Don Shelby takes WCCO for tour of almost no-waste, no-fossil fuels house
MINNEAPOLIS -- Ethics. It's a thing Journalist Don Shelby knows a thing or two about. Ethics guided Don Shelby's days as a journalist.
So it shouldn't surprise you that a particular ethic guided the blueprint of his dream home.
"There was a house, an 1890s cabin, on this property. Every usable stick that was in that house is in the side of this house," Shelby told WCCO's Erin Hassanzadeh.
From the barn beam floors to the treasures on top of them, Shelby's guiding principle was zero waste, zero fossil fuels ... or at least get pretty close.
The windows, for instance, aren't reused, but they are very energy efficient -- triple-pane argon windows.
Shelby knows he's lucky to have been able to save up enough money to make this house happen, but he says doing small things to make your house more efficient will save you in the long run.
"My father taught me if you have a dream, do one thing toward that dream every day of your life," Shelby said.
Shelby's next splurge was for his inner child -- a trap door that leads to the guts of the house, including a geothermal pump for heating.
"It is one-fiftieth of the bill of a normal house," he said. "This paid for itself in savings in three years. The solar paid for itself in six years."
Those solar panels supply upwards of 90% of the energy used by the home, sometimes more.
Shelby also showed off a collection tank for rain water. He plans to swap for prairie, a more potent carbon sink.
"I probably get some brickbats from time to time, neighbors saying, 'Cut your grass!' And I go, 'No, I'm not going to,'" Shelby said.
Then there's the recycled milk carton driveway. After a city coding conversation, Shelby installed a French drain, with 5,000 gallons of storage for storm runoff.
If you're wondering if the no-waste ethic carries over to his closet, wonder no more. He's a dedicated secondhand guy now.
Shelby says he spent a good portion of his career learning more and more about the effects of climate change.
"When I started, one story a month in the Star Tribune had to do with climate change. Now there are three stories a day," Shelby said. "We can hope that young people are taking up the matter on this change, but won't be the environmentalists, it won't be the children -- it'll be business that makes this change."
Shelby's dream home has great bones and guts, but you'll find the heart of it out in the yard, with a traditional Inuit trail marker that encapsulates the vision in Shelby's heart.
"The Iñupiat culture will be the first to disappear from the Earth as a result of climate change," Shelby said. "I wanted to not be a part of that ... The house is me saying I'd rather not."
