Welcome!

Welcome to the new Green on Gift website! As a green building consultant, I’ve often dreamed of renovating my own home. I wanted to practice what I preach and test out some new ideas firsthand. Here I’ll be detailing the process of renovating my home to showcase green products and techniques.

I had some specific criteria when buying a home. I wanted an older home that needed a new kitchen, bathroom, and other improvements that would give me the opportunity to make green upgrades. I wanted it to be in a good walking neighborhood with local amenities, since I also plan on living in it.

The house is located in North Ormewood Park on Gift Avenue (hence the name of this blog) in southeast Atlanta. The house scores a 77 on walkscore.com, which is pretty good for this car friendly city.

Figure 1. The home’s location is considered very walkable by Walkscore.com.

From the start, the house has offered somewhat more “opportunities” than I had anticipated. What I envisioned as some TLC has turned into correcting years of deferred maintenance and shoddy craftsmanship. One of the biggest surprises was discovering that the walls are not wood framed with brick veneer, as expected, but solid brick–not very common in this area. The accompanying moisture management and insulation techniques are among the challenges I face in this project  and while the process has certainly been full of surprises, I look forward to seeing and living in the finished product.

Upcoming posts will feature the demolition process, and how we’re going to define the building enclosure and locate new insulation and air sealing. I’ll also discuss how to managed moisture in a structural masonry building. Stay tuned for more announcements about industry sponsors and the Green Shortz videos.