Green houses in Green Lake

When a home comes with an instruction manual, you can expect something different.

Buyers moving into the Ashworth Cottages development — one block north of Green Lake between Ashworth and Densmore avenues — will find a manual telling them how to use and maintain the energy-efficient equipment in their homes.

The development is so green that its model home last month became first in Washington state and seventh in the country to receive "platinum" certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The home received the highest level of certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System partly because of location, according to Alistair Jackson, who helped review the home for the council. The home got major points for being developed in an established neighborhood close to public transit and within walking distance of local services.

"Those same houses in a green field would not have made platinum," Jackson said.

Other green features: More than 90 percent of the development's construction waste has been recycled, and some bricks, terra cotta tiles and interior truss timbers from the warehouse that previously stood at the site were reused in the project, said developer Pryde + Johnson.

The homes also include on-demand hot water, formaldehyde-free doors, high-efficiency fixtures and locally purchased materials.

The garages feature exhaust fans programmed to run until all exhaust is gone, while rooms are tightly sealed to protect them from vehicle emissions. The homes' ventilators are linked to their hot-water systems, providing heat and air conditioning, and filtering out more than 95 percent of airborne particles.

Pryde + Johnson aims to earn platinum status for all 20 homes at Ashworth Cottages.

It fought for a rezone to build on a lot that would normally accommodate only six homes. The homes run from about 1,570 to 1,850 square feet, less than half the size of the 4,500-square-foot house that might typically be built there, Pryde said.

The development has pooled together outdoor space to build a courtyard with gardens and a barbecue area for residents.

"You can increase density without bringing ugly condos and apartments," Jackson said.

Ryan Shaffer, the community's sales manager, expects construction on all homes to be finished by the end of the year. Three of 10 homes available have been sold, and the remaining 10 will be released for sale in a couple of months, he said.

Prices range from nearly $725,000 to about $870,000, which Shaffer said is comparable to home prices in the neighborhood.

Land values contribute significantly to the homes' prices, but the lengthy planning time required to build green also adds to the cost, said Curt Pryde, principal at Pryde + Johnson.

"Time is money," Pryde said.

Building green can add as little as 5 to 10 percent to a home's price, according to Terry Phelan, vice president of the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild. And that difference can disappear over time.

"People get that money back because of energy savings," Phelan said.