New Leaf Home Design

Smart Sustainability is still a "thing", and well worth looking into for your family home. It's been years since my family made the switch to more efficient options. Here's my story...

Smart Sustainability – What It Meant For Our House – New Leaf Home Design Smart sustainability isn’t one size fits all. It wouldn’t be smart if it were. Each situation, each house, and each family are different. And each budget. So how do you decide what are the smart sustainable decisions for you? It’s a process. I recently went through this process for our family....

CLEAN ENERGY AT HOME: The future will be awesome!

The new approach to having a healthy, comfortable home and money saving strategies YOU can use. Hear architect and LEED Green Associate Hallie Bowie of New Leaf Home Design LLC talk about moving to clean energy and how the Inflation Reduction Act can help. Thursday, October 3 at 6:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on 3186 Burbank Road, Wooster; sponsored by the Wooster Interfaith Justice Climate Change Committee Group and the Wayne County Sustainable Energy Network. The Inflation Reduction Act will make it more affordable for Ohio families to purchase energy efficient appliances, make repairs around their home and save money on their utility bills. This is an opportunity to learn how it can benefit you and your family.

Be part of the solution! Reduce your personal climate impact at home. I can help you make a plan.

More and more homeowners are having solar panels installed in their homes. This is a good start, but what else can be done to achieve better sustainable solutions for your house? Read this article to see small things you can do to encourage home sustainability.

Sustainable Resolutions To Fit Your Home – New Leaf Home Design Wondering what you can do to minimize your carbon footprint at your home? Solar panels are great, but they aren’t a good fit for everyone. If your house is in a shaded area, or your shingles are older but not quite ready for replacement, solar electric may not be practical for your house right now...

Heat Pumps have a new cool groove!

[I'm Your] Heat Pump (feat. Will Hammond Jr) - YouTube Music Provided to YouTube by CDBaby [I'm Your] Heat Pump (feat. Will Hammond Jr) · Michael T Roberts · Will Hammond Jr (I'm Your) Heat Pump (feat. Will Hammond J...

Excellent writing about home electrification!

“It’s about Caulk” | Architect Hallie Bowie Weighs in on Big (and small) Green Opportunities for the Home ahead of Spring Open House Event by Sophie Vaughan Hallie Bowie’s Home with Solar Panels Photo courtesy of Hallie Bowie Sustainable living means different things to different people. For some, it’s as simple as recycling and compo…

Cost vs. Value: Key Trends in the 2023 Cost vs. Value Report Learn what remodeling projects maintain a premium to homebuyers when times are tough.

I'm happy to have helped develop Hudson's Green Home Certification Program to build awareness of the value of energy efficiency upgrades!

Green Home Certification available for Hudson homeowners Hudson is the first city in Ohio to offer residents a chance to become certified through other entities as implementing energy efficiencies.

What do you see? A friend posted this because he liked how cozy the house looks in the winter landscape. I agree, but I also see more: The house is well insulated because the snow of the roof is uniform, and there aren't any icicles. The windows aren't too big, so most of the wall can have lots of insulation too. But I am hoping there are more windows on the other side to take advantage of that view. Then I wonder whether the view is equally good to our right side, which would be south (assuming this is sunrise). If so, and the shape of the lot permitted, it might have been better to turn the house 90 degrees, so there would be a nice south facing roof surface for solar panels. The existing trees are to the north, so they wouldn't shade the panels. Also, then most of those imagined big windows for the view would face south so they could soak up the sun's heat in the winter, and the natural overhang of the roof would shade them from overheating in the summer. The eaves could be deeper, which would be better for that shading and would also protect the foundation from rain a little better. Then I wonder about whether there is a basement. Slab on grade construction is great for minimizing the carbon footprint of the house, since concrete has such high embodied energy, but with that slope, it might also be really nice to have a walk-out basement. That way you would get more good quality living space. That's what I see.