Shopping for a home? Some tips for finding the right house and neighbourhood

I think the best place to start would be to go through our Green home building guide starting with the design and planning stage. Fill yourself with as much info as you can, and frankly I’d recommend going through the various videos on our page about the Edelweiss House. Here are a few pages I would recommend as a starting place.

• What to look for in a home building lot
• How to build a passive solar home
• How to build a slab on grade
• Choosing the best home insulation

That’s a start to a few pages that will at least help you get your head in the game to get an idea of what you want.

The budge you mention of 200K is not a particularly big one, and I hope that’s for the house alone and not the purchase of a lot, excavation, well, septic and permits. Typically speaking, you would find most builders will tell you to assume between 200 and 250 per square foot to build a home, though if you do a lof it yourself then you can save quite a bit of money. But, to do that you would need the tools and the skills. Looking into pre-fab options are also a good alternative, there are some pretty high-quality options out there that are also quite affordable. We are currently building a second demo house, this one in Wakefield, QC it is about the size you mention so it may be worth considering, and being nearby you could go have a look at it. It is an extremely efficient pre-fab home with dense-packed cellulose walls.

As a rule, at the very start of designing a home, you would need to first set your priorities - something has to be flexible; either the budget, the quality or the size. If you are firm about the performance and you can’t go over 200k, then you need to be flexible with the size. And if you’re firm about the quality and size, then the budget would need to be flexible.

We also do consulting by the hour (as much as or as little as you need), so drop me a line if you like, [email protected] and I may be able help.

Let me start by saying that buying a home in an existing urban area and doing a full energy efficiency upgrade and retrofit is as green a home as you will get. We have several pages that will help you in that respect, so I’ll link them below. Are you a builder, and do you plan to do this work yourself? I think the most important thing for you to know is probably how far gone is too far gone. This page is a good start – 

Renovate, Remodel or Rebuild? How to choose which is best for homes

That will give you an idea from the outset of what is repairable and what is not. Here are some other pages of value –

Choosing where to live - what to look for in a neighbourhood

Evaluating a home before purchase

How to stay on budget when renovating and building new

And, if you end up with a house that is in fairly good condition, there are always easy and basic home energy efficient upgrades, see more here – Easy DIY green home improvement tips.  I hope those pages help a bit, and for when you get to the actual build itself, you will find all you need to know about green home building and renovations in the Ecohome Building Guide. After you've been through those pages, let us know if you have more questions.