A green renovation of a Pacific Beach home built in 1912 with original landscaping by “Mother of Balboa Park” Kate Sessions, is on this year’s San Diego Green Building Council’s Green Homes Tour Sunday, Oct. 21.
Owned by the Victor family, the residence showcases grass-roots sustainability. “When we learned of the home’s historic value, we decided to maintain its integrity, and that’s how we started integrating sustainability into it,” said Kristen Victor, noting their dwelling had no air conditioning, heating or ventilation.
What the Victors did was to adapt their home to use natural ventilation to heat and cool it.
“We also upgraded the home using recycled content with components with zero toxicity,” said Kristen adding, “The guest house was remodeled with 100 percent recycled content.”
But the exterior of the home was where the Victors really went to work.
“We put in rain gutters and a screening system that filters debris out of the water,” Kristen said. “We’ve attached a spout and a soaker hose to that which we used to water our food garden.”
The Victors installed a gray water system for their guest house bathroom plumbed through a purple pipe system using gravity flow transferring that gray water into a bioswell for natural cleansing.
“We have a food forest now completely watered by gray water,” said Kristen pointing out their sustainability improvements save money while conserving water.
“Our water bill went down from $500 a month to $120 to $140 a month,” she said. “We qualified for water cistern rebates. It cost us about $2,500 to put in the system — and we got $1,500 back in rebates.”
Now in its ninth year, the Green Homes Tour celebrates best practices in green building and design while showcasing the innovative work of some of the industry’s top professionals.
Pacific Beach is among nine San Diego communities to have a sustainable home showcased on this year’s Green Home Tour sponsored by the San Diego Green Building Council, an environmental nonprofit dedicated to providing education, outreach and advocacy focused on green building.
Un edificio 'verde' es aquel cuyo diseño, construcción u operación reduce o elimina los impactos negativos, crea impactos ambientales positivos y preserva los recursos naturales. Los edificios ecológicos utilizan eficientemente el agua y la energía solar renovable empleando estrategias de reutilización y reciclaje mientras utilizan materiales de construcción sostenibles y no tóxicos.
Bryon Stafford, miembro de la junta del Consejo de Construcción Ecológica de San Diego, dijo que el propósito de Green Home Tour es familiarizar a quienes no están familiarizados con la “construcción sostenible a nivel local”.
Las casas se eligen selectivamente, agregó Stafford. “No queremos casas que solo tengan paneles solares en el recorrido”, dijo. “Queremos hogares con características ecológicas o prácticas sostenibles”.
Acerca de la construcción sustentable, Stafford dijo: “Hay muchas maneras de construir de manera ecológica, y no agrega mucho al costo. Simplemente está haciendo las cosas un poco mejor que el estándar de la industria. Esto no es ciencia de cohetes. Es usar diferentes productos que durarán más”.
The popular one-day event will showcase homes in South Park, Normal Heights, Pacific Beach, Point Loma, La Jolla, Encinitas, Vista, Lakeside and Campo.
En la visita autoguiada de 10 am a 4 pm, los asistentes pueden visitar tantos hogares como deseen, reunirse con profesionales de la industria y propietarios de viviendas, y obtener más información sobre las últimas opciones de diseño, construcción y actualización de viviendas ecológicas.
Las entradas ya están a la venta por $15 por persona. Hay descuentos disponibles para miembros del Consejo de Construcción Ecológica de San Diego ($10) y estudiantes ($5, con identificación). Los niños menores de 16 años entran gratis y deben estar acompañados por un adulto.
Visit the tour website, sdgreenhomestour.org, for an updated lineup of home sites, project descriptions and photos.
