Here at Cool Houses Austin, we recently enrolled in an Eco-Broker course taught in Austin and are so excited to share some of the information with our readers.  Did you know that  you can install some of these home improvements rather easily,  save money on your utility bills and get reimbursed from your local utility company to boot?  For example,  you can cut 60-70% of the heat coming in your windows by simply installing solar screens on those west facing windows? And in our long, hot Texas summers, that could amount to a significant savings.  You ask but what about this winter?  Well, something as simple as sealing and caulking all those little cracks around windows, doors, and your ductwork can give you huge savings for both summer and winter!   And even better, you can get up to $1575 in rebates from Austin Energy for doing the improvements on their list!  A short excerpt follows from their site at www.austinenergy.com

A Home Performance with ENERGY STAR^® Rebate covers up to 20% of the cost of certain improvements—up to $1575.

(Austin Energy) offer rebates on these improvements:

• Air conditioner or heat pump (14 SEER/11.5 EER or greater)
• Duct repair and sealing
• Additional attic insulation
• Solar screens, window film, and Low-E glass
• Caulking and weather stripping
• Attic radiant barrier/reflective material

Bonus:  Extra 20% rebate for air conditioner and heat pump

 And don’t forget when you get ready to market your home, these improvements can certainly make yours stand out from all the others on the market.  And if you are buying a home, these energy saving features are  definitely criteria you would want to add to your list of must-haves!  So give us a call at Cool Houses Austin, we would love to share information  about how you can save money and ”green” up your home at the same time!

Article by Vicki E. Phillips

Okay, you have heard of hybrid cars but hybrid homes?  And of course, there is no better place to find them than in Austin, Texas!  Our builders are going greeen in a big way here!

From the Austin Statesman  November 9, 2008, Hybrid Homes Becomes Selling Tool, …”In Austin, custom homebuilders like Ray Tonjes are adding energy-saving features like thicker insulation, sealed attics and ductwork, and dual-speed air conditioner compressors to meet customer demand for more energy-efficient houses. Some companies do nothing but green-built homes. And the city has the nation’s pioneering green building certification and education program, as well as an aggressive incentive program for energy-efficient appliances. In Austin, Georgetown and other Central Texas cities, entire subdivisions are filled with energy-efficient homes”….For more on the Hybrid Homes, see the article in its entirety at www.statesman.com

In most new construction or even remodeled homes here, you will find features like Energy Star appliances, tankless hot water heaters, scored and stained concrete floors and sometimes concrete counter tops along with compact fluorescent lighting that is cool and super energy efficient!  Did you know that if every American replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star Rated fluorecent bulb that we could save enough energy to light more than 3 Million homes a year!  Isn’t that incredible?  See www.energystar.gov for more cool info on Energy Star ratings and how you can help the planet and save yourself big bucks along the way! 

And if you need help in finding that very cool, very green, energy efficient new home, call on us at Cool Houses Austin!  We love our city and our planet!  And of course, we would also love to show off some of our coolest hybird houses!  

Last Friday night found me at the San Marcos Public Library watching a very enlightening documentary film entitled, The Future of Food, by Deborah Koons Garcia. The film was hosted by Edible San Marcos, a new organization promoting local food and gardening. For those of you interested in learning more about organic gardening, local farmer’s markets, community gardens, bee hives, seed exchanges, and much more, they will meet at the library on the 2nd Monday of the month. Their next meeting will be Sept. 15, 2008. For more info, you can check out their site at htt://ediblesanmarcos.wikispaces.com The film was very informative and after exposing the fact that large corporations are now growing most of our wheat, corn, and soybeans with genetically altered strains, we saw the hope and the power of the American consumers who are demanding more organic products, and non-engineered foods. And we learned that these so-called “super foods” aren’t so super after all;in fact, they are banned in certain countries like Canada and Japan, and in the European Common Market, ALL gene altered products must be clearly labeled as such..We have no such requirement in this country…You have to ask yourself why is it that in our own country where genetic alterations were developed, the FDA did not require human trials or even labeling before allowing them to be used by such companies as General Mills, Nabisco, etc. The good news is because of the popularity of locally grown produce, organic farming is a booming industry. Consumers are turning to organic products and non-gene altered farm produce in droves! In our own area (in a 40 mile radius) we have 13 Farmer’s weekly markets! For a complete list, go to http://edibleaustin.com and buy local whenever you can and support these wonderful individuals in their efforts to provide us with a safe alternative to genetically altered food products. And as for me, I am going to try my hand at growing some wonderful arugala and butter lettuce with the free seeds that I was given by Edible San Marcos and I will definitely see you around at the Wimberley Farmer’s Market held every Wednesday afternoon out on FM 2325 … See you there!

And for a delightful treat, take yourself and family out to the Smiley Dog Farm, a natural vegetable farm located just 10 miles southeast of San Marcos in Martindale, Tx. where they offer weekly bags of freshly picked pesticide free locally grown vegetables! For more visit their website at www.smileydogfarm.com

Just read a great article published by American Home Shield (the Home Warranty Company www.hwahomewarranty.com ) on using scents to better showcase your home when trying to sell.  So in addition to staging your home (which we plan on writing on soon), try to utilize some of these tips on scents to set the mood of your home prior to showings.  Think about your buyers?  Are they young, hip Austinites, older retirees, or working families with children?  Each age group responds differently to different scents.  Here are the tips for you to use from American Home Shield’s article called, “Show and Sell: Part II”,

Smells Sell

Retailers have been enticing prospects to buy their goods with thousands of scents for thousands of years. Scent has a power of its own.

We instinctively know the power of scent can be good or bad. Strong smells from pets, cooking or other activities can make prospects run from buying a home. But the right, clean scent can have quite the opposite affect.

Scent Suggestions

Let’s say you are selling an updated, contemporary condo and loft in a hip urban neighborhood where younger singles and newlyweds are buying. You may decide you don’t want these prospects to be highly relaxed, but rather attentive and excited instead. This will help them make decisions more quickly. In this case, use scents of rosemary, peppermint or grapefruit for alertness and stimulation.

If you want to enhance the mood of an older home with many rooms that may invoke a bit of uneasiness or confusion, use any citrus scent. Citrus is refreshing and energizing, eases tension and promotes mental clarity. Or use lavender to promote calming.

Some Scents and their reactions:

• Chamomile: Calming and soothing. Eases anger and anxiety.
• Clary Sage: Relaxing, euphoric. Eases anxiety, tension and stress.
• Eucalyptus: Fresh cooling and invigorating. Promotes alertness.
• Jasmine: Alleviates anxiety and depression.
• Lavender: Calming
• Lemon: Refreshing and energizing. Eases tension. Heightens mental clarity.
• Mandarin: Relaxing and calming. Relieves insomnia.
• Neroli/ Orange Blossom: Relieves stress, anxiety and insomnia.
• Peppermint: Refreshing and stimulating. Increases alertness.
• Rosemary: A stimulant that promotes mental clarity and alertness.
• Sandalwood: Warm, sensual aroma. Euphoric and seductive

By the way, as I recently learned whatever you do, do not mix scents!  I lit a wonderful cinnamon candle recently at a showing on my own property in the apartment over the garage and forgot that I had plugged in one of the Febreeze air freshners about a week earlier.  The combination was NOT a good one and we spent the next hour before the showing trying to air the place out!  Sometimes you just have to laugh….so do relax with your showings as I have promised myself I will from now on and don’t go overboard on the whole scent sensation!

Wow! Do you love hitting garage sales and flea markets? Then, this is definitely for you! This fall, Austin has its own City-wide garage sale going on at the Palmer Event Center downtown on 1st and Barton Springs Rd. For $5.00 you get to park for FREE and have a 2 day access pass to the most incredible selection of antique, vintage, second-hand cool stuff that I have ever seen in my life! Row upon row of just fabulous finds and unbelievably low prices! Are you into vintage cotton chenille bedspreads for example? How about a table mound of vintage chenilles probably some 3-4 feet high and 8 feet wide for a mere $6 each? Or better yet, gorgeous gently used duvets for $3? Silk scarves for a buck? And of course, more antique jewelry, furniture, musical instruments, retro clothing, boots, etc. than you could possibly cover in just one afternoon. As for me, I can’t wait until the next one on Oct. 18-19…If you somehow miss that one, you can still hit the Holiday Show on Nov.29-30…Oh yes, for all of you who love Austin’s wonderful boutiques but hesitate to spend the $$$, there is also a sister sale in the same building called Le Garage Boutique where Austin’s finest boutiques bring their unsold stock to be grabbed up by the grateful fashionistas by the bagful for pennies on the dollar! See you in October! To see a schedule of City Wide Sales in Texas, go to www.cwgs.com

And while you’re downtown Austin, don’t forget to save some of your $$ for dinner after the Garage Sale at one of our incredible local eateries….As for me, my son and I headed on over to the Roaring Fork ( www.eddiev.com ) where they feature a great happy hour, not only on the week-days, but on Saturday and Sunday starting at 4:30 p.m. and their “wood-fire” cooking just can’t be beat! And the prices are great, too!….His pick, the “Big-Ass Burger and Fries” for 7.95( we could have fed several garage sale attendees with this beef monster crowned with grilled poblano peppers, cheddar, bacon, etc). I decided on the scrumptious Salmon BLT Sandwich with Taragon Mayo and yes, sigh those wonderful crispy diet killer fries also for 7.95….Then like the starving shoppers that we were, we decided to take home a Rotisserie Roasted Chicken Pizza for today’s lunch (also a very reasonable 7.95)….What can I say? We currently live 45 minutes away and I just couldn’t resist the smell of those pizzas from the diners around me! So, in the future of my garage sale shopping, you will definitely find me in the bar area of the Roaring Fork for their scrumptous Happy Hour feast!

Not only is Willie Nelson an Austin legend and icon, he is also the owner of what used to be called Carl’s Corner, a truck stop in between Austin and Dallas located just south of Hillsboro on I-35. This legendary truckstop is re-opening soon as Willie’s flagship location to carry biodiesel fuel. For the past few years, he has been quietly negotiating with other truck stops to see Willie’s own brand of biodiesel (Pacific Biodiesel Texas) fuel all over Texas. And all of this before our current energy crisis was even a blip on our radar! By the way, he won the original Carl’s in a poker game with the owner, but according to Willie, “since Carl built the place and the town that surrounds it on I-35….and also knows everything about running it–the two of us are partners now” (from The Tao of Willie). Back when he wrote that, they had made considerable improvements to the old Carl’s (which in typical “Willie style”) were not things you find in a truck stop along the freeway….How about a music theater, an incredible stage atop the old swimming pool, healthy food, really good coffee, and great Texas bands and even live gospel music on Sundays? Now in 2008, even more changes have taken place. There are 2 stages now and 2 restaurants coming (one smoking, one non-smoking) and the “newly remade place is called “Willie’s Place at Carl’s Corner” and it will carry the biodiesel fuel that also carries his name.

Just what is biodiesel? It is simply diesel fuel made from farm products. This can be anything from special crops like the jatropha fruit which the University of Florida is currently working on to develop strains which produce more than the current 1 gallon of oil per plant or biodiesel can be made from recycled products like vegetable oil. Yes, french fries can actually be good for the planet! Just ask Willie who runs his personal cars and his tour buses on biodiesel when he can find it. This is one man who walks the walk. “As soon as you admit to yourself that everything good you do comes back to you twenty times over, then your life will change in incredible ways,” Willie Nelson in The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart (2006) by Willie Nelson with Turk Pipkin.

As Willie writes in The Tao of Willie, “we’re all going to the same place my friends–a place called the future—and we’re all going to get there at the same time. Only some of us are going to get there by having had a smile on our faces for much of our lives”….I am sure that Willie smiles most of the time and so does those fortunate foks who are lucky enough to get to hang out with him….or run into him at “Willie’s Place” on one of his visits to check out his favorite truck stop or to perform there as he did recently on July 3, 2008, along with a few of his buddies, like Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ray Price, and Merle Haggard. Talk about a way to spend the 4th!

And yes, if you are driving on I-35 in late November 2008, you just might be there for the Grand Re-opening of “Willie’s Place”. Expect incredible music, great healthy food, superb coffee and wonderful vibes from all the memorabilia on the walls….and if you drive a diesel, then try out Willie’s biodiesel. And do pick up a copy of his book…it is a wonderful read and you will feel as if you spent the day with the legend himself…For more on Willie, check out his site: www.willienelson.com For more on biodiesel, go to www.biodiesel.com

Just recently read a new book ( to me) that many of you interested in “Going Green” will find as a wonderful resource. It is called ToolBox for Sustainable City Living - A Do-It-Ourselves Guide by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew published by South End Press. You can order it through their website which is also another resource just full of info www.radicalsustainability.org . They also offer week-end warrior hands-on bootcamps i.e. classes, The book has great illustrations and an easy approach to construction techniques that makes it interesting reading, as well as inspiring the reader that yes, you can make a difference in the environment and in your own backyard! Even if one is an urban dweller, there are some simple things (like rain water collection, ponds, small gardens,etc that will make a difference in the quality of your life, and ultimately, the planet’s life for future generations. There is also entire chapters devoted to wind turbines, bio-diesel fuels, solar cooking, solar power, etc. I highly recommend this book as a resource.

I just saw the coolest video and wanted to share this fun way to carry groceries with you all….The Japanese have been doing this for centuries, of course. But now we westerners can do this also and save our planet from those plastic bags as well…It is called “Furoshiki” and is considered a Japanese art for folding cloth to carry food, packages, bottles, or virutally anything you can imagine using just a simple square of silk or cotton. In the film, they use a simple silk scarf. So you could tie a silk scarf around your waist and look oh so chic, and then, at the check-out stand, simply untie your scarf, bundle up your groceries, and be on your way! How cool is that? I once traveled for 3 months backpacking all over Europe with a long skirt, 2 pairs of jeans, a couple of pairs of shorts, a swim suit, and 6 silk scarves which served as tops, wraps, and on more than a few occasions, even a head covering for the cathedrals! …I can’t tell you how great that felt as I loaded my backpack each morning and set off from the youth hostel with a smile on my face, while my best friend and traveling partner grimaced as she loaded hers with assorted shoes and articles of never worn clothing….When we got to Italy, she left most of her “baggage” in the women’s rest room and we proceeded to a department store where she loaded up on gorgeous Italian silk scarves on her Dad’s American Express! As she said, “Well, he said if we had an emergency…” Now, as a parent of a 22 yr. old( who has also traveled to Europe), I understand that the idea of an “emergency” for a 20-something is quite different than the one your parents had in mind when they handed over that American Express card…So if you want to see more on how to do this, just click on the following link: Then go shopping for those gorgeous silk scarves-aka your new grocery bags!

The pics below are of my own experiment with the delightful art of Furoshiki on a recent shopping trip. The check-out girl loved the idea! And so did the woman behind me….forget the paper or plastic, go silk and have a blast!

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-carry-groceries-with-a-square-of-cloth

Texas once again makes the national news on its strides for alternative clean energy!  On Thursday, July 17, 2008, the Texas Public Utility Commission gave preliminary approval to a 4.9 billion dollar investment in bringing more wind turbine power from West Texas to major cities like Dallas.  Experts say this is the biggest investment in US history in clean and renewable energy.  The funds are slated to bring new transmission lines from mostly existing turbines.  The new lines could bring 18,000 megawatts of energy and power over 4 million Texas homes.  The downside is that the plan has to face final approval by the PUC later this year and even then, won’t be up and running for three to five years.

 Even oil legend, T. Boone Pickens, is in on the new “windfall” opportunities.  Pickens plans on building the world’s largest wind farm on 200,000 acres he owns in the Texas Panhandle.  Pickens’ 2700 wind turbines will bring enough electricity to power about 1.3 million Texas homes.  Pickens has become a spokesperson for the wind industry stating, “I’ve been an oilman all my life, but this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of”.  Pickens spokesperson, Jay Rosser said of the vote on Thursday, “it recognizes the role wind in Texas will play in meeting the states growing energy and energy stability needs”.

And I say what a wonderful place to live!  And what incredible opportunities this will bring to our state!

For the past few years, I have been very involved with “going green” and “green building”. I became even more intrigued at the 2008 Cool House Tour when I saw the innovative strides that builders, architects, and home owners were making in Austin. While attending a recent conference, I learned that it is easier to “go green” than one might think. It is as simple as changing your light bulbs to the new fluorescents(you know the squiggly looking ones that give you the energy of 60 watts but at 13 watts used). They may look a little weird, but they save huge KW of electricity or you can go a step further and sign up for the “Green Energy” program at Austin Energy (www.austinenergy.com ) which means that your electricity will come from the huge wind turbines out in West Texas! They even offer a fixed rate plan which means your KW rate that you pay now is good until 2022! Yes, Green Choice is Number 1 in the nation and with that offer you can see why! Here is a quote from Austin Energy website: GreenChoice^®

“At 665 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) in subscriptions and growing, Austin Energy’s GreenChoice is the nation’s most successful utility-sponsored green power program. GreenChoice® electricity comes from clean, renewable sources….The GreenChoice charge of 5.5 cents per kWh is fixed until December 31, 2022. For residential customers, it replaces Austin Energy’s fuel charge of 3.65 cents per kWh. This means the average residential customer consuming about 1,000 kWh per month will pay about $18.50 more per month for GreenChoice power” source: www.austinenergy.com

And with rising fuel costs, you can see that although your initial bill may be slightly higher, you will be paying a fixed rate for the next sixteen years! Wow! Do you think someone could do that with gasoline?

So that is my first recommendation after you start recycling and after you change out those old KW eating lightbulbs for the new fluorescents ! And keep checking in for more innovative articles as we learn more on this exciting field of urban sustainability and going green. And I can tell you, from personal experience after living in a “green built” house for 3 years now, it feels really good to do something that is for us (and our children coming up), our city, and our planet! Oh yes, and I rejoice at my very low electric bills every month and my neighbors were stunned until I explained how I did it with a few innovative changes. For more, see the complete guide at Sustainable Building Sourcebook: 50+ Topics . It is just a fantastic resource for everyone who is trying to save money on energy and fuel costs these days!