fresh green steps at home

So, we are finally getting settled in here in Winston-Salem and I have decided the best way to find all the fabulous "green" people in our new town is to give our own home a fresh green start! Now, we aren't talking major renovation (like what I want to do in the project), But, the house was built in 1924, it has single paned windows and I don't even want to know what isn't caulked!! To this end, I have just scheduled a home energy audit. It is the first step to finding out where our house is loosing efficiency (and as it gets colder, there are some major issues with this house, my toes can tell!) It is also the first step that I outline in the fresh green start project! The gentleman coming to the house is a building scientist (v. facinating) so I hope to learn a lot about our house and green building practices in general.

Something that we have done in our time here is to install "Safe Home Filters" in both of our air intakes. I met the couple, Sam and Liz McLamb, who invented and make these fabulous filters at the green building conference. Our youngest son has been termed "pre-asthmatic" and so I wanted to do all that I could to improve his air quality. These really are revolutionary, as this type of filtering hasn't available before without spending thousands of dollars! It is a dual filtration system that not only filters particles from the air (like the normal filters we use on our systems) but also filters out chemicals from cleaning products, furniture offgassing , paint fumes, etc! I really feel like it has made my house a healthier environment and wanted to share this great company with y'all!! Visit www.safehomefilters.com for more information.

I will report back about the audit. Until then have green days and as always contact me if you have any questions or comments: freshgreenstart@yahoo.com

inspiration abound

What a time I had at the conference! I was moved in many different ways and by different people than I imagined, isn't that always the case. The most exciting part was simply that there were 240 people on the campus of this small, progressive college in Asheville, NC all thinking and learning and hoping for better ways to build and cleaner habits to adopt.


As a lover of the aesthetic, I was grateful to see that there is no loss of beauty in these builders/designers objectives and projects, if anything, along with this move to "green building" there is a renewed devotion to the beauty and grace of the designs. If we are doing this to maintain the earth's inherent beauty, then aren't we missing the point if what we create isn't beautiful! If it doesn't give those living/working within a sense of pride and reflection of their own beauty, have we made the earth better?

A wise woman that I met talked with me about the book, The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. In it, he writes about when Guiliani decided to clean up the subway and his idea was as soon as a subway car became vandalized it was immediately taken off the line and repaired and then place back good as new. His reasoning: it is far easier to further degrade something that is already degraded. This action was a tipping point because it caused a ripple effect that lifted the entire subway system to a cleaner, safer place to travel. There were far less cases of vandalizm of the cars themselves as well as the subway stations, litter lightened, etc. This is the effect the "Fresh Green Start" is hoping to have. We lift one house at a time in the same area, people start to have a renewed pride in their own homes just by it's proximity, then we give the park a fresh green start, then the school, and so on... making the entire neighborhood a cleaner, safer place to live and work. Less litter, less vandalizm, more hope, more empowerment...

ponder on that...
more conference specific posts to come...

Mountain Green Sustainability Conference

I am off tomorrow to the Mountain Green Sustainability Conference in Asheville, NC http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~ELC/New_ELC_Website_/officialconferencebrochure.pdf. I am excited to hear all the fabulous speakers and shake the hands of others in the southeast interested in "green" building and sustainable living. I wish I could be in all the rooms at once because there are some great speakers, but among those I am most interested to see are (1) an architect named Rick Reinhardt speaking directly on the challenges and opportunities in affordable housing! and (2) a group from Habitat for Humanity speaking on making green building affordable. There are speeches planned on New Urbanism and the Katrina Cottage, it is going to be a great day. I will post upon my return...

until then, be happy, be green!

press play!

Well I have been thinking and dreaming about this project a TON lately and it feels like time to start the exploration and work again. We found out we are moving to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and are really excited about this move. I have been researching green goings-on in the area and think it's going to be a fantastic area for such a project.

Also, I have written to Oprah's Big Give Contest about it and hope that she will help jumpstart the process. The winner gets $5,000 toward their idea, but even more exciting is a panel of experts to help work out the kinks!!! Wow, I would love to brainstorm with a panel of experts!

I will be posting new findings and as always please feel free to give me your input!!

take good care and on to a fresh green start!