Finally figured out how to "blog"

This is my first entry to attempt to post something about my adventures of Building a LEED Certified Home.

To give people some background, this home was 40% complete when I purchased it from the bank and it sits on 5 acres in unincorporated Woodstock on Route 176. It has brick on the front and Hardiplank siding on one side (see recent photo). The roof had 90 lb. roof felt during the 8 years the house had been under construction/ or not under construction. The inside of the house is uninsualted and on has wood framing in place and nothing else.

My wife and I had closed on the house a week before Christmas and made an emergency effort to obtain a partial building permit and put a roof on the house, install columns to replace the two toothpick stilts holding up the front entry roof , and enclose the soffits to keep the visiting raccoons out. So far so good, the soffits are finishing up on Monday, as I see raccoons wonder the neighborhood.

As the Chair of the Rockford branch of the USGBC and Member of the Board of Directors for the USGBC Chicago Chapter , I committed to complete my home under LEED certified for Homes and go for a "Silver Certification" (of Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum levels). If this home was new from the ground up, I would obtain a higher certification. In this case, some points can not be obtained because I have no history of the past construction practices.

My goal is to personally experience the process and share the information with family and friends while I go through this adventure of finishing this home for me and my wife. I will also share the LEED points being sought, cost associated with each item and the decisions to implement or not implement points as it does come down to my personal willingness to pay premiums for LEED/ Green items. Since I've always been designing for energy efficiency on new and existing homes, I have just incorporated items I'm convinced that are "must haves" (and considered "Best Practices").

I'll try to keep posting shorter than this introduction.

Michael Dudek RA, LEED AP