Renovating a building into a green home

[Seegers6]

I have added some pics of what the camp looked like back in 1991 before the previous owner demolished most of the remaining buildings.

Also, there will be a new blog up tonight.

Thanks for the positive response. I would love it if you guys would leave feedback on the blogs and the podcasts.

Penny

PS,
QOTH your comment was unfortuantely erased. Sometimes iWeb has hiccups with updates and that happens. Just wanted to let you know that it wasn't erased on purpose.

[Seegers6]

Sorry, guys for not posting for a while. Everyone in the house has been sick and we have been dealing with bad neighbors at the building. There is a new blog posted and we are working on the 4th episode.

We toured a house here in Goshen that looks like an old English cottage straight out of the 1800's. The gentleman started building it in 2000 and formed the outside walls out of straw and clay mixture and covered it with plaster. He only uses a small wood stove for heat, has a tankless water system and concrete countertops. He was such an inspiration and his little two bedroom duplex is beautiful. He is also building the first sustainable duplex to rent! He is hoping to make a business of it and I think it is a wonderful idea. He used solar panels, tankless water heaters and a very unique floor plan. We will have a segment on this in one of the upcoming episodes. He is working on a website and I will post a link as soon as he gets it done.

In the meantime, we are working on an email newsletter. If you would like to be added to the list to receive email updates just send your email addy to seegers6@mac.com

Thanks all for your support,
Penny

[Seegers6]

The fourth episode is finally done! What Can It Be Now!

It's been a long 4+ months since the last episode in which time our determination waned a bit. The long cold winter made it difficult to motivate ourselves to work on the building but now that the weather is finally warming up we are back at it. However, life continues to go on in spite of our project. Warren will be playing Army the first 2 weeks of June and supervising his Digital Media students at the National Skills USA competition in Kansas City the 3rd week. I am scheduled for a hysterectomy on May 19th and won't be able to help much until July. So hopefully, the time between this podcast and the next won't be as long and the progress on our building continues full speed ahead.

Thanks,
Penny Seegers

[Seegers6]

Sorry for not updating everyone sooner. After recovering just fine from surgery and Warren returning from 2 weeks at Army ANOC school and 1 week at National Skills USA competition with his students, we were able to hit the building project hard. Since summer was rapidly getting away from us, we decided to concentrate on the construction until school started and then catch up on the episodes.

We also picked up a sponsor for our insulation! Believe it or not, we found a company right here in Elkhart (literally 5 minutes from the building) that makes long strand fiberglass insulation! This stuff is amazing. Since it is long stand fiberglass, there is no need for gloves, mask, no special tools to install and best of all it won't settle over time. This company has been making this product since 1960's but was always used in commercial buildings.

Since all the kids started school today, I am working on updating the website. I will have all the updates of our summer work, what were working on now, and more info on the insulation company by the end of the week.

Today, I am also updating pictures from our summer work and should have them up by the end of the day.

Our target date for the next episode is sometime next month.

Thanks for all of the support.

[Seegers6]

The website has been updated. There are lots of new pics, 2 new blogs and a special episode of a Sustainable Business Roundtable meeting at which I spoke. Please feel free to leave feedback.

Just a note to those that have left feedback before: Occasionally the iWeb program resets itself and we lose all comments. So your previous comments are gone but not on purpose. So sorry.

Penny