What is the Green Home Tour?
The 3rd annual San Antonio Green Home Tour takes place this Saturday. It's a self-guided tour featuring six eco-friendly homes. The homes will be available for viewing throughout the day, and representatives from Build San Antonio Green, as well as the various home builders and product vendors, will be on-hand to answer your green construction questions.
What am I most excited about?
If you're in the market for buying a home, if you're upgrading a current home, or if you're just interested in eco-friendly trends and urban development, then there's no doubt something for you to see at the event. But what's this green REALTOR® most looking forward to?
#1 The Carolina Street retro-fits:
There's not one, but two homes on Carolina Street to be featured on this year's
Green Home Tour. I call them "The Carolina Street Retro-Fits," and they look
amazing. One is 209 Carolina Street, and the other is 205 Carolina Street.
Now, I love, love, love an old house! And an old house
retro-fitted to preserve historic features while simultaneously
increasing energy efficiency? Well, I love that even more. I fully intend on
taking notes and inspiration from these two homes, and I recommend you check them out too!
#2 Structural Insulated Panel Association Panels (SIPs):
It might be redundant to say I'm excited to see SIP Panels this year, since "SIP" already stands for "Structural Insulated Panels," (you see my point), but: I'm so excited to check out some SIP panels! (That's the only panel joke I swear.)
Joking aside, I'm really looking forward to seeing the home at 327 East Fest, which has some awesome SIPs. I really want to see these panels in person to get a sense of their aesthetics. I'm striving to find ways to be a better environmental steward, but at the same same time, I got into the real estate business because I love architecture. Aesthetics mean a lot to me. I'm really looking forward to seeing if SIPs can help me build more efficient, but also more beautiful homes.
#3 Watershed Sustainability:
If you don't know (I didn't), San Antonio's storm water doesn't drain
into a sewer. It flows directly into our creeks and rivers. I know -- scary! Not to worry, the San Antonio River Authority, a tour event partner this year, has several simple steps we can all take
at home to help keep our water clean and healthy.
The have easy solutions, ranging from re-positioning gutters to picking up that dog poo. Currently,
I'm in the design stages of a home rain harvest system so, in addition to
telling my husband I have a new project for us ("we" love projects!), I'll be scouting the homes on the tour for features that can help capture
water and redirect it to my garden. Yay!
Want
more info on Watershed Sustainability? Check out their website!
See you there!
The tour runs Sept. 6 from 10 AM to 6 PM. You can get tickets here. (I swear, I don't work for them, I'm just an eco-nerd like you.) And, as always, want to chat about eco-friendly urban development? Me too! Leave me comments in the comment section or feel free to email me: Tiffany@TexasGreenRealtor.com
See ya there!
Hi! I have a house from the 50s. I'd like to make it more energy efficient. (Even though it's only about 1200 square feet, my electricity bills in August are almost $200!) The A/C unit is new, but I have little-to-no insulation, probably not-that-great windows, etc. Where should I start? What would be the best bang for my buck?
ReplyDeleteHello Ashley-
ReplyDeleteGreat news. I have a possible solution. Investigate blown-in cellulose insulation for your attic. Easily the best way to cut costs and improve efficiency. I recently had our house done by Sustainable Endeavors. I planning on sharing the process and results soon.
Nice! Thanks :)
ReplyDelete