Appliances

To help conserve energy, all of our appliances are ENERGY STAR PARTNER qualified through the U.S. Department of Energy.

General Electric is our choice for our appliances. We chose GE because the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded their appliances with the Sustained Excellence Award for their commitment to creating appliances that help reduce energy costs. Our standard homes include General Electric cook tops, micro hoods, wall ovens and dishwashers. These quality appliances are available in black, white or stainless finish.

For our upgraded appliance package, we have chosen the Profile Series from General Electric, and Bosch dishwashers. Plans 3 through 10 are designed to accommodate an optional wine cooler or beverage center. Plans 2 through 10 have thirty-six inch wide gas cook tops or an electric option, if you desire.

J.D. Power and Associates ranked Bosch dishwashers “Highest in customer satisfaction”, and they are among the most efficient and quietest available. Bosch dishwashers can save you up to 20% in energy use as well, but most importantly, they are engineered to spotlessly clean your dishes.

Cabinets

We use material and glues that are low or no emitters of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). Some of our standard features are:

• Adjustable shelves in all upper cabinets, pantries, and laundries
• Inset style cabinet doors
• Crown moldings in the kitchen
• Roll out trash bins
• Hidden European hinges
• Easy wipe interior shelves
• Corner access systems for difficult cabinet corners - Upgrade

Our standard cabinets are made of birch or beech wood with inset panels, finished with a clear conversion lacquer finish that is low or no VOC. Our finishes are extremely hard, non-yellowing, and water-resistant. Paint grade cabinets are available as an upgrade.

You may also choose from many other hardwoods and door styles as an upgrade option.

Carpet/Carpet Pad

Our carpet is manufactured by Shaw Industries. They are the world’s largest manufacturer of carpeting and a leader in environmentally friendly floor covering. Philadelphia Carpet by Shaw Industries comes with a 7-year Quality Assurance Warranty. This warranty certifies that your carpet will be free of manufacturing defects for 7 years.

Our carpet features Shaw’s R2X combined soil and stain resistance system, a patented treatment that offers a 7-year limited warranty against soiling and liquid spills. Shaw carpets, made of Anso nylon, are engineered to provide unsurpassed quality and outstanding performance. Anso nylon makes a yarn of superior volume and consistent quality. This results in a better feeling carpet with uniform colorations. On a scale of 1 to 5, our carpet is rated a 4. Carpet with a 4 or better rating is considered outstanding and is recommended for heavy traffic locations, including family rooms and children's areas.

The style we have chosen is Shaw’s Imperial style. It’s FHA certified, low in Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), so it’s good for the indoor air quality of your home. Since it’s 100% recyclable, it’s environmentally friendly as well.

Shastan Homes employ a 7-pound, high-density carpet-pad under the carpet. Our carpet-pads are FHA Green Label Certified. The pad has a 15-year warranty and is hypoallergenic.

Central Vacuum

The Beam Central Vacuum System is a built-in cleaning appliance that lets you clean your floors and improve the indoor air quality of your home at the same time.

Research at the University of California Davis has proven that a Beam System provides measurable relief from major allergy symptoms… as much as 61%. As an upgrade, you can purchase the Beam Base Unit that will easily handle up to a 3,500 square foot home, the 30’ Beam Solaire Power Team Kit, a Deluxe Car Care Kit and an Automatic Dust Pan in the kitchens.

Beam vacuum systems are up to five times more powerful than a standard upright vacuum and remove nearly 100% of contacted dirt, dust mites, dander and other allergens and carry them away from living areas. The self-cleaning filter, located in the garage, is made of GORE-TEX fabric, which is five times stronger than other leading filtration media.

The central vacuum system is an upgrade option.

Ceramic Tile

We build our shower walls the old fashioned way, using thick, wire-mesh reinforced cement mortar over a vapor barrier to form a base for our tile.

Our tile floors are ceramic tile over an acrylic thin-set base. For all tile floors, crack membranes are used to help minimize the likelihood of cracking.

There are many different colors and sizes available to choose from for the standard home, and even more options available as an upgrade.

Closets

Our master bedroom closets have a combination of single shelves and poles and double shelves and poles, to maximize the storage capacity of the closet space. Our secondary bedroom closets have a single pole and single shelf. We can also customize the configuration of any closet as an upgrade option.

For ease of cleaning and durability, we use enamel paint in our closet interiors and shelves.

Concrete - Flatwork

If you took a cross section through one of our typical floor slabs, you would find our slabs are reinforced with #3 rebar at 24" o/c ew - which is far more effective than welded wire mesh to reduce slab cracking. Under the slab you would find a sand layer over a 10-mil vapor barrier over 4” of gravel fill. Each of the various components of this assembly has a purpose. The 10-mil vapor barrier and the gravel fill help prevent moisture found in the ground below from getting into your floor slab. The sand protects the vapor barrier while the concrete is being placed. The #3 reinforcing is not required by the building code, but we install this as another measure to help minimize slab cracking. We also install control joints in key locations throughout the house, garage and driveway to further minimize and control the inevitable irregular cracking that will occur in any concrete slabs.

Concrete - Footings

Our footings have two continuous horizontal steel reinforcing bars, one top and one bottom. Steel reinforcing in the footing improves the strength and ductility of the concrete footings – helping to minimize cracking and the effects of soil heave and settlement.

Countertops

You may choose from standard selections of Corian or granite countertops in the kitchens, as well as a variety of upgrades.

Our bathroom countertops are tile with vitreous china sinks, with many upgrade options available.

Doors - Exterior

Our front doors are selected from the California Craftsman Collection, as manufactured by T.M. Cobb.

We have chosen Thermatru for all other exterior doors. Their doors are fiberglass and Energy Star Certified.Fiberglass exterior doors take paint nicely and are not prone to warping and are highly weather resistant.

We ask our installers to use an entire tube of caulking under the exterior metal door thresholds, which sets up solid - giving the threshold a substantial feel when stepped on.

Doors - Interior

For our interior doors, we have selected Cambridge style raised panel interior doors manufactured by Jeld-Wen. Most of our doors are 8 feet tall, which complements our spacious 9 foot ceilings. We can offer glass transoms over standard height doors as an upgrade for a custom pre-sale.

When hanging the doors, our finish carpenter uses cedar shingle shims so that all of the "door jambs" are solid, straight and true. To help prevent warping of the doors, Shastan Homes insists on three hinges per door.

Door Hardware

Shastan Homes uses Kwikset door hardware with a satin nickel finish. Our homes all have lever type hardware rather than traditional knobs at all doors for easier operation. We also install dead bolt locks on all of our swinging exterior doors for added security.

Drywall

Many drywall contractors will use standard half-inch gypsum board for their ceilings. Over time, this can result in unsightly sags. We use only 5/8-inch thick ceiling board or half-inch thick ToughRock on all ceilings. We also use screws along with nails to fasten the gypsum board to the wood framing. This helps to reduce annoying "nail pops".

Many homebuilders will use a heavy texture on their walls, enabling them to more easily camouflage wall imperfections. We use a lighter, more custom looking sheet rock finish that is easy to clean and dust.

For the outside sheet rock corners, we use the durable and stylish bull-nosed corners, rather than the less expensive square corners. The bullnose corners look nicer, and will generally exhibit less wear over time.

Electrical

All Shastan Homes have 200 amp electrical service panels as a standard feature. This would enable you to add features to your home such as a pool, spa, or a room addition. You could even accommodate an electric car or golf cart.

Shastan Homes installs a Structured Media Panel (SMP) in every home as a standard feature. This affords you a great deal of flexibility with your current and future communication wiring needs. The SMP is a great location for a DSL modem or wireless router. SMP’s are a very clean and organized way to handle all your cable, phone and computer network cabling. The cable TV and phone cables are all “home runs” to this panel. The Cable TV “home runs” to the SMP result in the highest quality signal possible for your cable TV, satellite TV or cable modems.

Telephone jacks are wired with Cat 5e cables. Each cable has 4 pairs of wires, accommodating up to 4 phone lines. Just think, you will have enough phone lines for your home office and a fax, and still have enough lines to accommodate your teenagers! Don’t try that in your old home!

If you choose to purchase ceiling fans for your new home, many rooms in our homes, such as master bedrooms, family rooms and living rooms are pre-wired for ceiling fans with lights, making it much easier for you to install your fixtures.

Depending on the stage of construction at which you purchase your new home, you may be given an opportunity to select certain decorative light fixtures using our pre-established lighting budget.

We provide smoke detectors in all rooms and locations as required by Code, and all of our smoke detectors are wired in series so all detectors sound off simultaneously, within 3 seconds, in case of smoke or fire. We install 10-year lithium backup batteries in the detectors to save you the trouble of having to change batteries every year.

We also install a code required carbon monoxide detector, and wire it in series with your smoke detectors - ensuring that a warning will be heard throughout the entire home.

Energy Performance

We have contracted with Davis Energy Group in Davis, California to evaluate the energy performance of our homes. Their engineers performed complex cost-benefit studies evaluating various combinations of enhancement measures in order to select a combination of elements that would provide the greatest benefit to our homeowners.

If you are interested in learning more about the feature combinations recommended by Davis Energy Group, please let us know. While some of the features have been incorporated as standard, there are other features which are upgrade options which must be implemented at early construction stages.

Fencing

Many subdivisions have cheap 6-foot fences with wood posts, boards with loose knotholes and peck (rot) patterns in their fence boards. All of our fences are 7-feet tall with galvanized metal posts, metal hangers and high-grade cedar fence boards. Along with our minimum standard of 14 feet between our homes (in most cases), these 7-foot tall fences are designed to ensure maximum privacy.

Finish Carpentry

All tasks such as installing exterior and interior doors, trimming the doors and windows and installing all of the door hardware and baseboards is done by experienced finish carpenters. Our finish carpenters have a wide range of experience ranging from building custom homes to commercial buildings.

All of our finish carpentry work is completed to the highest standards in the industry.

Fire Protection

All of our news homes come equipped with a standard residential fire sprinkler system, as required by the 2010 California Residential Code.

We also provide two ABC Class fire extinguishers in every home. One is placed under the kitchen sink and the other is mounted in the garage, as these are the areas where most home fires occur. We want to help our homeowners be safe and prepared.

Fireplaces

Our homes come standard with a clean-burning natural gas fireplace manufactured by Lennox Hearth Products (Model SLDVT-35NE). No more bugs and dirt being brought into your home from the use of regular firewood!

This direct vent fireplace does not consume indoor air, and it won't negatively affect indoor-air quality with emissions. Sealed tempered glass panel keeps combustion air contained, producing a bright and active flame. All exhaust gases are vented outside of the home and all air needed for combustion is brought in from the outside.

We provide a flush tile hearth, tile surround, and wood mantle with our fireplaces. You may also upgrade to a full wood surround, or alternate materials for the hearth.

Framing

We employee highly trained crews of experienced carpenters and support staff, which are well known for their high quality work. They take pride in their work, putting a great deal of effort into making sure the homes are framed "true and square".

Collins Company of Chester California has been providing our framing lumber and TruWood siding. They have been leaders in sustainable forest practices for over 60 years. Collins was the first privately owned forest products company in the United States to be comprehensively evaluated and independently certified by Scientific Certification Systems under the principles and criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council. One of their mills is located in nearby Chester, California and others are located in Oregon. We make every attempt to avoid buying lumber that has been transported long distances.

Our walls are framed with Douglas fir (DF) lumber. While we could use the lesser "Stud" grade, we instead use DF#2 and better, because of its superior strength and quality. All of our exposed wood beams are DF#1 and better. Our walls are framed with the studs spaced 16 inches on center (o/c). Many builders have resorted to studs that are 24 inches o/c to save costs. Using studs at 16 inches o/c ensures stronger and straighter walls. After the framing is done and prior to the installation of drywall, the framing contractor checks all of the walls with a straight edge to make sure they are within a ¼ inch tolerance.

For our roof trusses, we use the most reputable truss companies in our area. Our suppliers use the latest state of the art equipment to manufacture our trusses to exceed ANSI/TPI 1-2002, the national design standard for metal plate connected wood truss construction.

For roof sheathing we offer an upgrade to TechShield Radiant Barrier by Louisiana Pacific, a qualified Energy Star Partner. TechShield uses a patented aluminum layer on their plywood to minimize radiant heat gain in summer, and to minimize radiant heat loss in winter. TechShield blocks up to 97% of the radiant heat and can cut your monthly energy bills up to 20%. The radiant barrier upgrade is only available for homes which are purchased prior to rough framing, so if this is something that you are interested in, please let us know as soon as possible.

Garages

You will find that many older homes will only have 20-foot deep garages, with a 7-foot high garage door. Our doors are 8-feet tall. Most of the garages in our homes are typically larger, and are designed to accommodate larger vehicles. We fully insulate the walls and ceilings, and use only insulated garage doors. Insulating the garage helps to make the garage more comfortable and “user friendly” year-round. Additionally, it can also help improve the comfort of the house, depending on how much foot traffic there is in and out of the garage.

Our garage walls and ceilings are fully finished and painted. The concrete floors are sloped to the garage door to allow the garage to be hosed out when necessary. A small recess in the concrete slab at the base of the door helps keep out driving rain.

Plans 5 and 10 have workshop areas in the garages and Plans 8, 9 and 10 have three-car garages. Our newest small plan, plan 11, has a third car option for the garage.

Garage Doors

We will be installing insulated, carriage style doors manufactured by Amarr. These doors are made of 23-gauge steel and each will have a very quiet belt driven automatic garage door opener. These doors are also 8-feet tall to accommodate SUV or truck parking.

Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning

In 2006, the California Energy Commission (CEC) enacted tough efficiency standards for all new homes. Our crews are helping us exceed those standards in many areas.

SEER, or Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio: The higher this number is, the lower your cooling costs will be. The EER is related to the SEER, but may vary depending on the climate where you live. Again, a higher number translates into a more efficient air-conditioner. A TXV is a valve that regulates refrigerant flow based on need, thereby causing the cooling unit to operate at maximum efficiency.

AFUE, or Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency: This factor is used to rate the efficiency of heating units. Our heating units are considerably more efficient than the already high California Energy Commission (CEC) standards.

Our ducting has a 42% higher insulation value (R-value) than the CEC standard. In addition, our ducts are clamped and caulked to reduce leakage. We also retain an independent rater to check each and every home we build to ensure that the leakage is less than what is allowed by CEC standards.

Programmable thermostats give you the ability to save 5% to 15% of your heating and cooling costs by automating the system.

** Whole house fans, available through upgrade, give you the ability to cool off a warm house and attic with cool evening air through opened windows.

Insulation

In our ceilings we use R-51 fiberglass insulation, while the minimum required by the CEC is R-38. Our exterior walls have R-15 fiberglass batts with one-inch rigid foam board insulation behind the stucco areas. This rigid foam adds an additional R factor of 4 to the stucco walls. Counting the total wall assembly at the exterior walls with stucco we achieve R-19 when the minimum required by the CEC is R-13. We also insulate many interior walls at key locations such as bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms that are next to living space for noise reduction between adjacent spaces.

We install CertainTeed insulation. CertainTeed is committed to promoting sustainable green building practices. CertainTeed is a member of the United States Green Building Council and their products are manufactured with no formaldehyde. CertainTeed is third party tested and certified by GREENGUARD for superior indoor air quality.

Landscaping

All of our homes have complete front yard landscaping. Special attention is paid to solar shading, street shading, water conservation, storm water run off and low cost landscape maintenance. Our homes come standard with a Rainbird sprinkler controller, but you may optionally upgrade to the Irritrol Smart Dial Series irrigation controllers. Smart Dial irrigation systems are Weather TRAK enabled. These wireless irrigation controllers (no separate phone line required) save water by reprogramming based on local weather data downloaded daily via satellite. This reduces over watering and runoff problems and saves thousands of gallons of water for a small satellite service fee of $4 per month.

Painting

We will use only the highest quality Kelly Moore interior and exterior paints. For the interiors, we use the environmentally preferable Green Certified paints because it meets or exceeds the stringent GS-11 criteria and it is a low-VOC, low-odor formula. Our living areas are painted with a washable flat paint. The kitchen, bathrooms and all exterior doors are painted with industrial grade water based enamel. There is absolutely no lead in any of our paints. Our plaster areas are painted with a high quality latex paint. This helps reduce moisture penetration of the plaster areas. By painting the exteriors we achieve more true vivid colors and the new homeowner will have the ability to “touch up” later if necessary.

Plaster

Shastan Homes uses a two-coat stucco system that is applied over a 1" rigid insulation foam board and a layer of wire lath, nailed to the studs through a layer of waterproof Kraft Paper. Shastan Homes spends extra money on a fine texture for the finish coat, as it looks better and catches less dust.

Plumbing

All of our water lines are made of highly durable Pex Pipe. We take extra care to properly size our piping, to ensure adequate flow of water to all plumbing fixtures. We insulate all the hot water piping in the attic space to help reduce heat loss, and save gas

For your convenience, we provide electrical outlets and gas stubs to the kitchen range and the clothes dryer in the event that you decide to change out your appliance at a later date.

As a standard, our homes come with a gas-fired storage tank water heater with Energy Star qualification. As an upgrade, we offer tankless, on demand water heaters manufactured by Rinnai. Rinnai tankless water heaters are the best alternative available to homeowners to reduce their residential energy consumption.

Plumbing Fixtures

We work with several preferred manufacturers of quality plumbing fixtures, and as a result, some of our homes may be unique in that regard. If you are would like to know the manufacturer and model number of the fixtures we are using for a particular home, please let us know.

Many of our homes in the Glenwood Avenue development showcase Kohler toilets, tubs, sinks and faucets. Kohler is widely known in the industry for making custom home products that perform well and are visually appealing. Kohler fixtures are available as an upgrade.

Roofing

Shastan Homes will be installing PABCO Premier laminated fiberglass shingle roofing, as manufactured by Pabco Roofing Products. These architectural grade shingles have a 30 year limited warranty. PABCO Premier stands alone as the heaviest weight shingle its class.

Recycling

Long ago we made a commitment to encourage the Shastan team and our homeowners to recycle their solid waste when possible. First, we have recycle and regular garbage containers at every house when we start construction. We also have a special dumpster for wood only. Every contractor on our job site has made a written commitment to use them properly. Then we make it easy for our customers by providing recycle bins in the new kitchen cabinets. Since the garbage containers are already at the house, the rest is easy.

Security

During construction, pre-wiring is available for future security systems as an upgrade. This gives our homeowners the ability to install a security system later if they wish, with minimal trouble and expense.

Solar Power Production

Our Glenwood Avenue project is the largest solar subdivision in the Chico area, and all 58 homes in the subdivision will have the option to have a solar power generation system.

In 2011 the State of California will require that all California homebuilders offer homebuyers the option of installing solar panels. Our customers are showing a growing concern about global warming, impacts on the environment and our need to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels.

Our solar power generation systems use roof-mounted solar panels with photovoltaic (PV) cells, and the systems are manufactured and installed by SunPower Corporation. The largest plans, 7 through 10, can be upgraded with a 2.87kWp (kilowatt-peak) system, and the smaller plans, 1 through 6, can be upgraded with a 2.46 kWp system. We chose SunPower to provide and install our solar power generation systems because they have so much to offer our homebuyers.

Sunpower Corporation...

• Provides the highest efficiency solar cells available today.
• Is a world leader in manufacturing and installations of solar PV systems.
• Provides Internet based monitoring of each solar PV system. In addition to enabling SunPower to service and monitor system performance, this would enable Shastan Homes and their homeowners to track solar power production.

And... New homeowners who purchase our homes with the solar power generation system upgrade may be eligible for a federal tax credit for the tax year that they purchase the home.

Windows, Sliding Glass Doors and Skylights

When we designed our floor plans, much thought was given to the placement of windows and doors. An antiquated floor plan or improperly placed windows and doors may cause you some grief when you can’t find a place for a favorite piece of furniture. A home with a well planned layout will also have better resale value if or when you need to move again in the future.

One of the selected manufacturers for our windows and sliding glass doors is Alpine Windows. Alpine windows and doors are Energy Star Partner qualified. They have been designated Energy Star Partner for the past year three years in a row.

The glazing in our windows and sliding glass doors may be upgraded to Solarban 70XL, which is a revolutionary new Solar Control, Low-E glazing that brilliantly combines the clear appearance of a transparent, color-neutral glass with an unprecedented combination of solar control and visible light transmittance. Combining the Solarban 70XL with an insulating glass unit filled with argon gas results in a high performance system that will lower your cooling bills in the summer, as well as your heating bills in the winter.

One of our skylight/solartube manufacturers is Velux. They are Energy Star Partner qualified and well known for their quality product and energy conservation features