Green Paige

My new mantra is:

When life throws lemons at you, make lemon drop martinis.

Actually, my mantra should be:

When life floods your kitchen, livingroom and basement with several gallons of hot water destroying your floors, walls and cupboards, remodel green.

 

Yes, last week we awoke at 6:00am to find our walls and windows dripping with steam.  When we rushed into our kitchen, we found it transformed into a hot tub complete with a floating bamboo fruit bowl.  After the initial shock, we decided to make a bad situation a good opportunity for a eco-friendly remodel.  Here is our plan for creating a healthy, environmentally-friendly kitchen on a limited budget:

• Salvage and Reuse - Save money and keep items that have plenty of use out of the local landfill by salvaging.  We updated our kitchen last summer with a new sink, faucet, countertops, cupboard hardware, stove and Energy Star  refrigerator.  Our goal is to reuse as many of these items as we can. 
• Recycle - Before making plans to remodel, devise a plan for disposing of the materials that cannot be salvaged for your own project. Locate an architectural salvage and deconstruction company that will gently remove items that have the potential of being used again somewhere else.  You can also donate items to organizations like Habitat for Humanity.  We checked with both our city and county government web pages and found several listings for local recycling outlets.  
• Consider Your Health - In an eco remodel, your top priority should be your health.  We found that we had asbestos in both our floors and walls.  In order to make this project and our home safe and healthy, we have called in a professional asbestos abatement team to remove the items and dispose of them properly.
• Upgrade - Replace damaged items with good quality, energy-efficient appliances.  Since our faulty faucet caused the flood, we will replace our faucet with a better quality model that will help us save water.  We are also installing a Water Cop automatic water shut-off system to help prevent future water damage.  Most insurance companies will offer a discount for early-warning systems like this as well as energy-efficient appliances like our tankless water heater by Rinnai.  In our case, it worked so well it flooded our house with hot water.
• Plan For The Future - Look at the big picture when you are planning your new kitchen.  Our old, 1970’s kitchen was cozy but it wasn’t very energy-efficient and it certainly didn’t meet the needs of our growing family.  I found it difficult to cook in, dark and lacking in storage.  In planning our new kitchen, we are taking all these things into consideration as well as thinking about the future of our family and this space.  
• Do Your Research - A good eco kitchen should be able to accomodate the ever-changing needs of a family.  Some resources to help you with your own remodeling plans are: “Good Green Kitchens” and “Good Green Homes” by Jennifer Roberts.  Both books are packed with great information from asbestos hazards to remodeling a 1970’s house to keeping on budget.  One of my favorite books is Sarah Susanka’s “The Not So Big House.”  She says, “The kitchen is the heart of the house, and the Not So Big House should have a big heart.  If we acknowledge that the kitchen is where we want to be, then we should make the kitchen accessible and open to all the living areas of the house.”  I love this quote and I love this idea.  I have also found Natural Home and Garden and Mother Earth News magazines to have some fantastic articles comparing Earth-friendly flooring materials and cabinet options.

If you have ideas or resources you can recommend to us as we work through this remodeling project, please comment.  We welcome all ideas.  Here’s to making lemon drop martinis from lemons and a great green space from an inefficient 1970’s kitchen.