State of our House

First the bad news... Our house is a single family home sitting on about 1/3 of an acre. We have neighbors on both sides. When my wife and I initially purchased our home, we cared about the environment but not enough to prevent us from making some unfriendly environmental purchases. Our biggest mistake, was the purchasing of our Brazilian Cherry hardwood flooring for our foyer, dining room, and kitchen. Going forward, if we decide to make a new purchase on hardwood flooring it will be a sustainable wood like bamboo, eucalyptus, or even cork.
Along with that environmental mistake, much of our lighting is still provided by conventional bulbs. I guessestimate about 30 bulbs. But as they burn out, they are replaced by compact fluorescent. Right now, the CFs are in one kitchen light and the front hallway light. We did, however, replace two regular switches in the dining room and family room with dimmer switches. I have since bought another one to install in our Master Bathroom.

Now for the good news... Our appliances are all energy star with our washer and dryer being front loaders. That means that they use less water to clean our clothing. The washer, in fact, uses only 10 gallons per load compared to 45 gallons per load for a top loader. Both our washer and dryer are from LG.
Our house also came with low flow toilets. Although they don't save as much water as a dual flush, they are still better than older toilets that we grew up with.
And thirdly, we recycle everything we can. When we go out to eat at Sonic, we recycle their cups that the soda or juice come in. We recycle magazines, pizza boxes, envelopes, soda bottles and cans, etc. In the course of a week, we recycle more than we throw away.

Finally the future news... There are many projects and upgrades that we are planning to install in and around the house. First and foremost, I have recently purchased a composter from NatureMill (www.naturemill.com). They offer three kinds of composter with us buying the Pro Edition. I almost bought the Pet Waste one, bought the warranty on the Pro is three years compared to one year for the Pet Waste. In my future posts, I will provide a review of the product.
I have also recently bought a new razor from www.theartofshaving.com called a safety razor. This razor is meant to eliminate the need for disposables since according to National Geographic, we as Americans, dispose almost two billion a year. I will also provide a review of this product.

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In my next post, I will describe my Master Plan for our house. I will discuss our desire for a tankless hot water heater, solar panels, a water collection system, and much more. I also hope to provide pictures soon with my wife's help.