Construction Week 12 and a Few New Green Products

Hello friends. I just realized I haven't given a construction update since Week 7! I'm not trying to keep you in suspense - things have just been moving so slowly since that point that I haven't felt like a post would really show you much. Here we are at Week 12 and the construction process is almost done. We of course hit a few snags (what project doesn't?) with the wood countertops and the final floor coat. They're finishing up the floors tomorrow and I will post after that I promise :)

In the meantime, here are a few sneak peak pics.

Knobs and pulls :)

Soapstone soapstone soapstone! Oh I love it and can't wait to show you all of it.

Wall sconces :) Matt thinks they look like peacock tail feathers but I love them!

OK back to my green products.

I've been searching for a more "green" bug spray for a while. I recently came across an article on natural bug spray in Whole Living magazine. I think you can download the article here if you're interested.

Anyway, they gave a bunch of examples of natural plant-based repellents.



Badger! Love it - $12 for a bottle of Badger Anti-Bug Shake and Spray. We've been using it the past few weeks and it really does work. Matt is a harsh critic as he's pretty much a bug magnet. A warning...it still has a strong smell like most sprays do...a bit like citronella and lemongrass :) Go get one today.

Next up....sunscreen.

I am loving Alba Botanica's Mineral Sunscreen (for the face but I use it everywhere because evidently it won't clog pores - I'll take all the help I can get).

If you want a complete list of good sunscreens out there, you can find it here.

Happy Thursday!

xo

Construction Week 4 - Overdue Update

Here it is. The post about week 4 progress, rather lack of progress. Regress even? Sorry for the poor photo quality below, none of them are edited and some are iphone photos.

Anyway. Monday was Memorial Day so nobody was there.

Tuesday and Wednesday Al spent the entire day sanding.

Wednesday night they made me make a final decision on the stain - yikes! Let me walk you through my decision making process....

As I mentioned in my go green post - we decided to go with Vermont Natural Coatings alternative Poly to finish our floors. We also wanted to stain them. Our builder isn't fond of stain so he told us to pick one and he'd do it if we REALLY wanted. Keeping that in mind, I called VNC to see what type of stain I should use. They told me all about their new "tinting" stain they're selling now. They sold me on its green-ness and ease of application (simply pour it into the poly and paint it on).

They sent me a sample (one I already posted on the blog) and I didn't like it. I drove to their factory and worked with them to pick a color I did like. I came home with these boards - I'm comparing them to my magazine picture I love here.

Here they are on top of the raw floors.

I loved them. Matt loved them. We were DONE with this decision - hooray!

Wednesday night Ted wanted me to make sure I still liked it. I got scared and told him to go half strength in case they came out too dark. He painted underneath where the cabinets would go.

Yikes. Looked too dark to me. He added another gallon of poly to the mix so it was now 1/3 strength.

That looked a bit more like my sample.

Although they look TOTALLY different than the first 2 pics I showed right? Or is it just me?

OK. Thursday the stain went down. Poor Al was there late finishing up. He and Matt deliberated a bit over how the stain was "going down" during the day and he decided to switch applicators. Here is how it turned out.

I liked the color, but not the dark spots. We were assured by Vermont Naturals that those would dry overnight and it would look more even.

Nope. The next day they still looked like this - see the brush strokes?

They told us that "buffing" would take those out. It didn't.

To make this long story a little bit shorter - Friday and this past Monday were spent re-sanding the floors. Ug. We felt so bad about it that Matt even jumped in to help :)

I picked a new (non-natural) stain to use. The only other eventful thing was the movement of our refrigerator down the stairs.

Would you want to live here?

So there you have it. That was last week. I escaped one night with Nug and hiked at our favorite place :)

We love Mt. Philo!

On Saturday, we checked out the lake house.

After walking over we decided Matt's truck could make the journey. HOORAY!!! HOORAY!!!

Months of neglect showed most in the yard. It was a jungle out there.

We got things under control and now have the chance to enjoy the sunshine :)

And Sunset.

And even a Champ sighting - do you see him?

What a nice change to finally have the opportunity to spend a little time out of our house and out of the way of construction. We're still back and forth - but it is nice! Coming up next - Barrow's favorite - the first garden update this year!

xoxo

Green Remodeling

Hello friends! Happy Friday! It's still raining here - I hope for your sake it's not where you are.....

So. This will be a pretty boring post for some of you with absolutely no pictures. Just in case you want to skip this one starting at the top.

I haven't gone completely green-obsessed and I know it isn't for everyone (it wasn't for me up until this point), but I'm trying to integrate more natural products into our lifestyle. This renovation has been a great chance to learn more about doing that. Our builder is also pretty into the eco-friendly stuff, so he has pushed for doing things that help us be more "green" in our remodeling process.

Anyway. Green Remodeling. I'm no expert, but the way I see it, there are 2 reasons to go "green" or eco-friendly. The first is because it's good for your health. The second is because it's good for the environment.

Most times I think both happen at the same time. For example, switching to a product like 7th Generation dishwasher detergent cleans your dishes without chemicals AND when the water washes down the drain, it won't harm the environment. Not that we have a dishwasher right now, but that's beside the point.

I've spent way too many hours sitting at the computer researching green building decisions. I wanted to post them just in case somebody else doesn't want to do all the work I've done. So here is a quick list of what we chose that I consider "green" (again, not an expert here):

1. Kitchen cabinets. According to this website,

"Cabinets are commonly made of particleboard, medium-density fiberboard (MDF), or compressed wood products. These materials often contain formaldehyde and adhesives that may offgas for years after installation and cause lung, head, or eye pain."

Yikes. Now we had thermofoil cabs in our last house and they were FINE - I didn't notice a bit of what is described above. However, now that I was given the choice, I sprung for the all wood stock cabinets instead. I wish we could have gone with custom built ones or totally "green" cabinetry like these but they're way out of our budget.

2. Low or No VOC Paint. You don't need to buy the name brand by Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams - the generic is just as good and only costs a few dollars more a gallon than the regular stuff. No smell. It's great!

3. Replacement windows (increase energy efficiency) and a replacement kitchen door with low-E glass (helps keep heat inside the house in the COLD winters we have).

4. Added insulation to the kitchen wall (energy efficiency).

5. Switching from oil to natural gas (considered a "transitional" - which I guess means better? - source of heating by the energy efficiency people).

6. Hardwood floors - check out this guide if you're curious about flooring pros and cons. Really, we picked hardwood just because I like how it looks and because we won't have to replace it hopefully ever. I don't think our floors are FSC certified though :(

7. Vermont Natural Coatings - This might be my favorite green thing we're doing. It's a super cool product that is an alternative to traditional stains and Polyurethane. It's called PolyWhey - made from whey which is a byproduct of cheese making. Most times when you refinish/finish floors it smells terrible and you can barely stand to be in the house for weeks afterwards. This product has very little smell and has received rave reviews for its durability. We're also using their all natural tinted stain on our floors - hope it turns out OK!

8. Countertops - Our wood countertops from IKEA (if I ever find them) are considered a renewable resource so they are a bit green. Our soapstone countertops aren't the most green choice. They don't offgass so they're good health-wise, but they have to be mined and shipped which isn't so good for the environment.

I think that's it. Fascinating right? They've made lots of progress this week and the painter is downstairs right now so I'll hopefully have some progress pics for you soon.

xoxo

More Green Product Love

I'm still searching for green/eco-friendly products I love and I've found a few new products so thought I'd share...

1. Kiss My Face Pure Olive Oil Bar Soap - They recommended this at our Healthy Living store and I love it. It's super moisturizing, which is great for the winter. For my friends in L'burg, I saw this at Kroger over Christmas so it should be available everywhere!



2. Eve Organics Mineral Makeup - I've been a long time fan of Bare Minerals makeup but thought I'd try something different the next time I ran out. So far I'm loving this stuff....



3. Aquarella Nail Polish - It's expensive, but works pretty well. I am not in love with this one, but it'll do for now...They sell non-toxic nail polish remover (but you really have to put some effort into getting the polish off using it) as well as a nail conditioner/hardener. Lots of colors to choose from too!



I've been doing lots of research on eco-friendly building materials (cabinets, countertops, floor stain!), cleaning supplies, you name it since we're going to be doing a lot of renovating and cleaning in the next few weeks. I'm going to make an effort to switch over to either green cleaning products such as Seventh Generation/Ecover or homemade ones and not move with the ones currently under my sink!