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I’ve been writing a lot lately about the environmental benefits of building a Royal Home. There are cost savings, efficiencies and increased quality when you choose to build modular. But there’s one thing about Royal Homes that can’t be understated: the convenience.
Modular building is just so much more convenient than any other process. Traditional building can take 5 – 10 months to build a single house, with constant activity happening on the lot. This activity includes deliveries of materials, concrete pouring, carpenters and other trades coming and going at unpredictable times. The whole operation can be held up by bad weather, accidents or even a traffic jam!
At Royal Homes, our homes are built in a factory by builders and tradesmen that are employed by us. We can work in any weather, and don’t have to worry about unplanned delays. Builders only visit your lot when it’s time to build your home – which will be on time, and on budget!
I’m constantly surprised at how the simplest changes can make the biggest differences when it comes to energy savings. When designing my Royal Home, I learned about a home appliance that we all have, but that hardly anyone uses to its full potential. One that can save you 10-40% on heating and cooling bills.
I’m talking about ceiling fans.
The humble ceiling fan can drastically reduce energy consumption, year round! Of course, we use ceiling fans in the summer, to keep cool. But did you know that running your ceiling fan in the winter can reduce your heating costs by as much as 10%?
Remember your grade school science – warm air rises. In the winter months, running a ceiling fan in a clockwise direction will pull heated air up towards the ceiling, allowing it to disperse across the ceiling and then down the walls – warming up your entire room without creating an uncomfortable breeze. In the summer, running your fan counterclockwise promotes circulation and can allow you to turn off your air conditioning, saving you money.
Ask your Royal Homes’ representatives how to place your ceiling fans to take full advantage of the energy savings.
When I listen to friends who have built a home recently or are looking to build in the near future, I’m amazed at how they just accept that a build will be behind schedule. It seems most times,the build is over by a couple of weeks or even months.
I just didn’t experience that with Royal Homes.
Modular homes are much more efficient to build which means the building of your home isn’t hostage to trade schedules or weather. In a traditional on-site build, first the site is prepared, then the foundation is poured, then everything stops for a few days so the cement can cure. So you’re already a couple weeks into the process and nothing on your actual home has been built yet!
With a Royal Home, the site is prepared and the foundation is poured while your home is being constructed in the factory. There is no waiting for the foundation to cure, for the weather to be ideal, or for any trade delays, everything just keeps moving on schedule.
Building your home in a factory setting, in a controlled environment, prevents surprises. Many people believe that this limits the possibility of custom options. But just the opposite is true about Royal Homes. The standards set in the factory ensure consistency and quality, so that the craftsmen and carpenters can focus on implementing your custom design.
I know I’ve talked about the available green options you can implement when building your Royal Home – things like grey water filters, solar panels and on-demand hot water. But did you know that choosing Royal Homes helps the environment simply because of the efficiencies of the modular building process?
Here are three factors I found interesting:
1. Reduce environment impact on-site.
When a home is constructed on-site, much of the land needs to be cleared to fit bulldozers, cement mixers, cranes and scaffolding around the building site. With a modular home, most of the construction takes place in the factory, so the damage to the site land is greatly reduced.
2. Less materials wasted.
When Royal Homes prepares to build your home, the materials are ordered in bulk. Any extras from one build will be housed in the warehouse and used on the next build. There is virtually no waste on the actual building site. With a traditionally constructed home, 5-10% extra material is ordered to ensure the house will be completed. All the extra is simply carted to the landfill when the construction is complete.
3. Labour and resource efficiencies.
When building indoors, weather is not a factor. No days are lost because of rain or snow and no materials are damaged – and therefore wasted – because of inclement weather. Royal Homes builds are completed efficiently with no time lost for environmental factors beyond their control.
In fact, the global warming impacts from an average traditionally built home is more than 20% higher than a modular build – that’s pretty significant. So I’ve made a difference to the environment by simply choosing Royal Homes. That was easy!
When I sit here in my living room and look around my Royal Home, I can’t believe how well all our design decisions came together. In the beginning, my wife was so excited to choose counter tops and carpets, windows and lighting – but it all seemed overwhelming to me.
The design team at Royal Homes was instrumental in the decision-making process. They helped us categorize our needs and work with the options available to choose the final finishings for our home. I learned a lot from that team and my beautifully designed home is testament to their help.
Here are some things they taught me that I’d like to pass along to you.
1. When considering layout…consider your needs and then what would just be nice to have. Think about high traffic areas and also storage needs. measure the rooms in your current home to give you a perspective on the new plans.
2. Granite, marble, solid surface or laminate all have different qualities. Do your research regarding the wear and tear of these products, hot to clean them and how they can be repaired.
3. The kitchen is the most important room in your home. Take time to consider the traditional work triangle placement of the fridge, stove and sink. Look into appliances now – you’d be amazed at all the different sizes they come in and you want them to fit in your new home.
My best advice is to stick close to the Royal Homes design team and take more than a few walks through their model homes. When you work with Royal Homes, you’ll one day be able to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labour – like I’m doing right now.
Royal Homes invests in research and testing to develop the most cost-effective solutions for building homes in a way that sustains our environment. It’s just the smart way to build.
But there are many immediate benefits to you, the homeowner, when you choose to build green.
Here are just a few:
1. Your will experience a 30 – 40% savings on energy costs. There are many variants in energy savings, but Royal Homes can help you build to save.
2. Using faucets made to conserve and installing plumbing features that help you maximize your water usage can reduce your water waste by 40-50%. A small investment when you build your custom home can reduce costs AND protect our communities.
3. Using green techniques when building produces a higher quality, more durable home. In my last blog, I described the building process I watched in California. While I’m sure they have changed many of the regulations, the homes that were built twenty years ago have little protection against high winds, storms and impact.
4. Your house will have a higher resale value when you invest in building in custom green features. This is one asset that will give you, as a homeowner, immediate and long-term gain.
Come and visit our design centres. Ask our team about building green.
 I lived in California for two years about two decades ago. Many of the people I met had heard urban myths about Canada. First of all, we had snow 12 months of the year – close, but no cigar. Secondly, we were still a little primitive, only the wealthiest homes sporting electricity and refrigerators (after all, with the country frozen year round, why would we have a refrigerator?)
But the Canadian climate inspired our builders to excel in energy efficiency. We were intent on heating our homes – not the outdoors.
I watched a construction team build a home in California. They poured a slab of concrete, set up the frame and studding, slapped up the drywall (directly on the studding) and then covered the whole thing, on the outside, with paper. Finally, they gingerly spread stucco on the outside. You’ve heard the term, “paper thin,” well, the term was apt.
When I told my friends we had double glazed and even triple glazed windows, they asked if we could see through them. They did understand the need for insulation and double glazed windows – what they didn’t understand was the importance of energy efficiency in warm and cold climates. Maintaining a moderate climate inside our homes is very important for healthy lives.
So Royal Homes stays true to this 5 Point Energy Check to optimize the energy efficiency of each home we build:
1. Insulation
2. High performance windows
3. Sealing the envelope (watch the video – this is much easier to do in the factory)
4. Designing the heating and cooling ducts to reduce drafts, moisture, dust and pollens
5. Well designed, high efficiency heating and cooling.
Check out the factory video to see how we accomplish the 5 Point Energy Check every time we build a house.
The true modernist celebrates form and function over aesthetics. Ayn Rand, novelist with a true modernistic philosophy, celebrates simplicity and efficiency. For those of us who prefer the warmth of traditional design, the cool stainless steel isn’t our style.
But today’s contemporary kitchen celebrates your uniqueness.
They take advantage of the contrasts that already exist in nature – mixing cool birch with warm cherry – in the same kitchen. Stainless steel is balanced with warm mosaics or glass tiles. central to most modern designs today is the feature island or “bar”. It is ideal to divide living spaces, without shutting them. Designing your home with an open concept kitchen maximizes ventilation and lighting. It extends the space, allowing more people to participate.
Styles and features always change. In today’s home, we have collapsed the family room, dining room and kitchen into one big space. it accommodates our living styles. Families, often rushing from one activity to the next, can all meet in the heart of the home. Relaxing, eating, doing homework or just chatting, the family can easily share the one space.
When I look at a kitchen there are two criteria.
1. How close is the coffee maker to a comfortable chair? My morning routine depends on it. Add a window facing the rising sun and, well, it’s pretty close to heaven.
2. Is the refrigerator easy to access during sports events. I only have a couple of minutes to get in and get out – I want it to be efficient.
 I know, you’re already thinking of the stereotype I represent. I admit, I don’t cook. My wife cooks. My daughter cooks. My son cooks. None of them want me in the kitchen. The modern concept of a bar that separates the kitchen from the living area is my family’s purposeful way of separating me from the activity of cooking, but keeping me in the loop.
When we designed our custom kitchen, Royal Homes was very helpful. My wife knew what she wanted, and the design consultants were able to offer her many suggestions that made our kitchen truly unique.
There are unlimited options… A pot faucet by the stove, a cupboard that houses kitchen machines and pops up to counter level, pot racks, butcher blocks, drawer slides, lazy susans, self closing doors and drawers, appliance garages, silverware organizers, pull out spices cabinets… Need I go on? I haven’t even started to mention the more than a hundred thousand door styles, finishes and woods.
Use timeless design principals and add modern features to your custom kitchen. You can use traditional and classic colours for you cabinetry and add splashes of colour in the countertop, back splash, lighting and accessories.
When you visit Royal Homes Design Centres, you will see the very attractive custom kitchen designs, maximizing the advantage of multi-level cabinetry, glass doors and open shelving. Our photo gallery has many fine examples of traditional kitchens
I have to admit, my wife sees the possibilities. Me? I think we should just set up a few of those blow up Santa things on the front yard to show our holiday spirit.
But, over the years, I’ve learned a few things.
1. Think about decorating when you plan your electrical outlets. Planning your circuitry to facilitate outdoor lights and times makes outdoor decorating easy.
2. Consider unique placements of feature walls and decorative shelving. Transform a traditional square corner in your front hallway with a triangular shelf, giving you a stunning feature.
3. Banisters and mantles are perfect for fresh garland and sparkly lights (I’m sure there is a sophisticate word for “sparkly”).
4. Feature windows are perfect places to show case your Christmas tree. In our neighbourhood, a nearby house has an open concept living area. From the outside, it features more than 20 feet of gorgeous window. Their annual decorating feat is setting up a tree that reaches into the rafters! It’s awe-inspiring.
I’m not saying that you should design your home around seasonal celebrations – but with just a little fore thought, you can add small features to your home that give you a unique decorating platform for the holiday season.
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