Little green house on the prairie
A Pennsylvania couple woke up one day and decided to build a brand new green home. Now they've written a book about it called 'Green Beginnings'.
Photos courtesy Topel family 
Waking to a greener lifestyle is typically an incremental process. You might switch to CFLs, organic lattes, and even a hybrid car, but few of us end up with any larger evidence of our newfound eco-consciousness. As I drive up to Avrim “Ave” and Vicki Topel’s new green home in the countryside outside Philadelphia, though, I sense immediately that it represents exactly that — an impressive testament to their green awakening.
The couple didn’t know much about going green but were intrigued. Through a series of serendipitous connections, they quickly assembled a dream green-building team and began construction on a five-acre site near their other home. “It really fell into place, almost like it was meant to be,” says Vicki, a trim, energetic former teacher who recently began substitute teaching again after taking time off to raise the couple’s two (now grown) children.
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Um, greentv... i just went to look at it and, well, there doesn't seem to be much information, the site seems very sparse, looksj like everything is done in video format, and the newst blog is three days old so I'm wondering about just what is so green about it. Not too much - I saw lots of expo videos as I clicked through various linksand then I came across one of the articles there .... More
Um, that bit about a Pepsi executive being fired, U.S. or otherwise, is not true. If that were true it would've been all over the news and Pepsi's stocks might've dipped a very nice bit, enough for me to buy some stocks (I'm cheap! :D) Nope, not true. PEpsi lists their ceos at Pepsi Co Leadership and no ones been fired.
I get the feeling from reading back over all these posts that this pat girl just wants everybody to go look at greentv, ya think?
Much love to you all from grams.... More
A big thank you to all (and yes, there are more than one of us here at the big P) or should I say, were.
The most wonderful thing out of all of this is someone sent my replies to the woman who founded GreenTV when her husband was dying from Cancer.
I will be writing a blog on GreenTV.com about what really goes on in parts of the world where there are no regulations, officials are bribed and children to seniors are being sickened.
And, I found some pretty truthful people.... More
I don't think that the people commenting here about the homes really sound as if they are griping. EAch one of them have good points and Terry especially has the experience to know what he's talking about. They wanted to downsize. Why not just move to a smaller house? If they have the money, which they apparently due considering their other purhcases, why not get the composting toilets instead of low-flo? Isn;t that supposed to be greener than the lowflo? If they still wanted to build a.... More
So Mr. Topel build a bigger and better house, can afford what he did.
The book is a good read for anyone entertaining going green small
or big and illustrates the tech. available and step by step
proceedures for building a green house, with the top of the line
conceptual facts in the market and prdoucts. Don't gripe, build a
geo thermal tent if you want. It's a good book.
Forgive my earlier persnicketiness. (Yes, that is a real word and yes, as a rule, I am rather persnickety.) As stated in the headline, I'm usually rather more reticent, and though I sometimes type up "mini rants" I normally do not send them off but simply delete them.
That said, I must now say something about the actual article. When I first saw the picture of the house I thought - oh, a family of four or five must surely live there. After all, any less would be a waste of space,.... More
Maybe I missed this, but I see no breakdown of cost per sqft in this article. What designates this house as affordable? TO me one of the toughest thing about going green is that the "startup" costs are more often then not higher then going the more traditional rout. I'd be very interested to see if this construction can compete with traditional construction from the get go from a cost perspective.
You may or may not agree but the one thing I learned from GreenTV (it's GreenTV.com for on-liners) is they, their viewers, members and others give credit to people who try to make a difference.
And the reason I am staying confidential is that I am a woman CEO of one of the largest and most profitable refreshment drink companies in the world.
I despise what my company does and stands for yet I am also responsible for doling out millions to green organizations each.... More
I just can't take you seriously. It doesn't make sense for a person to come on here stating the reason they choose to remain anonymous is because they're supposedly in a position of power - if you are, and want to hide the fact, then Don't Say Anything.
Furthermore, one normally wouldn't use the word "confidential" the way you did - it appears more likely that you popped open your thesaurus and decided that it sounded like a "nice, big word" to make you sound important. For goodness.... More
I apologize for m ramblings. I do what I do in the corporate world while taking mental breaks to go on-line to watch the new green video of day on GreenTV.
I have become obsessed with the fact the founder of GreenTV created it from his "death bed" yet somehow managed to survive and his wife and he have devoted their lives to helping others.
It is a good read for someone like me to eventually do the right thing. I view it on-line at GreenTV.com yet I understand they are on local, national.... More
Indra Nooyi is the CEO of Pepsi.
I recall this because I saw her on the cover of a magazine earlier this year about how she is trying to revolutionize Pepsi or some such. Don't recall too much about it since I only briefly saw it when standing in line at Best Buy (only a short bike ride away) a few months back.
The only Patricia I can recall being a CEO is Patricia Woertz at a company called ADM (Archer Daniels Midland.)
Somehow, I don't think you'll be fired, Madame Patricia at Pepsi.
(On a different note,.... More
I built my green home in 1980. Passive solar hot water, solar off-grid electric, solar heat by passive greenhouse that provided tomatos year round. No petro chemicals were used in any of the products, recycled products where possible. As previously stated, GREEN is a state of mind, EnergyStar is a stamp of approval by the status quo. I didn't rip up the Earth for rock that lay under its surface to build a fireplace, my neighbor welded a steel shut-down stove that in the future could even be.... More
I am in total agreement with the above comments. Must be nice to "retire" and wake uip one day and decide you will build a "green" home. I have no interest in this couple's perspective. It is a lifestyle to be "green", not a sturcture.
I cannot believe the enormous size of the structure (the article doesn't mention the GSF or volume contained in the structures) for two people. Are they trying to put a feather in their cap (LEED Silver) or really conserve. Looking at the size of the footprint that had to be cleared and the shear magnitude of the structure it is difficult for me to believe that this "eco" structure saves any more that a much smaller (yet adequate) structure without all the "eco" amenities. It's incredible.... More
Apparently it's small for them, having been used to 8,000 sq. ft. They admit that they didn't know anything about going green beforehand, so all their knowledge came from the experts who were trying to sell them green stuff. I wouldn't call this a model project.
No house is finally "green" if it does not include green transportation.
