Across the street from the northeast corner of Sandel Park, homeowners have demolished their tiny house and are now deep in construction of a “green” home, doing the designing, construction management and much of the work themselves.
Julie Howe Gwinn says neighbors are constantly stopping by to ask them about the design, materials, and the process of building your own home. So, she and her husband decided to open up the home for a tour.
The tour is from 6-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, at 9056 1st Ave. NW. For $10, you’ll get some wine and good advice about family-friendly green design. (Gwinn has degrees in environmental design and urban planning.) No children or pets are allowed, as it is still very much a construction site.
Here’s the old house:
And here’s the new house, with construction fencing around it:
They’ve just started a construction blog, which is really more about building community than a house. They plan to conduct more tours as the house progresses, so email Gwinn if you want to be notified of additional open houses.
8 responses so far ↓
1 David Stoesz // Sep 1, 2009 at 11:03 am
What a wonderful world of feel-good delusion where making your house bigger is “green.”
2 tiktok // Sep 1, 2009 at 12:15 pm
How many people lived in old house vs. how many people will live in the new house, how much water/gas/electricity will the new design use versus the old one–all these need to be taken into consideration, not just the square footage.
3 Little Bird // Sep 1, 2009 at 2:24 pm
We’ve been watching the construction of this house on our walks around the neighborhood, and we’ve been really impressed by the time and consideration that they’ve been putting into their new home. We don’t know much about the green details, but if their goal is to create a dwelling that is both highly functional for their family as well as low-impact to the environment, then more power to them!
4 e // Sep 1, 2009 at 6:36 pm
David…I’d get the facts before you start knocking it. It may very well be green… I don’t know the details of it.. but the reality is that a larger house was a better option for them considering that they now have two children.
5 Whopper // Sep 1, 2009 at 7:46 pm
“What a wonderful world of feel-good delusion where making your house bigger is “green.””
More class envy disguised as ‘environmentalism’.
You’re the reason I got AC and leave the car running when I go into Kens.
6 david stoesz // Sep 2, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I’m not against people building comfortable houses for themselves. I would myself if I could. It’s all the self congratulation that’s a bit hard to take. There are plenty of blander, lower cost options–such as living in a multi-unit building–that are far greener, even if unlikely to make it into “Dwell” magazine.
7 Tahomajim // Sep 2, 2009 at 8:52 pm
People, quit complaining. It’s a single family residence. If you want a fight let’s save our energy for quad townhouse issues.
8 pietro47 // Sep 2, 2009 at 9:38 pm
“For $10, you’ll get some wine and good advice about family-friendly green design.”
How much wine will I get? Come on! Why not just have a plain old fashioned open house? Oh, I know – the $10 bucks keeps the riff-raff away!
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