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It has taken a few years and it’s certainly been a blogging journey, but we’ve finally hit that sweet hundredth post here on the BrightBuilt Home Blog! Since 2017, our blog has served as the place to showcase our newest designs and most recent builds, highlight interviews with homeowners, builders, and industry professionals, and offer-up bits of our expertise in modular, high-performance home design. To commemorate this milestone, we decided to roundup some of the standouts from the first ninety-nine. Read on for links to some of our favorite posts, and most robust informational series.

For a chuckle (or perhaps a mere wry smirk), check out some of the fun, sardonic, or just downright ridiculous posts of blogs past, such as: This one, where alumnus Project Coordinator and Energy Modeler extraordinaire, Kai Fast, shares musings on the (ironic) wonderments of NON-high-performance homes. Or, if you’re into the supernatural, this never-gets-old blog, also by Kai, contemplates which BrightBuilt Home would be the best fit for certain end-of-world scenarios (we realize these days those scenarios may feel a bit close to home, but this blog still drips with entertainment). Or if you like a good old fashioned debate, and want to dive a bit deeper into the archaic terms assigned to prefab (and their connotations), then this blog that explores modular versus mobile versus manufactured may be a good little debate team prep piece for you.

More intrigued by pre-fab and what makes it so exciting for us? In this 2019 classic, part of a limited series called Ask BrightBuilt, co-founder Phil Kaplan concisely explains how modular homes save you money by being constructed off-site. And if you’re looking for more on prefabricated homes, we have you covered with this in-depth article, which looks back to how prefab homes used to be shipped to America in colonial times!

If you’re more down to business, and want to dive into the numbers, perhaps take a gander at our series on appraisals for high-performance homes. BrightBuilt Home director Parlin Meyer shares her wisdom in a must-read guide that covers the appraisal process soup to nuts. Additionally, if you have unanswered questions about financing the hot-new-thing, the ADU, we’ve got the post for you on that too! If you’re thinking about taking a step towards owning (and financing) a new home or ADU, these are a great place to start.

Are you interested in taking diving deeper into the hard costs of building a new Net-Zero home? We’ve got your back with our What’s In a Number Series. To give you a good sense of where to start thinking about your budget, Part I covers costs associated with the building site, such as grading and installing utilities. With that solid foundation, you can dive in to Part II, which looks costs associated with the house itself, from the roof to individual rooms. Round out the whole house package with Part III; it focuses on the pricing of extra additions that you may be thinking about, whether that is a garage or a back patio. With all this under your belt, you’ll be well on your way to a bright(built) future in a new home!

And finally, if you’re more apt to browse columns in Wired or meander through page after page on Houzz, then you might be keen to learn more about the materials and systems that go into our homes. After all, to be sure that your home is truly energy-efficient, it is important to take into account aspects beyond the walls, from the appliances in your kitchen to the light bulbs in the entryway. Our five-part Materials Matter series provides a cursory overview of some of the ways that will help you achieve net-zero living.

More into browsing and finding your own curated faves? You can simplify your searching by going through one of the subcategories. Find topics of interest under the following subheadings: Building Science, Design, Company News, Homebuilding Tips, Living in a BBH, and Off-Site.

We hope this little blog roundup has been a bit of a joy ride for you.  It was our goal to make our 100th post something of a celebratory fair – with samplings from funnel cakes to the gravitron to leisurely sun-flecked strolls down tree-lined paths echoing with the laughter of children.  (Ok, or perhaps just a nice concise overview of some healthy high-performance content).  

We thank you for your continued readership. We feel inspired to write one hundred more, so stay tuned!

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