Yes, it's cute, but this energy-disaster house doesn't need to happen again

How homebuilders are resisting efforts to developer cleaner-and-greener homes.

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It’s cute and has character, but the energy costs!

Our weekend cottage in Connecticut is an energy disaster. Built in the early 1930s as a summer getaway, it had no insulation until the 1990s when a local man bought it for pennies and expanded it.

And he did a shoddy job, including with insulation. For instance, when it snows and we have the heat on, the white stuff vanishes very quickly from our front roof — the original part of the house — in contrast to many of the homes around us where the snow stays until the sun melts it.