[Greenbuilding] Smart house designs

[Bobbi Chukran]

>I tend to think that renovating existing
>construction is one of the most important
>frontiers in greenbuilding.  We can't afford to
>tear everything down and then rebuild it, so
>"extreme green renovation" will be increasingly
>important.
>

Hi Bob,

Same problem here (central TX near Austin) with the humidity.  Lately 
it's been especially problematic because of all the rain we've had.

I personally think architects and builders should be strongly urged 
to put overhangs and gutters on houses, and minimize the numbers of 
windows on new construction.  Just two miles from us another 
sub-division's going in, and I swear the overhangs on those houses 
are about 6" deep!  Insane.  And of course, they are two-story 
box-like structures with way too many windows.  Our current house has 
very deep gallery porches on the front and back (which I shall 
greatly miss).  The new downsizer house (built about 9 years ago) has 
almost no overhangs, one little porch on the front, so we'll have to 
add quite a bit to it in order to shade it.  Oh, and one nice tree. 
:--p

I agree that extreme green renovation is important, but we had to 
pass by almost all the houses we saw because it would have cost a 
fortune to "green them up".  As is, we've already found mold and 
water splashing problems with our new house (the one that wasn't 
supposed to be a fixer-upper) so we're looking at having to add a 
back covered porch and gutters.  Some of the local sub-divisions 
prohibit any kind of water storage tanks, including small 
rainbarrels.  That's a rule I'm going to willingly break once we get 
the gutters on.  LOL.

Sometimes it makes sense to do a green renovation; it made sense to 
us compared to the cost of a new septic and foundation. Time will 
tell whether it was a good choice or not.

bobbi c.