Hoppin' party at February's Greendrinks

Hundreds of people turned out for last night's Greendrinks social networking event at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. This was one of the best gatherings yet, with a real cocktail party feel due to all the different spots where people could mingle among the building supplies.

Portland Greendrinks founder Elliott May thanked everyone for coming and introduced the evening's host, Steve Bolton.

Steve is the executive director of Greater Portland Habitat for Humanity, which runs the ReStore. He dispelled some common myths about Habitat (it's not a government program, it wasn't started by President Jimmy Carter and it doesn't give away homes for free) and explained how the ReStore sells donated building supplies at a big discount to support Habitat's home building program.

Along with lovely apps, there were lots of local drinks to sample. Here Nick Higgins and Eli Cayer of Maine Mead Works handed out shot glass sized samples of their very tasty dry and semi sweet HoneyMaker mead.

The guys from Sebago Brewing Company were pouring up Slick Nick Winter Ale and Boathouse Brown Ale.

Anyone who made it all the way into the back room had the opportunity to try the very smooth and tasty Peak Organic Pomegranate Wheat Ale with Acai. The all organic brewery has been working on the recipe since at least last spring, and while it's not in stores yet, Geoff Masland tells me it will be soon.

Here are a few of the Greendrinkers who agreed to smile for the camera:

Heather Chandler, who publishes the popular SunriseGuide, and Jennie Vieira, who just opened her own massage business for women called Blossom Massage.

Geoffrey Starrett and Katie Gallagher, who both managed to look good even though we were all sweltering under a heat lamp.

And Jon Sundberg, who deserves a prize for the most humorous mug. The goal is to have more people emulate Jon and bring their own reusable mug to cut down on waste.

Should you want to be there for the next Greendrinks, mark you calendar for March 10. I'm not sure where the next party will be, but you can find out by checking the website or becoming a fan of the group on Facebook.

Habitat's Portland homes go green

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland's Build it Green mini-subdivision held an open house on Saturday to showcase two of its homes that are nearing completion, and Adam and I went with my parents to check them out. Habitat hopes both will achieve LEED certification from the US Green Building Council when done. The homes are part of a four-home building project the nonprofit is undertaking on Demerest Street. Two of the homes will be sold to Habitat-qualified families, and the other two (the ones we toured) will be sold to first-time home buyers through a Maine State Housing Authority program.

You can see the solar hot water panels that are in process of being installed on this one-story, three-bedroom home. All of the home designs come from the Maine State Housing Authority's Mainestream Green Home Designs competition. The competition challenged architects to design affordable homes that are efficient and healthy places to live.

As you can see, there was quite a crowd that showed up for the tours. The refreshments were an attraction, but so too were cool features such as radiant-heated, stained concrete floors, salvaged doors from the ReStore and cabinets from Maine Green Building Supply and Indisco. The pervious concrete used on the driveways was really cool too. It looks like regular concrete, but allows water to drain through into the soil instead of running off into the storm sewers.

Both houses even have lovely granite countertops.

While the other homes are all spoken for, I hear that this one is still in need of a buyer.

And for folks who like the convenience of city living but want a bucolic setting, you really can't beat these views.