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"It just feels good. Less guilt." (http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=077f04c3-9812-41cd-88a9-9f69f5d1db20)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/globalwarming5.jpgAlyson Grant - The Gazette (http://www.montrealgazette.com) – Oct 11, 2008

As more people do this the costs of such efforts should come down. -- Ed.

California homeowners are going green and are happy to open their homes up to show the world how it's done.

Fifteen green homeowners around San Francisco illustrated how rainwatcher catchment, photovoltaic panels and graywater systems are not visionary ideas of the future but rather common-sense ideas that most of us can adopt now.

The 15 homes were part of a tour connected with West Coast Green, the green-building conference held recently in San Jose. They vary in price and greenness. Most of them are admittedly beyond the average homeowner's means, but as most of the owners said, moving in the green direction can be done one affordable step at a time.

Here are three homes that stood out:

The Madison/Douglas residence:

Google software engineer Giles Douglas saw Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth two years ago and found it scary enough that he immediately sold his car and bought a Prius. But the feeling that there was more to do wouldn't go away, so when he and his wife, Shannon Madison, and their two kids started feeling cramped in their 1950s bungalow, they decided to deconstruct the existing house and rebuild - but green. Not wanting to move their kids into what they called a toxic house, they "realized the green building thing made sense," Douglas said. Their Craftsman-style house is 2,595 square feet and cost about… http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=077f04c3-9812-41cd-88a9-9f69f5d1db20

Nice read. I was asked to have my home to be part of the recent green tour in my area. I declined, but my neighbor did it and people still came to my house. I didn't mind, I just didn't want to show off my house with my driveway in the condition it was in. My house isn't quite as fancy as the three in the article, but mine was less than $150.00 a square foot. Bamboo floors, 3.2kw solar, all energy star stuff, great boiler, super insulated. Still a few more projects to take care of, so I can reach the goal of using 175gal or less of heating oil a year (365 days, I use it in summer to make hot water). But the real funny thing was that when I was asked about what I've done to be more "green" I told them that I've changed the way I drive and I now get over 40mpg. I told them I paid no electric bill for three months, no big suprise. I tell them I get 40mpg or better in my 12 year old car and their eyes were wider than a 5 year old at Disneyland! I told them to come here and start saving some gas. Long post.........

Great read indeed. That will be my plan when I move into a house, I currently live in a condo and can't do much in terms of solar panels, and all the exterior changes, though I do focus on things I can do within my walls.