The major challenges of creating Selah Vista Homes are just what you would expect for the region’s first of its kind net zero housing development; keeping the homes affordable, and educating the buying public about their value in terms of occupant health, energy and water savings, and long-term sustainability.

Fourth-generation builder Steve Weise of Leading Force Development co-owns and operates the Leading Force Energy and Design Center in downtown Yakima, a somewhat magical place where green and smart home product geeks go to play. In Selah Vista Homes, the team’s expertise in building affordably, knowledge of advanced building science principles, vetted planet-friendly building products and smart home technologies have been parlayed into attractive, comfortable, flexible and low maintenance dwellings that are designed for 100-year sustainability.

Top design priorities on all the homes were high performance, healthy living through the ages, and long-term cost-effectiveness. The biggest aesthetic challenge for the 1,701 square foot model home was to keep the lines simple while imbuing a distinctive ‘modern western ranch’ style. The roof slopes were altered slightly on either side of the ridge and the attached garage was given a modern shed shape. The design team got to be playful with some non-traditional finish materials such as reclaimed corrugated metal siding and repurposed barn woods. Inside, the spaces were carefully planned to support flexible living arrangements for all stages of life, from young families to assisted aging in place. Durable polished concrete floors, wide doorways, zero entry showers with walls reinforced to permit the future addition of grab-bars, and roll-under bath counters will allow residents to remain in their homes well into later years.

To maximize energy efficiency, designer and builder worked together to develop detailing at the exterior doors to maintain the insulated envelope at the slab floor to patio connection, which is often a weak point for thermal bridging. Other energy saving strategies included double wall construction with insulation to R-47, air sealed vapor open walls, reclaimed EPS double foil radiant barrier under the insulated slabs, and roof-level insulation to condition the attic spaces and reduce energy loss from the air ducts.

Energy conservation performance metrics for the model home included a blower door test result of 0.3 Air Changes/Hour at 50 Pascals (ACH50); by comparison, the Passive House Standard is 0.6 ACH50. The huge energy conservation payoff was also demonstrated by the home achieving a Resnet HERS Index rating of -12, which means that it produces 12% more energy than it consumes. The model home’s outstanding performance was recognized with the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2018 Housing Innovation Award in the Custom Spec category—one of only seven builder projects nationwide to be so honored.

During construction of the model, innovation and practicality collided requiring some amendments to the original design to keep building costs in check. While this may have added to the upfront cost, the lessons learned are already being amortized as they are successfully applied to continuing buildout of the development. Builder Weise continues to innovate as presale buyers’ personal preferences are made known and integrated. And because building and home technology products are constantly evolving, he is quick to incorporate fresh products and ideas that are meeting and could even exceed the project’s original health and energy saving performance goals.

Selah Vista Homes are built using natural and non-toxic building products and with standard features that include sensors to detect in real time if indoor air is safe and notify the occupants accordingly via a whole-house smart home system. These sensors detect VOC’s, particulates, CO2 and CH2O in 1-minute increments, around the clock and with a 95 percent or higher rate of accuracy. Other standard features include, but are not limited to, Zehnder ERV air filtration systems to filter and replace stale air and remove airborne particles greater than 0.3 microns, Cascadia Water Purification Systems, and Kirio and Control4 home technologies that holistically manage the home systems from a single hub and may be controlled remotely with a Smart Phone application.

Educating the buying public about the value of 100-year sustainability in terms of health, aging-in-place, and personal investment is a continuing challenge, and the responsibility of Brenda & Art Nunes, project community developers and real estate professionals to manage. While they have found that the benefits of investing and living in Selah Vista’s high performance healthy homes are poorly understood at first, they observe that, once people understand the benefits, they get excited about living in homes like these. Green building educators, the Nunes’ have not neglected the professional public with their education efforts and have held many behind-the-walls tour events of the homes in progress, as well as presenting the project at national building conferences.