WHAT'S NEW WITH GREEN VALLEY BUILDERS? 

GVB Completes Blacksburg's First LEED Silver Certified Home
August 27, 2010 – (Blacksburg, Virginia) – The Lewis family has something no one else in Blacksburg does. Their home at 804 Petra Pass in Mt. Tabor Meadows was announced Blacksburg’s first home to receive LEED® Silver Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It is only the second home to be certified LEED in southwest Virginia; the other is in Lexington, Va.

“After our first month living here, our monthly utility bills went from over $700 to about $180,” said homeowner Chris Lewis. “That’s saying a lot considering we have seven people in our family ranging from my older father to my granddaughter.”

To be exact, Lewis’ electricity bill has averaged $185.62 per month since March, along with a $20 per month natural gas bill to run a four-bedroom, 3.5 bath house totaling 3,402 square feet including their unfinished basement. And while their new home is 1,200 square feet smaller than their previous home in a nearby subdivision, there are now four more people living at the Lewis home.

“Our two grown sons, and my daughter and granddaughter have all rejoined our family and moved back in due to financial pressures,” said Lewis. “This came at a time when my husband, Greg, and I wanted to downsize our living expenses.”

That’s where an energy-efficient home and Green Valley Builders came in. Like the Lewises, we hear a lot of buzz about green building, but how can we tell what is “real” and what is just fluff? One of the ways you can tell is whether or not the home is certified by a national third party program like the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED for Homes program. For the homebuyer, LEED is like the nutrition label on the side of a cereal box; it clearly labels in measurable terms that the home has healthy, green, efficient features that have been third-party verified. Click here to read more.

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Mt. Tabor Meadows Commons wins national playground project grant!  
BLACKSBURG, Va. - June 2, 2010 - The residents of Mt. Tabor Meadows truly have something to celebrate. The community rallied together to garner 1,729 online votes to help them secure a playground equipment grant of $5,000.

Over the summer, American non-profit KaBOOM! premiered the Promote Your Project design contest. The first round of the contest was judged by a celebrity panel who selected ten projects to compete in the finals. Finalists rallied their communities to get the word out however they could and placing their votes online.

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Blacksburg neighborhood wins national playground grant - 06.04.10 Channel WSLS 10
Blacksburg community wins $5,000 KaBOOM! playground grant - 06.02.10 Blue Ridge Business Journal
Neighborhood hopes contest will fund playground - 05.28.10 The Roanoke Times 

GVB hosts Virginia Tech students at Mt. Tabor Meadows
BLACKSBURG, Va. - May 25, 2010 - GVB hosted a group of undergraduate and graduate students at Mt. Tabor Meadows. The students visited the site as part of assistant professor Elizabeth Grant's Environmental Building Systems and Architectural Systems Integration courses, part of the curriculum of the School of Architecture + Design in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech. 
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Steve Bodkte and his dog Wolfgang hang out at Pulaski Community Hospital
BLACKSBURG, Va. - April 27, 2010 - You may have seen Steve Bodtke, Associate Broker with Mt. Tabor Meadows, and his dog Wolfgang driving around town on their Harley-Davidson. But you may not know that Wolfgang is a very special dog. Steve and Wolfgang take special trips to hospitals and assisted-living centers once a month as part of the dog therapy program. Way to go Wolfgang!   READ MORE>>>

GVB home earns a HERS rating of 44 

BLACKSBURG, Va. - February 20, 2010 - Green Valley Builders (GVB) doesn't just building sustainable homes because it's trendy. We build them because we believe that's the best way to build homes. We believe in it so much, we live in them! We just finished building Justin's home, which received a home energy rating of 44.    
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