Horsedrawn heaven

On the lookout for an affordable holiday home in the mountains? Try Austria for a modern fairytale unfolding in a charming eco-aware village. The Lungau ski region in Austria is a rustic wonderland, a Snow White country of rushing rivers, fir-tree clad hills and mountains, sleepy villages and undiscovered hamlets.

Years ago, Jodi Venner traveled to the pretty Alpine village of St Martin. There she fell in love with the local ski instructor and carpenter Herbi Bliem. They married, had two children and are now building what will be Austria’s first energy self-sufficient eco-holiday resort, (more…)

If want to move to get off gird and don’t want a fixer upper then try Listed Green Homes. It is a real estate listing site that includes only green and sustainable homes. On top of that it is uses a solar powered internet hosting platform.

It just came to our notice as we are researching the next insulation article but thought it so wonderful we had to share. Of course looking through the listings was fun too. Though of course we’ll only admit to research not dreaming of living in them. So we encourage you to check them out.

Some wonderful ideas are shown for how to become more green and energy self-sufficient. Also knowing that if you need to move there is a place to sell and hopefully buy a new home that is inline with your wants is great to know. Since they vet all homes that wish to be included you can be assured that the home already has some green/energy resources in practice.

Another thing to consider is that if going off-grid buying a green/energy efficient home means only adding your chosen alternative energy to it. So if you are not the type to love fixing up an old home or have the time a patience to build your dream home then buying one already on its way can be a good choice.

The tax credit from the 2005 US Energy Policy Act will expire at the end of this year.

Homeowners have less then a month left to take advantage of tax credit that was to encourage efficiency in home energy use. Up to 10% of the cost of certain home improvement materials that were used in making your home more energy efficient, such as attic insulation, air sealing products or even Energy-Star qualified windows. Unfortunately, the tax credit of $500(max.) did not get extended by congress this term.

According to the survey done by Opinion Research Corp., done for Johns Manville (Denver-based manufacturer of building supplies) only 23% of homeowners used this in 2006. Also in the study it was found that only 32% of those homeowners questioned actually thought their home energy efficient.

How much of these findings are because of the general public not being informed and people really not caring? Since most people don’t turn down ways to save money that can make you money at the same time, hopefully a lot. If this information is not publicized enough how can the average homeowner take advantage of these programs?

Jersey shoreline - go for it

Can you own a second home and still retain your eco-credentials? Upon first consideration, it seems unlikely. The purchase of a prime patch of upstate woodland, or exurban meadow, or even Pacific paradise implies a privileged, carbon-burning lifestyle. Unless you’re thinking of travelling by pedalo.

This hasn’t stopped a swelling tide of developers marketing their developments or overseas resorts as eco-friendly (more…)

Batman star in his belfry

Nobody’s saying he uses his utility belt to winch himself up there, but he sure loves to get away. Val Kilmer’s love for nature, particularly trees, has deep roots. His second cousin Alfred Joyce Kilmer wrote the famous poem “Trees” in 1913.

Kilmer eventually will ‘build a new house here by the river, have some organic gardens to farm what I need and just get back to the land. In a way, this treehouse is my first step in that direction. Look at this tree. It’s so solid and yet so fragile that it moves with the wind,” he says, grasping one of the oaks. “There’s a sense of freedom and wonderment up here.” (more…)

Welwyn says “Get a rug”

Off-gridders bent on eking out the last of the warm temperatures and living outdoors as much as possible have propelled demand for decorative outdoor rugs. Diehard Astro buffs can still get their retro fix. The biggest seller is made of 100-per-cent Olephin. And it’s now available in a range of shades of green.

Consumers’ refined sensibilities and tastes are forcing designers to get more creative and make outdoor rugs with an edge, says landscape designer Welwyn Wong.

“People are starting to wake up to the idea of outdoor rooms, and rugs help define these outdoor spaces, much the way they do indoors,” says the landscape designer, who steers clients toward hardwood and bamboo products that have been woven together to lie flat and are edged with a fabric border to hide the hard edges.

THINK MOISTURE
It’s important to pay attention to the backing, says Wong. “Consider how much moisture buildup there will be underneath, whether it’s on a wood deck, patio stones, grass or some sort of porous surface. The more porous the surface, the more the rug will deteriorate.”

Ditto for the surface it’s covering.

If you’re into green as a movement rather than a colour, Emma Craig suggests Mad Mats (patioandyard.com). Made of recycled products such as pop bottles and milk cartons, the Mad Mat is proving ideal for sprucing up outdoor rooms, the pool area, apartment balconies and the ground next to camping trailers.

“They’re amazing,” says designer Craig. “We had one in the front of the store for three years and, in spite of all the traffic, it’s still in great condition.”

Mad Mats cost $46 for the popular four-by-six-foot size and $96 for a five-by-eight rug. The rugs are made to be flipped over, showing off a slightly different pattern.

Unlike indoor carpets, which retain dirt in their fibres, Mad Mats repel dirt, are washable and quick-drying. That quick-dry feature means no mildew-related rot to the rug or the wood deck it’s covering.

If you want a greener option, Wong suggests the original green mat: grass.

“When you’re creating your outdoor living room, consider leaving a patch of grass in the middle of the patio.”

Nature’s carpet provides a naturally soft feel underfoot or under hoof, depending on your particular house guest.

INS AND OUTS OF OUTDOOR RUGS:

The following will help you become a clued-in carpet consumer:

- Need no-skid outdoor rug (next to a pool, for example)? Look for a polymer backing.

- Avoid placing the rug in a sunlight-rich area, but if you can’t, look for rugs made of Olefin that’s UV-treated, and therefore more fade-resistant. “Outdoor fabrics are made to withstand a lot of the elements, so their dyes aren’t as unstable as the indoor fabrics,” says landscape designer Welwyn Wong. “What they mean is they’re not going to fade substantially. The darker colours are meant to get the solar exposure, so they’re more resistant to the sun.”

- Even outdoor rugs should be taken indoors for the winter.

- If it doesn’t say so on the tag, ask retailers if the rug you’re considering buying does indeed repel or resist stains, colour-fading, water and mould.

- Setting an indoor rug outdoors does not make it an outdoor rug.

Hammer: Lenin loved him

Russia and two former Soviet republics are host to four of the world’s top 10 most polluted places, according to a new report from the Blacksmith Institute, a New York-based nonprofit group.

Three of the four Soviet sites are around chemical factories formerly owned by Armand Hammer, the American billionaire who struck a deal with Lenin allowing him to exploit the Russian economy in return for channeling funds to Russian agents in the West, as well as into the Kremlin itself.

The history of the relationship between Hammer and the Russian State symbolises the corruption and nepotism in Russia’s current power elite, a pattern for the whole of the 20th century and into the 21st. There seems little any of us can do to persuade Russia to clean up its polluted areas. (more…)

Who do they think they’re kidding?

Its a long, long way from the five eco-towns Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised the people when he assumed office, but the site of Britain’s first carbon-neutral “village” has been selected by the Government.

English Partnerships, the land quango, has drawn up a shortlist of five housebuilders to bid for the site, a former hospital on the outskirts of Bristol, where the Government wants a new generation of energy-efficient housing. As this aerial view shows, its unfortunately close to a fast road, which will at least keep the prices down.

The aim is to build 150 super-energy-efficient houses about six years ahead of the Government’s deadline for ensuring that all new housing is carbon-neutral, reports The Times. But the majority of the “houses” are in fact flats, and they are to be built by sub-dividing the Grade 2 listed hospital, so its hardly likely to be a showcase for the cutting edge of energy-efficient building techniques. On the other hand, its better than knocking the place down.

But calling it a “village” is stretching things a bit. As the aerial view shows, its a pleasant piece of land bounded on three sides by streets full of semi-detached houses, and on the fourth side by the road. Presumably the new eco-residents will not be commuters driving into Bristol every day,once they arrive in a two years time? (more…)

Buy it now

The Off-Grid web site is serialising Nick Rosen’s book, How to Live Off-grid: Journeys Outside the System In this excerpt Nick visits an off-grid community in Devon which is fighting a planning permission battle - on behalf of all of us - for the right to buy some land and build off-grid, low-impact houses. The public enquiry has just finished and the residents of the Benders are awaiting the fateful decision later this year. Now read on.

Land Matters: a question of permission

I contacted the Land Matters commune in Allaleigh, Devon, via an activist group that helps off-gridders and others win planning permission for their living spaces. I spoke to Charlotte, one of the main organisers, (more…)