There is a ton of information about how to find a builder for your new home. Our monthly newsletter, in fact, is one way we use to impart information about our company in hopes of being a good match for your project.

Unfortunately, most of what you read or hear from non-builder "experts" reduces the decision to numbers, specifically the cost estimates that a few builders provide in a competitive bidding process. To us, basing such an important decision and arguably one of the largest investments of your life on mere numbers is at least incomplete and at worst, a potential nightmare scenario. Frankly, we’d rather not be your builder if your evaluation of our capabilities rests entirely on how much we think it will cost to build your new home.

Instead, we encourage and have found success (read: satisfied clients) by suggesting a different tact. It’s a comprehensive approach that admittedly takes a little more time than just collecting bids, but one that can result in truly finding the right builder for your unique situation and budget.

It starts with identifying what’s "right" for you, a unique definition that requires a solid vision for your project and some personal introspection. For instance, if you are planning to build a large custom home, you should look at builders in your area that specialize in and have a track record of building those types of homes.

Narrow that list by investigating each builder’s website, calling their references, the Better Business Bureau, or your local building association chapter.

Based on your current personal and professional relationships, consider the types of personalities you like and respond to best. You’ll probably spend more time with your builder over the next several months than almost anyone else.

You won’t know if you’re ‘compatible’ until you meet face-to-face. If you’re confident in one builder, either from your research or a strong referral, you may not feel the need to meet with any other candidates. But if you are truly starting your search from scratch, without a referral from a trusted source, we suggest you develop a short list of 3-4 builders and invite them to make a presentation in your home or their office — as much to glean their methods as to gauge compatibility.

At those meetings, be open and honest about your project. If you have a set of architectural plans, show them. Request that each candidate bring photos of projects that are similar to yours in style and size. Inquire about how they define "quality" construction and how comfortable they are about green building … if that’s something you care about.

Finally, ask the builder (or builders) about their financial stability and, in turn, share your project budget and financial plan. There’s no sense in trying to forge a good working relationship if you demand a builder’s financial status but won’t be forthcoming about what you can afford and how you’ll pay for your new home.

Once you find a builder that’s earned your confidence in their skills, financial stability, understanding of your project, and (most important) their ability to communicate with you, it’s time to refine and sign a contract and get your builder involved in the project as soon as possible. Having a builder on the team early helps ensure that everyone is moving in the same direction and toward the same goal of realizing the home you envision.

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.

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.

The Mueller community has been designated as a LEED Silver Certified Plan from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) through its LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot program, making Mueller the first community in Texas to achieve this status. At 700 acres, Mueller is the largest LEED-ND community to achieve any level of certification, more than double the acreage of the next largest community. Click here for more information.

Durrett Interests is proud to have helped Mueller earn this prestigious certification by building one of the first homes in Central Texas certified as LEED Platinum. The home is located at 4229 Camacho Street across from Mueller Lake Park and is currently listed for sale at $945,575.

The parade home built by Durrett Interests at 4229 Camacho Street in Mueller was recently featured by EcoHome Magazine as one of their online case studies. Designed by Barley & Pfeiffer Architects and verified by Contects Consultants, the home earned LEED-Platinum, NAHB-Gold, and Austin Energy Green Building 5-Star Certification, plus Energy Star Qualification. Click here to view a PDF of the EcoHome case study or click here to view a slideshow of our parade home photos.

Durrett Interests received the coveted "Best Kitchen" award at the 2009 Parade of Homes tour in Mueller presented by the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin. Original design elements such as a concealed butler’s pantry coupled with the inviting slight curve of  the sheetrock ceiling created a kitchen that was unique to the parade. Marshall Durrett said that the focus of the kitchen designed by Barley & Pfeiffer Architects was not to simply wow people with all the bells and whistles but for people to truly feel like they are at home.

"We wanted it to feel inviting when people came in – for people to feel comfortable," said Durrett. The end result is a home that brilliantly blends  all the amenities of a gourmet kitchen while still maintaining a high level of comfort for homeowners.

Durrett Interests recently obtained top ratings by the three most widely accepted green building programs in Austin for its parade home located at 4229 Camacho Street in Mueller. The ratings achieved by Durrett Interests for its parade home are LEED Platinum, NAHB Gold, and AEGB 5-Star. Additional certification was also obtained from Energy Star. The home features 3,266 square feet of living area and is currently listed for sale at $995,575.

"We are very proud that our parade home achieved such high ratings with all three of the most relevant green building programs in our area," said Marshall Durrett, president of Durrett Interests. "Our team did an excellent job of ‘planning their work and working their plan’ when it came to coordinating the three ratings. When we got the news that we had been rated LEED Platinum, we couldn’t stop smiling for three days."

The architecture of the home, designed by Barley + Pfeiffer Architects, maximizes its potential to respond to solar and climate considerations by locating a first floor screened porch on the prevailing breeze side of the home and a stair tower on the opposite side. This provides a passive thermal siphoning strategy for natural cooling and ventilation of the home. Sleeping areas are located upstairs with living spaces downstairs to allow for energy efficient zoning of air conditioning systems.

Notable green building features include advanced framing techniques, spray foam insulation, high efficiency air conditioning, energy efficient windows, low-VOC interior finishes, tankless hot water heater, dual flush toilets, and compact fluorescent light fixtures. Also included is a three kilowatt solar photovoltaic array on the southeast roofline of the home, which so far has offset energy consumption by 25 percent.

Chip Henderson and Elton Chessman with Contects Consultants of San Antonio performed the green building rating services for this project, which consisted of verification of construction durability measures and inclusion of prescribed green building features. Services provided by Contects also included testing of the home’s performance upon completion to verify that it was indeed built to the level of energy efficiency required by each green building rating program.

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