Green Austin Texas » Green Homes

Super Energy Efficient Home in Liberty Hill, Texas

Betty Saenz — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:45:52 +0000

221 Dawn Drive – Liberty Hill, Texas | MLS 4921842

2,198 square feet home (per owner), 3 bedrooms, 2 full, 1 half bathroom, 2 and a 1/2 car garage

Lot Size is 1 Acre

Neighborhood: Ancient Oaks Sec 01

Detailed Information

Located just northwest of Austin, Texas, this is a greenbuilt, SUPER Energy Efficient custom home only about 10 minutes from Public Transportation. The lot is over an acre with a Fenced, low water use Zoysia lawn and a professionally designed low water use landscape including a Culinary Garden!

Call Betty Saenz REALTOR® EcoBroker® at (512) 785-5050

Just to Compare : My electric bill with the current drought and resultant daily high temperatures is $350. I am going to add the spray foam to my attic like 221 Dawn Drive has, not doing the walls in wet blown cellulose as this house has because I can’t afford it. Retrofitting is more costly and never works as well as a home engineered to work efficiently. I just wish my Scott Felder production home was half as well built and efficient as 221 Dawn Drive but it is not. No home is unless it is built the way 221 Dawn Drive and other super tight, super efficient homes are. The seller reports the utility bills at 221 Dawn are less than $100. per month 9 months out of the year, and the other 3 months only slightly over. The low utility bills are a result of the quality of construction and Building Science that went into the home. The price per square foot is higher than those of a standard built home but, the utility bills which unlike a house payment, never go way, are significantly reduced. With water use being also reduced, due to water efficient landscape design and delivery method, this home’s less wasteful, way more efficient design saves a lot of money.

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Economic Benefits of Sustainable Gardens and Wildlife Habitat

Betty Saenz — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 02:32:09 +0000

My TOFGA NWF signs

I am a National Wildlife Federation certified backyard habitat steward as well as a REALTOR® who specializes in green homes. I proudly display my TOFGA (Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association) as well as NWF Habitat signs on my yard’s gate as well as display the signs on my table at green events where I serve as an environmental educator. I feel good about this as well as my recycling and other volunteer work for our Earth. I also drive a hybrid Prius near zero emissions vehicle in my Real Estate work in and around Austin, Texas. I do this because I feel it is the “right” thing to do, but are there economic benefits of sustainable gardens and wildlife habitat?

Nativescapes are Sustainable, Beautiful

and Provide Habitat

The works of conservation planner Randall Arendt are particularly appropriate here as well as other observations I have had over the years. Randall Arendt says money grows on trees and that conservation developments that include sustainable greenspaces and wildlife habitat are “twice green”. What he means is that money grows on trees in the sense that trees add value. Even the common production builders know that trees add value so builders can charge lot premiums for treed lots as well as for lots that overlook greenbelt or “wildlife habitat”. By “twice green” Randall Arendt is referring to the fact that green developments are green in an environmental way but also in a monetary way, the properties simply sell for more money AND there are less costs in developing this way. Less grading, less roads and less concrete mean less construction costs while adding more beauty, sustainability and value. Consumers value and therefore pay more for homes in these types of developments.

Native landscapes will only become more and more valuable and desirable as people realize the scarcity of water and the value of wildlife including pollinators like butterflies and bees. I myself once thought Saint Augustine lawns were beautiful. Now, I treasure the “nativescaped” yards that provide food and shelter for wildlife, are beautiful to look at and need little or no watering. Backyard wildlife habitat homes appeal to buyers that love and appreciate nature. If a native landscape or wildlife habitat is done correctly, it definitely adds value by being both beautiful and sustainable. Native trees and other plants will outperform hybrid trees and plants in being able to survive local weather extremes such as drought or floods and not needing replacement.

Non native plants and trees may have a limited lifespan or require lots of extra care such as pruning and excess water. One example is the popular Red Tip Photinia (Photinia fraseri). While it makes a pretty plant it requires frequent pruning or it will grow to a monstrously huge size. Red Tip Photinia provides no food for wildlife and is susceptible to fungus diseases. Wildlife habitat by its very nature is not a well manicured look. In fact, quite the opposite is needed to provide the hiding and nesting places that wildlife need. However, a wildlife habitat can provide both the dense areas wildlife need and still be beautiful when tastefully and artfully designed. Let the plantings get bushy and dens but manicured along the edges, replete with smooth walkways that people of all ages can enjoy. I had one seller who even had a camera installed in a birdhouse in his newly wildscaped acreage lot. The camera was wired into the house so that you could see the bird inhabitants’ behaviors such as egg laying and hatching all from the indoor comfort of their home.

Environmental Education Needed

There are many people who need to be educated as to the value of a native landscape. These are the same people too who need education as to the benefits and quality of a greenbuilt home as well. To the uneducated, a native, sustainable landscape may just look like “weeds” but to the aware eye, native landscapes are exquisitely beautiful because they conserve water and other resources as well as provide habitat and food for wildlife and they add monetary value. There is a segment of the population that fully appreciates the value of greenbuilding as well as natural landscapes that are sustainable and provide habitat for wildlife. The general populace must be educated to fully realize the benefit of both greenbuilt homes as well as the facts about water, wildlife and native landscapes. I am thankful for the education resources we have in the National Wildlife Federation, TOFGA (Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association), the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT), Texas Parks and Wildlife’s “Texas Wildscapes” program, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and Randall Arendt, conservation planner, lecturer, author of Growing Greener: Putting Conservation into Local Plans and Ordinances, Envisioning Better Communities: Seeing More Options, Making Wiser Choices and others. If you too want to learn more about the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable gardening practices and wildlife habitats, you might do well to start with these resources.

Electric Vehicles NOW In Austin Texas

Betty Saenz — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:55:53 +0000

Did you know that if you want to, you can drive an all electric vehicle now? Why wait for automakers to manufacture new cars that are all electric? Why wait to do your part for cleaner air and to help stop Global Warming? I first met some brilliant people doing this at the 2009 Renewable Energy Fair in Fredericksburg, Texas – Revolt Custom Electric Vehicles. Revolt Custom Electric Vehicles can take an ordinary car and turn it into a clean, all electric vehicle capable of running at highway speeds and needing no dirty oil changes. I drive a Prius Hybrid, and, although it is close, I’d rather drive an all electric. Most electric utility companies have a clean energy option where the electricity you purchase was generated through clean, renewable sources like wind or solar. PEC or Perdernales Electric Co-op does as well as Austin Energy.

On this year’s 2010 Texas Solar Energy Society and Austin Energy Green Building produced Cool House Tour in Austin, Texas my favorite 2 homes were a Habitat For Humanity house in Devonshire Village because it was affordable and another at 11402-B Ptarmigan Cove in North Austin. The Ptarmigan home not only had a full rooftop solar array for electricity, solar thermal for hot water that makes their home a net zero home but they also generate enough solar energy to run their electric car, a 2002 Saturn SL that has been converted from gasoline to electric by Austin’s Revolt Custom Electric Vehicles. Net zero means the home generates as much or more energy than it uses- the epitome of energy efficiency! There are also many plug in sites besides the plug in you would create at your own home for your electric vehicle or EV. The new La Quinta Inn at 1010 E. Whitestone Blvd. in Cedar Park has many plug in parking spaces among other green features.

Revolt serves the EV or Electric Vehicle community or anyone wanting to explore electric vehicles. Revolt Custom Electric Vehicles is located here in Austin, Texas. Call them at (512) 366-8196 or visit their website at RevoltCustomElectric.com

The old first-generation Honda Insight Hybrids were very aerodynamic, lightweight and had an EPA fuel efficiency rating of 70 mpg and was rated ultra low emissions or super low emissions. All electric is 0 mpg and no emissions because it does not even use gasoline but is all electric. The First Generation Honda Insight below that I photographed in Cedar Park, Texas bears a Peak Oil sticker. The Peak Oil movement helps Americans think about the peak and then decline of oil that may be on the horizon. Wouldn’t it be nice to be emission free and never have to buy gasoline or oil?

1st Generation Insight with Peak Oil stickerFirst Generation Honda Insight

Lessons in Thermal Mass and Great Insulation

Betty Saenz — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 10:12:58 +0000

I think it is easier for one to learn a lesson by actually feeling it, experiencing it with their own body and mind. Such is the case with thermal mass. I first learned about thermal mass in the Texas Hill Country near Austin, Texas. I believe it was at Lyndon Baines Johnson’s boyhood home in Johnson City, Texas. It was a very hot Texas Summer day, temperatures were maybe in the high 90′s or so. The old historic home was made of hand hewn large rectangular native stone. I entered the home and felt pleasantly cool. It was amazing! It must have been in the 70′s in there on this hot Summer day. Those massive natural stones did the job! They created thermal mass to even out the temperature extremes.

Now, in 2010, my husband does not understand the benefits of thermal mass or excellent insulation. No matter how much I talked to him he just did not get it. Words just don’t mean as much as experiencing it. So one weekend, when we were out in Buda, Texas previewing a community, I took him to see a home built with foam insulation. This particular builder always leaves the large HVAC closet open at the top to the attic. You can walk in the closet and look up to see the foam insulation under the roof decking in the attic, so hence, you are in the attic. My husband has been in our typical Texas home’s attic and felt the extreme temperature difference. In the Summer, going up in your typical Texas attic is like walking into a sauna set on highest heat. You start perspiring profusely immediately upon entry. Your air-conditioning duct work has to struggle to deliver cold air through that heat! My husband was totally amazed at the coolness of this attic space. Here it was, a hot summer day in the afternoon and that closet and hence the attic was in the 70 degree range. This is why in homes built like this, the attic is considered conditioned space.

Do you have similar experiences? If not, I’d love to help you in your GREEN education. Sometimes it is better to experience it than just read about it. I’d love to show you some homes with thermal mass and or great insulation. I know of homes we can see that are of Passive Solar design and made of SIP construction – Structurally Insulated Panels. This building design concept of thermal mass protects against the huge temperature swings. Thermal mass is part of Passive Solar design. I also know homes in the Austin area made of ICF construction - Insulated Concrete Forms. ICF combines thermal mass with insulation. It is concrete mixed with recycled polystyrene. I even know of an old historic Texas German settler home currently for sale made of the old fashioned but well working native stone blocks or high-mass masonry walls. I’d love to help you buy your own energy efficient home. Call me, Betty Saenz GREEN REALTOR at (512) 785-5050 or e-mail Betty Saenz

Renewable Energy Roundup Coming Soon

Betty Saenz — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:32:02 +0000

Our beloved annual Renewable Energy Roundup and Green Living Fair is coming up soon. Put on by the Texas Solar Energy Society, the Fair is now in it’s 11th year and coming to historic and fun Fredericksburg, Texas September 24th through September 26th, 2010. I go every year and am never there enough time. There is always so much to see, do and learn for people of all ages. Children 12 and under are FREE. Tickets are $10.00 to $12.00 and available at the gate. There are so many booths set up to learn about so much. There are food vendors, talks about any green living topic you can imagine and all at a very reasonable entry fee.

This years talks include information on small wind systems, saving water, rainwater collection, city gardening, aquaponics, wild plants, compressed earth block building, Net Zero homes, Geothermal Systems, organic farming and ranching, solar cars, solar cooking, photovoltaic systems, greenwashing and more!! There are natural cooking demos and I guarantee you will learn a lot about many topics. I hope to see you there!! I’ll probably wear my TOFGA, Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners t shirt I got at the fair last year when I joined that great organization. There is usually a ride share set up to share rides to the fair from the Austin Texas Metro Area. I am looking at all the talks now and having a hard time deciding which day to go, I think I will go to all three!!!

My Front Yard Organic Grocery Store

Betty Saenz — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:56:53 +0000

Sweet Red Peaches

I just love my front yard organic grocery store. I enjoy picking my own fruits of my own labor knowing they were produced without being sprayed by some harmful chemical and my fruit is not waxed or picked green to gas ripen after shipping in some cold gas chamber. Geez! What has happened to our food supply?! One has to only watch “Super Size Me” and “Food Inc” to understand our dilemma in the United States. That is why I am so happy to grow some of my own. Gardening in Central Texas is not hard. I am no rocket scientist and I manage easily enough. It’s easy to grow some of your own food.

Nature's Bounty

I started my 2010 year with the sweetest, tastiest most melt in your mouth apricots!!! Picking fruit is easy! Next it was the reddest, juiciest, sweetest large red-skinned freestone peaches and also blackberries. For 4th of July we had homemade peach ice cream out of our old White Mountain ice cream freezer. Then on to sweet little figs! Getting a second fig crop now. Yum! I always share some fruit with the birds who visit my National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat yard. Currently it is a great apple harvest. Delightful juicy sweet and slightly tart green apples. The tree was bowing down it is so laden with fruit!! Fresh apple pies baked from scratch this weekend!! Next will be pomegranites. And I always have plenty of herbs – two kinds of oregano, mint, parsley, rosemary, thyme, lemon grass, dill, basil and more…

Luscious Peaches

Next year I bet my nectarine and plums will come into full bloom and subsequent production!! I have some papaya and citrus trees too. And guess what?? I am raising catfish and crappie in my backyard pond. All this organic produce and food on a 60′ cty lot in Leander, Texas, Williamson County. Yippee!!!

Contact the organic gardening REALTOR Betty Saenz to buy or sell a home, farm or ranch. I’ll help you get your own organic garden growing on your own piece of Real Estate!!

Moving Towards Sustainability: Two Tiny Home Concepts

Betty Saenz — Sun, 23 May 2010 00:10:43 +0000

Pre-Built

Brad Kittel believes in living sustainably, in a way that protects the earth for future generations. He also believes we need to live in homes that do not offgas like the mainstream homes being built today. He offers his Tiny Texas Houses to downsize your carbon footprint for about $38,000. to just under $100,000. A Tiny Texas house buyer will need to pay for moving their Tiny Texas House to their lot. Tiny Texas Houses are built in Luling, Texas of 99% recycled materials as well as energy efficient features such as sprayed in isonyne foam.

Pre-Fabricated

Another concept of a similar vein is Specht Harpman’s (Austin, Texas and New York) ZeroHouse™ . The ZeroHouse™ is a prefabricated home that can be easily shipped and quickly erected. ZeroHouse™ operates completely off-the-grid as a net-zero home. Per the architects’ web site, there is no need for any external utility or waste disposal connections. This is because the ZeroHouse uses rainwater collection and solar panels, triple paned windows and a composting waste system. These tiny modern looking homes run about $350,000. and offer 650 square feet with 250 square feet in outdoor covered deck areas.

Tiny or McMansion?

The concepts in Tiny Texas Houses and ZeroHouse™ is the exact opposite of the huge McMansions that have such a large footprint. One article I read on AlterNet.org entitled “Big Houses Are Not Green: America’s McMansion Problem” stated that in Austin, Texas 235 homes were built in a single year that were 5,000 square feet or more. 41 of the 235 homes had between 8,000 and 29,000 square feet. Compared to the rest of the world, the United States is the world champion in the huge sizes of homes.

5 Green Construction Methods That You Can Adopt

Betty Saenz — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:33:24 +0000

Green buildings are making headlines and it’s not for the shade of the paint that’s used on their walls“ they’re being talked about because they’re built using energy-efficient methods and sustainable materials, and because they promote eco-friendly lifestyles. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, green buildings emit 35 percent less carbon dioxide and use 35 percent less energy than conventional buildings. While you may not be able to achieve these exact statistics when you set out to build your home, there are ways in which you can adopt green measures to make your home more eco-friendly. A few easily followed green construction methods are:

Buy locally: You may not be able to pick and choose eco-friendly options for all your building materials, but you do have the option of buying those that are available locally or at locations near you. This helps save on transportation energy and costs. Also, the materials are available cheaper because they’re not imported or transported from other locations within the country. So you’re not only going green, you’re also saving costs as a bonus.

Use energy efficient devices: Buy appliances that are Energy Star rated and which save electricity and energy. They may cost a little more initially but your recurring expenses are much lower than usual. Invest in refrigerators, washers, driers, ovens and other appliances that consume less energy, CFC bulbs instead of fluorescent tubes, and fans instead of air conditioners. Set the thermostat to normal levels so that your home is not too hot or too cold. Use natural light when you can by building large windows that face east. Also invest in a solar panel for most of your energy needs if it is cost-efficient.

Use recycled/recyclable materials: If you’re going to use wood for your windows and other building needs, choose options that are salvaged or recycled. Similarly, other materials like plastic, glass, aluminium and steel are available in the recycled forms. When you use recycled materials, you’re also able to recycle them again when you improve or remodel your home a few years down the line.

Make your home eco-friendly: Fresh water is fast becoming a scarce commodity, so when you build a home, install a facility to harvest and filter rainwater. Also, set up a system where your shower water is automatically recycled and diverted to your lawn sprinkler and to water your plants.

Maintain what you’ve built: And finally, once you begin to live in your home, adopt eco-friendly measures like recycling your trash, using your garbage disposal correctly, closing faucets tightly and repairing leaky ones immediately, switching off electrical and electronic appliances when not in use instead of leaving them in the standby modes, and keeping your home neat and tidy.

This guest post is contributed by Nicole Adams, she writes on the topic of construction management degree She welcomes your comments at her email id: nicole.adams83@gmail.com

Avoid VOC’s in Your Texas Organic Home

Betty Saenz — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:35:45 +0000

What are VOCs and what can we do to avoid having them in our homes? VOCs are Volatile Organic Compounds, and no, this is not the type of “good” organic we want in our Texas Organic Home. VOCs are pollutants in our homes and can effect the indoor air quality of our homes. The resulting poor indoor air quality can have both short and long term ill health effects. For some great information on VOCs, just visit the United States government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website and look at the web page on Indoor Air Quality. Since VOCs are emitted by building materials, furnishings and paints as well as other materials in our homes, I am concentrating on these two in this blog. One of the best ways to avoid VOC’s is in the construction or even remodeling process.

There are green cabinet makers who follow green woodworking practices for example that are aware of the problems VOCs can cause in indoor air quality. Among these are Jeff Mitzel at Green Award Custom Woodworking at 5710 E. MLK in Austin, TX (512) 323-6633. Jeff and the other craftsmen at Green Award Custom Woodworking care about our earth and the indoor air quallity in your home enough to use materials that do not off gas in your indoor living environment. They also work by a zero waste policy. Waste ply materials are recycled by local artists, teachers and art therapists as well as in other woodworking projects at the Austin,TX shop. Using locally milled woods, new green products as well as reclaimed woods, the wood shop uses over 70 green raw materials in the creation of millwork and cabinetry. Green Award is also Austin, Texas’ oldest continually running cabinet and millwork shop.

Austin Texas’ Green Garden Program

Betty Saenz — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:13:52 +0000

I am jealous. Everything’s in Austin…Sometimes, to someone who cares about the environment it seems that way…I live in Leander, Texas, Williamson County because of the affordability of homes and the Leander ISD school system. I am trying to help the City of Leander to encourage greenbuilding and green yards. My yard meets the criteria for Austin’s Award Winning Green Garden Program yet I am not a City of Austin water customer so I can’t share my yard in that venue. The City of Leander gets the water from the same place, Lake Travis but we buy it from Leander, not Austin. Part of being a Texas Organic Home is to have a green yard. By green I do not mean a huge, water hungry synthetic yard but a water conserving, sensible and beautiful yard that is safe for humans, pets and wildlife due to lack of synthetic chemicals. “Synthetic” yards use non-native plants and grasses from some rainforest that do not jive with the Austin/Central Texas climate. These plants drink too much of our water and may be invasive and take over our wild spaces.

Call or e-mail me and I’ll help you learn more.

signed, a Native Texan and aspiring Master Naturalist, Citizen Gardener, and Master Gardener.