Green Living

January is the time of year when everyone gets a clean slate.  It’s a time for change, growth, new opportunities and New Year’s Resolutions!  Even your home deserves some consideration as you make plans for the year ahead.  Add a few of these items to your resolution list for 2013 and your home and family will reap the reward in the coming year!

The team at McMillin homes is always on the hunt for the latest and greatest technology and amenities for our new home buyers.  Towards that goal we now proudly offer the ultimate thermostat for controlling your new home environment – The Nest Thermostat. The Nest Learning Thermostat was designed and built by former Apple employees that created the iPod & iPhone.  Their goal was to build a thermostat that was easy to use, beautifully designed and the ultimate in energy efficiency. They nailed it and now it can be part of your new McMillin home.

It’s commonly said that green living is a way of life or a major commitment—and therein lies the trouble. Honestly, we all seem to have a few too many commitments in life, and even the promise of smaller utility bills often isn’t enough to inspire earth-friendly action. Thankfully, there are a couple of additions you can make at home that can make a huge difference, with little effort required.

The McMillin Homes blog isn't quite two years old, but we've noticed a trend in our posts that tends to conform with trends in Texas weather. That continues this month; if you haven't noticed, it's been a bit warm out lately, and that means folks are doing everything they can to conserve water.

 2011 is turning out to be a dry year for Texas – dangerously so, as the worst drought in a half-century is causing wildfires to rage across much of the state. But even an average year of Texas heat is enough to cause water shortages, and keeping your home landscaping looking bright and beautiful can break the bank.

That may be our headline, but it's not our story; according to the June 16, 2010 print edition of the San Antonio Business Journal, McMillin Homes ranks as the number one San Antonio green residential builder. It's based on the overall number of green homes built in 2009 (we built more than 250, for those keeping score).

Normally, we don't toot our own horn too loudly, as we prefer to let our accomplishments and homes speak for themselves. But in this case, we saw an opportunity to make a couple of important points about McMillin's commitment to environmentally sustainable practices as part of doing what's right for our communities and homeowners.

Contrary to popular belief, Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb; many historians actually credit Sir Humphry Davy with producing the first incandescent bulb almost 70 years earlier than Edison. That's not to take away from ol' Tom, of course, since his improvements to the design and construction, plus his own power distribution system, made the product commercially viable.

If there's one thing that's likely to shape how the Texas Hill Country and San Antonio areas grow and change in the next few decades, it's water—or access to it, at least. Water has, for all intents and purposes, supplanted oil as the South Texas version of liquid gold, and we're already seeing the effects of over-development and excessive use on local water tables and the Edwards Aquifer.

Not too long ago, I found myself surrounded by fabric samples and paint swatches, preparing a nursery in expectation of the latest addition to my family. Normally, I'm the kind of guy who takes notice of wall colors and other details of home decoration. I admit to tuning out on this project, however, as I knew my role would be limited to manual labor—that is, until my wife shook me from my stupor with this comment:

"Remember, we'll need to check with the paint store to make sure they have low-VOC paint."