Lori Ann and Daniel Ambrosewicz are getting ready to move into their dream home, designed and built from the ground up to showcase state-of-the-art green features for the building industry in Hawaii.

"We’re just floored," said Lori Ann Ambrosewicz. "This is out-of-this-world amazing. It’s just so fantastic. The progress has been so fast."

It’s a simple, two-story family home on 22nd Avenue in Kaimuki with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a small yard. What sets it apart is that it comes equipped with a solar water heater and 4.7-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system, enough to power the home for a family of four.

Plenty of low-emittance, double-paned windows let in light and air, making the 1,800-square-foot home comfortable. To keep heat out, the walls are insulated with EcoBatt fiberglass and Icynene foam, while the roof has a TechShield radiant barrier.

A giant fan will suck warm air out of the home, helping to keep it cool, especially during hot summer days.

The yard will come with a compost bin, an aquaponics system, and a garden featuring native shrubs, herbs and fruit trees.

The highlight? A covered lanai on the side of the house that offers the perfect space for an outdoor dining room. There will even be a plug-in outlet in the garage, ready to charge up an electric car.

The Ambrosewiczes were the winning bidder of the New Hawaiian Home’s blueprint, which the Building Industry Association of Hawaii displayed at the "Remodel it Right, Remodel it Green Expo" last August. Bids were accepted until the end of September, according to Karen Nakamura, chief executive officer of BIA Hawaii, with the final selection based on how well the home would fit on the site.

The home was built within a budget of about $600,000, not far off the median price for a home on Oahu, or about $333 per square foot, including landscaping.

BIA Hawaii’s goal is to help dispel the myth that "green" houses are an unaffordable luxury in Hawaii — both for homeowners and small contractors trying to get into sustainable building, Nakamura said. There’s also a perception that green building is inefficient, too costly and difficult.

So BIA plans to develop a curriculum and use the Ambrosewicz home as a learning tool for contractors to better understand green building concepts. HECO has documented all the different phases of construction for use in an educational video. BIA will also monitor the home’s electricity use for one year.

Open houses for builders and the public will be held in June and July before the family moves in.

More than 80 contractors have worked on the home, offering the best they have in green technology to make it energy- , water- and resource-efficient.

BIA Hawaii, Hawaiian Electric Co. and the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism are sponsors overseeing the construction of the project.

"This is how it’s done," Nakamura said. "We know it can be done, and we have all the photos of how it’s done. It’s real — this is it."

Some of the home’s green features can be integrated not only in new construction, but in remodeling projects, Nakamura said.

Lori Ann Ambrosewicz, an elementary school teacher at Punahou, and her husband, Daniel, a Hawaiian Airlines pilot, said farewell to a much older, though well-loved, single-story home that was on the lot before.

It was difficult to see the old home go, she said, since her husband’s grandfather grew up in it and even built parts of it himself. Constructed in the 1950s, it was still in decent shape.

Some elements from the old home — a covered lanai and window awnings — will be on the new home as well. She hopes there will be an avocado tree in the yard like the one that was there before remodeling began.

Still, with a growing family (they have two children, a 3-year-old and 6-month-old), it was time to remodel the three-bedroom home.

As part of sustainable practices, the old home was deconstructed by Re-use Hawai‘i, meaning it was taken apart from top to bottom, with materials such as redwood lumber salvaged for resale at its warehouse.

Lori Ann Ambrosewicz is excited the home design took into account the direction of the tradewinds, which come from the east. Already she can feel the difference walking through the home; it’s much cooler, even without the fans on.

A southwest-facing roof was also planned for the solar photovoltaic array.

The Ambrosewicz family already recycles, composts with worms, line-dries the laundry and enjoys gardening. As a teacher, Ambrosewicz tries to teach sustainable practices to her students.

Builders expect the home to achieve the highest platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design designation and to meet green building standards by the American National Standards Institute.