The excitement grows!

With our event only days away, I am madly contacting the schools and the media to come to 149 Park Home Avenue. The schools seem interested as we hope to teach the community and our kids about building and living green.

From here on out, our journey will continue at: http://149-greenbydesign.blogspot.com/

Geothermal Community Event now booked!

We are excited to have an official date for our 'Geothermal Drilling Event' set for Friday, May 7, 2010 ( betwen 12:00-3:00 with neighbouring schools visiting @ 1:302/:00 pm). This event is sponsored by Yanch Geothermal and will include a 'once in a lifetime' chance to see a geo-drill at work digging anywhere from 350-500 feet down to enable us to use the earth's heat in the winter and the earth's coolness in the summer. We hope to have a great turn-out from the community, the schools, the neighbours and the press!

Official good-bye to the Old Park Home House

Nicole G had a great idea and today we collected friends and neighbours and had a blast painting the walls and saying our good-byes. It was an emotional day but I think maybe now we are ready for demo. We are still waiting for permit and expect it this week.

Home Hardware Spring Market

After a completely insane weekend, upon counsel from our amazing builder, Steve, we headed to St. Jacob to pick our plumbing fixtures and investigate any other materials we want to get from Merrett Home Hardware. The trip was very successful and aside from temporarily losing my 'house binder' fun was had by all!

Utilities are done!

Houston - we have blast off!! Six trucks later our gas has been disconnected, hydro cut off, water off and the house is ready to be demolished. We are waiting for permit and off we go!

We are a go with Yanch Geothermal!

After talking with Adam at Yanch Geothermal, we have confirmed that the new 149 Park Home will be powered by geothermal heating - clean, efficient and green!

The fence is up!

Our safety fence is up and we go to permit tomorrow so hopefully demo day will be April 26th!

We have moved - step 1!

After much anticipation, the move is over and we are settled. Quite a few unpacked boxes in the basment of our rental home but all in all - we can live like this for 6-8 months. Whew - we are beat!

Our green journey continues ...

After a visit to Lowe's we are investigating a cool counter-top made from called: Eco by Consentino : a revolutionary new line of eco-friendly kitchen countertop and surfacing material composed of 75% recycled material, including glass, mirrors, porcelain and stone scrap and is bound by an environmentally friendly resin which comes in part from corn oil.

I have secured someone to come and take the old hardwoods and the windows for reuse!! My cousin is interested in the old kitchen! Reduce and recycle!

Bye bye trees!

Our silver maple and scots pine are gone :( but as sad as we are - it opens up the backyard and makes the new home just that more real!

Let's make geo work!

Geo is something we REALLY want to do but we are struggling with vendors. We hope to hear from our lead vendor ASAP as this needs to be part of our building permit application.

Jamie from Orangeville takes our gazebo

Jamie and family worked all weekend to dismantle the lovely gazebo and take it to Orangeville for it's next life - maybe I will find my gold bracelet I lost 5 years ago!

We have our builder!

We are thrilled to have chosen Serenity Homes to build our new home! Check out Steven's website at http://www.serenity-homes.ca/

It was a tough decision, taking 6 to 3, then choosing 1 of 3. If anyone is looking for builders, drop me a line!

National Home Show

Yesterday's visit to the National Home Show yielded some great information. We learned that if we use ICF we can save money on materials and labour used in a traditional wall assembly (exterior insulation, framing, vapour and air barrier and exterior sheathing). Excited to get a quote to take our R value from R20 to R40!

We also learned that for less than $100 we can 'rough-in' a grey water recycling system to do down the road so we have put that into the project plan. We can take all of our shower and tub water and use it for the toilets in the new house saving 30-40% of our water bill while saving the environment!

Gazebo & shed saved from landfill!

Two great recycles: A friend of a friend has just confirmed that they will be coming to dismantle, transport and re-use our gazebo and a contact from Kijiji is taking our old shed!

Forestry Clearance!!

Yeah, we got Forestry Clearance to cut down the two trees in the backyard and replant four in their place. Now on to picking the builder, finalizing the plans, permit ....

This close to Forestry clearance ...

We are soooo close to getting forestry clearance to cut down and replace our 2 trees in the backyard. We have gone to tender for the build and will be deciding on our builder within the next week or so. AND we have a place to live as of April 1st! We are renting a bungalow south of Sheppard from a family @ Kyle's school - one major to-do off the list!