Author Archives: Lauren Nicholson

Rebecca, the architect

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Rebecca Alvord Lazenby is my oh-so talented friend and architect who will be working with me on the house. Rebecca and her family moved to Alabama our senior year in high school, and we quickly became friends. I always enjoyed her company and loved watching the different artistic projects she was working on. Her talent and creativity have always impressed me. I remember a self-portrait she painted made up of tiny little squares, and each square was a drawing in itself. She even won first place in the 6th district congressional art competition with an all expense paid trip to DC. Her artwork hung in the underground tunnel that the Congressmen walk through.

A few years after high school, we lost touch but reconnected at our 10 year high school reunion! After the reunion, we would occasionally meet for dinner and throw around the possibility of someday working together on a project. But it seemed more like an abstract notion than something that would really happen. So I’m very excited to have found this opportunity to work with her. She challenges me to think differently and more creatively about design possibilities. The homes I’ve built have been more traditional, but with this house, I hope to incorporate a mixture of traditional warmth with the simple clean lines of modern style. The outside, to fit in with the neighborhood, will be more historic in design, but the interior can be whatever we’d like!

We met at Rebecca’s house last Thursday to further discuss the layout of the house. I got to meet her adorable, feisty red-headed little boy and was reminded of how beautiful her house (that she designed) was. She did a wonderful job incorporating modern and vintage elements and the exposed beams throughout the house make it really cozy! I’ve included a few photos below of some of the cool details of her home.

After dinner, we discussed some of the changes we wanted to make to the first design. At the end of the CBS Sunday morning and House plans post, you can see an image of the first floor initial design that Rebecca drew for my house. I’ve opted for a detached garage instead of the attached, and we’re going to shrink the overall size of the house a little. The home will be 1 1/2 stories and currently the square footage is about 2100 square feet. We’re going to try to get it down to around 1900. I love the linear design, the side patio, the powder bath and many other aspects of the initial drawing, but there are some rooms we decided to regroup to save space, bringing the great room closer to the kitchen and the master closet closer to the master bedroom.

Once Rebecca and I have finalized the schematic floor plans, then we will both meet with David to see if there are things we need to adjust to comply with Passive House standards.

Rebecca is a great friend and architect, and I’m very grateful for her expertise and willingness to form such an integral part of this project. Here’s her bio and contact information:

Rebecca Alvord Lazenby graduated from Auburn University with a Bachelors of Architecture from the College of Architecture, Design, and Construction and has over 10 years of experience in the professional practice. Rebecca’s participation at the Rural Studio and the study abroad program, while at Auburn, shaped her education and continues to inspire her as an architect to balance affordable and practical design solutions with innovative modern ideas. She strives to create contextually appropriate designs with all of her projects, so that contemporary architectural expressions blend seamlessly with the built and natural environment.

Rebecca has a broad range of commercial and residential architecture experience from Atlanta firm Thompson Ventulett Stainback & Associates, as well as, HKW, Lathan Associates Architects, and Williams Blackstock Architects in Birmingham Alabama, where she is currently employed. Rebecca is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, and is a licensed architect in the state of Alabama.

Contact Rebecca at ralstudio@gmail.com or 205.601.6788 for inquiries on design services.

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David Lee

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David Lee is a knowledgeable and experienced local builder who has graciously offered to work with me on this project. He is currently the only builder in Alabama to have completed the Passive House training, and I’m incredibly grateful for his help. If it weren’t his expertise and assistance, things would be significantly more difficult, and I would feel much less confident in my ability to build a certified Passive House.

David and I met in January of this year at a Southface green building workshop that was offered at the old Alabama Power building in Birmingham. Southface is a non-profit organization based out of Atlanta that promotes energy-, water- and resource-efficient workplaces, homes and communities throughout the Southeast. They’re a great resource and have been very active in educating professionals, as well as the public, about sustainable design and practices. They offer tours of their eco-office in Atlanta and also provide support and consultation for anyone who wishes to implement sustainable ideas into their projects. Check out their website at:

www.southface.org

Not too long before the Southface meeting, I had seen a blog by a couple who had built the first Passive House in Utah. You can see their blog at www.ourpassivehouse.org. I loved the idea and their home was beautiful, so I contacted the couple to get more information. They were very responsive and told me that their architect had been the main person responsible for the Passive House design. I inquired about the training but never heard back and felt for the moment that it was a little out of reach due to the time and cost involved.

So when I ran into David at the Southface workshop and he mentioned that he had completed the Passive House training, I was very excited. It took me a few months, but eventually I contacted him, and we met for lunch to discuss ideas and the different projects we had each worked on. David was very open and willing to include me in any design meetings for projects that he and his partners were working on.

At the time, I had begun looking for a property to build another home for myself, but I had no concrete plans in the works. I knew that my current home was more than I could afford and maintain long term, but I wasn’t sure how things would play out.

Several months earlier, my friends Casey and Andres Azuero told me about a property that was available in the Avondale area. I looked at the property but wasn’t sure that it was an area where I wanted to live. I kept an eye on it, though, talked with several of the neighbors, and eventually decided that it would be a great fit for me. It was a small, reasonably priced lot, which meant I wouldn’t have too much to take care of, and it was within biking, if not walking, distance of nearly all aspects of my life.

David and his business partner, Gary, went to look at the lot with me, and we talked about the possibility of building a Passive House on the lot. After doing all my due diligence, I decided to make an offer. We negotiated a little on the price, and I bought the property in June of this year, using a home equity line of credit that I have on one of my other homes.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled to have met David and appreciate that he is so willing to work with me and include me in his endeavors. Here’s a short bio about him and his background:

David Lee began his career as an engineer and later went on to commercial construction, building schools and hotels. In the early 1990s, he found his true passion in historic restoration and the design/ build of custom homes. He had been a proponent of energy efficient buildings since the 1970s and became intrigued by the comprehensive results of the Passive House concept. He participated in the Passive House certification program and is currently working on two Passive House designs. His company is Casey/Lee Builders a subsidiary of Conroy Road LLC. Feel free to contact him with any questions or inquiries at leeconsult@mindspring.com or 205-229-1245.

CBS Sunday Morning and House Plans

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Today has been a marvelous fall Sunday. Fall is my favorite time of year, and it was such a pretty day. The time change made it easier to wake up and catch CBS Sunday morning, a lovely show that always leaves me with a feeling of hope! Andy Rooney from 60 minutes died yesterday. RIP Andy. I’d never heard of him before today, but after I watched the tribute to his life, I was sad he was gone. There was a great line from one of his bits: “I wish there was something we could take that could cure us of stupidity!”.

I grabbed brunch and then headed to the gym for some exercising and swimming. I don’t believe exercise should ever be punishment, but I had to push myself to get going today. Once I was there, I loved it, but beforehand it was like talking to my five year old self saying, “Sunshine, you’ve spent 8 days straight in front of a screen, and it’s time to move!” With any project that I’m passionate about, it’s easy to let myself be totally consumed by it. So part of the challenge is going to be taking care of myself and maintaining balance in other areas in my life as I work on this. Probably easier said than done!

There’s been a lot happening this weekend. The Avondale Brewery opened for business, the Moss Rock Festival was Saturday and Sunday and the uber important Alabama-LSU game last night (poor Alabama).

We checked out the fun Moss Rock festival yesterday. It takes place on the common green areas of a development called The Preserve in Hoover. My mom’s boyfriend, Carl, says they name developments after what they used to be, which is definitely true in this case. Moss Rock is a nature preserve that, up until about 12 years ago, was 650 acres of forest. 400 acres of forest were cut down and developed to create the 680 homesites in The Preserve. Luckily, the city bought 250 acres, leaving them mostly intact, and created an official nature preserve. This protected the area with the boulders that climbers love and some beautiful waterfalls and hiking trails, although it’s not nearly as pristine as it once was. Now there are silt fences and cleared areas along the trails and often there is construction happening at the trail head. That seems to be the backwards way we do things, cut down 400 acres, develop it, name it The Preserve, and then have eco-friendly festivals there. Even so, Moss Rock is still one of my favorite places to go hiking with Stevie-D (my loyal pup). It’s only a mile or so from my home, and after a rain, the waterfalls are gorgeous. The festival is also a great annual event with some talented artists and vendors with green products.

I ran into Stephen Guesman at the festival. He owns a company called Greenworks Design/ Build that helps people make their homes more energy efficient. He worked with me on the design of my current home and will likely contribute some to this project. He lives in a modified yurt off the grid in a community called Common Ground in Blountsville, AL. His house is powered completely by solar, and his water comes from a well on the property. A few weeks ago, they had the annual solar tour at Common Ground, and I was happy to be able to make it this year. I got to see some really cool possibilities, and soon I’ll write a more in-depth post about everything I learned with photos of the different homes we were able to see.

Tonight, I’m hanging out looking at house plans. After a while, my brain feels like it might to break, but I love it still. It’s like trying to piece together a puzzle. The biggest decision I had to make before we could move forward was about the garage. The lot is narrow,(50×126 feet) and there is no alley access, which makes a garage difficult. Initially, I wanted to have an attached garage, so the first design we worked on with Rebecca, my architect, had a drive along the right side of the house and then you turned left across the back of the house into the garage. Once I saw it on paper, I realized how much that separated the backyard from the rest of the house. With that scenario, I would only have about 25 feet of backyard and would have to cross the driveway to get to it. Rebecca had some really cool ideas to provide other outdoor spaces on the side of the house, but I think I’ve decided that I can handle walking a few feet to get to a detached garage. The easiest most affordable option would be to have the garage on the front of the house, but since the lot is in a historic district, I don’t think the historic review board would go for it. I didn’t want to finalize all the plans and then have them not approve the design. You can’t go before the board until you have drawings with all the elevations, renderings, and actual material samples, and by that point, the plans would be nearly finished. So I’m going to choose my battles and save everyone some time. A detached garage it is! The backyard will still be small, which is good because I don’t want more than I can take care of, but at least now, there’ll be an area of about 50 feet by 30 feet for a patio off the back of the house, a small veggie garden and plenty of room for Stevie-D to run around!

I’ve attached a photo below with a picture of the initial drawing, so you can see the visual of where we started. Rebecca and I are meeting again this week to work more on the design. I’ll keep you posted on the progress, as well as officially introduce her to you!

Also, a big thank you to Keith Gugliotto for helping with the website yesterday and for making computers seem a little less scary 🙂

Hasta pronto, amigos!

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Aggressively Passive (house)

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The Avondale property in Fall

Aggressively passive (according to urban dictionary): when someone goes out of their way to be passive

I pondered for some time what the title of this blog should be. I wanted to document the process of building a Passive House on the lot that I recently purchased in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. As I did more research, I was surprised at how simple and affordable it could be to incorporate sustainable practices into our buildings and lifestyles, so I thought I could share those ideas with other people as I learned more about them myself. I wanted the blog to serve as a resource for people who were interested in applying these principals to their own projects. But I also knew this project was symbolic to me in ways that went beyond the actual building process, so I wanted to encompass what it meant to me personally as well.

For years now, I’ve wanted to find ways to live a simpler, more peaceful life. On one hand, my life is secure, fun and adventurous with exponentially more comforts and opportunities than many people throughout history. I’m surrounded by many loving and supportive people, and it’s important for me to remember how fortunate I am.

But I also realize that, ironically, in search of simplicity, I’ve made a rather complicated life for myself. I work full-time as a freelance Spanish interpreter for different companies and hospitals. I also manage 4 rental properties, own a small (tiny) construction business and teach a weekly swing class. So by the time I do those things, take care of my own house, try to maintain a social life and contact with loved ones, and then somewhat take care of myself, there aren’t nearly enough hours in the day (which I’m sure is quite a common experience!). I’m a professional multi-tasker that runs around setting things in motion and then tries to play catch up. I often feel an undercurrent of anxiety pushing me frantically towards some unknown destination, and I’m tired of trying to keep up.

So the more I thought about it, the more this title applied to both my house and my life in general. I hope to be proactive about creating a comfortable, relaxing life, full of things I love with very few I don’t. I want to work efficiently and smarter, making money in ways that embody what I value most, increasing the amount of passive income that I have, and doing it in a way that benefits the world around me. Money is important only because of the freedom and security that it brings me. Freedom, security and love are the most important things to me, and it’d be great to know what it’s like to have plenty of those things and more, including time.

It’s a lofty ambition, but I believe it’s possible. Up until now, I have lived thinking that the only way to be successful was to work crazy hard, under a lot of stress. I live based on the self-limiting beliefs that there will never be enough time or money. So I’ve set out to prove myself wrong. As Marc Allen suggests in his book The Millionaire Course, I’m going to “make a compromise with my doubts and fears”, make my life the subject of my own experiment, and see where it takes me.

Building this home is one step in that direction. I want an extremely energy efficient, well-built home that is also beautiful and comfortable, providing everything I need and enjoy on a regular basis without anything that doesn’t matter to me. I want to build with an understanding of the interconnectedness of things, without unnecessarily depleting natural resources or damaging our environment, recognizing that it’s all part of something larger than myself.

I’m estimating that it will cost about half as much as my current house to build, and my utilities will be about 1/3 of my current utility costs. I will also be less than two miles from Children’s hospital where I do most of my work and only a mile or so from most of my social life, which should take about another $150 off what I spend in gas and decrease car maintenance costs. These things combined should cut my total monthly expenses in about half, which means I could work half as many hours, leaving more time for other things that matter to me!

I’ve started working with an architect, who is a wonderful and talented friend of mine. We’re working on some schematic floor plans right now, and soon I will start posting about the different design options.

The home will be based on the specifications established by the Passive House Institute. It’s the strictest standard on the market for energy efficiency, and as far as I know, this will be the first Passive House in Alabama! Here’s a link if you’re interested in learning more about the Passive House Institute. You can click on What is a Passive House? for a complete definition. I’ll also elaborate more on the details of the home itself in future posts.

www.passivehouse.us

Energy efficiency is only one aspect of green building, so I plan to incorporate other aspects as well, such as the use of sustainable building materials, water conservation, rain water collection, and protecting the indoor air quality.

In the next few posts, I’ll be talking more about my background and introducing you to the marvelous people who will be working with me. I will also be looking for salvage and reclaimed materials and people who are interested in participating in the project. I hope to have a story published on the house and would love to find any companies or individuals willing to provide materials or services at a discount in exchange for advertising and exposure. So if you know of any resources, I’d love to hear about them!

There are still many unknowns, and I’m not sure yet how they will resolve themselves. Financing could be a challenge. I need to either sell my current home, or find a way to raise $120,000. It’s difficult to get bank financing right now, so if you see me on the side of the road with some Krispy Kreme doughnuts, stop and buy a few boxes!

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