Origin Story

A young(ish) family (that's us!) in search of a forever home, bought an 100-year-old Brooklyn townhouse in October of 2019, with grand renovation plans! Turns out we have a lot to learn.

Of course, we dream of fancy appliances and beautiful finishes, but we also thought producing our own electricity would be really cool. So, our first step was installing solar panels with Brooklyn SolarWorks in July of 2020. (Well, the very first steps were removing asbestos from the basement and replacing our electrical panels with Ceriello Electric, but then, solar!) Next, Surreal Gardens helped us put in a privacy fence and clean up our overgrown backyard.

Now, we are working with the amazing (and patient) Fabrica Architecture to remodel our floor plan, renovate our kitchens and baths, add a deck, and help us to completely remove natural gas from our home. We are learning as we go and are sure to make mistakes, but our new priority goal is to completely electrify our home, including for heating, cooking, water heating, laundry drying, everything!

Our ultimate aim, and we admit it may not be totally possible, is to become “net zero” with our energy usage–producing as much solar energy in the year as we use.

We have so much to learn. This blog is meant to document our progress, but also to hopefully connect us with resources and contacts in the Brooklyn energy community.

Follow along! And send us any of your recommendations!

#netzero #netzerobrooklyn #electrifyeverything #abolishfossilfuels #brooklyn #nyc