My reply:

Nothing on that particular product. The only "thing" I know regarding solar power at this point in time, is that the ROI is not there yet for the average consumer. The cost of production is keeping the retail pricing at a level where it doesn’t make sense to install it. If a consumer is requesting the product solely based on "saving the environment" or "green initiative" then any solar product would be great. But to lower monthly energy cost, not so great. For typical solar panels it runs about $5,000-$7,000 installed to run 10% of your home. If your bill is $200 per month, then you will save $20 each month. It will take 20-30 years to break even on that investment.

Any disagreements?

We also decided to re-brand as Picklo Homes. No fear, we are still incorporated as Country Builders, and only have decided to advertise and do business as Picklo Homes. The rationale for this was twofold: First, we felt the "country" in Country Builders may mislead prospective clients to the conclusion the company builds only in the country or only country-style homes. Second, the name no longer continued to reflect the markets we now serve.

My goal is to try and blog at least once a week. So please bookmark us or subscribe to the RSS feed. I will be disscussing market trends, new products, projects we are working on, and some fun stuff. Stay tuned!

Notice the texture in the picture. You can acutally feel this in the floor.

I encourage you to take a look at this product when considering your flooring. It is durable, long lasting, and looks great. A wonderful alternative to wood floors. www.karndeanusa.com.

1. Lot Slope or Topography-Gone are the days that you can find a flat lot in a neighborhood. You may be able to locate large tracts of property and find a nice flat area, but in a neighborhood, it is very difficult. So when looking for a lot, look for a property with the minimalist amount of slope. And look for a lot that slopes from are rear corner to the opposite front corner. This will allow you to design a home where by dropping the garage (assuming it is located on the opposite front corner) will aid in eliminating the amount of dirt brought in.
2. Is the lot wooded or barren? The more trees, the more it cost to clear for the home. But if you look closely, you can choose a lot where the nicer trees and larger trees are located outside of the building foot print. It is ideal to have some trees on the property to aid in shading the home, this will help to keep direct sunlight off of the home, allowing the air conditioning units to work less. Which leads us to the 3rd item.
3. Lot position or placement. For energy efficiency you want the widest part of the home to face northern or southern directions. Typically the widest exterior walls of the home contain the most windows. Facing East or West will allow for the most sun exposure on these windows causing the home have a high heat gain. This is not good for the HVAC system, hot morning and hot afternoons. The A/C system will be working hard all day. So for your home to face the norther or southern direction the property needs to be oriented in the same way.
4. The lot’s elevation compared to the streets elevation. This one can be tricky. The lot can be flat and look ideal, but may sit below the level of the street. This can be bad. If the neighborhood drainage was not planned properly, in periods of heavy rain you may experience flooding. I have seen this happen before. New developments are now taking notice, and are requiring in the Deed Restrictions or Architectural Guidelines, that the home site "x" amount of feet higher than the street. So for a lot that appeared flat and perfect in every way, but sat 4 feet below the street’s highest point, now you have to raise the homes foundation 4 feet plus "x" amount over that. This can cost some serious money. And a lot of times it is overlooked, because the homeowner does not read the Architectural Guidelines closely.
5. Lot Drainage- You want a lot that is as flat as possible, but you also want it to drain properly. You don’t want a lot with low areas that are going to hold water after rains, causing a perfect area for mosquitoes to breed. The ideal lot would be flat and high in the center with slight slopes around the sides to allow for water shed to make it’s way to the ditch and neighborhood drain system. An easy way to identify low land areas around Houston are what we call Saw Palmettos. These plants like wet soil. If you are looking at property filled with Saw Palmettos, then you might want to look elsewhere.

I hope you find this post helpful when you are out lot or land hunting for that new custom home.

“From 1995 through 2005, builder confidence was a near-perfect predictor of future stock market returns. As we wrote back then, “Not only did the NAHB index presage the start of the post-1994 bull market in stocks, but its decline starting in 1999 foreshadowed the equity market collapse that came the following year. Builder confidence rebounded in November 2001 – a year ahead of the stock market upswing that began in October 2002.”

“That’s what makes the latest home builder confidence numbers so intriguing. The builder confidence index – now known as the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index – rose 56% in April, to 14 from 9. (A little context: The index stood at 72 in June 2005.) This was the biggest one-month increase in 5 years.

“This is a very encouraging sign that we are at or near the bottom of the current housing depression,” says NAHB chief economist David Crowe. “Builders report that more buyers are responding to the pull of much-improved affordability measures, including low home prices, extremely favorable mortgage rates and the introduction of the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit.”-Jon Birger CNN Money

Wow, builders predict the economy. Pretty neat, huh?!

“Home building stocks like KB Home (KBH: 19.1705, -0.3195, -1.64%) and Hovnanian (HOV: 3.24, 0.24, 8%) soared as an industry group said pending home sales unexpectedly jumped in March by 3.2% from the month before and increased from a year ago. The National Association of Realtors also said existing home prices increased in March to $174,900.”

“We want to see home sales pick up. We want to see people come out and start buying. That will be huge,” said Nolte.

“Also, the Commerce Department said U.S. construction spending unexpectedly rose by 0.3% in March — the first such increase since September.”-Matt Egan Fox Business

All good news.

Due to the down turn in the economy and the rising costs of energy, our goal is to produce a series of homes between 2500-3000 square feet, filled with design details and energy efficient products. Don’t get me wrong, it is easy to find homes under 3000 square feet and under 2500 square feet, but they lack the luster and the detail that can make someone say “wow”. We intend to provide that “wow”, of course at no extra charge. We want the public to know that a custom home does not need to be large and does not need to be expensive. So stay tuned for more on our custom affordable series.