Why Everyday Home Coach Exists: Learning Home Performance the Hard Way

Most homeowners live with problems they quietly accept.

Rooms that are always too hot or too cold.
Energy bills that never seem to make sense.
Cooking odors that linger.
Drafts, pests, moisture, and noise that feel unavoidable.

For years, I believed that was just how homes worked—even when I was actively renovating them.

This site exists because it doesn’t have to be that way.

My First Home (1998): Renovating Without Understanding Home Performance

I bought my first house in 1998.

At the time, I worked in construction as a framer. I knew how to renovate, rebuild, and add square footage. My wife and I did a full gut renovation, followed by a major addition a few years later.

What I didn’t understand was home performance.

Despite all the work, the house was uncomfortable and unpredictable. We had durability issues and uneven temperatures, but we assumed those were normal tradeoffs—especially in older homes.

I knew how to build things.
I didn’t know how homes actually worked.

Second Home (2003): High Energy Bills, Same Comfort Problems

In 2003, we bought our second house.

We finished the basement, remodeled the primary bedroom, and built a garage with a nanny suite. On paper, the house improved. In reality, the problems got worse.

One winter, we spent over $3,000 on heating oil.
Our electric bills were consistently over $500 per month, and often much higher in summer.

Despite all that spending, comfort never stabilized. Some rooms were unusable at times. Temperatures swung wildly.

That’s when it became clear this wasn’t bad luck or extreme weather—it was a systems problem.

Discovering Building Science (2007): The Turning Point

In 2007, I learned about building science.

I became a BPI-certified Building Analyst and Envelope Professional, and for the first time, I had a framework for understanding why our homes performed so poorly.

Homes aren’t collections of isolated projects. They are interconnected systems.

I also realized—uncomfortably—that some of the problems in our house were ones I had created.

Whole-Home Upgrades: Fixing Comfort, Energy, and Durability Together

We went back and fixed our earlier mistakes.

We redid the primary bedroom renovation properly. We sealed ductwork. We improved insulation. We addressed major air leakage.

One clear sign of how leaky the house had been? Stink bugs.

After proper air sealing, that problem stopped entirely.

Comfort, pests, durability, and energy costs weren’t separate issues. They were symptoms of the same underlying problem.

The “Move-In Ready” House (2012): Still Not Performance-Ready

In 2012, we moved into a home marketed as move-in ready.

The first thing we did was encapsulate the crawlspace. Ants were entering the kitchen from below, and the floors were cold. Both problems disappeared once the crawlspace was addressed properly.

We later added a ductless minisplit, replaced our main system with an ENERGY STAR® heat pump, and fixed poor kitchen ventilation.

A properly vented, quiet exhaust fan dramatically improved indoor air quality.

Once you experience good ventilation, it’s hard to accept anything less.

Building a High-Performance Home (2018): Performance Is Ongoing

In 2018, we built our dream home.

It’s comfortable year-round. Indoor air quality is excellent. Our annual energy costs are essentially zero.

And we’re still learning.

High-performance homes don’t eliminate maintenance. They reward understanding.

Why Everyday Home Coach Exists

Most homeowners never get this learning curve.

They don’t get decades of trial and error or professional certifications just to understand why one room is uncomfortable or why energy bills are so high.

They shouldn’t have to.

Everyday Home Coach exists to help homeowners understand how their homes work—before problems become expensive.

Transparency: Where Pearl Fits

I’m employed by Pearl, a company focused on making home performance data visible and useful across the housing market.

However, content published on Everyday Home Coach reflects my independent educational work and personal views. It does not represent official positions, products, or endorsements of Pearl unless explicitly stated.

Pearl focuses on visibility at scale.
This site focuses on understanding at the homeowner level.

What You’ll Find Here

Topics include:
• Home comfort and indoor air quality
• Heating, cooling, and ventilation
• Insulation and the building shell
• Energy use and operating costs
• Maintenance and resilience

No hype. No shortcuts. Just better explanations.