Going Green

I was out at dinner last night and the topic of our next home came up. When asked if I would consider an earth-sheltered style, I immediately said "no"!  How could anyone stand being underground, with little natural light, living like a troll??

Obviously, I didn't know much about the process because the advantages are many and natural light is very easily attained: "Earth-sheltered" homes are nestled into the earth, either totally or in part. The advantages of doing this are considerable. About six feet under the earth, you will find that the temperature varies by only a few degrees year round. While this temperature might be too cool for general living comfort, you can use the stability of the earth's temperature to moderate the thermal fluctuations of the house. This means that it will take much less energy to either heat or cool the house (www.dreamgreenhomes.com). 

Now, how cool is that? The DWP bill would go down! If I combined that with native, drought resistant landscape, my neighbors would be envious. At least, I think they would; but would the cutting-edge design of seeing my home half sunk into the ground set their teeth on edge "there goes the neighborhood"?  Perhaps I need to move to an area like Topanga, not Woodland Hills before I attempt it.

In the meantime, I will continue to investigate options to make my existing home greener; we already have renewable resource bamboo flooring, recycled glass tiles, energy-star appliances, compact fluorescent light bulbs, etc. I see it as a challenge - how many gallons of water would I save by installing dual-flush commodes or a rain-water harvesting system on my roof?

Green is cool!

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