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February 15, 2006
Greeeen!
Yes, I am still geeking out on the landscaping theme.
I spent some time yesterday trying to figure out where to put the rainwater barrels. After surfing for a while, I realized that we may need more than one or two 75-gallon barrels. In fact, we may need a high-capacity cistern.
See, since our roof is a shed roof that drains on only the south side of the home, a lot of water will be dumped into one spot. I read that a 1-inch rain may produce around 500 gallons of runoff from our roof (it's a little less than 1000sf, and we're going with composite shingle tile, so there may be a 10% loss or more due to evaporation).
Now, I just don't see us getting a 500 gallon tank. I don't know where the heck we'd put it, and I bet that most of the year it would be pretty empty. After surfing, it seems like a 6ft tall green polyurethane tank that holds around 300 gallons should do us well. It would probably fit well between the windows on the south side, and it would provide a good frontyard/backyard access point for irrigation.
In a few weeks, when we go over the plumbing plan, we need to find out if recycling the greywater from the second floor is feasable also.
Speaking of green choices, I need to get my butt back down to Eco-Wise to pick up some samples of the yellow (or yellower) Marmoleum that we were hoping to use in the kitchen...
Beyond ecological benefits, I'm thinking about aesthetics, too. I noticed that one of the newer homes down the street has a flagstone skirt instead of concrete. Looks great, and it would help create more of the indoor/outdoor marriage that we've been looking for since one of the walls in the livingroom will be masonry.
I'm wondering if this would clash horribly with this fabulous black granite driveway I saw yesterday. We can't really afford to pave, but I did love the look of the dark, finely ground stone, and it seems like it would be okay for riding bikes and trikes.
Posted by Christiane at February 15, 2006 08:25 AM
Comments
Before you buy Marmoleum from Eco-wise, get an estimate from Fashion Floors at North Loop and Lamar. We put Marmoleum in our kitchen a year ago. Eco-wise and Fashion Floors offered the same price for material, but installation from Fashion Floors was about half as much as Eco-wise. They both subcontract the installation, so it's got nothing to do with the store itself. Probably depends more on which installer comes out to do the estimate.
Posted by: brad at February 16, 2006 10:21 AM
Thanks for the heads up! I will be sure to tell our contractor about FF. I think he's got his own installation folks, the question is: where he can get a good deal on the materials? Seems like Marmoleum is kinda pricey compared to, say, kill-the-environment-vinyl.
Posted by: Christiane at February 16, 2006 05:19 PM
There's a duplex on Ruth that has an interesting driveway - they reused the old concrete, with granite (I believe)aggregatein between the old 'chunks' of concrete. The renovation is by MaierZelter, and was featured in Dwell and the local AIA Homes Tour a little while ago http://www.maierzelter.com/dwell.pdf
Posted by: Mo - Brentwood neighbor at February 21, 2006 09:22 PM
Very cool -- I love their stuff. We talked about using them last year, but ended up finding out they were a bit swamped at the time. I understand they are in the process of updating another home on Cullen?
Posted by: Christiane at February 21, 2006 10:02 PM