Green Building for Real People

Some two years ago, I was seized by an obesession to build my own house. Well, not actually build it myself (more on this below), but conceive it, design it, select my own finishes, etc.
My interest in sustainability issues merged with my obsession to build a house and became an obsession to build a green house. This obsession, combined with some other developments, prompted me to move back home to Massachusetts where my mother was willing to give me some land to build on. My house is currently under construction, and I'm participating in the LEED for Homes pilot certification program.

This is my first posting on my first blog. This blog is about a "real person's" experience with green building. What do I mean by a real person? Well, I've been following green building for a couple of years now, and I've noticed two groups dominate coverage of green building: 1) rich people who can afford to hire every green building expert under the sun and for whom money is no real object; and 2) big-time do-it-yourselfers. I respect the accomplishments of both these groups in the green building realm, but I can't hope to do it the way they have, and I would imagine there are lots of other people out there like me.

I am a reasonably intelligent 30-something single woman with relatively modest financial means and little time/skill/interest in doing myself the work required to build a home. My blog will strive to present the "real" experience of green building--what it really costs, what measures are easily accomplished, what are challenging and more. I'll talk about working with contractors, manufacturers, retailers and others. I'll discuss compromises, and even in the future devote a posting to the guilt I feel in even building a new house, not to mention on a really special piece of land. And I'll talk about the challenge of being a woman trying to address novel issues in the male-dominated world of construction. The unofficial subtitle of my blog is "It's not easy being green."

As much for my own benefit as anything, these are some future posting topics:

Designing a green home
Hiring a builder
Selecting a framing system
Energy systems selection
An examination of the issue of up-front costs being balanced out by long-term savings
Materials selection (this will likely be several postings)
Landscaping
The LEED for Homes pilot program
More!

I hope people find this information helfpul, and I hope they'll share their experiences too.