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In the future, you might find pics and commentary about our little cottage  on Little Mangum in Duke Park, one of the bungalow neighborhoods in Durham. We'll have pics of our various gardens, homemade potting shed with a green roof, funky rain barrels and water gardens and more. Meanwhile here's a piece that ran in The Durham News about our energy efficiency efforts at Bayleaf. You can find more of my writing on the Essays page.

We Bring Tidings of Comfort and Savings

Winter weather and holiday muzak have me in such a fine spirit, I must sing out:

On the umpteenth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
(and I to her)
A warmer house in winter
A smaller carbon footprint
More romantic dinners
A cozy little clubhouse
A do-og-hair-free-zo-o-one

Okay--enough—I’m declaring the rest of this column Christmas-carroll-free.

Frankly, we have a low-key approach to Christmas here. We have Christmas lights around the porch, but our tree is a 3’ tall specimen that looks like it was shaped by a bonsai novice. At press-time our Christmas dinner with friends may be fresh pasta or a whole baked fish. And we are not so much into gifts as we are into giving. Hence the little stanza above. Since Chris and I were married, we’ve made incremental  improvements in energy use in our house that have given us all the delightful things in the song.  I’d like to say we were only motivated by a desire to keep the Outer Banks folks from having to slog through knee-deep water to get their morning paper. Of course, those things matter to us, but truth be told, the real driving force was our family motto: “Comfort is key.”

So if you think you’d enjoy the giving, more than gift-buying, or if your family would enjoy living in a home that’s more comfortable and delightful, or even if you really just want to help save the world, you can do worse than adopting one or more of these steps between now and next Christmas:

∑ A warmer house in winter: Gaps in the window near my side of the bed used to ‘refresh’ me with frigid air all winter. For two years now the windows have been airtight thanks to a caulk-like product called Seal ‘n’ Peel (www.homeandbeyond.com). We dropped the thermostat 2 degrees, but were actually more comfortable after I spent a Sat. afternoon going around the outside  of the house (it’s too stinky to use inside) with a $5 caulk gun and ladder,  running a bead of S&P to seal gaps in the windows. Any windows we want open in spring, we simply peel S&P away. You’ll need 4-5 tubes for an average house, but even at $4 a tube, renters can afford this gift of comfort and savings.

∑ Smaller carbon footprint: We have an old, but efficient heating oil furnace. Turns out, heating oil is really #2 diesel fuel—a lower grade of  what buses and BMW’s run on. That means we can safely burn biodiesel and reduce greenhouse gases by 78% (www.ecologycenter.org)  A local distributor (www.carolinabiofuels.org) delivers it at a price lower than the cost of regular heating oil! It burns cleaner and doesn’t smell like French fries. We’ve also shrunk our carbon footprint by dedicating $4/mo. on our electric bill to buying renewable energy (www.ncgreenpower.org).

∑ More romantic dinners: Some of the first changes we made gave us quick savings that we plowed into good food at Durham’s many new restaurants.  We’ve realized savings from fluorescent bulbs, an Energy Star washing machine and even from a trellis over a big west-facing window. Annual vines block hot summer sun, then after a killing frost, we pull them off to allow the heat of the afternoon sun into the house in winter. Learn more about saving money and energy at www.cleanenergydurham.org

∑ Cozy little clubhouse: A part of our attic feels like a treehouse because of the low cathedral ceiling. We installed a wool carpet, pillows and  a 4’x4’ skylight in the north-facing roof for daylighting for reading the Sunday Times and other ‘clubhouse’ activities. We also hired Carolina Weatherization (680-3010) and Bill Triplett (740-5262) to keep the cold air out and the heat in by airsealing any gaps around the skylight and other parts of the house and ductwork. 

∑ Dog hair free zone: We love Molly, our 10 year-old black lab, but it’s nice to have a place where she hasn’t shed a flashflood of doghair. Most of the walk-up attic has enough headroom for a home office, so we had foam insulation sprayed between the rafters (Allied Spray Foams at  971-5559 or Healthy Home Insulation at 418-0307). Not cheap, but we’ve gained living space and figure we’ll break even in ten years and then invest our savings in more dinners out or gosh, maybe something smart like our retirement fund.

For future giving (and savings) I’ve bought lumber to build sculptural posts for the clothesline that will give Chris the fresh smelling laundry she wants. And maybe we’ll spend some quality couple time installing an insulation jacket on the water heater one weekend. 

So what comforts will  you be giving your sweetie for Christmas next year?