A log home built by one of our students was recently selected as the 2009 Built Green Washington award winner* in their remodeling category. 

Mike Vowels took our 2-day log home class back in the 1970s and then built his log home.  It's a very well built and beautiful log home, in fact it was featured in the book Hands-On Log Homes by Cindy and Art Thiede.  You can see pictures of his log home in our student gallery.

Mike recently remodeled his log home, adding many environmentally friendly features.  He added features like an on-demand hot water heater, living roof, bog scape grey water treatment system, rain catchment system, solar hot water heater, et cetera.  He also used recycled beams, boards, windows, and doors purchased from salvage yards.  Mike really set out to turn his log home into a showcase for green living. 

In 2008 Mike's log home was selected to be included in the  King County Green Tools Program, as a "Remodel Case Study" of Sustainable and Green building practices.  LHBA staff attended the event and had a great time, we even took tons of pictures at the event.  It's worth noting that Mike harvested the logs for his home in a sustainable fashion, and his property is part of the King County Forest Stewardship program.

Now in 2009 Mike's home has been selected as the 2009 Built Green Washington award winner.  It's a well deserved reward, because Mike's home exemplifies the principles of living an environmentally conscience lifestyle.  Congratulations to Mike Vowels for a job well done.

* Built Green Washington is a cooperative of Washington’s regional green home building programs.  It is funded by the  Washington State Department of Ecology.