The Fairway Hills Project really started back in 2003 when James O'Reilly bought a house on 76 acres in New Durham New Hampshire. The home was built on land that was a thriving blueberry farm. It sat on the Northerly side of Copple Crown mountain and had stunning views of the White mountains.

James thought of developing the land but wanted to do something special with it. His first thought was to creat a neighborhood of homes that were energy efficient. Although building an energy efficient home is not new or different, the idea of creating a whole community of homes that are efficient seemed to be a new idea. His searches for other neighborhoods of energy efficient homes built in New Hampshire did not turn up much. They just did not exist.

As fuel prices climbed and the Green Home movement gained in popularity the thought of creating such a neighborhood began to really make sense to him. In 2006 he began the task of surveying the land and getting conceptual designs for the neighborhood done. In 2007 he took the proposal to the town of New Durham for the long approval process. (he is not quite done with getting approvals, but it is close)

Now the serious work of defining exactly what the neighborhood will be focused on. There are so many ideas about what an energy efficient home should be. ( you may notice that we are not using the term "Green" home. There are so many concepts of what "Green" is that it tends to be confusing)

In the next post I will begin to define the high level goals of the community. We are looking for feedback on what people really want in a community that is earth friendly. So feel free to post your comments and any thoughts you may have.