Strivin To Be Green

Archive for the ‘MIDWEEK UPDATE’ Category

I’ve found a house that could be our first Strivin’ To Be Green project. It’s listed as having three bedrooms and 1 bathroom. The way the house sits on the property, the south facing front porch would be a good place to add a solar greenhouse for heat. Depending on City codes with the property line there might be enough room on the east side of the house for an additional solar greenhouse or at the very least solar heat panels.

Built in 1920, this abandoned house is in great disrepair. It needs a new furnace, a new hot water heater, and windows.. which is good because for this project we want to install efficient alternative

energy sources for heat as well as energy efficient windows. The listing also states that some of the walls need to be repaired… which is an opportunity to install insulation and any wiring that this project may need.

The house is listed for less than $10,000 and ALL OFFERS are being considered for the property. I am feeling a sense of urgency to raise enough funds to be able to make a reasonable bid on the house. So I am asking you our reader/follower to ChipIn $10 (or more) to our Home Purchase Fund. You can find a the ChipIn widget at http://www.StrivinToBeGreen.com on the left hand side of the page. There you will be able to see how much has been raised so far.

I want to thank everyone who has encouraged me with this project since I first began talking about it. I especially want to thank our Twitter followers who have joined and encouraged others to follow StrivinToBeGreen on Twitter. You are doing a tremendous job at helping others become aware of this project.

As this project develops, I will be adding interactive features to the web site allowing our supporters to give their input on the renovation project itself as well as input on which charities will benefit from this project. Plus I’ll be setting up the 24/7 live cams and begin filming the work on the house and editing into “webisodes” so you can watch our progress. But to get it all kicked off, we need a house to work on. And there is a very good candidate of a house waiting for the first buyer who makes an acceptable offer on it – let’s make it StrivinToBeGreen’s offer!

Our current Home Purchase Fund campaign runs through October 10th (10-10-10) to coincide with a project by 350.org. But because the seller is very motivated, I’m urging you to make a $10 contribution today so that I can begin making an offer of the house asap.

Once you’ve made your contribution please tell all your environmentally minded friends to do so as well. Email them the link to this post, tweet, retweet. Tell your friends on facebook. Tell your friends in person. We can do this, if we do it now and I thank you for all your interest and support in this project.

Also, get in contact with me if you are interested in helping out with this fundraiser by hosting your own fundraising event or if you have an environmental group that would be interested in helping me raise funds and getting a % of what’s raised to go toward your group let me know. For an example of what that might look like, click here. Together we can make this happen! Thank you!

For my applied journalism class, I’ve decided to create a video feature on the three R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle. I’d like this to become a periodic feature of the show Strivin’ To Be Green, but for now what I am creating is for learning and practice. Think of it as a pilot project.

I’d like to invite Strivin’ To Be Green community members to be a part of this project. Especially if you live in Michigan since that is where I am. I’ve already got someone in Ann Arbor scheduled for me to film/interview her recycling efforts and tentatively scheduled someone in Lansing to let me film/interview him with his reuse project of making his own bio-diesel fuel. I still need an example of what someone is doing to “reduce” their material/energy consumption. And if there is anyone who would like me to film their efforts in any or all of the three R’s please contact me.

If you live outside of Michigan and you’d like to share some video of what you are doing to reduce, recycle or reuse, feel free to contact me and we’ll figure out how you can send your videos to me to be included in the pilot project and help me get an A in my class!

Today I did a drive-by of a potential house for this project. The price is nice, under $10,000. However not much land on the south side of the house for a south facing sunroom which would be nice to have for heat and lifestyle. It did have a driveway, which is good. No garage, but that can be built. Every winter I am reminded of just how much I’d like to have a garage. It does come with a nice chunk of land, part of which is an old river bottom with lots of trees and not very usable for a garden.

SPONSOR NEWS
I’ve received word today from greenadvertizing.com that Strivin’ To Be Green is now officially accepted as a part of their network for our “Sustaining Sponsors” spot located on every page of the site. And I’m sure that since we are still just starting out, advertising is rock-bottom prices.

STATS: Today Strivin’ To Be Green has 41 FB fans and 60 followers. Chipins: 2 people totaling $14.22.

YOUR WIND POWER SUGGESTIONS:
Someone suggested to me that I create a list of all the possible ways to improve a home, make a list and then allow members to vote on which improvement to make next. I like that idea. So I need your help in creating that list, and I’ve decided to start by asking members to give suggestions for wind power electricity generation. Your suggestions can be commercial or home made. If they are commercial please include info about the company and a link to their web site if they have one.