Blog
ID 1.2 – Integrated Project Planning
This is the first point available in the LEED for Homes Rating system. We already had to have our meeting, as a prerequisite. For one point, though, we need to have an Integrated Project Team. We've got that, I think. Wait: that team needs to actually have at...
ID 1.1 – Preliminary Rating – Prerequisite
This is the first prerequisite in the first category of the LEED for Homes rating system. The intent for Integrated Project Planning is: Maximize opportunities for integrated, cost-effective adoption of green design and construction strategies. This seems pretty...
LEED for Homes Rating System
Getting ready to start posting one blog for each of the "35 subcategories" of the LEED for Homes Rating System, I need to make a few clarifications of how I am going to go about doing this. First, within each subcategory, there are between one and five specific...
Solar Blip
As I have been patiently waiting for tenKsolar to get their UL listing so we can install our solar panels on our roof (the deadline is September 30th, 2010, or the Minnesota rebate expires), we have run into a bit of a blip. Yesterday I received an email from the...
Vegetable Garden!
Our vegetable garden is flourishing! I did review the books on how far to space plants apart when I planted our tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, kale, and marigolds all in the same planter, but I didn't totally trust the guidelines. This is part of the...
Painting
All of the walls in our home are white, except for the area above our shades, which is black. We have been wanting to bring a little color into our house, and paint is a fun and easy way to do it. The problem is, which paint do we choose? When we were building our...
LEED for Homes Categories
In my last entry, I committed to writing about each of the 35 sub-categories that I need to fill out in order to get points. Here is the framework. Everything revolves around the LEED Checklist. Within each of the eight sections of the checklist, you can gather a...
Getting Started with LEED for Homes
One of the hardest things about doing something like getting a home LEED Certified is getting started. Back in 2008, we registered the project with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), found a LEED for Homes Provider and a “Green Rater”, who would be...
Starting Our Vegetable Garden
Well, this has been a long time coming. My husband and I have always lived in apartments or condominiums, both before we met and since we got married. We have never had room for a vegetable garden, but to be honest, we never really wanted one. But as we embarked on...
Choosing Carpet for the Basement
Our basement floor is exposed concrete. We did this because I have experienced many basements that smell like mold and that make my eyes itch for days. Water has a tendency to find its way into basements, and if it gets under carpet, it does not dry out and can get...
Solar Site Analysis
Our electrician stopped by to do what is called a solar site shade analysis. He used a solar pathfinder, which tells you how much, if any, shade will impact your solar panels. It is pretty exact -- its panoramic site reflector provides a full year’s worth of solar...
We are going solar!
Yesterday we decided to take the plunge and told gave our electrical contractor/installer a deposit. We felt pressure to make a decision before the March 31st deadline, at which point the State of Minnesota's incentive drops from $2.25/watt to $2.00 per watt (which...
Photo credit: Paul Crosby