You will enjoy relaxing outdoors amongst the manicured gardens nibbling on tea sandwiches and cookies and perusing the silent auction items. If wine is to your liking, we will be serving an assortment of delightful reds and whites to choose from. For those who prefer a non-alcoholic beverage, we will also be serving tea, coffee, and juice. The Live Auction will follow with a brief introduction of our organizations and then a ‘raise the paddle’ to support a project designated by each organization.

The event will be hosted by the Eby Family, at their beautiful Colonial home at 4106 SW Findlay St. on Saturday, May 19, from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

Help these two great organizations do more fabulous projects and continue to make a big impact in our communities and ultimately, the world!

Visit their website for more information!

Eric Thomas, Solar Epiphany
Mike Kylm, Bellmont Cabinet Company
Elliott Kopet, Green Depot
Dawn McMillion, NW Natural Lighting
Curt Stiger, Major Brands Flooring
Marco Mazzoni, NW Home Comfort
Bray Hayden, The RE Store
Christina Hahs, Gray Sky Farms
Jonathan Brown, Designine Studio

Below are a few photos from our sites or link here to view our event gallery. If you somehow missed my emails about the tour, you can either go to the event website or review the event brochure here.

In addition to sponsoring the event, we are also hosting TWO (of the 20+) sites on the tour. Check out the features and presenters at each site below.

Experience how to make a radical shift without radical change at our personal residence and office! Practical applications to salvage, low voc and healthy finishes, simple energy and water efficiencies, and sustainable living solutions abound!

Solar Epiphany will be installing 7 new panels – LIVE! – on the house between 10am-2pm on Saturday.

Other Saturday experts include: flooring (Major Brands Floors), home energy auditing (Washington Energy Audits), and solatubes/day lighting (NW Natural Lighting).

Sunday experts include: solar (Solar Epiphany), home energy auditing (NW Home Comfort), edible gardening (Gray Sky Farms), and salvage/reuse (The RE Store).

Play area and art activities for kids both days! Additional details here.

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Westside Heat Conversion + Bath Remodel – in progress! — 4502 SW Findlay St, 98136

This family was literally kept up nights worried about the cadet heaters throughout their home. Radiant ceiling panels were clearly the answer! Come witness the “ahhhh” of comfort, safety, ease, and efficiency of radiant ceiling heat.

While there, take a look at what a sustainable master bath remodel in progress can look like! We’ll also be having conversation about the kitchen remodel and flooring projects in their future – including the changes they are looking to make and how they will integrate sustainable features into those projects.

Co-hosted by Mighty House Construction and Joule Building Solutions. Saturday experts include: radiant heating (Joule Building Solutions), kitchen/bath cabinets and designs (Bellmont Cabinet Company), and green building supplies (Green Depot).

Sunday experts include: radiant heating (Joule Building Solutions),  home energy auditing (Designnine Studio), and green building supplies (Green Depot).

Art activities for kids both days. More details here.

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There are many inspiring sites to see on the tour and things to learn at the Saturday Expo at Green Depot or Sunday Energy Workshops at Greenhome Solutions. We hope you will take full advantage of this amazing opportunity.
Complete details are available at SeattleGreenHomeTour.org.
We look forward to seeing you on the tour!

The West Seattle Tool Library hosts an extensive library of tools and a workshop accessible to all. They empower people to take change into their own hands through extensive scholarship possibilities and access to volunteer-organized forums for professionals and amateur builders alike (like the Ask an Expert event) to come together and share ideas and projects. The West Seattle Tool Library and all its activities are open to individuals in and outside the West Seattle neighborhood.

If you have a project that you’d like to tackle and want more intensive or private consultations, Mighty House is set to help you make your vision a reality. We can help you save time and money and a lot of headache by consulting with you through the process of your DIY home improvement project.

Seattle Natural Awakenings (a printed monthly rag you can find in over 600 locations – coffee shops, PCC, Whole Foods, etc.) is celebrating it’s 1st anniversary and though it’s a young pub, they have already proven themselves as an outstanding partner to our community’s organizations and businesses in helping to push forth good information and inspiration about healthy, sustainable living. We encourage you to check it out and see for yourself what 40,000 other readers already know.

The conception of remodeling projects seems to take on that same social consciousness, though in March, it wasn’t just in the inquiry but in the execution as well!

March’s social consciousness remodeling project was bathrooms. Which we love doing so, “Yea!” Why do we love bathroom renovations? Well they usually involve:

• better design and usability: From cabinet capacity and better flow in the room to just getting the pink out!
• Reducing Water Consumption: Replace heavy water consuming fixtures with EPA-approved Water Wise systems and either replace toilet with a dual-flush (.9 and 1.6 gpf) or 1.2 gpf model (we recommend Toto or Caroma) or restrict your existing toilet’s consumption (more about that in a future post).
  
• Healthier Finishes: Reduce or completely remove all petroleum-based products and low/no VOC products. Green Depot (south end) Greenhome Solutions (north end) but have a wide array of healthy finishes. You can also try to find what you desire in salvage from The RE Store (north end) or Second Use (south end). If you can’t find what you desire in green building materials or salvage, try your best to at least buy from a local manufacturer at a locally-owned business.
• Cleaner Air: It’s important to not just move air in a bathroom but to remove the moisture with a properly installed and well-made fan. We always recommend a timer be installed – that way you can properly ventilate after showers/baths without having to remember to turn it off or  leaving it on all day.
• GreenUp Products and Textiles: Swap out virgin-tree, heavy-chemical laden toilet and tissue paper with recycled paper products (read a NYTimes article on the topic), swap out heavy chemical soaps with castile soap, swap out that PVC vinyl shower curtain (here’s why) for nylon and cotton, and so on and so forth.

There is something about starting off the day in a space that is easy to use, beautiful, and that provides a breath of fresh air (literally and figuratively). Let us know what questions you may have or how you greened-up your bathroom.

Below are pictures of two bathrooms in-progress.

new tub replaces leaky walk-in shower

new shower stall replaces an old tub in a small guest bath

“Solar prices hit rock bottom! In 2005, when Solar Epiphany was just a sparkle in my eye, a 200 Watt solar panel would run you $850-$900. This left solar for the elite only. I am very happy to say that today solar is accessible to everyone. A standard 240 Watt panel goes for around $200. If budget was your barrier, the flood gates are now open!

You have only 16 months until the installed cost of solar goes up 9.5%. Reason: right now your entire installation is sales tax exempt. This incentive ends June 2013. Don’t joke around…Go Solar!!”

And don’t forget that Solar Epiphany will be holding a LIVE Solar Installation Demo at one of our sites (W#03) during day one of the Seattle Green Home Tour, Saturday, April 22, 10am-2pm.

When we slow down and look closely, it becomes quite apparent we’re surrounded by creative innovators who are collaborating their way to a new, shared prosperity. To bring light to these woman and help feed the craving to do business differently,  Seattle Good Business Network and See Green Ventures created Women on a Mission, a day of discussion sparked by women innovators in local and sustainable business. (check out the line-up!)

As a founding member of Seattle Good Business Network, Mighty House Construction supported this inaugural event as a community partner. I spent a long day with fabulous women who are also working tirelessly to not only persevere over the antiquated way of living/doing business in this world, but more importantly triumph and lead businesses towards what success looks like in today’s economy. I met and heard from many tremendous women (speakers and attendees alike) who all make social, economic, and/or environmental justice a core value to the success/successfulness of their business.

The opening speaker, Carolyn Sanford (author of The Responsible Business), started the day saying that we all have “the ability to change the world by the actions you take everyday in your business.” (That’s what I’m talkin’ about!)

Musings by one of four men (out of a crowd of nearly 200) provide a unique perspective into the event (read here). The question was posed before, during, and after the event – how important is it that the event was for/about women in business? My first reaction is: not at all. Entrepreneurship, whether by a woman or a man, is still entrepreneurship. But my second thought is: yeah, it was nice that it was for/about women. Finding a community to help one hold and practice their inspiration is important. The more one has in common with another, the greater that community bond (and thus the support given and received) will likely be. The community that came forth at this event weren’t just business owners or or just focused on social/economic/environmental justice or just women… they were all of those things … and for this woman-[co-]owned business a much more likely community to reach out and garner inspiration from than other communities (in theory).

Mighty House’s owner’s personal residence (#W03 – A [Little] Mighty House) provides a story of innovative use of materials, green and healthy finishes, energy conservation, integrated, expandable solar, and a multitude of sustainable solutions to accommodate the ebb and flow of a young and growing family. The mainstay of this project is conservation – conservation of costs and conservation of materials; all the meanwhile maintaining a high level of sustainable building measures and excellent indoor air quality.

A second tour site is co-hosted by Mighty House Construction and Joule Building Solutions (#W02 – Westside Heat Converstion and In-Progress Bath Remodel). Experience first-hand the “ahhhh” of comfort, safety, and ease of radiant ceiling heat. While there, take a look at what a sustainable master bath remodel looks like – during construction!

Each of Mighty House Construction’s site will be hosted by Mighty House staff as well as a variety of experts from different aspects of the sustainability industry. Stay tuned for a final list of who and where!

Visit the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild’s website for more information.