What’s Your Story?

My journey into the world of green home publishing started in an unexpected place: working at Good Housekeeping magazine. Although many roles at various publications and blogs taught me a lot after that, the real lessons for the importance of green home living came from personal experience. It was when my wife and I bought a beautiful, albeit old, 1899 Victorian home in Pittsburgh, PA.

Let's just say it was... charmingly inefficient.

We loved the house, the leafy street, and the close-knit neighborhood. Just blocks from our home, Michael Douglas had played the role of creative writing professor Grady Tripp in the movie "Wonder Boys."

We attended barbecues put on by the neighborhood group and made friends soon after we arrived.

That winter, we received our first monthly bill for heat (natural gas), and it was more than $500. The next month was worse. The house looked great, and the previous owner, whom we had met several times, told us how much work had been done on the house.

"Stripped to the studs," she said. "New electric," she added. Both were true.

However, not a bit of insulation had been added to those walls, and curiously, there was none in the attic either. How could this be overlooked? And later, how could we forget to ask?

I called the local utility responsible for our shocking bills, and they suggested a home energy audit. Based on the information they provided during the visit, we insulated the attic and added foam around the rim joists in the basement to stop the circular flow of energy loss, as revealed by a blower door test.

Basement of our old home in Pittsburgh after foaming the rim joists. Since the house was built in 1899, other leaks were inevitable.

I took a class to obtain certification in residential energy efficiency and even started a website for the field, aptly called efficiencyPA. I decided to go back and see what else I could do for the old house. Although our heating bills had already come down quite a bit after the “stack effect” of circular heat loss was eliminated from the basement to the attic, the kitchen was still cold. There was no denying it; there was a huge draft, and I was determined to find it.

A second home energy audit didn't help. The cause of the draft? It turns out someone had "forgotten" to properly fill a space on the outside after installing a new kitchen window. The new window was too short for the hole left by the original window but looked nice from the inside because it stopped where the top of the new counter ended. However, instead of filling the missing foot of exterior wall with brick and mortar, they used a planter filled with dirt. This looked nice from the outside, as it appeared to be beautifully attached to the wall. However, when I removed the planter one day, there it was! The back of the counter that held the kitchen sink! It was a wind tunnel to the outside…

So much for working with professionals (thermal imaging would have found that leak today, but it wasn't a thing back then).

We sold the home in Pittsburgh and moved to St. Paul, where the winters are even colder, and the summers, at times, hotter. Our “new” house, built in 1915, is a mere 15 years younger than the other one. The first thing I did was order a home energy audit.

Between the reports provided by the energy auditor and the initial home inspection (thanks, George!), we had a list of things to do. For energy efficiency, we've done the basics—air sealing and swapping out the insulation in the attic—but we're ready to take things to the next level.

What's your story? Maybe you want to turn energy efficiency into a hobby or something more. Maybe you have a new solution, got a great deal, bought an energy-efficient home, or added a renewable energy project. Whatever it is, I'd like to help you tell your story online.

The beauty of your story is that it's going to continue to evolve as your home's energy use evolves with it. Your goal should be to make it the best it can be for right now. Later will take care of itself.

Send me a bit of your story. I’d like to know - edit@greenhomeliving.blog