“No, we don’t do framing, nor batten-type insulation. No, we don’t knock through your knee walls, but we will create an attic hatch for you….”

That is just a sample of the different, sometimes conflicting information I’ve gleaned after visits from 3 insulation contractors in a 24-hour period. I took notes, and was guided by my husband’s (written) directions.

One insulator, from EnerLiv, went to his car for 20 minutes after his review of our insulation needs on all 3 levels of our home, and came back with an itemized quote on the spot. The other 2 contractors said they will phone in their quotes.

Our home energy audit report is already getting dog-eared after the number of times we flip through it to get “government-sanctioned” advice. And we are just starting to dip into the 130-page Keeping the Heat In book we got for free from our auditor, that’s published by Natural Resources Canada.

(Interesting, an energy consultant we meet last week at a Burlington mall giving demos to the public said she was shocked to discover how many local residents did NOT receive this apparently valuable book from their auditor… So we were lucky. If you weren’t so lucky, you can order the Keeping the Heat In book at 1-800-387-2000.)

Meanwhile, I just read a blog post warning of Typar vapour barrier woes when used for inside basement walls (an area we need to get insulated).  Yikes! We’re really going to need to be consumer-researchers extraordinaire!

Stay tuned for more on the insulators’ quotes.

We are Heather and Doug, an Ontario couple who own a drafty 1950s home and dream of renovation. Alas, we have been too lazy and tight with money to have done anything about it in seven years of ownership…. until now.

This is our “EcoRenovate” journey; our goals are to:

1. Recoup upwards of $3,000 from the government for renovations we desperately need.
2. Save hundreds of dollars each year in energy costs.
3. Move our EnerGuide rating from 61% to 82% and get their stamp of approval – meaning a better selling price for our home.
4. Do all this no later than March 31, 2011 to get the rebates back (including the cost of our “before” and “after” home audits).

‘Green Real Estate’ Research

I just lucked into this kind of information. As a self-employed social media and search marketing consultant, one of my clients is a major real estate company in Canada for whom I blog. Every day I monitor dozens of RSS feeds for news sites and blogs about real estate, mortgages, home design, renovation, and the like.

So I was trolling the news feeds and I came across some articles talking about Natural Resources Canada’s ecoENERGY Retrofit program. What? The government wants to give me thousands of dollars for renovations that make my home more energy effiicient?! Could this be finally be the way to convince my frugal spouse to replace our ancient front door or drafty windows?

More than the HRTC

I already knew about the Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC), which doesn’t require renos to be eco-friendly, but is the feds’ effort to stimulate the economy by boosting renovation.

Telling my husband about the HRTC did make him perk up his ears and at least consider renovating something in our shabby 60-year-old home. The pilot light of my dream home project was lit!

That was months ago. We haven’t yet sourced a single product or material, or contacted any contractors. We did look at a couple of home design websites briefly, and walked through a local home show to see some doors. (Naturally, our front door turns out to be a non-standard opening requiring a custom order costing thousands more… sigh.)

A Little More Action, a Little Less Conversation

We recently admitted to ourselves that the prospect of a $1,300 tax credit at the end of the year isn’t getting us any closer to a renovation. On top of being tight with money, my husband is lazy and, I confess, I’m not a whole lot different.

That’s when I learned about the ecoENERGY money pool for renovations/retrofits. I couldn’t get on the phone fast enough to tell Doug. Now we feel like we have enough reasons to get off the couch and start seriously renewing our neglected home.

Here we go! Wish us luck! Keep coming back to check on our progress: We will be posting photos from our home projects, short videos, Tweeting about it, and more!

(Auspiciously, we start this blog on July 1st – the birthday of Canada, the greatest nation in the world!)