Have you been dreaming about building your own eco-sustainable home? Want to live a greener lifestyle? Create a healthy home for your family? Reduce your carbon footprint?
You’re not alone.
More and more people want to build green homes. They care about the environment. They want to reduce energy costs. They desire healthy indoor air quality.
But transforming dreams into reality feels overwhelming.
Where Do You Even Start?
It seems complex. Expensive. Time-consuming. You have no experience building homes. Don’t know how to choose land. Design floor plans. Pick materials. Hire contractors. Oversee construction. Environmental Home Designs.
The whole process makes you anxious. You worry about making the wrong decisions. Ending up with a home you regret. Wasting money on a failed project.
What If There Was An Easier Way?
A simpler path to building your eco-friendly dream home?
Follow this guide. We’ll walk you through the entire process. Step-by-step. From designing your home to moving in day.
Step 1: Clarify Your Vision
First, get clear on your motivations. Define your ideal sustainable home.
Ask yourself:
- Why do you want an eco-home? Help the environment? Save money? Healthier indoor air? Sustainable features? Off-grid living?
- What does your dream green home look like? Size? Layout? Number of bedrooms and bathrooms? Materials? Finishes?
- Where do you want to build? Urban, suburban, or rural location? Climate considerations? Lot terrain? Views? Proximity to amenities?
- How will you use the home? Full-time residence? Vacation getaway? Rental income? Multi-generational living?
- What’s your budget? Overall cost? Financing options? Price per square foot?
By defining your vision, motivations, needs and budget upfront, you create a compass. This keeps the project on-track as you navigate all the decisions required to build your eco-home.
Step 2: Assemble Your Team
You can’t build this alone.
- Surround yourself with experienced green building professionals.
- Work with an eco-architect to design your custom home plans. They understand high performance, sustainable materials, and integrate green features seamlessly.
- Hire a knowledgeable general contractor with experience constructing eco-friendly houses. Verify they know the latest building science, codes, and practices.
- Consult trustworthy specialists like civil engineers, HVAC experts, renewable energy designers, lighting consultants, and more.
- Collaborating with the right team prevents mistakes, saves you money, and results in a high quality eco-home you’ll enjoy for decades.
Step 3: Design Your Custom Floor Plans
Now for the fun part – envisioning and designing your perfect eco-home.
Use your vision to brief the architect on your optimal layout. Consider:
- Primary living spaces like kitchen, dining, living room
- Sleeping areas and number of bedrooms
- Home office, gym, yoga studio
- Multi-generational needs like in-law suite
- Garage, shop, storage
- Connection to the outdoors through patios, decks, porches
Focus on sustainability through features like:
- Passive solar design that harnesses free energy from the sun
- Strategic window placement for daylighting, ventilation, and views
- Ceiling fans for natural air circulation
- Rainwater collection system
- Solar panels and battery storage
- Geothermal HVAC
- Non-toxic and renewable materials like straw bale, earth, or hempcrete
Remember – a compact floorplan is most efficient to heat, cool, and construct. But still make spaces livable for your lifestyle.
Review multiple layout options. Refine the best fit design. Do this before finalizing plans. It prevents expensive changes later.
Step 4: Analyze Your Lot
Your home must seamlessly integrate with the land.
Take time to assess the lot’s unique conditions before finalizing home plans:
- Climate zone and weather patterns
- Amount and direction of sun exposure
- Prevailing winds
- Trees to preserve for shade and windbreaks
- Topography and drainage
- Soil conditions and build ability
- Setbacks and easements
- Access roads and driveways
- Existing utility locations and capacity
This analysis helps optimize solar orientation, drainage, access, and landscaping.
Your eco-architect can then tweak the floor plans to maximize sustainability opportunities on your specific lot. This avoids headaches and delays during construction.
Step 5: Choose Green Building Materials
Now select durable, healthy, and sustainable materials.
Prioritize natural, locally sourced options like:
- Stone
- Straw bale
- Adobe brick
- Rammed earth
- Hempcrete
- Timbers from responsibly managed forests
- Indigenous plants and trees
Avoid toxic materials like:
- Formaldehyde composites
- VOC paints and finishes
- Synthetic carpets and fabrics
- Pressure treated lumber
Using natural building materials and healthy interior finishes creates better indoor air quality. This makes your home safer and more comfortable for occupants.
Research product certifications like Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) wood and Green guard Gold. This ensures materials meet strict standards for sustainability and low emissions.
Step 6: Hire Your General Contractor
With detailed plans and materials selected, you’re ready to hire a general contractor.
- Find candidates experienced constructing eco-friendly, high performance homes. Ask for multiple references with direct contact info for previous clients.
- Interview at least three firms before deciding. Meet in-person and visit active job sites. Get a feel for their quality of work.
- Compare experience, portfolio, pricing, responsiveness, and communication style. Ensure a strong personal fit.
- Negotiate contract terms like schedule, payment schedule, allowances, change order process, insurance requirements, lien releases, and warranties.
- Hiring the right contractor avoids delays and prevents defects that can compromise your home’s performance and durability.
Step 7: Monitor Construction Progress
Building your dream eco-home takes time. 12-24 months in most cases.
During construction:
- Visit the site weekly. Do informal inspections. Verify work matches plans and meets quality standards.
- Review change orders thoroughly before approving. Watch for scope creep that affects your budget without improving the home’s functionality.
- Communicate regularly with your GC. Ask questions. Proactively address issues before they escalate.
- Document progress with photos and videos. Useful records if disputes arise regarding work completed and payments owed.
Close monitoring keeps your project on-schedule and within budget. Leads to better end results.
Step 8: Complete Landscaping and Move In
You did it! Construction is complete. Time for finishing touches.
- Install native, drought tolerant plants. Add compost and mulch to nourish the soil. Plant fruit trees and berry bushes. Create habitat with bird baths, bee boxes, and wildlife shelters.
- Add personality with hand-crafted walkways, benches, garden art, and water features.
- Finally, it’s move-in day! As you enjoy your first morning coffee on the patio, you’ll realize it was all worthwhile.
- You took that leap of faith. Now your dream of living in an eco-friendly home is a daily reality.
- Yes, it took significant effort to get here. But you’ve built an incredibly unique, healthy, sustainable home tailored to your family’s needs and lifestyle.
This home will provide comfort, sanctuary, and joy for generations to come.
You Can Build Your Ideal Eco-Home Too
Still feel daunted by the prospect of building your own green home?
Don’t want to spend years learning industry lingo and trying to decipher complicated jargon?
We’ve spent decades mastering the art and science behind designing and building exquisite eco-homes.
Request a free consultation here! We’ll review your project goals, budget, and timeline.
Our talented team of eco-architects and green builders has your back.