Austin Green Estate Blog

Green Rentals- Will it Work?

2009-09-14T11:35:00.001-07:00

So we updated our rental with a number of great green features. The low VOC paint made sure there was no nasty off-gassing, and we were able to show the home immediately. Removing the carpet and replacing it with a durable solid surface flooring (we used a wood laminate) will give better air quality to the home, as well as reducing the hassle we would have had if we needed to replace carpet every 4 or so years.

Results?

WIN!

We had a flurry of activity. Folks LOVED the look of the home. I staged it and also shot great photos. We ended up renting it out for more money to a FABULOUS tenant with an excellent credit score. He was concerned about chemicals because he has a pet bird. All in all, it was a good choice. The money up front for the improvements made things a little tight, but combined with the fact that we will save on replacing carpet/ fencing and are getting more money each month in rent is a real winner for us! We'll have this rental for the long-term.

Green Rental Upgrades- The Low Hanging Fruit

2009-06-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

Green Rentals- the low hanging fruit-

Having a Green Rental can benefit the planet, the renters and also the landlord.

How?

There are some easy things to take advantage of that will benefit everyone.

Rebates and Freebies: One of the main things to do is check for City Rebates. The City of Austin is very progressive, and offers rebates and freebies on green upgrades to properties. The federal government has also gotten into the act. Check with your CPA about what you qualify for in tax breaks. Also check with your city to see what you can save and get rebated.

Know what you have- some of the things about your rental are probably already green, and you just haven’t told the world!

Are you within easy walking distance to stores, schools, parks, restaurants, employers? What about a quick drive distance? That’s something to promote.

Cost to the landlord? Free

You also may have ceiling fans. Many rentals do. Did you know that using a ceiling fan helps you keep your summer ac usage lower? Now you know! Check another green feature off the list.

Cost to the landlord? Free

How about floors? If you got rid of the carpet long ago because you hated the time and expense of changing it out all the time, then you are in luck- carpets harbor dirt and mold and lead to worse air quality. Hard surface flooring is another green feature and there are some beautiful inexpensive laminate floors out there. You’ll save on changing out the carpet every few years.

Cost to the landlord? Free (equal cost to 4 carpet changes)

Faucet aerators help tenants use less water- it’s a simple gadget that you screw onto the faucets. They cost maybe $4 at the most. Check another off the list!

Cost to the landlord? $4-$12

Changing out the roof soon? Go for the lightest color you can. Light color will reflect heat better and keep the unit cooler.

Cost to the landlord? Free

Insulation is another easy one. You can buy recycled natural fiber insulation- just remember to stick it in there during the winter so you don’t pass out from summer heat! Easy to do, and not pricy either. Check another one off the list.

Cost to the landlord? $200 if you toss it in yourself

Track the numbers- get the past year of utility bills from the tenants, and then track the bills after the updates are done! (Free)

Cost to the landlord? Free

Living a greener lifestyle is all over the place these days. Almost every news site I see has a green living section, and as utility costs rise, you’ll have a rental which will rise above the rest.

This is your Green Real Estate Agent!

Stay Tuned and Stay Green!

Patty Sylvana

Owner, EcoBroker, Realtor-GREEN

E3 Properties

512-297-5658

patty@ethreeproperties.com

www.ethreeproperties.com

Green Rentals- A View from the LandLord

2009-06-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Will my Green Rental Property make the grade? Will all that work and investment pay off? Is there a market for green rentals? Is it possible to still make the finances work while doing good for the planet and my future tenants?

Putting money into a rental to make it more energy efficient is a tricky deal. You put in the money, and the tenants get the lower bills. Will it be worth it? We hope so!

As a Realtor focused on green homes, and the life-long treehugger of the family, I get calls regularly from folks moving to town but not yet able to make the purchase. They want to rent while they get used to the area, and they want Green.

What did we decide to do?
There is some basic low-hanging fruit that can easily make the rental more green.

We'll talk about that Next! For Now, Enjoy some eye candy-

Your Green Agent-
Patty Sylvana
Owner, Realtor, Ecobroker
E3 Properties
512-297-5658

Part 6: How to Buy a Green Home; Paint

2009-03-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

Part 6: How to Buy a Green Home- PAINT

You know that fresh New Home smell you notice sometimes when you tour houses? You don't really want that. That smell is coming from chemicals in the air. Off-gassing from paints and carpets give you the new home smell, but also making your air quality worse.

What is off-gassing? It's when VOC's (volatile organic compounds) and formaldehyde are released from building materials (cabinets and paints).

Although VOC contains the word Organic in it, don't be confused. VOC's are toxic and will effect air quality in your home. You want to find a paint that is Low-VOC or Zero VOC. Sherwin Williams makes a Harmony brand that works great. (I've used this one a bunch). It's more expensive than your standard paint, but I think breathing is a pretty important thing, don't you?

Most folks don't advertise the kinds of paints they have used, but home owners often leave a gallon or two of paint behind in case you need to touch anything up. This can offer you a good clue in what they've used.

This is your Green Real Estate Agent!
Stay Tuned and Stay Green-
Patty Sylvana
Owner, EcoBroker, Realtor Green
E3 Properties
512-297-5658
patty@Ethreeproperties.com

How to Chose a Green Realtor

2009-03-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

Like choosing any professional- you'll want to ask some questions. Here is some insight into some good ways to find the right person. You'll want to find someone who is personally interested in being more environmentally aware- for cost savings, for better health, and for the planet. Someone who is personally involved will be doing more to stay up to date, than you're average Joe who is just looking at a marketing strategy.

- The recently released National Association of Realtors (NAR) GREEN designation is the most basic step. Honestly, I could have taught the course myself. It's great for Realtors just starting to understand what a green home can be, but it's a pretty low standard right now.

- EcoBroker, I believe it's the first nationally recognized green training for Realtors. Does a good job of covering the basics, but doesn't go into any region-specific issues. The climate gives you different issues to deal with, so a good Green Realtor still needs to be aware of your region. You'd build a green home differently in Madison, WI than you would in Austin, TX.

- City of Austin's Green By Design program- an excellent resource for local information. Very regionally focused and provides a ton of good information. If they've attended this, then you are off to a good start. (it's great, and usually fills up quick)

- Have they had an energy audit on their home? What was it like?

- What kinds of things have they done to make their own home more 'green'?

- What types of things do they look for to help clients find green homes?

- What do they think of the current green homes on the market?

- What kind of green events do they go to regularly?

- How do they find green homes that are not 3rd party rated?

- Do they share Green resources with you when you first meet?

All of this should put you on the right path!

Enjoy!
Patty Sylvana
Owner, EcoBroker, Green Realtor
E3 Properties
Experts in Green Real Estate
512-297-5658

Part 5: How to Buy a Green Home- Insulation

2008-10-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

Part 5
How to Buy a Green Home: Insulation

Here's the short of it.

The more you have here, the better off you'll be.
Insulation levels come with an "R" rating.
Highest usually for a ceiling area is R-40.

Foam does a good job because it doesn't get compressed down.
You want to keep the air pockets in there, which is really what insulation does- make air pockets around your house. Foam insulation is also available in some pretty healthy ingredients.
Cotton is also available, and a very tried and true option.

You may not be checking out the attic when you tour a home, but your inspector should be able to tell you how the insulation looks, what kind it is, and how deep it is. It's fairly inexpensive to buy and install insulation, but it might make you itch! You can hire someone to handle it.

Going Solar and Saving Some Bucks

2008-10-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

My husband is a solar installer. He installed panels on our house, and we just got them cleared for operation. We saved $100 last month! I'm really liking this.

Call some installers in your area-If they are good they'll be able to do this:
- tell you all the rebates you qualify for
- handle the rebate paperwork for you or guide you through it
-review your home energy usage and give you tips on how to use LESS before you even put solar panels on your house.
- tell you how much the panels will save you
- tell you when you will break even

Currently there is a federal rebate that gives you a $2,000 federal tax credit.
The City of Austin has the MOST AGGRESSIVE REBATE PROGRAM IN THE NATION.
They will rebate up to 80% of the cost of installing solar panels on your home.
Hurray for city owned utility companies!

Here's some things to remember:
-Southern sun exposure on your roof is ideal. (your roof is facing south and that side gets sun most of the day)
- It usually will not pay to cut down a tree to get exposure on your roof.
- Payback may take a long time if you're city or energy company doesn't offer rebates, on the other hand, you can be off the grid.

Austin Solar Info
Celestial Power

Enjoy!
Your Green Realtor
Patty Sylvana
Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
512-297-5658

Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart

Part 4: How to Buy a Green Home- HVAC

2008-10-20T13:11:00.000-07:00

Part 4- How to Buy a Green Home- HVAC

HVAC- that means your heating and air conditioning. You'll need both here in Austin, and the air conditioning will be pretty critical.

Here's some things to look for in a greener home.

1. One story, or zoned hvac for a two story. Heat rises, so unless you have zoned air to control the upstairs temperature separately from the downstairs, you'll end up cooking your sleeping guests, or shivering down on the first floor. A one story home will be more efficient, or a 2 story 'zoned'.

2. Look for a SEER number on the HVAC system. The higher the number, the more efficient it is. 13 or higher is pretty good. The number correlates to the amount of space it can cool.

3. Sheet metal duct work and sealed and tested ducts. This carries your air to where it needs to be. Sheet metal means there is less friction for the air flow. Sealed ducts mean less leakage of your cool air, and tested ducts can tell you how much (or how little) your system is leaking.

4. Duct work within the conditioned space- this means that you can either see the duct work, or it's in the middle of the house. It seems logical now, but back in the day, the air conditioning system was stored in the attic, where it would BAKE all summer. Even if the system wasn't in the attic, the duct work was stuffed up there to keep it out of view. Result? A pretty counterproductive set up.

A/C Pumps out cold air--- Cold air leaks into attic---Cold air warms up from hot attic---- A/C must pump more cold air to keep your house cool.

Your Green Realtor
Stay Tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
512-297-5658
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com

check out some local green homes here.

Austin is the Best.... No REALLY

2008-10-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

Forbes magazine just ranked Austin as the #1- Best Bang for Your Buck.
Rating included: future job growth, affordability, and housing prices!

Forbes Article

Austin is also beautiful, and Mayor Will Wynn has been promoting very farsighted plans for the city's future as a growing, green, sustainable metropolis. Plus, you can have your own urban chickens in most neighborhoods!

Part 3: How to Buy A Green Home- DIRECTIONS

2008-10-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

Part 3:
How to Buy a Green Home:
DIRECTIONS

So, in regards to location, you probably have an idea already of where you would like to be located. Ideally close to work and schools and parks and the farmers market.

Here are a few other things to consider- regarding the direction your home faces (no it's not Feng Shui) It's specific to Austin and if you buy an existing home, these features will help you be more green!

1 Catching the Breeze: You want your home to have the longer side with plenty of windows facing South and North.
Why?
In Austin most of the year, a breeze comes from the South (and SouthEast), and if you have windows facing that direction you can catch a great breeze, air out your house and stay cooler than other homes.

2. Keeping Cool: It's easier to shade those windows that are facing North or South. Because of where the sun hits your home, you'll have a much easier time shading windows with overhangs if they are facing North or South. This is because the sun will come in at an angle and hit the East and West windows from the side- catching them off guard.

3. Trees: You will want most of your trees on the north side to lose their leaves in the winter. That way, when it feels colder, you'll have more sun on your home. For the South side, you can have trees that stay green year-round.

This is your Green Realtor
Stay Tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
512-297-5658
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com

Your Roof, It's so... COOL

2008-10-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

Your Roof, It's so... COOL

The color of your roof can make a big difference in your energy bills.
Just think of how much energy and moola you'll be saving!

What's the key?
A white roof or a reflective metal roof.

Here's how it works :
Heat hits your roof
Your roof is white
Heat bounces off the roof
Your house stays cooler
You use less energy
You put less CO2 in the atmosphere
More heat is able to escape the atmosphere

(ok, I think that's how it works... I'm a non-scientist!)
White Roof Article

When you are switching your roof, think about metal. It's much longer lasting and is very reflective to heat. Otherwise look the lightest possible shingle you can find.

Your Green Realtor
Stay Tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
Keller Williams Realty
512-297-5658
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com

Check out Green Homes in Austin

Part 2: How to Buy Green- LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

2008-10-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

Part 2:
How to Buy A Green Home:
Location Location Location

This factor is pretty critical. You can get a home, you can renovate it, you can remodel it, you can make it super green, but you can't really move it somewhere else. This is my weak spot- learn from my mistakes- I live in a great house, in a great neighborhood where I have to DRIVE to get anywhere other than my neighbors house. The schools also suck. It's so close, and it sucks. Now I've got to look at driving my daughter somewhere else EVERY day of the work week.

There is a great tool out there that will actually SHOW YOU THE MONEY!
It takes your commute and tells you how much you'll save each month by living close to your job. COOL BEANS!! This means that it really pays out when you buy a more expensive home next to your job and walk to work. Generally you save more on gas and commuting and time than you would pay for a better location. Not to mention the trips to the gym.

What makes a green location? Here are some tips and tricks:

1. Think about where you go the most- work/ schools/parks

2. Use this great tool to figure out how much it costs to commute. This one is the best because it figures in your hourly value from your job, and it pulls that time lost commuting into the equation.
Commuting Calculator

3. Get a walkability rating for neighborhoods. This handy tools rates the neighborhood based on how many things are within walking distance.

Walk Score

4. Where is the public transportation- will you be near a commuter rail or bus line?
Austins Commuter Rail

5. Schools- If you don't have kids, this will effect your re-sale value. If you have kids, then good schools will also save you the drive to schlep your kiddos to another location.
School Info

Your Green Realtor
Patty Sylvana
Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
512-297-5658
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com

Austin's Zero Waste Plan

2008-10-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

Austin has a plan to become ZERO WASTE!
I'm thrilled about the idea. We will be one of the first in the nation to implement such plan. I know that Vancouver is implementing one right now. Thank you to Mayor Will Wynn for his progressive thinking and long-sightedness about the sustainability of our city.

Here's the plan

"Austin wastes an estimated $40Million annually by not re-using or recylcling products "

My husband was dropping some things off at the dump and literally brought back a completely perfect 'Pier 1' style coffee table, and dominoes still in the wrapper that someone was also dropping off at the dump. The re-use of amazing things there is really an untapped resource!

We should integrate those folks that find deals and sell them on ebay!

Your Green Realtor
Stay Tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
512-297-5658
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com

Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart

Part 1: How to Buy a Green Home- NEW OR OLD

2008-10-05T12:47:00.001-07:00

Part 1
How to Buy a Green Home
New or Old

Forget all that jazz about new is better- upgraded state of the art yadda yadda.
Think about an existing home that was remodeled, or a new home which is in an older neighborhood. (this is called in-fill when a builder creates a new home on an existing lot)

Not only will you get tried and true techniques, but you'll often have mature trees to boot!
Now, in saying that, there are some AMAZING things being done out there. Really beautiful and green. I'm a sucker- but get a NEW HOME in an ESTABLISHED neighborhood.

Having a home that has been remodeled green means that less resources were used, less materials were shipped, many times the home is closer to town and you also benefit from mature trees and the shade they bring. The home is also 'broken in'. No surprises here. These walls have been holding up for years, and many more to come.

You could even look at getting a home that is just BEGGING to go green. They are out there- they ask me to bring them buyers. We'll go over what is important in finding a Green Location next!

Your Green Realtor
Stay Tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
512-297-5658
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com

IT'S CHICKEN DAY!

2008-06-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

Wahooo!! It's chicken day! Now that we have so much space, it's time to get some chickens.
Callahan's by the airport carries all sorts of country things- so close in, so far out!

We're going for chicks because they are so danged cute. Something like 1/2 of them are supposed to die on me. That's a total bummer. Not sure what to tell Celeste about death. She's only 4. We talk about bugs dying in the pool, but that's been pretty much the extent of it. A friend had some ideas that we could just say they flew away. Hmmm... she might catch on to that one.

So- CHICKENS CHICKENS CHICKENS CHICKENS!
I'll post photos later!

The magical growing yard

2008-06-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

So, we've got this yard- it just grew 3 times larger. It's a little intimidating! There was a fence closing in a section of the yard by the house. The other 2/3 of the yard was out sight, out of mind... it's grassy with a nice grove of trees and a creek. It's a great space, mind you, but boy, that's a big project.

I've got to step up to the plate now and figure out the least expensive way to remove grass and make it look nice. I guess all that planning comes in handy- break it down into small steps.
1. plant vines to hide the chainlink
2. put in soaker hoses for the vines
3. build a fire pit

It will be good to sit with the space for a while and get a feeling for it. The hard part is visiting great houses and trying to figure out how to do what they did in my yard AND not go broke AND be low water.

The real first step is that patch of grass I ripped out right by the mailbox. I'm totally stuck on that. It seemed like a good idea and I've got a complete block on what to do next.

Here's a question for you-
What will not need mowing, doesn't get tall, likes the sun, and won't mind being driven on occasionally?

This is your Green Realtor
Stay Tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
Keller Williams Realty
(512) 297-5658
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com

Green Drinks Happy Hour

2008-05-29T13:24:00.001-07:00

Friday Friday Friday!
Come on by Opal Divines for some Green Drinks and some Green Ideas.
The special guest this month will be Matt Stevens with Green Zone Homes.
This company can put money in your pocket! They do energy audits on homes to tell you where is the best bang for your buck- the age-old windows versus more insulation dilemma will be solved! I like them because they aren't affiliated with a roofer/window/air-conditioning company. Straight up unbiased information.

Friday May 30th
Opal Divines on 6th St
5:30-8pm

Hosted by Yours Truly-
Patty Sylvana, Green Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
(512) 297-5658
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com

Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart

Think you Can't Afford a Home? Buying on a Budget-

2008-04-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

So you think you can't afford a home in Austin? Well, yes, things are getting pricey, but not out of reach. If you're on a tight budget and looking to buy your first home, the City of Austin wants to help! They will give you $10,000- $40,000 to help you into a place of your own.

Here are the income qualifications- (you must make under this amount)
- 1 person household - $39,850
- 2 person household - $45,500
- 3 person household - $51,200
- 4 person household - $56,900
- 5 person household - $61,450

Here are the requirements:
- First time homebuyer
- Can't have assets (savings etc) valued at over 1/2 of your income.
- Use one of the trained lenders (they have a big list)
- Get pre-qualified with one the lenders (ie. you qualify for this much house on your measly income, then add $10-$40k to that amount)
- Go to the homebuyer classes
- Homes 1978 and newer qualify for up to $40k
- Homes older than 1978 qualify for up to $10k

How it Works:
- Sign up for the class
-Meet with the lender
-Take the class
-Look for houses
-Find THE ONE
- Put in an offer
- Own a HOME!

Here's some more info! Give me a ring if you have any questions-
MONEY TO BUY A HOME

If you like lots of details- here you go!
The $10,000 is basically free moola which you will not pay back if you stay in the home for 10 years. If you move earlier- say 5 years, you owe $5,000 back to the city.

The $40,000 plan is more complicated, but still great. The city gives you a chunk of money, but if you sell or re-finance your house, they would like their moola back. Also, it's an equity share program which means that if you borrowed $40k and the house was worth $120k total, then they lent you 33% of the value of the home. Now when you sell, the house is worth $220k, so you pay the city back their $40k plus 33% of any growth in value of the home.

This is your green Realtor
Stay tuned and stay green-
Patty Sylvana
Realtor by Trade Green at Heart
Keller Williams Realty
(512) 297-5658
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com

How to Buy or Sell a Green Home

2008-03-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

How to Buy or Sell a Green Home

Workshop Coming Up!

Wed, April 2nd
6:30-8:00pm
North Austin

Short, sweet and green, this workshop will cover all the basics of buying or selling your green home.
What to look for and how to find them, how to price and market your home, green financing and lots of other cool stuff!

Details and RSVP here:

www.GreenHomeWorkshop.com

Natural Home Mag Votes Mueller #1

2008-03-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

Natural Home Magazines listed Mueller here in Austin as #1 in their Top 10 Green Neighborhoods article this month.

The Mueller Neighborhood got the kudos for their progressive green initiatives such as:

- green home options like tankless water heaters and solar panels

- greywater systems

- pedestrian friendliness

- 25% of housing for lower income households.

Congratulations to Mueller!

Patty Sylvana

Green Realtor

Keller Williams Realty

patty@GreenAustinProperties

(512) 297-5658

Austin Green Homes- Mueller

2008-03-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

Unless you're dead, you've probably heard about the Mueller Development. A rehabilitation of old city airport land, this development is making waves for all kinds of progressive and green ideals. Here are a few highlights-

The green homes at Mueller are in a unique situation because the City of Austin owned the land. The City was able to implement some really progressive features including green requirements and low income homes.

What makes Mueller Special?
- Close to UT and Downtown (at 51st and I-35)
- Green Green Green built
- Parks surrounding the entire development as well as interspersed throughout
- Pedestrial focused- not just sidewalks, but ACTUAL places you could walk to!
- Town Center
- Commercial Center

This is definitly an urban high density neighborhood. There is no sprawling lawn to maintain, and you'll probably ACTUALLY get to know your neighbors. Wow, what a concept!

This is your Green Realtor
Stay Tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart
Keller Willilams Realty
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com
(512) 297-5658

The Fight Against My Lawn

2008-03-10T10:44:00.001-07:00

I've been battling with my lawn. For years I've been fighting. Slowly but surely, it surrenders, but not without a tough fight. Now it is pretty rewarding for me to fight my lawn. I've come to relish the battle. Mostly because I always win, but also because the hard work feels good after sitting so much.

First we put in a big front porch.
Then I put in some square foot gardens.
Then I put in some more walkway.

My current project is removing the grass between the sidewalk and the road. We're planning on some crushed granite, a few crepe myrtles, some sage and some clump grasses. That way folks will be able to walk through easy enough. I figure that at the rate I'm going, I'll be able to cancel my gym membership and we'll retire the lawnmower in a few years.

It helps that everywhere I go, I see great examples of other people's hard work. Thank you to all those folks I never met that have been fighting their lawns for longer than I!

(why fight your lawn? if you replace it with local drought tolerant plants, you'll reduce fertilizer usage, waste less time on the lawnmower and reduce your water usage as well. Saves you some time and money in the long run)

This is your Green Realtor
Stay Tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart
Keller Willilams Realty
patty@GreenAustinProperties.com
(512) 297-5658

Solar, Rainwater Cisterns and more

2008-03-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

10700 Bubbas Bluff-
Don't let the name fool you, this is no home for a country bumpkin. Solar panels, two 10,000 gallon rainwater cisterns, metal roof, almost 1.5 acres, kiva fireplace, programmable thermostat and double pane windows. Only $275,000, and located in Lake Travis ISD.

This is your Green Realtor
Stay Tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart
Keller Willilams Realty
patty@AustinGreenRealtors.com
(512) 297-5658

Free Toilets from the City

2008-03-03T11:13:00.001-08:00

Thanks to the City of Austin for re-introducing this popular program!
Free High performing toilets to customers who have old clunker toilets (pre-1996).

The new toilets have flapperless technology which means that you won't have to trade out leaking toilet innards ever again.

You can get up to 3 toilets per household.

Send in your application, receive your voucher in the mail and pick up your toilet.
It also comes with a matching seat, wax ring and bolts for installation. You might want to call a plumber to have them install it for you.

GET STARTED HERE

or call the city at 512-974-2199

This is your Green Realtor-
Stay tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart
patty@austingreenrealtors.com
(512) 297-5658

Green Water

2008-02-22T09:44:00.001-08:00

Thanks to my buddy Rob Marley over at www.mediamorgue.blogspot.com who wrote this great article on water bottles-

"700 YEARS FOR WATER BOTTLES TO START DECOMPOSING". Stick that thought in your cap.

Being environmentally conscious is more than just the latest trend to hit the tree-hugging hippie crowd. Its a vital part of our ability to continue to live on this planet. Its something all of us can do to live in a better world. And who doesn't want that?

Some people think that "going green" is a time-consuming process where everything fun and convenient has to be sacrificed for the better good of the environment. Not so. All being more environmentally conscious requires is that you think a little bit (hence, the "conscious" part of that phrase.) There are several things you can do that can make a big impact on the environment for the better, and require very little effort on your part.

One of the easiest things you can do is with your water bottle. Sure its really easy to pop into a convenience store, pick up a bottle of the latest trend and pat yourself on the back for living a more healthy lifestyle. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, bottled water is the single largest growth area among all beverages including juice, soft drinks and alcohol. Its great that we are drinking more water instead of sugary, calorie-laden sodas, but while this may be more healthy for your body, how healthy is your environment? Once you've finished quaffing that basic element of life, where does the bottle usually end up?

The answer is the landfill. According to Environmental resource Earth 911, Americans drank about 167 bottles of water each, but only recycled an average of 38 bottles per person in 2006. This equates to about 50 billion plastic bottles consumed, with only 23% being recycled, which means that over 38 billion water bottles ended up in the ground.

To manufacture a plastic water bottle, manufacturers use a petroleum product called polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. The manufacturing process also uses oil. According to independent research group The Pacific Institute, the process of making the plastic for water bottles uses approximately 17 million barrels of oil per year internationally. The energy consumed in the process of making bottled water could power almost 200,000 homes. And to manufacture one ton of PET products, manufacturing plants produce around 3 tons of carbon dioxide. In 2006 alone, bottled water created more than 2.5 million tons of CO2.

Then, once they are consumed and tossed into landfills, a plastic water bottle takes 700 years before it even BEGINS to start decomposing.

Maybe now you can see how all of this starts to add up to a very real problem.

There are recycling programs out there for water bottles, but not everyone uses them. Part of this is because water bottles are usually consumed away from home, making it difficult to find a recycle bin nearby. But instead of contributing to the growing problem of burying trash that is going to be around for the next 700 years, why not just use that bottle more than once?

Let's do a little math:

The average price of a bottle of water is around $1.20. Now think about how much bottled water you drink in a week. Conservatively, let's say 3 bottles per week. That means you are spending $187 per year for the convenience of drinking bottled water. Is it worth it? What could you do with an extra $187? By buying a bottle of water once and re-using it several times, you could cut your costs in half or more. Or go one better, and just use the heavier-duty sports bottles that bicyclists and campers use and save even more money.

If you don't like the taste of tap water, use a Britta filter, which is a cheap and effective way to purify what you are drinking. And if you are image conscious, know that no one is going to know the difference between the stuff filtered through the Alps and the stuff filtered through your kitchen sink unless you tell them.

Being environmentally conscious means being conscious about the things you take for granted. Something as simple as a bottle of water can make a big difference on how much pollution there is in our atmosphere and how much garbage is packed into our landfills.

Resources:

http://earth911.org/

http://refillnotlandfill.org

Greening Your Party

2008-01-28T12:51:00.000-08:00

Parties often involve a lot of fun, AND a lot of garbage. It doesn't really need to be so. Here are some good tips for greening your next party.

Keg- comes in a re-usable container and you can fill it with local beer.
Dishes- Think re-usable. It will only take a moment to stick it in the dishwasher. There are some nice plastic sets out there too- so guests don't break your glasses (you know who you are!).
Cleanup- keep some clean rags on hand- we've really cut down on our use of paper towels.
Carpooling- Evite offers a great carpooling option-very handy.
Recycling- Many a guest will bring a 6 pack of beer. Keep garbage/recycling clearly marked so clean up is easier.

Stay Tuned and Stay Green
Patty Sylvana
Green Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
patty@austingreenrealtors.com
(512) 297-5658

Barnraisers

2008-01-21T10:58:00.001-08:00

Never raised a barn? Don't worry! The Barnraisers haven't either. The concept comes from an Amish tradition of a community coming together to raise a barn. Taking on work that might go above and beyond the ability of a single family, the Barnraiser teams join together and get stuff done at each others homes.

Our group is in its 3rd year, and I am amazed at the stuff we get done, not to mention the things I learn as we go to other homes. We started with one group, now there are 4. Here are some basic concepts, feel free to start one yourself!

1. Chose people you'd like to socialize with that are also responsible and reliable.
2. Pick dates and times that work for everyone (we meet up for 1 full day every other month).
3. If you are hosting, send out reminders, (our hosts also buy breakfast and lunch and beer).
4. If you are hosting make sure someone is there that knows how to carry out your project, and that you either beg/borrow or steal the supplies and tools you need.
5. Get some before photos
6. Have fun working together with your friends.
7 Get some after photos.
8. Take a hot bath and pass out.

It can be hard work depending on your group style, but it also offers a great sense of accomplishment. When so many people sit at desks for most of their week, having a day of hard labor is a nice change of pace.

We've taken on projects large and small- painting, building decks, laying tile, installing wood floors, putting up stucco underskirting, staining and sealing wood, putting up walls, digging pathways, and yard work. We've done a lot! The best part are the before and after photos.

Barnraising is a great Green activity because while you are collaborating with others, you also end up sharing resources. Don't have a tile saw? Someone in the group might have it. Have a small tile project? Someone in the group might have some extra tile that you can use. Instead of buying more tools and supplies, you are making a better use of resources all around.

Stay tunes and stay Green-
Your green Realtor
Patty Sylvana
Keller Williams Realty
Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart
www.AustinGreenRealtors.com
(512) 297-5658

Painting for Lazy People

2008-01-12T20:54:00.001-08:00

I'm a part of this group that goes around like little elves and fixes each others houses. Well, but elves are quiet. We're quite a social rowdy bunch. Its the barnraisers- more on that later.

The group was due at my house for some serious paint job makeover work. I surfed the web, and low and behold, I am now really good at painting. Here are the tips:

1. buy nice brushes- angled, Purdy is a good brand. Spend the money, believe me its worth it. Put your name on them because everyone will want to borrow them. You'll want a large, medium and small.

2. Do away with taping altogether! Weee! No tape. Tape never worked well for me anyhow. With your amazing angled brush, you can get close to the edge, bend the brush against the wall and slide the brush along- long side first. You want to get that very edge section first, then flip the brush over and go along the same section with downtward pulls. The one key to this technique is - Take Your Time. Its still faster than taping.

3. Be generous to the walls. Don't try to make the paint last, it will mean twice as much work while you add that second layer. Keep your brush nicely coated, but not dripping.

4. Rollers- there are wool rollers out there that work amazingly well. No little spackles of paint everywhere. Wash off great, re-use it a bunch of times.

5. Paint- please get yourself to a reputable paint store. I've enjoyed Sherwin Williams Harmony (low voc) line. I've been disappointed with the large chain store paints because I always end up having to add twice the paint for the same coverage.

6. Get low fume paint- Low VOC or Zero VOC paints are now readily available everywhere. And you won't have to sleep at your friends house while your house off-gasses. Hows that for convenient?

Enjoy your lazy painting!
Stay Tuned and Stay Green-
Patty Sylvana
Green Realtor
Keller Williams Realty

Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart
patty@austingreenrealtors.com

Home Buying for Freaks, Weirdos and Artists

2008-01-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

Home Buying for Freaks, Weirdos and Artists

SAVE THE DATE!
Homebuying for Freaks, Weirdos and Artists
Tuesday, January 22nd
6:30pm

Hosted at Land America Austin Title
3708 Spicewood Springs Rd, Suite 100
Austin, TX 78759

Topics:
- Convincing the bank to loan you money- by Mark Abernathy, Mortgage Broker Extraordinaire

- Buying with a friend or enemy (collaborative purchases and condo-ization)

- Finding and buying your unique home (home and land hunting) by Patty Sylvana, Realtor Extraordinaire

- How artistic can I be with my home? (building code in Austin and Travis County), by John Umphress, Green Building Code Specialist Extraoidinaire

Save the Date and RSVP to me: patty@AustinGreenRealtors.com

This is your green Realtor signing off-
Stay tuned and stay green
Patty Sylvana
green Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
patty@austingreenrealtors.com
(512) 297-5658

Is Commuting Worth it?

2008-01-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

Valuable to Live Close to Your Job? Let the Numbers do the Talking- Many of you know how Iove the numbers! What can I say, I'm kind of a geek that way. Here is a great site that can actually calculate the value of living close to where you work. It will show you that you often spend more on commuting than you would paying more for a house! Plus, think of all the time you'll have for yourself. Saves some green by living closer to work. Thanks to Jack Miller for sending the link.

CLICK HERE TO RUN THE NUMBERS!

This is your green Realtor
Stay tuned and stay green-

Patty Sylvana
Green Realtor
Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart
Keller Williams Realty
patty@austingreenrealtors.com
(512) 297-5658

Embodied Energy and Green Building

2007-12-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

When you are trying to build or remodel, one thing to consider is the amount of carbon dioxide that went into the atmosphere to create that product. You can get some determination by considering the 'embodied energy' that went into a product. (how much energy did it take to create the product and get it to me)

Say you're re-doing your floors. You've got a slab concrete floor and your looking at some options:
Here are some things to think about-
1. How far did this product travel to get to me?
2. How much processing went into creating this product?
3. How long will this product last?

You can stain your concrete floors (minimal product).
You can use a quarried stone flooring which is created locally. (minimal processing)
You can use a ceramic tile (heat fired to high tempuratures equals higher embodied energy)
You can use cork (renewable resource)
You can use hardwood (lower processing than laminate, and you can refinish them later)
You can use wood laminate (less expensive, less trees)
You can use a rug (less expensive, but needs to be changed out more often than the other options, making it the least preferable option)

This is your green realtor signing off!
Stay warm and stay green!
Patty Sylvana, green Realtor
patty@austingreenrealtors.com
(512) 297-5658

Building Green and Embodied Energy

2007-12-10T10:31:00.000-08:00

I recently attended the Affordable Green Home building conference held by America Youthworks. This sharp group has a educational program for youth which trains them on all aspects of green building from the ground up! They have worked with SIPS panels, Strawbale and many other products.

One new player to the scene is a company called Flexcrete. This is a pumice stone type of material made of concrete, lots of little air bubbles and some other secret stuff. Because it is not cured by heating it up, the embodied energy is lower than many other products. It is also fairly local- the company is out of Houston. You can get it in cinderblock like sections or in larger sheets. Ideal covering for it would be stucco. This material is not just an affordable option, it is a great local green option! There are some very sharp high end homes built with it.

You can check them out at www.flex-crete.com

Thoughts on Green Building & Beauty

2007-10-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

Fresh from the Green By Design seminar hosted by Austin Energy, my mind is percolating on the concepts presented.

One that keeps coming up again and again was- Beauty. Beauty in our living space, beauty in our surroundings, beauty to bring about a calm relaxed state of mind. Beauty that makes us sigh.... ahhhhh. This is the third time Beauty as an inherent building concept has come up for me since September!

I'm a really practical person, I like to be efficient, get things done, be productive. That's just sort of been ingrained in me. Its part of who I am. This year all of my exposure to green design, green building and natural building have all centered upon creating a joyful experience, and the creation of something of beauty. This strikes me as vain in some ways- what? beauty? what about saving the planet? But hidden deep in beauty, on some subconscious level, we connect, our minds open and embrace ideas, thoughts, concepts.

This beauty aspect slows me down. It requires contemplation and thoughtful intention. It is probably EXACTLY what I need in my life. I trimmed back my basil that is trying to go to flower and I put vases of the fragrant flowers around my home. I can look at them and sigh.... ahhhh. Just what I needed. Something beautiful to rest my eyes on.

Beauty is also about Nature. Flowers are incredibly beautiful, trees, rivers, streams. The natural systems which have developed since the world was created. Natural systems that ease our minds. Why does a river make us feel relaxed, or the woods? Why does being in nature make us feel good? That beautiful system, those beautiful processes, those life cycles presenting their dance for us. Simply Beautiful.

This is your Green Realtor Signing Off-
Stay Tuned and Stay Green-
Patty Sylvana

Best Green $35 You Can Spend

2007-10-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

The Best Green $35 I have ever spent is at the City of Austin's Green By Design Program. This 1 day seminar is a part of the City's Green Building Progream and is chock full of amazing ideas for making your home more green.

It covers how to start right when you are building a home, which directions the breezes come in for ideal ventilation (blows in from the SE here in Austin most of the year), why straw bale construction might not be the best for an Austin climate, and how to work with your own home to make it a little greener.

I'll be going for the 2nd time! Check it out at: Green By Design

Here's your Green Realtor Signing Off:
Take care and stay Green-
Patty Sylvana
Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart

Compact Florescent Bulbs -Don't throw them out!

2007-10-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jack Miller for the info on Compact Florescent bulbs. I just found out that they contain traces of mercury. As a precaution they should not be thrown into the garbage. Instead, when they finally wear out after 50 or whatever years, head to that great big Swedish store to the North (Ikea). Ikea is offering CF bulb disposal.

This is the second time I've posted about Ikea recently... hmmmm I wonder what's going on!

Here's your green realtor signing off-
Keep thinking green, and keep thinking me when you want to buy or sell!

Patty Sylvana
Green Realtor
Realtor by Trade, Green at Heart

Green Home Consultations

2007-10-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the good folks over at Green Zone Home, I found out my house isn't quite as pathetic as I feared! I also learned that replacing my windows is probably not going to save me any money. Very interesting stuff! These guys do free energy audits from the City of Austin and also offer a more comprehensive report for $99. (This is the one I got). I especially like these guys because they are not a roofer/ hvac / window / insulation company which will, most likely, focus on how important it would be to get a new roof/ ac/window/insulation.

Surprisingly easy and inexpensive techniques to lower our energy bills! Also some troubleshooting on the one room upstairs that is always hotter than the rest of the house.

So, thanks to Greg over at Green Zone Home for taking the time to meet with us! Now I've got some projects to get working on.

You can give them a ring at: 512-467-0005.

Ikea Homes in a Box

2007-10-03T08:59:00.001-07:00

Yes- its true! Ikea is not selling prepackaged 'flat-pack' homes in the UK. These cost effective lego-like homes might be a good solution for an easy low-cost diy home.
check out the following article courtesy of treehugger.com

KEA is taking flatpack construction to a new high – the BoKlok is a flatpack house offering hope to hundreds of thousands of people currently unable to buy a house in the UK. These timber frame, 1 or 2 bedroom homes will be available.. ..for lower income families. Affordable housing is a testing issue for the government as high house prices over a decade forced key workers and local people to the urban margins. Well-tested in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden, where 2,000 BoKloks occupy 45 sites, a new Anglo-Swedish venture aims to offer the flatpack housing at 13 IKEA outlets. Most BoKloks will be offered through the Hyde Group housing association, Paramount Homes and Skanska, IKEA’s partner in Scandinavia. Brits have shown considerable enthusiasm for minimalist Swedish design, with a stampede of 6,000 customers recently at a north London IKEA store. Whether the BoKlok (translating as Live Smart) aesthetic, a hybrid of country-and-western meets summer holiday home, will meet the romantic and practical aspirations of the British public, let alone the planners, remains to be seen. A glance to the post-World War II ‘Cornish Unit’ prefab concrete homes, and others of the same ilk, designed over fifty years ago to meet similar urgent housing needs, still sit awkwardly in the landscape. Whatever happened to ‘local is beautiful’? ::Hyde Housing and ::Ikea Boklok [by © Alastair Fuad-Luke, 2005.]

Hobbit Homes and Low Impact Living

2007-08-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

A Thank you to Starr of THE LOVERS Band here in Austin for locating this beautiful site. A home built by hand by a family. Its rustic, yes, but ohhh so organic. I just want to squeeze its little house cheeks its so cute. Read up on some articles the family wrote about their experience: www.simondale.net/house

Local Austin Program offering Carbon Credits

2007-08-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

I believe this is the FIRST Austin program being offered to offset carbon emmissions.
CONGRATS TO TREEFOLKS!

The carbon calculator is pretty easy to use, and you can see how many trees you'd need to plant yearly to offset it, or how much moola you can send them to plant trees in public spaces to offset your emmissions.

http://www.treefolks.org/prog_calculator.asp

Treefolks calculates your carbon emmissions and then commits to planting the appropriate # of trees to offset your impact!

Pretty cool stuff, hope can check it out- Europe has been carbon offsetting for years, looks like we're finally catching up.

http://www.treefolks.org/prog_calculator.asp

Green Art in Austin-

2007-07-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

article courtesy of worldchanging.com

The Pursuit of Green Happiness

Jon Lebkowsky
July 3, 2007 11:08 AM

Sculptor Randy Jewart has been experimenting more recently with a new medium. You might call it social art, or civic art, or (the name of his organization), Austin Green Art. Green Art's events have been increasingly popular and effective in forming community around culture, inspired in part by the public art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Currently Green Art is working with Austin's high-end retail mall, The Domain. The plan there is to create an installation from salvaged materials, including wiring, pipes, machines and old school electronics. from the long-abandoned IBM Building 60, where IBM used to manufacture printed circuit boards. The salvage operation is about making old technology sustainable by repurposing it as art.

We set up this interview just as Randy got final permission for the salvage operation; we met in the trashed out remainds of Building 60, sitting on old boards, echoing as we talked.

JL: When did you get into green, sustainable art?

RJ: I had a research vein going into green architecture. When I heard William McDonough on the New Dimensions radio program one day, I pulled my car over, stopped, and I just sat there for 45 minutes, because I had never heard anybody talk like that. It was engaging ... everybody knows that the environment is in big trouble, and the language about that is dire, and very pessimistic, and it's been that way because of the frustration that environmentalists have had in trying to save the things they want to save.

To listen to William McDonough talk about the potential of creating a new business model based on this cradle to cradle philosophy, and the whole elimination of waste idea, and separation of different natural cycles and technical cycles – there's a robust framework there that's not a bunch of pipe dreams, not a utopia. It's very practical. He presents a theoretical structure, and then he goes into actual examples of what they've done, and I realized, "Wow, they're already doing it." It was just so empowering to listen to that.

Not long after that, I had the opportunity to put together the temporary Al Gore sculpture show for the city, which was hosting a public forum with three hundred public art administrators from around the country. They wanted to have a showcase for local scuptors. I decided that could be the basis for starting an ongoing temporary public art entity. I had a hunch that an environmental theme could give a narrative thread to the public art, which is a tricky business: it can push people's buttons, when you start engaging public space with funky artwork. So I figured if we told a story about why this art was there, that it had a connection to environmental issues, it would help to get people behind the idea instead of putting them off.

JL: Talking about public art, did you meet Christo when he was in Austin?

RJ: I did get to meet him when he was here, very briefly. We modeled the Austin Gates project, which we had done prior to his visit, on his Central Park Gates Project. His scale is pretty much the top of the line, but there's big monumental public art work and temporary projects all over the world. It's a universal civic enterprise. The idea that we would find the artists working locally and internationally that ground their work in environmental issues and create a showcase in Austin for that was the motivation behind the project. Austin Green Art has now been around for two and a half years, and we've picked up a lot of steam, and that has paralleled the current international green movement.

JL: How is Green Art structured? How many people are involved?

RJ: Structurally we're in the middle of a transiton right now. We've had an umbrella relationship with the incubator service that the Austin Community Foundation provides to lots of different types of nonprofit concepts, to help them move into officially creating a 501(c)3. We're just now having our first meetings to establish a board, and move the fiduciary responsibility from me onto a small group of people. It's really exciting, it's really scary. Hopefully we'll be able to hit the ground running and have that process take things up another notch. I've had a lot of help from a friend of mine who collects my work, Raul Garza. He runs an advertising agency in town, and he saw the potential from the beginning, as I described what I wanted to do, to tie in corporate support. He recognized that businesses are interested in legitimately aligning themselves with things that support their core values. He was a big help in shaping a look and an engagement with the community, based on his understanding of the corporate world. We've had a hard core group of volunteers, and when things go well, we can subcontract, and give people some money for a given project, for helping out.

JL: When you talk about working with the corporate world on something like the Domain Project, do you hear criticism from people who think maybe you shouldn't go there?

RJ: We do. We've heard grumblings from working with Starbuck's, and even working with Whole Foods. The Domain Project is mostly known for its first phase, a shopping mall. Most people are not aware that phase 2 is probably ten times the scale of phase 1, and the city is requiring that they build the ten or so residential highrises as LEED silver green buildings, and their office highrises are going to be LEED regular. It's probably one of the biggest green building projects in the world right now, in the design phase. Sure, it's a development, and there's always issues with that. But our goal from the beginning has been to take what people are legitimately doing, that's legitimately good, and just go with it full speed ahead. Certainly that raises awareness about other things that they might be doing that are not so great. Our goal is just to throw things out there that start a discourse about the issues, and hopefully steer that discourse in a way that is productive.

JL: Using art as a framework for civic engagement...

RJ: Not long after we started, I shifted my focus as a sculptor to getting this opportunity to put big sculptures in the public realm. That's what I was into, and efore long, we realized that what we were really doing was community-building. By taking on these large-scale projects that required a lot of financial support, community support, logistical support, we basically do a barn-raising, which is a really important social ameliorator that doesn't happen anymore. I've looked at the way churches always want to build new and bigger buildings. This is where a group needs to have a tangible project, and roll up their sleeves and work on it together. But that process has become abstracted because of what it takes to build a building these days. It's not something that you and I do, it's something that somebody else does. What we offer is a context where people can get hold of the materials, and get a sweat going, and spend time together moving things around and getting to know each other while they're doing it. It really creates a very special atmosphere.

JL: And anybody can participate?

RJ: We've created a pattern for coming up with a theme, choosing some materials, setting a physical stage somewhere, with some rules and ideas about how to start building something. And then we just totally let it go, and invite anybody from the public to come, invite artists to come, invite environmental groups to come, and see what gets built. That's been really exciting, just the improvisational character of it. People come who don't know each other, and start helping each other out.

It's scary, on the one hand, because we don't know how many people are going to come, how into they're going to be, what the weather is going to be like. Now that we've done it ten times or more, we've got to a point where we know something amazing is going to happen every time. We just don't know what it's going to be, or when it's going to happen, or what scale it's going to be. We have enough confidence to go into it and raise everybody's expectation that it's going to be really cool. But we don't know what it is -- and that's part of what makes it cool.

JL: Do you find yourself being more of an administrator than an artist? Or maybe a community builder?

RJ: I definitely do not do as much studio work, and for me, personally, it really means a lot to have that kind of time. But when I started this project, I got into an examination of my studio work, and my practice, and my career against this story that I was starting to make up about art, and its engagement with the environment. For the last two and a half years, I've been merging those two things into one thing.

There's a lot of creativity in shaping these projects, even though I'm not always the one that does it. I try to engage as many artists as I can to actually be the ones with the creative voice. I create the relationships with the corporate partners that make that possible. There's a lot of creative work that goes into negotiating and stage setting to actually get to the point of having an artist go in and make the specific object, whatever it is. And that's very engaging to me, that whole process.

JL: Have people from other parts of the world talked to you about trying to replicate what you're doing?

RJ: I hope that there will be. I see unlimited potential for the core values and activities, the ideology behind Austin Green Art. For a while, I went back and forth a lot about how we would need to change that core in order to start doing projects in other cities, whether it be Pittsburgh Green Art, or Seattle Green Art. I'm hoping that what happens here in Austin is going to be a significant enough green movement as a community, that when people hear Austin Green Art, it makes sense to them that it could only come from Austin. With that sort of beacon or that model, as ambassadors of green through the art world, it will be appropriate for us to start doing projects in other places.

JL: The Bootstrap Network here has been innovative and successful, but it hasn't replicated. Other people in other cities try to create a Bootstrap organization, and it becomes just a networking organization. The question of how to replicate the things that happen that are really suited to the context - it's never clear whether you can really transfer that elsewhere.

RJ: It's definitely a unique atmosphere that the whole project was shaped to address. Everybody that hears about Austin Green Art responds "That's perfect for Austin," or "That's so Austin." And it is. It brings out that creative and environmental bent that is really pervasive throughout the community, and enables a new communal enterprise.

But there's potential elsewhere. I went to the Bioneers Conference in the Bay Area last year as sort of a retreat, to soak up energy from other people and see what's going on in other communities. I felt like I was home. Those people are really special. The numbers of groups, and the policies that they're shaping in Oakland and the Bay Area is staggering. We've started to work with a group there called Forest Ethics. They do forest preservation work. We're starting to collaborate on some projects with them. Portland is also a place we could go.

Our goal isn't to go and ram things down people's throat, but we've created a template for putting a group of people together to do a project. Our goal now is to seed that model, bind the people at the local level, put them together, and be the moderator for the project. We're starting with the environmental groups in those cities, getting people's attention and starting to have a discussion about the possibilities.

We were in DC for four years, so I know a lot of people in the arts community there, and all the big environmental groups have their national presence there, so that would be fun place to do a project. We're shaping a project in Pittsburgh, too. I met with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council that works with the Friends of the River Trails. They've just finished a Rails to Trails project that connects Pittsburgh to DC. You can ride your bike 180 miles down along the Youghiogheny River through the mountains, near Falling Water, and then you hit the end of the C&O Canal, which went all the way to Cumberland, Maryland. They tried to dig a canal to Pittsburgh, and when the steam engine was invented, they just abandoned it. So now you hit the canal in Cumberland, Maryland, and you can ride the rest of the way to DC.

So we're starting to shape a project for close to Pittsburgh where there would be sculptures along the trail in the summer, a layer of programming to encourage more people to get out on the trail, not just exercise folks or folks that like to get out in the woods.

JL: Who would actually create the sculptures?

RJ: We'll work with local arts organizations. We always try to have a mix of people from outside the community and local artists, because it creates a buzz in the locale when people come in from the outside, and you have an exchange of ideas. Maybe we'll get an exchange thing going with Pittsburgh, so that some of the artists we've worked with here can do a project there, and vice versa.

JL: How do you define art?

RJ: That's a great question. My own interpretation of art is very open-ended. It's a challenge for me in the work we do, where we're reaching out to corporate and environmental groups, that most people have a very limited idea of art – as a painting or a sculpture. Conceptual art started in the 70s, and if you're part of the art world, you're familiar with a whole line of art work since then that was very ethereal, didn't have to have any sort of object at all, but a construct of some kind that had something to it. For me the question is, what is that something?

JL: Several months ago, I saw the Radical NY exhibit at the Austin Museum of Art, and what struck me about the New York art scene in the 70s was the strong community that formed and the sense of freedom. They could do anything with it.

RJ: We've been looking at the notion of play, a game, which I think is parallel to what a concept could be as art. It shifts normal reality enough to make it odd, in a way that is somehow informative. It causes you to think about things in a different way.

JL: This gets away from the myth of the solitary, tortured artist, and into the idea of a social art where anybody can play.

RJ: Absolutely. We have the environmental side that we project to the community as a new thing, and internally, within the art world, we're consciously trying to create a new economic model for artists that's service-oriented instead of object oriented. We're trying to change artists' mind-sets about themselves, so that when we want to engage them to do a project with us, it's like an internship for them, where they come in, and they have their own set ideas about what their career is and what an art object is. I want them to revisit all that by meeting with developers and corporate folks, and environmental groups, who have a need. They have a campaign they're working on , they have an environmental policy that they're trying – not necessarily to promote from a marketing standpoint, but they really believe in it – and they want to make it work. And we're bringing the artist in to say, here's how you can take this idea and turn it into a project, whether it's a physical object or some sort of game, that augments it, that pushes it to another level.

JL: That's kind of interesting, because you have a typical set of corporate executive types, who often try to take charge of economic development in a specific area. And one of the things I've wanted to see in Austin is bringing everybody on board, involving the community, and having artists especially get involved in economic development, or business development, or corporate development. This makes absolute sense - but nobody was going there. It sounds like you're going there now.

RJ: We're trying. I just follow the threads that get thrown my way. Every time I meet somebody new, and tell them about what we're trying to do, I try to leave the meeting with the names of three or four people that they think would be interested in hearing about what we're doing. So from an administrative standpoint, we have, like, 40 projects that are on a scale from as tenuous as they could possibly be to "okay, we've been having a number of meetings, and we're starting to get a handle on how this could work." I never know which one of those projects will actually become anything. But that's the way that we push things forward.

JL: I think that's the case with most people, that they don't really know what's going to be the result of anything that they do. (Laughs.)

RJ: We're doing a project that is a good example of "whether this is art or not." It's June 30, tied to July 4. The theme is "Green is the New Red, White, and Blue." I've been thinking about the connection between this community-building enterprise, and democracy as an idea, for quite a while. Recently it's occurred to me that there are some challenges at a language level with the way that we engage each other. So we're going to play a game at this event called "The Pursuit of Green Happiness," where we invite people online to submit tough questions that they think should be addressed, relating to community and sustainability and green policy and global warming problems. We're going to put 'em all in a hat, and for five hours we'll invite anybody to come and sit at the round table with these questions, and wear a powdered wig and a psychedelic shirt, and try to have a different kind of conversation.

This addresses what I feel is a real problem with the way that we communicate - whether it's hyper-politicized, or 24/7 marketing mode. I find that, as I cruise around doing my thing, and listening and looking at the way we're talking to each other, that we're on message all the time, from whatever our affiliations are. It's creating a problem with our ability to listen to each other and to have a genuine conversation without trying to ram our agenda down people's throats all the time.

This summer is the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. I've been thinking about that and wondering what that platform of ideas was, and what was that revolutionary agenda? When you compare it to the current green progressive agenda, you realized that we're struggling with a lot of very similar circumstances with the war and the environment and social justice problems. But then when you look at the informality and the fun of that period, and the way people dressed, and their openness to strangers - the whole idea of calling it the summer of love -- you recognize how jaded we've become, and how guarded, and skeptical.

JL: Did we fail back then? I'm not sure we had clear enough goals to be able to say whether we failed.

RJ: I agree with that. But there's some value in the lack of clear goals, where your ability to respond to the opportunities that come up is concerned, as opposed to having tunnel vision about a policy, or an organization or a candidate. With this game I mentioned, we're playing with the idea that the way that we're talking and the way that we're dealing with each other is leading us down a path that is bound to fail, because right from the beginning, the way that we're talking and addressing each other isn't robust enough for the kinds of change, the kinds of complex solutions that we need to be generating.

JL: That's an ego thing. We dismiss people that we don't agree with; we're looking for the primacy of our own perspectives and our own egoes. It used to be that people would listen to each other and come to some kind of conciliation or synthesis of views. That's been lost, and, as you said, hyperpoliticized.

RJ: I don't think of myself as a political person. It's not so much the party system, but our identity as a country, with our own internal structure that defines who we are. I think that it's very rigid, in a lot of ways. We need to find the humor and the compassion there. I'm an atheist, but I think there's a certain spirituality about existence. We don't always recognize the sacredness of each person's life – and not just people, but we think of trees as resources and materials that can be moved around, and not as organisms that are here to be a tree, the same way we're here to be a person.

Real Estate Head Shots!

2007-07-10T23:13:00.001-07:00

Muchas Gracias to Scott Kentros for the fabulous photography work!

More Free Stuff- Thank you City of Austin!

2007-07-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

Free paint available from recycling program

   Get paint from the City of Austin's recycled paint program for use on
interior or exterior projects.  The paint, either off-white or beige, comes
in five-gallon containers sealed by the City's paint recycling vendor. The
paint is available for pick up from 1 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays at
the Household Hazardous Waste Facility, 2514 Business Center Drive. The
facility is near the Todd Lane-Texas 71 intersection and is across from the
City of Austin's Service Center No. 12.

   Map and directions:  <http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws/hhwmap.htm>
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws/hhwmap.htm

Free things from the City

2007-07-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

Austin is so Green- its GIVING away things to folks, just so it can encourage others to be green too.

Here are some of the coolest give-aways:

Programable Thermostats-free and installed for free. You call a number, they come out. You don't even have to wait on hold for 10 hours like Time Warner forces you to do. You can call them now: 1-877-549-2774

Mulch- Crushed Glass mulch. If you haven't seen this stuff yet in cutting edge landscaping, you're about to be surprised. This completely recycled glass from the city can be used around plants and trees. No sharp edges on this glass, and it looks great in xeriscapes. Don't use it for walkways because it doesn't compress, and you'll sink in every time. You've got to get it into your own vehicle to take it for Free. Call City of Austin Landfill: 512-243-3325

Toilets- Word is that when you order some of the high efficiency toilets from the city and get a rebate, some of them are actually FREE. Dude, free toilet? And its not even used. SCORE!
You can replace up to three toilets per house, but they should be pre-1996 toilets. You can use the old ones in your yard as planters. Check out the details at
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/watercon/sftoilet.htm

Slow Home Movement

2007-06-28T15:38:00.001-07:00

This just in from Worldchanging.com .

A whole new (old) way of looking at homes.

The Slow Home Movement

Sarah Rich
June 25, 2007 4:03 PM

the legendary story of the founding of the Slow Food Movement, Carlo Petrini planted his feet at the Spanish Steps in Rome and declared that he would not stand for the introduction of McDonald's into the historic area. Fast food would not squelch the rich traditions of Italian culture. And indeed it did not. Petrini not only succeeded in elevating resistance against that McDonalds, but against fast food the world over, by providing appetizing alternatives through the Slow Food Movement.

In the years since, slow has become something of a meme in its own right, applied to numerous other fields and issues as an understood strategy of peaceful but active resistance to harmful trends and changes. Whether it's in food, medicine, or urban planning, slowing down is a decidedly noble form of 21st century activism.

The newest slow kid on the block is the Slow Home Movement, a web-based design community and resource library dedicated to taking residential architecture back from the grip of the "cookie cutter houses and instant neighborhoods" churned out by community-blind development corporations, to revive the presence of good design and empower individuals to create homes that will support and fulfill them for a long time. It's a sustainable approach in that -- like with all products -- a commodity that is longlasting both in terms of material quality and evolving personal taste can prevent waste and produce trusting relationships between people and their environment.

In introducing the new community, founder/editor John Brown, an architect, real estate broker and Professor of Architecture at the University of Calgary, says:

I know that there are pockets of resistance to this industrialized ready made approach to housing. There are architects, landscape architects and designers around the world who are creating beautiful projects that sensitively respond to their location, respect their materiality and seamlessly support the daily life of their inhabitants. There are also product designers, craftspeople and manufacturers who care about the things they make and create functional objects of beauty and grace. Most importantly, there are many people who aren’t design professionals who have rejected the system and discovered new ways to create their own great places to live. Unfortunately, these projects, products and people usually exist in isolation and fail to register as viable alternatives to the conventional residential production industry.

Fast food and fast housing are shaped by one of modernism’s core philosophies - the promise to make life better by making it easier. This powerful promise continues to capture the imagination of the majority of people, despite the mounting evidence of just how much harm it has wrought...Most of the development created by the fast housing industry has resulted in environmentally unsustainable, culturally homogenous neighborhoods of single family detached houses and strip retail malls.

Naturally, Brown makes the increasingly known correlation between suburban living and obesity, indicating that fast food and fast housing not only have comparable results within their respective industries, but literally the same result: a declining state of health across a huge swathe of the North American population.

But the site isn't a platform for raging against the machine; far from it. It's a positive, constructive and informative collection of resources meant to cohere disparate allies and establish a network for those wishing to see a change in the way we build and live in our homes. Registration is free (but required in order to access some areas of the site), and Brown maintains a blog with a videocast/webTV series that includes a number of interesting interviews. You can also view profiles of the projects, products and people currently involved.

Brown boils the movement down to 10 principles, which lay out the approach and set a staging ground for the first steps toward action. With the involvement of the community and the growth of the network, though, it's inevitable that the movement will be shaped and defined further over time, and Brown's first call for slow homes might be canonized like Patrini's -- a nucleus in the center of a massive network of engaged advocates.

Sarah Rich

Austin Cool Home Tours

2007-06-20T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Texas Solar Energy Society is hosting a Cool House Tour!

Walk through homes who have 'been there/ done that'. 8 homes to see. Owners, builders, and architects available to answer questions. A friend of Matt & Christa's has a home on the tour, and I will be going along with a bunch of others.

Here is the info:
http://txses.org/coolhouse07/brochure.html

Tickets w/ a program are $10. If you want to share a program, you can just go to the first house and buy a ticket for less money. Tickets also avail at Central Market.

Who wants to carpool? Just drop me an email.
patty@AustinGreenRealtors.com

The Commuter Rail is Coming!

2007-05-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

So, one of my favorite North Austin neighborhoods is in for a facelift. Not only is the city doing layover zoning nearby (vertical, mixed use, pedestian focus), but the light commuter rail station is coming to Braker & Burnet area by Fall 2008! In fact, Cap Metro said that the whole thing should be operational by then!!

If you don't know where my favorite neighborhood is- take out your map- Look North Of 183 and South of Braker, Between Burnet and Lamar. That's the spot.

Books that Changed My Brain

2007-05-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

Books that changed my brain-

Omnivores Dilemna by Michael Pollan- to be eaten in small chunks and slowly digested. I forgot to return it to the library in time, so I got to buy it from them (woops!). Its a keeper. 'We are all walking corn chips.' FIVE STARS.

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew- a whole new way to think about gardening. Great step by step guide to the easiest, most successful and most efficient garden I've ever had. Thanks Mel for changing my brain!! FIVE STARS

WORLDCHANGING by lots of people around the world. spelled as one word if you're looking for it. Also a website worldchanging.org Compilation of ideas from around the world that will be changing my life, your life, everyones lives. Covers shelter, community, cities, politicis, business from sustainable green practices and also transparency. Eat slowly, there's a lot to digest. FIVE STARS.