Leading green homebuilder in Bozeman, Montana, practices what he preaches with this gut rehab

Anders Lewendal likes to lead — he is president of his local homebuilder’s association and chairs its green building committee, sits on the Mayor’s Climate Control Task Force, and has had entries in the Bozeman Parade of Homes for seven of the last ten years. So when he decided to remodel a 100-year old period home in Bozeman, Montana, it had to be a gut rehab shooting for an Energy Star label. This is no mean feat — there are only a handful of these projects in the entire Northwest.

A brief history of 711 North Black

This home started out as a farmhouse on the “edge of town” in the early 1900s. In 1972 the home was moved to 711 North Black, only seven blocks from Bozeman’s downtown Main Street. Another thing that Anders likes is to move; taking on the gut rehab of this 100-year old building as his own home meant moving for about the 25th time in just about as many years. But as Anders likes to say, “We learn a lot with each project, particularly if it’s our own home.”

As a rental property in 2002, Anders did some upgrading to the house: he replaced the windows, put on a new roof, added some insulation in the attic, put in a new furnace, resided and painted it. This meant that the gut rehab in 2008 completely focused on the home’s interior — it was gutted down to bare studs throughout and some interior walls moved to reconfigure spaces as well.

In 2004, Lewendal decided that since the zoning permitted a denser use of the lot, it made sense to add an additional dwelling. He and his wife designed and built a duplex on the opposite end of the property from the main house.

In 2008, a bit of serendipity led to the gut rehab of the main house at 711 North Black; Lewendal tenants were moving out and his family had just sold a large home. So Lewendal charged right in to turn the 100-year-old farmhouse into their family home.

What green means to Anders Lewendal

Anders Lewendal did not get any sort of green certification for his project (although this is not to downplay the importance of the home being Northwest Energy Star-certified). But he is pretty sure the project would do well. Lewendal takes a deep breath: “We started off with high density [three dwelling units on just under 10,000 square feet or about 1/5 of an acre] near downtown, we reused the main house by gut rehabbing it, we superinsulated the main house, added a PV system, and salvaged what we could from the retrofit. That is green and sustainable in my book.”

Lewendal uses recycled content building materials as much as possible in his projects. The backyard fence proved to be an interesting project. “We used miscellaneous materials from our cabinet maker, trim supplier, and other subs. My wife randomly cut the pieces, handed them to me, and I blind-nailed them in to a fence. The result is eclectic and interesting; we get compliments all the time. Besides, it was cheaper than marriage counseling.”

Wrapping up, Lewendal said, “It’s pretty expensive to gut a 100-year-old home and bring it up to current energy standards. It is not for everyone, but we enjoy the location in town and the mature landscaping that comes with an older developed neighborhood.”