Happy New Year readers! Here’s to 2011 being a year of recovery, rebuilding and well, just plain old building. Before we begin blogging this year, we wanted to take a look back at the top five posts of 2010. Enjoy! Amazing builder videos DeWalt-16 Nail Gun by David Wiggins Q&A with green builder Matt Risinger [...]

Hire Locally Will Become the Law in San Francisco New York Times “Under the ordinance, city contractors and subcontractors working on city-financed construction projects worth $400,000 or more would be required to hire at least 20 percent of their workers from San Francisco. The requirement will increase by 5 percent each year until it reaches [...]

Saving Costs Residential Architect “Now more than ever, architects who hope to increase their market share must respect their clients’ limits. More importantly, they need a clear understanding of costs, a process flexible enough to adjust as the project evolves, and the creative know-how to do more with less.” Pending Home Sales Rose 10.4% in [...]

We recently talked about smaller home construction outlasting the current recession. Obviously finances are a concern for many people right now (think of the heating bills on those McMansions!) and a smaller footprint just makes sense. An article called “Downsizing the American Dream” on USA Today gave some more specifics: According to leading architect Sarah [...]

Green Building Goes on a Budget Wall Street Journal “Casa Feliz is one of a growing number of affordable-housing projects nationwide that have been built “green”—that is, with nontoxic materials, highly energy-efficient appliances, and features such as green roofs and solar panels. Thanks to tax credits designed to attract private capital and aggressive cost-cutting on [...]

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Home builders, who aren’t selling too many homes these days, appear to be using their downtime to sharpen quality and service.” It makes sense. Without the housing boom engine powering sales, builders all over the country have to re-tool their plans. Of course, we’re not saying that a few [...]

We want to know: How important is green to your customers, really? Most everyone would agree that green can be an attractive selling point — for some people. But how do homeowners feel about green? There can be a difference in perception between “green” and energy efficient.” Most people will eagerly replace appliances and devices [...]

The iPad seems to be everywhere these days. It’s new, it’s cool and its innovative construction could make it very useful for…construction. As technology has advanced, so have the opportunities for builders. When laptops became lighter and more transportable, it was easy to throw it in your bag on the way to a jobsite. And [...]

Home Builders Likely to Consolidate, Merge WSJ Developments Blog “The likelihood of acquisitions among the public homebuilding companies has increased for five reasons. New home sales are slow and not recovering; executives sound discouraged on earnings calls; builders are focusing on grabbing market share; general economic outlook, especially for job growth, has gotten worse; and [...]

Replacement Housing Services specializes in full replacement and renovation of homes for move-up buyers who value urban living. Each project is supported by extensive research and analysis covering everything from the selection of the building site to the architectural fit within the neighborhood and community, as well as the current and future lifestyle needs of [...]