Homeowners
John Gaddo & Nancy North
Lanesboro, MN. — We love people, the outdoors and creative projects. When building looked like the best option we chose the Passive House method and the adventure began. John is a public media manager and producer and Nancy develops communications for community and clean water action through her business, NewGround, Inc.
Designer
Christi Weber
TDS Custom Construction*
Madison, Wisc. — As architect and Certified Passive House Consultant for this project, Christi provided technical and creative leadership and worked hard to develop plans to fit our needs and budget. She creatively, passionately walks the talk and has been a listener, a doer and a tenacious partner. (*During this project, Christi worked with Design Coalition Architects.)
Builder
Vilen Construction, Inc.
Zumbro Falls, Minn. — Jeff Vilen has deep experience and a passion for learning and implementing sustainable building techniques. He contributed throughout design of our home and brings a thoughtful, problem-solving approach to the project. For our project, primary team members are Troy Clement and JR Yenne.
Advisor
Lou Host-Jablonski
Design Coalition Architects
Madison, Wisc. — Lou has designed energy-efficient buildings since 1977. As a community leader and passionate advocate for affordable, sustainable construction, his own home build became a lab for students and continues to be a living experiment. Lou’s encyclopedic knowledge and experience are important to our project.
Advisor
Sonya Newenhouse
NewenHouse, Inc.
Viroqua, Wisc. — Sonya’s home, first in a series of NewenHouse Kit Homes, is small, super-insulated, sustainable and elegant in its simplicity. Seeing Sonya’s home in progress inspired us to persevere! Sonya owns Community Car LLC in Madison, Wisc. and is founder of Madison Environmental Group.
Mentors
Joe Deden & Mary Bell
Eagle Bluff Environmental
Learning Center
Lanesboro, Minn. — Joe and Mary are anchors at Eagle Bluff, educators and passionate advocates for sustainable local living. Their “airy” 1970s A-frame home was retrofitted in 2011 to a blower door test rating (for air tightness) of 0.45 ACH—a 92% improvement! We learned about Passive House at an Eagle Bluff event.