GOLD!

THE RESULTS ARE IN, AND OUR HOUSE WON GOLD IN THE PARADE OF HOMES FOR 2010!

We have a lot of people to thank, first and foremost our builder Chris Thompson of PCI Builders in Kernersville, NC.  He not only took a floor plan we found on the internet and turned it into the beautiful house we're going to move into soon, but also gave lots of advice on architectural changes we could do to the house to improve it (must have worked!).

Mark and Suzette Shelton of Shelton Kitchens and Baths did an amazing job helping us design a kitchen within our budget and also installing the kitchen.  This is one of the biggest kitchens we've ever seen and has more storage than we've ever had.

Josh Robertson of Graybrooke construction did an excellent job designing and installing the low voltage wiring I wanted in the house.  He was responsible for running the internet cableing, whole house audio, and home theater system/wiring.  This was an excellent addition to the home that we're very excited about.

There were many other contractors that all did an excellent job.  Chris Thompson has a list of contractors he routinely uses and all of them were top notch. 
The whole process of building a house was an exciting experience, I'm glad we did it.  I'm looking forward now to moving in!!!!

Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged

The 2010 Triad Parade of Homes has finished the judging for the Parade of Homes.  As a part of the Parade, the next two weekends the public may tour the homes entered in the parade.  If you go to the Parade website you can get a map of the homes to view them, we are home #39.
We will not find out how well the house did until Tuesday, but we do know we won an award for "Best Feature" for the balcony off our master bedroom that overlooks the lake




















We have a few more certifications that reflect how our house was built.  The first is a HERS rating for our home.  A home built to standard is given a rating of 100, anything less than 100 is BETTER than average; or MORE energy efficient.  Our house recieved a HERS rating of 67, so our house is 33% more energy efficient than the average home.

Additionally, our house is a "Certified Green" home.  This certification takes variables into account starting from how much building materials the builder wasted to whether or not we used LED lights or CFL's.  Our house received a "Bronze" award.

Structured Wiring

The structured wiring is complete.  Structured wiring is something I really wanted in the house (and something Shelly rolled her eyes about).  Basically, all of the low voltage wiring in the house (coax, internet cable, telephone, etc) are all run to a central location in the house.  For internet this will allow me to have internet jacks throughout the house, for example there are 2 jacks behind the TV so if I download a movie from the internet it will download faster (not using wireless connections).  I can also stream music, videos, etc from my computer to view on the TV.
Here is what the wiring box looks like:

And I have to admit I had a lot of help.  I found a great contractor that I've known for several years who has a lot of experience with wiring systems like this.  Josh from Graybrooke construction also helped me wire the house for surround sound and whole house audio.  If your thinking of doing something like this you should definitely give Josh a call or visit his website.