The list of eco-sensitive innovations featured in the New American Home is lengthy. They range from pine needles used as mulch for the gardens of native plants to R-20 Icynene spray-foam insulation, used to turn an unvented attic into conditioned space only six degrees warmer than the house on the hottest day, instead of 150.
Green is also the color of the money needed to purchase this New American Home, which carries an asking price of $4.8 million. But though Florida is mired in a housing bust right now, the builder, Charlie Robertson, isn't worried about it selling.
"Doctors," Robertson says, are the high-end buyers he's targeting. Just five miles away, on the other side of Lake Nona, is what is being called a "medical city," with the University of Central Florida's new medical school, a new Veterans Affairs hospital, and a new children's hospital.
Robertson has been building homes since 1986 with his wife, Judy, a native of Chester. His son Steve was the contractor for the New American Home at the Waters Edge subdivision, where each of the 11 lots sells for $1.5 million.
Steve Robertson's job was a tough one: In just 10 months, he had to complete a massive four-bedroom, 4-bath dwelling that would normally take two years to build.
Though some call the house "plantation-style," its architecture reflects the vernacular of the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. That was Judy Robertson's idea.
"Hurricane Katrina destroyed so many of those houses that I thought we should do something to preserve the style," she says. "Florida already has enough Mediterranean-style homes."
