Common Ground

The House that Dan Built:

Common Ground is the name of the conservation group at my church. We meet once a month and have different speakers. This month we had THE Dan Phillips. I want to introduce you to him if you haven't heard of him already. Dan has even been featured on HGTV's "What's With That House". He's been in People Magazine and on CNN and many other media outlets. Dan lives in Huntsville, Texas. He builds home out of salvaged materials that were destined for the landfill. He is most interested in helping single mothers, low-income families and artist. What most of us see as trash, Dan sees as ceiling or flooring material and many other imaginative ways of using items.

Another thing I admire about Dan is he uses unskilled laborers to build these homes. For instance, He teaches a person to lay tile or do carpentry and then after they develop a marketable skill he "kicks them out the nest" and sends them off to get a "paying job".

Here are samples of his work.

The picture at the top is Dan's vision of a storybook house. He built this house for a single woman who is an artist. This house is located in Houston. There is a project starting in Houston based on Dan's building philosophy called Discovery Green Project.

These are old frame samples from a framing store that were being thrown out when the store received updates samples. Dan created a beautiful ceiling for one of his houses:

The picture below shows a floor that was made from corks from wine bottles.

Go to Dan's website http://www.phoenixcommotion.com/ and check out his work and videos. You can see the passion he has for the environment and more importantly helping people.

Remember, your trash may be another man's treasure (or floor, or ceiling, or countertop). So think twice before you throw it away and always recycle what you can.

Stay Green,

What's in your lunchbox

School supply shopping has officially begun!

For the last two school years I have used plastic, reusable containers in Paige and Leah's lunchboxes. I occassionally have to use the plastic baggies when they forget their lunchbox at school. I think these are a great idea. I started thinking about the number of baggies I used each day in their lunches (around 4 bags each lunch x's 2 kids x's five days a week = 40 baggies) They went straight in the garbage can after they used them. So I went looking for an alternative and found the one that my model Leah is holding in her left hand at The Container Store. I ordered it online (Don't forget about e-bates). Just search for it on their site by typing in Klip-it Lunch Cube. There is room for a sandwich in the lid, and 3 compartments under it for fruit, cookies, chips, etc. It is one unit so you don't have to worry about prying off or keeping up with lids.

Paige had one too, but I think some 6 grader's tuba landed on it and cracked it. She didn't want to carry it to school with duct tape wrapped around it so we had to find a new container for her.

I puchased the one in Leah's right hand at Target and it has space in the bottom for a sandwich and then there is a freezie thing that goes in the middle and the 2 other containers go on top. There is a lot to keep up with as far as lids and pieces with this one, but she managed to do it all year. At the grocery store I often see the Wonder Bread container for sandwiches. Whatever works for you. Just look for ways to pack lunches in reusable containers. You'll be glad you did and you'll save a few bucks over the year not buying so many of your favorite brand of baggies.

Bags, Bags, everywhere bags....

Bags, Bags, everywhere Bags...(not counting the ones under my eyes)

I promised I would have some "green in the suburbs" ideas for you so here goes. I want us to stop and think about the number of plastic bags that come into our homes on a weekly basis. The newspaper bags, drycleaning bags, grocery bags, bread bags, plastic that our papertowels and toiletpaper are packaged in and many other examples at our house and I'm sure your house as well.

I attached a picture of the bags that I've been collecting for just the last month. Our curbside recycler will not accept them, but I can take them to Walmart or Kroger and put them in the container there to be recycled. Start putting them all together in a larger bag and drop them off when you go to the store.
Another thing I love is that most of the grocery stores sell the reusable totes now. I have several of these. The red one actually zips up and can fit in my purse. I have a couple of totes from Kroger and they hold a lot. I keep them in my car and take them in when I go to the grocery store. I'm seeing lots of folks starting to use these. They are the perfect alternative. So when your at the grocer store and the bagger asks "Paper of Plastic?" smile and hand over your cloth bags. :)