With the reward of homeownership there also comes the responsibility to winterize.  It’s around this time of year when there is more of a nip in the air, and morning due turns into frost that it becomes time to take a little inventory and do a few things around the house to help you settle in for the winter.

Prevent Plumbing Freezes – Get your outdoor pipes ready for freezing temperatures by draining your hoses, making sure all outdoor plumbing is properly insulated, shutting off any water to outside pipes, and locate your water main so you can remember where it is in the event of a pipe burst. This way you’ll be prepared to shut your water off at it’s source if a need arises. If you go on vacation, keep your house temperatures at 55 to avoid problems with interior pipes.

Check Outdoor Equipment – Put lawnmowers away for the winter, draining any gas and cleaning it up for easy use next year. Pull out the snow blower and make sure it’s in good working order before the first snow. Check out the condition of your rakes, ice scrapers, and other fall to winter gear while cleaning and putting away the spaces, potting soil and other garden specific equipment. Check your supply of ice- melt and sand, replenish before everyone else is rushing to the stores, and if you have pets make sure you buy animal friendly ice-melt.

Check Roofs, Gutters, and Downspouts – With temperatures that regularly fall below freezing consider adding extra insulation in the attic to prevent warm air from creeping from attic to roof causing ice dams. Check flashing and siding to make sure that water cannot get.  Clean out gutters and consider installing leaf guards to help keep your gutters free of leaves and cut down on ice buildup by allowing proper flow from the gutters. Check downspouts and hose water through them to clear up any silt and debris buildup.

Inspect Your Furnace – Have an HVAC professional in to inspect your furnace, and let you know if your ducts need cleaning. Programmable thermostats are great energy saving tools to set your temperatures lower during the day while you are at work and add a little more heat during the evening as temperatures outside fall and your home is in heavier use inside.  Make sure you have enough furnace filters on hand to change them on a monthly basis. Make sure to change your ducts and vents from their summer position to account for heat rising. This will keep your home more evenly heated from bottom to top.

Wood Burning Stoves and Fireplaces – There is nothing like the smell of wood fires in the winter coupled with family gatherings and chestnuts roasting. Make sure your chimney is inspected and in good repair.  A professional chimney sweep can remove the soot and creosote buildup that can become dangerous over time.  Check out your fireplace damper to make sure you can open and close it properly and completely.  If you can get up on your roof, inspect the chimney cap and make sure it’s properly screening the opening from squirrel and other small animal entry into your home.  Lastly stock up on firewood and make sure to store it in a dry location.

Just these few tips will help you get your house in winter ready condition. The more prepared you are, the less you have to worry about expensive fixes. After a little cursory inspection and preparation you can sit back and enjoy that hot cocoa and wait for the snow to fall.

Are you searching for that perfect holiday gift for the family? Are you trying to dig up some extra money for gift giving? How about going green for the holidays! Not only do the following 4 green ideas help you save on your energy bills, but they also help you lessen your impact on the earth. Double bonus. You save household money and you tread a little lighter. The money you save can go into more presents for the holidays.

1) Are Electronics Draining your Budget? – Ever stop to look at all those appliances plugged into outlets? You can never find a spare outlet to plug in the vacuum? Even appliances that are turned off can sap electricity. Easy Green Solution: Plug your major electronics like entertainment centers into power strips and when not in use, simply turn off the power strip. This goes for computer stations, stereo systems, and the kitchen station with the coffee pot, toaster oven, blender and microwave.

2) Filter Changes – Simply changing your air filters monthly and making sure the proper vents are open while others are closed depending on the season will help keep the warm air in, and keep the energy bills down.

3) Go Light on the Lights – Do you still use incandescent lights? It’s time to switch. LED and compact florescent bulbs have a longer life as well as a lower impact on your electricity bill. If you are hesitant to make the investment, do it in stages. Change them out as your old lights burn out and slowly you will give your whole home a lighting makeover.

4) Laundry with a Lighter footprint – Washing machines are an expensive appliance to run. Between water and energy use they can account for a large chunk of change in the home energy bill. Consider investing in energy efficient appliances in your laundry room. Front loaders use less water, and have a higher capacity so that you need to do fewer loads with less water to heat. Unless you have heavily soiled items, use the warm or cold cycle and save even more since 90% of the energy is used to heat the water. Line drying when possible can add to electricity savings.

Bonus Idea: Recycle – Do you throw away plastic bottles, soda cans, and newspapers? Start recycling. While this isn’t a money saver for your budget, recycling is your chance to have a positive effect on the environment. If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save about 25,000,000 trees a year. An Aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now. Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator. Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour. Most of them are thrown away. Plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kills as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every years.*

With just these few green tips and adding recycling to your routine you can create some more cash for the holidays, and pat yourself on the back for having taken the steps to make a difference in how you use natural resources. Think of a new home as a new start.

*All recycling statistics come from A Recycling Revolution 

Realtors have many new home construction options for their buyers, so what makes Ideal Homes a great fit for them and their clients? Wendy Foreman and Charlotte Greganti, Realtors at Keller Williams in South Oklahoma City, share their positive Ideal experience.

Charlotte says that Ideal Homes treats her new home buyers like royalty, and she’s a big fan of the company’s “awesome systems for the process.”  She adds that Ideal’s energy efficient homes and customer service set them apart from other builders.

“They care,” Charlotte said.

Wendy appreciates Ideal’s company structure, their respect for Realtors and customers and their outstanding customer care department.

“I think the best thing about Ideal Homes is their desire to continue to be better,” Wendy continues. “They are always stepping up to improve their products by building greener, more efficient, and healthier homes while continuing to be competitive in their pricing. When you look at the country overall, Oklahoma is cutting edge as far as efficiency and green building, and I know it is in large part because of Ideal. The other companies follow suit.”

Charlotte says her Ideal buyers love their new home communities and the service after the sale. Wendy’s buyers, who frequently choose to build another Ideal home when moving up or down, love the monthly energy bill savings due to the home’s well-built construction.

An Ideal homeowner since 2005, Wendy summarizes her admiration for the company. “All you need to know about this company can be found in the Extreme Makeover Home Edition house they recently built,” she says. “They care about their employees, they care about the environment, they care about their community, they care about customers, they care about the product they put out and stand behind it, and they care about the real estate community as a whole.”

Many people begin their search for new homes in Oklahoma City by calling a REALTOR®. This often leads to the question, “Is Ideal Homes open to working with my real estate agent?”

The answer: “Absolutely.”

Ideal Homes loves working with real estate agents and we’ve fostered great relationships within the Oklahoma City Metro community of REALTORS®.  In fact, over 40 percent of our customers work with a local REALTOR®.

Many of the top real estate agents in the area consistently show Ideal homes. Why? Because they’re experts in the real estate market, and they know that Ideal Homes builds quality, energy efficient homes in the best school districts in the metro area.

Vernon McKown, Co-owner and President of Sales of Ideal Homes, has had the opportunity to give back to the real estate community by sharing his expertise in building science and green building through continuing education courses provided at no cost to local REALTORS®.  Tony Marbell, Ideal Homes’ REALTOR® Relations Field Director, spends time in area real estate offices to make sure we have a finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the market and to educate the REALTORS® on our quality homes and processes.

Whether you stop by one of our 18 model homes with a REALTOR® or shop for a new home on your own, Ideal Homes will provide same great service throughout your home buying process.

Some of the amazing REALTOR® organizations we work with include:

Oklahoma City Metro Association of REALTORS®

Norman Board of REALTORS®

Edmond Board of REALTORS®

Stillwater Board of REALTORS®

Midwest City/Del City/Moore Association of REALTORS®

Building an energy efficient new home is not about one isolated component- it’s treating the home as a system.  Many people (and builders unfortunately) equate an efficient and healthy home solely with the heating and cooling unit and the type of interior material used in the home – like low VOC paint, etc.  While those elements are important, the biggest impact on your home’s efficiency and your family’s health starts before the sheet rock is on the home.  Two often overlooked contributors are:

1.  Tightly sealed ducts in the new home

2.  A fresh-air strategy

Here is how we tackle the first of these issues in every new Ideal home:

Which method do you want in your attic?

Ideal Homes’ Foil Flex Duct System has the greatest impact on energy efficiency.  Based on an independent market evaluation of new homes in Oklahoma City, the average air leakage is 25 to 30 percent in overhead spaces as the ducts move air from the unit to other areas of the home.  This is in new homes – just imagine the leakage in older homes.  What does this mean to homeowners?  They spend one quarter of their monthly bill to heat and cool their attic. Verified by a third party expert the Ideal Homes system guarantees five percent or less air leakage.  We utilize a Mylar backed insulation to wrap the ducts  This acts as a thermos to reduce temperature exchange.  We also use a mastic sealant around the joints secured with vinyl tie straps for the best non-conductive, hardened fit.

Once the home is sealed tight, it is vital to have a fresh-air strategy for your home.  Everyday living produces a lot of moisture in your home.  Consider this; the average single-family home uses 80 gallons of water per person each day.  That’s a lot of moisture in a home.  We also know vehicles leak fumes into homes from garages.  When we build an Ideal home, we want to make sure families are breathing the freshest air possible at all times.  We are happy to share our processes openly with those who inquire.

In a later post, we will discuss the fresh-air ventilation strategy used by Ideal Homes in every new home in Oklahoma City.

By building with Ideal Homes you can expect to get the most out of our green building and energy saving techniques. You could save up to 60% or more in energy costs alone when incorporating a number of ‘green’ features when building your home. A few areas of concentration include: lot and site development, water, energy, indoor environmental quality and resource efficiency, as well as owner education. The lowest score these categories receive, a higher level of green certification is given by the NAHB Research Center.

If you want to do the right thing for your community, neighborhood and family, you should consider going green and looking into these practices when building your new home. Ideal Homes has all the right tools to help you.

There is a misperception that a home built to code is good enough.  Here’s the real story – Code equals legal, but it does not equal quality. 

The difference between a home built to code and a home built to exceed minimum standards does not just impact quality, it impacts your pocketbook. 

 Ideal homes operate at 44% above code in heating and cooling efficiency; that translates to an extra saving of $50 – $80 a month on heating and cooling costs.  Over the last five years alone, Ideal homeowners have saved a collective $3.5 million on heating and cooling versus a home built to current building codes.  What would you do with an extra $600 – $960 per year?

Ideal Homes was recently named, “2010 Builder of the Year” by Professional Builder Magazine. We get a lot of questions regarding this award and how Ideal Homes was selected by the editorial staff. Feel free to read the article here – but there are three important things that make us really proud:

Leadership: Ideal Homes introduces leading building technologies into the Oklahoma City housing market. In 1998, we became the first builder in America to build affordable Energy Star homes. In 2005, Ideal Homes built the first affordable Zero Energy Home in America. In 2009, Ideal built the first National Association of Homebuilders Green Home in Oklahoma. All this to learn better ways, to build better homes for Oklahoma families.

Discipline: We want our customer to have peace of mind that we will be there for them for years to come. That’s why Ideal’s conservative approach has created a stability that instills confidence in our customers that the Builder who built their home will be around for a very long time.

Service: For years, Ideal Homes has used a third party to survey every customer on their homebuing experience. The owners of Ideal Homes read every comment, made by every customer, and constantly look for ways to build on our strengths and improve our weaknesses.

When considering a new home, regardless which builder you’re considering, we encourage everyone to never settle on these things.