By Duane St. Clair

Green is a way of life for Ken and Susan Haas.

From their chemical-free lawn to their 140-year-old Westerville residence to their food, saving energy and the environment are always at the forefront of the couple’s efforts.

Transplanted from the Philadelphia area five years ago, the Haases brought with them some of the eco-friendly lifestyle practices they learned, such as recycling household cans, bottles and plastic containers.

Susan admits she enthusiastically tries to spread the word. At her workplace, for example, she has instilled recycling practices and even brings recyclables home for weekly pickup.

“We recycle everything. I’ve been teaching everyone around here about recycling. If I see someone throwing away a bottle (anyplace), I almost freak out,” she says.

Proof of the attitude abounds. In their kitchen they store a shelved-stack of recycling bins that moved with them. They replaced their dishwasher and refrigerator with more efficient “Energy Star” models.

In the home, Susan has “about 110 plants sucking all the bad air. It’s a big, old house. They’re spread all over.” She uses water from the dehumidifier to water the plants – which include orchids in one upstairs room and cactuses in an arid “desert room” – and collects water in gallon jugs from the air conditioner, as well.

Ken put a new ceiling of wainscoting in their front porch. He also insulated so that the floor in the bedroom above would be warmer.

The home is well maintained with original wood floors, woodwork and windows. The Haases have painted several upstairs rooms using non-polluting paints that have no permeating or potentially harmful toxic odors.

The house includes some carpeted areas – all wool, a natural fiber considered more eco-friendly than synthetic materials.

Ken, the son of a builder, has mental but no prepared plans to redo the kitchen. He will use natural and manufactured materials. He has considered buying cabinet shells made of particle board and making the doors from a material such as eucalyptus, a long-lasting material that’s “as hard as oak but grows 12 times quicker.” Bamboo might be another material of choice, adds Ken, who’s pretty certain a new expanded countertop will be a quartz-based manufactured material.

“It doesn’t absorb germs and doesn’t have to be sealed,” he says, as compared to materials such as granite.

Whenever the remodeling takes place, kitchen cabinets – which were installed when a sunroom was added to expand the kitchen – and other salvageable materials will be donated, perhaps to Habitat for Humanity, Ken says.

Next up, though, is refurbishing a first floor powder room so it’s in keeping with the rest of the home. They are in no hurry as they fit themselves into the home, but they don’t foresee major renovations in the original layout.

“You don’t always have to move stuff (like walls),” Ken says. “This house has character we don’t ever want to change.”

They’ll live with double hung windows with the telltale wavy glass panes. They expect to install interior-mounted storm windows that are more efficient. They keep the gas furnace at 68 in the winter and wear sweaters. Natural air rather than air conditioning is relied on although the thermostat for Ken’s office on the third-floor air conditioner is set at 80. That space is heated by a heat pump that is aging and will be replaced. With tall first floor windows on the south side of the home, lights can be turned on later in the day.

Outside, the aluminum siding has been painted tan with red and green wood trim (with low VOC paint, of course), authentic color true to the home’s early years. Eventually, Ken wants to replace the aluminum with concrete shingles, an appropriate design in keeping with the home’s original design (it was apparently wood-sided originally). He says the concrete siding is guaranteed for at least 30 years and only has to be painted once.

A deck with manufactured wood planks off the sunroom has a white vinyl railing that matches a vinyl fence along parts of the yard. He plans to take out the fence, which a neighbor with similar fence will use, and replace it and the deck railing with a natural material. The porch floor “is probably going to be concrete with passive solar heat for the kitchen floor, which would involve heat transferring from the sun in pipes in the concrete,” he says.

The yard is Ken’s province. “I don’t know anything about outside plants,” Susan says. Because the Haases believe in all natural gardening, they weed by hand rather than use chemicals.

Ken has redone most of the yard with perennial trees and bushes, including red twig dogwoods, burning bushes, arbor vitae, hostas, iris and lilies for color. Their water comes from a rain barrel beside the garage. They expect to add a second barrel, the same as they had in Philadelphia. Ken has a small, screen-covered vegetable garden where he has grown produce such as lettuce and salad tomatoes to complement the tomatoes and green beans growing from pots on the sunroom’s flat roof.

“I put them there so the rabbits wouldn’t eat them,” he says. Next year, he’ll add a second vegetable garden flat to help with their all-natural cuisine. They buy no prepared foods.

When their yard was on the Westerflora tour in July, the Haases discussed their goals with more than 200 inquisitive visitors. The yard, like the house, “is a labor of love,” Susan says. “We’re on our way.”

Duane St. Clair is a contributing editor for Westerville Magazine.



EXTRA: Ken Haas got a little volunteer help from a neighbor, who spotted him digging, planting and weeding last year and came to watch up close.

The-across-the-street neighbor is 8-year-old Angel Boes. At first she played in the dirt, talked and asked questions as he worked. Finally, Ken asked her if she wanted to help and she readily joined in, bringing her own bucket and shovel. Her chores included digging dandelions as she learned about nature.

This year, Angel, a student at art magnet school Hanby Elementary, saw information about Westerflora during one of her frequent visits to the Westerville Public Library. Proud of Ken’s and her work, she entered the Haas yard for consideration with the blessing of her mother, Valerie Schrader, who did not expect her daughter’s entry would be chosen.

Native plant sustainability, rain barrels and plants that require little water were among criteria judges considered for Westerflora homes this year. It came as a surprise and a delight to Susan and Ken when Westerflora chose their home to be on the tour – the organization placed a participation sign in their yard before they knew about the entry.

“One day we came home and the sign was in the yard,” she says, adding, “We were very happy to do it. Who wants to break the heart of an 8 year-old?”