So, this evening I attended a discussion held by our friend, Blue Crump, of Cityspace Construction at the new Whole Foods in Short Pump. I’ve been wanting to catch one of his classes for some time now, and he did a great job teaching attendees about residential solar options to help offset energy consumption (and costs). His presentations are down-to-earth and make green construction and renovation concepts easy to understand. Blue offers free classes there and at Ellwood Thompson’s to share green ideas with homeowners throughout the Richmond area.

Feel free to visit the Cityspace website for more information on this business and their free educational classes.

Digging around on the internet, I came across this clever video that demonstrates how to safely remove paint from metal objects around your home. This homeowner used a common household appliance to do the trick, and didn’t need to use any toxic chemicals.

We’re excited to share with you that Richmond now has its first green retail home-improvement store, EcoLogic!

EcoLogic is located at 1606 W. Main Street in the Uptown district of Richmond, and carries a variety of beautiful products available for making your home a better and healthier place. Among the products carried at EcoLogic are natural linoleum, salvaged hardwood flooring, cork flooring, soapstone and slate countertops, PaperStone countertops (yes, they’re made from paper), recycled glass tile, eco-friendly paints and earth plasters (our favorite, American Clay), and LED lighting.

At Dramatic Changes, we use AFM Safecoat products and American Clay, and we are thrilled that Fred and Stephanie have chosen to carry them in their store. These great products deserve all the attention they can get! For more information on EcoLogic, feel free to stop in their store for a tour, or you can visit their website here.

In our little paint world, it’s easy to think about the products we work with every day and forget about the bigger picture. Why are we driven to offer healthier products to our customers? There are a lot of reasons. In this entry, we share a lecture given by Alex Steffen during the 2005 TED conference. What is TED? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Their annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

In this lecture, Alex Steffen challenges us to look at our world through a broad lens. The small choices we make each day, including using healthy materials in our homes, can make a big difference…

I received an email today from the James River Green Building Council that referenced a recent article published July 18th on Richmond.com. It talks about the practicality of making our homes “green”, and whether or not it really is cost-effective. Many of the people I talk to feel like making their homes eco-friendly is unaffordable. Additionally, much of what we hear on the news talks about what’s happening in other parts of the country. What’s happening here in Virginia? This article references several local professionals who are working to make green buildings a reality for homes and business spaces alike.

For resources and supplies for making your home a healthier place to live, consider a visit to EcoLogic, a green home supply store that’s slated to open in mid-August on Main Street in the City of Richmond.

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Each month, we help secure sponsors for Richmond Green Drinks, an international organization that seeks to bring together people from the green industry once a month for a casual networking event. This month’s event drew around 70 people, our largest crowd to date, and was held at Richmond’s new Built Gallery in Oregon Hill.

One of the people who helps me organize Green Drinks, Copeland Casati, contributed a post about this month’s event on Building Green TV’s website. To see the post, click here.

If you’d like to learn more about Green Drinks, or want to meet someone in Richmond’s green building industry, feel free to contact us. We’re happy to help.

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I get this question all the time. I was talking with a contractor earlier this week, and I told her that paints are one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways you can use healthier products in (or on) your home. In a market where people are becoming increasingly aware of green alternatives, we offer reassurance that painting doesn’t have to be a home improvement that breaks the bank.

There are over 10 different brands of low- and no-VOC paints and wall-coverings available here in Richmond. There are even more within an hour’s drive. Most people are surprised by this, and they’re even more surprised when I tell them that these paints not only rival the quality of traditional products, but they’re also cost-competitive. If you buy paint from a reputable local paint store, you’re probably looking to spend between $30-40 a gallon. To purchase an eco-friendly version, you’ll likely spend between $32 and $45 a gallon. This also means that our painting quotes reflect a reasonable materials cost for work within your home.

If you’re looking for healthier paints in Richmond, feel free to contact us. We can help you find the right product for your home improvement job.

I was recently introduced to an organization that brings issues related to sustainability and eco-friendly living called Back Porch Initiatives. As you’ll see on their site, Back Porch is a non-profit organization working with communities to cultivate local responses to the national and global issue of energy consumption. The Back Porch team is committed to collaborating with communities on existing resources, leveraging new ideas, and developing practical, economical and environmental solutions.

Back Porch has extended an invitation for us to present during one of their weekly community conversations on Monday, July 21st, 2008. We’ll be speaking about healthy paint options available here in Richmond, and will also likely discuss the local green-building resources. We will be at Globehopper Coffeehouse at 2100 E. Main Street in Richmond’s historic Church Hill. This event is free and open to the public.

If you aren’t free to attend this coming Monday’s conversation, please know that Back Porch holds these talks every Monday evening from 7-8 pm at Globehopper.

When considering new additions to your home decor, consider supporting a local artist:

Last year during a trip to local coffee shop Stir Crazy, I was awestruck by an art installation featuring mobiles made out of (among other things) recycled teabags, candle wax, and bamboo. Since then, I’ve been a huge fan of the artist, Dale Keator. It turns out that she’s featured again this month in the same location. Do yourself a favor — Take some time to visit Stir Crazy, grab a tasty beverage (I recommend the ginseng peppermint tea), pull up a comfy chair and admire the beauty of her work. Dale’s pieces vary in size from just a few inches to spanning an entire wall. Here is a statement from Dale about her teabag collages to give you a sense of the energy behind her work:

My artwork is a collaborative effort. The teabags; having had a previous life from perhaps an endearing conversation, a thoughtful quiet moment, or a relaxing sigh of relief from a hectic day, help to create the calming charm that is intended for my pieces. All of the teabags are saved and “gifted” to me, by friends. It is friends that started the momentum on this “project”, which actually started as a result 9/11 and realizing the importance of friendships. Every teabag paper is different, much the way people and relationships are.

I would like the viewer to enjoy the experience of the teabags by watching the movement, smelling the tea particles left on the papers, listening to the sounds as the sewn strands of teabags gently touch each other.

The tea, the tags, the string, the staples, and of course the papers…all are used in making my pieces. And all are used to evoke compassion.

Dale Keator is a sculptural collage artist whose work is created from recycled tea bags. Her work has a zen like quality that inspires it’s viewers to “slow down” and experience its gentle movements. She holds a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, has worked with the Children’s Museum of Richmond and taught for the Neighborhood School of the Arts. She has had two recent shows at Lift Coffee Shop and Stir Crazy Café. Dale says that her work is absolutely a “labor of love” and continues to enjoy collecting tea bags from very loyal tea drinkers.

To learn more about this great local artist’s work, feel free to contact her at sewsart@yahoo.com.

It’s a buzz-word we’ve heard a lot in the paint world over the last few years. When I’m talking to customers, they often don’t understand what “VOC’s” mean, just that fewer of them is a good thing when it comes to paint. Simply put, VOC’s are gasses that contaminate the quality of the air inside your house. Among other things, it’s not uncommon for formaldehyde (you know, the stuff used to preserve our bodies after we die) to be present in the air following a paint job, and not just for a few days. There are plenty of other chemicals, and up to 50% of the toxic gasses and carcinogens from traditional paints leak into your home up to six years after it dries on your wall. You can often tell a traditional paint from one that has been produced without these same hazardous preservatives - It smells like chemicals, and most people want to get out of a freshly painted house as quickly as they can. The most noticeable side effects are those that are immediate, such as headaches or light-headedness.

Many manufacturers have chosen to remove these unnecessary chemicals from their paints, without sacrificing quality. When you use a paint that has ingredients proven to keep your air cleaner than traditional competitors, it’s a good thing. It’s important to note that not all low- or no-VOC paints are created equal. Be a smart consumer - When you hire a paint contractor, whether it’s Dramatic Changes or someone else, ask questions about the products they use. Request information, and look them up on the web. Most products nowadays will have frequently asked questions, contact email and phone numbers, as well as MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) posted online to make it easier for people to learn about the products available for their home.

To learn more about VOC’s and healthier paint alternatives, Consumer Reports has done their research on the subject, which can be found here: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/home/2008/04/vocs-in-paint.html.