WE GOT GREEN: Homeowners Jim & Hanmi tell their remodel story

We are Jim and Hanmi Meyer, and will each be contributing to the blog.  We are both in our mid 30’s and were married in 2006.  Our family consists of two dogs, four hens, and our housemate Bobby. 

Jim works as a software engineer in downtown Portland and regularly commutes by bicycle.  Hanmi is a freelance photographer and industrial designer who recently gave up commuting to a corporate design job in the ‘burbs and now works out of small office in our home.  Though each of us owned a house prior to meeting, this is our first home together. 

Our house, located in the Hawthorne District of Portland, is a 2-story 1400 sq. ft. Craftsman-style bungalow on a 3500 sq. ft lot, built in 1908.  It has 3 small bedrooms and 1 bath.  Space is tight, which helps us avoid living a lifestyle of over-consumption. 

The history of the house is pretty typical for the area.  It was built with both electric and gas lighting, used local fir lumber for studs, beams and floors, lathe & plaster walls and ceilings, double-hung windows and lead paint.  The original siding was cedar plank with cedar shingles on the second story dormers.  Some time in the 40’s or 50s, the original siding was covered with asbestos cement tile.   The heating system was most likely originally coal, upgraded to oil in the 1940s and switched to natural gas in the 80s or 90s.  Lighting was originally meager electric, with gas as a supplement to the same fixtures - the gas piping is still present between much of the first and second floors.

When Jim bought the house in 2001, several modifications had already been made:  The bathroom had been remodeled twice and the kitchen had been upgraded and expanded by enclosing the corner mud room, installing a ceramic tile floor, and replacing the cabinets and appliances.

In our lives and our remodeling habits we try to be as earth friendly as possible.  In plenty of cases, we find there is little economic impact to making green choices.  When there is a significant cost factor, we try to look at the bigger picture, and often times we’ll see a “you get what you pay for” scenario.  By living in a high density neighborhood that is both bike and pedestrian friendly, we limit our need to drive to get around.  Generally, we only use the car for weekend adventures out of town and for running errands (several at a time) that would be highly impractical by bike.  Things like buying local, composting, using our tiny yard for growing vegetables and chickens, recycling, using CFL’s, etc. actually end up saving us money rather than costing more. 

When we decided to gut and remodel our bathroom, bids were coming in much too high, so we opted to do it ourselves while hiring sub contractors as needed for more specialized work.  The money we saved in labor costs [over using a general contractor] went directly towards upgrading nearly everything to green building materials. 

Jim & Hanmi

About We Got Green
We Got Green is a GetWithGreen.com exclusive where homeowners tell their everyday real remodel stories, and their efforts to get a bit greener during the process.  Decisions by our homeowner contributors may not always be the “greenest” due to limitations they may incur such as budget, locating products, time, etc.  At GetWithGreen.com we believe their decisions reflect the reality of the world we live in today, and we believe that every eco-friendlier decision a homeowner can make is better than doing the same they’ve always done.    

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