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.

Quote from Marshall Durrett in July 2009 Issue of Your Austin Address:

"We set out to create a parade home that was both noticeably livable and extremely sustainable, not just a ‘flash in the pan’ for the parade event. Quality of execution and durability of construction were very important in our project programming, providing our homeowner with a functioning building system for years to come. From the very beginning, with site selection, we insisted on a north-facing home site that would allow for the best quality day lighting from the large front windows of the home. Our home site also allowed for the inclusion of a three-kilowatt array of solar panels on the southeast roof plane, which has already offset our electricity usage by 25%. Not only did we achieve the same 5-star rating from Austin Energy Green Building as the other parade homes, but also ours was the only home to be rated for LEED Platinum. From an interior design perspective, the most rewarding feedback we received on our home from parade-goers was constantly and consistently that it ‘felt like home’ or ‘was very comfortable’ right when they walked across our front door threshold. We hope our home proved that contemporary design could still be very inviting, not just minimalist."

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.

What is Indoor airPLUS?
EPA created Indoor airPLUS to help builders meet the growing consumer preference for homes with improved indoor air quality. EPA developed additional construction specifications to help improve indoor air quality in new homes. Construction specifications include the careful selection of and installation of moisture control systems; heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems; combustion-venting systems; radon resistant construction; and low-emitting building materials. Ask about the Indoor airPLUS qualification for your next new home.

How Does a New Home Become Indoor airPLUS Qualified?
A builder must first design a home to earn the ENERGY STAR label — the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency. The result is a home that is significantly more energy efficient than a home built to minimum code, helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To earn the Indoor airPLUS label, the builder then adds up to 30 home design and construction features to help protect qualified homes from moisture and mold, pests, combustion gases, and other airborne pollutants. Before the home officially earns the Indoor airPLUS label, it is inspected by an independent third-party to ensure compliance with EPA’s rigorous guidelines and specifications.

Durrett Interests recently obtained Gold ratings from the NAHB Green Building Program for all four condominium residences built at Wooldridge + 29th in Pemberton Heights, Austin. The homes feature between 1,951 and 2,682 square feet of living area and are priced between $774,575 and $874,575.

"We are thrilled this project achieved Gold ratings with the NAHB’s new green building program," said Marshall Durrett, president of Durrett Interests. "This has been a very challenging project to execute, for a number of reasons, but it’s very rewarding to have such great results. We will display our certificates with much pride in our office."

Notable green building features of Wooldridge + 29th include indirect daylighting, light colored roofing, spray foam insulation, high efficiency air conditioning, low-VOC interior finishes, tankless hot water heaters, dual flush toilets, and compact fluorescent light fixtures.

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.

ABOUT NAHB GREEN: Through the National Green Building Program, the National Association of Home Builders is helping its members move the practice of green building into the mainstream. Energy efficiency, water and resource conservation, sustainable or recycled products, and indoor air quality are increasingly incorporated into the everyday process of home building. The National Green Building Program offers several resources and tools to help builders, remodelers, home building associations, and homeowners learn how to build green, and the benefits of doing so.

I took these three product photos at our parade home in Mueller. This house boasts a 5-star green building rating from Austin Energy, gold rating from NAHB’s new green building program, and certification by LEED. Mueller is a sustainable, transit-oriented Central Austin community that includes a broad range of homes plus places to shop, dine, jog, bike and play.

The first photo displays a recessed can light fixture that is specifically designed for use with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL’s). This specific fixture only allows for CFL’s with a pin-type connection versus a screw-in connection, thereby preventing the end user from swapping out the CFL’s for incandescent light bulbs. Just one CFL will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb.

CFL’s produce light differently than incandescent bulbs. In an incandescent, electric current runs through a wire filament and heats the filament until it starts to glow. In a CFL, an electric current is driven through a tube containing argon and a small amount of mercury vapor. This generates invisible ultraviolet light that excites a fluorescent coating (called phosphor) on the inside of the tube, which then emits visible light.

CFL’s need a little more energy when they are first turned on, but once the electricity starts moving, use about 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs. A CFL’s ballast helps "kick start" the CFL and then regulates the current once the electricity starts flowing. Older CFL’s used large and heavy magnetic ballasts that caused a buzzing noise in some bulbs. Most CFL’s today use electronic ballasts, which do not buzz or hum.

This next photo displays a low-profile smoke alarm on the left and a low-profile carbon monoxide alarm on the right, both from the Silhouette line by Kidde. Silhouette smoke and carbon monoxide alarms blend in effortlessly with their surroundings. Their unique, square shape protrudes less than half an inch from the ceiling, allowing them to virtually disappear.

Both alarms run off the home’s electricity, and contain rechargeable batteries for backup power during power outages. The alarms will also link with other alarms to create an interconnected system so that when one alarm sounds, all of the alarms sound, offering an earlier warning throughout the home. Today’s building codes usually require that newly constructed homes have hardwired, interconnected smoke alarms with battery backup.

Silhouette alarms contain a sealed, rechargeable battery that lasts the life of the alarm, meaning homeowners never have to replace a battery. While homeowners will enjoy the low maintenance and look of Silhouette, the builder will benefit from an easy installation and fewer callbacks. These UL-approved, hardwired alarms are a distinctive home feature that will serve as an exceptional upgrade option for remodels and new construction.  

This last photo displays a curved blade metal supply register for heating and air conditioning. Curved blade ceiling registers are recommended by most green building programs because of their ability to better distribute heating and air conditioning throughout the home than their more traditional counterparts. Because of their more exaggerated metal fins, much like the rear spoiler on a race car, curved blade registers more effectively force the heating and air conditioning where needed in the home.

This is important because common practice in Austin is for ceiling supply registers to be mounted closer to a room’s interior walls so that the supply air may be "thrown" along the ceiling and toward the outside wall with windows. This practice is common because windows are where most of the heat gain in a home is realized in our climate. Throwing air conditioning onto windows "washes" them in cooler air and helps to keep their surface temperatures lower, thereby reducing heat gain into the home.

I was introduced to the Plymouth handleset line from Schlage a few years ago on a remodel and addition project in Tarrytown. The project’s design style was what I like to call Transitional, a mix between Traditional and Contemporary. The owner’s furniture was mostly antiques yet the interior finish-out of the house was very clean and crisp, with slick sheetrock walls painted in a high-gloss enamel that had an almost mirrored finish. For the interior door hardware, we were looking for something that wouldn’t compete with the design style and would function as intended for years to come. We settled on the Schlage Plymouth handleset in an oil-rubbed bronze finish. It’s timeless design will work with just about any style of home and it carries with it a lifetime finish and mechanical guarantee. Schlage’s Plymouth line of handlesets come in a variety of finishes, are easy to install, and can replace virtually any existing handleset.