As a Realtor - Green, Earth Day presents many opportunities to learn and celebrate this special week. Some lay claim to Seattle being the part of the origin of this important day of recognition for our planet. While I need to serve my clients by negotiating an offer on one of the few brand new single family homes in the area, I have a myriad of choices of how to spend some down time (please,wish me luck for some free time this week!).
The City of Seattle is recognized as being one of the most cosmopolitan and environmentally aware areas in the nation. Coupled with being one of the fastest growing, most expensive for housing and having some of the worst traffic snarls in the US, Seattlites have serious issues to work on. Yes, we have a lot to figure out all the while as we try and protect one the major attractions to our metro region -- the natural beauty of the greater area.
Wednesday night is the monthly meeting of the NW Eco Building Guild in North Seattle. The topic "Living Walls" which draws in people who just like idea for the novelty and beauty of the decor. As people are drawn into the concept they learn there are health and mood benefits to having natural plants clean the air besides the obvious, adding beauty to indoor environments. Preceding this talk is the monthly Passive House NW in the same location. This is a small meeting with a lot of knowledgeable professionals in the room. If the topic intrigues you, they invite-drop ins for the evening. They just had their wildly successful conference last month preceded by a talk the previous month from an inspiring PassiveHaus builder from Eastern Europe. It appears traction for this decades old model of building is increasing exponentially.
On Friday, Sustainable Ballard, part of Sustainable Seattle will be holding a Earth Day Street Party. The location will be in Freellard (the undefined area bordering Fremont and Ballard) as it is known to locals and while the spelling is debatable it is easily reachable by points east such as Wallingford and Greenlake, neighborhoods north like Phinney Ridge and Greenwood, or course Ballard. The bike route over the Fremont bridge from South Lake Union is great way to get there during our Friday night rush hour.
The weekend will easily be consumed by the annual Northwest Green Home Tour, sign up here for free tickets. It appears this year will be the best and biggest yet. The tour was started 5 years ago by Cate O'Dahl of the NW EcoBuilding Guild and North Seattle College and some Green Builders as an educational event to spur interest in Green Home Building. Boy did it ever work! Now in its fifth year, I happily have been a part of it since year one as part of a group effort of many talented and dedicated people. If you are in the area, you simply must check out the website and sign up for your (free) tickets. If you are in the Seattle area, there is something near you. Please say Hi if I see you on the tour, and if you need another person for your free Tesla ride, look me up!
For more information email:
SeattleGreenRealEstateAgent@kim-mulligan.com
