Denver, CO

For the past ten years I (Dan) and my wife Jennifer have been gathering bags full of clothes, food, and other necessities to give to the homeless. Right around this time of year we ask our clients, staff, business associates, friends and family to help us by donating items that we can pack into Christmas bags. Then on the first Saturday of December our family plus the staff from our two businesses go to the rescue mission in Denver to hand out the bags. This year we will again be giving to the homeless although we have changed our format somewhat. Instead of gathering items and giving out bags we decided to accept donations and turn that into MacDonald’s gift certificates. We want to see how many people we can feed this year giving each person a $10 gift certificate. We believe the homeless will be much happier with the gift of getting $10 dollars worth of food. If you want to donate as always I can provide you a donation receipt for your tax records which is deductible since we conduct this event through our 501c3 charity Agape Ranch, Inc. Please let me know if you would like to participate before December 4th. On December 5th will be visiting the homeless outside the rescue mission down town. Finally if you believe in this event and want to share the news with friends, colleagues or family please feel free to copy and paste this information into an email to pass along.

Thank you for your consideration and generosity in the past we sincerely appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Dan Polimino

Colorado Realtors Dan Polimino, Gary Lohrman and Mortgage Lender Andy Jorgensen are at it again.

This time the trio is giving the American public a chance to win $250,000 dollars in cash towards their Colorado Dream Home.

Maybe you have been wanting to buy a first home, maybe you have dreamed of buying land and building a home or maybe you just want upgrade. No matter the reason Dan, Gary and Andy want to give this money away.

Just visit www.firsttimehomebuyerdenverco.com or www.taxcreditforeveryone.com and click on the link that says “click here for your chance to win $250,000 toward your dream home.” It’s no gimmick and there are no tricks.

Dan, Gary and Andy have been so successful with their website helping people buy their first home and get an $8,000 dollar tax so they decided to celebrate. Why celebrate because the government extended the tax credit to April 30, 2010 and created a tax credit for non first time home buyers. Check out the information about the $6500 tax credit for everyone at www.firsttimehomebuyerdenverco.com and www.taxcreditforeveryone.com .

As always if there is anything Dan, Andy or Gary can do for you in the home buying or selling process don’t hesitate to contact them. Their contact information is on the site.

Have a great weekend and Happy Thanksgiving.

REGREEN Online Green Home Renovation Resources for Homeowners and Professionals

In my last post, I looked at the green home renovation guidelines published by REGREEN, a joint partnership between ASID and USGBC. Today, I’ll give a brief summary of a couple of the online tools available from REGREEN. Each of the tools can work together with the guidelines published in the booklet.

When considering a green remodel project click the Green Remodels tab on the REGREEN website. There you’ll see three subcategories: REGREEN Basics, REGREEN Projects and Case Studies.

REGREEN Basics provides a generic outline about how to begin a project broken down into four steps: Audit, Plan, Prioritize and Dig In. This is a great way to begin to think about you project from a ‘whole-house’ systems level perspective. As you look through the four steps, you’ll begin to think about how it applies to your project.

REGREEN Projects reviews nine sample projects:

• Bathroom Remodel
• Kitchen Remode
• Home Addition
• Deep Energy Retrofit
• Gut Rehab
• Home Office
• Outdoor Add-ons
• Weatherization

Project details are provided with the information organized in the following manner:

• Overview
• Case Study
• Design Approach
• Systems
• Lessons Learned
• Team & Finances

The project reviews are a great way to develop an understanding of the green home renovation process and will help you to begin to think about how to approach your project. Each review is summarized and written in a format that is easy to follow and understand. References are included for additional information.

Case Studies of 18 different green home renovation projects and project types are reviewed. Lots of pictures are included and the information is very well organized. Reviewing case studies is a great way to get ideas about your green home renovation project.

Green Strategy Generator

Another useful online tool on the REGREEN website is the Green Strategy Generator. There are three fields selected with pull down tabs: Project Name (bathroom, gut rehab, etc.), Green Topic (Indoor Air Quality, Materials and Resources, etc.) and Design Elements (Equipment, Foundation, Lighting, etc.). When the fields are selected, a group of project strategies will appear. Each strategy includes an explanation, a summary of potential issues, references and links to related strategies where applicable.

The Green Strategy Generator is a useful tool for developing an understanding about how to approach and what to expect on almost any type of green home renovation project.

REGREEN Website is an Educational Tool

The resources on the REGREEN website are an excellent way to learn about green home renovation. The REGREEN online tools combined with the green home renovation guidelines will provide you with almost everything you need to know to get started on your green home renovation project.

If you or someone you know is looking to buy or sell a home in Denver Metro or Boulder County Colorado, I can help with most any type of transaction. Visit my website at E3GreenHOMES.com for more information.

Previous Post: REGREEN: A Collection of Green Home Renovation Resources for Homeowner and Professionals

EGREEN: A Collection of Green Home Renovation Resources for Homeowners and Professionals

I like to say the greenest home is the one that is already built. A green home renovation of even a small number of the 130 million homes in the U.S. could have a significant positive impact on the environment. For anyone that is either planning or interesting in learning about green home renovation there is no substitute for professional high quality project specific information.

REGREEN is an outstanding resource for green home renovation project information. REGREEN is a program jointly sponsored by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The main purpose of the program is to provide a comprehensive set of green home renovation guidelines to support all of the major components of a green home renovation project including water use, energy efficiency, materials and resources, and indoor air quality. In this post, I’ll review the green home renovation guidelines produced by REGREEN.

REGREEN has published a 164 page booklet titled ‘Residential Remodeling Guidelines.’ The booklet, which is available in PDF form on-line, is a powerful resource for home owners, builders and design professionals interested in green home renovation. A well organized collection of green home renovation strategies are presented complete with recommendations on proven technologies and case studies of real projects. Project guidelines are presented for either whole house or individual green home renovation projects such as kitchens, bathrooms or bedrooms.

The green home renovation guidelines address ten specific green home renovation projects:

• Kitchens
• Bathrooms
• Bedrooms
• Living and Working rooms
• Finished Basements
• Home Performance
• Major Addition
• Gut Rehab
• Deep Energy Retrofit
• Outdoor Living

A ‘whole-house’ systems approach to green home renovation is emphasized even when a project only consist of one or two rooms. The reason is that maximum results are achieved when a green home renovation considers how all the systems in a home work together to reduce the overall environmental impact. From this perspective systems design and integration practices are organized to cross-reference one another for maximum benefit.

The green home renovation guidelines are not intended as a stand-alone resource. The guide includes extensive reference to additional sources of information on specific topics. Users are encouraged to explore the added resources and to formulate their own project plans to formulate their individual green home renovation techniques, strategies and materials.

An emphasis is placed on project planning in order to identify resources and formulate strategies for everything from design features and building codes to overall performance. Each of the 10 green home renovation projects is presented with a project plan template covering pre-design and implementation related issues. A case study is also presented for each of the 10 green home renovation projects.

Regardless of the size or scope your green home renovation project, the ASID/USGBC Residential Remodeling Guidelines is a must-have for homeowners planning a project or interested in learning more about green home renovation.

If you or someone you know are interested in buying a green home in Denver metro or Boulder County Colorado, give me a call. I am a certified EcoBroker and I can help you locate a green home to suit your needs.

Visit my website at E3GreenHOMES.com.

John Thomas MSEE, MBA

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