A Green Choice in Paint

Paint has been around for a long time. But when it comes to environmentally friendly paint, what choices do you have?

One company has come out with what they call a “premium quality, eco friendly latex paint.” This paint is made from suplus paint that’s collected at hazardous materials collection points. That means it’s not putting any more resources to create new paint, while keeping existing paint from being thrown out. At about $12 per gallon, it’s also not very expensive. They do have a limited range of colors, 12 to be exact. Visit them at: http://www.amazonpaint.com

Green Home Guide

Everybody is talking green, and by green, I don’t mean money. Green is in. It’s the latest thing.

The government has gotten into the act by forming ENERGY STAR, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy.  This program rates different appliances, office equipment, home electronics and more (there are over 50 categories total) to identify the most efficient of them all.  If an item has rated an ENERGY STAR, you can be assured that it has met strict guidelines for energy efficiency. 

For example, an ENERGY STAR dishwater are at least 25% more efficient that contemporary conventional models.  In addition, an ENERGY STAR clothes washer cuts watery and energy consumption by over 40% as well. 

I found these statistics in the RE/MAX-published Green Home Guide which also has useful tips on how to make your home more green, and best of all, it’s free for the asking.  The guide is clear, concise, and full of practical advice that anyone can follow.

This guide includes:

• What is a Green Home?
• 5 Essential Things to Keep in Mind
• Green Return On Investment
• And more….

Just send me an e-mail and I’ll send you a pdf.

A Short Commute

The Star Tribune just published an article on having a shorter commute. Here’s a link. I’m in agreement on living in the city. I currently live in a great neighborhood of South Minneapolis with great neighbors, a wonderful character-filled house, and lots of closeby amenities. We can walk to two different parks within 3 blocks, Minnehaha Creek and trails are just 2 blocks away, Kowalski’s is just 4 blocks, Turtle Bread and Pepitos are just 6 blocks away, and downtown is just a short 10 minute bus ride.

Even the Bloomington Strip and MOA are under 10 minutes away, as well as the airport. We have many elements of Traditional Neighborhood Design built right into our traditional Minneapolis neighborhood, like sidewalks, and lakes, and parks, and local grocery stores.

If you are considering a home, why not check out Minneapolis? Here is information about some of the character you can find in these old houses, and here you can find houses listed for sale in various areas of Minneapolis, among other areas.

Miles Per Gallon

How can you decide on which vehicle is best for you? Is Miles Per Gallon a good way to compare vehicles?

Maybe. Looking at Miles Per Gallon will give you an indication of how efficient a vehicle is. There is one downside, however. When you compare a car that gets 35MPG vs one that gets 48MPG there seems to be a lot of difference. But if you take the number of gallons used in a typical year at each of those ratings, you’ll see that the difference isn’t as much as the numbers indicate. Running at 35MPG at about 15,000 miles per year, you would burn through 428 gallons of fuel. At 38MPG, you would burn 394. That difference at $4 per gallon is $136 per year. Read more

10 Ways to Save Gas

With gas prices here in Minneapolis approaching $4.00 per gallon, we all are thinking of ways to save gas. Whether it is buying a hybrid car, or just driving less, saving gas is not only helping the planet, but also our pocketbooks. In real estate, we drive between many houses whether it is with buyers or whether we are just previewing the neighborhood houses. We all need ways to cut down on consumption.

Here is my top 10 list of ways to save gas:

10. Make sure your tires are not low on air pressure. Low pressure increases the rolling resistance of the tires, which in turn uses more gas.

Read more

Geothermal in Minneapolis

I visited six or seven houses in South Minneapolis during the 2008 Minneapolis/Saint Paul Home Tour-which has come and gone. The most interesting was the house that was remodeled—and the owners put in a geothermal heating and cooling system.

What are geothermal heating and cooling? I’m glad you asked. These days, people are more concerned about the environment. The typical forced-air heating/cooling system uses a lot of fuel as well as electricity in order to run. Logically, the more heat you use in the winter, the more fuel you need to burn.

  Read more

Water, water everywhere

Did you know that the average American person uses about 90 gallons of water per day?! For a family of four, that amounts to more than 125,000 gallons per year!! Water is a precious resource and we should be conscious about how much we use. So, what can we do to help reduce our water consumption? Let’s take a look at where and how the water is used.

According to The Water Encyclopedia (1990) for a family of 4, the average family uses 29000 gallons per year for baths, 35000 for toilets, 12000 for laundry, 36000 for lawn, 3000 for cooking and drinking, 1400 for garbage disposers, 5800 for dishwashing, 3500 for washing cars. I think some of these numbers are high, but the survey was done in 1990. One newer survey shows usage at about 118,000 gallons per family of 4 per year. I read an overview of water usage/treatment/etc., in Minneapolis (found at this link, http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/water/ under “Water Facts”), and it states that in Minneapolis, 60-70 gallons per capita a day is being used. I took the high-end number, multiplied it by 365, then multiplied that number by four. I came up with 102,200, which is lower than the national average, but still quite high. How can we start conserving?

Read more

Pure Water

Our family decided that we wanted to have purified water to drink and cook with in our house. I am not saying that the water from the tap is bad; it’s just that we wanted certain things filtered out of the water that is put in by the water department.

The latest Minneapolis Water Works report is filled with fun facts. You can download it from the city of Minneapolis’s website. The quality of the water being produced is really high, but there are things in the water supply that I want removed before I drink it. Read more