The Northwest Green Home Primer: Hundreds of Ideas for Building, Remodeling, and Buying Green

Everyone can make green home decisions on a budget with this inspiring, information-packed guide.

Whether you are building, remodeling, buying, or just curious, here are real-world strategies for getting the greenest results from your budget, with hundreds of ideas for a home that is built to last, comfortable and healthy, money- and time-saving in the long term, and kind to the planet.

• What shade of green is right for you, your resources, schedule, and setting, and how can you achieve it?
• What questions should you ask?
• What approaches and resources are best for the Northwest?

From your home's exterior to its operating systems within, from siting to interior design, this is the basic training that has given many the confidence to proceed.

Award-winning sustainable design and building consultant and teacher Kathleen O'Brien and architectural designer and sustainability consultant Kathleen Smith offer their "top picks" for each phase. Their perspective is both down-to-earth and cutting edge. They've also each faced their own green home challenges in a single family house and a duplex, and other case studies show affordable energy-efficient green homes both old and new.

Brimming with ideas, clear and logical, with tips, checklists, and resources for green home planning, construction, remodeling, and maintenance, extensively illustrated with photos and diagrams, this is the essential green home manual for novice and professional alike.

"Case studies give real-life views of how homeowners are working with architects, designers, and builders to apply the principles of green design to suit their needs. Highly recommended." Library Journal

"The tone of the book is targeted for lay people, to show that anyone can make 'green home' decisions, even on a budget. The book provides guidance and resources for people buying, building, or remodeling a green home, providing a unique perspective that includes an in-depth description of the process of getting a green home." Northwest Examiner

Contractors, urban planners, architects, and handy homeowners can use this detailed volume from two researchers in sustainable design to understand and use "green building" principles to make dwellings more gentle on and complementary to the environment. Examples and discussion are centered particularly on the Pacific Northwest's Cascadia climate region but many ideas can be applied elsewhere. Topics include: green project management, planning a green remodel, renewable energy choices for the Northwest, purchasing a green home, site choices the building enclosure, operating systems for the home, interiors, and operations and maintenance. The others also help readers evaluate options and tradeoffs related to cost and other considerations. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Award-winning sustainable design and building consultant and teacher Kathleen O'Brien and architectural designer and sustainability consultant Kathleen smith offer advice that is both down-to-earth and cutting edge, with regional examples from new and renovated green homes.

Kathleen O'Brien is founder and president of O'Brien & Company, a nationally recognized leader in sustainable design-build consulting, education, and research. She organized the first regional conference in the Northwest for the green building industry and worked with local chapters of the National Association of Home Builders to develop award-winning government-supported green building programs. Her own green home has achieved the highest rating in Built Green, won the Parade of Homes Environmental Achievement Award, and has been featured on Home and Garden TV. She has published more than 100 articles including features in the Journal of Light Construction, Environmental Building News, Conservation Monitor, Construction Data, Building with Nature, BioCycle, and Resource Recycling. She is lead instructor for the Sustainable Building Advisor Certification Course. She lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with her husband, John Cunningham.

Kathleen Smith is an architectural designer, sustainability consultant, and LEED project manager. She is principal of her own firm, EcoSmith Design & Consulting, which works exclusively on sustainable projects. Earlier she was senior designer, project manager, and consultant with Van der Ryn Architects in Sausalito, California. She has worked locally and nationally on projects incorporating sustainable strategies and participatory design processes, including Berea College EcoVillage, Kirsch Center for Environmental Studies, and restoration of the Old U.S. Mint in San Francisco. A faculty member with the U.S. Green Building Council, Kathleen has a master's degree in architecture and is coauthor of Rebuilding Community in America: Housing for Ecological Living, Personal Empowerment, and the New Extended Family. She lives in Winslow Cohousing on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with her husband, Christopher Gutsche, and two children, Alice and Oliver.