If only we thought of this sooner!!!!
OR, we should just dig some holes on the bottom of the ocean to drain it a bit.
OR, we should start looking forward to ocean front property. Think of all the neat new dive sites we will have.
I love people!
I love interior design and all those fun little house projects. Unfortunately I cannot afford to purchase the furniture I really want. I love Scandinavian design and it tends to be on the pricey side. I have a piece that my uncle gave to me that was given to him by my grandparents. It still looks modern and a new coat of paint made it look new and more cohesive in my "Costa Rica" room. I think that the price is worth it since it is a classic style that will last forever. Part of being green is choosing things that will last you a long time. So sometimes you hit a crossroads when choosing things like furniture. Yeah you could buy the less expensive item you found at IKEA*, but how long will that really last you? You could try to spend less money on accessories and save up for those big pieces that will last forever and hand down to your children. I'm not there yet though.
I'm at the no money for anything stage right now. So instead of purchasing any new pieces, I'm re-purposing and refurbishing the things I already have. I am making pieces I already have fit into my current design with paint. Yeah, nothing magical, just plain old paint. We had a lot of paint leftover from when we first bought the house. We painted every wall in the house. So now I'm using that to paint furniture, some art projects, etc. I am painting all the brown doors in my house white, as well as all my closet bi-folds. I added some inexpensive hardware, some I got for free from my old company when they re-did the model homes. So I was able to re-purpose handles that would have gone to the landfill. It was a really simple way to give my house a mini face lift.
*I don't want to bash IKEA by any means. They have some pretty choice options that you can infuse into your design. I did a major happy dance once we finally got one. It was more like some kind of seizure and high yelping. I got really sad when we made the journey over to Orlando to check it out, we were there for 2 and half hours and still didn't get to see everything. The place is ginormous. I will be even happier when they incorporate solar panels and more eco-friendly options into their product line. That is all coming very soon too!!!
There are several companies popping up around the country that basically lease out solar panels for your home use. I got really excited when I found one, then really sad when they only serviced California. Well there is a national one now, CitizenRenu. I just signed up, only drawback is that they have soooo many people signed up that it could take up to a year before they get to me. They have 32,000 people signed up for the program. Craziness. You put down a $500 deposit and then pay a monthly rental fee for the panels. You can power your whole house ( if you roof will allow) or a portion. My south facing roof is sorta small, so I'll probably only be able to get partial solar power. I'm sooo excited about this. For my Florida friends, if you have any of the following power companies, you are eligible for the program.
Florida Keys Electric Coop 0.1438
Florida Power & Light (FPL) 0.0958
FPUC - Farnandina Beach 0.0706
FPUC - Marianna 0.0778
Gulf Power 0.0957
JEA 0.0890
New Smyrna Beach Utilities Comm. 0.0710
Progress Energy Florida 0.0953
Tampa Electric Co. (TECO)
If you don't live in Florida, click here to see if your are in their service area.
Benefits:
No upfront investment, no need to become a financial expert to justify your investment.
No waiting for rebates.
No headaches with the city and the utility; let us handle the engineering, procurement, and construction.
There is a flat monthly rent and with their “Performance Guarantee” you can generate your own, renewable electricity and pay for the rent with your savings. Since your Agreement will show the amount of energy your system can generate, it is simple to calculate your savings.
Hassle-free operating and maintenance; it’s handled by the experts.
Actual hedge against future utility price increases: you can “lock in” your rates for the electricity generated from the solar system at your home for a period of up to twenty-five years, far longer than the guaranteed rates offered by other electricity providers.
If you want to get the solar panels, just click here. I will get a discount on my monthly lease for all the referrals. If you sign up and then refer someone, you will get the same discount. CitizenRenu will create a special link to their site to track your referrals. Wicked Awesome!
I have signed my contract and will be ready to rock when they are. Now I wonder why it is going to take up to a year to get my panels? Could this be because of the lack of qualified installers or is it due to the lack of personal on this company's end? I'm thinking maybe a mixture of the two. This should be a call to arms for all those interested in solar. There is obviously high demand for a program like this and installers. I know that the green boom is in full effect right now, and I can't wait for more "green" collar jobs to open up.
To keep myself motivated, this is my green plan of action for the next couple months.
1. install drip irrigation system ( depends on $). I have put in all drought resistant plants, but the sun is basically burning them alive, or I guess burning them dead. It is really sad, I spent a lot of time picking the right plants for the right area, hoping that I could get away without watering them. Not so much.
2. install rain barrel for organic garden
ok, so I don't really have an organic garden, more of what my husband lovingly calls my "garden of death". I just forget to water the stuff, so I think if I can set up some kind of drip irrigation to it, I might be able to pull it off. I have to grow things that aren't to finicky. I'm pretty good with basil, I need to keep the cilantro alive, and maybe some tomatoes. So I guess I'm just gonna grow herbs? I don't know.
I found a sweet rain barrel for like $60 at Northern Tool, which is a rad deal.
3. Get some kind of eco-friendly pest control going. It is summer in Florida, so that means it is a mosquito factory. Seriously we have them so bad that I can't even walk out the front door, they are going nuts out there. I don't get it. There is no standing water or anything. I look like I have small pox or something. It is just nasty
4. Recycle stuff that takes up space. This means recycling old electronics, by either craigslist, e-bay or just dropping it off at a recycle center. I also have some wall art that I might need to push on people. You know, just anyone walking by the house, I'm gonna start loading them up with stuff. "Hey crazy dog walker lady ( who lets her dog poo in my yard, that is just wrong) you know you have been dying to use the 2005 Nextel piece of crap cell phone I dropped in the toilet, twice. Please take it."
5. Save $ for a hybrid car. This will take a lot more than a couple months, who am I kidding.
6. Get my *LEED A.P certification. I have my LEED for Home field agent designation, but I think being an A.P is important. I can then be pompous and introduce myself to people as Erin Fox, LEED A.P, or not, I think not.
*Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. I can basically help people who are building homes get their place LEED certified, but if I became an AP (accredited professional) I can certify an existing building or commercial building be certified as well. There are a couple different tracks you can take, so I think I'm going to do the existing building track. I think fixing an existing structure is more green than creating a new one.
Good news on the conservation front. With over 200 species loosing habitat due to deforestation and massive development around the world daily, it is rare to hear stories of an endangered species making a comeback. Now this isn't a major comeback, and they are still endangered, but Congo gorillas are staking a claim on 18,000 acres. The Wildlife Conservation Society recently conducted a census of wild gorilla populations and found their numbers to be up since the last census in the 1980's. They were previously thought to be a population of around 50,000. But.... now they are up to 125,000!!! This is great news, considering just four years ago, a large population of gorillas were wiped out by the Ebola virus. Yikes.
A book that really sparked my mind to think a little bit more about our planet was centered around a gorilla who wanted to save the world. "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn is probably my favorite book. The precedence of the book was just so unique and it really made me take a second look at why we live the way we do. I read it in high school and I think it was a major influence on my perspective on our current state of affairs. The book starts with a gorilla posting an ad in the paper: "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world." It is about protecting the environment by opening our minds and changing how WE live in it. In the grand scheme of mother nature, all things seem to live in harmony with their eco-system. When a species dies or becomes invasive the entire eco-system is effected. The same goes for humans, we live in nature, but are not a part of it. We feel disconnected from it. There are so many examples of that sixth sense that animals have about weather or natural disasters that we do not share. I feel that this disconnect is also the reason so many people have that feeling that something in their lives is missing. We can never really identify what it is, so we just indulge in other pursuits to try to fill that void. I really feel that the void is this disconnect with nature. Now to get real deep on you, when I'm in a beautiful place, or underwater swimming with the fishes (where I feel most at home for some reason?) , I feel that sometimes I get a glimpse of how life should really be lived. In this co-existence. Daniel Quinn makes a good point in his books though. We are crazy to think that we can even control the world and the animals in it. Animals can evolve or even become extinct regardless of our impact. All we can do is try to live our lives without creating such destruction.
**Years later they made a movie that was loosely ( and I mean loosely) based on the book. You might remember it, It was called "Instinct" and it started Cuba Gooding Jr. and the lovable Anthony Hopkins. It came out in 1999. My favorite part of the whole movie was when the gorilla family finally accepted Anthony Hopkins' character into their group, by placing their baby in his lap for him to babysit. It was so sweet. ....
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