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The Test of Time

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2012

By Julie Feinstein and Catherine Baldi, Arana Craftsman Painters

 

Taking a look at a LEED Platinum home, 10 years later

 

Over a decade ago Arana Craftsman Painters had the pleasure of meeting Shannon Bloemker when our company was subcontracted to provide painting and staining services as part of her groundbreaking eco-conscious renovation project. 

 

Shannon and her husband Rob had purchased a mid-century modern style home in Piedmont knowing that it needed A LOT of work. Fortunately, she was the perfect new homeowner for that  moment. With her years of experience in construction and property management, and a nearly-completed Master’s degree in Sustainability from Harvard University, the stage was set. 


The players included General Contractor Michael McCutcheon of McCutcheon Construction, and Architect Michelle Kaufmann. Together, and informed by Bloemker’s prodigious research, work, and care choosing the systems, team, and practices, the project garnered the honor of being the first LEED-Platinum-certified remodel in the City of Piedmont, winning the title, “Best Green Renovation,” in 2012.

Now, over ten years later, we invited Bloemker to reflect on her experience and share with us what has worked, and what hasn’t withstood the test of time.

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Going “green” sometimes means you have to be an “early-adopter,” taking risks on technology that might be newer or unproven, Bloemaker explains. For example, she says, “The greywater system we created was considered cutting-edge at the time — I wrote my master’s thesis on it. The system takes all the ‘greywater,’ (the used water flowing out from the laundry, shower, and sinks) and distributes it to the landscape. You have to keep in mind though, there are laws about this. Greywater needs to be distributed to the landscape below the surface; you couldn't spray that water because it might have bacteria in it. And, since it’s below the ground, the problem is that sometimes you can't tell if the system has stopped working until a plant dies because it didn't get any water!” 

 

She adds, “This system was designed as a subsurface wetland, delivering water from our sinks and showers and then filtering it through rock before going out to the landscape plants. It is a solid concept, but requires a lot of maintenance which prevents it from really becoming a mainstream idea.” 

Bloemker has continued to work with the project’s designer, Dig Cooperative, who offers new ideas for water innovation as the market evolves. The hope is that a mainstream/affordable solution will eventually emerge.

 

Conversely, Bloemker reports, the system her home uses to capture rainwater for laundry and toilets was a major win. “It’s amazing!” she says. “I'm so happy that we have it. It's just sort of set-it-and-forget-it!”

Unfortunately, even in 2024, "there are still so few reliable resources for people seeking to capture rainwater on their properties. Most websites are full of outdated references. The best idea is to consult with a hydrology company like the one I used, DIG Cooperative, since on-site water collection always requires a custom design based on property topography, roof parameters, and end use case. It's not a one-size-fits-most kind of solution, so getting the array of options that work for each home, from rain barrels to complex underground storage, requires site planning and system design.

 

"I still really love my system, and I am always tinkering with new technology to improve it as that becomes available, and I rely on DIG to help with annual maintenance."

 

Michael McCutcheon points out that an ongoing relationship with tradespeople and manufacturers, for troubleshooting and maintenance, is key to sustainability. He says, “A truly sustainable project must stand the test of time, so proper ongoing maintenance is critical. To that end, it is critical to build a team that trusts each other and continues to work together.”

 

This philosophy has borne out in the case of the woodwork, a primary feature of the modern-meets-natural style of the Bloemkers’ home. The exterior walls are vertical cedar siding. Over time, cedar has a tendency to turn gray and bleed “tannins,” which show up as black streaks on the wood surface. The cedar on Bloemker’s home was a beautiful red-golden color that she wanted to maintain. 

 

She says, “To be certified as a LEED Platinum home, we had to work within the confines of the program to meet as many green requirements as possible. This meant challenging our contractors and vendors with using different products and applications.”

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Per these requirements, Arana Craftsman Painters originally applied a water-based stain on the exterior siding. It looked beautiful, but didn’t last more than a year; it didn’t penetrate the wood, and that lack of penetration led to fading, and didn’t slow down the tannin stains. 

 

“We learned over time that the north-facing vs. south-facing sides of our house get very different sun and weather exposure,” Bloemker explains. “The north side still has all water-based stain, while the south-facing side has been redone twice. The first time we tried water-based again. After that failed we decided the best choice would be oil-based.” Arana applied Messmer’s semi-transparent stain, an oil-based product known to protect wood and help hold its color.

 

Sustainability requires a balance between several factors including the costs of materials, the maintenance budget, and the long term impacts on the environment. 

 

Another aspect of Bloemkers’ LEED platinum project that did work well and has held up over time, while also being an iconic and stunning representation of Shannon’s values, is their indoor “living wall.” 

 

A living wall is a vertical structure made up of plants to improve air quality and bring nature indoors. And as indoor plants also contribute to elevated mood and decreased anxiety, they are a welcome addition whether vertical or in pots, though one cannot argue with the impact of a vertical arrangement.

 

Bloemker says, “We didn’t know what would thrive. It turned out, some of the most basic house plants were the biggest winners.” The indoor irrigation system runs up from underneath the house, fed by a tank of collected rainwater.

McCutcheon notes that the living wall was another learning process. Original plans had not included a skylight, which the team installed later after the plants simply weren’t thriving.

 

“Biophilia” is a current trend In design and building. While the word may be new, the idea of incorporating nature into design was on Bloemker’s radar a decade ago, It was certainly part of the mid-century trend in its day, and was relevant to the Japanese design elements that inspired mid-century landscaping. 

 

Thus the design included river rocks in the courtyard and along that hallway. “The rocks blur the lines between indoor and outdoor and connect the living environment with the built environment,” notes Bloemker.

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Another success among Bloemker’s many eco-friendly experiments was what she calls “the grass driveway.” Grasscrete blocks function as both a drivable surface and a lawn of sorts. The blocks are formed from recycled materials, as well as being recyclable in future if needed; plus they have spaces (where the grass grows) which allow for easy drainage. 

 

Among other innovations she tried in 2012, the ultra-thin solar panels unfortunately were a miss. They looked nice, but didn’t deliver, and the company that produced them went out of business. “We spent $20K, and the panels generate hardly any electricity at all.” Bloemker is currently looking to have “traditional” panels installed on top of them.

 

“We now know that a solar system should have multiple microinverters instead of a single inverter,” McCutcheon explains. “Because of varied shade from nearby trees, the individual panels would put out different amounts of electricity. What we learned is that if you only have a single inverter, the system drops down to the potential of the lowest-producing panel. Over a decade ago in the industry we just didn’t know that.”

 

McCutcheon notes, “Shannon was willing to be on the ‘bleeding edge.’ She wanted to try out new technologies, to be a proof case for the City of Piedmont and for the wider building community. I give her full credit!”

Is Shannon Bloemker happy with how things have turned out, a decade later? Definitely. She says, “When we bought this home, it was at the perfect crossroads of ‘needs-work’ and ‘this is something that I‘m really interested in.’ It was a good opportunity to say ‘Well, what is out there? What can we do?’”

 

“There were lessons learned,” Bloemker admits. And yet, her optimism is unflagging. She emphasizes, “You‘ve got to be willing to push the envelope if you’re trying new stuff, particularly with green technologies. I was willing for something not to be perfect. We can’t actually all wait until something is ‘tried and tested’ before using it in our own homes if we want to see the industry change. Overall the new-and-less-common things we tried at the time were worth it, and I wouldn’t change a thing!”

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Resources: 

Arana Craftsman Painters: www.craftsmanpainters.com

Build It Green: www.builditgreen.org

Dig Cooperative: www.dig.coop

McCutcheon Construction: www.mcbuild.com

Michelle Kaufmann: www.kaufmannstudio.com

Rainwater Action: www.graywateraction.org

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