With the guidance and encouragement of the world class building scientists at the Florida Solar Energy Center in nearby Cocoa, FL, LifeStyle Homes was the first builder in Brevard County and only the forty first builder in the nation to join the original Builders Challenge program and be recognized as a Partner. This week, we signed on to the new DOE Challenge Home program as a fully committed partner.

You can join us in learning about the new DOE Challenge Home program here. When you check in to the new program site, be sure to take a look at the photo in the upper right hand corner of the page. You will see that LifeStyle Homes was honored as a leading builder of energy efficient homes at last February’s International Builders Show in Orlando.

We are proud to take this new challenge which will help us deliver even better homes to our valued customers. Our existing guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) and remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes far exceed the requirements of the original Builders Challenge program. No doubt, they will exceed the requirements of the new DOE Challenge Home program as well.

Stay tuned with us here as we learn exactly how this will happen. There’s lots of work to be done, and we’re at it already!

We have been so busy building these homes for our wonderful customers that it has taken a bit of effort to go back and count how many. Subject to a final-final check, the numbers are 8 PhotoVoltaic SunSmartPV(SM) homes and 64 HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) homes.

Folks, this puts LifeStyle Homes way ahead of the pack in bringing this exciting new technology to home buyers. There aren’t many home builders across the country who have built more, and most of them that have are giant multi-state public building companies that build thousands of new homes each year.

We are extremely excited and proud to be able to report these numbers. We have our customers to thank for making this success possible. We appreciate them every one, for stepping up to buy a new home when conventional wisdom might have said not to. Mind you, the idea of saving a guaranteed 40 percent on monthly energy bills is a pretty strong attraction, and having no energy bills at all is just plain astounding!

We also have to thank our building scientist friends at the Florida Solar Energy Center in nearby Cocoa for helping us learn how to build homes this new and better way. Without their guidance, we might be stuck in the muck of a difficult housing market like so many of our fellow competitors are.

It was the folks at FSEC who told us about the Building America program from the U.S. Department of Energy, and assured us we could “smoke” the HERS 70 requirement of the Builders Challenge that is the top end of that program. They were right, the FSEC gang. Right from the start, we were able to deliver HERS 60 homes, ten points better than the HERS 70 Builders Challenge standard that have so many home builders shaking in their boots.

Where do we go from here? We have already said we will not rest until we can deliver truly affordable new homes that generate enough electricity from the free power of the sun to supply all of the electrical needs of the families living in them, with enough left over to recharge two electric powered automobiles overnight.

Just think about that! Free electricity AND free “gasoline” . . . for LIFE!

We’re happy to make these contributions, which flow from our expertise as home builders – seriously augmented in terms of energy efficiency by the knowledge and support we have received from our building science friends at the Florida Solar Energy Center in nearby Cocoa. But we want to do more when we can. In that regard, we can’t help noticing how many of the people we come in contact with on a daily basis have difficulty slowing down enough to have a meaningful conversation without tuning out now and then to respond to an email on their mobile device. Gee whiz, guys. This is extremely rude, and it causes us stress to have to play like we don’t notice and don’t mind. But what’s worse is that this multitasking behavior is most likely sabotaging exactly what those folks are trying to accomplish: getting ahead by being more connected, more responsive and thereby presumably more productive and valuable to their employers.

No less an authority than the Harvard Business Review recently weighed in on this subject in a piece by Tony Schwartz titled: The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time. The bottom line is that studies now prove that by splitting your attention between multiple tasks, you really do a poorer job on each than you would have done had you used the same amount of time to do one at a time. Any parent of teenagers could have told you that doing homework in front of the television was a dumb idea, but somehow the weight of teen wisdom (Could that be an oxymoron?) overrode common sense.

Now, all those folks, who learned to multitask as a way of life, are running American . . . well, everything! Oh my! Could that be why our economic recovery is going so slowly?

And, another thing! How many of you have been reluctant witnesses to the Cell Phone Charisma Contests that take place in the moments before the airliner door closes? Whoever can make the most important-sounding phone call (for all to hear) wins. But all is not lost for the losers. The first person to re-establish contact the moment the wheels touch the runway at the other end wins the re-match. This is serious stuff, folks!

Could it really be that over-connectedness and over-responsiveness are NOT indications of being indispensable, but actually are signs of self-inflicted, middle management, what-if-I-lose-my-job stress?  HBR seems to think so.

Just for fun, some time when you’re feeling particularly frisky, turn to your cell phone abusing seatmate on the airplane and casually remark that CEOs, in your experience, don’t carry cellphones. They have people who carry cellphones. Enjoy the reaction you get.

Now, we trouble ourselves to pass along these remarks not to ridicule anyone, but to gently persuade some of you out there to give it a rest! We want you to succeed in life so you can one day buy a LifeStyle home from us! But to get there, you’ll have to move beyond make believe and actually get good stuff done. Take a clue. One at a time wins every time.

Also, lose the stress! We need you to be alive and kicking when the time comes to buy that LifeStyle home.

Think about it!                        Sometime when you’re not on your mobile device.

At LifeStyle Homes, we certainly have witnessed the effect of these shifts, and we are very thankful that local employers, seeking highly qualified professionals for demanding technical occupations, have attracted to our area increasing numbers of people born overseas who are eager to live the dream of American home ownership.  We don’t have specific statistics, but perhaps the technical orientation of these people has attracted them to the advantages of our U.S. D.O.E. Builders Challenge guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) homes and our truly remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes.  Any way you cut it, we are glad to have those folks living in Brevard County, and we are proud to have many of them as our customers.

Perhaps because of their enthusiastic devotion to hard work and education as the keys to getting ahead in the land of opportunity, the growth in buying power of households headed by Hispanic and Asian Americans exceeded that of the general American population by more than double in both of the two most recent 10 year Census periods. Going forward, the beneficial effect of having more immigrants and children of immigrants in the home buying market is expected to grow.

While welcome, this increased proportion of multicultural buying activity sometimes brings a challenge to real estate marketing and sales professionals. People from different cultures have different attitudes about and different practices in buying homes. A big dose of mutual respect and tolerance goes a long way in smoothing the process for both buyers and sellers.  “It’s a fascinating process of learning from one another”, says Jake Luhn, CEO of LifeStyle Homes. “One thing we have learned for sure”, Luhn continues, “is that when we make friends with people as motivated as many of our Hispanic and Asian buyers seem to be, we have made strong friendships that last a very long time.”

It’s a beautiful thing.

If you have turned on your television this week, you cannot have escaped the running and re-running of numerous specials covering various aspects of the tragedy. One of the best dramatizations of the event will conclude on ABC-TV tonight starting at 9:00pm Eastern. Created by Julian Fellowes, who some of you may know from the dramatic series “Downton Abbey”, seen in the U.S. on PBS, this production highlights the differences in the way First, Second and Third Class passengers on the Titanic behaved and were treated.

Missing in this dramatization, but especially important to your writer are the stories of Harold Bride and Jack Phillips, two young men with the dream job of operating the brand new Marconi wireless station on board Titanic. These two men stayed at their post in the radio room just aft of  Titanic’s bridge, long after they were released by Captain Smith to save themselves. Until electric power was lost, just moments before the ship split and sank, these two men continued to send out distress calls, both the then well-established, “CQD” for Calling Anyone, We are in Distress” and also the then brand new “SOS” that we all know today. They signed each transmission with “MGY”, the callsign for Titanic, never to be heard on the airwaves again once they shut down.

The BBC has put together a wonderful audio production of “Titanic In Her Own Words” you may wish to listen to. In it you will hear recordings of the actual Marconi spark transmissions in Morse code from and to Titanic in the two hours before she foundered. There is an English narration translating the dots and dashes, so you won’t need to brush up on your Morse code to enjoy this extremely precious bit of history.

In it you will hear the narrator mention how the young men drawn to this brand new profession practiced the affectation of calling themselves “Old Man” on the air. What the narrator leaves out is that Old Man was in fact a time-saving two letter abbreviation, “OM” and was a term of respect used when the other operator’s first name was not known. Spring forward a hundred years and notice how young people texting each other today have invented their own set of abbreviations to save time, just like the Morse telegraphers did back then. LOL.

So what does all this have to do with our dedication at LifeStyle Homes to building the finest energy efficient homes in the nation, our guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) and truly remarkable Net Zero Energy (HERS Zero) SunSmartPV(SM) homes?  Not much, except maybe it’s good to pause now and then to ponder the imponderable and give thanks for the abundance we enjoy. That and your writer has spent a good amount of time, both at sea and exchanging Morse code messages with fellow radio amateurs around the world. So, this story resonates with me two ways.

For now, 73   (best regards)

Your writer was recently asked on very short notice to deliver some uplifting remarks to a group of home builders at a meeting to begin at 7:00 am. I was thinking I would need to fill 10, maybe 15 minutes. Only as I was introduced did I learn I was to have an hour! Oh my!

As I rose to speak, I was struck by a thought of Charles Lindbergh and his heroic solo flight across the Atlantic. I learned long ago to give thanks for such thoughts and go with them. As it was, the hall included eastern-facing windows, and I could clearly see the sky beginning to glow with the promise of the coming dawn.

I suggested to these folks that Lindbergh’s success was due to three factors. First, he had faith that he could do it and would not lose his way. Second, he had the knowledge that carrying enough fuel to make the trip non-stop would require building an airplane more aerodynamically efficient than anyone thought possible. Third, he realized that not surrendering to his fears – particularly through the long dark night, when he would be utterly alone above the ocean, would require – yes, faith. So we are back at the beginning, again.

As the eastern sky brightened during my remarks, I asked those present to contemplate the long dark night of the Recession and give jubilant thanks for the coming dawn, as Charles Lindbergh surely must have done on his flight. With the dawn comes new energy, new excitement, new conviction that success will be achieved! Surely, a thousand things could still go wrong, but somehow, the rising sun promises everything will be alright.

So it has been for LifeStyle Homes. As we looked ahead to the worsening economic disaster facing our country, we had faith that if we kept our focus on satisfying our customers, we would not lose our way. We knew we needed to make our homes dramatically better if we were to be successful convincing folks to buy them in hard times. The way to accomplish that came through the specific knowledge of the building scientists at the Florida Solar Energy Center, who taught us how to build the cutting-edge energy efficient homes in our guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) and remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) product lines. Because of the great leadership of Larry Hufford, our surviving Founding Partner and Jake Luhn, our CEO, we had the courage to build these state-of-the art energy efficient homes when many other builders were forced to fight for survival or run for cover.

With all this going for us, success was by no means assured; any more than it was for Lindbergh as he struggled to take off in his severely overloaded airplane. But now, with dawn at hand, we give thanks for making it through the long scary night, and we resolve to direct renewed energy toward the goal of building the finest homes in the world for our customers.

The latest dose of good news is the recent release of the Urban Land Institute Consensus Forecast of 38 leading economists that calls for broad improvements in important aspects of the economy to produce genuinely strong results by 2014. Specifically, real GDP (the measure of total value of all goods and services produced in the U.S. economy) will increase by 2.5% in 2012, 3.0% in 2013 and 3.2% in 2013. These are STRONG growth projections. Their effect will be felt by everyone.

This same report calls for total employment to increase by 2 million jobs in 2012, 2.5 million jobs in 2013 and 2.75 million jobs in 2013. It has been a very long time since we have seen job growth like this. The net effect will be to reduce unemployment to 8% by the end of 2012, to 7.5% by the end of 2013 and to 6.9 percent by the end of 2014. This would put us very close to what many economists consider to be inflation-free full employment.

Average home prices, which have been falling for some time now, will flatten out in 2012, rise by 2.0% in 2013 and rise again by 3.5% in 2014, according to these experts. This is truly welcome news for many home owners who desperately need some relief, and it bodes well, also, for new home buyers, who always seem to be energized by the prospect of positive returns on their housing investments. Freshening of housing markets in this way is expected to increase new housing starts from 428,600 in 2011 to 500,000 in 2012, 660,000 in 2013 and 800,000 in 2014.

Needless to say, all of us at LifeStyle Homes are energized by these positive projections. Even so, we must never forget the positive contributions we have received from our wonderful customers. These great people overcame conventional wisdom to do the wise thing and take a strong stand in the emerging energy efficiency economy. They will avoid the growing obsolescence and diminishing values that will afflict conventional homes – even those built recently. We have to thank, also, the world class building scientists at the Florida Solar Energy Center, who showed us how energy efficiency could really work today in new home building – providing better living environments and big cost savings to home owners with the courage to make the change.

Now, let us say once again that this is no April Fool’s Joke. Better days are just ahead. Pass it on!

But we’re not nearly done! The LifeStyle Homes Monterey I model home in Levanto has been fully and beautifully decorated by our great and longtime interior designer friend, Kay Green, MIRM, of Kay Green Design in Orlando. Kay is recognized as one of the top new home model interior designers in the world! You owe it to yourself to come see what she has done to magnify the dramatic effect of this very distinctive executive home.

When you come, we’ll be sure to fill you in on the complete and amazing SunSmartPV(SM) story. Bottom line? This is the way all homes will be built in the very near future. There is simply no reason left for anyone who builds a new home to ever pay a monthly electric bill ever again.

Yes. While everyone has been moaning about the difficulties in the housing market, the folks at LifeStyle Homes have been forging ahead on the future of our business. It is a very exciting future, too. Not only for our company, and our wonderful customers, but for our entire economy. The new economy in America will be the clean energy economy. capitalizing on the free power of the sun will be a huge generator of jobs and prosperity. Come see the future today!

And, lest we forget, the world-class building scientists at the Florida Solar Energy center in nearby Cocoa, taught us how to do these magic things with the sun’s power. If you ever have the chance, thank them for us all!

Of course, the way to keep prices down is to control construction costs as closely as possible. That always leads to developing standardized designs that are very efficient to build, are very efficient in their use of materials and provide as much useable living space per dollar as possible. Seems reasonable, doesn’t it? Paying attention to being efficient all the way through the design and construction process and building in the very best technology the building scientists at the Florida Solar Energy Center can tell us about saving energy once real people live in them, produces a truly wonderful product – one that thankfully has brought us a lot of success.

Sometimes, though, even the best designs in our portfolio don’t capture what our customers have in mind. That’s when we turn to our Custom Design Service to create unique designs for our very special customers who want to build a legacy home like no other. Tom Nathan, our Vice President and Master Builder heads this arm of LifeStyle Homes. Tom works personally with every LifeStyle Custom Home client to create the home of their dreams.

Visit our Custom Home Service online by clicking right here. Meet Tom in a short video. Then call him to set up an appointment to discuss your ideas in depth. You will find Tom as easy to know and work with as he seems in this video.

Oh, by the way, you can have your special custom home with all our energy efficiency advances. After all, if you want the very best, why would you accept anything less?

Yes, friends and neighbors, it’s that time again when we can root for our favorite teams who made the Tournament or start looking for promising news about next year’s squad for those who didn’t. Any way you look at it, the whole thing is a celebration of excellence in student athletics, and all of us can surely use the positive reinforcement it will provide. The subject may be basketball, but the message is that hard work and dedication to a worthy goal bring their own victory, no matter the score of any particular game.

That’s where we can take issue with the famous quote from Vince Lombardi to the effect that “winning is the only thing”. That may be true in war, but in sports, winning with honor is what counts. Winning any other way  demonstrates a fundamental disrespect for the game, for fellow competitors and for everyone involved, even one’s own fans.  Since fans want to share somehow in the glory their teams bring home, the last thing they should want is a scandal that brings them shame in the same manner.

It’s about respect for all and dedication to doing the right thing. These are values that are very real to us at LifeStyle Homes. They are responsible for our development of guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) energy efficient homes and our remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes that improve their owners’ quality of life and save them bundles of money in the bargain. Everybody wins when a LifeStyle SunSmart^℠ (SM) or SunSmartPV(SM) home is built. We win as a company, our customers win and society as a whole wins because another wasteful energy pig was not added to the nation’s housing stock.

And, speaking of respect, if you did not see the remarkable documentary film Sunday evening on ESPN TV about Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s announcement in 1991 that he was H.I.V. positive, you missed a beautiful and sobering story about a man who does have love and respect in his heart and wants to live joyfully in peace. No doubt, The Announcement, will win many awards and will be shown often. Whether you care about the game of basketball or the game of life, you owe it to yourself to see this wonderful and uplifting story about a truly remarkable person. Be sure to watch it all the way through. The best gift of all comes in the last few seconds of the credits.

One could do a whole lot worse in life than to live it with the grace and enthusiasm of Magic Johnson. Here is a man who has won and is continuing to win important victories the right way; and with immense honor.

Maybe we should consider changing the sports-related name of this month.

At LifeStyle Homes, we are grateful to all of the people for all of the work that went into formulating the Energy Star program from EPA and the more aggressive Builders Challenge program from EPA’s parent, the U. S. Department of Energy. We are also grateful to be world class building scientists at the Florida Solar Energy Center, in nearby Cocoa, FL, who were both instrumental in setting the federal standards and also responsible for our taking the energy efficiency journey as a company. We would not have known how to find the optimum balance between initial cost and monthly savings on our own. They led us every step of the way toward designing our guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart (SM) energy efficient homes and our truly remarkable HERS 0 (zero) photovoltaic-powered, SunSmartPV(SM) homes, which in a year’s time generate as much electricity from the free power of the Sun as they consume. That performance earns LifeStyle SunSmartPV(SM) homes the official title of Net Zero Energy Homes because the money earned by selling the excess electricity they generate when the Sun is shining, balances the money their owners must pay for the power they have to buy when the Sun isn’t shining.  This produces a Net Zero power bill for the year!

LifeStyle Homes is proud to be the first home builder in Brevard County, and only the forty-first in the nation to qualify as a Builders Challenge partner. Because of the help we received from FSEC, we found it possible to exceed the performance standards of the Builders Challenge program while still preserving what we think is a critical hallmark of the program: cost neutrality.

The principle of cost neutrality, which the government invented and imposed as part of the Builders Challenge, says that for every dollar a typical monthly mortgage payment must rise because of the higher cost to construct qualifying homes, there must be a guaranteed savings of a dollar in monthly utility costs. This is huge.

This says that owners of LifeStyle  SunSmart^℠ homes do not have to pay for the contributions their homes make to environmental protection because they reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Those benefits come free in the same deal that creates the substantial monthly energy cost savings that each of them enjoys.

We believe this cost neutrality is DIRECTLY responsible for so many LifeStyle SunSmart(SM) homes being bought and built. It’s much easier for homeowners to help protect our environment when helping that way doesn’t cost them extra. We also believe the best green homes are green homes that are actually built and lived in; not the ones some people talk about but most folks can’t afford.

The trouble comes when conservation enthusiasts ask the rest of us to pay extra for what THEY WANT us to do. Life doesn’t work well that way, and neither does the free enterprise system. The better way is to make it easy for people to do the right thing because  it saves them money.

That’s why we intend to cling to the cost neutrality principle going forward in our Energy Efficiency Initiative at LifeStyle Homes, and we hope the federal government does also.

Just as there is nothing typical about our industry-leading energy efficient homes, there is nothing typical about Harmony. Before we go any farther, start making your plans to visit Harmony, Florida at your earliest opportunity. When we’re done here, you’ll know just a few specific things about what makes this community so special. But, the most special thing about Harmony – harmony – must be experienced to be appreciated. Words can describe it, but you won’t get it until you feel it. Once you do . . .

ATTITUDE CHECK #1 – Maybe you’re thinking to yourself that in the amazing world of real estate hyperbole, this is reaching for new heights. It’s OK if you are. It’s just proof positive you haven’t been to Harmony yet, and you need to get there.

ATTITUDE CHECK #2 – Cynicism is a killer. If you find yourself leaning that way, blame your modern day life that exposes you to way too much negativity, pressure and risk. The treadmill actually has an end, and you will find it at Harmony. Once free, the happiness you set out for in the first place will appear right before your eyes.

This is the special promise of Harmony.  No kidding.

Harmony has everything you would expect in a contemporary, fully-amenitized living community, including something more than you might expect, a world-class Troon golf experience. Outstanding! And, you might expect award-winning K-12 schools nearby, but on-site with protected walking and bike access? Now, that’s special!

Even so, it may be Harmony’s community activity program that sets it apart – at least in a tangible sense. Headlined by four annual festivals, life at Harmony is marked by a positive sense of community, where neighbors find it pleasurable to gather for fun and education. You just missed the annual spring Healthy Lifestyles Festival, that took place yesterday. Healthy eating and cooking demonstrations took place at the Harmony Town Square. There was a Healthy Living 5-K run. Chefs from the Club were even handing out special healthy hot dogs at the LifeStyle Homes Net Zero Energy Tustin model home.

But, don’t despair! Instead, look forward to the Harmony Dark Sky Festival coming up in April. It showcases one of the more remarkable things about the people of Harmony: a devotion to protecting the naturally dark sky above Harmony that makes it such a spectacular location for amateur astronomy. Harmony’s support of the International Dark Sky Association actually led the County Commission to require all future development to respect the dark sky movement – remarkable in a County that is the home of so much Disney-inspired, light-spectacular, nighttime entertainment.

Do you like baseball, especially spring training, and live at Harmony? Join your neighbors for Harmony Day to watch the Astros take on the World Champion Cardinals and ride to and from the game in the Harmony bus. What? You love baseball, but don’t live at Harmony?

Get busy!

Of course, those OTHER folks are fine, and they mean well, but they are not on OUR TEAM. Because of our success building guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) homes as well as our remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes, we have the luxury of picking and choosing who will be on OUR TEAM. We demand the BEST, and we’re proud to say, we have them!

OUR TEAM has pulled together to build the finest homes available in our area. They have focused themselves on satisfying our customers, as you will see if you read any of our growing collection of customer testimonials.  We didn’t make these up, folks. They came from the hearts of people just like you who decided to trust OUR TEAM to build the home of their dreams.

We’d like to build your dream home, too. We’ll do it together, and you will love the result and the experience. OUR TEAM will accept nothing less!

Avoiding waste is a worthwhile goal, but some home builders may carry it too far. In our business, the politically-correct name for this is value engineering. When searching for cost savings that can add to profit margins, we feel builders cross an unfortunate line when they start removing important things that their customers won’t see from the structure of a home so they can add glamorous things that they know their customers WILL see and want,  like granite counter tops.

We feel there are two important ways to deliver maximum value to our customers going forward. One is embodied in our SunSmart(SM) Energy Efficiency Initiative, which delivers Builders Challenge-qualified, HERS 60-guaranteed homes that will save their owners a minimum of 40 percent on their annual energy costs as compared with code-conforming conventional homes being built today. These homes also provide significantly more healthful living environments and prevent huge amounts of harmful greenhouse gas emissions from being released into our environment. We carry that philosophy even farther in our remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes, which over a year’s time will generate as much electricity from the abundant power of the sun as they consume, yielding the promise of “Free Electricity for Life(TM)” as a reality.

The other way to deliver maximum value is to build more compact, yet more livable homes that include exciting design features that make people just plain happy living in them. You can see a great example of this approach in the three Builder Magazine Concept Homes that were completed for the recent International Builders Show in Orlando, and which can now be viewed (and purchased) in the magnificent Eagle Creek Golf Community in southeastern Orlando. Built by Centerline Homes, an extremely  reputable and forward-thinking home building company based in Coral Springs, Florida, these homes include design features especially targeted to Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y (Millennial) home buyers.  More importantly, their sheer design charisma lifts them far above the huge inventory of value engineered used homes overhanging the market today as foreclosures and short sales.

If you are in our central Florida area, you really should drive over and view these homes while they are still available (maybe). They are simply stunning , with interiors provided by our very good friend, Kay Green, MIRM, of Kay Green Design, Inc., in Orlando, and stunning architecture to which our equally good friend, Tony Weremeichik, of Canin Associates, Inc., also of Orlando, was a major contributor.

For dessert, visit our brand new LifeStyle Homes, Tustin model home in the extraordinary Harmony, Florida new town, mid-way between Orlando and Melbourne. Here you will find the combination of Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) performance and the charisma of Tony Weremeichik architecture in what is quite possibly the finest community for enjoyable living there is in this State. We are convinced that sophisticated architectural design, extreme home energy efficiency and high quality living environments are the way forward, not only for home building companies like ours, climbing out of the great Recession, but for smart people like you looking for maximum value in your next new home.

Let’s roll – together!

As you may have heard Clint Eastwood say, “It’s halftime America.” The second half that’s staring us in the face will make all the difference in our lives. So, how are we going to pull off a great comeback?

Maybe one way will be by using the excellence all around us as our springboard to success. The work done by all of our friends and neighbors in the space program starts our list. What those people did would be unbelievable except that they actually did it. Let us never forget what they accomplished. Instead, why not use their accomplishments as inspiration?

Then, there is the hard work of the Duda family over the generations  and their dedication to excellence that has created Brevard County’s spectacular new town, Viera, Florida. We are extremely proud to be a part of Viera with our new LifeStyle SunSmart(SM) HERS 60 homes in Levanto. We are convinced that working together will benefit us both and our customers, too.

Then, just over our western county line, Harmony, Florida, has established itself as the nation’s premiere forward-thinking, sustainable home town. Harmony also represents a dream of excellence, in this case offering an example of how returning mankind to harmony with nature can save us from the stress we all complain about, but often refuse to step away from. We are delighted to be a part of this dream, too, with our ultimately-sustainable, LifeStyle SunSmartPV(SM) Net Zero Energy Homes, which produce as much free electricity from the sun during a year’s time as they consume from the power company.

Then, just a bit further to the northwest, you’ll find the Lake Nona Medical City complex exploding out of the ground to deliver the dream of world class medical research and patient care right here in central Florida. If you haven’t seen this place, you owe it to yourself to go there soon.  Why? Because just seeing the commitment of so many brilliant people to the future of Florida will wipe away whatever doubt that may have crept into your mind concerning your personal future here.

It’s all good, folks, we can have the second half of our dreams, but it won’t come without effort. There’s no reason that effort shouldn’t be supported by positive thinking. We’ve got it made around here if we just believe we have and act like it.

We are convinced that Harmony, FL is the nation’s premiere forward-thinking sustainable community that offers true home town living ambiance in a tranquil setting with all the amenities you could wish for. Harmony represents a noble dream to reconnect people with what many have feared was lost forever. It is powerful and profound. You must experience it yourself to find out what it means to you.

Excuse us, but we think we are on a similar path at LifeStyle Homes. We are driven to deliver a higher quality of healthful living to our customers in certified energy efficient homes that save them lots of money. You either get that concept and are excited by it, or you need to accept ordinary.

By themselves, the Town of Harmony and LifeStyle Homes are tantalizing glimpses of a wonderful future, here today for everyone’s benefit. Together, the Town of Harmony and LifeStyle Homes are genuinely significant – offering a delightful manner of living that is quite possibly unique.

In the burgeoning southeast quadrant of the Orlando metro area, anchored by the astounding Lake Nona Medical City, there are many sophisticated living communities under development to serve the exploding employment opportunity that will fast be upon us. Just in time, you might say. Tightly-packed tract homes will always be what they are, no matter how innovative the architecture. But just around the corner, something different, something infinitely better, is in place right now, and thriving. Harmony is not just another real estate development proposition. Harmony is about saving your sanity.

We are overwhelmingly proud to be a part of something this good, and we can hardly wait to show you our new Tustin SunSmartPV(SM) home at Harmony.  When you come to see it, take a moment to walk outside and just listen . . . to Harmony.

Due to technical difficulties, we were not able to post this blog on its intended date. We apologize for this and hope you will agree that the message is worthy of being shared, even if not shared on the correct date. Please continue reading. We have a favor to ask of you.

We, at LifeStyle Homes, are home builders. By no means are we heroic social advocates like Dr. King. Certainly, we have no desire to diminish his legacy by borrowing his iconic phrase to use in a mere home building blog post. Nevertheless, we also have dreams for the future that we think are important. So do you. Perhaps the real opportunity in this national holiday is for us to recount our dreams and re-dedicate ourselves to achieving them.

Please allow us to share a couple of our dreams with you right now. Perhaps you will decide to share some of yours by commenting on this blog post. We hope you will.

Here’s a positive dream. Someday our political and business leaders will be able to see beyond their own selfish interests and actually work for the good of us all. It is evident we need everyone’s cooperation to fix our suffering economy before it reaches some sort of downward-trending tipping point and things get even worse. To make progress, we need politicians to stop bickering for supposed short term personal and party advantage and get behind a coordinated, cooperative recovery plan that makes sense.

Likewise, we need our business leaders to temper their lust for ever-rising quarterly earnings in favor of creating longer term good that benefits more of us. Dr. Frederick E. Webster, Jr., a distinguished professor of marketing at Dartmouth College and the University of Arizona,  earned hero status in our estimation by challenging the conventional wisdom that the only proper motivation for business leaders  is to increase profits for the benefit of shareholders. The idea he fought for his entire career is that profits are the reward for satisfying customers. What a concept!  How different our business world would be if satisfying customers became our number one goal.

Here’s another dream of ours. The American dream of home ownership, that has contributed so much to our economic prosperity and family well-being, will remain strong and true for all Americans, and that over time more and more Americans will have the opportunity to live in clean, healthful, energy efficient homes that are good for them, good for us  and good for our planet. Maybe that’s more than one dream, but you get the idea, right?  Fortunately, we find ourselves in a position to do something about this dream. You have just got to know how satisfying it is for us to offer a positive difference to our customers in our guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) homes and our multi-award-winning Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes. We are grateful for the opportunity to turn our efforts not only to our own good, but the good of our customers and our country also. Maybe, Prof. Webster’s idea in action?

We hope you will enjoy an extra day off to honor Dr. King as we will also. Would you join us in using part of this day to refresh your own dreams for the future? When you do, would you please share them with us?

Thank you.

Anyway, I was much too engrossed with playing with the pound of liquid mercury I had collected to care too much about a skinny kid with greasy long hair and pants so loose they threatened to fall down at any gyration. So much for good ideas.  

As to light bulbs, the controversy about the forced change to new more efficient, but much more expensive, high-tech light bulbs continues to swirl. If, by chance, you have been off the planet yourself recently, here’s the deal. As part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Congress mandated that sale of regular incandescent light bulbs would be prohibited in annual rolling increments beginning with 100 watt incandescent bulbs January 1, 2012.  Just last month Congress reversed course, staying enforcement of the 2007 law pending further review.

As it so happens, I was in my local Walmart super-store a couple of days ago, and there were still 100 watt incandescent bulbs on the shelves available for sale. Interestingly, they were marked “Hecho en Mexico”. 

As you might image, light bulb manufacturers are lit up over the whole mess. Who knows whether they resisted the 2007 mandate, or in fact, encouraged it as an opportunity to make more money selling more expensive bulbs. Either way, you can see how a government mandate would have made the process of bringing more expensive light bulbs to marketa lot less risky Now, with some justification, light bulb manufacturers are saying they’re caught in a difficult position. Having closed-down much of their incandescent bulb manufacturing capability, they don’t know which way to go.

Watcha wanna bet the whole “Preserve Light Bulb Freedom” vote in Congress was simple political grandstanding, that will be allowed to submerge and then disappear so that corporate lobbyists get their way yet again? But, maybe you see the other side of this issue. There is a strong case to be made that serious moves need to be made to improve the efficiency of our energy usage in America. Maybe you feel requiring people to pay a bit more for better bulbs is not too much to ask. 

Then there’s the question of whether the old light bulb factories that have been closed were in the U.S., and the new ones that have been built are in foreign countries.

Obviously, with our groundbreaking work on HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) homes and our truly remarkable, multi-award winning SunSmartPV(SM) Net Zero Energy homes, you can expect LifeStyle Homes, as a company, is in favor of serious moves being made to improve energy efficiency in our country for all the reasons it makes sense to do so. But, our energy efficient new homes are the real deal, designed by experts and independently tested and certified to perform as represented. The new energy efficient light bulbs are a different matter. There is scant evidence, if there is any evidence at all, that they last longer than regular bulbs. In fact, the opposite may be true. If so, that would remove a major part of the incentive to invest in what are admittedly more efficient light bulbs.

So, where would that leave us on the government mandate? Hmmm.

Until then, sit back, enjoy the games today, and may your favorite team win.

We discovered this breaking news story while online with USA Today looking for a story that ran last Tuesday on skyrocketing home energy costs. Now, that story will have to wait until next week.

So, here’s the deal. Back in 2007, Congress passed legislation with bi-partisan support that among other things called for the manufacture of 100 watt incandescent lightbulbs to cease on January 1, 2012; 75 watt incandescent bulbs in January, 2013 and 60 watt + 40 watt incandescent bulbs in January 2014. All this to speed adoption of the far more expensive, but admittedly more efficient, halogen, CFL or LED bulbs. Since then, lightbulb manufacturers have moved to shut down conventional bulb manufacture and ramp up production of the new high-tech bulbs.

Of late, it seems, the forced nature of this change has caught the attention of personal freedom advocates, including noted radio commentator, Rush Limbaugh. The result is this eleventh hour amendment to a spending bill the president is almost sure to sign quickly.

So, what are you to if you have stockpiled 10 years use worth of 100 watt bulbs? Keep ‘em, protected in your safe for now. The measure passed this weekend is temporary. Both sides plan on having a lengthy, vigorous and expensive fight over this issue.

So, how should you plan for the future? Not for us to say, but we have a request. Go back and read our November 14 Blog and then read this weekend’s story on USA Today Online. Then tell us what you think. Vote in your Blog comments below for: 1) I want my 100 watt bulbs, or 2) Let’s save some energy, or 3) Let’s ask Congress to go home.

What we can’t say for sure is that LifeStyle Homes is the number one builder of Net Zero Energy Homes in North America. True, we did recently win the trophy for the Best Production Net Zero Energy Home in North America from the Net Zero Energy Coalition of Canada. And, it is also true that we won an Aurora Award at last summer’s SouthEast Builders Conference, in Orlando,  for the Best Solar Energy Home.  But what we can’t say for sure is that we have built and sold more Net Zero Energy Homes than any other home builder in North America.

It may well be that we have. Certainly we can’t identify a builder who has built more of these remarkable homes than we have. But, there is no reliable central database that contains an official record. Well, the Department of Energy in Washington has one that covers the United States, but it is nowhere near up to date for us, so presumably, it isn’t for other builders either.

You might ask yourself, who cares? We have certainly asked ourselves that question, and we have decided it doesn’t matter who is number one in building Net Zero Energy Homes. What does matter is that the ones we have built for our wonderful customers are serving their owners well, which they are.

So, exactly what is a Net Zero Energy Home? It starts with a home that captures the free power of the Sun and converts it into electricity using roof-mounted photovoltaic panels. That makes it a Solar Powered home. What makes it a Net Zero Energy Home is that enough surplus electricity is sold back to the power company when the Sun is shining to pay for the electricity that must be bought from the power company when the Sun isn’t shining. Over a year’s time, those two numbers cancel each other out leaving a Net Zero Energy bill. Think about that for a minute. Free electricity for life!   

We build our Net Zero Energy Homes under the brand name SunSmartPV(SM), and we would love to build one for you.

Mike Vittitoe would up with an honest-to-goodness white elephant! Won’t that look nice in your home, Mike? 

In addition to being a top notch home builder and building company leader, John Luhn was all about gathering his friends together for a good time. It was always John’s party, so it will always be John’s party.

In the midst odf all the merriment, we paused to hear some serious and seriously thankful words from John’s son, Jake Luhn, CEO, Tom Nathan, Master Builder and Larry Hufford, our other founding Partner who thankfully is hale, hardy and ready to rock. It was Larry who recounted how all the people in that room have hung together, worked together and, at least last night, played together to make it through another trying year in the homebuilding business. But, we did better than make it through this year. Thanks to our suppliers, trades partners and most of all our wonderful customers, we have triumphed through this year.

In the last twelve months, we have watched with sadness as more of our former competitors have closed their doors. Good people – hard times doesn’t do justice to their substantial accomplishments nor to the pain they have endured.

Larry also reminded us how pivotal was our decision to pursue energy efficiency as a factor in our success. Our guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) homes and our remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes have encouraged forward-thinking people to do something hugely positive for themselves and for our environment by asking us to build a home for them a time when many people have been waiting for something to happen. 

If LifeStyle Homes had waited for something to happen – the housing market to rebound, for instance - likely we would not have had the opportunity to celebrate our good fortune together as we did last evening.  Our decision to strike out in a bold new direction has meant everything to us as a home building company and as a family of individuals working together to build homes for families.

Perhaps there is a message in this. The only way we as a nation will ever rise up from our present challenges is if a whole lot of us decide to stop waiting and start moving ahead instead.

So, if everyone (or almost everyone, Jimmy Fallon) thinks now is a great time to buy, why aren’t they jumping on the bargains that are out there? Consumers say that stricter mortgage qualifying requirements and downpayment affordability are worrisome, but what they’re really waiting for is a sense that the economy has really turned upward for sure and that their employment is secure.

OK, we agree. It’s challenging to make long term decisions when you’re worried about short term problems. Nobody around here wants you to do anything you’re not comfortable with, but just for a moment, let’s think this through. Even without looking at the underlying statistics, which are positive by the way, what would your gut tell you is the chance the economy will slide significantly lower in the coming year as opposed to continuing its present modest growth and maybe even accelerating a bit? Would you say 10 to maybe 20 percent, it’ll go down as opposed to  60 to 80 percent it’ll keep growing and maybe even speed up? Those are great odds for betting anything other than the farm, so sitting pat for the moment is probably an OK move if you’re really cautious.

But, not falling asleep.

You see, as soon as people begin to get the idea we may be really climbing out for sure, they’ll start acting on the urgency they feel not to miss this huge opportunity. What will start as a trickle could become a flood very quickly.  In trying to wait for the very bottom, people will do what they always do: miss it and wind up paying a premium, having fewer options and giving away their leverage to get the best deal.  

If your life situation suggests a new home would make sense as well as being very nice, but you’re sort of stuck on stuck, maybe you should think about starting your research now while there’s still a bit of time to do your due diligence without being rushed. We would love to sit with you and talk about what you might want to do when you think the time is right. There is no cost, no obligation and certainly no pressure involved.

Meanwhile, consider that one of the things people say they will be looking for in their new home is significant savings in monthly energy costs so they can afford some nice extras in their new home. They also say they want a cleaner indoor air environment for their family to live in.

We think these people are pretty smart also, and we have what forward thinking people in Brevard might think is just the thing: our guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) homes that will save you at least 60 percent in monthly energy costs over that short sale you may be thinking about (You can spell mold, can’t you?) or our truly remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes which can offer you Free Electricity for Life.   

So, check out our website, start learning about SunSmart(SM) and visit one of our communities to see one of our furnished models. You’ll be glad you did, and it won’t cost you a penny.  

Whether they bought one of our superb HERS 60,  SunSmart(SM) homes, guaranteed to save a minimum of 40 percent in electricity costs over a brand new conventional home , or one of our truly remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes, that deliver Free Electricity for Life,  we should all be thankful for what they did. Of course, their business helped us pay our suppliers and our trades partners and provide for our families, but in a larger sense, they made significant contributions to our collective welfare. By dramatically reducing electricity consumption, SunSmart(SM) and SunSmartPV(SM) homes cut down on the foriegn fuels we have to import, cut down on emissions of harmful greenhouse gasses and promote preservation of our environment.

We are also thankful for our suppliers and trades partners. Together we are engaged in a tremendous effort to restore our economy to proper working order. None of us caused this – whatever we’re calling it now – but all of us are working hard to fix it.

We are thankful for the fantastic building scientists at the Florida Solar Energy Center, who have been so instrumental in helping us understand how to build energy efficient new homes at prices real people can afford. We couldn’t have done it without you, guys, so take a bow!

We are thankful for the producers of the ABC Television hit reality show, EXTREME MAKEOVER: Home Edition, who made it possible for us to enjoy working with their talented and fun-loving staff and the wonderful people of Brevard County to do some powerful good for the deserving Hurston family. At this time last year, we had just learned this opportunity was coming our way, but we could not reveal the secret by thanking them in advance.

We are thankful for our wonderful servicemen and women wherever they may be and whatever they may be doing. Every contribution they make by their service enhances our security. We hope and pray they all will be protected to enjoy many Thanksgivings to come with theirfamilies.

We are tankful that we live in this wonderful free country where effort can produce success. We honor those who want to come here and work with us to advance the dream the United States of America holds out to all the World’s people.

Finally, for today, we are thankful that we can advance the recovery of our economy anytime we want to. All we have to do is believe things are getting better, say they are and act that way. The economy is not an evil being bent on causing us misery. It is nothing more than a reflection of the ATTITUDEs each of us have. For this Thanksgiving, what do you say we all give ourselves a gift of positive thinking followed by positive action?  Maybe that’s the best way we can give thanks for the abundance we enjoy.

You can see how we might have some interest in getting this right. With our leadership position well established in building guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart energy efficient homes and our remarkable HERS 0 SunSmartPV guaranteed Net Zero Energy Homes, we sort of have an obligation to know what’s going on so we can give you the straight dope.

In this case, dope might be the right word. We have to admit we’re confused and need some help. Just for fun, go online and Goggle something like “incandescent lightbulb phase out” Stand by for one of the more interesting Internet experiences you may have had in years. To begin with, there are hundreds, if not thousands of ”articles” to read about this subject, including one really nice one written by a recent journalism graduate, “who just has a passion for words,” which is probably code for not being employed as a journalist. Bless her heart, she at least knows what journalism is, which is knowledge apparently beyond the grasp of many “sources” online.     

Oh my, you will see articles written by Conservatives crying about socialist lightbulb dictators, and you will see cleverly-spun articles by environmentalists soothingly saying that consumers will have more choices in the lightbulbs they buy. Yeah, like choosing between merely prohibitively expensive bulbs or their downright obscenely expensive alternatives, neither of which work as well as good old 100 watt incandescent bulbs, even though they DO use less energy.

Setting out to write this blog, the objective was simply to provide some clarity about, what is going to happen about lightbulbs and when it is going to happen. Right now, the apparent answer is that we are going to fight World War III about lightbulbs, and it is going to start real soon. (Please, don’t take that literally, Orson Welles fans.)

So two questions remain: 1) “What IS going to happen about lightbulbs, and when is it going to happen?” and 2) “What do you think about this mess?”

Please, we really need some input here.

A “Thank You” card can go a long way in five days if you start it right. A box of cookies can make it to a stateside servicemember easily. There’s plenty of time to plan that special phone call with video link.  But, you’ve got to get busy if you want to do something nice for someone who will appreciate it.  

Don’t overlook family members of deployed personnel. These people are heroes in their own right. Maybe even more so.

A little ceremony in school would be really cool for children of service members, especially those who have a family member overseas.  

If you fly a lot and sometimes get those upgrades to First Class, make a resolution to give yours away every time you can to a service person travelling in uniform.   

And, if you are in the Space Coast area, there’s a night of remembrance and family fun planned by The American Veterans Empowerment Team at The International Palms Resort. Call 321-373-7046 for details.

On the down side, Americans spent 5 percent less on housing (lots of vacancies generating no payments) 8 percent less on food (it costs more but we’re buying less and buying less expensive things) 10 percent less on clothing (no kidding!) 14 percent less on eating out (ditto), 17 percent less on alcohol (some of us will be happy about that) and 22 percent less on new cars and trucks (time to go for a good deal).

What’s the message of all this? That the Recession has crushed the kind of consumer spending that keeps our economy moving ahead. Go figure. People without jobs and people worried about being without the jobs they have spend less on everything they can.

The Perfect Economic Storm? Wall Street’s financial shenanigans meet NAFTA?

Well, we at LifeStyle Homes are doing the best we can to attack the worst of the crisis: home energy costs. Our  energy efficient SunSmart^SM and remarkable SunSmartPV^SM Net Zero Energy Homes,  will save you a bunch on home energy costs and insulate you from future increases. Like Father Keller used to say, “It is far better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.”

What do you think?

We have just received word that LifeStyle Homes has won the North American Net Zero Energy Production Home of the Year Award from the Net Zero Energy Home Coalition based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We can’t tell you how wonderful this is and how proud we are to have won this major award.

The Net Zero Energy Home Coalition is a federally incorporated not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to accelerate market development of affordable Net Zero Energy Homes. Membership in the Coalition includes major energy efficiency equipment manufacturers, utility companies, academics, architects, engineers, public officials, home builders and land developers. Entries in multiple award categories came from throughout North America, but ours was the only winner to come from outside Canada. How cool is that?

Our entry home was our St. Croix, Net Zero, SunsmartPV^SM branded, sales model home which is located in the Tralee Bay Estates neigborhood of the Capron Ridge master planned community right here in Melbourne. We have subsequently learned that our St. Croix SunSmart(PV) home impressed the judges because it was not a one-off exotic design, but rather a conventional-appearing home to which Net Zero Energy technology had been applied, proving that high performance homes do not need to be super-expensive or look strange.

“That’s the whole idea,” said Larry Hufford, founding partner of LifeStyle Homes. “It’s all well and good to plan for the eventual roll-out of production Net Zero Energy Homes sometime in the future, and build alternative architecture, dream homes in the meantime,” Hufford added, “but since we know reliable technology exists today to build these remarkable homes today, we think it’s better to build them today than to talk about building them tomorrow. It’s just great that the award judges understand that actually getting this done is what’s needed to jump start our new clean energy economy, both in the United States and in Canada.”

The St. Croix SunSmart(PV) Net Zero Energy Home is built to surpass the standards of the Builders Challenge program of the U.S. Department of Energy. It uses the free power of the Sun, captured by roof-mounted PhotoVoltaic panels, to generate as much electricity as the home consumes. When the Sun is shining, the St. Croix SunSmartPV^SM home generates way more electricity than it needs. The surplus is automatically sold back to the utility company. When the Sun isn’t shining, power is purchased just as normally occurs in conventional homes. The term, Net Zero Energy Home, means that over a year, the cost of power purchased from the utility company will be matched by the income from surplus power sales to the utility company, producing a net zero electric bill.

“We can do the Net Zero thing today,” Hufford continued. “Before long we will be able to generate enough surplus to re-charge two electric automobiles overnight for free. And not too long after that, we will be generating enough surplus to make possible the ultimate home-based business; powering America. Just think about that for a minute. Free electricity for your home, free fill-ups for your electric-powered automobiles, plus a hefty check FROM the power company every month. Pretty sweet.”

At LifeStyle Homes, we are really into this right now, trying to figure out what we should do next to increase the performance of our homes. We have been delighted with the success of our guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart^SM homes, and believe it or not, we find ourselves at the top across the country in building Net Zero Energy Homes. We call ours SunSmartPV^SM Homes, honoring the PhotoVoltaic panels on their roofs, which generate as much electricity from the free power of the Sun as these homes consume in a year’s time.

So far, we have chosen to pursue the path of energy efficiency, directly following the Builders Challenge program from the U.S. Department of Energy. Certification as a Builders Challenge Partner requires building guaranteed HERS 70 homes. In HERS (Home Energy Rating System) scoring, lower is better, so our HERS 60 SunSmart^SM homes more than meet their HERS 70 standard, and our HERS 0 (zero) SunSmartPV^SM homes blow it away!

Now come the National Green Building Program from the National Association of Home Builders, which we discussed last week, and the LEED® For Homes program from the U.S. Green Building Council, which we will brief you on now. First of all, LEED® is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The U.S.G.B.C. appears to be a private organization put together for the specific purpose of offering certifications for various kinds of structures as well as certifications for professionals in various design and construction-related fields. For new homes, certification is based on meeting standards of best practice and high performance in sustainable site development, water conservation, energy conservation, air quality preservation, using sustainably grown, harvested and transported building materials, minimizing waste in construction and improving indoor air quality. Certifications for new homes are offered in four levels: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

By taking various educational courses offered by the Green Building Certification Institute, a U.S.G.B.C. affiliate, professionals can be designated LEED® Green Associates, LEED® Accredited Professionals or LEED® Fellows. The U.S.G.B.C. itself is active in all 50 states, maintains approximately 75 local councils, includes over 16,000 member companies (mostly suppliers) and boasts 162,000 individual Professional Credential holders.

So, the federal government, through the Department of Energy and its subsidiary, the Environmental protection Agency are following the path of energy efficiency. The two private organizations, NAHB and U.S.G.B.C., are incorporating the broader green concepts of environmental inpact and sustainability in their efforts. It is apparent a huge contest for influence is underway, and it will be interesting to see how it all works out.

With that in mind, we will next week offer you a fifth installment of this four episode story, because you see, much of what we have been sharing with you about these various programs will be changing soo. Almost exactly as we speak, the heavy-hitters in the world of building codes are meeting to hash out remaining differences between them and settle on will become the International Energy Conservation Code of 2012. Whatever they ultimately decide, the energy efficiency bar will be raised significantly for all home builders. There will be grumbling, of course, about adding to the cost of new homes at a time when the industry is on its knees, but the process of steadily improving the performance of new homes is essential if we are to rid ourselves of deteriorating air quality and dependence on foreign oil.