1) Select and purchase land to build on
It is important that you know your land restrictions (set backs, maximum size of house plan footprint), soil conditions (land suitable for building on), topography (if suitable for basement or slab foundation), easements, neighborhood (covenants), taxes, cost for site preparations, and other factors that may affect your decision on selecting house plans.
(2) Choose a builder
Take the time to find a home builder that you feel comfortable with. Get referrals from friends and family, check the Builder's background, and talk with previous customers of the builder. Talk to the builder about your needs and wants where both parties can understand what's expected of each.
(3) Develop a budget
Your primary purpose for preparing a budget is to understand and control costs. In order to create and stick with a budget you must be realistic about what you can afford and what can fit into a particular house plan and square footage. If you decide to upgrade on something that wasn't included in the original budget, be willing to give up or downgrade on some other aspect of the home construction in order to keep within budget. Bottom line, know how much house you can afford based on what you want the house to be.
(4) Level of design service needed
When deciding the level of service you need, develop realistic expectations of what stock house plans cost versus custom design house plans. Stock house plans are products ready for purchase and are inexpensive (average around $700.00) compared to custom design services. Stock house plans may or may not require modifications to meet all your design needs. If stock plans do not meet your expectations, then you may consider the services of a building designer for a custom home design. Custom home designs are labor intensive and take longer (several weeks at the least) to develop from concept to construction documents.
Carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas linked to global warming, is accumulating in the Earth’s atmosphere at an increasing rate, according to a new study released by the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The research has renewed concern that the ability of the environment to absorb the gas may be waning. The NOAA study said the average atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide in 2005 reached 381 parts per million, up from 2.6 ppm since 2004. The annual rate of increase, which has been recorded since the 1950s, now exceeds 2 ppm for three of the past four years. This is an unprecedented increase; 50 years ago, the annual increase was less than 1 ppm.
The extra CO2 is produced by the burning of fossil fuels, currently emitting approximately 7 billion tons of carbon per year, and roughly half is absorbed by vegetation and the oceans. Researchers believe the yearly fluctuations in CO2 build-up are caused largely by nature's variable ability to absorb the emissions. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is now higher than experienced on Earth for at least the last 400,000 years, and the rise is expected to continue. Over the past two decades, only half of the CO2 released by human activities such as fossil fuel burning, the so-called “anthropogenic CO2,” is still in the atmosphere; about 30% has been taken up by the ocean, and 20% by the terrestrial biosphere.
This new finding follows reports that 2005 was probably the warmest year on record, with temperatures slightly higher than the previous peak in 1998. Also, scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, in Boulder, Colorado, reported that Arctic sea ice did not reform fully in the winter of 2005 after record rates of melting during the summer.
Until recently the largest increases in concentrations of CO2 always occurred during El Niño years, when tropical vegetation grows more slowly due to lack of rain and fires occur in dried-out rainforests. The greatest recorded increase of 2.7 ppm occurred in the El Niño year of 1998. However, scientists are alarmed by the fact that none of the past three years of near-record increases have coincided with an El Niño event.
According to Peter Cox, a scientist at the Center for Ecology and Hydrology in Dorset, UK, who studies the interaction between plants and the atmosphere, the recent surge in CO2 levels “may be the first evidence of a feedback from the carbon cycle, in which plants under heat stress from global warming start to absorb less carbon dioxide”.
More and more people are showing interest in making their homes eco friendly. When a home is eco friendly, it is environmentally friendly and you are able to save some serious cash on energy. You would be surprised some of the small and large things that you can do to make your home more eco friendly.
Below are some of the ways you can make your home a friend of the environment:
More and more individuals are installing solar panels in their roofs so that they can draw solar energy. This requires the home to use less electricity, which can save a lot of money on the power bill.
When installing new countertops and cabinets in your kitchen, you can install countertops and cabinets that are recycled. It is much better to use recycled materials than new materials. By doing this, you're giving the materials a second chance to be something great and they will last for a long time. You don't have to worry about the items not being made as sturdy as something that is new. The quality is just as high.
Rooftop gardens are another hot item. They insulate the home naturally. The garden can also be constructed in a way that drainage of rainwater is successful. Many skyscrapers and other structures are implementing these systems because of their cost-effectiveness in the short-term and the long-term.
When building a brand new home, it is important that the home not be built from wood that has been acquired through deforestation. Wood can be acquired through other means that don't involve cutting down trees. There is plenty of wood found in nature that isn't planted into the ground.
The utility companies announce such increase in prices in their bills, but one has to glance at these bills to know about the impending increase in costs. Unlike these people, there are another group of people who have value and respect for their hard earned money. They know that the power costs are getting out of hand and they search for alternatives like sourcing electricity through solar cells. Nature has gifted us with sunshine and it does not cost any money to access and use the same. The solar power cells convert the light energy emitted by the sun and turn it into electric power. The power can be directly fed into their electric gadgets or it can be stored in heavy-duty cells (like the ones used in automobiles) and use it as and when required.
Ask any person who has installed such solar cells, especially those who have assembled the same via kits available on the net and in stores that specialize in electric equipment, and they will tell you of the substantial savings they are benefiting. Those who are interested in installing a solar power rig in their home first have to calculate how much power they require from such cells. Once these formalities are over with, they can purchase a kit that will provide them with the requisite power. Installing such a kid is child’s play and a basic knowledge of soldering is more than enough.