Chapter 1 - A Wall Street Journal ad

This is the story of a one-of-a-kind home building project that started five years ago.  My husband Steve and I live in the Washington DC area.  In April 2008, we set out looking for a peaceful and quiet place for our eventual retirement.  Using Google maps, we drew a circle encompassing land within 2 hours of our home at the time using Google maps and found the 70 acre Lipsett Tract in Mann Township, Bedford County, PA which was owned and managed by the Western Pennsylvania Land Conservancy (http://www.wpconline.org/22/land-and-water). 

The property is about one-third Virginia pine forest.  There is a man-made pond and a fresh water creek which feeds into Sideling Creek, part of the Potomac watershed.  There is an old two story lodge on the property which housed some Conservancy staff. 

After agreeing to strict environment easements including home construction is a small minimal protection area of the property, we completed the land purchase in August 2008 and started reading about green home building.

Building a green home from the ground up is a daunting task for a couple with full time jobs and no experience.  We have been somewhat energy conscious:  we commute to work year-round by bike and public transportation.  We had a short wish list:  unique design, use of as many forms of alternative energy as possible, and for simplicity's sake involvement of as few contractors as possible.   I ordered a few soft cover books, did a lot of web surfing and starting subscribing to Dwell magazine. Then in December 2009 we saw an ad in the Wall Street Journal for Huf Haus (http://www.huf-haus.com/en/home.html).

Now in its 101th year, Huf Haus is a German company based in Hartenfels, about 30 minutes south of Frankfurt which builds award-winning timber-frame prefabricated ("turn-key") homes primarily in Germany and the UK.  In 2009, they founded red blue energy (http://redblue-energy.com/home) to incorporate advanced energy saving technology into a new line of sustainable homes they call green(r)evolution.

The Huf Haus model differs from conventional home building in the US in many ways, most prominently in the requirement that the eventual owners do all the site preparation work including the foundation and in the schedule of cash payments (in Euros).  Our project became very complex.

In November 2010, we met with Alexander Kolbe of DotGreen; he had placed the WSJ ad.  He is a former Huf Haus architect/designer who had moved to Cleveland OH with his wife Michelle, also a designer. The couple planned to bring Huf Haus to the US market.  They help customize one of the Huf Haus models (Art 3) and applied for a residential site plan and survey. 

In February 2011, we flew to the Huf Village in Hartenfels as guests of Huf Hauf.  We met Managing Partner Georg Huf and our Project Manager Patric Muller.  We were amazed at the craftsmanship on display at the immaculate factory and in the show homes.  We signed a Sales Agreement for the first green(r)evolution Huf Haus to be constructed in the US, had a celebratory lunch and then flew home. 

To be continued . . .