A “Green Renovation” in Tasmania, Australia

Why a Green Renovation ??

WHY NOT !!  It just makes sense.

Welcome to our GreenTas Reno, our blog that follows the renovation we are carrying out to our 1950’s weatherboard and tin roofed house in the village of Westbury, Tasmania, Australia. Here you will find information, links and pictures of our renovation as it progresses.

• Use sustainable or recycled products.
• Non toxic coatings on floors and walls
• Sensible insulation
• Solar power
• Alternative hot water systems
• Publications and websites that offer some of this information
• Introduce new technologies that help reduce waste in this wasteful world.
• Half the fun is in the challenge and hunt for these things.
• Spread the word about products that work or not in some cases.

Use the Index on the left hand side to have a look at posts on each room, the exterior, and the garden as it progresses. 

Subjects like hot water systems, roofing,  solar , paints and finishes, and many other things that we are including in our renovation.

On the right hand side are many links to websites that we have found useful, some are Tasmanian specific but many are general information. They are in alphabetical order.

Have an explore of the picture galleries of different projects as they progress.

To see the latest updates check out THE BLURB!! in the Index or the archives. To find specific things make use of the search bar.

Most important of all make sustainable changes to your house and the world reaps the benefit.

 

First coat Rockote topcoat

To find out the reasons as to why we are doing what we are doing please read on…….

Tessa our Mini Foxy

Like many other people, Mandy and I (Sean) and Tessa the Mini Fox Terrier have despaired at the evergrowing proliferation of overlarge, cheaply built, black roofed MacMansions that are sprouting like weeds in Australia’s cities, towns and suburbs. As we travelled Australia over the last 16 years these feelings grew, and so we started to research our options so that if the time came to stop our nomadic ways we would know what we wanted to do. Our research led us to two conclusions; we could build our own home on a block of our choice or we could buy a pre-existing house and renovate it in a sustainable, sympathetic manner.

It had been our observation that although more and more people were renovating their houses in a sympathetic manner with solar hot water, insulation, double glazing etc and that there is a bewildering & confusing amount of information available on the internet it was scattered everywhere and not easy to gather together. So the idea was born that we would buy a house that needed renovating or buy a block of land and build our own home and put our journey onto the web with our ideas, dreams, information found and all the twists and turns that the journey takes us on.

So this is the start of the journey and who knows where it will end but hopefully with a house renovated on a realistic budget that is warm, well insulated, powered by the sun, does not give off harmful chemicals and suits our needs for the future.

We decided that a renovation was our path at this moment in time. Please explore the pages as they become available to look for information whether it be on hot water, roofing, insulation or progress on the house and grounds. Happy searching

Sean & Mandy & Tessa the Dog