Still looking for an architect

It has been a while, but I have been busy. I have a part time position as an engineer with an environmental consulting firm and work from a home office and travel to sites in the Detroit area.

On the home front I am still checking out architects. Last weekend I went the the Green Remodeling exhibit at EMU and gathered a lot of info on green building, renewable energy sources that we may use, and green landscaping. At our current home our fruit and veggie gardens are 200++ feet from the house. After we get our new home sited on our property, I plan on having one of the landscape co. I met at the exhibit help us orient our gardens on our new property that is more convenient to the house.

I hope to stop by a home being built by a prospective architect, Eric Hughes of Image Design, this Friday on the way to Chicago.

My goal is to have an architect hired by the end of November, the house sited, and the landscape architect out at least once! Let's see if it happens.

Starting out

Hi,
After finally resigning ourselves that we would probably not find the right piece of land at an affordable price in our current school district to build an energy efficient "green" home-we did!

We had called Nancy to help us design a remodel our 1970's colonial kitchen and dining room (which we have as our kids playroom) into a more usable space with a wood stove and sun space. Well, on the way back from the appliance store where we were researching energy star stuff for our kitchen. We drove by this 5 acres for sale and we loved it! Close to town, sloping, and great southern exposure and the right price. On July 3rd we closed on it.

Now comes the work. We want to do this right so for the first month I read and thumbed through many books on green building. I have to say that the best book, buy far was Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies. I also talked to local experts and looked on line for local architects.

We have a general idea,of what we want, but I am going to go back to work since my youngest is going into 1st grade and the extra money will be nice in building. I have a couple of prospective employers.