GLEN BRUELS (homeowner): We found our architect, Michael McNamara of Blue Sky Design, after seeing photos of a Salt Spring Island house he’d designed in the book, Timberframe: The Art and Craft of the Post-and-Beam Home by Tedd Benson.  We could see he was very good on ‘hanging’ houses on steep slopes, which would be necessary on our site. He’d also had experience with green roofs and other green building techniques, and we especially liked his signature curved roofs. Most important, we felt comfortable with him – he’s a good guy.

Pete Kilpatrick, our builder, has been building green homes since he started Ravenhill Construction back in the 70’s. He had a strong, established crew, which we felt said good things about how he treats his people. The deciding factor was that Pete was willing to go through the process of certifying the house to several green programs, which we figured would take a lot of extra work on the builder’s part. He didn’t let us down – Pete and especially his project manager Jonathan Hu have really become pros at the requirements and documentation for LEED for Homes, ENERGY STAR Homes, and Built Green.

GLEN BRUELS (homeowner): When I was in the service, I spent a year at Todd Shipyards in Seattle and began visiting San Juan Island (SJI).  I fell in love with the place. Later I started taking Deb and the kids there on vacations from our home in Colorado Springs, and they loved it, too. When we began thinking about retirement, we considered Mexico, Hawaii or the Caribbean, but we kept coming back to SJI: it was bucolic, beautiful and relaxing, with friendly people, and we’re not sunbathers so we didn’t care that it was too far north for a swimming beach. The Stewarts next door owned the lot, and when I found myself in Vancouver on business in 2000 I went down to SJI and boom, I bought it. The very next day, another couple offered Gene Stewart 20% more for it, but he turned them down because he and I had shaken hands on it and he was a man of his word.