For Lyme family, green is the primary color

Lyme - Installing dual-flush toilets and compact fluorescent light bulbs isn't the half of it.

As Habitat for Humanity of Southeastern Connecticut builds a 1,280-square-foot house on Town Street in Hadlyme that will become the Welsh residence next year, workers and volunteers will also be thinking about:

• what materials to use, and how to use the materials more thoughtfully in order to generate less waste;

• what building materials they can recycle;

• how well the water will drain off the property;

• what types of plants will adorn the 1.2-acre property.

All this meticulous planning and documenting is necessary because the Hadlyme house, unlike the 41 houses Habitat has built or renovated over its 22-year history, will be a "green build," complete with certification from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the internationally recognized green-building certification program.

Green homes create less waste during the construction process and, once built, consume less energy, water and natural resources, according to the LEED Web site.

It means Habitat's innovative approach to building affordable homes will not only minimize the negative environmental impact of home construction but will also result in a well-insulated house that will help Carlee Welsh, the woman selected to purchase the house, minimize her monthly heating bills.

"That's just the cherry on top," said Welsh of the expected savings on utility bills. "In today's day and age of economic times … you do try to live smarter, so the fact that the house will be built smarter, all the appliances will be Energy Star, the heating system, all of those things, that to me is just an absolute blessing."

Welsh, 37, moved into a domestic-violence shelter with her youngest daughter after she left her second husband a decade ago. She now works as a senior training representative in the human resources division of Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Welsh lives in a two-bedroom rental apartment in Taftville with her daughters Mackenzie, 16, a senior at Norwich Free Academy, and Cheyenne, 10, a fifth-grader at Norwich's Wequonnoc School. Cameron, 13, an eighth-grader at Haddam-Killingworth Middle School, lives primarily with his father, Welsh's first husband.

Building a house to environmentally friendly standards is no small task. The construction routine Habitat's "faithful framers" - the core group that builds Habitat houses - are familiar with is being revisited to adhere to LEED certification standards.

No longer will drywall, usually a building material that yields substantial waste as pieces are cut out for windows and other house features, be tossed into a Dumpster. Instead, drywall will be recycled, and Habitat volunteers plan to bundle leftover construction wood panels for firewood, said Rob Richards, a member of both the Habitat board of directors and Habitat's new LEED Committee.

To navigate the complicated world of obtaining points for green-building certification, Habitat is relying on Richards' expertise as a retired engineer who in 1981 built himself a passive solar house in Old Mystic, as well as Lindsey Kieffaber's knowledge as an AmeriCorps intern who wrote her college thesis on the LEED certification program.

Habitat is aiming for LEED Silver, the second of four "performance tiers" based on points earned for such green elements as the house's design, use of materials and even how well the resident has been educated about the process of building a green home.

"It affects every aspect of the build, from the establishment of the ground, to the heating system, to the water system, to all the different pieces," Welsh said of aiming for LEED certification. "So that's pretty exciting. And it only benefits the community to have something like that. I think it gives the community kind of a consciousness, you know?"

One green build at a time

The leap to green building was a natural progression for Habitat, which has in recent years strived to build to greener standards by incorporating such things as energy-efficient appliances, Richards said. After a false start to obtain LEED certification for a Habitat house in New London, the group shifted its focus to the Hadlyme property - a Dominion-sponsored build - as the organization's first to carry the green-building seal of approval.

Habitat is building the three-bedroom, single-family house in conjunction with Lyme Compact, a private nonprofit group in Lyme dedicated to building more affordable houses in the wealthy town of about 2,000 residents.

This is the second partnership between Habitat and Lyme Compact and the ninth house among Lyme's 900 to 1,000 dwellings to be deemed affordable. The town built six houses through a taxpayer-funded affordable-housing program Eno helped start almost 20 years ago.

"We just know there's a need, and we have taxpayers and private donors who support it and want to do it," said Ralph Eno, president of the Lyme Compact and also Lyme's first selectman, about affordable housing in town. "And the approach has been incremental, so nobody's been overwhelmed with it."

LEED certification is an extra cost to Habitat. But unlike other Habitat houses, the Hadlyme house will sit on land Welsh will lease at a nominal rate from Lyme Compact for 99 years, with a one-time option to renew, Eno said.

"If she had to pay for that building lot, she couldn't afford it," he said. "You take the land out of the equation and use this community land-trust lease agreement … (and) it substantially reduces the level of cost and makes living in town possible."

The land-lease model means this Hadlyme home is budgeted at $135,000, not much more than the $100,000 Habitat spends on average to build a home, said Terri O'Rourke, Habitat's executive director.

Eno praised Habitat's efforts to go green, which he said at the very minimum would help make the house even more affordable for Welsh.

"Over the long haul, if this gets to be the model, it's got to have a positive outcome," Eno said. "And (it's) got to be a benefit on a pretty large scale. And it starts one house at a time."

j.cho@theday.com