By Chuck Hagee

Being "green" is all the rage right now. But, as Sinatra vocalized, "It isn't easy being green."

However that term "green" can be a double edged sword. It applies not only to the environmental aspects of building but also to the "green" in the wallet to accomplish those goals.

Just ask John Tabor, president, Tabor Design Build, Inc., of Rockville, MD. "A lot of our clients want to be "Green" until they find out how much it costs," he said in a recent interview.

But, "We find that green remodeling is not only good for the environment, remodeling green means making your home efficient, healthy and comfortable. We have been dedicated to green building ever since our company began, long before it was popular," Tabor said.

Tabor came to this country from Scotland at the age of five. His father, in the U.S.Air Force, was from Wisconsin and his mother was from Scotland. They met in California during one of his father's assignments.

"My father went to St. Andrews University in Scotland and then we moved back here in 1963," Tabor said. "My interest in remodeling began in 1979 when my dad hired a contractor to remodel our basement."

That's got John Tabor hooked. "They hired me as a helper, and I started learning the trade. Over the next eight years I worked my way up from laborer to lead carpenter and then to business owner," Tabor said.

He assisted friends and family while enrolled in construction management and engineering classes in college. His dream of owning his own company became a reality in 1994 when he opened Tabor Design Build,Inc.

"By that time I had enough experience to start things off right. I was determined to own one of the top design/build companies in the area," he said. One of the ways to accomplish this, in addition to creating customer satisfied finished products, is to perfect the process and systemization of running the business, according to Tabor. "Everything is preordered before we start a job.