Living green in the city

My husband, Paul, and I have long had a love affair with Manhattan's idyllic Upper West Side. We think the family-friendly neighbourhood, with its scenic blocks of charming nineteenth-century brownstones and its easy  access to parks and schools, is the perfect place to raise our children, Greg, Doug, and Casey. But finding the town house of our dreams in our beloved neighbourhood was challenging. When we started looking five years ago, we knew we needed to find a wreck because that was the only way we could afford a house in our price range, but, boy, did we get one. The four-story c. 1885 home that we purchased had been converted to rental apartments and stripped of all its original character. Thankfully, having an architect in the family has its benefits, and Paul could see beyond the flaws. Knowing he could completely transform the space, we happily prepared ourselves to tackle a major renovation.

Early in the process we decided that almost every aspect of the renovation was going to be green -- from the gut job to the design. We wanted a healthy house made with chemical-free, natural materials. First on the agenda was disposing of hazardous waste properly to avoid contaminating any landfills, so we called in an environmental engineer who helped us remove the asbestos and the leaky oil tanks in the cellar. Next, we saved what we could from the old house, and even items we couldn't use, like warped and cracked wood joists, which we donated to a salvage flooring company. To provide cleaner, more dust-free air quality than forced air, we went with an ultra-efficient boiler and slim-profile radiators.

---

BUY THIS BOOK
Reprinted from Dreaming Green by Lisa Sharkey and Paul Gleicher.  Copyright © 2008 Lisa Sharkey and Paul Gleicher. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc.