Friday, September 23

60's House: Going Green

Luke and I have had to make many decisions about how 
we would go about renovating this 60's house.

It was a huge step in the first place just to take 
the plunge and buy it, and then getting it took 
another few months of negotiations. 


 Even the agent thought it was doomed.
See that tag line - " The sky is not falling, just this house".
I thought they were suppose to put good spin on it!

Many thought we were mad - many probably still do.
In fact I know they do, they tell me.

"Wow you've got your work cut out here luv."

"You're a sucker for punishment aren't you."

Most of the traddies who have been on the site say the same thing. 
"Knock it down. Rip it out."

But Luke and I would rather salvage and save than rip out and remove.
We not only want to keep the fabric of the house, we believe it is more environmentally aware to reuse than to knock down and use new materials.

It might be "easier" and "trendier" but it's not who we are or what we want for our lives.

So we have worked to keep much of the house and patch 
and repair the years of damage and neglect.

And all these decisions have been taxing but not as seemingly 
difficult as the decision to go green.

We wanted to make eco choices from the start.
But then push came to shove.

Luke, in all his wonderful world wide web wisdom, 
found this amazing group 
called "Local Power".

They are based out of a group of concerned eco-minded people 
from the Brisbane suburb of West End and in 2007 they formed a 
 buying conglomerate to make solar power more affordable.

They set up buying groups to bulk buy the solar panels and 
people sign up to be part of that particular purchasing group.
So far they are up to group # 7 - 
reducing the cost to households by an avaerage $1,750.00

  This is how many households in the Brisbane Metro area alone
have been involved and got their Solar Power through Local Power.

So we signed up. 

We are in.

And last night we paid the hefty deposit.
Which will be followed by an even heftier final payment.

And that was hard for me. To see all that money fly out
of our building fund account for no immediate gain.

I will not see a financial reward for about 10 years.
I won't have to pay large electricity bills - but it will take 10 years to pay itself off.
But that is not the only reward. My house will be much more sustainable.
It will produce more than half the energy required to run it.
It will rely 50% less on non-renewable energy.

It will contribute to a greener planet.

Perhaps a hard choice, a not popular choice, a costly choice,
but I have no doubt, it's the right choice.


You can read more about the Local Power Story here.

1 comment:

  1. Yay :) I was just talking to someone today who said that their church was thinking of putting a solar farm on the roof of the hall as a way of producing sustainable power but also generating income for the church. I think you made a great decision!

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