What were we thinking?

A simple green remodel. Nothing is ever simple, simple-minded yes, simple no. We already had the house in mind, it needed EVERYTHING anyway, new roof, new heat and air, new windows, redo the floors, the kitchen and bathroom. The house was so bad neighbors thought a bulldozer would be the perfect start to the project. We thought otherwise and here is our story.

Here is the press release about the project:

Mid-Town Home Gets Two Shades of Green

Oklahoma State University graduate student leads mid-town Tulsa residential home renovation towards rare, dual green building certification.

Tulsa, OK, 3/20/09 – Chad Burden is a graduate student at OSU Tulsa, studying environmental science with an emphasis in “green building” and sustainable construction practices. He is remodeling a residential home in midtown (3530 E. 21^st Place – near 21^st/Harvard) that will be the main focus of his master’s thesis project through OSU Tulsa’s Environmental Science graduate program.

Standards for rating a building's "greenness" have been established by several organizations, using point systems to rate energy, water use, materials, design and more. The largest and most recognized green building codes are The National Association of Home Builders' Model Green Building Guidelines and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. The home will be dual certified upon completion (LEED-H/NAHB National Green Building Standard). “A LEED-certified home is huge for Tulsa – a dual certified LEED/NAHB home is unheard of,” says Chad Burden, project lead for the home remodel.

The project began in February and should be complete by October. Throughout the process, Chad will be reporting on a variety of topics pertinent to Tulsans who might be considering sustainable building practices and local service providers such as: roofing, countertops, cabinetry, insulation, windows, HVACs, construction and demolition waste management, hot water heaters, lighting, etc.

“With green becoming the new red, white and blue, advertisers have created a lot of ‘green washing’ in the marketplace. Determining what qualifies as green building product can be confusing. Thus, a consensus based third-party certification standard is really the best way to look back and know what you’ve done is sustainable. People don’t live in their homes forever, so meeting a standard is important for future generations as much as it is for the current home owner,” says Chad.

Product manufacturers and service providers who have already partnered with Chad on this project are: Metal Seams & Tile (Tulsa-based roof installer), TAMKO Building Products (Joplin, MO), EnviroGLAS (Plano, TX), Tulsa Granite (Tulsa-based recycled glass counter top fabricator) Pella Windows, and SolaTube International, Reclamation Station (Tulsa-based non profit architectural salvage), The Met, Lorrie Hoeffling (LEED Accredited Professional), Todd Stephens (professional drafting and design) and Jim Belden (general contractor).