My husband and I began renovating our old home in a green and economical manner to test the proposition that “green” and “affordable” were no longer mutually exclusive, thanks to advances in technology and the various tax incentive and rebate programs designed to encourage people to kick the fossil-fuel habit.
The 100-year-old-farmhouse has been transformed from a musty, abandoned shell into a model of cutting-edge environmental technology. Our heat and air-conditioning now come from the ground beneath our feet; there’s not a draft anywhere, given the tightness of our castor-oil-based spray-foam insulation; and our floors are made of boards rescued from old buildings before they were razed.
Here are a few green-renovation lessons I learned – some of them the hard way – so you won’t have to.
(READ the story in the CS Monitor)