THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 22, 1995 TAG: 9504200374
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: About the Outer Banks
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
Easter weekend and the Shedlock house should have been finished. It wasn't. The holdup centered on installation of a swimming pool.
Building on the oceanfront is tricky work. What can be done with the land is regulated by the division of Coastal Management according to Coastal Area Management Act regulations. In addition, each town has its own restrictions.
Joe Rhodes needs both a CAMA permit and a town building permit for the swimming pool. He got the CAMA permit early in the project. He had the pool drawn on house plans approved by Nags Head and thought he was set.
The approval for the house didn't include the swimming pool, explains John Brabrand, a building inspector for the town. ``We had discussions about the pool,'' he says, ``but the builder never submitted a plan until the first week in April.''
Restricted by lot size and septic tank requirements, the builder needs to put the pool in the ``V zone,'' the most restricted building zone on the coast. Town zoning prohibits any dune disturbance in a V zone and is generally interpreted to mean no excavations that might contribute to dune erosion.
Brabrand says there would be no problem if Rhodes builds the pool above ground, surrounded by decking. The homeowners want the pool in the ground, arguing that it's safer and more aesthetically pleasing that way.
Rhodes has never put an oceanfront pool in Nags Head before, although he's built them in other Outer Banks towns in V zones without problems.
``I've never had so much trouble in my life,'' he says. ``I think we've got it settled and maybe the town will change their interpretation of the rules. But I sure hated to be the one to go through all this.''
Rhodes and the homeowners hired an environmental consultant to help in their negotiations with the town. They were required to submit engineering studies to support their position. The cost of the pool multiplied when the delays kept the house from being rented Easter week.
``Once we saw that we couldn't get the pool in, I told Joe not to worry about it and work on other jobs,'' says Lois. ``There's no use in rushing at this point.''
There have been other unpleasant surprises. The Shedlocks and their partner wanted their house to be as energy efficient as possible. They expected the house to meet North Carolina Power's Energy Saver Plus standards.
There was miscommunication. ``I'm used to the old Energy Saver home,'' Rhodes explains. Those standards, now code requirements, are what most homeowners request even though they no longer earn a conservation discount.
In fact, the Shedlock house exceeds old standards and comes close to meeting the Energy Saver Plus requirements. Nationwide Homes put R-19 insulation in the floors, R-30 in the ceilings. R-13 insulation in the walls was augmented by styrofoam sheathing to meet the Plus requirement of R-16.
But one of the key requirements of a Energy Saver Plus home is that the climate control system be certified under the power company's ``Comfort Assured'' program.
Heat pumps must be SEER 11 and all duct work and the air handler must be sealed with mastic. The system must have less than 3 percent air leakage when blower tested.
The heating and air-conditioning requirements would add about $3,000 to the cost of the house, says Rhodes. Besides, by the time he discovered that his client wanted something different, ducts were out of easy reach behind finished dry wall.
The extra money for the Energy Saver Plus would have paid off for the Shedlocks, says Jay Tutweiler, energy efficiency reprsentative for North Carolina Power. ``We've done studies that show 15 to 20 percent energy savings before the 5 percent conservation discount.''
In a vacation home, the potential for savings is greater because most folks ``don't practice conservation on vacation,'' says Tutweiler, and power bills are usually very high.
The homeowners had other energy saving ideas. Working with Richard Hahn, owner of Tomorrow's World, a Virginia Beach company specializing in renewable energy sources, they planned a wind generator system that would run the home's water heaters.
Hahn installed a three-blade generator on the roof of the Shedlock house. Small and very quiet, says Hahn, the windmill generates up to five kilowatts per day. It's the first installation he's done on the Outer Banks. ``The beach is a natural for this kind of thing,'' he says.
Five kilowatts not quite enough to heat water for a five-bathroom house during peak usage times, says Hahn, but the system is hooked into conventional power as a back-up.
The homeowners had hoped to sell excess electricity back to North Carolina Power during winter months when the house isn't in use. But Hahn says their system, which cost only $1,200 (installation extra), isn't sophisticated enough for that.
Four or five wind generators and an electronically monitored system would be needed to provide all the power for the Shedlock's all-electric house and make a power buy-back arrangement possible. It would cost about $10,000, says Hahn. MEMO: Send comments and questions to Chris Kidder at P.O. Box 10, Nags
Head, N.C. 27959.
EDITOR'S NOTE This article is fifth in an eight-part series covering
the construction of a modular vacation home on the Nags Head oceanfront.
Next week we'll look at interior layout and decorating decisions. by CNB