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by Don Shelby
Minnetonka, Minn. (WCCO) ― It might cost more at the beginning but the savings in the long run for building or remodeling a "greener" home are significant. The home is cheaper to maintain, has lower utility costs and is better for the environment.

Peter Lytle bought a home in Minnetonka, Minn. and launched a "green" remodeling project that's an experiment and a learning project called Live Green, Live Smart.

Shelby and the contractor, Keith Poetes, take a tour of the home that is turning an old rambler into a new, smarter house.

Shelby: Hope you'll join us here for the next couple of weeks as we go inside Peter Lytle's 'Live Green, Live Smart' house. A 1950's rambler. Completely gutted and reconverted with all of the brand new energy saving gear. You gotta see how it's been done. We'll show ya. C'mon in.

This is like almost any old rambler you'd find around almost any neighborhood in the Twin Cities. It was built in 1946 and it wasn't built in an energy efficient manor. But that's all changing right now because the way it looks right now, it looks like a brand new house. They've torn everything out of it. And I'm going to look to the general contractor to tell me more about that.

Keith Poetes is right here. Keith, c'mon in here and I'd like to know more about what you're doing. It's good to see you.

Poetes: Good to see you.
Shelby: OK, now tell me what you've done to the house and how it's different from all the other houses you've built.

Poetes: Basically, we stripped out the house. We stripped out all the old wiring, all the old duct work which was contaminated. And we're really kind of starting from scratch. But we are re-using the initial frame of the building. And reusing all of the lumber that we stripped out for one purpose and reusing it in other areas.

Shelby: Tell me about that. There's so little waste. It's not just an energy issue. But everything you rip out, you put in a big pile, go through, and find a reuse for it.

Poetes: We only want to send stuff to the dump that we really can't find a use for. We're relearning things that our grandparents did in a lot of respects.

Shelby: Tell me more about that.

Poetes: You know, a hundred years ago people didn't really waste anything. If there was a piece of lumber that was used to form for pouring concrete, when they were done with that, they'd scrape the concrete off of it and they'd reuse that lumber. Or if they tore down a building, that lumber didn't go to waste, they reused it.

Shelby: And if you had to go down to the creek to get the water, you didn't want to make that trip very often.

Poetes: Exactly.

Shelby: You'd find several uses for that water.

Poetes: Exactly. If you were 40 miles from town by horse, you didn't want to drive in to buy new lumber, it was a lot easier to reuse what you had.

Shelby: Speaking of that water, we're going to go downstairs and talk to the plumbing contractor right now. Because I understand you got a system down there that reuses shower water, grey water, and then pipes it in there so you can use it to flush toilets.

Poetes: That's it.

Shelby: Let's go on downstairs and take a look at what the plumbing contractor's done. We're looking for Steve Bradow down here in the basement. He is the contractor for plumbing, and when you see what they're doing you're really going to be amazed. Here's Steve right now, how you doing?

Bradow: Very good, Don, thank you.

Shelby: Steve I was looking at this thing, and it looks like you could build this at home.

Bradow: Yes. It's very easy actually. It's just used for ABS piping which is going to be our inlet here. And it does have a overflow system on it in case you're not using your toilets as often as you're using the shower water.

Shelby: And it's just a filter inside here.

Bradow: It's just a very easily accessible filter that you will take and pull out and basically wash out in your laundry tub and it's ready to be reinstalled again.

Shelby: Wonderful, Steve, good talking to you.

Well we learned an awful lot about new energy saving techniques and new gizmos that are out there and available to the public in our first visit to this old green house. And I hope you'll stick around because we've got more stories to tell as this building continues to go up. As a remodeling project or as a new home, maybe you're picking up a few new ideas as well. Now I've got to get to work. I gotta go down here and help this man do a little tuck-pointing. Need any help here?

Worker: No.

Shelby: No problem. I'm going to be right over here. Call me if you need me. OK?

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