Chic Simple Moms

Chic Simple Green: A GREEN Home in Progress

For anyone interested in seeing what a GREEN house looks like down to the studs, check out the links below. This is a real home being gut rehabbed by an individual builder who has used some innovative ways to make the house safe and reuse materials from the demolition.  There are materials that were on the GREENGUARD post a few days back that have also been used in this project.

Parkside GREEN Home

Part 2

The house is located in the Parkside District of San Francisco just up the street from Ocean Beach on the West side of the City. It's the neighborhood I grew up in and where my mother still lives so I'm very familiar with the architecture and nuances of a similar house and all it's non green charm (asbestos siding on the back of the house, lead pipes, lead based paint...the list goes on!!!).  I know the builder of this Green house as well and will be sharing links and updates on this site in the future! Check it out--I hope my mom's house looks like this some day!

Chic Simple Green: GREENGUARD Certified Products

Studies show that the air inside our homes and schools can be more toxic than the air outside. Everyday items can release hundreds of pollutants such as formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ozone and even biological allergens. Note VOC—volatile ORGANIC compound. Organic does not always equal good, better or healthy for that matter.

The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute is an independent non-profit organization that establishes acceptable indoor air standards for indoor products, environments, and buildings. One of their biggest concerns is the air quality in homes and schools since young children spend approximately 85% of their time indoors so they have established a separate certification program called GREENGUARD Children & Schools. All products that fall under this certification have been tested for their chemical emissions performance according to the California Department of Health Services Standard Practice. (California has some of the most stringent standards for building codes and emissions in the country.)

A list of everyday products that are GREENGUARD Certified:

VitalAir Air Purifying Filters
Lifekind Crib Mattresses
Naturepedic Organic Cotton Mattresses
BonaKemi Floor Cleaning Products
Lenovo Laptops and Monitors
Bernhardt Design Chairs
Q Collection Junior Cielo and Solare Cribs
AkzoNobel Freshaire Choice Paints
Benjamin Moore Aura and EcoSpec Paints
Sherwin Williams Dutch Boy and Harmony Paints
Wilsonart Sinks
Phifer Sheerweave Fabrics
Hunter Douglas Shades
Owens Corning Residential Building Insulation

FreshAire Choice Paint

When we painted the interior of our house a year ago, I insisted we use Benjamin Moore's Aura paint. We've gotten nothing but compliments on the colors we've used and we didn't have to sacrifice quality or spend a lot more to get a safer paint. Again, it goes to show that going green can be not only eco-chic but budget chic as well.

For more information about GREENGUARD, visit www.greenguard.org