Little Bits

Jeff Chew from the Peninsula Daily News produced this video about the launch of the Floating Home. 

You can also follow the story of the launch of the Floating Home in the stories that appeared in the local papers. Anticipation built as we prepared to launch the home. The process halted overnight and resumed the next afternoon. It arrived at its temporary home at Point Hudson early in the morning of February 9th. Click the blue links above to read the stories. You can also view updated photos on our website.

The Little & Little Blog is updated at least two times each month and offers insight, history, and photographs of some of the jobs that we have done.

Are you on Facebook? So are we, and you can find us here. 

Little Tips

Even if you are not building a home you can buy more Made in America products by making deliberate choices about purchases. This website will expose you to many avenues to find Made in America products. 

Made in America

Diane Sawyer and David Muir did an ABC World News feature about a house built in Bozeman, MT that was 100 percent made in America. If you have not watched the video, you can see it here. The World News segment became so popular that, if you do a Google search for “Made in America”, World News with Diane Sawyer will be the first link that is listed. From this site, you can watch a variety of videos about products that are made in America and find an extensive list of products manufactured in each state. Washington State has 19 manufacturers listed, making a wide range of products including clothing, textiles, cabinets, flooring, sports gear, furniture, and more.

Back to the Bozeman home…the Made in America video claimed that if every builder used just five percent more Made in America materials, it would create 220,000 more jobs. That prompted us to find out how much of a Little & Little custom home is made in America. As an example, we used a Jefferson County Home that we built in 2011 and examined every item that went into it. We talked to our suppliers, and to their suppliers, and our trade partners (plumbers, electricians, etc.) to find out where the products that went into the house came from. We turned over every stone and, when the dust settled, we were pleased to learn that 89 percent of the Jefferson County Home was made in America.

There is a notable difference between the Bozeman home in the video and a Little & Little home. The Bozeman home was a Spec House, which means that the contractor builds the home with the intent to sell it upon completion. In that situation, the builder makes all of the decisions for product and material selection. Little & Little builds custom homes where the design and product selections are driven by customer tastes and preferences.

With that in mind, let’s take another look at our Jefferson County Home. The home was 89 percent Made in America with the customer making product selection based on taste and preference regardless of where the product was made. Deliberate choices of American made products, could have made the home 98 percent made in America without impacting the cost of the home. For example, American tile can substitute for Italian tile for the same price and Hardiplank siding, or locally milled cedar, could replace Canadian cedar for a comparable price. Additional guidance in product selection could have brought the Jefferson County Home to 100 percent Made in America for only one or two percent above the budget.

In the past, we would talk about aesthetics, durability, and cost with our customers, and where a product was made was not a factor in our decision making process. Now, we are excited to offer our customers the option to construct a home entirely with products and materials Made in America.

Warm Regards,

Bob Little
Little & Little Construction
2009 4th Street
Port Townsend, WA 98368

(360) 385-5606 - Phone
(360) 385-9733 - Fax

www.little-little.com
bob@little-little.com

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

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