I must apologize for being absent from the site. I have been working on a Carriage House commission located within a federally designated historic district in Cleveland. As it turns out, this undertaking is actually a solar powered recording studio on the second floor and a place to “plug-in” the electric cars on the first.

It is now time to get back to how my home will “Leave It Better”. We have read about all the many fabulous and ingenious ideas that have been developed over the years for conserving energy or ways of generating energy by means of renewable resources for both new and existing homes. Far to often it is soon discovered, however, these options are usually expensive and out of our budgetary parameters.

From its inception, a main goal of mine was to build an environmentally friendly home that I could afford and be so basic in its concepts that it could be used as a housing model anywhere on our planet.

Previous writings have illustrated individual methods of conserving and generating energy for my home’s operations just by passively taking advantage of what our planet already offers for free. Now I am going to discuss the way it’s constructed with a cost only slightly more expensive than local conventional construction. The reason it can be done is that it IS local conventional construction, only with a twist.

This homes construction methodology is wood framing with a masonry “basement”. This is a very conventional method of building in the Cleveland area. The only “twist” is the framing of my home is “beefed-up” a little to provide additional insulation. Instead of using 2” X 4”’s for the walls, I used 2” X 6”’s and so on.

It’s layout is modular, incorporating standard sizes of conventional, “off the shelf” equipment, sizes, and materials that are locally available. It’s construction techniques are also based on locally accepted building practices and methods. Customization of equipment, materials, sizes, and construction practices has been eliminated.

No matter how Site Specific the design for my home may be, its concepts are universal. By incorporating all of the subjects that have been discussed over these six writings, this housing model could just as well be factory manufactured utilizing an entire range of system components, new high tech materials, containerized, put on a boat, shipped, and erected in the mountains of Chile by local inhabitants. At least in theory.

This home is the first evolutionary step in the creation of an affordable carbon neutral urban housing model. Its objective is to create an envelope that minimizes the amount of energy required to operate and maintain at an affordable cost. It also reduces the size of equipment required to operate this house. That may be best illustrated by the fact that the smallest conventional gas fired furnace available for this house is 33% larger than is required.

The selection of materials is also a subject that has been addressed. The exterior and interior finishes are aesthetically pleasing, renewable, recyclable, conventional, regional, and durable. The inherent quantities of each minimize the need for additional finishes, protective coatings, and virtually eliminate the need for maintenance.

By using what our planet has naturally offered and the most basic of construction methods, my home will greatly reduce waste, operational, and maintenance cost and do so within prevailing economic norms.

As an aside, The City of Cleveland has a 10-year real estate tax abatement program that will more than offset the cost of solar and wind equipment. In essence, when I build my home, receive my tax abatement, install my alternate energy systems, I will pay the same monthly mortgage payment as someone who did not build in Cleveland and I will never have to pay for my utilities ever again. Never.