Dreams Can Come True

Something that I always dream about is to build a “green” house or a home that is energy efficient and sustainable. The Lytle family in Oklahoma City is building their dream home; one that I wish someday to have, an energy efficient home. The home is “green enough for the Emerald green building standard of the National Association of Home Builders and Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification (Newsok.com Highest Green Standards).” This is something unique to the area and a model home to encourage surrounding people to go green. People can check out the house for a $9 charge, the collected money will be donated to state literacy organizations.

“The home is loaded with recycled materials and special touches, including the salvaged bar from the closed O’Connell’s Irish Pub & Grill in Norman (Highest Green Standards).” This home seems to be a symbol of the Lytle family, and how they want to keep our state clean. And try to help the environment as much as possible and not to have a home and say look I spent all this money to have a home like this I am so cool. They have gone to several conventions starting in 2008 to find the special green touches they can put into the house. I also find it very interesting that they recycled the bar from O’Connell’s; they could have found a bar at a convention that was built by all recyclable material. But instead they recycled in their own way.

Going to conventions was not enough for the Lytle family; they had to find the right builder, “we were looking for a builder that wanted to make this home their signature home (Highest Green Standards).”The Lytle’s said that finding a green builder was very difficult. Rose Creek the neighborhood the Lytle’s were planning to build in had ‘preferred’ builders, but once they took a look at homes they built the Lytle’s knew the shoe would not ever fit with them. In May 2008 the family finally found their builder the man known as Gilles. “Gilles was among the first in Oklahoma to build homes to federal Energy Star standards and with his Savannah Builders has specialized in homes with energy-efficient geothermal heating and cooling (Highest Green Standards).

When they finally got the ball rolling with Gilles and his building company the family knew that the shoe fit and they made the right choice. The Lytle’s said that Gilles seemed to have an understanding of the home we wanted to build and seemed excited about building the home. It is uplifting to see that this family was able to find the right builder and one that is known for his work. Today the house is built and Gilles says “it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s a ‘wow’ house. It’s totally different from anything Oklahoma City has ever seen (Highest Green Standards).” A family with a vision to be efficient and a builder with the right vision can make a small environmental footprint in Oklahoma City to help save our environment one day at a time.

The crews are now putting the last few little touches they need to do to have the house complete and ready for testing Tuesday April 17, 2011. If you are interested in seeing the home the Lytle’s built you can go to www.oklabuilt.com and check it out. We need more Oklahoman’s who have a vision like this, and put their small environmental footprint in Oklahoma. If Oklahoma could say thank you, I am pretty sure Oklahoma does in its own way to those that are protecting it like the Lytle family and Gilles’s Savannah Builders.

All photos are from oklabuilt.com

Article from http://www.newsok.com/article/3554835