I'm ready to move into the new HGTV Green Home

HGTV has unveiled their 2009 Green Home Giveaway!! I caught a few minutes of the tour on HGTV as well as their site. There are so many awesome features and I am pretty impressed with the design. I was also happy to see that they did not go for the obvious wow factor by installing a pool. While pools always make homes dazzle and are a guilty pleasure of mine, they are not the most eco-friendly aspect of home ownership. They require constant maintenance, and that time could be better spent on a garden or going to the beach. So the backyard rocks a bocci ball court instead, which I would have subsituted for some hammocks or maybe even a water garden with some fish and turtles. That's just me, it just seems to be lacking something in the backyard area. The side garden however is awesome, and comes with a composter. The back patio is amazing and once I win this house there will be plenty of parties thrown on it.

What is the best green feature of the home? For me, it is the framing. I know that is boring, but using Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) for the exterior framing is going to keep that hot Florida sun out, and keep the home cool. The ICF framing is also super solid and can withstand our o-so-fun hurricane seasons. It's a win win. None of the components of the wall are green persu, but being green isn't all about recycled and organic materials. When it comes to building or remodeling, it's all about using products and systems that can last a very long time. It's that whole "re-using" concept. Example, you are racking your brain whether you should splurge for the organic carpeting or just buy the $2 tile at Lowes Buy the $2 tile and save yourself the $ for other green projects. Carpet life-span is short and it's not nearly as durable as tile and requires frequent replacement. Always choose materials for your home projects that have the longest life-span.


The HGTV Green Home is located in Traditions, which is a new community in Port St. Lucie Florida. I have been to the area before when I used to work for Pulte Homes. The HGTV builder choose the area because of the lack of green building going on in the relatively new community in order to inspire more green homes to be built. Most of the homes going up in Traditions are your standard production homes, which I will never buy. (que "Little Boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky..... little boxes all the same") I know that Pulte's DiVosta homes in the area are built to very high energy codes, but that is where the green really stops for most production builders, if they even bother building higher than the minimum code.

*If you are in the area, you can actually tour the house for a $15 donation to Big Brothers & Big Sisters of St. Lucie. (You would think that there would have been some kind of green charity tie in, but guess not.) I'm hoping to make it down there and get a picture hugging the walls or something.