Eric Michael Stitt, a journalist for The Beach Reporter, very kindly featured our house tours event in the Hermosa Beach section of the paper this week: http://www.tbrnews.com/articles/2012/02/16/hermosa_beach_news/news09.prt
We also wanted to make sure the other key sponsors of the event, the U.S. Green Building Council/South Bay Branch and Energy Upgrade California,
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We want to express our sincere appreciation to all of you for making Saturday a huge success. The event was booked solid a week in advance and over 200 people came out for tours and the educational expo. We had to turn people away to ensure the safety of everyone
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The U.S. Green Building Council, Energy Upgrade CA and Leadership Hermosa Beach have asked us to give a series of construction tours on February 11th. The tours will showcase the innovative technologies that make the Green Idea House net zero energy, zero carbon and responsive to the environment in terms
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The U.S. Green Building Council, Energy Upgrade CA and Leadership Hermosa Beach have asked us to give a series of construction tours on February 11th. The tours will start at noon, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm and will be followed by a networking/ green networking event at one of the local
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In addition to allowing us to be a case study for their ThermalCore product (which should cut our heating and cooling needs significantly), National Gypsum did something simple, yet revolutionary this week.
Hanging drywall inevitably leads to a giant pile of scrap drywall. Normally that scrap goes into the landfill where
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The thermal envelope of our building is what separates the interior from the exterior in terms of moisture, air, heat and cold. It is critical to the overall performance of the building and getting us to our net zero goals. It also ensures that the building is comfortable and is
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Now that he is back from Japan, Robert hopes to get caught up on his postings! The first is a video clip taken from the November City Council meeting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQqizZ02Vik
GIH updates to the City Council include:
Steel vs. Wood
Certified vs Non-certified wood
Low V.O.C. vs. Low Toxicity
Reuse vs New
View vs. Solar Panels
We will be giving one of our periodic construction updates to City Council this evening. The meeting starts at 7pm and we should be presenting shortly thereafter. You can also view the meeting on Verizon Fios Ch. 31, Warner Cable Ch.8, and online at www.hermosabch.org under Agendas/Minutes/Video.
During
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AOL’s Patch Press service published an article on the Green Idea House this morning: http://hermosabeach.patch.com/articles/hermosas-greenest-house-of-them-all Eric Farrell, the Hermosa Beach Patch reporter, did a very nice job summarizing the conversation we had last week.
On a related note, we will be giving one of our periodic construction updates to City Council
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We just sent the following letter to City Council and Staff to encourage them to vote for an item on tonight’s agenda that will support more waste diversion from the landfill.
Mr. Mayor City Council Members and Staff,
Thank you all for your continued support of our Green Idea
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This weekend we took the redwood ship lap we got on our journey to The Reuse People Store and started the install. Monica and Carter fit the pieces on the roof like a puzzle and what we found was incredible. We thought it would look nice – what we didn’t
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Picked up a huge load of scrap lumber from The Reuse People store in Pacoima yesterday. Our friends Arthur, Shannon and Louis hooked us up with some redwood shiplap that will replace pine roofing that was destroyed by termites.
Matt Megill, a student from LACCD joined us on the adventure
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The latest crop of students from the Youthbuild program came for a tour last week. YouthBuild is an excellent program that gives at-risk inner city kids the opportunity to finish school and learn a trade at the same time. Graduates of the program have worked on the GIH and have
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Watching Bill McDonough’s expanded version of his TED talk at the Dwell conference Friday night was extraordinary. He is one of the key sources of inspiration for the Green Idea House.
Ed took the stage Sunday afternoon with a vigor and clarity that was masked in the nature of his “living
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Many thanks to the Easy Reader reporter Rebecca Zisser for a great article. During the tour she was very engaged, asked great questions and ultimately turned in a wonderful report. Thank you for your interest in spreading the word.
P.S. One small correction: “Fortunato first became interested in green technology
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We really appreciated the opportunity to be in the Water and Energy Expo in the morning and on the EPN Green and Solar house tour circuit in the afternoon.
We were impressed by the interested and engaged group that showed up. Thanks to all our friends (old and new) that
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Arthur Renauld, Regional Manager for The Reuse People visited the Green Idea House a couple of months ago and saw the Youthbuild crew hard at work. Arthur was so impressed that he connected them with the ReUse Haus project for AltBuild. As a result our friend Wes Harding hired
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Unfortunately, one of the people in the neighborhood (you know who you are) is complaining to the city about our lumber pile. Therefore we have to get a dumpster out to the site in the next week. So, if you need any of the above for projects from furniture to
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The video clip is taken from the April 26th Hermosa Beach City Council meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sswh242BWTQ
Also, We’ve attached (SBESC Letter) a very kind letter from Jacki and Marilyn at the South bay Environmental Savings Center thanking us for speaking at the South Bay Cities Council of Governments meeting on
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We will be briefing the Hermosa Beach City Council at their meeting at 7pm tonight!
Eric Michael Stitt very kindly marked our first big milestone: Owners save 97.5 percent of razed home
A grandmotherly woman named Grace contacted us about the free clean sandy soil we advertized in the local press. She came with her contractor and a pickup truck and took four giant loads of dirt off our hands.
Her city was making her take out some concrete and replace it with
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Wanting to save as much of the existing building as possible, we wrestled with skinning the stucco off the building; but in the end we are glad we did. In 1959 the original builders poured the foundations too low. Therefore the stucco was wicking moisture into the mudsills and rim
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The South Bay Environmental Services Center asked us to speak at the quarterly South Bay Cities Green Task Force Meeting to share information about our 97.5% landfill diversion milestone. We will be complementing Lisa Coppedge’s presentation on Grades of Green’s incredible efforts to reduce trash and how that translates into
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We got a number of responses to our post re concrete. One of the most popular suggestions we got to reduce the harmful impacts of cement is to add fly ash to the mix. This solution also gets you LEED and Build It Green points.
Fly ash is the leftover
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As the end of their useful life, most buildings in our area get demolished with a bulldozer and get scraped into a dumpster. We certainly understand the logic. It is currently cheaper and easier to do it that way.
Reuse and recycling is hard work. Almost every architect and contractor we
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Moving is never easy and usually not green (e.g. cardboard boxes, diesel trucks…). Thankfully we found some very good local companies with affordable products and services that are environmentally friendly – and made the process easier.
Rent a Green Box reinvented how we loaded up our stuff with recycled and recyclable
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Our friend Ewen, from Scotland, wanted to know if we were going to pack up our “tree” (see Christmas Rocks! post), put it in the attic and pull it out again next year. We had other plans for it…
Our High Water post explained why we want to keep the storm
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The rubble in our front yard gave us a opportunity to build something while waiting for our building permits. In the spirit of the holidays it is titled “Love, Joy and Peace(s)”
Seasons Greetings to everyone and all the best in the New Year!
Our son Carter is very happy to see his old friend from last year (see photo), thanks to Scotty Claus and his elves at The Living Christmas Company. This is an amazing group that helps cut carbon – not trees. Their innovative business makes it easy to support a forest.
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