©2008 Joel Puliatti for Vetrazzo

We greenies love how taking good care of the environment is not only becoming more mainstream, but also darn right fashionable. This month, check out gorgeous new means to use recycled glass and one way to avoid dealing with the dismal housing market.

New Uses for Pickle Jars and Beer Bottles
Have you ever found yourself entranced by the deep blue beauty that is a Skyy Vodka bottle? It would be a shame for that signature cobalt glass to end up in a landfill, which is why it's especially exciting to know that it can be re-purposed as a countertop. Vetrazzo takes discarded glass, like decommissioned traffic lights, windshields, used bottles and plate glass windows, and transforms it into durable surfaces that give homeowners an alternative to using non-renewable resources (like virgin granite). All of the glass used in Vetrazzo is recycled; the shiny stuff makes up about 85 percent of the final material by weight. The company keeps track of each surface's history and makeup; when you purchase Vetrazzo, they provide a Certificate of Transformation that tells you exactly where the glass in your new surface came from.
Available at Woodward Kitchen & Bath 251-3865.

Raise your House to Lower your Costs
In the past, to "raise a house" meant to "move a house," but not anymore. Homeowners looking to double their square footage can raise their existing house and build a new first floor underneath. This cheaper, greener option, prevents lots of new building code drama - plus, you'll be back home in substantially less time. About three times less trash is generated with the "raised-house" method, and talk about saving "green": a local homeowner kept over $130,000 of his hard-earned cash by ditching the demolition crew (it's actually cheaper to rebuild from scratch than to add a second story). When you raise a house, you keep most of the existing structure, then set it back down onto all-new, up-to-code footings, walls and foundation.
Available from Top Notch 268-1937.