Green Homes

You know how it is with Good Housekeeping Magazine. You let your subscription lapse for a little bit, and you wind up missing out. Missing out on what, I'm not quite sure -- Faith Hill's unpredictable heart-healthy recipes or an interview with Star Jones about pilates or something, maybe? But in defiance of this (totally unearned, totally knee-jerk) dismissal of Good Housekeeping, it turns out the magazine actually has a bit of a green thing going on, and recently assisted, along with the Steven Winter Group, in greening a LEED for Homes-hopeful circa-1910 brownstone in Harlem until it becomes the "greenest home in Manhattan" label. Apparently this is the third year Good Housekeeping has been doing this, too. Why, except for the fact that I am just obviously not someone who would listen to a story with the words "Good Housekeeping" in it, was I not told about this?

New York House magazine’s first annual Best in Green Building Competition has been ongoing here in 2008 in no small part due to the efforts of gbNYC’s Paul McGinniss, who also served on the panel of judges that whittled the competition’s entries down to 12 back in September. To be eligible, homes had to be single-family and located in one of the magazine’s upstate editorial coverage areas (Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, etc. counties) and built between 2000 and 2006. The purpose of the competition? Simply to identify “exemplary” green residential projects and promote sustainable design. The judges used criteria from the USGBC’s LEED for Homes system during their review, but a LEED application was not a prerequisite in order to qualify.

The Ericsson Barn at Milo Vineyards is a 5000-square-foot, four-bedroom home that’s currently for sale in the town of Milo in western New York State, just to the southwest of Rochester. The barn itself was actually salvaged from nearby Watertown in 2007 and was originally built in the 1800s. The project is the brainchild of Tom Johnson, a Parsons-trained designer who completed a similar renovation for himself back in 2005, spending $175,000 to relocate a 150-year-old barn from Canada and refurbish it on a separate plot in Milo.

Hamptons Cottages & Garden magazine is sponsoring the 2008 Idea House in Sagaponack on Long Island. The house is actually a Victorian farmhouse that was formerly owned by novelist James Jones. Sag Harbor developer Peter Sabbeth and his ModernGreenHome company have put a two-story, modern green addition on the back of the house and placed the property on the market for $12.9 million, without any furniture. The antique furniture you'll find inside the house right now (it's $30 to enter and open Thursday through Sunday until August 24) was chosen by local designers selected by the magazine. Other items have been created from recycled materials; architect Campion Platt, who fitted out the family sitting room, formed three rugs from discarded cowhide scraps. You can find the house at 151 Sagg Main Street in Sagaponack (646-723-7501 for more details).