Building Our Dream Green Home

Once the frame of our new house went up, I assumed I'd be choosing flooring and wall materials, paint and furniture. Instead, we found ourselves spending a horrific amount of time figuring out plumbing and lighting.

Plumbing, I told friends and family, was kind of like swallowing a groundhog. It took 40 hours to select every toilet, tub, sink and faucet. The two areas where you can really conserve water are toilets and showerheads. For toilets we went with Toto, a Japanese company. Not only are theirs efficient, using 1.6 gallons per flush vs. 3.5 to 5 gallons per flush for conventional toilets, but you can get bowls without those gnarly spots that are hard to clean. As for showerheads, a salesperson assured us that all of them are water efficient these days. Because we didn't quite believe her, we opted for an extra control so that, during droughts, we can scale back the water pressure. But during times of flood (like the hurricane week I'm writing in) we can let it rip.

One nice thing about building a house from scratch: You don't have to worry about old lead pipes. We are feeding water into the house with copper pipes, but due to space constraints in the framing our contractor found that PVC vinyl pipes were, regrettably, the most practical way to send it out.

Next, the contractor asked us to choose all our light fixtures so that he could wire for them before adding insulation. For example, would our bathroom vanity lights be hanging down or standing up? AGGHHH! We put compact fluorescents (CFLs), the most efficient lights, in all the closets, kitchen, basement and work areas where we need steady bright light. Where our ceilings were too high to light the room adequately with CFLs, we used a halogen system that gave a warm light and was designed to be more efficient than incandescents.

We pulled all the lighting together with a Lutron system. It allows us to save energy by dimming or turning off all the house lights with the push of one button (instead of me running through the house nagging everyone to do so before we go out). Although my aunt and uncle own Lutron, it is also highly recommended by www.Buildinggreen.com, along with Just Right Light from Precision Lighting.

As of this writing, we are just about ready for the blown cellulose insulation, made out of old newspapers so that I will feel better about reading the morning paper and sending it off somewhere to be recycled. It's very eco-friendly but messy and will take a few weeks to dry before we can put up the recycled drywall. The exterior walls will be stucco.

Everything is on schedule, even though we slowed down this summer for the invasion of the 17-year cicadas. The building guys (yes, they are all men) had to keep ducking the clumsy gigantic flying insects. But it was, after all, a natural cycle and just one more reminder that soon (eventually) we'll be moving to the country!

Next Installment: Flooring and Interior Walls

RESOURCES

Choose toilets ensured by Flushstar as using no more than 1.75 gallons per flush. Models include Toto ($200-500), Kohler Cimmaron (1.4 gallons; $275 in basic white) and Caroma Dual Flush (.8 gallons for liquids, 1.6 gallons for everything else, $493). For a full list, see www.savingwater.org/ docs/FlushStar.pdf.

Showerheads: Bricor (8 x12 in., www.bricor.com, 800-661-434) and Oxygenics (www.old-fashioned-values.com and www.smarthome.com).

Also see the Water Saving Appliances product report at thegreenguide.com.

For lighting, see Lutron lighting systems (www.lutron.com, 888-LUTRON1) and Precision Lighting Inc. (800-542-0560).

Seattle City Light's Efficient Lighting Fixtures site includes how to maximize halogen efficiency through bulb wattage (www.elflist.com/article10_halo.htm).

For recycled dry wall, Fiberock Gypsum Panels (www.usg.com, 800-874-4968). For cellulose insulation, see cellulose.org (888-881-CIMA)

Maria Rodale is Vice Chairman of Rodale Inc. and founding editor of Organic Style magazine.

With additional reporting by Joanna Howard.