AF resident builds 'green' kitchen

An ACE Hardware co-owner, who is also a chairman on the green advisory board for the company, decided he was not going to just talk the talk about living a greener life, he was going to walk the walk.

After purchasing a home in Ahwatukee Foothills, Tom Bechtel and his wife put together an extensive remodeling plan that included just about everything they could think of when wanting to redo their kitchen with conservation and recycling in mind.

The list starts with every appliance being Energy Star compliant and ends with recycling just about everything, including the kitchen sink.

On his kitchen cabinets, Bechtel chose to reface rather than the more expensive and wasteful choice to replace completely. Refacing utilizes the framing of the original cabinetry so only the doors need to be replaced.

But Bechtel said he wanted to take it one step more. Instead of just throwing out the old doors, he used the services of Arizona Kitchen Refacing, which does all the installation work and then recycles the old cabinet doors. Arizona Kitchen Cabinets cuts the recycled doors down or shapes them into a size that can be used again if customers want to take that route.

"We're getting a new kitchen by utilizing 80 percent of our old stuff," Bechtel said. "But then there was the question of what to do with the other 20 percent. All the old cabinetry and hinges all were recycled."

For his countertops, Bechtel went with Elite Countertops, 1605 W. 12th Place in Tempe, due to their precision cutting and recycling of granite scraps, he said. They have a scrap rate of less than 1 percent.

According to Bechtel, Elite Countertops also has a "boneyard" of granite pieces that could not be used in construction, which are sold to the public for a significantly reduced price.

Bechtel said that Energy Star compliant appliances cost him approximately 8 to 12 percent more than normal.

With the old appliances conceivably doomed to end up in the garbage, Bechtel instead decided to test the market on Craigslist.com. He said it was surprising how quickly everything went.

"Microwave, rangetop, sink, refrigerator, range vent, dishwasher, they were all gone in 72 hours," he said.

The only thing he could not find a second home for were the remains of his old kitchen countertops.

Bechtel's story is an example of how if a motivated and creative homeowner is excited about living a greener life, there are definitely options out there that are available for every facet of home remodeling.

"If I did it all over again, I would choose exactly the same companies," Bechtel said.