You may have heard the term "customization" in your research for your new home. It’s a word that’s typically used to describe the process of making alterations to the floor plan or exterior appearance of a home so that it reflects your particular tastes, current lifestyle, and location.

But there’s a more subtle yet equally important variation on that term that’s emerging within the home design and building communities. Simply, that new homes today are — by design — better able to adapt to the changing needs of their owners after they’ve moved in and for years to come.

This kind of customization has its roots in areas like the Great Room and so-called "flex" spaces that many builders offer these days. But true customization requires a more thoughtful approach to the floor plan, materials choices, and future lifestyle changes than simply a room or two that allow some flexibility in their use.

Obviously, rooms like the kitchen and bathrooms are dedicated spaces. But there’s no reason that a dining room can’t eventually become a home office, then switch back or become something else down the road, depending on what the family wants and needs.

More dramatically, consider a back room — properly designed — that could eventually evolve from a simple bedroom into a family or TV room, a home office, a rental apartment, or a first-floor master suite as the owners age and tire of climbing stairs to their bedroom.

Similarly, a seasonal or long-term storage area adjacent to a second-floor master suite could, over time and if properly designed, become another bedroom or swap with the master bedroom, leaving the former as an upstairs family room or office; the space could also become a private sitting room or home gym for the owners.

These examples are not only practical, but generally inexpensive to provide … if your builder has the forethought to "rough in" plumbing and other mechanical systems. This level of customization could set the stage for a small kitchen and a private entry to serve as a future rental apartment. Another option: leave sufficient room for a staircase or design the roof frame to accommodate skylights or dormer windows to finish an upstairs area adjacent to the master suite.

The benefits of being able to "customize" a home you already live in are inspiring. As much as we want to build new homes (it is our business, after all), we also like the concept of creating communities of people that are able to live in their homes longer and build tight neighborhood bonds — which proper design and planning allows.

We also like providing homes that serve our clients now and in the future, reducing their on-going maintenance and extensive remodeling costs. This type of ‘built-in’ flexibility also helps make the house easier to sell when the owners are ready to move on to another new home.

Finally, given the current economy and changes in construction and mortgage lending that has limited the ability to buy and sell homes quickly, we recognize and respect that families are looking for homes that they can enjoy over a longer period of time.

This kind of "customization" works best in new homes. As builders, we can direct the floor plan and construction process from the beginning to accommodate your family’s changing lifestyle needs.

Sadly, going "green" isn’t always about the environment or conserving energy. Companies in and out of the housing industry make claims that their products offer environmental benefits — such as fewer toxins, recycled content, or resource efficiencies — but fail to back them up with independent testing, quantified results, or other forms of verification.

In many cases, such claims are simply misstated or overstated in an effort to grab your attention and sell products. Words and terms such as "eco-friendly" or "environmentally sensitive," while catchy and conveying a certain benefit, have no true basis in fact.

In fewer cases, the claims are intended to deceive you; the company is simply jumping on the green bandwagon without the proper documentation and worse, little sincere concern for the environmental impact of its products. The goal is to cash in on the green movement, not contribute to it.

In both cases, the effect is called "greenwashing." It’s something we as professional builders confront all the time with our suppliers. And while it’s our job to ferret out true and impactful environmental claims from those that are greenwashed before we offer those benefits to you for your new-home project, we encourage our homeowners to take initiative and protect themselves, as well.

Here are some tactics you may find useful to avoid greenwashing:

• Ask questions! With a little digging online or perhaps on the phone with the manufacturer, you can discover the details of how a product is made and quantify its green claims. If there is recycled content, for instance, you should be able to find out how much and from what sources; if the product claims to save water, the amount of anticipated savings based on a baseline of use should be accessible.
• Look for a label. Not all sincerely green products are certified by a reputable third-party, such as the EPA’s WaterSense or the federal Energy Star programs (among several), but such labeling is a good (and easy) piece of the puzzle. These programs verify quantifiable claims made by the manufacturer regarding their environmental impact. If you see a label you don’t recognize, look it up online for more details and likely a list of certified products.
• Beware of hidden tradeoffs. Many products tout a narrow definition of an environmental benefit but with a tradeoff somewhere else, such as a product that uses recycled content but also contains or uses formaldehyde or adhesives that emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We also look at things like packaging, distance from the source (the closer the better), and manufacturing processes that ideally reduce the environmental impact of the product beyond a single green claim.
• Realize relevance. The use of bad stuff like lead (in paints), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs, in refrigerants), asbestos (in insulation and roofing products), and arsenic (used to preserve wood products) has been banned for decades. Still, some manufacturers now tout them as a "green" benefit. Something that’s "lead-free" should be a given, not a sales pitch — and certainly not considered green.
• Trust your gut. Common sense is always a good gauge; if something sounds too good to be true, or at least overstated or exaggerated, check it out. If you get the runaround or the company can’t qualify its claims, find an alternative that satisfies your needs and goals.

As your builder, we consider it our responsibility to provide you with products and systems that perform as promised. Greenwashing gets in the way of that goal, while avoiding such claims helps deliver the environmental and resource efficiencies you expect and desire.

A question we get all the time is "what’s your price per square foot?" The perception (or presumption), we assume, is that if you wanted to add or subtract a few square feet for whatever reason, you simply add or subtract that amount per foot from the price or cost of the house.

Simply, in our business, it doesn’t work that way. For us, it’s an impossible question to answer without a lot more information and detail, and one that can only be derived once the house is finished and all costs have been accounted for. Before that, it’s akin to asking, "How much does a vacation cost?" without first knowing where and for how long you plan to go, and by what mode of transportation, among other considerations.

The fact is, the details (and therefore cost) of every house — even those built on speculation by large-volume builders — is different, and the cost of your house is entirely up to you, not your builder. Only you know how much you can afford and what you want in your new home. It’s our job to apply our expertise and experience to finely detail your wants and needs and then build a home that meets (or ideally exceeds) those expectations while remaining within your budget.

That’s why it is so important to determine and then share your budget with us from the first moment you select us to build your home. Budget information should precede any talk of contracts or actual construction. Using the vacation analogy, we are like a travel agent working with you to plan a trip.

Still, the square-foot cost question persists. So, it might be helpful to understand what goes into or affects the cost (or ultimate price) of a new home to gain a better perspective on the question.

For instance, the costs of similarly sized homes can vary considerably due to their location (and even size and shape of the lot within the same neighborhood), the outline of the building, the type of and complexity of the foundation and roof, and many other construction and design characteristics that are not directly related to the square footage of the house.

In addition, costs including development impact fees and permits, or state and municipality mandated code requirements, can add from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars to the ultimate cost of a new home, regardless of size. Labor and material costs also can vary substantially based upon the time of year, availability and demand of building materials and workers, weather conditions, and the complexity of the project.

The list of variables goes on, and we’re happy to discuss them with you and explain how they might impact the cost of your new home. But, in our view, it’s short-sighted to ask us up-front what our homes cost per square foot, and certainly to base one of the most important decisions of your life on that metric alone.

Better, we think, to get a full understanding of our process and expertise and marry those skills with what you can afford and want and need in a new home to achieve your goals.

The term "green" is being increasingly applied as an easy way to identify products, including building materials and new homes, as having a better or smaller impact on the environment. That’s fine for marketing slogans and advertising headlines, but it’s also dangerous if the product (or house) isn’t truly sensitive to its environmental impact and is simply trying to ride the coattails of a sincere effort to lessen our carbon footprint. In those instances, intended or not, the term "greenwashing" comes into play. Simply, it refers to incomplete, insincere, exaggerated, or downright untrue promises made about a product’s environmental performance, with no real evidence to back it up.

As a professional builder confronted with "green" claims from a variety of building product manufacturers and some competitors, we are keenly aware of the threat that greenwashing can have on our credibility as a quality contractor. Click here for more information on the "top five ways we build green" at Durrett Interests. So, in our business, we make every effort to substantiate the claims made by our suppliers regarding reduced water use, recycled content, energy efficiency, and other performance characteristics that relate to creating a "green" building. How? Thankfully, the "green" movement within and outside of the building industry has spawned a wealth of independent, third-party companies that scientifically verify those claims with a battery of standards and test methods. When considering a product or system, we look for certifications from those entities, as well as specific performance information (such as the precise amount of energy the furnace claims to save) to give us confidence.

In addition, several local, state, and national "green" building programs, such as Energy Star, have cropped up to help us and other builders identify materials and methods that result in better-built homes. These programs not only serve as frameworks for higher-quality housing, but also refer to the independent verification programs, such as the EPA’s WaterSense (for low-flow plumbing fixtures), to give us greater assurance that we are truly building green. Even then, however, manufacturers and some builders may unintentionally misuse the certifications they earn from such testing or evaluation. For instance, there’s no such thing as an "eco-friendly’" or "environmentally-sensitive" product or house, two terms that have no scientific basis and smack of greenwashing.

Failing to go the extra mile to verify environmental performance claims can put us at risk of becoming greenwashers, too. It’s also our responsibility to surround so-called green products and systems with a quality-built house that effectively optimizes the energy use, water use, and durability of those products. That way, we can all feel good, and be confident in, your investment and our combined efforts to make the Earth a healthier place to live for us and future generations.

Green building, sustainability and high-performance homes are now part of the vocabulary of new home construction. We welcome the attention brought to these important issues. As professional builders, however, we take the subject with a grain of salt. Green building is a far more complex topic than that portrayed in the media. News spots or magazine articles typically focus on specific areas like insulated windows, high-efficiency furnaces, roof-mounted solar panels, or recycled-content flooring.

Certainly, those products provide measurable benefits in terms of energy savings and improved use of natural resources, but genuine green building is much more complex. A green builder uses a systematic approach to design, construction, and on-going operational durability in which the sum of the benefits are far greater than the individual components. A green builder also knows how to personalize the green building approach to each homebuyer’s needs and budget, carefully balancing the value that the client places on the benefits of green building as opposed to other choices available for new home construction.

It is true that all homes (and all buildings) leave an environmental "footprint." The materials we builders use in new construction use natural resources, such as trees and metal ores, even oil. The important goals of green building are to reduce the amount of natural resources required to build a house, and then to lessen the amount of energy used by the house. Energy efficiency over the life of the house further reduces the natural resources needed to produce electricity and natural gas.

To achieve those goals, we look for building materials, products, and systems that make the most (or best) use of every resource harvested while also performing better than traditional products. For example, an engineered beam uses smaller, fast-growing trees. Twice as much of each log can be used to make an engineered beam as compared with a comparably sized "glue-lam" beam created in a sawmill.  An engineered beam can also span longer, open spaces and resist warp better. A house that is free of even the smallest gaps does not waste energy.

Various green building certification programs are now available to help builders create more sustainable and resource-efficient homes. As we review them, however, we often find that the building practices we already have in place meet or exceed those standards. That’s good news for our homebuyers and owners because it means we’re already providing a high-performance home — i.e., a home with many green features — without adding to the cost or price. Of course, a client may choose to add additional features as budget, needs, and passion for the environment dictate.

With a systematic approach to green or sustainable building, we can build a new home that not only leaves as small an environmental footprint as possible, but also delivers convenience, comfort, safety, and a high level of value.

Modern housing may not have reached Jetson-level performance just yet, but a growing number of new homes today are prepared for ever-increasing amounts of automation and electronics — more than any existing or remodeled home can ever hope to be.

These homes, built during the last five years, are equipped with advanced wiring and cabling networks that enable the owners to add, reconfigure and accommodate more electronic systems and products — from security cameras to iPod docks — without extensive rewiring.

This type of network, in both its design and components, effectively "futureproofs" a home for new, low-voltage and cable-enabled consumer technologies. No one can predict the future, but a low-voltage home wiring scheme that provides a wealth of capacity (or bandwidth) together with flexibility of use goes a long way to anticipating consumer electronics to come.

Imagine, for example, that you want to link the personal computers in the house to a central printer in a home office. An advanced wiring system serving multi-port data, telecom, and cable outlets throughout the house allows the owners to plug in PCs anywhere and be connected. If you want to move a high-definition TV to another room or hook up a whole-house music system — and add or replace components within those and other networks — an advanced wiring system makes that flexible use easy.

The heart of a structured or advanced home wiring system is its design. In older homes, high-voltage electrical service is provided to every appliance, light fixture, outlet, and switch in what’s called a "daisy chain" configuration. There is no way to reconfigure the chain and its use without digging into the walls to rewire the house.

For a structured wiring scheme, each wire and cable is looped to a specific outlet and back to a centrally located service box — a design called a "home run." From that central panel, an owner or professional electrician can configure and reconfigure which wires serve which outlets and can add capacity without tearing up walls.

In addition, the advanced wiring system serves only products and systems that need low-voltage electricity, which includes the vast majority consumer electronics such as PCs, MP3 players, security systems, and high-def televisions. While high-voltage wiring continues to supply electricity to major kitchen appliances and general lighting, the low-voltage wiring and cable, supplies only the level of electricity that consumer products need to operate, thus reducing consumption and the cost of energy.

The meteoric growth of structured wiring systems in new homes and the "futureproofing" they provide, offer a clear distinction and immediate value for buyers considering whether to purchase a new home or buy or stay in an older home.

Is it better to build a new home or remodel an older one? No one will be surprised to hear us argue that building a new home is the better choice, just as a remodeling contractor would argue the opposite.

So, with our professional bias disclosed, here are some totally objective reasons why we believe buying a new home provides greater benefits than remodeling.

Better Construction: Today’s new homes, specifically those offered by a professional builder dedicated to high performance and durability, are better built than those of even a decade ago, and much better built than those of a generation ago.

In every aspect, from windows and doors to structural and mechanical systems, a new home today is built to deliver a higher, more integrated level of comfort, convenience, flexibility, and efficiency. As a result, a new home stands up better to inclement weather conditions, requires less maintenance, and costs less to heat and cool than an existing home. Even when older homes are upgraded with new products and systems, the outdated structural and mechanical elements cannot integrate these products for their optimum performance.

Lifestyle Flexibility: New homes are designed to accommodate changing lifestyles and household circumstances. Open floor plans with bonus or extra rooms enable homeowners to use and re-use spaces as home offices, nurseries, in-law suites, art studios, or workshops to suit practical needs and whimsical passions throughout the life of the home.

By contrast, home remodeling is typically done to address an immediate need, such as making room for an in-home business or an elderly parent, which may not suit a future need or stage in life. New homes are designed and equipped to allow the owners to age in place. This type of design is the owners’ best insurance against the need for future big remodeling projects or moves to another home.

Financial Stability: Because of their superior construction and lifestyle flexibility, new homes hold their value better than older ones, especially those that have not been remodeled to modern standards. Even the older home that has been well remodeled to accommodate a specific need — such as the room for the in-home business or elderly parent — will not appeal to future buyers who don’t share the same household circumstances. By contrast, a well-designed and built new home will appeal to a large population of potential buyers, if and when that time comes. At the very least, the new home will show a greater increase in value because of its mass appeal.

Pride in Ownership: Whether you buy a new home or remodel your existing home, you are a homeowner. However, a new home differs from an older home because of the choices that professional builders allow the new owner to make. If you decide to build, you can suit your personal tastes and needs. When you tailor a new home from the ground up, you not only have the pleasure of achieving a ‘perfect fit’ but also the long-term satisfaction of having created a more satisfying, comfortable, and convenient home. The element of personal creativity adds great pride in ownership.

The Hassle Factor: Living through a remodeling project can be very stressful on a family’s day-to-day routines. Although a new-home project presents some challenges, it is done without intruding on existing home life. New owners can relax (at least a little), maintain normal family life and enjoy the creative process instead of dreading the dirt and noise. With the right builder, visiting the new house under construction, witnessing its progress, and moving into a space in which everything is brand new is an exciting and fulfilling experience.

As a professional builder, we favor building a new home over remodeling an existing house and we believe that our preference is not mere bias. We think we have set out some persuasive and objective arguments to make our case!

Greg Kemp, construction project manager of Durrett Interests, LLC in Austin, Texas recently became one of the select group of professional builders, remodelers, and other industry professionals nationwide who have earned the Certified Green Professional (CGP) designation, identifying him as someone with knowledge of the best strategies for incorporating green building principles into homes – without driving up the cost of construction.

The CGP program is administered by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) University of Housing and sponsored locally by the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin (HBAGA).

In three days of course work, the CGP curriculum incorporates a variety of information tailored to green building and business practices. The CGP curriculum incorporates training by leading building industry practitioners and academics on a range of topics, including strategies for incorporating green-building principles into homes using cost-effective methods of construction, and how green homes provide buyers with lower maintenance and good indoor air quality. Techniques are also discussed for competitively differentiating your home products with increased indoor environmental quality as well as energy and resource efficiency.

CGP program graduates are required to maintain their designation by completing 12 hours of continuing education every 3 years a portion of which pertain to green building activities.

About NAHB: The National Association of Home Builders is a Washington-based trade association representing more than 235,000 members involved in home building, remodeling, multifamily construction, property management, subcontracting, design, housing finance, building product manufacturing and other aspects of residential and light commercial construction. Known as “the voice of the housing industry," NAHB is affiliated with more than 800 state and local home builders associations around the country. NAHB’s builder members construct about 80 percent of the new homes constructed each year, making housing one of the largest and most powerful engines of economic growth in the country.

Does it seem to you that new homes are generally bigger than older ones? If so, your observation is correct. The average new home today is nearly 500 square feet (or 25%) larger than the average house built 20 years ago, and 12% larger than those built in the late 1990s.

However, mere square footage is not the primary reason why new homes are more spacious than their predecessors.

Homes are now designed to enhance the perception of larger space and to allow a variety of functions in the common areas of the home. Open floor plans, increasingly popular across all housing types, sizes and prices, create long views through the home and afford "shared" spaces that serve multiple needs.

The perfect example of this concept is the combination kitchen-eating nook-family room. An uninterrupted view from either end makes this space appear quite large as each "area" spills easily into the next. A kitchen island extended into the eating area, for instance, may serve as the family’s everyday dining area, homework or bill-paying center, or craft counter. In turn, that area transitions seamlessly into the family room where family members and guests can relax but stay in touch with activity and conversations in the kitchen — where the cook used to be isolated!

This perceived space is made even greater by a row of windows along the long wall of the room looking into the back yard. More windows may be located on the kitchen and/or family room end-walls.

These windows extend the long interior view even further to the exterior of the house, giving the illusion of more space inside. Extensive daylight — especially from three walls — also creates a more comfortable and energy efficient living space.

The benefits of the open plan kitchen-eating nook-family room are now being extended to include other rooms on the main floor of the house. Passageways from the living room and formal dining rooms to the more informal areas of the house are uninterrupted by doors to maintain the shared usage and long sightlines that create the feeling of spaciousness.

The open plan concept is taken to its extreme in floor plans that eliminate the distinction between living room and family room to create a "great room" that is entirely open to other areas of the house. Another variant, the loft-style house (born out of urban industrial warehouse space adapted to residential use) offers an open floor plan that is completely flexible in its use — and therefore appears to be the most spacious option of all.

Other design features that enhance perceived or actual space in new homes include the use of higher ceilings — most effective in large rooms where good proportion can be maintained — and greater access to usable outdoor living areas. Patios, decks and balconies fitted with furnishings, cooking and eating areas, pools and spas, and lounge areas with flat-screen TVs and fireplaces are a more recent and popular innovation in new homes that actually boosts a home’s practical footprint.

In summary, it is clear that design trends in new homes offer greater space and lifestyle flexibility. Existing homes, even those from a decade ago, cannot match the spacious look and feel of new homes.

Remember the old center-of-the-ceiling light fixture? You entered a room, hit the wall switch, and a couple of light bulbs behind a semi-transparent plate shed general, flat light over the whole room. All features of the room, good and bad, got the same emphasis. There was enough light to avoid tripping over the dog, but not enough light to read by.

Things have changed. Lighting is now a sophisticated design element of the modern home, whether that home is traditional or contemporary in style. Every aspect of lighting — placement, function, control, style, energy-efficiency — has evolved to offer exactly what is needed in each room.

The thoughtful placement of lighting fixtures with specific function can make a dramatic change in a room. For example, instead of a big overhead fluorescent panel, new kitchens now feature task-specific fixtures such as recessed spot lights over the sink and other work stations, strip lights under wall cabinets, or dropped fixtures over work islands or eating areas. Other examples of task lighting include automatic bulbs in cabinets and pantries, up- and down-lights that showcase landscaping or artwork, and fixtures positioned to throw light on stair treads.

Lighting controls have also come a long way from the simple wall-mounted switch. Homeowners can program or manipulate lighting schemes to create custom ambiance for a casual dinner party or an intimate evening at home. Timers, remote controls, dimmer switches, and motion sensors enhance the flexibility, beauty and convenience of a lighting design using both wired and wireless technologies.

Besides increasing the technical sophistication of their products, lighting manufacturers have had to keep up with current styles and fashions. Pendants, wall sconces, chandeliers, and domed fixtures are available in an almost endless array of styles and finishes. In addition, lighting suppliers have developed a greater range of compatible fixtures to achieve a coordinated look for all lighting products in the house.

Security lighting has also grown in popularity in recent years. Inside the home, high tech wired and wireless timers can be programmed to create the illusion of activity while the owners are away. Outside, motion-activated lighting is a basic feature, especially at entries. Outdoor fixtures can highlight house numbers to assist emergency services. Lights in the garage and house can flash on and off as part of a security system that alerts neighbors or police of an unauthorized intrusion.

Outdoor light fixtures are increasingly powered by solar energy and light sensors to save even more electricity. Small photovoltaic cells are built right into path and landscape products to power them only at night. These systems require no wiring or current from another source, making them safe and easy to replace as needed. Homeowners enjoy the added convenience and beauty of outdoor lighting, whether or not they remember to turn them on or off.

Professional builders incorporate modern lighting design and products in their new homes, adding long-lasting value while enhancing style, convenience, comfort, security, and efficiency.