by Leigh Wills . photo by Jeff Miller
If you blog it, they will build it. That could be the new motto for Greenstone Builders of Asheville after its participation in Blog Cabin, an interactive television series on the DIY Network that lets fans vote on design features for a home being built from scratch. This year’s Blog Cabin is located in the Preserve at Little Pine, a mountain community located on 1,800 acres in Madison County.
From January through March, people worldwide went online and voted on various design aspects of the home that they preferred. Online voters got to have their say on the lot, the floor plan and interior and exterior designs. More than one million votes were cast, and the design elements that proved most popular with voters were incorporated into the home.
Greenstone CEO Richard Dwyer says the developer of the four Preserve Communities in Western North Carolina asked his company to build the Blog Cabin. After hearing the idea and meeting with the developer and network representatives, Dwyer accepted the job.
“It seemed like it would be a challenge,” says Dwyer, who founded Greenstone in 2005. And it was — but not because of television production schedules or the fact a million people were making design choices. The real challenge came from Mother Nature. “It was the wettest season. It was like building in a mosh pit, especially at that elevation,” Dwyer says. “The weather was one of our biggest enemies.”
Dwyer says he enjoyed the process of working on the Blog Cabin and incorporating the ideas chosen online into the finished home. He says the building process wasn’t all that much different from working with a typical client. Like a homeowner, the bloggers wanted the home to be the perfect mountain getaway. “All of the bloggers took this to heart,” he says. “They were each emphatically interested in what the home would look like.”
The 2,400-square-foot home valued at $500,000 features two bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, two kitchens, four fireplaces, a great room and many custom features. There is also a wine chiller and a theater room, both chosen by online voters. Dwyer says the theater room is perfect for watching a good movie or inviting friends over for a weekend of football. “It has a drop-down screen, and for movies, it is totally dark in there,” he says.
The home also comes with something else sure to please any homeowner — energy savings. Greenstone specializes in building Energy Star and N.C. HealthyBuilt homes. Under the HealthyBuilt program, Dwyer is shooting for gold certification for the Blog Cabin but is confident of reaching at least silver.
“Everything Greenstone builds is Energy Star and HealthyBuilt,” Dwyer says. “The Blog Cabin has very efficient HVAC units in it. It will be a very low cost to operate this home.”
Someone will find out very soon just how much it will cost to run the home because the DIY Network will give the cabin away to someone in November through an online contest that is currently underway. Anyone can register for a chance to win the home by going to diynetwork.com/blog-cabin.
In the meantime, tours of the home run through the end of October. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at various locations throughout Western North Carolina. Go to www.buildgreenstone.com for ticket locations. Proceeds from the ticket sales will benefit local and regional charities.
The 2009 premiere of Blog Cabin was August 20. Dwyer says there are a total of 10 episodes featuring this year’s home that air at 9pm on Thursdays on the DIY Network.
