Memorial Couple Makes Green Home

Tucked on the tail-end of an upscale Memorial neighborhood street, you will find 4,000 square feet worth of leadership.

"One of things what we wanted to do was show Houston, Texas you could build a green sustainable home in oil country," says David Ronn, local attorney and owner of a newly constructed home labeled "deco Texas industrial."

Over the course of 17 months, Ronn and his wife collaborated with builder Michael Strong to create a showplace of sustainability.

The home's outer walls are a whopping 10 inches thick, formed from energy conserving concrete, Styrofoam and steel reinforcement.

"This is a house that is not going to get knocked down. It is a house that is built for durability, low maintenance and energy efficiency," says Strong, president of Greenhaus Builders.

Above the walls is a completely sealed attic, home to a high efficiency cooling system beneath a roof with it's underside bathed in insulating foam.

"This is going to be within five degrees of the ambient temperature whatever the season of the year is," says Strong while gesturing to the attic.

Toss in a tankless water heater, a dozen electricity generating solar panels and a staggering array of double paned energy star windows and the Ronn's return on investment is a stingy $250 power bill during the blistering bayou city summer.

"Front end cost is still worth it in the long run," says homeowner Ronn, who played a key role in every phase of design and construction.

It is green construction accomplished without compromising comfort. In fact because the home was built of materials largely free of volatile organic compounds and features a hospital grade air filtration system, the owners literally breathe easier.

"My answer for anybody whose on the fence about building green is - jump," says Ronn.

The Ronn's have leaped just about everywhere you look with luxurious flooring of rapidly regenerating bamboo and in some rooms, recycled tires.

There is even a desk fashioned from sunflower seed and an attractive, nearly irrigation free, exterior landscape.

On an interior wall visitors will find an award for leadership in energy and environmental design which makes this dwelling the very first Leed qualified home in the nation's fourth largest city.

The vast majority of materials used in building the home are from Texas.

"If you have a builder or architect that is telling you green is going to cost you more, don't listen to them. You need to find somebody else," advises Strong.