Houses with Value

The Parade of Homes is a great opportunity to see a variety of homes and features that can add value, comfort or fun to a house. This year, there was quite a variety of price points to review and I am really pleased at how Brytan measured up. I think the three greatest features of Brytan, besides the truly green aspect, are the great gathering spots in each home, the craftsman detail and the fiber optic network. I will start with the fiber network first because I think that is sort of a sleeper. It is not discussed very much because most homes don't have a true connection. But if you think of the impact on the internet and the speed at which communication is occurring, the one thing that we all know is that homes need to have this capability or be very "dated" in a short time frame. Why buy a home today that is not going to handle the conveniences of tomorrow? The other feature that I appreciate in the Brytan homes is the trim around the windows and the finish detail. EG Gonzalez built a wonderfully detailed home to feature in this year's Parade. Everything was high quality from the way the kitchen cabinet and drawer doors closed to the flooring in the garage. Talk about value for your money! Finally, there is what I like to call the great gathering spots in a home. Brytan homes have porches where you can actually have a chair, swing or rocker...not just a concrete slab that is barely large enough to set a potted plant. There is also grilling areas or enclosed patio areas that are more "private" than the front porches. Then there are the many benches in the parks and close to sit, relax and catch up with a friend. Go ahead, relax...you don't have to spend your afternoon mowing the yard or trimming the hedges!

Brytan does not feature the least expensive homes...that has never been one of the objectives of the community. Rather the objectives are to provide a great deal of value, regardless of the square footage and to provide a variety of price points in a variety of homes. If you are buying a home today, buy one that will retain and increase in value. In Brytan, you will get not only the home you can afford but the home that will truly improve your life and lifestyle!

Price versus Value

As an architect, I have never understood the market's fascination with “price per square foot.” When you purchased your last car, did you ask the dealer the price per cubic foot of space in the passenger compartment? I don't think that anyone would argue that there are huge differences between owning a Porsche, a Mercedes, a Ford, or Toyota. No doubt, you could add optional leather seats to any of these; but it would not change the fundamentals of the car. People make their choice of vehicle not based on the price of the air space but on whether or not it fits their needs. Price is obviously one of the factors to consider; but so is fuel efficiency, style, reliability, durability, and design. For most people, having a cup holder in the right place or a spot to put their iPod is much more useful than another cubic foot of air with nowhere to put your coffee cup.

What figures into the “price per square foot” ?

The price per square foot of any given new building is the sum total of all of the creative energy, efforts, labor and materials that it takes to deliver that structure in that location. So, it is affected by a lot more factors than just the floor finish or the wall type. It includes the costs associated with the quality of the whole development as well as those associated with the design and construction of the house. Additionally, “price per square foot” only counts the conditioned area of the building in its calculation; it does not take into account any of the covered porch areas, courtyard spaces, patios, decks, storage or garage areas. So, a house with 1500 square feet of interior space and 1000 square feet of covered porch would have a much high price per square foot than the same house with no porch.

So what is different in a square foot of a Brytan house?

Every home in Brytan is influenced by the sum total of efforts made by the Developer, the Designers, the Green Consultants, and the Builders. These things have come together to make the quality of the neighborhood extraordinarily high. That quality, care, and knowledge comes with the Brytan home. Some specifics:

Brytan was master planned by a world renown New Urbanist firm, Duany Plater-Zyberk, to be a complete community, not just a sub-division.

Brytan's homes were custom designed by a licensed architect. The styles are Craftsman- inspired and are detailed to a high level of authenticity. The homeowner has access to the Town Architect (that would be me) as a resource to answer questions about their homes, design, construction and vision for other phases of the neighborhood.

Brtyan has a neighborhood Green Consultant, Mary Alford, P.E., a licensed Environmental Engineer. She guides the LEED for Homes (including Energy Star) process in Brytan. She has inspected every home multiple times, from plans to construction, to ensure that the prescribed sustainability elements were implemented. The homeowner also has access to Mary should they have any questions regarding the various green certification that each home has achieved.

Each completed home has achieved LEED certification and is registered with the National Green Building Council and comes with an Owner's Handbook with all the information about the materials in the home.

There is a great deal of individuality to these homes; but each includes high-quality, traditional double-hung windows, low VOC content and high indoor air quality, carefully designed HVAC systems, water saving measures, low-maintenance landscaping, structured wiring and fiber optics with free internet service, built-in work stations and an electronics docking station so there is a place for your laptop, cell phone, and even your iPod.