It has indeed been another busy day here at Miracle.  Last night I was up until 4 am drafting plans for both clients and our 2 (yes..2) new ,  totally NEW, model homes.   This afternoon,  we added yet another excited client to our happy Miracle  “family“.  This evening, one of our folks helped another great couple (seems I just met them a few weeks ago) put their offer together on a nice lot in Menomonee Falls.  If all goes well with their offer, we may sign and start the permit process next week!

     Before I get to my third and last (and last,for now) few words on the subject of building “Green”, I  wanted to mention some news that the media has been highlighting heavily for the last 2 days.  The new home sales numbers for America , for January were released yesterday and the number of new home sales across the country is the lowest January number in the LAST 50 YEARS!  Worse yet, that means the last 3 months in a row have all shown declines.   The seminars I attended at the International Home Show in Vegas a month ago had experts predicting this years sales would be UP 25% over last year’s sales and (looking to 2011) next year sales would go up 50% over this year. That was very good news indeed for my ears and America’s  ears as well.  

    I can tell you that according to my bank sources, while a few builders are showing acceptable sales, most are simply , as one put it, ” still dead in the water”.  I can truly thank God that somehow , we have had the strongest February since the good times of 2005!  Go figure.  I could say it may be because of our heavy advertising during the recent January Expo.  I’m sure this helped BUT, a big part of our success in sales I think goes to the relatively new product designs we have developed in our Dream Series.   Our “Rent Busters” , with $199,000 lot and 4 bedroom new home packages ( you get to choose your own lot about anywhere you want to build for $60,000) has been a red hot value and the homes DO NOT LOOK INEXPENSIVE, but rather quite “cool” and high end.  If you want to see a prime example , c’mon out to see our Dream 2000In Milwaukee, near Menomonee Falls by 91st and Good Hope. That home is nearing completion and we are keeping it open only a few more weeks until the new owner’s move in.  Trust me,….REALLY cool andit has a finished basement with wet bar. Open this weekend 1 to 4 in Oak Hills subdivision.

    Back to “Green”, as I have been explaining in my last 3 blog postings, I think green is great but so much of it is being used to hype home sales using people’s excitement about the “save the Earth” , Energy Star-type movement.  I am here to say, beware!   Not everything that seems to be a good/green idea, is cracked-up to be what you thought it was. 

     Take for example, how easy it is to get a “green certification on a home today.  The builder must fill out a worksheet where points are accumulated by checking-off what green items or practices you have used in building the home.  You do not have to do all of the items to get your home certified as being green.   You just need to get a certain number of points.  Did you use re-cycling with respect to your dumpsters?   Did you use at least one re-cycled product in the home?   Did you use Formaldehyde-free insulating products?  Did you use I-joist supports in your floor instead of solid wood timbers?

     Let’s take 2 of these items I just mentioned and apply them to reality.  One builder who builds in some  subdivisions that we build in, uses the re-cycled dumpster idea.  Instead of having a dumpster company drop-off a huge metal dumpster with tall walls, these re-cycling folks use a smaller, lower, open- topped,  plastic cylinder trash “can” on steroids.  These dumpsters are bigger than a trash can but so small (compared to a dumpster)  that I commonly see them over-filled and trash is usually piled next to the receptacle. The builder is able to get his green certification points because these dumpster folks separate various materials when they come to the site to pick-up the trash.  They essentially, hand empty and sort the trash. This sounds good and green.   We used this service for two prolonged periods in the pat 8 years. Both times, we discontinued using this service because we felt the reality was not matching up to the perception.  The point was that the debris that were put into this small open dumpster ( all of these I have seen are usually cracked and in terrible  shape for holding anything much at all.)  quite often is left stacked in the open air.   At the slightest wind, small trash debris go drifting near and far.  When the guys come to empty and separate the trash, they do not seek out the wind blown rubbish.  The work men throw their fast food bags and cups into the general direction of the open dumpster and it too, blows far and wide.  I am convinced that I am hurting the environment less by having a container that actually holds the trash than just throwing things next to a small container.  The re-cycling trash company said they had improved the process, so we tried them a second time.   The results were the same.  I think of myself as being a pretty “green” conscious person and I just could not get myself to knowingly allow trash to be thrown next to dumpsters and blown into the enviornment  just so I could put a check on a green certification sheet.   Does this kind of “greeness” make sense to anyone?

     If you went to the Parade Of Homes , for the last several years, it is hard to find any builder who still uses solid , dimensional,  ”real” , old-fashioned lumber for floor supports.  Lumber companies have been pushingthe floor supports that are manufactured out of  re-cycled wood chips and wafers.   You may know these “I” shaped 2 by 10 , or 2 by 12 engineered wood products by a common  manufacturing name of “Silent Floor”.   One of their main attributes is that they are made very uniform and do not usually change shpeas much as solid wood, due to humidity,  or temperature,  or aging.  This could mean les floor squeaks.  I can show you, however, that that claim is not true in practice.  The cost is just a little more than using a common grade Spruce, Pine, or Fir solid wood 2 by 10.  I-Joists can span (support) longer distances than many common grade solid woods.  

This all sounds good  AND I get to have more green certification points when I use them.    So…, what is the “problem”?   For years, one of our main concepts was that Miracle was trying to use better quality products than commonly seen in builder homes. We wanted to provide a more “custom” level of products for no extra cost.  We did this in everything from using higher wind-rated roof shingles, more steel in our basement walls, quieter bath fans, 8 Lb. carpet pad instead of 6 Lb. , copper water pipes instead of plastic ,  AND we used Douglas Fir solid wood floor joists instead of those 2 by 10 common species of wood, or particle I-Joists.  The lumber yards would actually have to order and stock it just for us since no one else used this expensive upgrade.  Because it was not common Fir , but Douglas Fir, it had a very long grain and thereforewas harder and a stifferwood.  We specified it to be double kiln-dried so it was not prone to such shrinkage or changing of shape.  The house was as solid as a battleship under foot.  Every time that a vendor tried to convince me to use the particle I-Joists to save a buck since “everyone else is doing it” I relentlessly resisted the temptation. Quality usually wins-out in the end, I  still believe. 

    When we developed our Dream Series of homes, I finally relented and agreed to use the Particle I-Joists.  I used to occasionally have someone ask what type of floor supports we used and they were usually glad to her my story of quality Douglas Fir 2 by 12’s.  It turns out that the big “problem” with the I-Joists is that in a fire, they burn….rapidly!  Kent Wainscot of Milwaukee ABC affiliate channel 12 had 2 extensive investigative reports on their news program  that showed fire fighters trying to get this product banned for home construction.    They showed how in a mere 15 minutes,  these I-Joists were resulting in collapsing homes. The solid lumber took several hours and allowed the firefighters to have less risk in putting the fire out.   The I-Joist’s rapid rate of burn collapse makes it entirely possible that by the time a fire is realized and sleeping families awake, the floor is already collapsing.  My sales people tell me that, even today,  they have model home visitors who ask what the floor construction is while they are first entering the model’s  foyer.   Inevitably, these visitors are either fire fighters or know of this publicity.  You may ask, why we are therefore offering this product on our Dream series.  I ask you to remember, we are building  our cleint’s choices, not our own desires.   All I can say is that many buyers apparently do not think this fire issue is either real or will be a problem for them in the future. It could be improved by simply putting a few more fire detectors in the basement to give an earlier alert to any basement fires.

     We are currently givng “free” upgrades to our homes floor joists that substitute solid lumber for these I-Joist floor supports.  The down side is that , once again, I will not be able to use this to get points on my green certification sheets.  I can livewith those missing points.  The bigger point here is that  I could go on and on about other work a green items that either don’t work as   well as traditional items OR simply are NOT truly green in practice. 

     I want to quickly bring up the subject of a “Wild idea” I have been working on for Master Bedrooms. I have been “teasing” this new subject but wanted to  respond to a request and touch on the  subject of “green”.  I don’t commonly promise anything unless I can deliver but, I PROMISE, my next blog will start with an unusual problem in the Master suite.

      Blessings,

      Tom Hignite

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