By Elisa Wood The Environmental Protection Agency calls big-backyard neighborhoods like mine “automobile dependent locations” and contrasts them with “transit-oriented” neighborhoods,places where you can hop a bus or easily walk to regular destinations. The agency recently looked at which kind of neighborhood uses the most British Thermal Units (BTUs),taking into account size and type of house,its energy efficiency,and vehicle use of its occupants. This is known asLocation Efficiency. Continue reading Energy Efficiency and the Annoying Guy Next Door By AllisonBailes My two sisters-in-law have been in town the past few days,and one of them needs to get an energy audit for the home she and her husband recently bought in Seattle. I gave her a recommendation for a company to do the audit (from a couple of friends who used to live there),and now she’s asking the very reasonable question,“What should I be looking for? What should they do when they come to the house?” Continue reading How to Choose a Company to Do a Home Energy Audit By AllisonBailes Science is science. Anyone who works on buildings is free to ignore the principles of building science to the extent that they can get away with it,but someone’s going to pay the price. Maybe it’ll be the occupants,who suffer with comfort problems,poor indoor air quality,frequent maintenance,or high energy bills. Maybe it’ll be the remodeler or builder who has to face constant callbacks. That’s the point I was trying to make with my article on can lights. To the extent that program guidelines or building codes allow can lights,a remodeler or builder can use them. If they’re part of the building envelope,however,and create a problem with the air barrier or insulation,the contractor is giving their client an inferior product. That’s just building science. Continue reading Are Freedom and Building Science Incompatible? By Susan Kramer-Pope In any prolonged customer engagement,such as in the fields of custom building,interior design and architecture,rarely found are preemptive practices for customer conflict prevention. If you are a professional in residential custom building,either in the design or construction side,have you had more customer ‘headaches’than you’d care to think about? If Continue reading Customer Conflict Prevention…Not Conflict Resolution By Susan Kramer-Pope What if we thought of ‘customer service’not as a set of practices to implement to obtain &retain business,but as a practice of being present,person-to-person,being-to-being,no matter if we’re the customer or the sales person? What if we STARTED there? What if we took the time to reflect on the interactions we wish would have gone better? What if we consider our reactions as being caused by what we need to learn about ourselves,even from the most ‘nasty’people we just want to write off? Continue reading Person-to-Person Service Instead of Customer Service By Green Building Inspector Your ability to communicate effectively with the unique personalities of your customers affects your project’s success. There are several personality typing systems to explore. Check out the CAP Model at Speechmastery to learn about the 4 types:The Controller,The Analyst,The Supporter and The… Continue reading Understanding personality types for successful customer relations By Lawson Calhoun Today’s home offices have changed residential design forever. They are now a mainstream feature in nearly every type,size,and price of new home. Professional,market-sensitive builders know that the majority of families need a separate space to conduct business from home. The successful integration of work and living environments is critical to meeting individual family needs. Continue reading A Home that Works When Working at Home By Green Building Inspector We each have a reaction to uncertainty. Some find it exhilarating. Some find it terrifying. In all cases there is an element of stress. If you are a custom builder,you are intimately involved with managing stress-your own as well as the effects of your customer’s stress upon you. Continue reading Be an Educator Too! —Custom Building and Client Relations By Lawson Calhoun Flex spaces,or flexible-use rooms,are increasingly common in modern housing to address homeowners’needs to accommodate their changing lifestyle and allow them to “age in place”. Flexible-use rooms provide important options to home buyers. Whether they be young couples with a growing family or retirees needing creative outlets. A den might one day serve as a nursery;a small parlor might transform into a playroom or an art or music studio. The choice is entirely personal. Continue reading Get Creative:One Space,Many Uses By Lawson Calhoun Walking through a newly framed home,for instance,allows us to point out the tight tolerances we require from our framing crews. On-site,we can show examples and explain why these standards help to ensure reliable performance and comfort in the finished home. More… Continue reading What Quality Looks Like | |
