The Renner Companies

So, you’re looking for ideas for building your home and making it green. Green homes are healthy buildings for the occupants and the environment. They are also economical buildings, boasting reduced energy, water and maintenance costs. However, constructing or renovating homes in an environmentally responsible manner requires a great deal of planning and there are hundreds of building techniques and products to integrate into a green home. The most important consideration is balancing economic and time input with economic, personal and environmental benefit. Whether you are building your home here in North Georgia or any other climate, here are some specific ideas that may help you build your green home.

by Marcus Pickett

by Matt Myers

Prospective homeowners should give careful consideration to their decisions when planning to build a home. A great home is one that you are happy to wake up in every day, which is efficient in its layout and usage, that is interesting yet practical, and that brings joy into the very basics of living. These 8 steps will help to guide you through the process:

by Marc Dickinson

In the last two articles we gave a brief overview of what Universal Design and Aging in Place issues are all about as well as the differences between the two.

In Part One of this series, we gave you a very brief idea of what Universal Design and Aging in Place is all about. We would like to expand upon that in this installment. The term Universal Design (UD) has a fairly broad scope. Aging in Place really is a portion of UD. The definition of Universal Design is; “The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design”. The intent is that anyone … tall, short, young, old, obese, blind, deaf, partially impaired, severely impaired, mentally challenged, etc., can use the space or product without any special adaptation or special knowledge and so that in the future, no matter which of those categories someone fits into, the house will be suitable without major modifications. Flexibility of use is the main idea.

After living in Atlanta for about 20 years, I decided it was time to start looking for ‘greener grass’. I was getting tired of the city life and all that comes with it. I had begun making more and more trips to the North Georgia area. Any excuse would do. Sometimes, I would just spend the day driving around the mountains with no particular plan except to be up here enjoying a little bit of heaven on earth.