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THE BOOKS ARE NOW FOR SALE AS PDFs AT https://www.etsy.com/shop/PrettyGoodHouseBook?ele=shop_open! They are $.99 each, and
you can just print them off (and dog ear the pages, and whip out your green crayon). Funny, but nobody seems to do the word
search - or at least, no one's asked me for the answer, which I assiduously copied, just in case.
I've done a better job of collecting useful references for each page, to go on this website, but this website is still likely
to be more boring than the book. I have some printed books as well.
What
is a Pretty Good House? A Pretty Good House isn't craaaazy efficient/sealed, it doesn't have mechanical systems that nobody
in town has ever tried before. It's better than the building code, which includes the IRC (the residential code) and the IECC
(the energy code), using smart things that are not expensive to do, but which will make the House better to live in, easier
to operate, and more able to change as the people living in it change their needs (add an office, age-in-place, disabilities).
If you figure that 10% of the houses built are built for Net-Zero (by the people who are comfortable being the First On The
Block), and 10% of houses are operated by people who won't do ANYTHING, then the PGH is for the 80% in between. And a PGH
can be a new house, but is more likely to be an existing house. So - here's where I'm collecting
that information. Send more!
Also, while these books comes out of a Maine Building Forum, lots of the ideas will help make sense of Pretty Good Homes elsewhere.
The books are not a "moneymaker", it's to get the ideas out to people who don't want to read chapter books, but want to know
the ideas. For no logical reason that I can understand, it has helped me get clients who need me as a structural engineer.
I don't think I'm "the expert", but nobody else thinks they are either. Building Science has come a long way, fast, and very
few people know a lot or can keep up with all the new products and methods and ideas. This book is Building Science for Beginners
- and I've collected more cool websites for additional research on the various pages that I will link to this site. I recommend
sticking with the newer websites, as you wander the Web with my friends Google and Bing, on these topics. Does it say 2012
or older? Well, that's out of date. Does it recommend CFL lights? Boo.
If your contractor says "I've always done it this way", that's a BIG RED FLAG. If you're paying for a new building, you want
a contractor that understands air leaks and water vapor. If they've never heard of a blower door test and hide from the codes
enforcement officer, that's another BIG RED FLAG.
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