Progress!

Happy Holidays! We've been making progress here at our Dynamic Green Home. 

Here's some pictures of the first floor walls we painted.

Kitchen Walls (painted)     © harrington

Living Room Walls (painted)  © harrington

We've also started patching the floors on the first floor. 

Here's what that looks like.

First Floor floor repairs           © harrington

Then, we need to 

1. hook up our equipment, 

2. scrape where needed, and 

3. sand everywhere.

1. Sander with vacuum            © harrington

2. Scraping gunk off floors              © harrington

3. Sanding the floor              © harrington

After the holidays we're going to do a workshop on finishing the sanded floors. We're still sorting the schedule on that. 

Check back soon for the date and come see how it's done.

A little help from our friends?

Today is Sunday, December 15. We've got two, that's 2!, days to go in our Barn Raising for the Dynamic Green Home project. Our volunteers, sponsors, material donors and other contributors have helped make awesome progress and we're headed toward something we can all be proud of.  Now, we need your help to get us the rest of the way. To quote from an (in)famous movie "we've got a long way to go and a short time to get there." Here's a link: DGH Barn Raising so you can contribute.

Here's what the floors looked like last weekend.

first floor before Barn Raising

first floor before Barn Raising

first floor before Barn Raising

This weekend, and after the holidays, we're going to be scraping and wiping and vacuuming and patching and renting sanders and sanding and vacuuming and applying several coats of finish. We'll go from something you might hesitate to walk on to something you might be willing to eat from? Anyway, we're going to make  huge improvements, so these floors will be OK for kids to play on.

Did I mention we need your help to do this? Did I give you a link to our Barn Raising site? Wouldn't you like to be able to come back to this blog in a few weeks and see the great looking floors YOU helped provide? How's that for a Happy Holidays memory? 2013? oh, yeah, that was the year we gave a local family a healthy green home. I donated a can of stain. My wife chipped in a floor tile. Does that work for you?

Enjoy your holidays! Help someone else enjoy theirs?

DGH Painting Primer: Success!

Saturday, December 7, was our Dynamic Green Home Painting Primer. Thanks to the dozen or so volunteers who came out in some remarkable cold to learn and paint. Thanks as well to our Sponsors and Partners, represented by

• Paul Bergevin (Hirshfield's Paint) 
• Steve Lincowski (Wooster Brush) 

 and to our DGH crew members

• Phil Kirkegaard (general contractor) 
• Cindy Martimo (interior design teacher at Dunwoody)

Next week we'll have some pictures of the finish coats when we show up for the Fundamentals of Flooring session. (Speaking of which, have you contributed to our Barnraisings effort yet?) 

For now, here are some shots of what Saturday looked like.

Welcome Volunteers sign         © harrington

Volunteers signing in        © harrington

Paul Bergevin, Hirshfield's        © harrington

environmentally friendly, family owned, local   © harrington

low and no VOC contractor's paints      © harrington

zero VOC paint          © harrington

Steve Lincowski, Wooster  © harrington

commercial grade brushes and rollers       © harrington

brushes and rollers awaiting volunteers     © harrington

wall, before painting            © harrington

volunteers cutting in and rolling    © harrington

volunteers cutting in and rolling    © harrington

volunteers cutting in and rolling    © harrington

One of the things that I learned is that changing the composition of paint to make it low or no VOC triggers a need for corresponding changes in application tools. We already know that Hirshfield's has been working to produce their paints in an environmentally friendly way. Hirshfield's and Wooster have been working for quite awhile at making it better and easier for contractors (and homeowners) to be more environmentally sensitive when painting.

Join us next weekend at our Dynamic Green Home for Fundamentals of Flooring. We'd love to see you there.

Help Wanted

Happy Holidays. As you read this, are you somewhere warm, maybe at home. Are you healthy and looking forward to the exchange of presents during your celebration of the holidays? Would you consider adding one more request to your list?

DGH 929 Edmund Credit Board     © harrington

During the next few days you have a chance to help give a Twin Cities family a healthy, affordable home where they can enjoy their holidays. For a few hours of your time or a few dollars of your money, you can help us "green up" our first Dynamic Green Home.

Let's try to put some perspective on why this is really important. There have been numerous studies on the benefits of (and need for) healthy housing. The United States Green Building Council, in a 2012 brief, found:

"An unhealthy home with high operating costs due to inefficiency in energy and water consumption is not affordable....

"Currently, high utility bills are pervasive in the affordable housing. Indeed, low - income households spend on average 19.5% of annual income on home energy costs, while the average for median - income households is just 4.6%.1 ... high utility bills are a serious problem, but asthma, allergies, and other chronic problems that can be exacerbated by exposure to toxins in the built environment can be matters of life and death..."

1"The Cold Facts: The First Annual Report on the Effect of Home Energy Costs on Low - income Americans. " National Fuel Funds Network , National Low - income Energy Consortium , National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association . 2002.  http://www.nliec.org/facts.pdf 

The Minnesota Chapter of the USGBC, working with Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation and our community partners, is taking care of two major healthy home factors in the green rehabilitation of 929 Edmund Street. First, this coming weekend (December 7), with help from Hirshfield's, we're painting the interior with low VOC paints. Join us if you can and donate some time. Give yourself a chance to feel really good this season. Second, and here's where we could use both your money and your time, we're fundraising for our Fundamentals of Flooring work the following weekend (December 14).

929 Edmund St. (before)        © harrington

Why are we making such a deal of this? Why do we think this is not only important, but critical? Hardwood floors provide fewer places for dust mites and other asthma triggers to hide than does wall to wall carpeting. They also make it easy to see when it's time to vacuum or sweep. Have you ever seen the costs of treating asthma, just for our children in Minnesota? They're astounding.

According to the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 

"The best estimate of total costs of environmentally attributable childhood diseases in the state of Minnesota is $1.569 billion per year, with a range of $1.393 to $1.890 billion. Cost estimates for specific diseases are: 

 Childhood asthma: $30.6 million  Childhood cancers: $8.2 million
 Lead poisoning: $1.223 billion  Birth defects: $4.5 million
 Neurobehavioral disorders (excluding lead): $303 million"

So, we know that childhood asthma costs Minnesota more than $30 million a year. It costs the families of these children much more than money. There's lost time from school for acute attacks. Lost learning when children don't feel well. Anxiety and stress for parents. Let's speculate for a minute that substantially reducing asthma triggers in a green, healthy home doesn't eliminate asthma, but reduces the frequency and severity of asthma attacks by 40%. Simple math tells me we could save more than $12 million dollars every year on our health bills under such a scenario.

Dynamic Green Home (work in progress)        © harrington

We're working to make our Dynamic Green Homes strategy replicable. Helping us now will let us help many more families in the future. Join us. Make this holiday season a merry, happy, healthy one for your family and at least one other family in the Twin Cities. Thanks!

Work in Progress

We though you might be interested in an update on the Dynamic Green Home. We've got much, but not all, of the planting and landscaping done. The contractor's obviously making progress on the exterior. (Interior shots come next month.) For a construction site, despite some litter, it's pretty clean and organized. No, the fact that the building is now red doesn't mean it's not a green project. Our green is more than skin deep. 

Credit Board

New siding

Over house wrap

Mulch awaiting installation

East side yard serviceberries

Hydrangia

Retaining wall and patio to be

DGH Paint Partner

Dynamic Green Homes (DGH) is delighted to have Hirshfield’s as a Community and Education Partner and a material donor. Through their partnering in the DGH, Hirshfield’s is broadening their corporate engagement with the neighborhood. More about Hirshfield’s role can be found in this video. If you join us on December 7, you’ll get a “hands-on” opportunity to learn more about how Hirshfield’s products can help you green both the DGH and your own home.

Throughout its history, Hirshfield’s Paint Manufacturing (HPM) has been committed to delivering quality products, formulated with the selection of raw materials that are safe for the environment, safe for their customers, and safe for their employees. Being environmental stewards has always been important to Hirshfield’s operational objectives, as demonstrated in the following:

• Hirshfield’s manufacturing facility operates a closed loop reprocessed water system. All wash water used in clean-up process and in the purging of manufacturing equipment is re-used.

• Their facility is designated and in compliance with being a very small quantity generator of hazardous waste (solvents). HPM is committed to a program where less than 200 gallons of waste solvent is generated annually.

• Recycling of all cardboard and paper products generated in manufacturing process.

• Refitting of facility lighting system that conserves 76,000 kwh of power annually. (That’s equivalent to the total electricity consumed each year by about 100 Minnesota homes.)

• Hirshfield’s products can help meet green building criteria such as the United States Green Building Council’s LEED® certification.

• Hirshfield’s collects all dust-like particles generated in the manufacturing process with dust collectors and recycles all filtered dust particles, preventing airborne contaminant from entering into the environment.

• They have converted all forklifts used within the manufacturing facility to battery packs, eliminating all trucks which ran on fossil fuels.

• The utilization of non-toxic raw materials throughout all of Hirshfield’s Paint Manufacturing’s formulation base. As examples, Hirshfield’s avoids using carcinogenic chemicals such as crystalline silica, and Ethylene Glycols.

• They manage a container return program and recycle totes and recycle drums.

For additional environmental preservation please look for Hirshfield’s “green choice”

ReGENerating Rain Gardens (Part 2)

This week, in Part 2 of the landscape and rain garden summary, we're going to take a close look at the proposed plantings, donated by Dragonfly Gardens, for the front yard and the east side yard. (The narrow side yard on the west side of the house is becoming a french drain.) Here's a schematic of the front yard. Samuel Geer of reGEN Land Design, our Education Partner for the rain garden, and a member of the Emerging Professionals of the Minnesota Chapter of the USGBC, provided the design and list of materials. You can see that there are fewer species and total plants (depending on the number of Hostas) that we're using in the rain garden.

Below is a listing of Common Names, Latin Names and number of plants for the front and east side yard. The Common Names have links to additional information. [Depending on availability at planting time, there may be some species substitutions, but all plantings will be native.] Please plan on joining us October 26 to learn more about using these beautiful native plants in your own landscaping plan and to see the hands-on installation of a rain garden and French drain. 

Topics to be Covered include:

• Low maintenance landscape design
• Design with native species and horticultural varieties.
• Invasive species control
• On-going maintenance

Proposed Plantings
(front and east side)

Number	Latin	Common
12	Amelanchier alnifolia 'Regent'	Regent Serviceberry
many	Hosta spp. (mixed)	Mixed Hosta
4	Aronia melanocarpa 'Autumn Magic'	'Autumn Magic' Chokeberry
1	Cornus hessi 'Garden Glow'	Garden Glow Dogwood

When you come, please remember that parking is on-street so car pool, bike or walk, if you can. Here's a map link to 929 Edmund, in case you need it.

ReGENerating Rain Gardens

This week we're going to take a close look at the proposed plantings, donated by Dragonfly Gardens, for the back yard and rain garden. Next week we'll get to the front and side yards. Here's a schematic of the back yard. Samuel Geer of reGEN Land Design, our Education Partner for the rain garden, and a member of the Emerging Professionals of the Minnesota Chapter of the USGBC, provided the design and list of materials.

Although we're not going for LEED for Homes certification with this project, it's worth noting that one of the Sustainable Sites prerequisites is "no invasive plants." Minnesota Green Communities has a similar requirement. We did some quick checking and were pleased to find [as expected] that the backyard species are predominantly native Minnesotan and none could be found on invasive species lists. (We were unable to find a single, free, definitive list of Minnesota invasive species on-line.) Below is a listing of Common Names, Latin Names and number of plants for the back yard. The Common Names have links to additional information. [Depending on availability at planting time, there may be some species substitutions, but all plantings will be native.] Please plan on joining us October 26 to learn more about using these beautiful native plants in your own landscaping plan and to see the hands-on installation of a rain garden and French drain.

Topics to be Covered include:
• Low maintenance landscape design
• Design with native species and horticultural varieties.
• Invasive species control
• On-going maintenance

Proposed Plantings 

Number	Latin	Common
1	Aronia melanocarpa	Iriquois Beauty Chokeberry
36	Carex Pennsylvanica	Pennsylvania Sedge
3	Eupatorium dubium	"Little Joe" Joe Pye Weed
13	Iris versicolor	Blue Flag Iris
12	Panicum virgatum	Shenandoah Switchgrass
13	Rudbeckia fulgida	'Goldsturm' Black Eyed Susan
3	Perovskia atriplicifolia	Russian Sage
1	Amelanchier x grandifolia	Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry
6	Diervilla lonicera	Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle
9	Calamagrostis-acutiflora-karl-foerster	Feather grass
1	Hydrangea paniculata	Hydrangea

Here's a map link to 929 Edmund, in case you need it. 

Green building, healthy community

This past June, on the 28th to be specific, USGBC National released “Health is a Human Right. Green Building Can Help.” The emphasis on the relationship between green building and human health is a close to perfect fit for the work we’re doing with the Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation on our Dynamic Green Home. The linkage between health and affordable housing has been recognized for quite a few years. Reduction or elimination of lead paint hazards, ensuring radon levels are within guidelines and asbestos is remediated are all priorities. Reducing asthma triggers and indoor air quality contaminants are getting increased attention compared to just a few years ago. We were particularly heartened to find the following statement in the report:

“We must shift practice such that our definitions of sustainable building include the well-being of the people in the buildings and the community around them as a matter of course – not an incidental byproduct. In the new paradigm, human performance must be seen as important as energy performance; health conservation equal to water conservation; health management on par with waste management. And we must ground our choices in data, using research and evidence to inform our approaches to healthy design, construction and maintenance. It’s through this holistic approach that green building becomes not just a market transformation tool, but a human transformation tool as well.” 

929 Edmund (before)

It’s encouraging to see this kind of holistic approach because we already know of a number of studies indicating that health problems disproportionately affect those with lower incomes living in substandard housing. Furthermore, The Center for Housing Policy and Enterprise, a leading developer of Green Communities criteria, in a report published in 2007, found that “Well-constructed and managed affordable housing developments can reduce health problems associated with poor quality housing by limiting exposure to allergens, neurotoxins and other dangers.” That same report concluded “Use of green building and transit-oriented development strategies can lower exposure to pollutants by improving the energy efficiency of homes and reducing reliance on personal vehicles.” Our DGH efforts seem to be right in line with these findings. Be sure to attend one of our upcoming seminars to see how you can improve where you live with healthy options.

Dynamic Green = Healthy Home

A big part of the impetus for USGBC-MN’s involvement with the Dynamic Green Home initiative comes from the chapter’s commitment to social and environmental justice. Poor housing conditions and energy inefficiency have a disproportionate impact on low and moderate-income families. That means that green building and sustainable development provide a greater return on investment for those living in affordable housing.

You probably know there’s a National Center for Healthy Homes. Those folks have brought us the Seven Principles of Healthy Homes: A Healthy Home is

1. Dry 
2. Clean 
3. Pest-Free 
4. Safe 
5. Contaminant-Free 
6. Ventilated 
7. Maintained 

I think these principles offer a useful framework through which to look at the work being done to rehabilitate the Dynamic Green Home at 929 Edmund Street. Lets start with a quick overview. OK?

929 Edmund        © harrington

DRY: The yard is going to be landscaped and a rain garden added. This will help move moisture away from the foundation. Some of the improvements are called for by Minnesota’s Building Code, others are best (or at least better) practices from stormwater management and landscape design.

CLEAN: Part of this will come from the application of Integrated Pest Management (prevention rather than extermination), part from the new owner’s efforts to keep food stored properly and the renovated kitchen clean of food residues.

PEST-FREE: Some of the work that Greater Frogtown CDC will be having done includes repair and/or replacement of windows and siding. Sealing openings will limit entrances for pests.

SAFE: The kitchen redesign and bringing stairs up to code will help make the house safer.

CONTAMINANT-FREE: Here’s where a lot of effort is going to be focused. The house has had a lead paint assessment; lead paint remediation and containment will be done. Radon, the second leading cause of lung cancer, will be mitigated and asbestos will be remediated. VOCs (which can trigger asthma and cause cancer) will be reduced by using low VOC paint and building materials. Why is all this so important?

According to USEPA Region 1, an “…average American spends approximately 90 percent of their time indoors….studies of human exposure to air pollutants by EPA indicate that indoor levels of pollutants may be 2 to 5 times – and occasionally more than 100 times – higher than outdoor pollutant levels. Indoor air pollutants have been ranked among the top five environmental risks to public health.”

VENTILATED: New exhaust systems and fans will be installed in the bathroom(s) and kitchen. The house uses radiators so there’s no ducting for forced hot air.

MAINTAINED: The rehabilitation and renovation will catch up deferred maintenance and minimize major maintenance requirements for the new owners for the first few years.

On behalf of the DGH development team, we’d love it if you would join us at one of the upcoming seminars. If you do, you’ll have an opportunity to see many of the improvements that are being made besides those covered in the seminar. It could give you some great ideas for making your own home healthier and more energy efficient.

Dates to Save: Dynamic Green Seminars

October 26: Landscape

December 7: Painting Primer 

December 14 BEING RESCHEDULED: Foundations of Flooring

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve run a floor sander; not so long since I’ve painted a room; and I’ve never designed or planted a rain garden. Flooring refinishing is often done by homeowners, although I did a lot of floor refinishing when I was a renter in Boston years ago. Painting skills are useful for renters and homeowners. Rain garden design and development, using local, non-invasive species,  is more and more worth knowing for just about all us Minnesotans. So, I’m looking forward to refreshing old skills and learning new ones at three upcoming Dynamic Green Home Seminars. 

Each of them is on a Saturday, starts at 9 a.m. and lasts about an hour and a half. Each provides information you could use whether you're a a homeowner or a renter. They'll all be held at our Dynamic Green Home pilot at 929 Edmund St., St. Paul. The first one is just a few weeks away. See you there?

Interior of 929 Edmund (before)

Limited parking is available on street. Please walk or bike if you can.

On Saturday, October 26, again starting at 9 a.m. and continuing for about an hour and a half, we’re scheduled to look at The Dynamic Green Home: Landscape with Sam Geer of reGEN Land Design. reGEN Land Design has created a beautiful, low-maintenance, eco-friendly design for our Dynamic Green Home at 929 Edmund.

Back Yard of 929 Edmund Street (before)

The landscaping seminar will cover:

• Rain garden design and installation
• Low maintenance landscape design
• Permeable paving systems
• Design with native species and horticultural varieties. 
• Invasive species control

The seminar will include the hands on installation of the rain garden plantings by workshop attendees. 

On December 7, Phil Kirkegaard (Certified Energy Manager, Minnesota Licensed Building Contractor and LEED AP), and Cindy Martimo (Principal Instructor, Interior Design at Dunwoody College of Technology) plus a representative from Hirshfield's, our Community and Education partner, will take about an hour and a half, starting at 9 a.m., to conduct a Painting Primer and walk us through these topics:

• Low VOC and alternative paint options
• Color selection – making your paint job last
• Basic painting 101: how to, cutting in, taping, dry-lock and moisture management, dealing with lead 

The seminar will be followed by a volunteer work weekend completing the interior painting of the home. Come to learn, stay to help and practice what you just learned.

On December 14 CHECK BACK FOR NEW DATE we’ll be doing the Foundations of Flooring Seminar at the usual 9 a.m. for an hour and a half. Phil,  Heather and Cindy will be back. This time they’ll be cluing us in on:

• Healthy, sustainable flooring options: Hardwood vs. Carpet, Linoleum no-no’s
• Refinishing hardwood
• What to do when your flooring squeaks
• Options for making your hardwood last: maintenance,
  painting hard wood

 Please join us for one or more of these events. Learn from others and about what we’re doing to make 929 Edmund, Greater Frogtown, St. Paul, the Twin Cities and Minnesota greener, healthier, and more sustainable.

Home, again

See the house in the picture? Take a careful look. Can you see that it’s obviously green? I bet you can. Does that make it a green home? Not by a long shot. Built in 1907, the house you see spent more than 100 years serving as home for one family or another. Grand parents grew old; children grew up in this house. It was a home, not just a house. It was alive with people who lived, loved and laughed in it. That’s one of the big differences between a house and a home. Then, as part of the “great recession,” it became a foreclosure, uninhabited, like too many other houses that were once homes. It may look green, but to be a dynamic green home it will need to be healthier for people, healthier for the environment, and have a family living in it.

929 Edmund Street

Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation [GFCDC] and the Minnesota Chapter of the U. S. Green Building Council [USGBC-MN] plus collaborators, sponsors and volunteers are going to transform 929 Edmond Street into a healthier dynamic green home for another generation or two. It will be green, not just look green. 

To begin with, you remember the old real estate saying about “location, location and location,” don’t you? 929 Edmund is a fairly green location, 4 blocks from the new University Avenue Green Line, it has a Walk Score of 63, a Transit Score of 59 (before the Green Line is operating), and a Bike Score of 58. This means that the family that eventually lives here won’t have to depend solely on their car(s) to run errands or get to work or school. Transit-oriented locations help improve air quality, a small step toward restorative development. The site is also in the Capitol Region Watershed District, tributary to the Mississippi River and Como Lake, Crosby Lake and Loeb Lake in Saint Paul and Lake McCarrons in Roseville. The rain garden in the landscaping plan helps provides another small step for restorative development—for water quality this time.

During the next few months, the USGBC-MN team will lead three major renovation strategies (landscaping, interior painting and flooring), plus organize and lead community education sessions for each strategy. Inside painting will use paints that look good, clean nicely and meet green building criteria. Yard landscaping will include the already mentioned rain garden, planted with non-invasive native plant species. Flooring will work on finishing the hardwood floors with indoor air-quality friendly finishes and installing linoleum. These green building strategies, provided at minimal or no cost to GFCDC will make the house healthier for people and the environment (and more affordable) by improving indoor air quality; improving water quality and enhancing aesthetics.

GFCDC is responsible for demolition, including lead paint abatement, managing much of the construction and coordination with USGBC-MN. The renovation will fulfill the requirements of St. Paul’s building code report and the St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s construction specifications, including many related to green building. In the end, GFCDC will sell the healthier, affordable, renovated house to a low or moderate-income family that will move into, enjoy and be comfortable in their renovated home, making their lives and the community greener, healthier and more sustainable.