Old Houses – Green Homes

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Green Home Tips:

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The greenest house is the house already built. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make your old house even more eco-friendly. Click through to see 10 tips to green your home while maintaining its historic integrity.

(from Preservation Magazine January/February 2008 issue)

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From this issue of Preservation Magazine:

A Cautionary Tale

Amid our green-building boom, why neglecting the old in favor of the new just might cost us dearly.

By wayne Curtis | From Preservation | January/February 2008

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“Green” rooftops for Beloit’s downtown?

Had a brief conversation with MoeC. He and BillD have been dreaming about expanding the “green” rootop concept to downtown buildings. You’re likely already familiar with the existing green rooftops around town at ABC Supply’s corporate offices, Beloit Memorial Hospital, and more recently at the Colleges Center for the Sciences building.

Evidently there are aspirations for installing one above bushel & peck’s. What a natural fit that would seem to be. Selecting organic produce right off the fine from the roof garden? Sounds kinda’ cool. There’s a lot of unused roof space up there. Catch Moe or Bill. I’m sure they’d love to tell you more about it.

Downtown Beloit Association – “Historic Preservation and Sustainable Development:”

Have you seen the the Downtown Beloit Association’s “News on the Street” publication? I’d missed it until just days ago. It’s very well done. Very interesting with great content! I was reading the Fall 2008 edition which is still available and what jumped out at me was:

Historic Preservation and Sustainable Development:  What does it mean for Main Street?

by Joe Lawniczak, design specialist for the Wisconsin Main Street Program.

It addresses

• The relative value of new construction -vs- Existing structure rehab in terms of what in fact is “Green”.
• What sustainable development is… and is not
• How historic building are inherently green.
• Preservation as Smart Growth
• Simple ways to make your business, neighborhood (Hey! That’s us!) and community more “green”.

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Wood Window Replacement

I’m simply reprinting below something I’d seen from Bob Yapp, an architectural restoration professional practicing here in the midwest. There’s an entire industry with it’s own marketing message intent on convincing homeowners that they need replacement windows. Since the advent of planned obsolescence it may be a more compelling argument. For many old house homeowners however you’ve options…
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This presentation is in three parts. The rest located here.

(An interesting little aside… I just found out the individual who recorded the above video is a Beloit College alum who has fond remembrances of our historic community and is now serving as the Historic Preservation Planner for the city of Geneva IL. If you’ve ever been there you know Geneva is a very nice upscale community with a very active preservation presence.)

Be sure to catch part 2. He touches on ROI relative to expected effective life of these windows as cited by manufacturers. Hmmmm.

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There’s a lot of talk these day about being environmentally “green”. So, what does it all mean and why should we care?

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