Introduction

We are involved in a custom-designed, green-built community called TalTree ecoVillage by YS Development. It will be nine houses on a one-acre lot, with shared community house and underground parking for residents. Each house will be custom-designed and built to the specifications of the owner; and the whole community will be focused on green-built techniques and technologies. There will be efforts to preserve a good number of the existing trees, especially significant trees or important groups. Each house will be a single-family unit, ranging in size from roughly 1600 to 2400 square feet. It is located in Redmond, on the border with Kirkland. More details can be seen at the official site, linked above. We have unit number 4, which is at the bottom of the U, as seen here (PDF).

Currently we have put down a bit of earnest money and have an initial unit reserved. The general process is that once we have quorum on reserved units (at least half), we can start the official design for both individual units and shared features (general landscaping in the center, community house, and parking garage). That process will probably take several months; once it is completed, we will have a contract with a fixed price and complete design and feature list. Once we sign that, we'll be committed and work on financing the full price. Then the designs will go in for permitting and city approval, which will take several months, or more. Once those are approved, construction on our new home will start. Right now the goal is summer of 2011 to move in.

This blog will be about our process of design and building. We've already spent time talking through initial ideas and seen the site; we'll try to summarize some of those things in more detail soon. Now that we're getting close to starting the official design process, we'll be posting more detailed information on how our design is coming along, but also inspiration from other things we've seen or read, and ideas we might like to see, such as thoughts on particular parts of our house or garage, and what we're aiming for. So expect to see posts with links to pictures, more analytical thoughts on what we want for ourselves, and general status updates on how things are going. Once design is finished, this will be mostly status updates -- pictures and descriptions of how the infrastructure and community features are going, and then pictures of our house (and possibly the other units). We'll try to find as much time in our busy schedule as we can to provide a record for others, and for ourselves of this project.