Remember when "green" was just a color?

I built my first “green” house almost forty years ago. But I didn’t know it was a green house. It was a house of wood and stone mostly, and wood that had been around for a couple of hundred years or more. (I never bothered to count the rings) The stone, pre-cambrian granite, well, I think it was even older.

It was the aesthetics of the material that first inspired me, that combination of natural material from the land that had that weathered patina of age that seemed to have stories in its pores. In my case, it really did. The logs were hewn by hand back in the early years of the last century and had protected generations of a family from our Ontario winters. The logs that formed the exterior walls were eight inches thick with dovetailed corners that, once set in place, were pretty much immobile. It took hardly any heat to keep the place warm in the winter and in the summer visitors asked where I kept the air conditioner. (I didn’t have one)

Hand-hewn beams of the same vintage carried a second floor. The floor too, was recycled. It was 150 year-old period pine — wide and dry of course, and had that beautiful mellow look that only comes with age. So I guess that was green thinking too. Except I wasn’t thinking green, remember. So with old pine boards laid vertically on interior walls, period doors and hardware, cedar shingles on the roof, old recycled bricks and stones for the fireplace, a mantle from 1840, recycled rafters, roof sheeting from an old barn, et cetera, how much did I spend at Home Depot? Zip. Well OK, maybe not zip. I remember buying some screws and a few other things but none of that glue-filled plywood, or aluminum windows for me. I mean sure, I had to buy a sink and a toilet and a few things like that, but these days you can even get those from recyclers.

So if I was going to call it anything back then, when 40 km's from Toronto was considered “out in the sticks”, I would have called it organic architecture. “Green building” had not been invented yet. Although there were a few, well maybe one, (like Frank Lloyd Wright), architect who employed such principles. If there was a movement towards this type of thing in Ontario, it was almost invisible.
Fortunately for me, I found a few families that recognized the charm and practicality of such an approach and it has kept me busy building these recycled homes for them for almost forty years. I called them homes to go. There were a few other advantages that appeared in the process. Little things like an insignificant amount of maintenance, energy efficiency and substantial cost savings.
These days they would add in the saving of the environment in some measure or other. Thought of this way, for instance, less of our forests cut down for Kleenex, Popsicle sticks, etc; and less junk hauled off to fill landfills. Myself, I like land filled with trees, flowers, animals and venerable old houses — kept up by caring owners. I always thought buildings should connect to nature. That’s only natural. But that’s just me. OK, maybe you too, now that you may be having second thoughts about the coming future. And it is coming. There’s no holding it back. There are important issues coming to the fore. How the building impacts on human health and the environment is a monumental issue not to mention the consumption of depleting energy resources for another.

Overlaid on all this, for me, is an important element I would hate to see overlooked.
And that is style. I have adopted the techniques, patterns and methods, as best I can, to the old way of doing things. This has come from experience. Decades of dismantling 19th century homes gave me the opportunity to see how master carpenters worked and interpreted certain problems and solved them expertly. Under engineering tests of these methods they usually stand up well and often surpass today’s standards. And I have to appreciate as well, the economy of line and material to produce beautiful architecture while maintaining an undeniable efficiency.

So here it is. We find them — houses built better than those of today.  Houses looking for a home site — some beautiful hill somewhere, perhaps beside a lake, maybe nestled into that valley where you fished as a kid — anywhere that a house you dreamed about can come and give you shelter. Our homes are old, sure. But therein lies the charm, the history, something to pass on, something built strong once and rebuilt again, for you. They will grow again and you will grow with them, complementing the environment and doing no harm — in today’s popular shade of green.

Some features that are inherent in the old homes we recycle:

• The wood is usually old growth pine, which is denser and tends to stand up to weather and wear better than new wood.
• We often use milk base paint to avoid chemicals found in modern brews. The old style colors available look better too!
• Our Tradition wood windows avoid the problem of wood rot under aluminum-clad sash. Available in thermapane too. Even with energy-saving  “Low E” glass! (not every new idea is bad)
• Open concept interiors, sometimes used in our plans, provide more even heat distribution.
• We build “Rumford” style fireplaces, (an 18th century design) for efficiency. More heat is reflected back into the room instead of disappearing up the flue.
• Often, we choose building sites to take advantage of solar heat etc.
• We incorporate combined passive/active systems, heat exchangers, and natural fibre floor coverings.
• And then of course, what looks better in an old, recycled house than some nice recycled furniture — go green with antiques!