Victor and the Tree

[Seshat]

Probably something similar to the university abseiling team painting 'HELP!' in water-dissolving paint down one side of the building. The side facing the freeway, naturally.

Why water-dissolving? So it was a harmless prank. It washed off within a couple of rains. Of course, they checked the weather forecast before painting it.

[protege]

Even though I own my home, I've still had to deal with stupid things...and I'm not talking about the "whiteness" of the walls either. Quite a few things were simply neglected, not done right in the first place, or had "repairs" made to them.

The most serious thing was the furnace. During the home inspection, the inspector found that one of the heat exchangers was cracked, and if not replaced, would have allowed dangerous carbon monoxide fumes into the house That was enough that I could have walked away from buying the house. That is, if the seller didn't replace it. They did, but I chose to get an 'upgraded' model (more efficient). All I was on the hook for was the upgrade cost--the seller paid the entire labor cost as well as the furnace itself.

Second thing was the wiring. Whoever did the wiring in the living room should be shot. Seriously. Most of the outlets upstairs were the old two-prong (ungrounded) type...many of which were wired incorrectly Home warranty took care of most, leaving me to pick up the difference.

Most of the other things I've done, were to simply clean things. When I moved in last year, the house was surgically clean. Other than the kitchen cabinets, that is--those things had enough grease on them to lubricate the MG's chassis for the next 20 years

But, even with the problems, I'm glad I own the place. I'm free to do whatever I want to improve things.

[Seshat]

But, even with the problems, I'm glad I own the place. I'm free to do whatever I want to improve things.

That's how we feel about our place. I'm doing craftwork to develop the cash to get everything fixed at our place, then we'll start 'greening' it. Solar and wind power, greywater reuse, that sort of thing.

[Alpha Strike]

So my girlfriend and I have lived together for a while and moved to our current place out a shared desire to have more room. [Unfortunate since our previous landlord was awesome in every way that "Victor" and others mentioned have not been but I digress.] We've also talked about buying a place together as a long-term goal, which is relevant to the story.

Anyway, when looking around our area for places to rent we were disappointed by most of what we saw. While a number of places had more space they were also a lot more money and in many cases people were showing us apartments or houses in terrible (!!!) condition. Dirty, unkempt, in disrepair - it was rather amazing that folks would actually show places in that state and kind of sad how they would try and gloss over very obvious problems.

So when we finally came to the house we would ultimately rent, we were thrilled. The house was big, had a two-car garage, fairly reasonable rent and it was very well kept inside. We really liked the house and were a bit too obvious about it, even going so far as to tell "Jack" that our long-term plans were to buy a place locally.

Now at the time we talked with Jack he had mentioned that he was hoping to sell his place for about $160,000 - not an unreasonable price given the area. We didn't t think much beyond that since we weren't going to buy for a while - we verbally committed to rent and agreed to come back at a later time to sign the papers.

A couple of weeks later we come back and we're going over the various terms on the rental agreement. It was pretty straight-forward until we got to the final item on the lease - something about locking in the price for us to buy at the end of the rental agreement... for $180,000. Now we weren't terribly upset about this - we weren't going to buy at the time and understood that prices would go up during the course of our 2 year rental agreement. But the fact that Jack was so brazen in raising the price by $20000 just because his "lawyer said to based on local prices" was pretty telling.

Unfortunately this was just the beginning of Jack's jackassery (tm). Other fun items included:

1) Not cleaning the house before having us move in.

2) Not doing any sort of preventative maintenance unless specifically prompted by us several times and even then often not doing it.

3) Leaving various jobs - like patching the frigging garage or repairing a large 4 panel window- for months on end even after promising quick repair.

4) Leaving us with 20+ year old appliances after cheerfully confirming he knew that parts had broken down or didn't work.

5) Addressing our concerns about bug infestations by telling us he had never seen any bugs and then suggesting we just "wait until winter" before, reluctantly paying for an exterminator.

6) Refusing to deal with an electrical/breaker box issue until the last moment, an issue that (according to the electrician that repaired it) could have potentially caused a house fire.

The list goes on but I think our experiences upon signing the lease were very telling. It's too bad to - we don't believe he's a bad guy at heart but we both believe this is his first experience as a landlord and couple that with his seeming cheapness and it makes for a bad experience.

That's how we feel about our place. I'm doing craftwork to develop the cash to get everything fixed at our place, then we'll start 'greening' it. Solar and wind power, greywater reuse, that sort of thing.

How would you feasibly use wind power for a house? I was under the impression that the economics involved only made this viable on a large scale. Also, does greywater refer to waste water or rain water?

[Gurndigarn]

How would you feasibly use wind power for a house? I was under the impression that the economics involved only made this viable on a large scale.

Depends on how you do it. First, you need an area with wind. Sad to say, but true: no wind, no working wind turbine. If you've considered planting pine trees "as a windbreak", you've probably got something.

Beyond that, as far as economics go, a lot of it depends on how badly you want a fast return on your investment. If you're an economist, probably not, unless you regularly have gale-strength winds nearby. But then again, most economists told you to invest in tech stocks in the late 90s, and in real estate in 2005, right? Those gave you the best ROI, after all. Wind will give you a return, but it's going to be a steady* return, not a quick turnover on investment.

* "Steady return" assumes you live in an area with regualr wind, of course. And assuming your local utilities allow/offer net metering, so when you produce more than you use at any given time, it runs your meter backwards. Especially since you usually get more wind at night than in the day.

Being cost efficient also involves doing research rather than listening to a single salesman— prices vary widely. It doesn't hurt to know electricity, or have a friend who's got a liscense, or someone who can raise a tower for you.

As far as how personal wind production goes, there are some small rooftop models that produce fairly small amounts of electricity, suited for more urban environments, though this is still something mostly in its infancy. Cost to return can be moderate to high, and quality will vary widely, plus noise and vibrations may cause problems. Rural areas can do small towers, though many building codes will often require the towers to remain under 30 meters. Generally you're looking at output between 1/2 up to 20 kw for personal towers, depending on size. Cost return is probably better for towers, at least for now, though I haven't done a lot of research on that end of things.

If you can do single-pole towers rather than cross-braced ones, that's generally better for wildlife. Using guy wires on single-pole towers is OK, but birds trying to find perching spots on tower braces may end up near blades. (Yes, you may end up with the odd dead bird, no matter what. The average kill rate is one or two per year. Sounds like a lot, until you consider that I find that more two or three dead birds each year in my +/- 40x35 meter yard. Hell, some years I kill more than just driving around. "Birdbrain" is an insult for a reason.)

[Seshat]

How would you feasibly use wind power for a house? I was under the impression that the economics involved only made this viable on a large scale. Also, does greywater refer to waste water or rain water?

Here's one home wind turbine system. And here's a UK-based household energy generation website. All but one of Australia's major cities are coastal, and those which don't get cyclones or cyclone tails get the wind off the Southern Ocean. Wind and solar are available here in abundance!

Grey water is household waste water, not including the toilet or the kitchen sink. Both have too high a level of biologicals, and are deemed unsafe if untreated. Grey water is deemed safe for drip or seepage irrigation, preferably on non-edible plants or crops. We'll use that for any ornamental or non-edible crop garden we put in.
Rainwater is suitable for edible crops, and when we have enough money, we'll divert our gutters into a rainwater-based drip irrigation system in a veggie garden and onto our fruit trees. (We inherited a lemon and an apricot tree - yum.)

We're planning to reinsulate the house, install our own power generation, and grow some of our own food. We've got a biodiesel manufacturer who sells retail biodiesel nearby, as well, so when we replace our current car, we'll be trying to get a biodiesel-suitable diesel.

Because of our assorted allergies and medical problems, we've been using eco products to clean for years, and our local government has curbside recycling, so we're actually a very 'green' household.

[Alpha Strike]

Here's one home wind turbine system. And here's a UK-based household energy generation website. All but one of Australia's major cities are coastal, and those which don't get cyclones or cyclone tails get the wind off the Southern Ocean. Wind and solar are available here in abundance!

Grey water is household waste water, not including the toilet or the kitchen sink. Both have too high a level of biologicals, and are deemed unsafe if untreated. Grey water is deemed safe for drip or seepage irrigation, preferably on non-edible plants or crops. We'll use that for any ornamental or non-edible crop garden we put in.
Rainwater is suitable for edible crops, and when we have enough money, we'll divert our gutters into a rainwater-based drip irrigation system in a veggie garden and onto our fruit trees. (We inherited a lemon and an apricot tree - yum.)

We're planning to reinsulate the house, install our own power generation, and grow some of our own food. We've got a biodiesel manufacturer who sells retail biodiesel nearby, as well, so when we replace our current car, we'll be trying to get a biodiesel-suitable diesel.

Because of our assorted allergies and medical problems, we've been using eco products to clean for years, and our local government has curbside recycling, so we're actually a very 'green' household.

Gurndigarn and Seshat: Thanks for the information about smaller scale wind-based power systems. What little I know about wind power is based on whatever TV programming I can catch and it typically focuses on the massive, multi-story turbines. It's very encouraging to hear that this is something that could be a feasible and viable alternative for a regular household.

Seshat: I was very impressed at the range of recycling measures you've taken. My girlfriend and I are religious about recycling, including taking recyling from our friends/family that won't do it themselves , and I participate in a carbon-offset program (Terrapass). But we don't come close to what you folks do - hopefully if I ever own a house and can afford it I can implement at least some of what you've done.

[Gurndigarn]

Gurndigarn and Seshat: Thanks for the information about smaller scale wind-based power systems. What little I know about wind power is based on whatever TV programming I can catch and it typically focuses on the massive, multi-story turbines.

I started looking around after a trip to the in-laws in Alberta. We were heading from Cardston to Medicine Hat, and along the way, we passed a BIG truck carrying a 25-30 meter long turbine blade. After that, we had to make a side trip to see the farm. I've got a picture of it on my real computer.

Googling "wind turbine personal" will give you a fair selection of sites, or "wind turbine [mystate/province/etc]" will let you know what else is in your vicinity. Treehugger.com has interesting stories from time to time, though the site really needs better editing to verify both claims made, and that what they post has anything to do, really, with environmentalism.

Sadly, I don't really have enough wind to work with where I live, and I'm not cutting down the trees that I'ld need to in order for solar to be a viable option, either.

Edit: There's a certain irony that not long after I posted this, the first article on Treehugger was "Netflix to Bring Downloadable Movies Straight to Your TV?" Ohhhh, that's so environmentally conscious. I mean, you can find it vaguely so... a couple fewere mail trucks out there... but honestly... like I said, not enough content editing going on there, so too many commercial places slip in stealth advertising (with a vague patina of environmentalism) articles.

[Seshat]

What little I know about wind power is based on whatever TV programming I can catch and it typically focuses on the massive, multi-story turbines. It's very encouraging to hear that this is something that could be a feasible and viable alternative for a regular household.

I'm not sure whether micro-generation (small scale home systems) or macro-generation (large scale 'green' systems) is environmentally better, but green macro-generation isn't happening very quickly.

But we don't come close to what you folks do - hopefully if I ever own a house and can afford it I can implement at least some of what you've done.

Thank you, but we're not doing them all yet!

We don't have the greywater or rainwater re-use in place yet, mostly because we don't yet have the gardens in place. It'd be premature to set them up without having something to use the water for. Part of the reason we don't have the gardens in place is because we're letting everything that's not drought-tolerant die off and we'll replace them with more drought-tolerant plants. The other part is that there's more urgent work to do yet.
But we're not expending water on the garden, so the greywater/rainwater issue isn't actually much of an issue yet. We could use greywater to flush the loo, but otherwise we're not wasting much water at all.
On the topic of the garden: we dump vegetable and fruit scraps into the compost bin and use them on the soil. (I can't exactly call it a 'garden' yet, but it does improve the soil for when we actually have a garden.)

We haven't yet had the money to reinsulate the house or install power generation - we're working on accumulating that. And we're working on accumulating the cash for a biodiesel-friendly car.

But without spending much money, there's still a lot we're doing. As well as the recycling and the 'green' cleaning products, we're being conscious consumers: careful with what food and other products we buy.

Most of our paper products are recycled - as in, we buy recycled-paper-stuff and then dump our paper waste in the recycling bin to become more recycled-paper-stuff.

We repair clothing rather than buying new things when the repaired clothing would be as good. In fact, we repair just about anything in preference to buying new.

We walk where feasible, but because of my health problems, I have an electric mobility scooter rather than walking. Once we have our own power generation, though, that'll be a low-impact thing.

There's more we could be doing, but at least we're doing some.

[Gurndigarn]

I'm not sure whether micro-generation (small scale home systems) or macro-generation (large scale 'green' systems) is environmentally better, but green macro-generation isn't happening very quickly.

It's actually growing quite quickly. The problem is that there is a LOT of catching up to do.

[DexX]

I'm in Melbourne (Australia, not Florida) and we recently signed up with a new electricity provider called Red (Full name Red Energy... I think...) We don't normally talk to door-to-door salespeople, but this was a good deal - cheaper rates, and renewable energy for free. We haven't changed our habits much (we've always been a fairly low-electricity-consumption household) but it's nice to know all out electricity use is now carbon-free.

We used to have a compost bin, but the back yard of our current house is just too small. I would like to get a small rainwater tank for the garden, though - we have a poorly designed downpipe that dumped right into our patio, so I just want to stick a small tank under it. Then we can have a guilt-free green garden despite the drought.

Oh, and I don't get the people who find recycling such a chore. Just have two bins in your kitchen (or three if you have compost). We've been doing that for over a decade.

[PepperElf]

Fred has already begun painting, etc the apartment!!!!!! I still had stuff there, and had not cleaned, as i was going to do that the following weekend, as I had told him 900 times. I asked him why he was in there, did he not see my stuff, etc. - which he had put in the middle of the floor, including my Grandmother's china!!!! which i was going to move myself.

actually that was illegal for him to do. technically until you actually move out he's not allowed to trespass without your permission - even though he owns the house.

happened to a friend of mine. some of her "friends" decided to tell the landlady that she was trashing the place & hiring x-cons to work inside. (none of true). So the landlady took her key and let herself in to snoop around.

my friend was furious. the house was cleaner than how she'd received it (land lady claimed it was professionally cleaned, but there was still fuzzy dog-poop on the floor when she moved in), and felt the "your trashing the place" was a flimsy excuse to enter in illegally.

she moved out before the end of the month so she wouldn't have to pay another month's rent on the place. the new place was smaller, but... less stressful to manage.