More on Green Homes

As I've said in previous posts, I am a crazy-serious recycler. No, not a granola or a tree-hugger but I just try to do my part to conserve.

In home-building, some of the meanings of green are:

- using local products (reducing the transportation costs and emissions)

- re-using old materials removed during a remodel-this can mean just donating them to a re-use center

- using materials made with limited use of chemicals such as formaldehyde or VOC's

- installing Energy Star-rated appliances

- maximizing natural lighting, heating & cooling thru skylights, shutters, window coatings and natural plants

We installed a programmable thermostat a couple years ago - it cost around $50 and I did it myself. I have read that programmable thermostats can save around $130 per year. I may not be a rocket scientist but that's some easy math!

Bottom line, it's not hard to do something and there's unlimited choices, not all are expensive, difficult or involve painful sacrifice. Just do something!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Currently I am in northern Minnesota without cell phone reception! I am a lost soul. No checking my text messages, no sending picture messages, and no incoming calls! That's what happens when your parents live 6 miles from Canada and 2 hours to the nearest McDonalds. There is not one stop light in the county that I grew up in.

It's hard to imagine what my life was like before I became addicted to my Blackberry. I seriously don't remember.

I am enjoying my mom's homemade cookies, sitting by the fire and reading, and catching up with friends and family.

At least I have internet access. Now there would be a huge problem!

I did receive an important email regarding the condo I just purchased for an investment. It flooded when I was up here. Nice. I then spent an hour on the phone with my insurance company trying to file a claim and I keep getting disconnected because my parents phone was going in and out of service due to the snow storm. I finally got the claim filed and I will deal with it when I get home.

Well, hope all is well with everyone....back to surfing the net, my only connection to the world right now.

my dad's real estate website up here is: www.pahlenrealty.com

Houses are CHEAP up here!

I'm big into the whole environmental-consciousness thing. I don't consider myself a tree-hugger or anything like that but I am always thinking about the ecological footprint I am leaving on our earth.

My wife and I are big recyclers and I am proud to say, my kids are also now eager recyclers. In addition to the plastics, steel and aluminum, all paper that comes through our house from tissue boxes (we tear out the plastic opening at the top) to cereal boxes, junk mail, magazines and paper towel rolls - all paper gets recycled.

For Christmas wrapping, I tend to swim upstream. While my family uses gift-wrapping paper, which incidentally is for the most part NOT recyclable since it has coatings, I use sections of newspaper-the comics are my favorite although I never enough sections of the funnies saved up.

If we would all think about doing something for the environment and stop arguing about the existence of global warming, we could make a tremendous positive impact!

If any of you have your own favorite ecological practice, please add a comment to our post or e-mail me to share it for a future post ( stevehoem@edinarealty.com ).

Gifts for Overseas Troops

Every day we hear about our troops stationed overseas - sailors, soldiers, airmen (and women) and Marines. We hear about the families they left behind in the U.S. to serve overseas.

I recently sent a few packages to some of them - just simple items: cookies, jerky and magazines. The response was unbelievable. Such as simple and inexpensive gesture can really touch your fellow human beings around you in ways you cannot even imagine.

It only costs $8 to send a flat rate box to any overseas military post-just ask the post office for a box and then fill it with:

• magazines (old or new)


• sunglasses


• music (they don't have access to iTunes over there)


• DVD's (any)


• books


• snacks (jerky, Slim Jims, cookies, ...)


• hand drawn pictures-especially those drawn by kids


• brief notes


• fishing stuff for those in Iraq - yes, I hear from returning soldiers that they occasionally get to fish in the Baghdad rivers

Such a small action can have a huge impact on someone stationed away from friends and family. For where to send it, look up military recruiters in the phone book or talk to churches, schools or American Legions/VFW's - any of these should be able to give you at least 1-2 addresses of deployed service members. If that doesn't work, feel free to contact me.

Be blessed and bless another-we're all in this life together!