Home At Last

For the Schmidt family, a sustainable lifestyle starts at home— from the foundation to the finish and everything in between.

MARK McWATERS

Going by its simple yellow facade and minimalist landscaping, it’s easy to gloss over the Schmidt family home as one of many custom houses throughout the area. But take a look at their $12 electric bill, and you’ll realize this house is built of different stuff.

The unassuming home is platinum-certified sustainable with the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC). It’s the highest rated single-family sustainable home in Orange County and the 25th rated home in Florida. “I’d rate our life even higher,” says Arielle Schmidt who, alongside her husband, Stephan, built their lean, green dream home in their favorite town. “We have all of Winter Garden within walking distance. The trees in the front bring us joy every time we look at them. And our children will be playing under them for years and years to come.”

So what does it take to build a platinum-certified sustainable home? Turns out, it’s a little creativity, a lot of planning, and a heaping helping of compromise to transform less into more.

Sense and Sustainability

When Stephan first moved to the US in 2005, he was shocked by the amount of waste he saw in peoples’ homes. Being from Germany, he was accustomed to a lifestyle that followed the less-is-more aesthetic, with much smaller homes that lasted longer and performed more efficiently. So, when his wife, Arielle, proposed that their next home be built as a sustainable home, he was all for it.

However, when it comes to home building, profit often overrides performance in terms of building materials, home designs, energy delivery, building techniques, and more. While homebuilders are familiar with many of the concepts and offer several optional features that qualify as sustainable, to carry the concept through an entire home is rare.

A frustrating reality that the Schmidts routinely experienced. That is, until they met the owner of Groninger Custom Homes during the Parade of Homes in Winter Park.

While delighted by Groninger’s designs and the quality of his work, Arielle and Stephan were equally impressed by the builder’s creativity and openness new ideas. The fact that Groninger had never built a sustainable home didn’t deter anyone. Together, the Schmidts and Groninger embraced the challenge.

With Arielle contributing significantly to the planning and design, the home began to take shape—on paper. All they needed was the perfect lot, in the perfect neighborhood, in the perfect city, in a perfectly walkable area. Having been spoiled by their European lifestyle, the Schmidts were committed to finding a community where people walked or biked to get to work, to school, to shop, or to go out to eat.

Against all odds, they found the perfect place, one that checked all their boxes: Winter Garden! Their next hurdle? Neither the homebuilder nor the prospective home buyers were exactly experts when it came to sustainable homes. Lucky for them, they found the FGBC.

Says Arielle, “They were so helpful and gave us tons of information. First thing the FGBC did was give us a huge three-ring binder full of everything we needed to know, from choosing paint colors to choosing yard plants and everything in between.

“We studied and learned and when we were through, we had chosen an infill lot in a great neighborhood, which upped our sustainability score with the FGBC. We arrived at a final home design, after lots of give and take between us and Groninger Homes. And we were off and running, building the perfect sustainable home in the perfect community. We made a few mistakes here and there. But with a willing builder and plenty of help from the FGBC, we did most things right.”

Beauty and the Budget

Building a sustainable home is all well and good, but it simply has to be more expensive, doesn’t it?

The answer to that seems to be: It depends.

According to Arielle, careful planning and intelligent design helped minimize their costs. Their home scored very high with the FGBC for having a tight envelope. Its overall design featured a minimal use of concrete—“We didn’t add a driveway, for example.”— and it had a low ratio of outside walls to square footage. “We basically live in a beautiful cube.” By movein, they had managed to keep their home energy neutral while reducing their water usage.

If it sounds a bit expected, or even easy, it certainly was not. Through diligence and savvy planning, they saved where they could. But, like most people who build their own home, their eyes were often bigger than their budget.

“We wanted everything right away and that was just not financially feasible. It forced us to prioritize. For instance, we wanted to install solar panels right from the start, but the expense required us to wait until we could afford it. So, we waited a year. We wanted a water cistern. Nope. That one was just too expensive. I also thought a thermal tunnel would be a great addition to our house. It funnels sunlight down into your home. Again, our budget said no, sorry. You can’t have that, either.

“However, what we do have is something very special. We have some really magnificent live oak trees in our front yard. In fact, the big oak tree is actually on the list to be included in the Bloom and Grow Society’s heritage tree listing. We wanted to protect those trees, which is one reason we limited concrete use. Non-permeable ground cover could damage the trees’ water system.”

(That had to be in that big binder somewhere.)

“To keep our trees, we needed to reposition our house on the lot, which caused a bit of a drainage issue with a neighbor. The expense to fix that problem came out of our overall build budget. But the trees were worth it. They pay us back by shading the front of our house and give our kids a comfortable place to play year-round.”

Even so, the compromises Stephan and Arielle faced were tough. “I’m someone who appreciates good design and style,” says Arielle. “I admit, a part of me wants that big, beautiful yard with the lush green lawn, the newest furniture, the nicest decor. But Stephan and I have a mindset that prioritizes functionality over the shiny new thing.”

For example, there was the decision to not lay any sod that would require fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation. (You read that right: no irrigation.)

“It’s too hard on the land and wastes too much water,” Arielle explains. “Likewise, all plant species currently on the lot were there when we purchased it in 2012. Any plants we added had to be either native to Florida or otherwise not invasive.”

The outdoor seating was equally mindful. “We have two benches in our front yard. One is an old picnic bench we acquired from the German American Society in Casselberry. It’s huge, 16 feet or so. We cleaned it up and refinished it and it’s beautiful. The other bench is one my father found and refinished years ago. You can’t buy that in a store for any price!

“We found a pile of bricks from a walkway that was originally here. We reused them to create something we like, something for us. That’s just how we are. We decorate only with things that have meaning for us.”

Inside and Out

Sustainability is one thing when you can apply all the data points, technology, design, and building techniques to a finite structure like a home. But it’s also a lifestyle, one that continues to gain traction with each generation. How Stephan and Arielle choose to incorporate the ideas of sustainability into their everyday lives certainly affects their children.

“We have three young children: Rosalyn is 10, Hendrik is 8, and Johannes is 5,” says Arielle. “Of course, they are too young to really grasp all that we are trying to do here or why it may be a bit unusual. But, over time I am confident they will absorb a lot of it.”

The Schmidt family thinks sustainably whenever they can, from food to clothing, opting for locally sourced goods and a wholehouse water filter to reduce waste from plastic bottles.

“The kids and I make all our own cleaning products. They enjoy it. They know by now that the stuff in those pretty plastic bottles you buy at the store is mostly water. Why pay for those when vinegar and water is a very efficient cleaner?”

We asked Arielle what her plans were for the future. Once all the excitement of a new home dies down and they’ve settled in to enjoy it, what then? Of course, their careful planning accounted for that, too. “We didn’t expect to build a quality sustainable home that would be completely evolved on the day we received the certificate of occupancy. We couldn’t afford it.”

Instead, they see their home as a long-term project, lasting their lifetime and beyond. “It will certainly be standing as long as we are. I hope it will continue to be a beautiful home for our family for generations. Our goal was to build a home and a lifestyle that could evolve over time. That’s how we planned it, anyway.

“For instance, we splurged on our floors.

They’re extra-thick hardwood. Besides being beautiful, they’re more durable and can be refinished several times over their lifetime. We had an electric charging station installed in our garage. We don’t even have an electric car, so that might sound strange. It’s not though, because we plan for our next car to be a hybrid or all-electric vehicle.”

So, has it all been worth it? Are they happy with their sustainable home and lifestyle? More importantly, would they do the whole thing over again? Arielle didn’t hesitate. “One hundred percent. Absolutely. We wouldn’t do it any other way.”

Why is this home sustainable?

• A tight building envelope

• Low ratio of outside walls to square footage

• No sod, no fertilizer, no pesticides, and no irrigation

• Native plants and trees

• Limited use of concrete. Notice: no driveway!

• Highly insulated windows and doors

• Energy eff icient heating and cooling

• Non-toxic and ecologically responsible building materials

• Renewable or recyclable materials and decor choices

• The detached garage, allowing for better ventilation of colorless, odorless, potentially lethal gasses