Who’s Next?

Partially to give me something to do, and partially to help build my portfolio, I entered the FreeGreen.com “Who’s Next?” green home design competition.  FreeGreen.com has been attempting to bring progressive home designs to mainstream America by offering free home plans to download.  However the “Who’s Next?” competition is intended to kick off the launch of a new plans site with designs that are for purchase.

With over 400 entrants, the competition is stiff.  Public voting began on March 2nd 2010, and will close on March 18th.  The top 3 submissions will receive $5,000, a chance to develop the design and offer it on their new for sale plans site.  All entries are 1,800 square feet or less and in two separate categories.  The first, “The Starter House” for a young married couple looking to expand their family.  The second “The Not So Empty Nest” for an older retired couple looking to downsize, yet still want to accommodate family gatherings and take into consideration potential mobility issues by the homeowner.  I had the chance to enter a submission in both categories, one with an old co-worker and friend, as well as a submission on my own.  So please take some time to review my submissions as well as others, and I would appreciate your support and vote.  You can vote for each entry once per email address.

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A New Purpose

Again I have been absent from the blogging world.  With all good reason this time around.  At the first of the year, I have found myself in the same position as many others in the architectural profession, searching for employment.  Even though I am looking for a full time job, I am not hopeful.  I know too many that are unemployed and just heard about a couple more firms that have let people go.  However I am looking at this as a great opportunity not only for myself, but my family and taking this opportunity to take my passion and knowledge to the next level.  As a few professionals in this video I came across last week, I am making Lemonade and am going to be transforming Symbiotic Home from a personal project, to a home performance business.

Symbiotic Home (sym-home) will be offering residential design services, as well as energy auditing, home performance contracting and LEED consulting (both at the residential and commercial level).  Luckily in the state of Ohio, an architectural license is not required to practice residential design work.  So until I complete my Architectural Registration Exam (ARE), design services will be limited to new homes and home renovations/additions.

In the mean time I am running what we jokingly refer to as Daddy Daycare.  Staying home with my two kids to help cut our costs until I can start bringing in some real money.  Last week I attended a week long training session in Cleveland to become a BPI Building Analyst, which will give me the training and certification to perform energy audits.  The written exam was a piece of cake.  Now the 4-6 week waiting period to find out the results of my field exam.  I am confident that I passed, as I see it as a great additional service for future clients.  Especially when Ohio adopts the 2009 Energy code (more about that in a later post).

Therefore in the meantime “The other side of the drawing board” is going to get incorporated into the Symbiotic Home website with a hopeful relaunch of the site in the next couple of weeks.  So stay tuned for a whole new look and purpose.