Green It Yourself

A Boston couple's blueprints inspire a carbon-conscious (and very modern) footprint in Bristol, Vermont.

Raedia and Ian Albinson are used to thinking outside the box. So when the artistic couple - she's an animator, he's a designer and media producer - started house hunting, it's not surprising that their search took an unconventional turn.

They yearned for community, proximity to farmer's markets, and a space uniquely suited to their tastes. They also wanted to live green. To them, this meant more than adding eco-friendly-looking finishes. It meant finding - or building - a house with passive heating and cooling capabilities and energy-efficient insulation and using Energy Star-rated appliances and lighting. It meant avoiding fossil fuels. And it meant using as many green building materials as possible, and choosing a spot located within walking distance, not driving distance, of daily activities.

After a fruitless search in the Boston area, where their jobs are based, they veered north. "We thought we could afford to buy land and build the house we wanted in Vermont," says Ian, 33. They found a 15,682-square-foot parcel near the town center in Bristol - and arranged telecommuting gigs with their companies.

Then they had to find a mortgage. A green house costs more to build (even though, when finished, it's often worth more) than a non-green house of the same size and in the same location. But the loan officers whom the Albinsons spoke to couldn't take this into account when determining an appropriate loan size; there weren't any other local houses like it on the market with which they could compare. "The people doing the appraisal had no clue what we were trying to do," Ian says. "They just didn't have the knowledge about sustainable design and building to understand its value." But Ian and Raedia, 27, successfully argued their case. "Ultimately, the bank designed a new green building loan program based on us," Ian adds triumphantly.

They broke ground in May 2007. "We studied shelter magazines and collected designs we liked," Raedia says. "Flooring, details, materials . . . there's so much to think about." Ian's dad, a master woodworker who lives in nearby New Haven, Vermont, drew up the house plans. They positioned the house and the windows to maximize passive heating and cooling and natural light.

Sourcing cost-effective green materials proved the most challenging. While ecofriendly materials are more widely available than ever, they found that many come with a big price tag. "Focusing on green materials that we could actually afford helped us narrow things down," Ian says.

They skipped the expensive Paperstone counters (made of recycled paper) and instead chose more affordable Marmoleum (a green flooring and countertop material). They opted out of big-ticket items like an induction cooktop and photovoltaic solar panels but splurged on a geothermal heating system. "We had the option of going with an efficient propane-based furnace, but stuck with our no-fossil-fuel mandate," Ian says - plus, he estimates the system will pay for itself in 10 to 12 years.

One of the Albinsons' cost-cutting, and ultra green, tricks: using castoffs from other construction projects. "We went to places that carry Marmoleum and asked them for remnants," Ian says. "You have to go to a lot of showrooms and look in the back." They used as many reclaimed and salvaged materials as possible, such as a substantial set of 500-year-old Douglas fir support beams and drawers and doors left over from a woodworking company's other projects.

Not every material in the house is completely green, nor is the home fully carbon-neutral. "We still pull energy from the electric grid," Ian says. Still, compared with a conventional home, this is a seriously earth-friendly abode. No one looking at it would ever know the Albinsons chose concrete made with fl y ash (a greener alternative to standard concrete) for the foundation and slab, or that all the wood comes from carefully managed sources.

To off set the costs of their green choices, they've tackled most of the interior work on their own, from painting with low-VOC paint to floor installations. But it's been worth it. "It can be depressing at times to live in an unfinished house. It's tempting just to do things the conventional way," Ian says. "But you always have to keep in mind that being green really is important."

Follow Raedia and Ian's progress on their blog, vtecobuilder.com.

Christie Matheson writes often about green design. Send comments to designing@globe.com.