Paige is a wonderful realtor! She was very patient with me in my buying process - buying your first condo can be a very stressful time but Paige wasn’t pushy & was always quick to point out things I wouldn’t know to look for. Very trustworthy! Thank you for making my first time buying experience a good one!
Nancy Moro
Kelowna homes slowly going green
Kelowna homes slowly going green
Friday, September 25th, 2009 | 7:00 am
By Kathy Michaels
Kelowna may be most readily recognized for its abundance of monster trucks and speed boats, but tucked into every neighborhood are people who are making slow and steady changes that support a more sustainable way of life.
Whether it’s a grey water recycling system, a solar panel gracing a roof or just some fashionable bamboo flooring, more people are making a concerted effort to address Mother Nature’s needs.
During the Green Skyline tour, hosted by Vancouver-based green building advocates Cascadia, Paige Guernsey, a Coldwell Banker realtor dedicated to green-realty, explained sustainable building is something she’s hearing more and more about from house-hunters.
As a dozen-or-so participants in the day-long tour, made their way through a stop at Kuipers Crescent, Guernsey explained that local real estate trends are about 10 years behind the Lower Mainland, and as such the green movement is really coming into its own now — though there have been significant strides already made in commercial and government buildings.
“I’d say every day I get at least a couple calls about green building,” she said.
Just last week she hosted a green housing symposium, and 200 flocked to the event both to trade industry tips and suss out the best way they could make little changes to better their worlds.
“Buyers do care about green issues,” she said, noting major green efforts can cost anything from $20,000 to $120,000. “The big question right now is whether they are willing to pay for it. Cost is really a big deal.”
While the house on Kuipers Cresent boasted some high-end green upgrades that changed both the esthetic and inner workings of the property — earning it a Built Green Gold rating — not all efforts to live in tune with the environment have to be so intense.
As Deren Sentesy, of Encircle Design Build explained, some significant alterations can be very affordable and make an enormous impact on the efficiency of a home.
He’s installed a grey water recycling system into his house, and it easily has cut back the amount of water he wastes by half.
Used water can be split into three sections—light grey water, dark grey and black. Black water from toilets goes right into the sewage system, so does kitchen sink water which is considered dark grey, while light-grey tub and laundry water gets a chemical added to it before it’s diverted back into a tank to be used for toilet water.
While one might assume that kind of system is complicated or pricey, Sentesy said that’s not the case.
“Depending on how complicated the installation is, plumbing could cost from $1,000 to $3,000 while the tank that holds the water costs $2,000,” he said, noting that the system isn’t only for new homes. He installed the system in his own home, and the retrofit to make the upgrade cost only $1,200.
And, it doesn’t change the functionality of the system, either, as Sentesy said nobody would know he had the system installed unless he went out of his way to point it out.
For more information on Cascadia’s Green Skyline tours go to www.cascadiagbc.org or to find out a bit more about green real estate in the area go to www.greenkelownarealestate.com.
kathy@kelowna.com
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