Homestead General

So I have lots to post from my weeked jaunt to my hometown of Fairhope, Alabama. Sometimes it takes a bit of time away from a place to make you realize how beautiful and special it is. Fairhope is literally awash in blooms. The city has its own nursery and greenhouses and it plants gorgeous flowers on every street corner downtown. There are even flowers planted on the top of trash cans--no lie! In addition to the physical beauty of the town, I am happy to say that they are catching on to the green building movement (post to follow on my tour of the Fairhope Green Home) and to the localvore movement. They host a farmers market downtown every Thursday and several restaurants are serving locally raised grass-fed beef. It all makes me very happy...and very proud of the town I called home as a kid.

But one of the most exciting discoveries of the trip was a new store on Fairhope Ave. called Homestead General. My parents and I drove past it Saturday evening and I fell in love as soon as I saw the window diplay--a large set of wire baskets with weathered picture frames on top. Ahh, industrial rustic. Love it. So with less than 30 minutes until I had to leave for the airport on Sunday afternoon, my mom indulged me and we dashed downtown for a quick look. The window display was only a teaser. The entire store was filled with gems--rustic tables and vintage signs, metal wire baskets and tubs, organic canvas bedding, iron beds, rustic/modern furniture. It actually had a vibe similar to the White Flower Farmhouse. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I spent more money per minute than I ever have in my life (although the pieces were very reasonably priced). Below are some shots of my purchases. This woman blogged about her trip to Homestead General and took some great interior shots of the shop. (I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera!)






The last one has an interesting story. A woman in the area collected wood scraps after Hurricane Katrina and turned them into unique decoration pieces. I think I'm going to hang this in the master bathroom to hold wet towels.

South Farm Homes tour

So as promised, here are some shots of the South Farm Homes development we toured last weekend. They really are beautiful (and smart!) homes. Which color scheme is your favorite? I'm partial to the red one myself...





We were able to see the inside of this last house. With its abundance of locally sourced woods (floors, trim, and cabinets), slate tile, and wood stove, it has a very cozy, warm feel to it. The house has already been purchased but the owner doesn't move in until later this year. So cool that she let folks tour her home! Apparently she even offered it up to a series of journalists (from magazines including Martha Stewart and O) who were interested in experiencing green living. So look for features of this house in upcoming issues!

Clearing up confusion...

So I wanted to clear up some confusion that arose from a newspaper article this weekend. The Free Press published a piece on Sunday about the South Farm Homes development. We happened to be at the open house at the same time as the reporter and enjoyed talking with him. But he misunderstood a comment I made and misquoted me in the paper. I addressed this in the comments section of my last post so I'll just paste that comment here:

A reporter from the Burlington Free Press was on site when we toured the South Farm Homes development this weekend. We had a lovely conversation with him but he, unfortunately, misquoted me in an article he wrote in this Sunday's paper (to which, I assume, Ellis Wyatt--a commenter--is referring). In talking with the reporter, I explained that Ryan and I are trying to prove that you can build green on a budget--we are estimating that construction costs for our house will total $200,000-$225,000 (excluding land). I was NOT referring to the South Farm Homes development as being affordable. While the houses are beautiful and incredibly green, they are not in our price range. The houses have both solar hot water and PVs...and geothermal. Those renewables alone put them in another price bracket. So please know that I was misquoted in the article--I do not consider South Farm Homes to be an affordable green development...although I respect anyone building green, regardless of price point. Homes across the cost spectrum need to be built green. The purpose behing OUR project is to illustrate that it is possible to build green on a budget. So I hope that addresses your concerns, Ellis. I want to clear up any confusion about the BFP article. Thanks.

I'll be posting pictures soon of the open house--the development really is beautiful and while not in our price range, a great example of green building.

South Farm Homes in Hinesburg, VT

I am really excited to check out this new green development in the neighboring town of Hinesburg, Vermont. The houses are beautifully designed and will be part of a fantastic green community. The developer's website explains that 14 acres of the land were set aside for agricultural use (including a community garden) while the remaining contains a small cluster of active/passive solar homes. The development is within walking distance of the bustling metropolis of Hinesburg--i.e. the local school and grocery stores. Residents also have access to public hiking trails on the neighbor's family farm.



Some more green features of the project include:

Conservation of prime agricultural land
Cluster homes to minimize land impact
Location within three miles of school and grocery store
Homes built into hillside and with southern orientation
Passive and active solar
Geothermal heating
High performance windows
Cellulose insulation
Composite siding
Certified wood

Here is a great Seven Days article about the development and other green projects in the area. Ryan and I are headed to the South Farm Homes open house tomorrow from 12-4pm. I hope to take pictures to post...

School Outfitters

This Apartment Therapy post on using a science lab table as a kitchen island got me interested in School Outfitters. Look at the great industrial-looking items you can nab on their website!


Stainless steel tub cart: $209.99


Diesel Series Industrial Stool: $86.99


Heavy-Duty Ventilated Lockers: $254.99 (assembled)


Transport Series Mobile Cabinet: $234.99


Lab Table: $349.99

Green paint

Well, not green as in color...as in not stinky, not bad for the planet, and not bad for humans. We're going to exclusively use AFM Safecoat in our house. It seems to have the best reputation among the "green" paints and Planet Hardwood, less than 2 miles from our building site, is a distributor. Works out well.

AFM Safecoat is not low-VOC...it is Zero VOC. Check out this review of it from inhabitat. Peter from Green Home Guide says, "In the current world of paints, Safecoat stands above most others." Here's another review of several green paints where Safecoat comes out on top.

Building green in Fairhope

I was really excited to hear that green building is taking off in my hometown of Fairhope, Alabama! [Yes, I'm originally from Alabama. People are always surprised by that primarily because I don't have a southern accent. For those of you who haven't heard my voice, perhaps it's not as shocking. But there it is. I am a G.R.I.T. (girl raised in the south).]

My parents (who know I'm a sucker for green building info.) went to check out this new green home last weekend.


I'm headed down to visit them in June and want to contact the builder to see if I can arrange for a tour so I can get the scoop on all its green features. Here's the info. I was able to find on the web.

"The Fairhope Green Home Project is the first house in the state to receive Gold Certification from the National Association of Home Builders Green Building Program which requires standards for water conservation, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and the use of sustainable and recycled materials. Due to all the energy efficient techniques used in the home, the power bill is expected to average only a bit over $70 a month."

Green checklist:

Recycled Materials
Environmentally Friendly Sheathing
Geothermal Heat Pump
Icynene Foam Insulation
Reducing Building Waste
Green Landscaping
Water Conservation
Eco-Friendly Furnishings

This website has a lot more information about the details of those features. There's a short video available from the local tv station too that includes more interior shots. And here's the full listing with the floor plans.




I am so excited that Fairhope is getting in on the green movement. Go Bama!

More gray kitchens...

So I'm sort of into this gray kitchen thing.

This remodel from Urban Grace Interiors is gorgeous.




Not thrilled about drawing inspiration from good ol' Martha Stewart but apparently she outfitted her new kitchen in gray. Come to think of it, there is a pretty good chance the kitchen in the prison was a nice steely gray...but there were no pictures of that in her mag.




Here's one from blogger Cote de Texas.

IKEA run

Sara and I had a blast at IKEA in Montreal. Who doesn't? I'm happy with our purchases...

Amherst St. in Montreal

Sara and I had a wonderful day in Montreal on Friday. I forget how close it is to Burlington. It's less than an hour to the border and then about another hour and change to downtown Montreal. Border crossing was super easy. The immigration agent made fun of Sara for coming up to Vermont to go to IKEA and pointed out that there was one in Philly...how he knew that, I have no idea.

Sara, having spent a semester in Paris, speaks French and seemed to really enjoy correcting my attempts to translate the billboards along the way. The subjunctive tense gets me every time. Most of the actual road/directional signage is provided in English which helped immensely. Our favorite translation was an electronic sign above one of the major highways in downtown Montreal. In French it read, "Covoiturage est économique certaine." (Or something like that...remember, Sara is the one who speaks French.) It was basically reminding commuters that carpooling makes economic sense. We commented on how nice it was that the Canadian government encourages practices that are environmentally (as well as wallet) friendly. Then the English translation popped up--we had time to read all of this because we were stuck in traffic...apparently folks in Montreal are not reading these announcements because there were many, many cars on the road--and it said, "Carpooling: an interesting choice!" We thought this was hilariously funny. I don't know how "certain" became "interesting" but I liked how the English version sort of gently nudged while the French version was like, "Carpool, damnit. It makes sense."

Anyway, we found Amherst St. in downtown Montreal with no problem, save for the traffic. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. We spent the first part of the afternoon ducking in and out of all the little shops, giggling like children over all the MCM finds. It truly was incredible. We stopped at a cute corner cafe for lunch and devoured the most fantastic paninis and salads. Shopping makes one hungry. We ate and talked for more than an hour and a half. I am so used to grabbing lunch on the go but when in Rome...

We then did some more walking and oohing and ahhing. Here are a couple of pics. from the stores we visited. I was tempted to buy a few things but they would have constituted major purchases and as I said in a previous post, Ry-guy likes input. So we just decided we'd have to go back...










So funniest story of the whole trip? Remember, I didn't want to make any major purchases because Ryan wasn't there to weigh in. But at this one shop, I noticed an adorable old-fashioned sign that said "Ouvert" (open, in French). It had a great patina on it and I loved its charm. Not really MCM at all but I thought it would be cute to put in the kitchen or something...just a little, random detail. Anyway, Sara liked it, too, so I asked her to hold it while we finished exploring the store. As we're approaching the counter to make our purchase, the owner, in a deliciously French accent and with a quizzical look on his face asks Sara, "Are you walking around with my sign?" Turns out that it was actually the sign he uses to announce that the store is open. If I had been by myself, I would have died of embarrassment. But since Sara and I had been laughing all day (we still hadn't gotten over carpooling being "interesting"), we both just cracked up. I don't think he thought it was particularly funny. In fact, he marched right over to the front of the store and plopped the sign in the front window as if to confirm its actual function. Ahh, making a fool of oneself in a foreign country. It's bound to happen, right?

Next up: our IKEA booty...