Gentrification….an Exciting Time for East Austin

January 25, 2013 By

East Austin gentrification is in full swing.  Regardless of political beliefs, the ethnic and economic composition of East Austin is steadily changing.  Revitalization projects encourage many an East Austin builder to construct new homes, increasing property values in the area and spurring economic growth.

Born of the segregation era, East Austin was home to black-only schools and Austin’s first city funded recreational facilities designated specifically for African Americans.  Almost all economic activity in the area was centered on East 11th and East 12th Streets.  The streets served as a commerce hub for the area, and East Austin thrived.

As integration became the new way of life in the mid-1960′s, economic opportunities for African Americans outside of East Austin gradually whittled away at the area’s own economic center.  Eventually, the area succumbed to high crime rates, under performing schools, and a lack of economic opportunities.  As a result, property values plummeted.

Verde Builders Group, an East Austin builder is sensitive to both the political and economic ramifications of East Austin gentrification.  Politically, some view gentrification as racism, with higher income whites seeking lower cost middle class housing displacing the lower income black population.  Economically, gentrification is steadily raising property values and increasing the tax base, both of which help to provide the funds needed to improve the schools, fund law enforcement, and encourage job creation.

All neighborhoods change with time.  The gentrification of East Austin is just another example of that change.  Critics fear that the history of the area will be lost.  But local organizations will work to ensure that does not happen.

 

East-Austin-Modern-Builder

 

 

 

 

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Sustainable Building Ideas

December 14, 2011 By

The advantages of building a custom home are endless, and one of those is the ability to implement green appliances and materials from the get-go. This makes you socially responsible and it usually ends up being more economical in the long-run too.

Sustainable buildings are healthy buildings for  both residents and the environment. Of course we don’t expect individuals to give up life’s little luxuries to live green. That’s why a sustainable builder will provide their expertise on green materials for practical living. Examples of sustainable ideas for your custom home can be:

 

Solar Energy – solar panels are easy to install. In addition, imagine your annual savings on energy.

 

Reduced Energy Appliances and Lightings – We recommend ENERGY STAR® appliances and also installing  fluorescent lights and motion sensors to reduce the energy used in your home.

 

Green Flooring – Bamboo flooring or reclaimed wood are excellent options for flooring. These materials are light on the environment and healthy for you.

 

Natural Ventilation – We can design spaces that make the natural flow of nature enter your home. This will include window or door placements in the blue print.

 

Water Conservation – Showerheads, dishwashers and other appliances all add up when it comes to water usage. A certified building contractor will have hands-on knowledge of the best appliances for conserving water.

 

Building a sustainable home can require a lot of planning and construction techniques, so it’s important to hire a contractor that’s familiar with this territory. Your new custom home can be a beacon  for your environmental beliefs.  Building green doesn’t have to mean giving up your  personal tastes either. Verde Builders Group can give you a functional and naturally beautiful custom made home using sustainable materials.

Local-minded, Verde Builders Group is a versatile company that’s inspired to use sustainable materials and local construction. And of course, to achieve all of this while still creating a stunning looking home. We also specialize in remodels, site analysis, green building consultation and energy calculations.

 

 

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Top Benefits of a Custom Home

October 18, 2011 By

Instead of shopping around for a new home, why not build your dream home? An Austin custom home makes compromise a thing of the past, and will ensure you and your family get the most out of your living space. If you’re on the fence about the subject, here are the top benefits of a custom home – consider these before purchasing that 1970s fixer upper or that home that looks just like the one next to it.

1.    Address special needs and preferences

Whether you need a “barrier free” home for a resident in a wheelchair, a kid-friendly floor plan, lots of yard space for a huge garden, a gourmet kitchen for the cook of the household, or all of the above, this definitely tops the list of the top benefits of a custom home. You’ll get exactly what you want and need, no if’s, and’s or but’s!

2.    Go green

New custom homes are energy efficient, meaning you’ll save on bills and save the environment in one fell swoop.

3.    Get the look you want

Love the color green? Want an open, sprawling space with big windows? Whatever home you’ve dreamed about, make it happen! Don’t compromise on the functionality or aesthetics of your home.

4.    Make your day-to-day easier

Custom cabinets, built-in shelving, and other unique qualities of a custom home make your day-to-day life much more efficient. If you’ve got a room for every task, and a place for every item, you won’t waste time with the hassle and organization challenges of a typical home.

5.    Less repairs and maintenance

As with any new home, the money you’ll invest beforehand will pay off over time. You won’t have to worry about regular repairs or maintenance, both a financial and time consuming headache.

6.    Choice location

For many, this is one of the very top benefits of a custom home. Custom location! Don’t settle for that neighborhood with the bad school district, or that noisy highway traffic. Build your home in an ideal location for every member of your family – whether that means lots of natural scenery, or a five-minute drive to the office.

7.    Better resale value

While building a custom home is not the cheapest option, if you get inside the head of future buyers while planning, you can ensure you’ll make a big profit when it’s time to sell. Modern home buyers really do have different priorities than home buyers from a few decades ago, so you have timing on your side. Even the littlest things that make a big difference in your life will impress the average home buyer, too.

8.    A custom home is uniquely yours

Whether or not you like to show your home off to friends and family members, there’s no denying it – they’ll be envious of your digs! That’s because there will be no other house on the block, in the neighborhood, in the city, or for that matter – the world – that will be like it. Even if you use a general floor plan as a guide, small original additions and embellishments will give your home a truly unique feel.

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Remodeling Vs Renovation

September 26, 2011 By

By Verde Builders Group

When we talk about remodeling vs renovation, it’s much more than semantics. To renovate means to get a room (or home) back into shape. To remodel means to fundamentally change it. Renovating a garage can mean installing tile, while remodeling it can mean turning it into a guest house. A good Austin remodeling contractor can sort out the semantics for you, but it’s wise to be an informed consumer yourself.

A renovation has the potential to be drastic.

If you’re renovating your kitchen, you may gut the whole room and replace everything old with something new. After it’s all said and done, you really have a new kitchen on your hands! However, a renovation might also be a much simpler and less time-consuming process, like replacing the furniture or that outdated wallpaper.

A remodel is, by definition, drastic.

However, a kitchen remodel will, more so, turn the kitchen upside down. A remodel will involve changing up the floor plan, and maybe even the function. Maybe you have limited counter space for cooking, and want a space big enough and multifaceted enough to impress a chef. That would require more than an upgrade – that would require change, and perhaps a whole working crew.

Remodeling vs renovation: why does it matter?

Why is it important to understand the difference between remodeling and renovation? Who cares what you call it, as long as you do it, right?

Well there are a few reasons it’s good to explore the differences. For starters, when you’re home shopping, or looking for a contractor to help you with your current home, you’ll want to know what remodeling vs renovation means. A newly-renovated home really is quite a different thing than a newly-remodeled home. It may have been restored to its former glory, perhaps, (think of an old home with a new paint job), versus drastically changed, from head to toe.

Remodeling is normally a bigger investment into a property than renovation. It’s not really a matter of what’s better or worse, though, but a matter of what you’re looking for!

Knowing the difference between remodeling and renovation can also help you plan what to do with your own home. When you’re renovating a room or a home, you’re really in one mind set – what can I improve? When you’re remodeling a room or a home, you’re thinking – what can I change? If you’re not even aware of these two different mindsets, you may feel scattered and unfocused. Of course it’s possible to remodel and renovate at the same time, too!

With a good Austin home remodeling contractor, the task of remodeling, investing big into your home and giving it more than just a face lift, becomes an easy task. So, get in touch if you’re interested in remodeling a room in your home, or your whole home.

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Radiant Barrier vs Insulation

September 26, 2011 By

By Verde Builders Group

What is Radiant Barrier?

Interested in saving money with an energy efficient home design? We can help you make your home wallet and eco-friendly! One way to save on energy is to install a radiant barrier. But before we dive into the “radiant barrier vs insulation” debate, let’s ask: what is radiant barrier, and how does it work?

Radiant barrier is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a barrier to radiant heat – in other words, it blocks heat coming from the sun, or even a light bulb. Radiant heat is also known as infra-red heat, which travels through space until its absorbed or reflected by something.

That “something” could be a radiant barrier. A radiant barrier is made of material, typically aluminum, that does such a good job at reflecting this heat, your home’s none the wiser of the steaming temperatures outside.

Regular insulation, on the other hand, just absorbs the heat.

Radiant Barrier, At Its Best

The best radiant barriers have aluminum on both sides, one side to send the heat packing, back where it came from, and the other side to ensure the heat doesn’t mingle with your cold and comfy air inside. The best radiant barrier also has plenty of “air space” for this process to happen, and that can be done with double-sided insulation. In a nutshell: radiant barrier insulation in your home, particularly your attic (your first line of defense against the sun), makes heat reflect back into the atmosphere, where it belongs.

A radiant barrier is also great for those cold, winter days! But how? Well, you’ve got heat in your home you want to trap, right? Well, a radiant barrier will reflect this heat back into your home, the same way it reflects the sun’s heat back into the atmosphere!

What does all of this mean? Your air conditioner and heater won’t have to work so hard in summer and winter, your bills will go down as a result, and last but of course not least – your home will be an affordable escape from hot or cold weather.

Radiant Barrier vs Insulation

Now, back to the topic: radiant barrier vs insulation. Although radiant barrier is a form of insulation, it’s not the same  as typical insulation.

Typical insulation can come in the form of everything from foam to fiberglass, and it simply absorbs the heat from the sun (or from within your home). Insulation dramatically slows the process of heating down, whether that process is a radiant, conductive, or convective one.

There are reasons to go with regular versus radiant barrier insulation. For one, regular insulation tackles more than just one kind of heat, but heat transferred through radiation, conduction, and convection. As well, culprits like dirt won’t necessarily take its effectiveness away (as it does with radiant barriers).

Conclusion: For Texas residents, radiant barrier is the way to go, as it’s most effective in the summertime, and
simply does a better job than regular insulation at keeping your home cool. However, make sure to research the pros and cons before making a decision.

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Radiant Barrier Helps You Make Your Home More Energy Efficient

July 12, 2011 By

By Daniel Reeves, Owner, Verde Builders Group

In today’s economy, finding new ways to cut costs is no longer just for pennypinchers.  It’s for everybody!  People from all walks of life can benefit from an energy efficient home.  Not only do they get the peace of mind of knowing that their efforts are helping the environment, they also can bank the savings which adds up to be quite a bit over time.

Lower Your Energy Bill

A radiant barrier, installed in your home, can help significantly lower your home’s cooling costs.  The barrier is made from a highly reflective material that reflects and re-emits radiant heat.  It does not absorb it which makes it perfect for your energy efficient home.

Three Factors That Ensure Your Radiant Barrier is Working

Three factors determine whether your radiant barrier is working optimally.  They are Emissivity, Reflectivity, and the angle in which the incident radiation strikes the surface.  Your builder will be able to explain each factor to you in greater detail when he visits your home.

Types of Radiant Barriers

Radiant barriers come in a variety of forms.  Here are just a few that you have to choose from:

Reflective Foil

Reflective Metal Roof Shingles

Reflective Laminated Roof Sheathing

Reflective Chips

Installed Correctly, A Radiant Barrier Helps You Save Big

A radiant barrier is only effective if it is installed correctly.  That’s why you should have a trusted installer like Verde Builders Group work on your home energy efficiency project.  We have years of experience and a reputation to match.  That’s what gives us an advantage over other radiant barrier installers in Austin.

Installed on the cold side of the insulation, a radiant barrier acts as a vapor barrier in the wrong location.  Attics are notoriously bad places to have this happen.  That’s because warm moisture condenses on the underside of the barrier in the winter.  It is strongly recommended that you do not apply radiant barriers directly on top of attic floor insulation because of this.  Moisture can make the barrier deteriorate and that’s not the best way to improve your home’s energy efficiency.

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How to Find a Reliable Custom Home Builder in Austin

June 19, 2011 By

By Daniel Reeves, Owner, Verde Builders Group

Reliability and integrity are two qualities found in any good building company.  Being able to deliver results on time and in the condition promised are traits worth commending in this day and age.  With so many home builders in the marketplace, it’s hard to decide who to go with.  As seasoned professionals, we have a few pointers that we think will help you narrow down your search.

Here’s how you can find a reliable Austin builder for your custom home or remodel:

Make sure your prospective builder is insured and certified. It will be a complete nightmare if the company that you are working with is not qualified.  Knowing what the builder is capable and permitted to do will help you make an educated decision as to whether or not you want to use their services for your own home.

Ask questions. Get to know the price range, location, and the materials that the builder specializes in.  That way you know you’re getting the best value for the money that you’re spending on your new home or addition.

Talk to other people who had their homes built by the company that you are considering signing a contract with. Look for reviews and testimonials online.  This is an easy way to save yourself the heartache of losing money to a dishonest builder.

Always review the inspection and building permit records for former homes built by the contractor. You can request a list of homes or projects built by the contractor.  All you have to do is go down to the government office in charge of inspections and permits and ask to see them.  Pay careful attention to any red flags indicating that the builder in question lacks integrity.

Choosing the right custom home builder in Austin takes time and research.  You want to find a company that is professional, dependable, honest, and trustworthy.  Verde Builders Group is all that and more. When it comes to building and remodeling homes in the Austin area, we’re among the best builders you will find.


 

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