Loretta Buckner | Your Home Retention Expert and GREEN Consultant For Life!

Still attempting to dispel the myths and misinformation about foreclosure homes in Pasco and Pinellas County, our Foreclosure Virtual Bus Tour continues, to several fine Pasco County neighborhoods where the deals are there for those who choose to L@@K!

Our first stop, Regency Park, and an El Dorado model pool home, currently listed under $80K:

To GET TICKETS for the next FORECLOSURE BUS TOUR, FILL OUT THE:

EASY ONLINE FORM

Be sure to tell us how many tickets you'll need, the cost for the entire day will be only $25 per person. Thanks for your interest, and best wishes in your home search.

For more Tips and strategies if you are facing foreclosure-check my website

Eco-Friendly Design and Retrofit

Challenge is right-sheesh! I took a couple of looks at Brad Pitt's Make It Right project plans, and said to myself: "Self," (‘cause I do not speak to myself in abused vernacular), "...much as I love the concept of green building, and appreciate what Mr. Pitt is doing up there in the Ninth Ward...those houses are just, well-BUTT UGLY, mostly." Sorry, designers-I guess there were probably reasons I did not myself go into architecture...I am reminded in looking at these plans of the song "Little Boxes"...

So, what to do for this contest of janeAnne's-one I'd really like to sink my green teeth into, really I would-all of my spare ponder moments this year so far have been spent in the pursuit of the Great Green Dream-in my case, how to retrofit my own home into a GreenHouse.

And, that's when it hit me-my contribution to this challenge is NOT for NEW home design, but how to recycle/reuse/rehabilitate existing structures to be healthier, happier, and greener-because, face it-unless Mother Nature takes out swatches of town, in my opinion it is not exactly Eco-friendly to tear down an old structure just to rebuild it greener, and we don't exactly have much room here in Pinellas County to build new, even if it is green.

So, here we go-using MY house as an example, how to go about, in the most cost-effective and least environmentally impactive manner, creating a GreenHouse:

• I absolutely LOVE what Dave Roberts shows in his "Pink" post, so here's how I plan to adapt his solar-logic to my home:
  • The house is North-facing, which is good in Florida, for most of the year, and it also has really good airflow from the existing plan. The downsides are in the winter, when the house stays much colder inside than outside, due to the surrounding shade and tile floors. What is needed is to turn the mostly-useless Florida room, which is on the East, or morning side of the house, into a solarium of sorts, creating not only more useful space, but also FOOD-here's the plan:
    • Solar panels installed on East side of main house roof, to heat water for both the water heater as well as reserve tanks for the spa and potentially some type of solar radiators. The reason I choose East-facing is due to the excess heat during the summer, when HOT is the last thing we need more of.
    • To assist in summer cooling, some simple modifications such as those outlined by BuildItSolar.com (a very useful and FREE solar resource, btw) would be done.
    • The existing HVAC system will, hopefully (she says, crossing her fingers), be replaced by what is being touted as a nano-technology enhanced new design for heating and air-conditioning-one which reportedly has only one moving part, can e installed over the existing ductwork, and not only runs at a fraction of the energy, but also creates much cleaner indoor air quality. We shall see...jury's still out on this one, but I do have high hopes.

    

    • The Florida room would also receive a retro-fit for grey water use planter boxes, such as the ones I found on www.greywater.com , which then provides organic produce year-round.(http://www.greywater.com/samples.htm)

So far, this is as much as I've got, but I do have many more ideas for harnessing solar/wind power, but I haven't had much time to research that yet. The lesson here is simple, however-for varying cost factors, depending on materials and how much or little hired labor is used, these simple modifications could be done in many, if not all, existing homes-saving money on utility and food bills, as well as being very kind to the environment.

As for Part Deux of our challenge-how can our Rain community demonstrate to those already in the process of Making it Right that these ideas should be allowed to freely (or cheaply) promulgate? I believe we already are-simply by our participation in the FREEly given information, advice, and ideas which we present in this open forum we call The Rain!

Or, in the immortal words of Nike: Just Do It! Brad...

Seriously--with Largo's down-payment assistance program, which gives qualified first-time homebuyers up to $35,000 in down payment assistance, if that were to be applied to one of the foreclosure or short sale homes available RIGHT NOW in Largo (tour a couple below), your mortgage payment would be in the ballpark of under $500, as shown below:

To GET TICKETS for the next FORECLOSURE BUS TOUR, FILL OUT THE:

EASY ONLINE FORM

Be sure to tell us how many tickets you'll need, the cost for the entire day will be only $25 per person. Thanks for your interest, and best wishes in your home search.

For more Tips and strategies if you are facing foreclosure-check my website

What the heck is Grey Water?, you may find yourself asking...and if so, my friend, you have come to the right place! "Grey Water" is household used water--the stuff that goes down the drains and normally either into the local sewer system or into your septic system. All, that is, except for the water which is used to flush the toilets and some sources say the kitchen sink, due to organic matter which may end up in the drain--this is referred to as "Black Water", not to be confused with the Doobie Brothers' "Black Water", of course.

• Why should we care about the water flowing into our sewer and septic systems--that's what they're made for, right?

Well, maybe...and maybe not. Here in my home state of Florida, for instance, we have frequent drought situations, watering limitations, sinkholes due to redistributed water leaving cavernous holes--Florida is structured somewhat like an anthill, after all--lots of sand and tunnels down there. So, why should we care? Many reasons, including saving a few bucks on the water bill by using 'used' water for irrigation.

That was one of my reasons, anyway, which began last year when I installed rainbarrels to collect the rainwater which is so abundent at certain times of the year, while not so for the rest.

Still, it seemed that there must be more I could do--all that water the washing machine uses, for instance--what about diverting that into the garden? The search for answers was on! And here is what I have found:

• Low-tech shower collection --this is about as simple as it gets--use buckets and collect the excess water from showering to use for lawn or garden.
• Inside the home grey water reuse system--I thought this was both clever and entertaining--a school project in which they diverted sink grey water to use in the toilet tank.
• Another home shower water recycling to toilet system.
• Brac system is an entire single-home grey water recycling system.
• Common greywater mistakes and preferred practices is a good article and a great resource site by Oasis Design.
• One of my personal favorites, and the direction I may be heading, are the soilboxes detailed here.
• Top-of-the-line Construct a greywater Wetland project instructions here.

And there you have it--from the simplest bucket recycling system, right on up to an entire wetland project! And, following are some other GREAT blog posts on the subject of greywater recycling. So...what are you waiting for? Get on out there and ReUSE, ReCycle, ReCLAIM!

• Real Estate Blog - Greywater Systems are NOT Illegal

About two months ago at a "green" building presentation, the president of Living Homes become the 2nd person to tell me that residential greywater systems ...
activerain.com/blogsview/491035/Greywater-Systems-are-NOT-Illegal

Immortal words, wouldn't you agree?

Do YOU make New Year's Resolutions? I do not--I prefer to start on fresh thoughts and ideas as soon as I get them--at least to go as far as writing them down for a future date when I have a chance to flesh them out a bit more. I figure, on sheer volume alone I should come up with a really great idea or two before my time's up!

In my experience, acting immediately also serves as a great way to avoid the inevitable fear and dread routine--the longer I procrastinate, the more difficult it becomes to deal with some things, so one really easy fix for that is to simply not let anything sit in the pot to marinate in that fear-bath for long.

Why not think about making this YOUR year to ACT before allowing FEAR to take over? I'm not suggesting doing things that are dangerous without thinking it through, of course, but imagine what it would be like to take the first few steps in the direction of your goals and dreams...without giving fear and loathing a chance to sink their mind-killing fangs in?

Just a thought...

And, please--do make this your BEST YEAR EVER!

Peace,

Loretta