Martha Rose Construction

By,  Adrian Willanger Eco-Redux 

Martha Rose after exhausting hours of research has selected to go, with an industry leader, A.O. Smith’s newest hot water heater the “Vertex 100” for installation in her latest high-performance homes.  

The Vertex is the result of a 3 year project between the United States Department of Energy and A.O. Smith to accelerate development of a higher efficiency hot water heating solution.  The Vertex 100 operating at 96% thermal efficiency provides a higher output with more efficient combustion to produce hot water at a lower operating cost.  

Understanding thermal efficiency, think of thermal efficiency percentage as a dollar spent operating your water heater. Standard water heaters operate at 78% or less thermal efficiency meaning that 22 cents of every dollar used to heat hot water is wasted.  Compared to the 96% efficiency of a Vertex this can add up to a substantial difference in lost energy and money over the life of a water heater. 

One of televisions’ first green genre stars Ed Bagley Jr. has selected the Vertex 100 for his own  use as well as talk host Jay Leno for his green update of his car museum style garage.  You may not be able to afford any of his cars but you can use the same “celebrity” hot water heating system.   

by, Staff Eco-Redux

Green Builder Martha Rose Chooses the high-efficiency Mantis freestanding gas fireplace for her new homes at Fish Singer Place in Shoreline, Washington.

The Mantis is the first and only vented 28,000 BTU fireplace that is certified to exceed 93% efficiency AFUE.  The   AFUE is the most widely used measure of a furnace’s heating efficiency.  It measures the amount of heat actually delivered to your house compared to the amount of fuel you supply to the furnace.

Humidify While You Heat

Capturing the condensed water, a byproduct of its clean combustion and efficient heat exchanger and then evaporates it adding humidity back into the room.  

Just one of the many energy saving features that can be found in the 5-Star Built Green homes at Fish Singer Pace.

Make your plans now to join Builder Martha Rose on June 19 from 1-5 for the 2nd annual Eco-Enclave Sales Event.

The “Second Green” grand opening celebration mirrors the eco-friendly construction aspects unique to the four homes at Fish Singer Place. The four homes designed by noted AIA architect Craig B. Anderson of CB Anderson Architects and built by award winning builder Martha Rose, of Martha Rose Construction, will be unveiled at the event with sales underway and one of the new homes already under contract.

The “First Green” event featured the Queen City Eco-Village, this enclave consits of 3 newly constructed 5-Star homes featuring detached carriage houses, as well as an extreme remodel of a 1900s farm house.  To achieve the 5-Star rating, the homes used extensive green building strategies starting with site specific designs and implementing low-impact-development strategies.  Builder Martha Rose mentions “it may cost a little bit more to build this way” but it’s the right thing to do.  The use of pervious concerete for all the driveways and community entrance along with supplying each home with a 2,600 gallon rainwater collection tank help minimize the amount of stormwater runoff that would normally find its way back into the water ways picking up pollutants along the way.

The homes at Fish Singer Place are priced from $599,950 and are move-in ready.  The available three floor plans all feature 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms with at least 1 bedroom 1 bathroom on the main floor. All homes are built to the rigorous 5-Star Built Green standards exceeding code built new home energy efficiency by at least 70%.

The homes at Fish Singer Place is sure to appeal to anyone seeking a high-performance quality built green home in a great neighborhood that has it all, from restaurants,  parks, shopping,  highly rated schools, and easy access to all of Seattle.

To visit Fish Singer Place go west on 160th Ave from Aurora Avenue for approximately ¼ mile, go south on Dayton Ave to site entrance.

For more information, visit FishSingerPlace.com or call 206 909-7536

Bear by, Jason Reed Brown

By, Adrian Willanger Eco-Redux

Native Americans once populated the coastlines of the Pacific Northwest. Their tribal folklore and art pay special reverence to the once abundant natural resources of this unique region.   The Salmon was their major food source and was celebrated with rituals and art.

Martha Rose, president of Martha Rose Construction, pays special homage to the once Salmon rich waterways of the Pacific Northwest with the naming of her latest Green development Fish Singer Place.   By choosing to build a Low-Impact-Development (LID) that focuses on keeping stormwater on site avoiding particles from brake pads, gas, oil, transmission fluids, and pesticides from polluting Puget Sound waterways.

Northwest Native American art installed on each house is a reminder of the rich ecological and natural resources that the region is well known for. The Bear, Salmon, Raven and Orca bronze sculptures made by local blacksmith-artesian Jason Reed Brown serve as a proud reminder of how fragile our ecological system is.

In addition to their stormwater management practices which include: green-roofs, two 1000 gallon rain barrels per house, rain gardens and pervious pavement over a bed or rail-road ballast type rock which aids in filtering the rainwater runoff slowly back into the natural aquifers, and emphasize drought tolerant plants or plants with low water requirements. 

The site has been a learning center for many local building departments, students, building and design professionals, as well as many environmentalists.

Rose mentions “I want to offer something that the masses aren’t producing.  A notch up in quality means a lot to me.”

The four homes at Fish Singer Place are now available for pre-sale starting at $638,000. For more information contact Adrian Willanger 206 909-7536 Adrian@eco-redux.com

By, Eco-Redux Staff

Seattle, WA. April 22, 2010- Fish Singer Place has made a conscious effort to go beyond the Energy Star standards for incorporating green building practices into their home building.  To be considered ENERGY STAR, a home must meet guidelines for energy efficiency set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These homes are at least 15% more energy efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code (IRC), and include additional energy-saving features that typically make them 20–30% more efficient than standard homes.  The four new homes, at Fish Singer Place, designed by CB Anderson Architects and built by Martha Rose Construction are projected to be 60-70% more efficient than standard built new homes.

Martha Rose Construction has been building at the rigorous 5-Star Built Green level since its inception, choosing to make this their standard practice as opposed to making energy efficient options upgrades. “Building at this level requires more work and allot more attention to details” mentions Rose. The real benefit is to the new home owner who gets a home that is more energy efficient, healthier and more comfortable to live in.

The four-home community has been a living classroom for environmentalist, builders, architects, students, home buyers, real estate agents, and curious home owners looking for energy upgrade ideas.

The homes range in size from 2000-2900 square feet and are priced from $638,000-$788,000. For more information please visit FishSingerPlace.com

Martha Rose with State Representative Maralyn Chase

by,  Eco-Redux Staff

Above:  Martha Rose with State Represenative Maralyn Chase at the Grand Opening of Fish Singer Place

Catching up with Martha Rose, owner of Martha Rose Construction can be a bit of challenge as her popularity and willingness to talk about sustainable development increases.

Last week Martha started with a presentation on Wednesday to the Independent Brokers Association, followed by the grand opening of her latest enclave of high-performance homes, Fish Singer Place, attended by well over 200 people. The week of April 19th you can catch Martha’s live interview Thursday on sustainable1000.com at 10:30am. Or drop by Fish Singer for an informal lecture at 5pm to a group of Green professionals.
April 30th Martha has the 3pm wrap up spot for “The Future of Business” in Bellingham Washington sponsored by Sustainable Bellingham.

Martha is a firm believer that a healthy, local, economy must start with investing and spending locally, her construction company purchases and sources as much of their building materials from local suppliers as possible. “Localization” is becoming a new market driver no matter the size of your company; it just makes sense in a world where business as usual no longer exists.

Click Here For More Information

By, Adrian Willanger

- New infill neighborhoods are being redesigned to accommodate the needs of buyers’ in this new-economy. The recent economic slowdown has caused many aging-boomers to put off their plans of moving to a sunny climate, instead choosing to work a few extra years, re-tooling the home to accommodate a home office and other comforts that reflect a changing lifestyle. This generation, once referred to as the counter-culture generation, is now enjoying being connected with family, friends, clubs, and social networks. We are starting to see a shift in values, friends, family and social networks are again fashionable. A younger generation, X and Y’s, have figured this out, and these values can be reflected in their home purchasing decisions.

Choosing homes with traditional designs, functional floor plans, made with durable materials, and energy saving features. For the first time since the 1960’s homeowners are choosing to stay in their homes longer than the 5-7 year average that we have seen over the last four decades. They want homes that will still look good after the 30 year mortgage is paid-off. Also, a key factor is the utility cost, looking at the home, once again, as an investment to be enjoyed as opposed to something that will be sold leveraged into another move-up property. They want the security of knowing the house will; provide comfort, shelter, enjoyment, and peace of mind by not having to worry about ongoing maintenance, rising energy cost while providing them with flexible and functional living areas to grow into.
Martha Rose, of Martha Rose Construction, addressed these points last night while speaking to a near compactly lecture hall at Bellevue Community College Tuesday evening. Martha was one of three panelist that spoke about the drivers, opportunities, and potential obstacles that are facing the local building community to designing and building homes that are both good for the environment and affordable.

Martha’s newest collection of four homes, located in Shoreline Washington, Fish Singer Place features new design techniques that tighten the building envelop which enables them to install smaller more efficient heating and cooling systems. These savings are then reinvested in high-performance windows and doors that further reduce energy use and costs.

By, staff Eco-Redux

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/4wDr8-C8GXM&hl=en_US&fs=1&amp

Martha Rose’s new series of artisan inspired homes are designed for both livability and longevity.

The four home neighborhood features a totally remodeled farm house and three new homes circled around a community fire-pit. All homes are built with energy saving, water conserving and increased indoor air–quality features as standard equipment.

By carefully “re-thinking” how the living area is used, guided the design team to incorporate an open “feel” in their floor plans, one that can easily be adapted to changing lifestyles. Walk-in showers, main floor bedrooms, polished concrete floors and covered walk-out areas are some of the exciting design features that have been added.

All homes will have; 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, high-efficient hot water tank, heat recovery ventilator, gas freestanding fireplace, two car-garage, 2 1000 gallon rain barrels and drought tolerant landscaping.

Fish Singer Place offers buyers homes they can feel good about and save money on operating expenses at the same time. Interested buyers are encouraged to visit
http://www.fishsingerplace.com for updates and availability.

By Lorna Larsen

I was privileged to tour Martha Rose’s latest development, Fish Singer Place, just a block or so from the community college. These four houses are basically new construction, even the one that I’m going to focus on in this essay, which, although considered a “remodel” was stripped to the studs. This is more than most home owners would ever do, but in looking over this extreme remodel, I saw some solutions that might work for a more moderate approach to energy savings.

One thing that particularly struck me, which we seldom emphasize in the Zero Energy program, is Martha’s consistent focus on minimizing embodied energy and supporting the community by buying locally as much as possible.

The Fish-Singer house, Lot 3, is a three storey house with about eight hundred square feet each floor. The stairwell runs basically up the middle of the house. As I said before, the house was essentially gutted, which is more than most people will do for a simple weatherization. Also, Martha added the third storey in order to keep the footprint of the original, historic structure. One of the features of this house is a thermostatically controlled system that ducts warm air from the top floor back down to the basement.  This intrigued me, because of the stack effect that we discussed in class – I would expect that in addition to moving heat, the fan would also redistribute the pressure in the house.

There’s also a ventilation system with a heat exchanger – it vents air from the bathrooms, kitchen and laundry rooms, which are the most heat-producing rooms in the house. The air coming into the house is pulled from the north side of the house, in part because there are several appliance vents on the east side of the house. Martha claims that other, similarly vented, houses are almost entirely free of mildew problems in the “wet” areas, like bathrooms.

The windows in the Fish-Singer house are made by Serious Windows.  They are dual pane windows, but they have two suspended films, with low-E coatings, so there are three air spaces in them. The suspended films are all but invisible. That is, they were completely invisible to my forty three year old eyes, but these days I assume that people younger than I am would be able to see more. The company claims R 9.1 for these windows, which including the trick IGU also have durable, paintable fiberglass frames with foam insulation. They’re also expensive. On the home remodeling boards I looked at, most people agreed they weren’t willing to pay the extra price.

During the tour, Ms Rose told us there are two kinds of windows – the kind that leaks, and the kind that’s going to leak. Her company installs a custom-fabricated stainless steel pan under every window, sloped to drain outside, and with a drip edge to protect the siding.  The rough openings for the windows are wrapped with extruded polystyrene insulating foam boards before the windows are put in place. Since there’s also this same insulation installed on the outside of the wall between the sheathing and the siding, it helps keep the thermal bridging to a minimum, even with the stainless steel pan.  Although the pans are expensive – about one hundred dollars apiece, this system with the pan and the insulation seemed to me another thing that might be possible on a more modest project, if new windows were involved anyway. Keeping the inside of the wall dry seems worth the hundred dollar investment.

The Fish-Singer house is being built along the lines of the Passive House system, although Martha Rose doesn’t expect or intend it to reach quite that level of efficiency. With that in mind, however, there are some adjustments made in the remodel. Almost entirely, the plumbing and electrical systems are routed through the interior walls, so as not to interfere with wall cavity insulation. Also, the plumbing vent pipes will be insulated. This seems like it could potentially be a simple thing for someone to do in the course of plumbing repairs or any other remodel that opened a wall. Most likely there are other vents that could be easily insulated, also.  Martha uses blown-in fiberglass insulation for its resistance to water and to compaction.

The tour was quite enjoyable and inspiring. It was fun to imagine what features of the house would easily transfer to other projects. I think that the little extra insulation opportunities could be golden. Specifically I saw the insulation around the plumbing vent pipes and the rough openings of the windows, as well as the drip pans under the windows as being easy additions to a remodeling job that opened the walls. I also think the fan bringing warm air down from the top floor to the basement is a good idea in a multi-storey home. And finally, the very simple idea of buying locally when possible is a good thing to keep in mind on any project of any size. I have added these concepts to my mental “tool box” for projects I may do down the road.