i got up early on a saturday morning, braved the frigid cold and drove 45min to raleigh to attend the builders of hope volunteer day. not sure how i managed to drag myself out of bed but i did.
some background on builders of hope. it is a non-profit organization that uses green principles to rehabilitate houses that were slated for demolition and then sells them at cost to price to low income people. what a concept!
i got there on time. (bravo) and after registering, i had some breakfast that was donated by a GREEN mcdonalds franchise (!) ok, the food was still high fat, conventional produce etc. but the restaurant design of the particular franchise we were told by the good owner is based on environmental sustainable principles and materials. (note: since it just so happened that i had brunch the following day in cary a couple of streets from the green mcDs, we decided to go checkout the place. more later)
after breakfast, the participants got to choose to either help with construction work at a house located across the street from the wetlands building or attend various seminars etc. everyone got together for lunch at 12 and then broke up for more construction and/or seminars. in the evening there was bbq (which i didn't stay for - went to see the hoofs and horns production of the godspell instead).
i attended sessions on solar water heaters & panels and on site waste water treatment strategies. both were very good. made getting up so worthwhile. i'm very keen on building a sustainable weekend house in m'sia- something in the range of 700sf or less. (which reminds me ... need to blog about my trip to dc - and the solar houses exhibition on the mall sometime.) i also joined the tour of the wetlands building where this event was held (pic below) but no construction for me. mebbe next time. anyways. all in all, a fun, inspiring and educational day.
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