Greening my House

so much to do, so little money!! but eventually things need to be repaired or replaced or updated. i think it's only a matter of time before we have to replace the conventional heat/air system in our house, which sucks right now and i imagine is pretty old. our house was built in the early 60's and boasted being the most modernized neighborhood in atlanta at that time. central heat and air was the main selling point. well, now i think all that needs to change. i want my next climate control method to be geothermal. yes, it sounds crazy - like some kind of plot to take over the world but really it's just using the earth like a giant condensing coil. it's going to cost more up front but hopefully pay for itself in a few short years.

but in our more immediate future is the roof. right now, it's practically falling apart because some idiot did a half-assed job several years ago when a tree branch fell and crashed onto the high roof over the bedrooms. the roof leaks right above my bed. and we have a strong suspicion that there is ZERO insulation in the roof, which is just unbelievable. i'm pretty sure that the layers of my pitiful roof are as follows: wood decking (as can be seen from the inside), 3/4" plywood (hopefully there's at least this much!), roofing paper, tar (bitumen?), and gravel (except on the high roof, which is bare). i am going to install (as soon as possible) a white TPO roof on at least 3/4" rigid insulation. i am hoping that i can scrape off the roofing paper and tar, or if i have to - remove and replace the plywood base - and glue some rigid foam insulation to the plywood. then, i want the white thermo-plastic membrane hot-rolled on top of that. it must be white to reflect the heat, and be flashed like nobody's business and will require a completely new gutter system (fully integrated with a rainwater collection system, of course).

a new roof and a new climate control system. major, major steps towards a greener home. i already know that the asbestos has been removed and that we do not have a radon issue. the next concern i think will be the protecting the crawl spaces.

something that i'm not sure i can even think about right now is the east wall of the house, which goes from the bedrooms down to the "basement", where it turns from wood panel to brick. the brick is very obviously spalling and large cracks can be seen. this is due to the shitty roof leaking, where water has actually gotten between the walls and into the brick. yeah, it doesn't sound good because it is really really bad. especially because the brick MAY be load-bearing. which means i might need a whole new wall.

it gets depressing fast, so i'm just gonna hope an pray that a solution will reveal itself one day before the house collapses.