Dream Green Loft

We finally found our dream green loft. Twelve hundred square feet of pure recycled and eco-friendly perfection, and the only thing wrong with it is that we can't have it. Suffice it to say it shall have to remain a dream for the time being.

Many weekends and weeknights for the last month and a half, for me and Paul, were spent on a grueling and stressful househunting CHORE. The prospect of a home, especially one that is largely and generously to be subsidized by Paul's parents, should be an exciting thing, and it was in the beginning, but when you have a clear idea of what you want, as I did, it's hard to give up even as the parade of not-quite-it houses passes in a blur before your tired eyes. My dream was "a charming old-ish brick townhouse that wasn't so derelict as to be a daunting fixer-upper," one that had good bones and that we could definitely make our own. I envisioned sourcing for reclaimed lumber floors, half and full-flush toilets, a kitchen equipped with an induction oven, energy star appliances, frosted bamboo cabinetry, and a concrete and glass kitchen countertop, to name a few.

We must have looked at a hundred or so properties and only towards the last dozen did we finally come to the obvious conclusion that it was unlikely we would find THE ONE, and that, so sad, we needed to settle.

Well, last weekend, on our final search foray, we stumbled upon The Cromley Lofts in Old Town, Alexandria, a historic preservation of a ca. 1910 warehouse, divided into eight condo units and designed by developer William Cromley. The living area sprawls over delicious pine floors reclaimed from an old mill. Exposed beams from the original warehouse frame the kitchen and anchor the space. The kitchen is you guessed it, all bamboo and stainless and frosted glass and the bathrooms spare and glass-tiled modern. Cromley was there to tell us further that his building was also "true green" -- most "everything" down to the paints and glues are LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Cromley Lofts is the first green building in Alexandria, zip code 22314, where Paul and I had narrowed down our search. So that's one reason why we had trouble finding our vision, there just aren't many green houses to go around. The other reason -- it's expensive, way above our budget at $585K for the lowest-priced basement unit.

We finally settled for a more reasonably-priced but by no means green condo unit at the Royalton, which is redeemed by the fact that it sits above my grocery of choice, the Whole Foods on Duke Street. A brand new construction boasting of the requisite and ubiquitous hardwood floors and cabinetry, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances that sets a lot of people's hearts beating. It's a nice unit, though I must say I don't fantasize about cooking in its swanky kitchen as I did in that dream green loft.

When is Northern Virginia going to get its green building act together? And why does green have to be so expensive? (Green kitchens tends to be 20 to 30% more expensive than non-green ones.) Ironically, the rich are only getting greener in dollar terms, while the environmentally-conscious tend to have "less disposable incomes" as one Northern Virginia woman found out in her efforts to have her tiny kitchen remodeled.

Economical, eco-friendly, and stylish options need to be made available on a large and common scale so people in love with granite can afford to see the beauty in soapstone and recycled composite countertops.