We have to be the ones to make the difference. And YOU can make a difference, even in a small way. Here are some tips to get you started:
- Try to buy products that aren’t excessively packaged. It clogs up the landfills and you are buying waste.
- Re-use what you can. It saves another item from having to be made.
- If at the store you buy only a few things, skip the bag. Better yet, use those cloth bags made to re-use.
- If you do have to use plastic bags, make sure you re-use them.
- Buy whatever you can from recycled material. It is surprising how much of this is now available!
- Garage Sale or donate usable items in your home instead of throwing away.
- Ask a teacher if she can use your extra egg cartons, meat trays, or fabric scraps.
- Make your home recycle-friendly by having bins for aluminum, plastics and paper.
- Don’t just throw things away when you can give to someone to reuse them. Or find nifty ways to reuse yourself!
Sources: Jumpstart World,
John Brown is the founder of the newest movement called the “slow home” movement. This new approach to home design emphasizes quality over quantity in home construction, design and decorating. It’s more than simplistic minimalism; it calls for environmentally responsible construction practices, and building a home more thoughtfully and thus “slowly.”
For some food for thought, check out Brown’s blog entitled Outrage to get definitions of McMansions, the tragedy of suburbia and fake architecture.
Here’s a quote from Brown:
Slow Home takes its name from the slow food movement which arose as a reaction to the processed food industry. Suburban sprawl is like fast food – standardized, homogenous, and wasteful. It contributes to a too fast lifestyle that is bad for us and for the environment. In the same way that slow food helps us to avoid the processed food industry and make healthier and more sustainable choices about the food we eat, Slow Home empowers you to both improve the quality of how you live and future proof the long term investment value of your home.
Have you heard about the Land Use Laws coming to Lincoln County? Lincoln county has decided to adopt new a UDO (Unified Development Ordinance), which most counties already have in place. The big difference is how strict ours is going to be.
From Lincoln Times News:
From first-ever limits on clearing trees and landscaping standards to carving out residential and mixed-commercial districts, enacting tougher aesthetic and building standards and tackling traffic, the proposed Unified Development Ordinance will streamline a patchwork of laws and clarify the steps used to guide future development, according to planners.
Doesn’t sound like such a bad idea, I agree. I mean, I do hate it when developers come in, plow down all of the trees and plop a house in the middle of the barren lot. But this new ordinance has more to it than that.
The next time you sell a home, do you realize that you could be required to plant trees, with a certain amount of shade span they provide? I’m all for greening up the place, but I just feel funny about having someone tell me the things I have to plant in my own yard.
If you want to read for yourself what the UDO says, go here: http://www.lincolncounty.org/bald/UDO.htm
With all of the rain we’ve enjoyed, and predictably more on the horizon, Lincoln County has lifted the water restrictions, at least by a little. Now, one day per week, you may use water to do your outside chores: washing your cars, watering your lawns, pressure washing and even filling up swimming pools.
From the Lincoln County Website:
Effective Saturday, April 26, 2008, the revised restrictions for all Lincoln County water customers are as follows:
All outside water use is permitted one day per week, based upon a customer’s street address. Customers with odd-numbered addresses may use water outdoors on Saturdays and customers with even-numbered addresses may use water outdoors on Sundays. The odd-even system will reduce the daily demand on our water system.
If your home was built after 1978, no. But if your home was built before then or you are considering purchasing an older home, there are a few things you should know.
- Lead can harm young children and even babies who aren’t born yet.
- People get lead inside their bodies by breathing or swallowing lead dust, or by eating soil or paint chips that contain lead.
- In most cases, lead based paint that is in good condition is not a hazard.
- Removing lead based paint improperly can be harmful to your family.
If you do live in a home that was built before 1978, here are a few things you can do to protect your family:
- If you rent, let the landlord know if you have peeling or chipping paint.
- Clean up paint chips immediately.
- Clean all surfaces weekly and rinse sponges well.
- Make sure to wash children’s hands thoroughly before eating and nap time.
- Keep children from chewing on window sills, or any painted surface.
For more information, see the EPA’s pamphlet online.
Lowe’s sends me the coolest magazine every month that has so many cute home improvement ideas in it, many do-it-yourself. This rain chain caught my eye most recently. You attach it to the downspout of your gutter (remove the gutter, put it in the hole it leaves), put a pot below to collect the water and use that rainwater to conserve water by irrigating your lawn and garden! If you’d like to make the one pictured above, click the link for instructions.
If you aren’t really into DIY projects, there are companies that sell rain chains. They boast that they look much better than the traditional gutter downspouts and they sound magnificent, too! Think about what a terrific housewarming or closing gift they’d make! 
Here’s a great bit of info on radon:
Quick Facts:
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Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer.
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It is tasteless and odorless.
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Radon problems are usually a simple and relatively inexpensive fix.
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Radon is measured in pico Curies per liter. The EPA recommends a level of no more than 4.
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EPA recommends testing for radon in every home you buy.
(Info from EPA)
Wall Street Journal says that 75% of Americans consider themselves “environmentalists”, which means more and more people are opting for green homes. If this is true, more buyers will be jonesing for these upgrades when buying their new homes.
Some of the benefits of building greener homes is that they offer increased comfort, improved indoor air quality, increased construction quality, increased resale value, lower energy bills and some lenders even increased loan amounts.
Xeriscaping is one of the green upgrades that new home buyers have been asking for in just the last while. It simply means landscaping with a design that doesn’t require supplemental irrigation. Xeriscaping takes into account the local climate when selecting plants for the homeowner.
Here in Denver, the green house movement is only readily available to larger homes who can absorb the extra cost into the house. An extra $10,000 may not be a big deal on a $500,000 home, but could greatly affect a home valued at $12o,000. NC HealthyBuilt Homes focuses on small to medium sized home builders that may not have the resources to compete with the larger builders. This program offers technical assistance, marketing assistance, design reviews, workshops, presentations and field consultation services that helps educate the builder.
