slowly going green @ home

In the last couple of years the wife and I are slowly getting our 'green' on at home. We started, years ago with a commitment to the city and our existing housing stock in a neighborhood with a short commute/walk for many amenities; we're in Tower Grove South. Getting our kids through school (almost) slowed us down in many ways but we're starting to catch up.

There is no shortage of deciduous trees shading the south face of our home - this helps keep us a wee bit cooler in summer and let's in the sun in the winter. Putting full blinds on the south facing windows has helped with comfort in summer as well.

We started at the top with a white roof and we replaced the wood work with composite/recycled material that will never need painting. We finally got caught up with our tuckpointing as well.

We don't have a whole lot of grass and we're not big waterers anyway, but a newly installed rain barrel should help minimize our use of potable water for this purpose.

As we did bits of work on the interior we replaced plumbing fixtures with low flow toilets, faucets and shower heads.

Finally, we have recently installed a 95% efficient 2 stage HVAC system with a programmable thermostat. (Wish we did this a long time ago)

Next big tasks: window replacement, duct sealing, insulation improvements