Last Friday, Tamara and I were invited out by Chuck Weiss, project manager for Post Green, to check out their Skinny House Project. You can learn more about that project here: Skinny House
We are really excited by Post Green’s innovative build process and we look forward to learning more from them. Their main approach to their home efficiency ratings (which are very high!) is a focus on air sealing.
Very few of us live in homes that were custom built for us. But this doesn’t mean your home shouldn’t fit how you want to live. Your home can be tailored to fit your needs.
Our family stayed home this Memorial Day weekend. How wonderful it was to do so! We like to cook, have cocktails on the patio, and enjoy the views out of our windows into our yard. We have ample room to entertain and relax, and the house is easy to keep clean, so we don’t worry if friends come over with pets or children.
Heading out for a Memorial Day Weekend getaway? Don’t miss these last-minute house-prepping tips to take the stress out of your vacation.
· Make arrangements for pets. If you are using a pet-walking service, be sure they are certified with a professional organization like pro pet sitters
· Unplug small appliances or charging devices. These can use energy even when not in use. We call them vampires.
We are completing a renovation project consisting of three older bathrooms in this 1920’s Mount Airy Stone Twin.
We installed this Forbo Marmoleum sheet goods floor in the powder room and the third-floor bathrooms. The color is #3182 Lapponia.
Marmoleum linoleum is a green product that’s been around a long, long time! It has a jute backing, and the sheeting is made from linseed oil, cork and sawdust plus coloring. The color goes all the way through, so it will wear a long time. The linseed oil oxidizes, which means this flooring repels germs! I used to do oil painting restoration, and oxidized linseed oil was one of the hardest substances we ran into.
You can see that we salvaged the original nickel and glass towel bars, too! The bars are made of 1-inch round glass rods.
A landscaper friend recently told me that, “When it comes to landscaping, the husband ALWAYS controls decisions about the lawn.” In remodeling, we have a parallel example. From our experience, gadgets are usually the domain of the man of the house.
TVs = man domain. I have a male friend who has a 6′ plasma TV in the living room, a huge speedboat, and a black Hummer that usually has a beer in the cupholder. His idea of “decorating,” God love him, is a TV in every room.
Audio-visual gadgets = man stuff. The guys love these electrical, blinking gizmos.
“Strap on green gadgets” like solar cells and geothermal heating systems = “green” man goodies.
This blog post was in Boing Boing on Monday:
If each brick releases 1.4 pounds of carbon when it’s made, and Philadelphia is a city made of bricks, how many pounds of carbon were released to make the average Philadelphia row house?
A typical Philly row house is 16 feet wide and about 35 feet deep. Our “test” row house is 3 stories tall.
Whoever comes up with the right answer by June 1, 2010 will win an Official Myers Constructs Inc. Staffer T shirt.
Remember, renovating an existing row house vs. building a new one will save “X” tons of carbon! It’s GREEN to renovate.
New construction pollutes!
We get a lot of calls from home owners who have stars in their eyes for solar arrays, geo thermal heat/cooling, or other fancy expensive “green” gadgets.
Here is a device that costs around $100 or less that can save you thousands of dollars in energy bills. Better yet, you can buy one at the home center and even install this yourself.
These are programable thermostats. A programable thermostat allows you to program various temperature settings into it, so you only use the fuel you need to be comfortable when you need it.
The thermostat on the left handles whole house/zone heating and cooling. You can see, its set for 57 degrees. Thats our “away” setting for the house. This thermostat, combined with some new insulation and the low settings when we were sleeping or away from home saved us well over 20% in heating costs last winter.
The thermostat on the right is for the electric radiant heat in our foyer area. This can be an efficient way to heat a room but it has to be planned for before renovation.
Call us if you need a hand.
I just returned from a weekend jaunt to Rhinebeck, NY, a charming village located 100 miles north of New York City that was settled by both English and Dutch settlers in the 1600s. Rhinebeck. My visit to this town brought to mind a book I recently read, “Home, a Short History of an Idea,” by Witold Rybczynski. In it, the author explains where our modern ideas about what makes a “home” come from. For all of us who live in or work on old houses, this book is a must read.
Rybczynski explains how the Dutch design of the home informed our American way of thinking of the idea of “home.” What do we all think of when we think of home? It’s a place for a family unit. The fact that your home’s shape answers your family’s needs is a Dutch invention. It’s more than just shelter. It’s about comfort and ease and privacy — all newly imposed criteria for home.