Typically home tours are all about the Persian rugs, the antiques, crown molding and the designer window coverings, the Build It Green Home Tour featured that and so much more.  I spent the morning comparing the homes in Santa Clara county and found that my fellow lookiloos and I talked more about the "bones" of the house than what we could find adorning it. 

There were a total of 14 homes on the tour, 2 stood out for their sheer difference in approach.  Both homes were in located in the upscale Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose off the 280 freeway, within walking distance to the trendy Willow Glen main street, Lincoln Avenue.

The first home on sunny Cherry Avenue was built by Lorrie Broderick, for whom this was her second venture as a developer.  She purchased the plans for the home online and set out to find ways to make her investment  more green.   I am not quite sure what I expected when I walked in, but the home was gorgeous and modern and frankly, blew my expectations for what "green" meant.  It  quickly inspired me to think about how I could replicate many of the amenities Lorrie installed in my own home.

The bathrooms had Watersense ultra low flush and dual flush toilets and occupancy sensors. They also featured Energy Star bathroom fans, which meant that these fans used 65% less energy, reducing rot, mold and other moisture problems.  The house is well insulated and built with high-performance windows, thus the three story home only has air conditioning on the top floor.

Most interesting to me as a parent was the backyard.  Willow Glen being a family friendly neighborhood, Lorrie assumed that the buyers of her home would most likely have a family with small children.  Rather than pouring a full concrete backyard, she saved part of the yard in case a family wanted to put in a jungle gym.  She put down recycled rubber mulch on the right side of the yard which matched the real mulch on the left side.  Purchased at costco.com, she said this recycled material ensured that there would be no mold, slight cushioning for those inevitable falls and no splinters for little toes.  Great idea. 

Overall the home had big and small touches for easy green living.  Lorrie was able to recycle 90% of construction waste, used spray foam insulation and low VOC interior paint.

In contrast, the home on Hicks Avenue, called Villa Terra,  is architect’s Noel Cross’ dream home. Hidden from the main street by a garden of native California landscaping, this home can be described as a modern day "adobe".  The exterior walls are PISE (pneumatically impacted stabilized earth) – a type of rammed earth construction, where a moistened mix of earth and concrete were sprayed through a hose under pressure against form work.  When the form work is removed then the walls are done.  The results are old world rustic.  The house stays cool and is warmed with radiant floor heating.   The ceiling is insulated with recycled blue jean materials.   The house also featured both a passive solar heating system and a 5.5kW photovoltaic system, where any extra energy generated can be sent back to the power grid for a credit on their monthly bill.

What stood out to me was how much of the home’s materials were reclaimed, that is to say came from other tear down remodeling projects.  Cross used ceiling beams from Eli Thomas store from the old Town and Country Village shopping center, bought two sinks for $15.00 from Whole House Salvage Yard and lockers from the "Robe Room" from the O’Connor Mansion from Notre Dame High School.  The side patio is made up of used bricks reclaimed from 15 different homes. 

Overall, the home was absolutely spectacular.  The home was expansive, yet inviting.  I could easily see myself cooking Thanksgiving dinner in their large kitchen or hosting a dinner party that spilled out onto the brick terrace. 

Green can certainly be gorgeous and Villa Terra on Hicks Avenue certainly drove that point home.