My Green Home - The Wisdom in Waiting

While standing in line at the county tree sale, people were talking about gardening. One conversation caught my attention. A woman, who recently bought a home, spent her first week's clearing the property. She cut the trees and bushes, burned everything, and was now repopulating her land.

I suppose that it's human nature to want to put our own "stamp" on things ... to make them our own. And frankly, it's often easier to wipe the slate clean and begin anew. But when it comes to property, rash decisions can hurt both the earth and one's pocketbook.

We made the decision to go slowly with our land, to discover the treasures it holds. It has revealed them bit by bit, almost as though it needs to get to know us before giving up it's bounty.

In April of last year, we discovered mushrooms growing along our creek ... delicious edible mushrooms.

When the trees lost their leaves in autumn and the underbrush began to die away, a small pear tree could be seen in a far corner of our lot. It still had the label on it and seems to simply need a little TLC to be productive.

This spring we were thrilled to find creasy greens, the earliest of the wild, edible greens which are found throughout the Appalachian mountains. We also discovered a lovely Camellia bush and several flowering trees.

Had we cleared the land, we would have missed out on these wonderful items. And here's another bonus ... finding thriving plants and learning about their growing habits has helped us decide on the right areas for other things like fruit trees and a vegetable garden.

Plants and edibles aren't the only treasures here.

Along the paths which wind through the property, previous owners displayed small statues, planters, and bird houses. They also stacked up building materials (bricks, lumber, windows, etc.). At first glance, because all of these things had been ignored for so long, they looked like piles of trash. But looking a little deeper revealed an abundance of usable items.

Here are a few of the projects which we have completed using recovered materials:

This work bench was made from recovered wood.

Recovered wood and windows were used to
make this mini greenhouse.

All materials used to build this deck,
except for the top decking pieces,
were recovered from the back of our property.

Beautiful wood became Bluebird nesting boxes.

Most of these projects cost us nothing but our time and effort. And there's something very special about using what's available rather than heading to the local hardware store for materials.

All properties hold gifts. It might be wild edibles or fertile soil ... it might be items left by previous owners. But if we take the time to get to know the land, it will reveal it's special characteristics and treasures.

That is the wisdom in waiting!

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My Green Home - Cyndi's Paradise

Paradise:

- a very beautiful, pleasant, or peaceful place that seems to be perfect
- a place that is perfect for a particular activity or for a person who enjoys that activity
- a state of complete happiness

Of the three properties that we considered, only one felt truly right. It met all of our requirements and then some.

Our Property

A beautiful, 2.5 acres faces south. There is a well, septic tank, and both Internet and cell phone accessibility. We have space for a large vegetable garden and there's even room for our very own fruit orchard.

While there is a liveable structure on the land, it is an older model mobile home which has seen better days. It isn't energy efficient and wouldn't be worth fixing up. So, we made the decision to build a new home. The mobile home will provide us a place to live until the house is complete. And once the house is built, we'll disassemble the mobile home, taking care to preserve all usable parts, and then recycle them into other things.

The construction site

After checking with the planning/building department to learn exactly what we could and couldn't do on the property, we chose the spot for our home.

It was a priority to consider nature in all of our actions. We chose a construction site which was relatively free of trees. Even so, a few had to come down. Trees are fabulous at absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. But here's the thing ... when they are cut, all of that stored CO2 is released.

Milling lumber on site was the most cost effective

The trees which were taken down were milled on site. We constructed a solar drier to season the lumber and, once it's ready, will use the lumber, inside the house, for doors, shelves, cabinets, trim, and even office desks. Nothing will be wasted.

The next task was to design the home. I'm lucky ... my "other half", "Art", designs homes for a living. He pays special attention to things like how the air flows through a home, how the sun can help heat our environment during the winter, and using space efficiently.

Our 1600 square foot home will be passive solar with an open floor plan. A passive solar home uses the angle of the sun to heat the home during the winter and blocks it during the hot summer months.

Photovoltaic panels will be placed on the roof. They'll generate power which will be sold back to the grid. As batteries become more efficient, we'll be able to upgrade our system to be totally off the grid.

After careful consideration, we chose a controversial material for the construction of the home ... ICFs (Insulated Concrete Forms). If you're not familiar with ICFs, they are basically Styrofoam forms which are filled with concrete.

We all know the nightmare of Styrofoam ... it never biodegrades. In a landfill that's a real problem but as a building material, it's a valuable quality. Concrete, while not the most environmental material, does have amazing insulating properties. Together with the forms, the R-Value makes this system one of the most efficient building methods around. And, it is not subject to pest or weather problems experienced with other types of construction.

We're now well underway with the shell of the house.

In future posts, I'll share more about the building process and my experiences as a property owner.

My Green Home - Searching for the perfect property

What does your perfect home look like?

In January of last year, we began the search for our perfect place. Before actually going out and looking, however, we sat down and talked about what we wanted in a home.

Planning

Money
First and foremost, we decided on a budget. We thought about what we'd be willing to spend on a piece of property and the monthly expenses once we moved in. We considered mortgage payments, taxes, utilities, etc. Our goal was to find a home with minimal living expenses.

To Build Or Not
We were open to building a new home, remodeling an existing home, or living in a home "as is". Each idea has its pros and cons. A new home requires materials. So does remodeling a home. And, living "as is" might mean sacrificing energy efficiency. We decided to keep an open mind on this issue.

Solar Orientation
A home which faces the south tends to be more energy-efficient than homes facing any other direction. During the summer months, when the sun is high in the sky, sunlight doesn't stream through windows and thus temperatures are kept down. During the winter, when the warmth of sunlight is desirable, the low sun shines through.

Property with a southern exposure is great for growing vegetable gardens and maintaining fruit trees.

Location
We have lived in large cities for most of our lives. It's been nice but we realized that whenever we had time off, we drove to natural spaces. So we decided to search out a home away from the city. Rather than having neighbors a few feet away, we wanted a little space.

In thinking about location, it was also important to consider things like the distance to a grocery store, doctor's office, work, etc. We work from home, eliminating the commute issue. Grocery stores, banks, doctors, etc. needed to be reasonably close. Since we don't use any of those services often, reasonably (for us) means within a 30 minute drive, something which we would do once or twice a month.

Property Size
Having enough room for a modest home and a generous vegetable garden was our basic requirement.

Utilities
The property needed to be equipped with water, sewer or septic, electricity, and Internet service. We also learned that not all cell phone providers have towers outside the city (we don't use a "land line").

The Search

Armed with our plan, we began our search.

To begin, we used the Internet to find properties for sale. This was a great resource as it offered us a lot of information and helped us narrow down the choices before getting in a car to go look.

We also made use of public records. We wanted to see if properties had any restrictions attached to them, what the property lines looked like, and whether there were any easements involved.

• Restrictions are items, written into the deed, which limit the use of a property. For example, some areas restrict the types of trees that can be planted or dictate the color of buildings.
• Property lines are important because they give owners a clear definition of usable property.
• Easements also offer information on usable space. For example, looking at public records for one property showed us that the driveway actually curved into the neighbors land. Since this was not designated on the deed, it could mean problems in the future. Conversely, if a portion of land has been used by a neighbor for ages, there is a possibility that they will be allowed to continue using that area, potentially causing problems for your use of that spot.

Public records also offer the age of a home or structure, how many times a property has been sold and when, purchase amounts, etc. This information is useful in many ways. For example, if a property was bought and sold many times in recent years, one might wonder why. The price might indicate that it was a good investment and climbed in value so savvy investors made use of a quick turn around purchase/sale. On the other hand, perhaps there was something wrong with the property ... something which didn't require a legal declaration but something which made living there uncomfortable (crime, nasty neighbors, etc.).

Having an idea of what we wanted, and searching before leaving home, helped us narrow down the list of potential properties before ever seeing them "in person". In total, we visited three properties. We saved time by knowing what we wanted and we saved gas by searching online.

In the next installment of "My Green Home", I'll tell you about the property we finally decided upon.

Until then ... here's a question for you:

If you've purchased property in the past, what things did you do (or wish you had done) to prepare. If you aren't a home owner, do you plan to purchase property in the future?

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