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!