Bolton resident goes green after winning home makeover

By ROB PAUL

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Everyone dreams of winning a home makeover, but Bolton's Alessandra McIntosh had that dream become a reality thanks to an initiative of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and West Bolton Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Program (SNAP). 

The initiative is called the Green Home Makeover Program, it was created through the Green Home Program to showcase ways that West Bolton SNAP residents can reduce water and energy use while increasing tree canopy, improve stormwater management, and garden ecologically. 

In 2019, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority received application from West Bolton homeowners to participate in the Green Home Makeover Program and McIntosh and her family were selected as the winners. As a result, they've received a grant and energy and landscape retrofits to help make their home green.

It's been about two years since McIntosh applied for the program, but what started off as an interest in some of the other things the Green Home Program offers turned into a lot more for her and her family.

“We got something in the mail from them about how they could come to your house and give you a box with some weather stripping and other stuff like that,” she said. “So, we had them come by and they introduced this Green Home Makeover Program and told us we could apply, and then we did!”

McIntosh's husband Nick is an environmental engineer and that's what got them interested in the Green Home Program in general and they quickly realized it was exactly what they were looking for.

“He does stormwater management, so he's kind of in that world already and free study doesn't hurt! Then, we were already looking at doing some of the upgrades they had proposed anyway, and we figured they would have the resources to tell us what was best—especially when it came to the furnace and the water heater. They had the experts to tell us what would work best for our home,” she said.

The Green Home Makeover home received a suite of indoor retrofits verified by a pre-audit assessment to offer the best return on investment for reduced energy use, energy bills, and impact on the environment.

Funding for this project's indoor retrofits was provided, in part, by Enbridge Gas.

The completed retrofits brought the total annual energy consumption in the home—built in 1971—from 5.7 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year down to 4.3 tonnes.

“Everything is basically done, and I think we're going to be doing a virtual open house this spring once the garden has grown in,” she said. “Then they'll be monitoring the energy usage throughout the home for a couple of years to see what kind of difference it makes.”

The energy retrofits included replacing a 15-plus year-old furnace with a new energy efficient furnace, replacing a 20-plus year-old water heater with a new energy efficient tankless water heater, topping up the attic insulation to bring it up to R60, and adding air sealing throughout the home (caulking around windows and doors, filling cracks, foam insulation inserts behind outlets).

One of McIntosh's highlights of the makeover was the rain garden and pollinator garden, part of the outdoor retrofits. 

A rain garden replaces an area of lawn in order to collect the rain and melted snow that runs off a home's grass, roof, and driveway that helps maintain the natural water cycle while protecting local rivers, lakes, fish, and drinking sources.

The pollinator garden is made up of native plants that support pollinators such as butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds—supporting the pollinator population is key to ensuring fresh and healthy foods.

“We're pretty excited,” she said. “I was particularly excited for the garden to get done and I specifically requested that it be filled with pollinator plants. My husband was pretty excited about the tankless water heater to go in, it's opened up a lot of space in the basement. It was so cool to see the energy audit get done and it was interesting to learn what they found out from that.”

Getting the home improvements as part of the program had the family thrilled, but then to see how quickly the retrofits made an environmental difference and the interest it sparked in other community members was an added bonus with it, according to McIntosh.

“It is an older home, so it needed the upgrades,” she said. “To get a more efficient furnace and water heater and better insulation in the attic makes a huge difference to keeping the house comfortable. The bills went down, and we know that it's making a difference in terms of our greenhouse emissions. We had signage out front when the work was going on in the fall and we've had a lot of neighbours ask us about it and a few said they've gone to the lengths to find out how to install their own rain gardens. It's nice to know that the community is coming together to see how they can also implement some of these ideas.”

For more information on the West Bolton SNAP Green Home Program, visit trca.ca/conservation/sustainable-neighbourhoods/snap-neighbourhood-projects/west-bolton-snap/green-home-program.