BRING’S BIG ANNUAL
H&G TOUR IS SUNDAY
What’s the first thing you should do when you
commit to living a more sane and energy-efficient life?
“Inventory your possessions” and figure out what you
can live with and what you can’t live without. That was
the painful advice home designer and artist Michael
Pease gave to empty-nesters Alan Dickman and Sue
Burden-Dickman, who downsized from a large
conventional house to an efficient new 1,300-square-foot
living space in June.
The Dickman home at 2812 Spring Blvd. is one of a
dozen inspiring places that will be open to the public for
one day only during the fourth annual BRING Home and
Garden Tour from 10 am to 4 pm Sunday, Sept. 16.
Tickets, available at any of the sites, are $10 each or $18
for two or $100 for groups up to 15.
“We told Mike [Pease] we wanted both the view and to
live in the garden,” says Alan Dickman, who is director of
Environmental Studies at the UO Department of Biology.
“He went to great lengths to bring us slowly into the house
with entryways and multiple decks out in back that sent us
down into the landscape.”
As green as the Dickmans tried to be, the home is still
mostly new construction requiring tons of new materials.
“The house is green but still resource intensive,” says
Dickman, “so we feel like we have a responsibility to make
it last a long time.” The contractor was James McDonald of
Ecobuilding Collaborative.
The theme of the tour this year is “The Art of Sustainable
Living” and “the tour is really an essential part of our
educational program,” says BRING Executive Director Julie
Daniel. “BRING is at heart a social change organization.
We’re about changing people’s behavior. Our mission is to
help people understand how the stuff we use shapes the
planet we share.”
PHOTO MICHAEL WHERLEY
THIS GREENHOUSE AND
SURROUNDING GARDENS
AT 2475 JACKSON ST. ARE
ON THE TOUR SEPT. 16.
Just talking about changing behavior doesn’t quite do the
job, she says. Instead, she likes to “give real-world examples
of what other people are doing, and be able to see first-hand
what it looks like on the ground to live sustainably.”
These tours are popular, she says, because “we are all
inherently nosy; we all want to see what our neighbors are
doing.” And in the process, she says, we can become inspired
to create something interesting and valuable in our own
homes and gardens.
Greenhouses, edible gardens, backyard poultry, roof
gardens, small houses, a super tiny house and secondary
dwelling units (SDUs) are also featured in the tour. One SDU,
built by Solar Assist contractor Scott Crawford in collaboration
with architect Will Dixon, is at 2510A 14th Ave. and is a
“balance of function, form, sustainability, budget and
sunlight.” The 644-square-foot house has hydronic radiant
heat and “stack” ventilation.
Crawford says the building was not cheap to construct,
even with “repurposed” materials, but it was “all done above
board. I know people who have done it in their backyards
without permits for much, much less, but I was able to do it
over time and it worked out pretty well.”
Also at the Crawford house Sunday, Oakleigh Meadow
Cohousing will be presenting a slide show with discussion
about their community development at 10 am, noon and 2
pm.
BRING tour organizer Shirley Perez West says about 500
people showed up last year for the tour and she hopes to see
even more this year. “This year it’s all about living large in
small spaces,” she says, and adds, “many of the 12 sites will
host builders, designers and community experts on sustainable
living.” Experts will be available on composting, solar
energy, propagating mushrooms, aging in place and more.
A limited number tickets of for those with low income are
available through the city of Eugene at the Atrium Building
across from the downtown LTD station. See bringrecycling.
org for online tickets and a complete schedule. — Ted Taylor
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EUGENE WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 13, 2012 7