Robert is an artist working mostly with oils and acrylics, but venturing out into other media as well.  The 700 square foot studio pictured here was a necessity for the new house to avoid Robert having to rent a studio space across town (which he’s done for the last 6 years).   There are a couple of innovative features to the studio, but our favorite is the moveable wall.  In the photo you can see a track hanging from the ceiling that holds a 8′X8′ “pocket wall”.  Think of a pocket door, but really big.  It allows Robert to expand his verticle work surface when needed, add extra gallery wall space when needed, or close off this office area when needed.  The mechanism and design are simple, but the functional benefits are huge!

The pocket wall has no specific green feature – other than maybe to allow in more natural light when the wall is not needed and put into it’s wall pocket.  However, the studio does have many of the same Green features the house does:

• Triple paned glass windows on the west-facing wall
• Exhaust fan to ensure indoor air quality
• Dual flush toilet
• Floors are the recycled oak floors from the house we deconstructed
• Daikin HVAC system

Robert’s website is here, but is awaiting some updates that should happen soon.

My good friend, Jimmy Belasco, has just introduced an eco-friendly candle line that was a Finalist in the NYIGF (New York International Gift Fair) Best New Product category.  While his main line of candles is hardly eco-unfriendly, he has really raised the bar when it comes to ingredients and packaging.

The new candles are 100% natural oils and soy wax, containing zero chemical fragrances.  They are poured into recycleable glass.  The lid is recycleable plastic (number 5, Polypropylene).  They are minimally packaged in recycleable cardboard.

I questioned Jimmy about the lid because the traditional lid he used was a metal composite material of questionable recycleability.  This plastic lid is the same type of plastic that is used in yogurt cups and can be recycled into things like automobile battery cases, signal lights, battery cables, brooms, brushes, and ice scrapers according to IDES.

The empty 6 oz. jars can be recycled in the home into a variety of uses from storage jars to piggy banks!

Also, recently Jimmy went through an environmentally friendly revamp of this distribution network.  He moved distribution to the same facility that pours the candles (previously he had the candles shipped many hundreds of miles to then be further shipped to retail stores).

By the way, the candles  have such a pure and high-quality fragrance that they can freshen a room without being burned – just remove the lid and enjoy!

While this post has little to do with Green Building, I wanted to point out a few features of the house to show that you can still have some amazing spaces and features while building Green.

We wanted a Meditation Room designed into our space and Architect Kelly Mitchell gave us exactly what we wanted.  The room is about 11′ X 13′, with a small closet.  The room was built with a feng shui sense, so the interior door to the hall has a glass panel, and the door to the upstairs balcony is basically a wall-sized slider.  The room will have a wall-mounted TV (energy star rated!) and the sound system will share a channel with the studio.  And before you say, “TV in the meditation room?” keep in mind that the Meditation Room will also be used for yoga and tai chi so the TV will be used to watch and follow instructional videos!

The room is a very basic open space (see the photo above), but we added insulation on the wall it shares with the living room to cut down on noise.  We also had to design and have constructed a special jump duct vent to help reduce HVAC noise and to allow us to place the HVAC return in the ceiling.

The Meditation Room gets little-to-no direct sunlight in the summer and just a bit in the winter.  It also shares the upstairs balcony with the living room….it will be a great get-away!

Yesterday we were lucky enough to meet David Rodriguez when he showed up at the house with architect Kelly Mitchell and our Green Consultant, Sean Garman (who also happens to be Kelly’s husband).  These three know each other through their association with the North Texas Chapter of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).   David is our local USGBC Board Chair, and he also writes a column for the Builder Insider periodical (their future website is here), focusing on green building practices.  David was viewing the project and interviewing Kelly and Sean for an upcoming article….and I was pulled into the interview.  Fortunately it will be a print article because it was Sunday and I was dressed for rummaging around a house under construction not for an on-camera interview.

In the photo left to right is me, David Rodriguez, our architect Kelly Mitchell and our Green Consultant (and LEED – AP) Sean Garman.  Robert took the photo.

In an earlier post I mentioned that we were going to have a tour by a group of students from the University of Texas School of Architecture.  This morning UTA Assistant Professor and Green Building Maven, Jane Ahrens, brought by 40 students who are attending her Architecture and the Environment class (the timing was pretty good - we had just finished putting up drywall yesterday and were preparing to start the tape/bedding process today).  There were good questions and many enthusiastic students.  The first photo is the intro to the house out front.  The second is a Q&A session that was had at the end of the tour in the upstairs living area. 

As you’ll recall, this tour helps us with our point in the Awareness & Education LEED category (AE1.3a).  We hope to have another one of her classes back when the house is completed in a couple months.

I attended the Dallas AIDS Arms LifeWalk last week.  One of the booths there was occupied by Recycle Revolution – a new company dedicated to helping out businesses (including apartment complexes) recycle.  Their handouts are informative and specific about what they can and cannot do (the website includes the same information).  I couldn’t find any information on pricing, but I’m sure they’d be more than willing to talk to you.  I’ve heard from several apartment dwelling friends who found it frustrating that they were left out of the recycling movement unless they were willing to haul their stuff to a city recycling site…which is totally inconvenient!

Let me know of other companies who provide this service.  And if you have first-hand knowledge, let me know how it’s worked out for you.

By the way, the logo attached to this post is the property of Recycle Revolution.

I caught this great blog entry outlining tips to make your home a bit more energy efficient as you move into winter.  Check it out.

Visit this site:  www.sustainlane.com.

It’s a ranking of cities based on their performance in 16 areas of sustainability.  Dallas is listed as #24.  Austin is #13.

I think I mentioned before that we are renting the house next door to the lot we’re building on.  Our neighborhood is heavily wooded and the rental property has over 60 trees on 1/2 acre….plus lots of shrubs (and weeds).  We’re also about 1/4 mile from a creek.  We have a fair amount of wildlife in the area even though we’re right by Love Field inside the Northwest Highway loop of Dallas. 

Long story short:  Our rental is really falling apart, and as you can see from the photos, we’ve had raccoons and a opossum in our attic.  And in true environmentally-friendly fashion, we had them caught and released by a reputable wildlife handler.  Our landlord wanted us to place poison in the attic to kill them, then expected us to dispose of the carcasses….that wasn’t going to happen. 

Our landlord’s handyman came by this past weekend to close up the hole in the attic so no more critters can visit that closely.

Just heard from Texas Campaign for the Environment:  a new law (Texas House Bill 2714) went into effect in Texas on 9/1 which states that ”all companies selling computers must offer free and convenient recycling of their old computer equipment.”  TEC is on the forefront of environmental activism in Texas.  They do great work and are worthy of your support!

Visit the Texas Campaign for the Environment’s website to learn more about this particular law and the other great work that TEC is involved in.