By Jennifer Garrett
Madison Magazine
Special To Channel 3000

When Darin Harris and Dawn McCluskey spot a ramshackle ranch in a nice neighborhood, they immediately start to see green. But this remodeling duo has more than dollar signs in their eyes. This pair of tree huggers has launched a business so that they can turn a profit while treading lightly on the environment.

Like hordes of other part-time real estate investors, this husband-wife team has bought and rehabbed several houses, usually while living in them as they fixed them up. Each time they made a profit, even when they used contractors for much of the work. More importantly to them, though, is that they made money even when they bypassed standard materials and processes in favor of eco-friendly choices.

That got them thinking. They could use real estate to generate income without clouding their collective conscience. So Harris, a consultant at UW--Madison, and McCluskey, a veterinarian, concocted Second Nature Homes. They would buy rough-around-the-edges houses in neighborhoods with good appreciation potential, renovate the homes and then sell them for a profit -- all without living in a construction site, without giving up their day jobs and without compromising their environmental principles.

"We're sort of green flippers," Harris says, referring to the real estate term for buying, fixing up and selling houses relatively quickly. "We're not doing this just for the money. Your home uses more resources than any other part of your life … so we're out to save resources, including energy, and improve health."

Right now they are rehabbing a three-bedroom ranch in Nakoma. They've replaced the furnace, gutted the bathroom, exposed part of the basement so they could turn it into an additional bedroom, and otherwise upgraded and updated everything. All the while they use low-emission paints, formaldehyde-free insulation and Energy-Star-certified appliances and materials.

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