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Green tour highlights Tahoe homes, values

October 13, 2007

Despite the chilly temperatures and fresh snow, about 35 Tahoe-Truckee residents, developers and organizers gathered at 64 Acres Park on Oct. 6 to tour some of the “green” homes on the North Shore.

The Green Home Tour is an annual event that displays the
environmentally friendly building practices local people are
using. This year’s tour showcased green additions, rebuilds, and the
lake’s first straw-bale constructed home.

See the Virtual Reality of Susan Smith’s home.Green HomeSusan Smith’s home overlooking Rubicon Bay. Photo by Allan Warren

“It just feels so good to be running my entire home off the energy of
the sun,” said Susan Smith, a Rubicon Bay resident who put her new
solar energy and solar thermal home on display. “It’s even better than
expected. But it both feels good and is a benefit to my pocket book. I
haven’t had a bill in a year and four months.”

Stephen Witek of SEED Inc ., and Smith’s engineer/designer was on hand to explain the green technologies incorporated in Smith’s home.

“We used all three types of solar energy: passive, thermal and electric,” Witek said. “We used efficient windows to maximize heating, the thermal heats the home and the water, and the solar panels provide enough electricity to run the house.”

For Melissa Siig and her husband Steven of Insignia Landscape Construction, going green was more about the little things.

“We wanted to make choices that are affordable and green. We used recycled carpet, paper-stone countertops, environmentally friendly paint, things like that,” Siig said. “There are trade-offs with going green and there are limitations up here because of the elevation and snow load.”

The Siigs focused on making their home more efficient as they doubled the space to make room for their growing family.

“We re-insulated with soy and recycled denim foams, replaced all of our appliances with Energy Star appliances, used bamboo flooring and put in new efficient windows,” Siig said shifting a squirmy little one from arm to arm. “He’s pretty excited. He doesn’t know what to make of all these people.”Melissa Siig

But whether it was going green in the little things, in the whole
house, or simply learning about the green options, all the people
involved in the tour were there because of the value they have for Lake
Tahoe’s environment.

“This is double, or more, than the turnout we had last time we had the
tour in the Tahoe Basin,” said Greg Jones, who helped organize the event
with the Sierra Green Building Association.

For Tahoe newcomers Meghan McCarthy and Kevin Black the tour was an opportunity to get to know people in the community as well see the green technologies at work.

“We just came out from Boston a week ago,” McCarthy said. “I’ve never lived out West and we decided on Tahoe because of the environment, both to play in and work in.”

“We’re both civil engineers,” Black said. “We wanted to come to a place where we could get in on the ground floor of (green building). So we quit our jobs and moved out here. So far we really like it. The community seems to revolve around the environment out here.”

Related posts: [ Ways of going green ] [ Angora homeowners going green ] [ Tour the Cedar House ] [ Environment takes center stage leading up to Earth Day ] [ Promise to make Tahoe better ] 

Written by Allan Warren · Filed Under Community 

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