It's Not Quite What I thought

Well starting to research what entails a green house finds that it can have a very broad meaning at least to me. Seems that any building that uses "alternative" ways to heat, cool, supply energy, heat water, etc. could be considered green depending on who you ask. So now we need to decide how "green" is right for us and what is possible with our limited budget. If we cash out our equity for construction and supplies, we fear that if prices keep going down then we could be stuck with a mortgage that is worth more then our home. That definitely doesn't appeal so we are going to do it slowly and put what sweat equity into it that we can. Not as simple as it may seem as my husband averages about 16-18hr days and I work from home while the children are at school or sleeping. The good news is that our children are getting old enough to actually help with some of the projects. The youngest is now 5 and she can carry and play with the dog. The older girls are 7 and 8 and have an interest in plants so they can work in the gardens, our son is 11 and big enough to help with some labor as long as it's not to dangerous. At least that's the plan right now. I've been looking at greenhouses, boy do I wish my father lived closer! He loves to build and has all those great toys to make it easy, but he's over 3hrs away, so he's only on call for the day projects. Like putting a deck on the back that I hope to turn into a sun room later. One that can be used to heat the house during the winter, plus keep the dwarf trees alive till summer.
But some quick things I've found is a Firebrite reflector that is supposed to increase your heat output from your fireplace up to 80%. Another thing for our fireplace is a cast-iron grate that has a fireback attached so that the warmth will reflect and stay longer. We have a functioning fireplace that we used to have to use with our old furnace but since grate placement was essential for heat and an inch either way could make it to cold or to close for sparks, we stopped using it with the new furnace. So maybe if one of these work, we can enjoy fires on chilly nights instead of upping the thermostat. To bad I found them now and not in the beginning of winter, I didn't even get the chimney swept this year because we hardly used it the last two years, now I'm regretting that with the cold fronts that last a couple days then it's back to 60's and 70's. A fire is one thing I will have next winter. Oh well I will let you know which I try and what I think! Anyone has one or has tried either please let me know!
I'm still on the lookout for little things I can change. I've already changed our light bulbs over, make sure the lights are out when not in use ( with four kids I seem to always be doing that LOL), recycling bottles and paper, started using rechargeable batteries and am trying to check if products are made from recycled materials and if the are environmentally friendly (i.e. breakdown easily, or can be reused, no poison to leach out). Looking into getting a solar charger for the batteries then only the initial cost of the batteries is what I pay no recharging fee to the electric company. Oh, well enough for today. Off to bed to recharge my battery before the sun and children are up for another day of work and research.