Welcome, welcome to Dig This, the cleverly-titled weekly column on digs — or, for those of you not up on the lingo, houses. Or, eco-stuff for houses. Or, eco-stuff vaguely related to houses. We’ll see how it goes. I’m not above making obscure connections.
Today’s (very digs-related) spotlight: the brand spankin’ new magazine ecoLogical Home Ideas. You can check out the site, but I currently hold in my hands — well, my lap, since I’m typing — a glossy copy of the premier issue. I know, you’ve grown so accustomed to Grist that you’ve forgotten they made magazines out of paper. Me too.
The magazine shown on the ecoLogical Home Ideas website doesn’t have the same cover as the actual hard copy, so consider this a sneak preview. Lucky you! The biggest headline on the actual copy is “If Money Were No Object.”
Okay. Do you know anyone for whom money actually is no object? Unless you are Bill Gates — and if you are, hi Bill, how do you like the column? — I’m assuming money is at least somewhat of an object. Reading that headline made me think right off that ecoLogical Home Ideas should have just called itself Eco-Ideas for the Rich and Famous. Which is funny, because according to their intro:
Our mission is to celebrate magnificent ecoLogical homes of every type and at every socioeconomic level that have taken the ‘green’ plunge.
They do have a “Green on a Budget” article — about how it would cost a mere $8,000 to eco-upgrade a $120,000 condo. Percentage-wise, yes, that’s “green housing on a budget.” Nonprofit-intern-salary-wise, not so much.
Also featured in the first issue: green rating systems, lenders, building codes, remodeling, wood, insulation, duct work, paints, the Solar Decathlon, a do-it-yourself on solar water heating, Habitat for Humanity, and xeriscaping. (I’ve gone ahead and linked you to some Grist content, in case you want to know about this stuff before your ecoLogical Home Ideas magazine arrives.)
In any case, now you are aware of ecoLogical Home Ideas, which is beautiful and glossy and well-laid out and has that nice fresh-off-the-presses smell. If you wish to subscribe after my overwhelming endorsement, going through the website gets you a 2-year subscription (8 issues) for $19.95. I’ll admit, $10 a year is doable even for those of us for whom money is an object.
Still, it’s high time environmentalism lost its uppity rep and started appealing to those it affects the most. So keep an eye out for upcoming Dig This columns, where I will try my darnedest to point out the must-have eco-housing trends that are affordable to those of us who are cheap frugal. See you next Tuesday.
