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The healthy habitat

Will a "green home" appeal to conservation-minded buyers? Nohl Crest Homes hopes so. It has a model opening today at FishHawk Ranch.

By JUDY STARK
Published March 25, 2006

LITHIA

Now we'll see if green begets green.

This morning Nohl Crest Homes will open the doors of its Windermere model in the Garden District section at FishHawk Ranch. This is its "green" model, the prototype of all the homes it plans to build henceforth: energy- and water-efficient, environmentally sensitive, packed full of insulation, with Energy Star appliances and a Florida-friendly yard.

The home has been certified "green" by the Florida Green Building Coalition. It is the first green home to be designated a showcase home for the Parade of Homes sponsored by the Tampa Bay Builders Association. The parade, the largest in the association's history with 156 models, runs through April 9. Details, 6F.

But it's the marketplace that has the last word.

It will be interesting to see whether buyers put their money where their environmental sympathies are and whether this is a trend with traction in a slowing market. (Nohl Crest's friendly competitors, from Hannah-Bartoletta Homes, came to tour the house the other day.) Green features add 3 to 6 percent to the price of a home, but the tradeoff is lower utility bills, a house that's easier to maintain and a more comfortable living space.

The Windermere, fully loaded, is priced at $1.3-million.

When Nohl Crest announced its green intentions in January, there was positive feedback from the environmental community, said Judy Preston, Nohl Crest's vice president for marketing. "But buyers have to be educated," she said. Visitors will receive an eight-page guide explaining green building, including a glossary of terms. Plaques will point out the home's features.

"I think we'll have a good response," Preston said, "when people realize on energy efficiency alone, they can have a wonderfully cool house and save money."

Many of the home's environmental features are undetectable. The walls are painted with low-odor paints from the Sherwin-Williams Harmony line. Most of the floors are wood or tile; what carpet there is comes from a Mohawk line that promises low emitance -gassing of irritating chemicals. The house uses a zoned air conditioning system with a Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating of 16 (code minimum is 13).

Other, more visible features are efficient as well as attractive. Deep overhangs on the front porch and the lanai invite relaxing in a rocking chair or on a poolside lounge. The porte-cochere provides a shady spot to leave the car. The high windows in the family room and foyer admit light but not heat. The pool uses salt purification rather than chlorine, eliminating burning, red eyes for swimmers.

"We wanted to take a Tudor style and relate it to the Florida lifestyle and climate," said David Balber, design director for Gritton & Associates Architects of Tampa, which designed the home.

"Typically, Tudor homes are formal, dark and closed off," Balber said, "but Florida homes are open and interconnected. People live outside as much as possible, and the kitchen is the heart of the house. So the kitchen is the node that connects the hearth room, the dining room, the family room and the lanai."

Outside, to break down the mass of this two-story, 3,885-square-foot home, Balber "stepped down" the roofline on a diagonal, from the top ridge to a second ridge to the anchoring element of the porte-cochere. He contrasted the horizontal massing of the porch on the left with the vertical elements on the right. Shutters and louvers break up big expanses of wall.

Inside, on the second floor, Balber avoided a long, claustrophobic hall. "Events happen on the way to the bedroom," he explained. At the top of the stairs is a sitting-game-TV room, a public area. Beyond it is a computer-desk area, a semiprivate area that acts as a vestibule to the bedrooms, the most private area.

The house is oriented on its home site so that the secondary bedrooms get the brightest, hottest midday light, when those rooms are least likely to be in use, and the family areas are protected by porch and lanai overhangs and high windows.

Interior designer Lore Merida faced the challenge of finding natural fabrics. "It was very difficult," she said, "to find the fabrics and selection that I wanted" in cotton and silk. She combined Brazilian oak floor with tile to create a mix of contemporary and formal.

Merida styled the house without a formal living room, since many homeowners don't use those spaces. The room to the right of the front door, luxuriously furnished here as a study, could easily be transformed into a parlor or formal living room, Merida said

"We wanted to show that a house could be certified green without skimping on the luxury items," Preston said, "and it doesn't have to look like a cement block."

Judy Stark can be reached at (727) 893-8446 or stark@sptimes.com.

Showcase Home/Parade of Homes

WHAT: Parade of Homes, showcase of 156 model homes by 54 builders in Pasco, Pinellas, Hernando and Hillsborough counties, sponsored by the Tampa Bay Builders Association.

WHEN: Through April 9. Models are open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

INFORMATION: A guidebook with maps, pictures of the models and details will be distributed with today's St. Petersburg Times in parts of Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. Copies are also available from the builders' association; call (813) 873-1000 weekdays during regular business hours. A list of entries is available online at www.tampabaybuilder.com.

SHOWCASE HOME: The Windermere model, the "green home" by Nohl Crest Homes, is at 5944 Churchside Ave. (at Dorman Road) in the Garden District section of FishHawk Ranch. From Interstate 75, take Exit 250 (Riverview) and drive east on Boyette Road. At Boyette and Bell Shoals, continue east on what is now FishHawk Boulevard to the entrance on the right.

[Last modified March 24, 2006, 11:55:09]