The HTRC – Page 75 – The Homeowners & Trades Resource Center

Building smaller – is it the next big thing?

So what happens when you combine a bunch of designers spread out across the country that have their own blogs, with Twitter? The inventible – a blog-off where great ideas are shared amongst the group and everyone knows who won… (Individually: I did of course, but everyone else’s was really good)While I really cannot hold […]

Training Revisted – The battle to be the best

Wow what a long journey this has been, getting all the requisite classes in, the certifications, all the while still taking care of our primary remodeling business. While I have blogged extensively about this process and most of the classes – what would happen if I were to compare them side by side? What happens if we put them all in a ring; who would come out on top? Well let’s find out, and in the immortal words of Michael Buffer – “Are you ready to RUMBLE?”

Building Green Homes: Step 5 – Building the Shell

In this series on Looking Back & Looking Forward, we are reviewing a green home we built over 2 years ago, the lessons learned and more importantly, how we can (or even how you can) utilize those lessons on future builds. In our last article, we covered the installation from the footings to the sub-flooring […]

Building Green Homes: Step 4 – From Footings to Sub-Floor

In this series on Looking Back & Looking Forward, we are reviewing a green home we built over 2 years ago, the lessons learned and more importantly, how we can (or even how you can) utilize those lessons on future builds. In our last article on footing & foundation system we used, we explained why […]

Renovations & Insurance – What is covered & what isn’t

The idea that an article like this was needed was made abundantly clear to me on a recent project I completed. This project required us to completely remove and reframe an existing roof, while leaving the existing walls & floors untouched. During the consultation phase of this project, we covered all the normal items like […]

Days 2 & 3 – BPI Building Envelope Training

Well, I guess I will keep the tradition alive by combining the last two days of class together. I am seriously considering breaking one of my own rules and disclosing at least one or two of the questions. However, before we get to that, let’s correct the issue with the instructors name & take a look first at Day 2 of Building Envelope training.

August and Late Summer Maintenance Checklist

Well I have some good news & some bad news – the good news is that this is the last full month of summer. The bad news is that it is still summer time & if July was any indication, this might not be pretty. On the home front, vacations are winding down & it […]

Day 1: BPI Building Envelope Training

Woo hoo – I am taking my last BPI class that this time is being taught by EverBlue. I must admit, after my problems with Clean Edison, and then a few snafus with EverBlue’s computer system, I was wondering if I was ever going to get my BPI Building Envelope certification. As you can obviously […]

Building Green Homes: Step 3 – Footings & Foundations

In this series on Looking Back & Looking Forward, we are reviewing a green home we built over 2 years ago, the lessons learned and more importantly, how we can (or even how you can) utilize those lessons on future builds. As a quick recap, we have looked at some of the unique issues we […]

Building Green Homes: Step 2 – Layout & Orientation

In this series on Looking Back & Looking Forward, we are reviewing a green home we built over 2 years ago, the lessons learned and more importantly, how we can (or even how you can) utilize those lessons on future builds. Now that we have a set of building plans for an Energy Efficient Green […]