A safe room, according to the Federal Emergency Management Association, is “a hardened structure specifically designed to meet the FEMA criteria, and provide ‘near absolute protection’ in extreme weather events, including tornadoes and hurricanes.” FEMA has developed guidelines for building safe rooms, which can be found on their website fema.gov.

A few years ago we built a “safe room” in a custom home in Creve Coeur, MO. This storm and security shelter included mechanical ventilation, additional phone lines, a steel door, and was made with a combination of steel and poured concrete. The room was designed and built as part of the original construction documents, and was located in an area that isn’t normally excavated below an exterior deck. The idea started off as a requested security measure, but the added storm protection the room affords quickly became a highlight for the homeowner.

With some renovation work, there are opportunities for homeowners who have ranch-style or older homes without basements to create a storm room in their existing structure. During a recent renovation project in Webster Groves, MO we worked with local company LeeCor Systems to line an area with structurally insulated panels, or SIPs panels, specially designed to withstand projectiles and winds to create a reinforced safe room in the house. SIPs panels are extremely durable panels that are typically used in the exterior walls during high performance building, and these special safe room panels, or “H” panels”, are custom designed and built for storm protection and security. LeeCor Systems has installed these panels for a few clients in the past, and in this particular instance, the reinforced space was important to our client because their older home did not have a basement to seek shelter in during severe weather.

Here is a video showing the safe room panel testing and installation, as well as suggested uses in homes

A safe room in a new construction or home renovation isn’t an inexpensive undertaking. As general contractor and owner, Kim Hibbs explains, “By the time you pour all the concrete and install the systems, you may be looking at a $5,000 investment.” According to recent reports from The New York Times, though Moore, OK is located in a common tornado path, only one in ten homes had a safe room, and the main reason is expense. According to Builder Online, state and local government have discussed requiring such shelters, but have resisted because it would price homes out of the market.

You can find more information about safe room panels on LeeCor Systems website, and at fema.gov.

When planning your custom home’s design, taking into account the solar orientation of your lot and placing windows, skylights, and sun tunnels in such a way as to take full advantage of the natural lighting and energy from the sun is an excellent way to make your home more efficient. And, combined with other energy efficient building measures, can make a significant impact on lowering your utility bills. With the kitchen being one of the most frequently used rooms in your home, it only makes sense that a well planned lighting design for your kitchen will also go a long ways in making your home more efficient.

One recent custom home we built in Frontenac, MO is a great example of how a great lighting plan can elevate a custom kitchen from good to great.

This kitchen was built in a custom home we completed for clients in Frontenac, MO. It features a comprehensive lighting plan that is not only extremely efficient, but also highly adaptable to provide ambiance and function when needed.

This home is a perfect example of a well designed and thorough lighting plan that combines Energy STAR lighting fixtures for conventional lighting sources, as well as multiple points of entry for natural light sources.

First we will address the electrified lighting sources. At the first level, or low lighting, below the cabinets closely illuminates work spaces and also provides a great source of lighting at night. A second level of lighting using pendants and modern chandeliers can be seen above the island and eat-in table space. These light sources provide direct lighting for eating spaces and can be isolated to create a relaxed atmosphere during family meal times. The third level of lighting is the recessed lighting built into the tray at key points above the sink and built-in desk area, then higher up at intervals to provide direct, overhead lighting for the whole space. During the evening these lights can be used in combination to provide work light or ambient lighting depending on what the family needs.

Now we’ll address the natural sources that are the main source of light during the day, and can be used independently to provide plenty of light for projects and dining. The most prominent source of natural light is the large, floor to ceiling windows with transoms that fill the wall opposite the workspace. These windows provide a lot of natural light, and perfectly balance the dark wall of custom cabinetry that in another space with less natural light might consume all of the light in the room. These windows are complimented by standard windows above the kitchen and desk – the two main areas that the family anticipates they would need extra lighting. In this home we have added a second layer of natural lighting with the use of a large skylight above. This brings in a ton of extra light, and makes the electrified lighting necessary only on very rare occasions.

As our clients become more aware of the energy savings benefits that come with placing energy efficient windows and skylights in their homes, we are adding this element of lighting design into many more homes that we build. That is also one of the advantages of custom building, each home is designed specifically for the lot it is built on and allows us to factor solar orientation into the home’s energy efficiency plan to create a space that is as functionally and beautifully lit as it is efficient.

However, the “icing on the cake” if you will, is that our high performance homes are also considered, and many times are certified, green. This means they have all of the environmental advantages, for both the indoor living environment and the environment at large, that come by way of green building philosophies such as energy efficiency, durability, and superior indoor air quality.

When meeting with our clients, however, every one includes some modicum of green in their home plans – be it from the use of Energy STAR lighting and appliances throughout, to a full caulk and seal package you find with many new homes, our clients often come to us asking for a least some green feature if not a entire green home.

According to a recent survey by Green Builder Magazine, our clients aren’t unique in their requests. In fact, according to their survey results, the majority of people, nearly 60%, consider themselves “green” in some regard. And an overwhelming majority – almost 80%! – said that a green rating or credential would be an important consideration if they were in the market for a home. And when it comes to improvements or renovations, the respondents also showed they knew their stuff when it comes to energy efficiency. The top five home improvement projects the respondents stated they would embark on were all related to improving air flow and insulation, including projects such as sealing the house, adding insulation, and upgrading the HVAC system.

You can see more results from the survey by visiting the article on greenbuildermag.com, and taken all together it is great news to see that more and more people are beginning to see the overwhelming advantages to green building.

What makes Hibbs Homes different is the fact we build high performance, or “green”, homes. Many are built and verified to meet various performance standards, including the National Green Building Standard (ICC-700), Energy Star, DOE’s Challenge Home, and more. This means our clients end up with homes that are more efficient, durable, require less maintenance, and provide better indoor air quality than standard, built-to-code homes.

While it is true that a high performance home can cost more to build, one money saving advantage is that they also qualify for Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM). Simply put, an EEM is a mortgage that is specifically for homeowners who want to buy or build a high performance home. Because of lower monthly utility and operating costs, EEM’s allow you to stretch your debt to income ratios, which means you could qualify for a larger loan amount to buy a better, more efficient home than if you were purchasing a standard home.

EEM’s were first introduced by Congress in 1992 through a pilot program launched in five states. In 1995, the program was expanded nationally. A recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that because of energy efficient mortgages, nearly 7% more families would be able to qualify for a mortgage. Another study by the Appraisal Journal shows that the market value of a home increases $20 for every $1 decrease in the annual energy costs.

And in case you are wondering, if you plan on renovating your home and Energy Improvement Mortgage (EIM) is available for St Louis homeowners.

There are several sites where you can learn more about EEM’s and EIM’s. A few we recommend are the Energy STAR website, RESNET.us, and the Housing and Urban Development website. The illustration below also has a great example to show you what we mean:

This image from HUD.gov illustrates how an EEM works.

We truly believe that because of all of the financial incentives available to homeowners today, there has never been a better time to buy or build a new, energy efficient home. Mortgage rates are still at historic lows, and you can increase that buying power even more with a high performance home and an Energy Efficient Mortgage.

In fact, there are so many that knowing what is available can be complicated, so Residential Energy Network Services, or RESNET, recently put together a great infographic sorting through it all, and we wanted to pass it along to you, our savvy custom home building clients.

The look of this custom home we built in Chesterfield, MO was completed with a well planned landscape design.

Digging in the dirt can be good for the soul, and not to mention your home’s value. As spring fights its way into the St. Louis area, many homeowners are getting outside to designing, redesign or maintaining their home’s landscaping. As one of the first impressions of your home, and especially in the case of some HOAs or city ordinances, it is pretty much a required duty of homeowners. And in the grand scheme of new home design, it is the ideal way to round out a perfect, custom home plan. So why not take it to the next level?

The St Louis Community College isn’t just a resource for college students and professional development. Their continuing education program offers a variety of classes for personal development. Everything from dancing, to writing, to – you guessed it – home gardening. If you want a leg-up on DIY landscaping for your home, for a nominal class registration fee you can check out some of these classes, being offered in the summer of 2013 – and all of them are only one-day:

General – For either the landscaper or gardener, these classes help trouble shoot and demystify outdoor growing: Herbicides, Insecticides, and Fertilizers, Oh My!, and Hot Summer Heat: Keeping Your Yard and Garden Alive

Gardening – If you want to not only beautify your green space, but also benefit from growing your own food there are classes offered in: Herb Gardening, Gardening for the New Gardener, Backyard Composting, and Indoor Composting.

Landscaping – If the flora and the fauna are more your calling, check out these classes: Problem Spots in Your Yard: Growing Plants in Difficult Places, and Small Native Trees and Shrubs for Yards.

All of these class descriptions, dates, and fees can be viewed on St Louis Community College’s website.

And if you’d like a little inspiration to start planning your home’s perfectly custom exterior, check out our Pinterest board to get you started!

There are many on-line sites for inspiration. One of our favorites in Houzz.com. Houzz is a website and online community for architects, builders and interior designers to showcase their work, and it’s easily accessible for anyone looking for inspiration. We are proud to say that Hibbs Homes was named “Best of Houzz 2013” by their user community.

Here are a few of our favorite design details from some of our past custom home projects.

As they say, think outside the box when it comes to your new home. That’s the fun of building a custom home, anything is possible so dream big!

Showers consume the largest percentage of heated water in a home – almost more than laundry and dishwashing combined now that washing machines and dishwashers are becoming extremely efficient.

Using high performance home design practices, we shorten the distance from water heaters to showers to save on energy costs, which in turn also saves on costs for piping and labor during construction. Additionally, we install ‘low flow” shower heads. With advances in the shower head design, they now do a much better job of aerating the water to add pressure and make it feel as if you are getting more water in the shower when, in fact, you are using much less.

In areas with aging infrastructure, such as St. Louis, it is projected that as much as 50% of the water that is treated at plants never makes it to the end user due to leaks in the water delivery system (old water mains, etc). By reducing the end source demand for water through a more efficient process, we are also reducing some of this infrastructure strain. St Louis homeowners are fortunate to live in an area that has very good natural sources of water such as the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, but the recent drought has brought more focus to the increasing demand for water.

After attending a recent conference in Tucson, AZ, which because of their desert climate has a much greater focus on water resources, I was able to spend some time with a longtime home builder friend in the area. When I asked what the Tucson population was he responded, “a little more than 900,000, which is about 900 times more than when the first water mains, etc. were installed in the early 1900s.”

Obviously, although the population has grown strongly, certainly no more rain falls there now than it did back then, yet through conservation efforts they have been able to serve a much larger population, even with a limited resource.

It is truly amazing what can be done with limited natural resources when you efficiently manage them!

Every year Pantone, the universally upheld authority on color, selects a color of the year for home and fashion. For 2013 it is 17-5641 Emerald, and in 2012 it was 17-1463 Tangerine Tango. You might not be surprised to hear tangerine, if you just take a look at any home design catalog or window shop at any mall the racks and pages are dripping with bright orange complimented with bold navy.

But you’ll probably notice something else as well – gray has taken over as the new neutral in interior design. With sophisticated hues that dress up any space and pair perfectly with any metal finish, many homeowners and interior designers are choosing this new neutral for fabrics and paints to lend elegance while lending seasonal and trendy color palettes pop.

This morning, via their Facebook page, Benjamin Moore shared that Nimbus Gray is their most shared color on Pinterest. And recently they announced that Nimbus Gray, Gray Mirage and Revere Pewter were all on famous television designer Candace Olson’s top five favorite colors. Like many homeowners, Olson tends towards lots of woods and natural materials, and with the popularity of hardwood soaring, she explains that these are grays that are found in nature, and compliment these natural materials nicely.

While in previous years many homeowners who chose neutral walls to either open up their space or to wash it for sales listings have relied on beige, the fawns and beachcombers are now being replaced by a whole spectrum of warm and tonal grays (and even some with a beige hue to them for those who can’t let go). We love this really cool neutral color trend, and it is one we are seeing a lot more of in the custom homes we are build with great results. And it does pair quite nicely with the 2013 color of the year if we do say so ourselves.

With energy efficient becoming such a standard part of American homes there are more studies becoming available that show the benefits of energy efficient building, remodeling and retrofitting. In fact, Hibbs Homes’s own Matt Belcher is in Arizona at the SIPA Annual Meeting and Conference this week speaking on the green business case for remodeling and retrofits.

And we have put together a quick look at the case for energy efficient home building by the numbers to highlight some of the recent studies that have been released, and to share the good word on energy efficient building!