Tracy Freeman\’s Blog

Week 3 of my œGreener Evolution.

I was stopped at a light at the corner of Morris Tpke. and Millburn Ave. when four teenage girls, say 14 or 15 years old, nearly gave the œMOMin me a heart attack. Two of the girls dangerously ignored the cross signal and road their bikes across the busy street narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic. The other two waited until it was slightly safer to ride across, but if any of their mothers had been there..OY!

It was a reminder to me, of how tough runners/walkers/bikers have it in parts of our town.Now, that particular intersection is definitely not a good place to bike (Morris Turnpike is infamous for lots of car to car accidents) but this incident begs the question: Where IS there a good place to ride in our downtowns?

In our area the number of residents who are thinking along the same lines seems to be hitting a critical mass. On July 21st a vote on this issue is scheduled at the Millburn Township Committee Meeting. If passed, it will provide bike lanes and safer bike travel around a portion of South Mountain Reservation from Brookside Drive to Ridgewood Road. The project is supposed to include striping along Glen Avenue, road markers with the bicycle symbol, and kiosks with information about the path and signs. In addition to running along Glen Avenue, the path would link to downtown Millburn on Lackawanna Place. Now this is something everyone (especially all of us Greenies) would love to see happen!

Not only is traveling in ways OTHER than our cars great for our environment, it is also great for our bodies! So, these alternative means of transportation should be promoted when logistically and fiscally possible.

Even more exciting news! From what I understand, our other midtown train towns are in various stages of their own Bike Path projects. Imagine being able to ride a bike from town to town along the train line. Maplewood to Millburn to Short Hills Station to Livingston to Summit and to Chatham! How cool would that be? For our environment and our thighs!

I will keep you posted on the results of the meeting. If all goes well, the project in Millburn could be completed by the Fall!

Best,

Tracy
“

So I finally saw Al Gore’s Movie – An Inconvenient Truth. I guess I always put it off because I thought it would really depress me. And, maybe if I saw it back in 2006 it would have. But today, knowing what we know, the content is not very surprising. Nor was his concluding thought. We have the power to change the path that our world is on, if we all do our part.

Which leads me back to my quest.

Since last week, I have been searching the web for Green Design, Sustainability, Eco-Friendly Design and Energy Efficiency. So far, I  have accumulated a list of 50 websites  which offer good advice, and below are four that stand out as great resources to use as guides on my quest.

www.dsireusa.org THE site that everyone should be referencing. This is where the database of State Incentives for Renewables & Energy is kept. In otherwords, how much will the state pay YOU to Green your home. For example, the State Rebate Program will “buy-down” the cost of a Home Energy Assessment from $300 to $125 (totally reimbursed if $2,000 of the work is completed within 3 months). There are many other incentives and with a Program Budget of $12.57 million (2009) what are you waiting for! I’m calling to get my Energy Assessment.

www.nesea.org The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Check it out. Read the brochure: The 10 Most Effective Ways to Save Energy in Your Home.   May not seem like very exciting stuff, but reading about  ways to  save energy  and money – that is always worth a look to me.

www.pseg.com  Public Service Electric and Gas. The Utilities are really on top of this stuff and they better be if they want to survive. Under Customer Service/For Your Home you will find a lot of useful information about Managing Your Energy Costs.

www.epa.gov  United State Environmental Protection Agency. The Granddaddy of all Green sites. The “Learn The Issues” section is a great primer for understanding the main issues facing the EPA today.

If you do nothing else this week,  have a look at  these sites and you will probably learn what I have learned. That small steps are doable, right now. Today! And that these small steps count. If we all do our part, our small steps will add up to  measureable gains for the environment and our  wallets.

 Al Gore is behind you and so am I.

This week  I completed the first portion of my GREEN Designation Course for  REALTORS. And it has made me think. Where do I fall on the “Greenie” spectrum, and can I do more. I think I am like most other people,   I am neither a “True Believer” nor a “Skeptic”, nor am I  eco-chic (unless I find something cool and GREEN at TJ Maxx). I am  somewhere in the middle – a “lifestyle” environmentalist.

As  a person, I  think green in good.  As a home owner, I  think an energy efficienct home  is good.  As a mom, I  think Sustainability is good. And, I thought I was contributing a decent amount to the green movement. I recycle a lot, I use reusable shopping bags religiously, I only give my children Organic Milk and I shop locally and organically whenever possible.

But, I don’t or didn’t ever stop to really look around my home and examine how green it is.

After two intense days under Mimi Weisinger’s “tutelage” my eyes are open (wider) and I want to do better. Following in the footsteps of the start of the green movement in commerical real estate. I am focusing on the bottom line and over the next 52 weeks vow to make my home more energy efficient and more GREEN.

I live in a 1920′s colonial. So it’s not like I can start from scratch, say by finding a brownfield, remediating the contamination and building a LEED home. No, my steps will have to be more home specific to my existing home and more calculated to fit within our budget.

My husband and I have already done two things to improve our homes “Greeness”. 1.) We have had professionals removed  as much  of the lead paint from the exterior as possible and repainted it  ironically enough green (neither for the movement, nor for  our beloved Philadelphia  E-A-G-L-E-S, as some of our family and friends may think), 2.) We have replaced all 27 of our old, single-pane windows on the first and second floors  with thermal pane/low E windows – which have the added benefit of opening and  closing.  Yay for us!

So, what’s next.  Each week I will set a goal for myself. Our road map of baby steps in moving towards a greener home. This week’s goal will be to evaluate what needs to be done, what we can afford to do and then create a priority list for the next 52 weeks. 365 days from now our Maplewood Home will be greener. Look out Ed Begley Jr. my carbon footprint is getting smaller too!

Feel free to email me with your ideas and wish us luck.

Tracy

Tracy Freeman

Sales Associate

Keller Williams Realty

eMail: TracyFreemanRealtor@gmail.com

Mobile: 917.604.5735

Website: TracyFreemanRealtor.com

I love sharing great news! Have you heard?

Columbia High School (which serves the towns of Maplewood and South Orange NJ) has been honored as one of 13 Model Schools in the Arts designated by the New Jersey Arts Education Partnership and the New Jersey Department of Education.

CHS was eligible because it scored in the top 10% of high schools in the New Jersey Arts Education Survey and because it offers instruction in all four arts areas: dance, music, theater and visual arts.

Come out and enjoy the house tour…

www.sohps.org.

So, how did you spend last weekend? I took one of my daughters to the Healthy Kids Day at the YMCA in Maplewood, where she played on some outdoor inflatables (Bounce House, etc.), enjoyed some  healthy refreshments  and even saw Spider Man! After that our whole family went to the Village of Maplewood and walked around the Open Air Spring Market. Like many others, we took a break from the heat and enjoyed some ice cream at our local Ice Cream Shoppe. After a stop at the local Book Seller, we went home and  spent the afternoon and  evening relaxing in our yard BBQing with our neighbors. And, that was just Saturday!

Sunday we were up early  as several of my friends and I (The South Mountain Mamas) joined 10,000+ others running a 5K race in Essex County’s Branch Brook  Park. In the afternoon I took a tour of  a Gustav Stickely designed  Home, Commissioned for Ernest Prior in 1909, right here in Maplewood. And, in the evening we took a walk down our street and purchased some lemonade from a stand that some of the neighborhood children set up. Sound  amazingly Bucolic? Idealic and Norman Rockwellian?

Nope, just a typical Spring weekend in Maplewood, NJ. Maplewood-ian.

What did you do last weekend? Maybe next weekend you will come here.

Making plans for the weekend? Why not stop by Maplewood Village.

Our local merchants are having an Open Air Spring Market. Saturday (4/25/09) from Noon until 7:00PM. Come shop and dine with us.

The weather will be fantastic and you can experience the wonderful and welcoming vibe of our quaint little town for yourself. Who knows, you may like our community so much you won’t ever want to leave.

See the attached link for more details: http://maplewood.patch.com/articles/maplewood-village-welcomes-spring

Hope to see you there!

- Tracy

Are you ready?

Earth Day is coming… April 22nd! Ever Green Conscious Maplewood has decided to celebrate for a week plus, with events ongoing from Thursday April 16 until Saturday April 25th. There is something for everyone — classes, talks, events in town, and things you can do on your own.

In 2006, Maplewood pledged to reduce the Township’s Carbon Footprint 20% by 2015. That is 5 years ahead of the state mandate.

Go Green! Go Maplewood!

Check out all the details in the About The Area/Area Links/Maplewood section of my website. And take a drive out to visit us this weekend.

Are you ready?

It’s April, and it’s Cherry Blossom Festival…in NJ!!!!

One of the many great reasons to check out Essex County.

http://www.branchbrookpark.org/

According to the National Association of Realtors, median home prices nationally fell 15.5% in February from the previous year. The median price, not the average price, represents the market price for a given period of time where half the homes sold for higher and half sold for less.

We have a record low for mortgage rates, again. Just one week after 30-year mortgage rates fell to a record low of 4.85 percent, the average dropped even further to 4.78 percent this week, Freddie Mac reported.

To add to this advantage, the government is offering first-time buyers (anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the last three years) a temporary tax credit of up to $8,000 that doesn’t have to be paid back. What’s great about this credit is one can even amend their 2008 tax return to recapture the credit this year, which means they don’t have to wait until next April to get their money.

So, I say to all my Buyers out there…Are you ready? Then, let’s talk!