I’m betting I’m not the only one who, whilst renovating a home that’s long on character and short on ecofeatures, has seriously wondered ‘why not build the ideal green home from scratch?’ This is the question on Chris’ and my mind while our nearly finished green kitchen lays idle.

As everyone knows, home renos take time – and lots of it. The best scenario for us would have been to do all our planning up front and then to take time off to do the reno. This works for some folks, but in our case taking time off is really difficult.

And it’s not that we didn’t plan either! The planning phase was endless….hence one of our problems. Things just sort of happened that way. I won’t even get into why we’re so over budget. The unfortunate truth is that we don’t have the time to finish our kitchen. And we don’t have the funds to hire someone to finish it off.

Thinking ahead to the other renos we’ve anticipated is demoralizing at best. It makes me want to enlist for Reef Momma’s entourage to the Australian Great Barrier Reef Islands for the Best Job in the World. Chris and I could sure use a little sun, sand, and ocean right now.

Time to wake up from fantasy-land. Yet I’ve always fantasized about having my own eco-home. Like Ann and Gord’s insulated cobb home pictured here. And now residential green home building has evolved beyond natural products and energy efficiency. Imagine a net zero home, or living in an ecovillage! Are these options are more worthy of our efforts?

Not everyone can and should build new. We can’t just toss all the existing inefficient housing stock in the landfill. But it sure is tempting to start fresh. In any case we won’t be doing much of either for the next season or so.

What do you think? What’s the best solution to greening Canada’s homes?