Local home featured in USAToday

One of the nation’s greenest home rehabs — in Wilmington, N.C. — has perhaps a surprising origin: the housing market’s collapse.

When Jay DeChesere’s parents recently moved into an independent living facility, he tried but couldn’t sell their home. So he and wife Heather bought it and set out to showcase eco-friendly renovation.

He didn’t just change light bulbs or faucets. He took the house down to the studs, creating an ultra-efficient home that has earned one of the highest points (113.5) ever for a gut rehab from the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program.

“It was done as a demonstration project,” says DeChesere, explaining how he worked with the local non-profit Cape Fear Green Building Alliance to explore all sustainability options.

The result, chosen as “This Week’s Green House,” has a partial green roof, a geothermal heating and cooling system and water reuse for toilet flushing. It also has a 3-kilowatt, ground-mounted solar array that sits in the backyard because the existing roof’s pitch didn’t offer ideal angles to catch the sun’s rays.

DeChesere, an architect, enlarged the 1,230 square-foot home to 1,648 square-feet by converting the garage into a home office. He turned simple into elegant by balancing a patio on one side with a carport on the other, adding shade-providing arbors and turning the fireplace into an entertainment unit with a dramatic skylight above.

READ MORE AT http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/08/gut-rehab-earns-leed-platinum/1