Posted by Kerry on Apr 25, 2009
Recycling, reusing the fallen trees
How green is my Vineyard? The full picture is elusive, but I know that we have to start somewhere. As we proceed with the development of the first LEED certified residential home in Oak Bluffs, the enthusiasm and well wishes are heart warming. And the reality of building a green house in the middle of a neighborhood of established older family homes is complex. I’m sure we will talk more about this issue as we progress.
The Vineyard has always prided itself on being a community of earth loving humanitarians. We are exposed to diverse and environmentally sensitive habitats and wildlife, and we have commissions that are manned by very passionate volunteers. But like everywhere else, we still wear blinders to the impact of our existence on the environment. Global warming, our carbon footprints, the oil crisis and the age of consumerism leading up to the present economic crisis are all puzzle pieces. There is also ignorance as to how to begin on something that seems so overwhelming. A feeling that one person can’t make a difference.
First thing I just want to take this opportunity to remind you all of whom won the election in January this year, if you have any sense that one man cannot make a difference, then that man has most certainly proven you wrong. Next, when my husband and I bought the land on Green Ave. (that’s right, Green on Green!), we had not planned on going in this direction, owning it for as long as we have, and worrying about the real estate market’s effect on us and our future. We now see this as an opportunity to learn and educate. We have met and are working with some of the most well informed green building consultants available in New England. When we decided to build a LEED certified house, we knew it was the right thing to do for our company, the environment and our daughter.
The team at Squash Meadow Construction has been nothing short of enthusiastic and open minded, despite this being a new avenue for them to grow into. I’ve been away all week and was excited to get back to the island to be a part of this project and share in the enthusiasm. I went to the site to document the beginning of the excavation process. When I arrived a neighbor had stopped over and was loading his car up with some trees that had been cleared. He was going to use them in his fireplace for heat next winter. Reduce, reuse, recycle and recover… the 4 R’s of sustainability. A great place to start.
Posted by Kerry on Apr 13, 2009
How do you find balance in your work and love life, when you work with your love life? Partnerships are hard enough without throwing in any emotional entanglements…so how do people do it? After much trial and error, I’ve developed some insight.
My husband and I both have home offices in different parts of the house. The work/life overlap has always existed to some degree, but took on a much sharper edge when we started a major project together last year. It was an exciting opportunity, and our early business meetings and brainstorming sessions were filled with laughter and intensity. Similar in many ways to the beginning of an infatuation, or our relationship!
Due to the nature of the project, I think we were both under the impression that our partnership was experimental and would be short lived. We were developing some real estate and it would not be in our hands for long. We designed a house together and developed a marketing plan. If things went well we would look for another opportunity and try to do it again.
That was well over a year ago, and there is no end in sight. We have had to reevaluated the entire scope of the project, and the plan has been revised to where we are starting from square one. Of course there are extenuating circumstances, but nonetheless this business of ours became larger than what we were able to keep in perspective. In other words, I became resentful that my husband would only talk business to me, and he couldn’t understand why I wasn’t more interested in our business!
We both have our other jobs as well as this business together. We also have the most delightful 7 year old daughter, and many other responsibilities that need time and discussion. What was happening to us was we would discuss this particular project at every single opportunity, to the exclusion of the rest of our lives. When we had a free 15 minutes, we talked about the house, or land, or sale or whatever stage it was labeled at that moment.
As busy parents with busy lives, it can be hard to find balance with work and home. Adding this whole other element, working together, and the first thing to go was the intimacy in our relationship. The time that we had to talk about us, and take care of us, was sacrificed for talking about business. Its tricky because the illusion is that you are communication, but the content is missing.
Finding balance is a goal that requires effort, but identifying where you have lost your footing is the hard part. When I no longer have the stomach to talk about this project with my husband, I know that I have lost my perspective and we are out of balance. When my relationship is in balance, everything else seems to flow along with it. I want to love the work and love the partner!
As we start this next phase of our project, a LEED certified home on our property(woohoo!!!), we are on the same page emotionaly as well as with the business end of things. The foundation for our success in working together as a team is set, because the balance of our family lives has been identified and re-set. It may be a see-saw, or some funky couples yoga pose, but each is available to balance the other. And if one sways, the other will steady.
Posted by Kerry on Apr 06, 2009
Building Green for a Better World
In this age of recession, bordering on depression, what is foremost on peoples minds is conservation. Conservation of property,conservation of monies, and conservation of time. We are consumed with the fear of running out of money, and many of us have already done just that. It is not pretty out there and the idea of paying premium for what we don’t have seems superfluous. Does going green cost more money?
Going green has a reputation of being cost prohibitive. In my town, Oak Bluffs, we pay to recycle. At the town dump, you buy a sticker for your car that allows you to bring your recyclables to the dump. How does that make sense? We live on an island, and conserving our resources should be part of the package, but nobody has figured out that recycling should be rolled into our taxes? We pay land bank fees when we buy property, paying to recycle should not be that much of a stretch. People will continue to throw away their bottles and cans as long as it costs money to get rid of them. That is not taking into consideration the inconvenience of having to get the recyclables to the dump.
In the building business, waste is part of the package. In order to move along efficiently on a job, huge gray containers are set up and filled with debris. The vast amounts of leftover wood, shingles, and other construction filler is enormous. There are whole buildings being demolished and hauled to the dump. The urgency for new and newer is evident in the rising costs of construction and home ownership. What can be done, and more importantly, why do it?
Here’s the point. Not only is the land on Martha’s Vineyard finite, but the earth is finite. This is it. This is what we have to offer our children, this is what we will be leaving behind beyond any monetary wealth. Are we proud of what we have to offer? We could be, we should be. So far we have been wasteful. Today we have access to better techniques for caring for the environment and the dwellings that we put on the earth’s surface. We can build homes, schools, churches and offices in a way that energy is conserved, not wasted. We can actually enhance buildings to create electricity. We have the technology today to conserve and create a world where we offer the safest air quality available for our children and their children.
Why not do it? Now is the time to invest in your future, and the future of your children. If you are going to build, build green. It is the only way to bring around the changes that we all need to survive and thrive both economically and physically. Green building is about optimal health as well as the future of the environment. The irony here, is that though green products and green building may be slightly more costly on the front end, they save money down the road. And, if we all made an effort to buy energy efficient products, they would come down in price. Conservation is, ultimately, priceless.
Posted by Kerry on Jan 13, 2008
LIFE ON THE VINEYARD
My husband is a contractor, I sell real estate. We live together, play together, raise a child together and as fate would have it, we often work together.
Our lives are reflections of the social threads of Vineyard life, viewed through a magnifying glass. We overlap. We see each other everywhere.
COMMUNITY
When I go to show property I pass him. At the Board of Health, there he is! Building department…guess who? As is true for us, is the case for most everyone who chooses a life on Martha’s Vineyard. We are more than husband and wife. We are part of each other’s community, network, sources of information and hopefully, at the end of the day, strength and security.
RELATIONSHIPS
It is a life like no other, and the challenges are unlike anywhere else.
It is important to know, nurture and maintain the relationships that are going to sustain you in this unusual and special environment. One of the challenges is learning about who can and will service your needs, and who is in it for the short term.
This is a service centered island, and home sales, building and maintenance are service centered businesses.
REPUTATION
More so in a small community than anywhere else, reputation is a key element.
You will find countless businesses that are here today, gone tomorrow. It is imperative to do your homework and ask around. Ask members of this small, close knit community to recommend your contractor, your real estate broker, your day care provider. The things that we hold dear need our highest consideration.
