zero.houz

Have you ever had a vision so crystal clear that you were compelled to make it happen, regardless of the challenges?

In this blog post, I share the story of how ZEROHOUZ came to be.

https://usgbc-ca.org/zerohouz-is-meant-to-be-after-99-years/

Incredibly honored to receive a Design Award for ZEROHOUZ from !!

Thank you AIA Los Angeles and Dave Intner for making a bold statement about the value of climate forward design. This is something I hold near and dear to my heart and this recognition fuels my fire to make more healthy and sustainable homes.

Jury’s comments:
“A standout example of practical, real-world electrification in a compact footprint. Achieves Net Zero Energy while maintaining a modest 100-amp panel—an impressive technical feat in a retrofit. Thoughtful integration of solar and battery storage enhances resilience and carbon reduction. Smart material choices and air sealing contribute to a healthy, high-performance indoor environment. A valuable and replicable case study for sustainable renovation in California’s aging housing stock. Quietly radical—shows how deep environmental performance can be achieved in everyday homes.”

Thankful to have my parents and friends celebrate with me at the awards ceremony. 💕 🥂

The past month has been highly stressful as I opened up walls of my 102 yr old house and found all sorts of surprises:

🐀Old rats nest in a wall
👀 Rotten floor joists
🤦🏽‍♀️ Notched roof beams
🤯 Missing mud sil plates

I was hustling every day to troubleshoot and come up with creative fixes. Making sure the right people got on the job and things got done correctly every step of the way.

And it ALL led up to the moment of my first rough inspection with the city.

Remember the food pyramid? This is the “energy pyramid” published by and its super handy.

Three EASIEST things to do to make your home more energy efficient:
1. Get an energy audit for your home to understand where your energy losses are coming from
2. Turn off extra lights and appliances when not in use!
3. Replace all lightbulbs with LED lights because they use a fraction of the energy of incandescent bulbs. Also, instead of jumping to replace your windows you can buy weatherstripping from the local hardware store and install it your self. This will decrease air leakage around your windows, especially in winter months.

ZeroHouz: The Challenge of a Zero Emissions Home - EcoJustice Radio What would it take to transform a 100 year old house sitting near oil fields into the most sustainable clean energy zero-emissions house? That was the challe...