Don’t miss this ~ Green Home Tours in Seattle

One of my colleagues at GreenWorks Realty has launched a new web site to coordinate green home tours in the Seattle area, GreenHomeTours.net. Typically these tours will be of what we call “Deep Green” homes, 4- and 5-star Built Green Certified and sometimes also ENERGY STAR certified homes. The tours are free, and space is limited so you must register in advance.

Dean Martinson, a fellow agent, says

Join us as we explore the features and benefits of green projects from around Seattle. Learn first hand what makes these homes sustainable, energy efficient, and healthy.

Each month your tour guides will take you through two projects -one finished home and one work in progress. We will see behind the walls and learn about the ideas behind the building process. In the completed home we will see how it all comes together and take a moment to marvel at the craftsmanship and the beautiful finishes.

Dean’s next green home tour date is February 21st, 2009 beginning at 11:00 am at a beautiful home in the Crown Hill neighborhood. It is impressively green, and also skillfully incorporates outdoor living and privacy in a close-quarters site location. I loved the house, and would move there in a heartbeat if I didn’t love my Built Green Community of High Point and West Seattle so much.

According to his web site, Dean’s tour includes one completed home and one home under construction, for that “behind the walls” view of what makes a home green. He will help answer the following questions regarding green homes:

  • What is sustainable?
  • What makes a home energy efficient?
  • How can we save water?
  • What makes a home more healthy?
  • How do we improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)?
  • Certified Built Green? Energy Star? LEED?
  • Day-lighting? Advanced Framing?
  • Energy Audits? Thermal Imaging?
  • What can you do to make your own home energy efficient, comfortable, and healthy?
  • Each tour explores lots of topics with real life examples.

I hope you take this opportunity to get some “behind the walls” green education. These green home tours will become a regular feature, and I will be scheduling new High Point tours this spring via my Meetup.com group, Green Spaces Real Estate. These tours include an outdoor exploration of the environmental features that were built in to this community that garnered it Built Green certification. Select homes and condominiums for sale will also be a part of the tour.

One thought on “Don’t miss this ~ Green Home Tours in Seattle”

  1. There could be no better investment in America than to invest in America becoming energy independent! We need to utilize everything in out power to reduce our dependence on foreign oil including using our own natural resources. Create cheap clean energy, new badly needed green jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The high cost of fuel this past year seriously damaged our economy and society. The cost of fuel effects every facet of consumer goods from production to shipping costs. After a brief reprieve gas is inching back up. OPEC will continue to cut production until they achieve their desired 80-100. per barrel. If all gasoline cars, trucks, and SUV’s instead had plug-in electric drive trains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota. There is a really good new book out by Jeff Wilson called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence Now.

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