Seeing Clearly in Pittsboro and Chapel Hill NC - 06/27/08 03:02 PM
Last week I began to see things at home much more clearly.  That's because Dwain Ritchie with Ritchie's Window Cleaning Service visited.  Hiring his company was some of the best money I have spent all year.  It is a true value.  What would have taken me all day (and a lot of grumbling) took him a little over two hours.  Screens off, windows cleaned inside and out, screens on.  Done. 
He did shatter one of my time honored theories.  Seems dirt does not provide a protective barrier on windows.  Indeed, if you leave it too long and have screens, it can … (0 comments)

Buying a Green Home in NC: Stealth Green, What is Emobodied Energy? - 06/17/08 03:31 PM
Embodied energy is the energy required to extract, process, manufacture, transport, and install building materials. A typical building of the mid-20th century required the equivalent of five to 15 gallons of gasoline per square foot. . "Old buildings are a fossil fuel repository," as MichaelJackson, an architect with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, put it, "places where we've saved energy."
Purchasing an older home IS the greenest home.
Foot for foot, it takes about 13 years to recoup lost energy, for a new, environmentally efficient home. However, since most new homes are much larger than older homes, the time to recoup the … (0 comments)

Buying a Green Home in Chapel Hill, Durham or Pittsboro NC : Stealth Green - 06/17/08 03:16 PM
The Greenest Building is the One Already Built says architect Carl Efefante. Exactly the sentiment I wrote about a few weeks ago.
How "ungreen" and energy inefficient are older buildings?
Not very. The reputation of older structures as energy sieves, in short, is simply not justified by the data. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, commercial buildings constructed prior to 1920 have an average energy consumption of 80,127 BTUs per square foot. For the more efficient buildings built since 2000, that number is 79,703 BTUs. (The energy efficiency of buildings constructed between these years was less enviable-reaching around 100,000 BTUs-reflecting the … (0 comments)

A Short Sale May Help You Avoid Foreclosure in NC - 06/16/08 03:00 PM
What is a Real Estate Short Sale?
 A Short Sale is when a lender agrees to receive a lower amount of an owed debt in exchange for the sale of the property to a third party, usually at no cost to the borrower. 
Short sales are also a way for a homeowner to avoid foreclosure on their home and save their credit .  Why would a lender agree to accepting less than they are owed?  Foreclosure is expensive for a mortgage lender and they are in the business of making loans, not owning real estate. 
 A short sale avoids the … (0 comments)

Gardening in a Drought - 06/11/08 10:47 AM
  Last fall I posted tips on dealing with drought conditions in the  garden and with landscaping.  I shared my spring plan of sticking to annuals from seed since another summer of drought was predicted.  That way if they died, I did not have a huge financial loss. Good advice. If only I had followed it! 
   I was seduced in May by the soft petals of phlox and vervain, they are now planted in the island in front of my house.  A treasured gardening memoir I re-read almost every winter chided me for not having babtista in my garden.  I do now. … (0 comments)

 
Rainmaker_large

Mari Trosclair

Pittsboro, NC

More about me…

Grapevine Realty Services

Cell Phone: (919) 619-2236

Email Me

This blog will include my musings on Chapel Hill NC and Pittsboro NC real estate, live music, sustainable building, sustainable farming, green building, equine activities, hobby farms, food...yes...everything that interests me...and hopefully, you too!


Listings

Links

Archives

RSS 2.0 Feed for this blog