Green Living
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
building a green house
So, I'm jumping the gun a bit; but, my dad MIGHT sell us 5 acres and if so we'll be builing a house. This most likely would not occur until next spring but I was just wondering if anyone knew of specific websites or maybe magazines (really, any accessible resource) that could help with choosing green-er materials/building styles??? I know the basics of making a home more energy efficient but I was wondering if there were any magazines/websites that could direct me to information on gray water lines, reclaimed builing materials (where to buy), metholds of reducing the use of various products (lumber, plumbing material, etc....). Any help you can provide would be appreciated!
TIA!
Re: building a green house
I thought this was going to be about building a greenhouse (like for growing vegetables) and came in here all excited to tell you about the greenhouse we just built using mostly reclaimed/free windows.
I don't have any advice on building a house that is built using green materials. Leaving post now...
This company was just at our green vendor fair at work recently. They have some cool ideas.
http://sustainabledesign.com/
Sorry to say but building a house isn't very green. There is a lot of earth moving that needs to be done with big machinery and materials you'll never be able to find recycled. There are also a lot of adhesives and foams used in residential building that give off ODPs and GWPs (ozone depleting and global warming potentials). The least impact on the environment would be to buy an existing house in the location you like and in decent condition. Then renovate it to be what you want it to be. It's basically house recycling!
If you were to build a house though you should focus on insulation values, the number and location of windows, and how to most efficiently heat and cool the space. That will have the largest continual impact on the environment. Ideally a combination of geothermal, solar hot water, and PV (photovoltaic) panels would be used but that high cost of that limits most residential installs. Most people can only afford one of those options and geothermal or solar hot water will give you the fastest rate of return.
Well... I think in my case tearing down this old house and building a new one would be WAY more green! We are doing our best but man old houses weren't built to be eco-friendly *glares up at 10 foot tall ceilings*.
But I think the biggest mistake people make, and my biggest pet peeve when it comes to building "green houses" is the size. A big house is NOT eco-friendly, even if it has the most EF things in it. Smaller is much, much better. Trust me, you, your husband, and four children can live comfortably in a 1,500 square foot house. The house I grew up in was 1200 square feet and there were four of us kids living happily in it! It does irk me when someone proclaims their 3,000 square foot house is eco-friendly.
PS- Before anyone gets pissed at me for this, my house is 3,000 square feet. Though I won't be proclaiming it's eco-friendly until I convince my boyfriend we really should just cut the top half off.
Mother Earth News rocks!!!!
We are in the very slow process of developing 23 acres we got as a wedding gift, and most of our plans, or ideas, etc. come from Mother Earth. Would highly rec' them to anyone.!!