A tour of a "Built Green"-winning home

06:12 PM PST on Friday, March 18, 2005

By GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News

SEATTLE -- They're new homes built with a blend of old materials and modern technology and they are suddenly all the rage in Seattle.

Tucked away in a quiet Seattle neighborhood sits a slightly odd, little yellow home that's just full of surprises. Look inside and you’ll see rough, exposed beams in the ceiling, a fireplace and hearth-built materials salvaged from an old lumber mill.

Builder Jim Barger loves to show off this home. He won Seattle’s Built Green Design Challenge with it and he learned a new way to build.

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The newest Built Green 4-Star certified home was built on a city infill lot in Seattle.

"We've visited a few dumpsters, deconstructed some structures, we've been given materials," he said.

The whole house is built of recovered, recycled or environmentally responsible materials.

"This is a marriage of old and new,” Barger said.

Behind an old, recycled door is a state of the art tankless hot water system that saves a ton of energy and water.

The house is also surrounded by rain barrels that can feed drought-resistant landscaping.

A climb up a recycled ladder not only reveals a pleasant loft area, it opens up to a rooftop garden that provides wonderful insulation and is fed by roof runoff, providing yet more water conservation.

Excess water from the garden and roof is then captured in pipes. Instead of running into the sewer system, it is funneled into the ground where it rehydrates the soil. The idea is every bit of rain that hits this property, stays on this property.

The stairways are built from old school bleachers and the tile made of recycled glass.

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A rooftop garden that provides wonderful insulation and is fed by roof runoff, providing yet more water conservation.

Jen Mortola and Andrea Orive couldn't resist the appeal.

"It was kind of a blind date that you are kind of attracted to and then fell head over heels in love with when you got to know it," said Orive.