Now the remodeling begins at the new home of the Phil-Moor cottages

By Ryan Mavity, Cape Gazette

Originally posted in Bill’s Deconstruction Blog March 19 2009: http://www.deconstructiondelaware.com/blog/

When most folks think of going green they think of solar panels and saving electricity. Homebuilder Bill Bell says going green is about saving materials from the landfill by reusing them.
“A lot of people talk about green building as if it’s something new, but in fact there really isn’t all that much new about it. In the 1970s they called it ecology; in the late 1980s – early 1990s they called it environmentally friendly, and today it’s green,” he said. Bell, who is transforming three of the old Phil-Moor cottages into a two-bedroom house in Ellendale, said reusing was one of the most important aspects of being green. He said the refurbished Phil-Moor cottages would use 80 percent to 90 percent of the original structures, which date back to the 1940s.
To help keep the new house green, Bell used guidelines set forth by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system, which establishes standards for environmentally friendly design. Although he is using those criteria, Bell said the Phil-Moor project would not seek certification.
“If you read through that, so much of it is selecting the site, selecting the home, the orientation of the home on the lot, what style home it is and how much disturbance to the site itself,” he said. As an example, Bell said his lot had several large trees on it that were in the way of where he wanted to put the cottages. Instead of just clear-cutting the lot, he said, he did what he called “major surgery” to the trees. “We didn’t just tear it down because it was in our way. We had to trim a lot of the branches out of the way but we kept them,” he said.
All three of the cottages are made of wood and weigh 12,000 pounds each. “That’s 12,000 pounds each of materials that we kept out of the landfill,” Bell said. “If this house were sitting here on this lot, in the condition that it’s in, most people tear it down and rebuild. Not only did we not tear it down, we brought it here. I think that is significantly green.”

Craning the Phil-Moor cottages onto their new foundation

The cottages will also use what Bell calls “universal design” and “aging in place”.

“The concepts of that are to design a space for the greatest number of users possible,” Bell said.”
“When people hear me talking about this, they frequently think, ‘Oh, you’re talking about someone in a wheelchair.’ And the answer is no, I’m not talking about someone in a wheelchair. I’m talking about a child who is 3-feet tall or a man that’s 7-feet tall. Somebody who is 10 years old or 90 years old.”
To help make the house universal, Bell designed it to eliminate barriers, such as thresholds at doorways and steps. Aging in place, he said, is simply the idea of building the house to allow the homeowner to live in that house for the rest of their life.
“There’s no reason to think this house couldn’t last another 100 years,” Bell said, “and whoever buys it will always have a big story to tell.”