We’re thrilled that the house was featured in the July online USGBC magazine.  You can see the article here (under the photo of our house, click on the pdf link to open the article, which begins on page 29).  Also, the house is the featured Homes project here.

Thanks North Texas USGBC for recognizing the house, and our fantastic architect, Kelly Mitchell!

While visiting Cape Cod this summer, I came across a new plastic made from plants.  I used it in the form of a water bottle from Green Planet Beverages.  The material is called (and trademarked as) ingeo.  It’s a biopolymer that can basically take the place of polystyrene and even glass.  AND it’s 100% petroleum free…which probably sounds pretty good to several pelicans in the Gulf right now. 

Might want to ask your local grocery to stock this water for those times your reuseable water bottle won’t work.

I’ve been wondering about my roof.  It’s a dark bronze metal roof.  And while there are a lot of eco-friendly benefits of having a metal roof, I’m not so sure about the dark color in Texas.  I’ve been wondering if I paint the top of my roof white while leaving the sides bronze (for the aesthetics) would I save some energy in the summer?

Apparently I would!  I’ve been reading a lot lately how a white roof can lower the surface temperature of my roof up to 80 degrees.  Here is an example of a product developed to cool roofs that includes small glass spheres - they provide insulation and reflective properties to the paint.

Unfortunately, I can’t apply it this year due to the surface temperature of the roof, I’ll be doing this in January or February to be ready for next summer.  I’ll have two years’ worth of summers to compare my 2011 electric use to!

Copenhagen just passed a city ordinance that requires all new buildings to have green roofs…green as in vegatation!  Read about it here.  We’re toying with this idea on our studio roof – but retrofitting irrigation and an access point is a bit troublesome.  Ideas?

Check out this story about a town that has banned bottled water!  And, of course, the bottled water industry is suing to make the town sell bottled water.  But if they put it on the shelves and no one buys it…is the town selling it?

We are featured in the newest edition of Luxe interiors + design magazine (Dallas/Fort Worth edition)!  The article highlights the home’s design as well as its Green features!  We’re on page 168 through 177.

Check us out!

This is a funny and informative video.  Dump those plastic bottles and start using reusable bottles for your tap water!

We ran into the problem of an appraiser (or two) who did not understand how to appraise green homes (see this link).  There was absolutely no premium added for any green features, regardless of how much money the features would save us or any future homeowner.  I suppose the appraisers are a trailing indicator of what potential homeowners value rather than a leading indicator.  As more new green homes appear, and home sales pick up again maybe we’ll see appraisers start to recognize that homeowners are willing to spend more green on Green.

LA is considering setting mandatory regulations requiring all new houses (and other projects) to harvest rainwater.  Check out the treehugger.com article here.

I am happy to report that we finally received approval to hook up (again) our washing machine to our rainwater harvesting system.  It’s been a 10 month ordeal of emailing and waiting and emailing and starting over and waiting (you get the picture). 

In my previous post I linked to the new Dallas rainwater harvesting guidelines.  Now I received the following from Mark Daniels, the acting Chief Plumbing Inspector, when I asked if an RPZ valve fulfilled the intent of the guidelines:

We find the “RPZ valve” acceptable for this individual case and consider, with your agreement and acceptance, that your required plumbing inspections are complete and this permit is in final status. There are no other actions required on your part.

There you have it!

PS:  mind you that I’ve had a plumbing inspection/permit since last April, so I really wasn’t waiting on a permit of any sort – just trying to do the right thing and pave the way for others who want to use rainwater in Dallas.