Sustainable House Day

Today we visited a couple of properties as part of the Sustainable House Day. I have been meaning to attend one of these days for several years but work often intervened. I wasn't sure what to expect so we picked 2 properties moderately close by (in our unsustainable car) and had a look along with a fair few others.
The properties were quite different.

The first,  a newly built house which had the luxury of in-slab heating, plumbing under the slab to allow collection of water to a central area to be re-pumped to a large water tank at the back of the property. The house was built with double glazed windows which I so wished we had undertaken when building our current house (a long time ago). The property had no developed garden as yet , a sustainable one as no effort is needed! And the piece de resistance - a basin over the cistern in the loo!

The second property was also very interesting. A retro-fitting in process by a passionate owner. It had huge photovoltaic pannels and underfloor bladder tank. The owner has stopped taking mains water from earlier this year and has installed a moderately sophisticated water purification and filtration system. He personally gave a tour of the house to hordes of interested people., sharing his views on a wide range of sustainable issues outside of the building ones.
So now I have a range of glossy pamphlets and may as well get a green home assessment. Then I might have to spend few more $$ on the place. I also entered the competition on the Sustainable House website but was a little concerned about some of the conditions of entry - namely REC's are to go to shmeco.com, a web2 site on sustainable living. However, I never win anything so nothing lost, I suppose!!