It has been an interesting year. I wanted to come back to Seattle where my passion for rennovation and remodeling began. After 14 years of rehabbing and refurbishing houses for resale I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. It was that project, an all women build in Danville, California, that introduced me the belief that being Green was both affordable it was essential. That project inspired me to learn about LEED and other programs encouraging green build as a standard in modern construction.

I had been living in San Francisco and felt that it was time to come home to a city that its greeness was already in its nickname the Emerald City so I was sure my concept of having an Contractor who not only embraced Green but also its approachablity and more importantly affordability would be a welcome addition. In the beginning the reception was positive but the economy turned and we found our business dramatically changing and while the interest was there the budgets were not.

While I still fielded calls requesting information, the bulk of my calls were from distressed homeowners, mostly women, reaching out to me because as a woman owned contractor they needed help that was less about green build and more about "what should I do?"

And while I am advocate of green in design and build I had to abandon that principle to simply help homeowners who were more mystified by their contractors and the issues of home improvement versus the issue of being "green" or not.

So Vida Verde became a Coaching and  Consultant service that focused on the needs of developing a communication between homeowners and contractors. It seemed easy bridging the gap between the two worlds and as I spoke both languages it is a perfect fit. I can still share my love of home improvement, share my skills and knowledge of the trade and to both I can hopefully teach them each about aspects of being green as accessible, affordable and more importantly essential in home improvement.