? Let's try using square footage to our advantage. The initial cost of building a home is dwarfed by the energy costs the home will consume over its life span. Anything we can do to reduce the amount of maintenance and non-renewable consumption in a home is good thing. People will talk to you about pay backs and how some things don’t make sense financially. Most of the time these numbers are skewed because of the unknown cost of future utilities. Non-Renewable resources are named that for a reason. The more we use, the less there is and the less there is, the more it costs.

This gets back to how we design for the long haul. We all want to age gracefully and the design of your home can attribute to that. Using products that require less maintenance, produce less allergens and that are easy to use is a must. As we age our vision gets darker. Things are not as bright and crisp as they once were. We need to bring more natural light into out homes. It becomes harder to get up and down stairs and to bend over as we age. This can be handled by designing most of our daily activities, if not all on one floor. We can also raise things to prevent excessive bending. Properly placed outlets, hose bibbs, and countertops. Air quality is a key in healthy living. Installing materials that reduce the amount of out-gasses in the air and installing and maintaining the proper filters on our air exchangers is high priority. Clutter becomes a problem the older we get, so having plenty of storage is going to help us avoid a cluttered home. Of course, the best thing we can do about clutter is not to have any. Find a way to repurpose or recycle some items that haven’t been touched in years. Keeping a clutter free home as we age also makes it easier for our family members visit and easier to tend to our possessions after we pass. This in turn will reduce the stress on our children and help keep a good relationship while we are still around.

Let's try thinking outside of the box a little. What happened during this economic downturn? Business owners trimmed the fat. We streamlined our companies to be smaller and more cost efficient by consuming less. Less energy, less rent, less payroll, less consumption. We can turn this same model to anything we make, especially houses. Homes can be built with less wood by increasing the stud spacing, stack framing and building with better products. Engineered lumber is a renewable resource and dimensional lumber continues to get weaker and weaker as the number of our old growth trees dwindle. Solar power and wind power both viable renewable resources that are being used today. High performance windows, water efficient fixtures, high insulation ratings, and HVAC system upgrades are important items to building an energy efficient home. The most important item that we always forget about when we are building a green home is the home owner. An uneducated home owner is the worst thing that anyone could ever put in a "Green Home". The home has a state of the art HVAC system, high performance windows, low flow water efficient fixtures and yet we still aren't seeing any savings. How could this be? Well our home owner continues to consume as much energy as possible without thinking of the consequences. The high efficiency HVAC system is running full blast while the high performance windows are open and the kids are all taking thirty minute showers.

Green is a lifestyle change not a gadget we can buy. Putting renewable, sustainable, low consumption items in our homes is only a piece of the puzzle. A great start. Going the extra mile to think about how you are effecting the consumption of non-renewable resources and teaching your children, your neighbor and your friends how to consume less is another piece of the puzzle. Education is the most important part of living green. One person might not make a difference but if we share our experiences with as many people as we can, maybe someday society will realize using less non-renewable resources is a healthy choice. The all you can eat mentality needs to be shifted. Eat what you need and leave some for someone else.

Southern Ideal Home Show

2010-08-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

Kevin Holdridge at KDH Residential Designs has designed a 1000 sf house for the Southern Ideal Home Show. The homoe uses advanced framing techniques to reduce the amount of wood used during construction. The home is designed on a 24" grid system to reduce the amount of waste and was framed in 9 hours using these techniques. Scrap wood pieces were used as blocking and even for header supports to further reduce the amount of waste generated. The most expensive part of a home is the energy it consumes and the maintenance of the home. We have greatly exceeded the insulation values of this home and have used low maintenance products and sustainable products throughout the home. We have 2x6 exterior walls and the studs are all 24" on centers. This will allow us to install more insulation and by reducing the amount of studs we reduce the amount of cold spots. Wood has very little insulation value so taking wood out of the walls is the key to better insulating the walls. Many of the green features in this home will be on display this week-end Aug 27-29 in Charlotte NC at the Southern Ideal Home Show. After the show the home is designed to be taken apart in three modules and shipped to its final build site as a donation for low income housing. We have designed a fourth module to be added to the home at that time making it a three bedroom 1,200sf home.

http://www.wcnc.com/video?id=101295394&sec=552547

Green Certified Home

2010-07-30T05:40:00.000-07:00

Currently under construction. We are expecting a gold NAHB green certification on this house. It will feature advanced framing techniques, high levels of insulation, and high efficiency windows, HVAC and plumbing systems. It was designed on a 48" grid system to reduce the amount of waste during construction. We will also be using an site recycle program to reduce our on-site construction debris. This home is being built on an infill lot near uptown Charlotte and will become one of four house plans offered in a "Sustainable Home - Designer Series" to be unveiled at the Fall Home Show in August.

Will an Eco-Firendly Home Be More Expensive to Build?

2010-06-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

Kevin Holdridge June 1, 2010

Kevin Holdridge is a residential designer who was accepted as a professional member of the American Institute of Building Designers in 2007. That same year, he founded his own business, KDH Residential Designs, in Charlotte, North Carolina. In this article, he tells us what people need to know about cost before starting construction on a “green” home.

There is no doubt that some aspects or items involved in the construction of an “green” home will be more expensive. However, cost itself usually is not the main reason why most people decide to build an environmentally friendly home in the first place.
The concept of a green home is slightly different for everyone, so the amount that a green home will cost above and beyond a non-green home will depend on how far the builder went with the process and how many different types of technologies were included in the design.
I have a feeling that sometimes people get too caught up in simply buying cool gadgets and other things that are supposed to help us all save a little money, energy, and water. But the products themselves won’t be nearly as effective if people don’t decide to change their lifestyle at the same time.
In order to get the full effect from any energy-efficient product for the home, you have to be open to changing your behaviors and habits. If not, the product can’t take on its full effect.
For instance, one example that I frequently use is water-saving showerheads. Some of these claim to save as much as 20% of the water that you would normally waste in a typical shower, and that is great. But if you don’t change your behavior, and you continue to take showers that are a half hour, then you are still wasting a lot more water than is necessary.
So being eco-conscious or “green” is as much a state of mind as it is a product of buying certain things or building your home in a certain way. People do not just need to buy new gadgets and pieces of technology. They need to learn how to use them properly in order to maximize their efficiency.
Some gadgets and appliances that we can install in new homes are expensive. But the majority of those expensive things are focused on a small market of consumers who are more interested in having the new technology than they are in actually getting the payback of using less energy or water.
As an example, doing a complete solar house and getting that home completely off the grid can be expensive. If a person hopes to get enough solar power that he can then turn around and sell the wattage back to the electric company, then that will be even more expensive. And in doing a project like that, it will take the homeowners a long time before they begin to see a payback or even before they break even. In the case of someone installing enough solar panels on their home to go entirely off the grid, they would have to be willing to stay in that home for many years before they would see a financial payback.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t smaller and cheaper ways to make a difference. Putting in a solar hot water system, for example, is a lot cheaper than installing solar panels for the entire house electrical system. And the installation of a solar hot water heater will pay you back a lot more quickly, too. Putting energy-efficient lights all around your house is another example of something that is quick and easy to do. As something as simple as unplugging the television in your spare bedroom that never gets used is another example of something that’s free and easy. “Voltage vampires” is what all of those types of things are called. So those small differences probably save the average homeowner just as much money in the long run as a lot of the technology-heavy things that people purchase.
When people are looking for ways to obtain actual green certification for their homes without spending quite as much, we here at KDH Residential Designs have the mindset to tell people to pick the low hanging fruit, so to speak.
Although the specific items that people get points toward certification may vary based on the organization, we typically advise clients to get as many as possible of the small things that don’t cost a lot included in their home. Because those items all add points that can help a homeowner obtain green certification — even without spending a bundle.

Does Building a Green Home Impact It's Resale Value?

2010-05-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Kevin Holdridge is a residential designer in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a member of the American Institute of Building Designers, among other organizations, and owns his own residential design firm, KDH Residential Designs. Here, he shares his knowledge about how having a certified green home will impact your resale price.
Building a home that receives green certification will often be more expensive in upfront costs, but that same certification can also boost the home’s value if the owners ever decide to sell. So there are some definite pros and cons to going in that direction with a new construction home.
With the way that the housing market is there right now, a lot of unsold inventory is on the market. So if you are a homeowner who wants to build a house and sell it faster, then having a green certification is going to put you heads and tails in front of everyone else trying to sell a similarly priced home without any green technology.
If I was a potential buyer in the market to purchase a new house, and two similar properties were for sale, I would definitely check to see if either one was built with any energy-efficient materials. And so, and if I discovered that one of the two homes was built normally and one was built with a green certification, then I personally would definitely go with the home that came with the certification. This is especially true if the homeowner was able to prove that energy-efficient materials and appliances would actually be able to save me money on my electrical bills or my water bill every month. In that case, I would definitely choose the green house above the non-green one, even if it was a little more expensive.
Not only does buying an environmentally conscious home with green certification become a moral issue for some people, but it can also be a financial issue. If people think they can do something good for the environment — like buying a “green” home — while also saving money on utilities and home maintenance fees at the same time, then there is a major bonus which will make it much easier to sell your home to a buyer.
What oftentimes happens when people are building a home is that they get caught up in how much their mortgage will cost each month and how much they are going to be paying. But when you look at the actual figures that make up a monthly budget, the amount you pay in maintenance and utilities is actually quite a bit more than most people expect, especially during the hot summer or cold winter months.
The biggest investment a homeowner is making in his house, then, is actually in agreeing to pay for the maintenance of it. Utility bills, yard maintenance costs, irrigation systems, water bills — these things all add up when you look at them over a 50-year period. In fact, over a period of 50 years or more, the costs that a person has paid in maintenance fees and bills on a regular home is outstanding. If you add those numbers up, it will make your mortgage look small in comparison.
That is why it can be such a benefit to buy a high performing house. If your house costs less to maintain — thanks to the installation of energy efficient materials and energy-efficient building techniques that were used — then that will greatly boost the value in the long run and reduce the costs that you pay in maintenance and bills each month.
Despite that fact, though, the main reason people still get green homes built right now is as a way to do something good for the environment. But at the very least, the good news is that these homeowners also have the peace of mind in knowing that they are not wasting their money by installing a few slightly more costly fixtures and materials during the construction phase of their home. Because in the long run, doing so can definitely boost the overall value of their house.

Renovating a Pre-1978 House

2010-02-26T05:09:00.000-08:00

A federal law has been passed requiring builders to be lead paint renovation certified before commencing any work to be done on a pre-1978 renovation. This law takes effect nation wide as of April 22, 2010. In North Carolina it has already taken effect as of January 1, 2010.
As a residential house and remodel designer, I felt it to be very important to obtain this certification to familiarize myself with exactly what the builders will be required to do. This has a two fold advantage. One, I can pre-test the home prior to the design phase and help my client choose the right builders to perform the work. Two, I know the proper procedures and precautions that must be taken to protect the home owners family and workers on site from exposure to lead dust.
During the certification class we learned of the effects of lead paint dust and how they affect our brain. Heavy metals in your blood system are not good at all. They could cause irrational thoughts and long lasting behavioral changes in most adults and greatly damage brain development in young children. The lead could stay in your system for upwards of thirty years. Studies have proven that the body stores lead and treats it as if it were calcium. Because of this pregnant women exposed to lead dust could pass lead directly to their fetus years after exposure. Our instructor used an example of how much lead dust it would take to harm a six year old child. The amount of dust was on fingertip.
Remodeling a lead positive house safely is not a difficult task. It just takes a few extra precautions. Workers will have to use plastic barriers in any area of work to catch any lead chips or dust to prevent contamination of other areas of the house. The HVAC system will have to closed and sealed during construction. All effected areas will have to be wet sanded and cleaned with the proper HEPA filter vacuums. The construction area will also have to be taped off and warning signs will have to be displayed to avoid any accidental contamination from unauthorized personnel.
If you are thinking about remodeling your pre-1978 house make sure your house is properly tested and that the contractor you choose to do the work is certified in lead renovations if your house tests positive. Even if you’re simply repainting your home, old painters tarps have been tested to have high levels of lead dust contamination. Make sure your painter in using new plastic drops to error on the side of caution.
If you have any questions about a future remodel please feel free to call Kevin Holdridge at KDH Residential Design, LLC. (704) 909-2755.

Green Building Starts with Lifestyle Change

2010-01-22T07:58:00.000-08:00

Green Building means something different to everyone you ask about the subject. I have listened to a lot of people that perceive themselves as the foremost experts in the field. I have spent countless hours in Green Building classes and Green Builder Council meetings. I have read a number of books on Green Building and related subjects. I have received my Certified Green Professional certificate. There is now a television station devoted to Green Building on my satellite provider called Planet Green TV. There are infinite websites on the subject, countless discussion groups on professional networking websites, various companies selling green this and green that. The green buzz has become overwhelming. People are acting as if this is something new. Green Building practices have been utilized since the energy crisis in the 1970’s. Don’t believe me. Have you ever seen an old big bulky solar panel on a small bungalow house? Have you ever heard of a geo-thermal heat pump or double paned low-e windows? We have been using engineered floor systems (wood I-Joists) for over 10 years now in my southeast market. This gets back to Einstein’s theory of relativity. Green building has always been around us. Building science is not new; we just never realized it was there. It was never brought to the forefront until the world was hit with a struggling economy and outrageous fuel prices. Everything is relative. If you were building quality, tight, energy efficient homes you just called it a quality home. Granted this Green Building push has increased the quality of homes built by companies that prior only abided by the local building codes. For the most part quality builders have to change what they are doing very little to get a gold certified green home, besides the additional paperwork, third party inspections and the fees associated with both. To me the most important thing to consider when building a green home is framing the home as tight as possible. This will allow the HVAC contractor to better efficiently control the indoor air quality. After all in the whole scheme of things it is the next fifty years of energy usage after your home is built that matter the most. Energy consumption is the most expensive and can be the sole greenest item in the house. I’ll take a solar hot water tank over bamboo floors any day of the week. Not to discredit green building materials because there are a plethora of new things on the market today. Technology for building materials only keeps getting better, faster, and more ecological, but being green starts with personal strides to reduce energy consumption.
Think about easy things you can do to save energy. Things that may seem small and trivial will have a snowball effect and accumulate over time. Simple things like unplugging televisions and alarm clocks in rooms that get seldom use or unplugging phone chargers when not in use can lower electrical usage. Changing out all of your light bulbs to compact fluorescent lights will save energy. Turning off lights or installing dimmer switches are good ways to save energy. Walking or riding a bike to the park instead of driving and recycling bottles, cans and paper save energy. Creating compost for organic waste and reducing the amount of garbage you create all save energy in some way. Before you start thinking about green building you need to alter your lifestyle ever so slightly and start thinking about how you can consume less energy and create less waste.
Create a snowball effect. Think about ways to consume less to enhance your green technology. For example, save 10% less water by consciously taking a shorter shower now. When you build your house install a low flow shower head that will reduce 20% of your water usage on top of 10% you are accustomed to saving by taking shorter showers. Being green is a lifestyle change. It’s not just purchasing green technology or building an energy efficient home. The house is a system. The people living in the house are part of the system, consuming energy, using the HVAC, turning on lights, opening doors and windows. Does it make sense to build an air tight house and keep all of the windows and doors open while the air conditioner is running? No. Truly being green means using the new technology, building science and energy systems to the best and most efficient ability possible.

Green Building Starts with a Lifestyle Change

2009-08-06T12:19:00.000-07:00