I like to think of myself as a pretty huge fangirl for HGTV’s Green Home. Every year, I wait with eager anticipation to see where the home will be, how it will be laid out and decorated and what will be green about it. This year, I hate to say it, but I find myself a little disappointed. So much so, that I hesitated to post about it for about a week after the entry period for the home began. Take a look at these photos of the home along with my observations.

Living room, complete with sustainable furnishings, including a coffee table that I admit I am in love with!

Kitchen, with bright red composite countertop. In this case, I hope “composite” means Vertrazzo, Ice Stone or some other material that incorporates recycled glass. It looks to be, but I’m not certain.

The dining area (not really a room), which seems to have too many chairs squeezed around a table that is too small for them. I love the table, which looks to be made of reclaimed wood, but smaller scale chairs probably would’ve worked better, maybe with two at the ends instead of three on each side.

This sitting room at the top of the stairs leads into the master bedroom. I’m honestly not sure how functional it is, though it is nicely decorated.

The master bedroom, which is one of just two bedrooms in the home. I’m not sure why the bed is on wheels, but I actually love how the four posters are tapered from bottom to top and how the bed and nightstands fit perfectly in that nook. The dark carpet makes the room feel a little heavy, but other than that, I really like the overall look. That patterned chair is fabulous!

The master bathroom is bright and airy, and the two framed mirrors over the vanity really give the room a little added character. I’m not sure how I feel about the tile in the shower, but it seems to fit the overall style of the home.

The second bedroom/kids room, which seems to be lacking a closet. I’m not sure how that one slipped by the builders, but a bedroom with room to sleep two kids definitely needs a closet. It’s also a little hard to tell in this photo, but if you look in the top center of the photo, you’ll see a white shelving unit with towels on it. That is the sink area which leads into the bathroom. Having the sink separate from the tub and toilet is not a new concept, but having them SO open the room seems like a mess waiting to happen, especially in a room with children. Overall though, the colors in the room are bright and fun, and you already know how I feel about that gorgeous recycled magazine mirror above the orange chair!

This room sits atop the tower you can see in the exterior photo. This room feels redundant with the sitting room outside the master. It is staged with a desk, but doesn’t feel at all functional as an office. I would’ve liked to see at least one of these used as a true office space, at least with a computer and some storage. I do love the views from the room though, along with the Angela Adams rug and the glass topped desk that makes the tiny space feel a little larger than it really is.

The outdoor spaces are where I feel the home does best. This huge front porch looks incredibly comfortable and inviting — the type of space that would make you want to invite the neighbors over. More seating would’ve been nice, but the deep step down to the yard makes for a nice place to sit too.

This back yard patio is gorgeous, and beautifully functional. The outdoor kitchen can be completely hidden by the sliding doors you see on the right. I wonder whether that meets fire code (I know it wouldn’t in Georgia, where you must barbecue at least 10 feet from any building), but it sure does look nice.

Here are my thoughts, in summary: The issues I have with the home have a lot less to do with the decor than with the floor plan. When it comes to decorating, you can’t please everyone. While I probably would’ve made some different choices, the overall aesthetic feels true to the style of the home, and most, if not all, of the furnishings are sustainable in one way or another. Designer Linda Woodrum clearly had a plan for each room, and those plans were well-executed. I can appreciate this effort even if I don’t necessarily like the style of the decor.

However, how practical is a barely 2-bedroom home in this day and age? I say “barely” because the kids’ bedroom doesn’t even appear to have a closet. The floor plan feels disjointed and unfinished. The square footage of the master sitting room and tower could’ve served a better purpose, like a third bedroom (WITH a closet) or as I mentioned above, even an office space. Wasted space doesn’t fit with the idea of a green home. The home is large, to be sure, but if it can only accommodate a family of 3 (maybe 4 if the kids share a room), with no room for even the occasional guest, it feels like it’s large without purpose. It seems like a lot of square footage to heat and cool for such a small family (worse if it’s intended for a single couple). In other words, while the home is green at face value, it just doesn’t feel practical or functional as an everyday home. It feels more like a vacation home, and in general, owning a second home isn’t a very green thing to do.

There’s also the issue of why HGTV insists on giving away an SUV with its green home every year. To be fair, I understand that GMC is a major sponsor that contributes the giveaway vehicle every year, and the Terrain DOES have better fuel economy than any of GMC’s hybrids. But it’s still an SUV to go along with a green home apparently intended for a very small family. The two concepts just don’t mesh.

Still, I love the spirit of the HGTV Green Home Giveaway in that it gets millions of people excited about sustainability and proves that style doesn’t have to be an afterthought when going green.

So what do you think of this year’s Green Home? Will you enter the giveaway? You can view photos, videos and tours of each room, at Green Home central at HGTV.com.

© 2009 Green Your Decor. Do not republish any items from this feed without permission.

HGTV Green Home 2010: What Do You Think?

Remember a few months ago I blogged my despair when Michelle Kaufmann shut down her green prefab architecture and home building firm? I was devastated as my husband and I watched our dreams — however far off — of owning a Michelle Kaufmann home go down the drain. So I am happy to report that Blu Homes, a growing eco-housing company, has acquired the assets of mkDesigns, including the designs of the Glidehouse, mkLotus, and Sunset Breezehouse. Michelle Kaufmann will serve as a design consultant to Blu and join its advisory board.

Apparently, Blu Homes has the resources and technology to make Kaufmann’s designs available across the country, also minimizing costs. Blu says they are committed to making homes that are healthy and affordable for the average family. I’m hoping this means the pricing of the mK homes will level out a bit to bring them more within reach.

In any case, my husband’s and my dreams of owning a Michelle Kaufmann home are back on track

You can read the press release here.

© 2009 Green Your Decor. Do not republish any items from this feed without permission.

Michelle Kaufmann Homes are Back — Sort Of

Last week, I was admittedly feeling a little uninspired and in desperate need of a few shots of creative juice. So on Saturday, the family and I made a day trip to Marietta, GA, about an hour and a half away, to seek out some of that needed inspiration — and we found that and more at the Greenhaven 2009 show house.

The name Greenhaven is absolutely appropriate for this home. It is 8,140 square feet of eco-innovation. Yes. I said 8,140 square feet. This is no “average” home — definitely more of a mansion (I couldn’t bring myself to add the word “mini” to the description of a house this size). Truth be told, its size left me suspicious of how “green” the home really is, but more on that later.

This home is drop dead gorgeous, honestly. From street level, it looks deceptively small, although the 2-car garage, separate detached 1-car garage and courtyard definitely hint at the opulence to come. All that opulence is, however, wrapped carefully and conscientiously in green. From a rainwater catchment system to reclaimed river pine flooring, landscaping done with indigenous plants, soy-based foam insulation, and a deck made of recycled materials, the environment was considered in nearly every building and aesthetic decision. There are so many green features that there’s no way I could list them all here. Check them out for yourself.

Apparently my husband and I aren’t the only ones who were so intrigued. The house was supposed to be open for tours only from July 23-August 9. Those dates have been extended indefinitely because the  tour has been so popular. And did I mention it is free?

Inside the house, the 20+ decorators and designers tasked with making this behemoth feel like a home took the same care when selecting furnishings, paint and finishes. In fact, as my family and I walked from room to room on our self-guided tour, I found many of the furnishings familiar, including some pieces I have featured here at Green Your Decor in the past. In terms of style, there’s something for everyone, from the ultra traditional master suite that is the polar opposite of everything I like, to the modern-eclectic teen girl’s bedroom and builder’s office, and the rustic, outdoorsy fly fishing room.

I walked away with tons of inspiration for small projects anyone can tackle (see the wall full of picture frames below), color palettes, ideas for Green Rooms in a Box and more. I also shot nearly 200 photos, some of which are shown here. If you’d like to see all of them, check out my Flickr photo set.

So what exactly do you do with more than 8,000 square feet? Based on the way the home is currently staged, you’d get:

• 4 bedrooms (technically 7, but the other 3 rooms are staged for other uses at the moment)
• Builder’s office suite above the garage (or 5th bedroom)
• Women’s study (or 6th bedroom)
• 7 full bathrooms and 2 half baths
• Formal dining room
• Kitchen with breakfast nook and reading nook
• Great room
• Butler’s pantry
• Regular pantry
• Command center
• Hallway mudroom
• Laundry room
• Media room and adjoining bar/mini kitchen
• Family room
• Doggie bedroom (I’m not kidding)
• Craft room (or 7th bedroom)
• Fly fishing room
• Partially covered wraparound deck

Therein lies the problem, as far as I’m concerned. Although the home technically has 7 rooms that could function as bedrooms, it is currently staged as a home for a family of 5, presumably with at least one young child (one of the bedrooms is staged as a nursery). My husband and I walked out of Greenhaven with three words reverberating in our heads: TOO. MUCH. SPACE. Given my addiction to huge, decked out homes, even I was a bit surprised by this reaction, but I guess my greener side won.

Greenhaven is beautiful, to be sure. And it does challenge the notion that large homes and luxury are the antitheses of sustainability. But challenge is all it does. Unless it is intended for a family of 10+ people, there’s no way any one average family would need more than 8,000 square feet of living space. Living space that likely will be heated and cooled regardless of whether its in use. Living space that likely would be furnished with pieces that would rarely, if ever, be used. No matter how green those pieces are, if they are the product of unnecessary consumption, it’s hard to call them truly sustainable. If the home had been built on a slab instead of a basement, perhaps it would be a more reasonable size, although it still would be classified as a mini-mansion.

This is not to knock the significant environmental accomplishments achieved by Greenhaven, which is in the process of being certified by EarthCraft House, LEED, the NAHB National Green Building program and others. It also proves that style and sustainability can be synonymous, and that luxury doesn’t have to take a huge toll on Mother Earth, but any home that has so many rooms you can literally make up uses for them would nag at my conscience too much to convince me it is really green.

To be sure, I’d prefer to see a row of mini mansions that at least intend to help preserve the environment around them rather than a bunch of overdone, excessive homes that consume without apology. For the rich who will buy homes anyway, please, buy green when you can. Greenhaven is the perfect model for that. But I’m afraid that if the purpose of Greenhaven was to introduce green to broad audience, it may leave the average homeowner or house hunter thinking green homes are reserved for the rich, or at least the very well off.  I can’t wait to see an eco-friendly show house that proves to Metro Atlanta residents that reasonably-sized green living is accessible to the masses.

NOTE: I was able to speak with builder Richard Feis of Pace Homebuilders briefly on his way out, and we set up an interview for this week. Be sure to check back later this week when I ask him a lot of the questions that were left brewing after my visit to Greenhaven. If there are questions you’d like me to ask, please leave them in the comments below as soon as possible.

© 2009 Green Your Decor. Do not republish any items from this feed without permission.

Green Home Tour: Greenhaven Show House in Marietta, GA

The news has been reverberating throughout the green building and design community since yesterday, but it still hit me like a sledgehammer when I found out this morning. Michelle Kaufmann, known as the queen of green prefab architecture, has been forced to close up shop due to the crappy state of the economy.  I have featured her work before — her mkPURE sink is made of concrete and recycled porcelain. What I never wrote about, much to my regret, is her beautiful green, pre-fab homes. My husband I spent a lot of time at her firm’s website going through the floor plans and planning our life in one of her homes. I’m not kidding. We had it picked out and were just waiting for our financial situation to catch up to our dreams.

Sadly, due to circumstances completely out of her control, Michelle has made the heart-wrenching decision to close the doors of her 17-person design firm — and this is with a backlog of 20 clients waiting for homes. According to Michelle’s interview with Treehugger, a combination of factors led to the decision. The bankruptcy and closing of the factories that were manufacturing parts of the homes was the first blow, but having financing fall through on several potential builds at the last minute was the final straw.

It really makes me sad, because Michelle Kaufmann Designs was more than just another green design firm — they were the pioneers of sustainability who stepped out into uncharted territory when everyone else was afraid to. Unfortunately, this very innovation is likely what made lenders squeamish. Never mind the fact that her homes use resources and energy very efficiently and will have a much smaller impact on the Earth than traditional homes. It boiled down to the fact that they were outside the norm, and therefore too “risky” to finance. Personally, I think that’s a crock of bull. Based on the incredible response on Twitter, I’d say there are lots of people out there who would love to live in an MKD home, and my husband and I are happy to count ourselves among them.

Thankfully, Michelle isn’t throwing in the towel completely. She’s exploring ways to keep her mission alive, including the possibility of selling her designs to another company that can continue to make them. As a designer, I understand how hard it is to let go of ideas that feel very much like children. But I’m proud to see that she understands the ultimate goal of continuing the tough trod toward sustainability may be worth it. She’s also looking at creating larger-scale, multi-family communities that will serve a greater good rather than single family homes.

For me, it feels like a dream died today. But I know the green community will rally around Michelle and her troops to make sure this blow isn’t fatal to the green building movement. We must go on.

• Read Michelle’s own words here: “The end of one dream and beginning of another”

© 2009 Green Your Decor. Do not republish any items from this feed without permission.

A Sad Day for Sustainability: Michelle Kaufmann Closes Shop

I’ve always coveted a modern, stainless steel fireplace. Not that traditional brick and stacked stone fireplaces aren’t beautiful. They’re just not me. So if and when I ever decide to get one, I’m happy to hear from the team over at Alternative Consumer that EcoSmart fireplaces now qualify for federal tax credits for energy efficiency. Any consumer in the U.S. who purchases (or has purchased) an EcoSmart fireplace between 1/1/2009 and 12/31/2010 can receive a tax credit of 30% of the purchase price up to $1500. Sounds like a win/win situation to me! You get a beautiful, energy-efficient, clean-burning fireplace, and you get a decent chunk of your money back. Learn more about the tax credit here.

EcoSmart makes freestanding units, built-in fireplaces and fireplace inserts that are all vent-free. This means a nonexistent or much less costly installation process, even for the built-ins, and none of them require a utility connection for fuel. Rather, they use denatured ethanol, which is an environmentally-friendly, clean-burning, renewable fuel that is derived from natural sources like sugarcane, potatoes, bananas, beetroot and wheat. And because there is no vent or flue through which to lose heat (like a chimney would), the heat stays inside the unit and heats a space much more efficiently.

Why It’s Green:

• Energy efficient
• Uses clean-burning, naturally-derived fuel

Price: $1580-11500

© 2009 Green Your Decor. Do not republish any items from this feed without permission.

Going Green Does Pay You Back: Tax Credit for EcoSmart Fireplaces