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

Oprah

"I see you. I hear you.
What you say matters to me."

"God is love and God is life and your
life is always speaking to you."

Oh I love Oprah. I've taped every episode of this last season and the finale did not disappoint. Did you see it? If not, you can read a recap here.

Living Room Inspiration

I'm having a hard time focusing on the job at hand (picking stain colors, kitchen sink, light switches, etc.) when I'd way rather be imagining how the room will look when it's finished! I'm no design expert, but I have lots of help in this department.

I want to go in a different direction than our last living room. We used a lot of greens and deep reds. Super warm colors (and I loved it, just think something lighter would look good in this house).

Obviously I can't buy everything at once, but I'm going to at least start with paint and rugs and see how I can build from there.

Pinterest has been such an awesome place to find inspiration.

I'm hoping to put a sectional sofa in our living room - doesn't it look great in this one? As much as I spill things on our sofa I'm not sure it'd be a good idea to get a cream one, but I bet it wouldn't show dog hair!

I just LOVE so much about this room - the rug, floors, wall color, bar stools, lamps. Ah. Someday.

I also like the feel of this room - although the floors are a bit too light for me. Neutrals with the green pillows.

In all my searching around online, I also came across this blog and fell in love with this shelving. We're going to do a modified version so we'll have a good spot for the TV (since I just can't get on board with placing it above the fireplace but I'm OK with putting it beside on a slightly lowered shelf).



I was at HomeGoods the other day (thanks to Katie I have some motivation to shop in there!) and I saw this rug. I want a more neutral one I think for the den, but this one has the neutral background and lots of color as well to work off of. Wouldn't it be great for my dining room? I hope so because I bought it yesterday!

HomeGoods is so inexpensive - I love it. What about these lamps? $69 and $49. Yes please. The only problem now is I have NO idea what I need so I didn't purchase either one of them :(

On a different note - the lake is still flooding. Wind and waves caused more damage earlier this week. Matt is convinced we can get out to the lake house at some point soon but I'm not letting him do this.



The good news is that the water is forecasted to go down. Hooray!

Happy Wednesday everyone - xo

Construction Week 2

So Week 2 is done and we're moving on to week 3. When I left off I think we were down to the studs.

Now the kitchen window is in.

The kitchen door is also in.

Annnnnd, the sheetrock is up!

It's starting to look more like a real room again!

Notice how the sheetrock has gaps between the different sheets and nail holes? I asked Matt how in the world they turn that into a regular wall. (No judging. I'm not experienced with construction.) That's where the "taper" comes in. He fills in those cracks and nail holes with mud and then tapes them off. He was here all weekend and here is how it looks now. Makes much more sense.

The electrical work upstairs (a new outlet so that Matt can plug in an air conditioner - ha! and pulling the cable cord through the attic so it comes out in the correct place in our bedroom) is finished. All the new electrical was inspected and our new panel box downstairs in the basement is in. Exciting right?

The biggest job of the week was installation of the hardwood floors in the dining and living room (and kitchen this morning). Exciting but yikes that means I really have to decide on the damn stain color. It has been quite stressful and I'll feel so much better when it's done! They are covered in pink protective paper so I'll wait to share the picture when that's off.

I think that's it! I have no idea what the plan is for this week other than lots of sanding (walls, floors, ug) but I'm really hoping for kitchen cabinets (am I dreaming? Week 3?).

xoxo

The Weekend Eater

Our house has a new nickname. The Weekend Eater. I think it's pretty self-explanatory. We used to sleep in on Saturday and Sunday, drink coffee, play with nug and hike/ski/etc. Now we devote much of our spare time to the Weekend Eater. We're also the type to want things done yesterday so I suppose we could take a more relaxed pace and we'd have more free time again, but let's face it. I can't rest until things are done.

This weekend the Weekend Eater was particularly greedy. She put her demands up-front in our face so we couldn't help but take care of them.

Meet Matt's new nemesis.

Dandelions.

I have my own nemeses (nemesi?). Wallpaper. (More on that later.) AND Potholes. Who knew that one pothole + careless driving in our neighborhood = a $140 new tire and 2 hours late to work? Be warned. There are potholes here that could swallow a car whole.

Anyway. Dandelions. They're everywhere. We argued over whether he can put down a fertilizer with a pesticide in it (sound familiar mom?). Against my better judgment, I said if he mows them and they come back then he can do it (fingers crossed they're gone for good!). The yard looks good OK now though!

Matt also tried to tackle cleaning the windows. This involved a large ladder and removing all the storms from the exterior. He did a good job, but had a mishap at the end that sent him to the urgent care for stitches :( Not to worry. He'll be fine. It wasn't a big cut, but it was deep. I'm going to post a picture of his 3 stitches so scroll on down if you're squeamish.

Onto my project. The master bathroom. Everything we do in there is a band aid fix until we spend the $ to completely renovate it someday.

To start, I stripped MORE wallpaper up there. Remember what it used to look like?

We painted the vanity last weekend and changed out the knobs. I pulled all that wallpaper off this week (ug). Then I was left with the glue. I didn't take a picture of that. My painter told me I had to use this chemical to get it off.



I did about half of the job before I grew tired of my eyes stinging (despite wearing full protective gear including a mask, goggles, and gloves). I decided to read the warning label more carefully (why didn't I do that before?). I read the following "This product contains an ingredient known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm." Dang - after all my efforts at going green. I knew it wouldn't be good but that sounds terrible. I made Matt do the rest.

Anyway. 2 days later everything is white. Boring I know but I couldn't settle on a color that would match that gray tile. Here is a terrible iphone photo I sent my sister. I'll take a better one at some point. The walls really are white even though they look yellow in this pic. The curtain is temporary and I have some plans for the floor and walls so I'll show you the big after when it's all done in a few weeks.

SO. The Weekend Eater had her fill the past 2 days, but I'm determined to stay positive about it. I'm thankful we had the time, energy, and resources to complete these jobs ourselves. I'm also especially thankful we aren't doing all the rest of the work ourselves too :)

Now for the more fun part of the weekend. We had almost 30 hours in a row without rain! 2 days of sun (and almost sun) can do wonders for the spirit. Yesterday we went to a cookout at a friend's house.

I would have been happy to just stare at the view.

Today we took a 30 mile bike ride. I was so proud. We stopped at the old brick store halfway through and I treated myself to a chocolate chip M&M cookie. Delicious. I am worn out. Matt says he feels fine - of course.

Willow had some fun this weekend too :) Check out her corn eating skills.

Back later with a week 2 construction update. Thankfully, they move a lot more quickly than we do.

xo

Kitchen-less

You may wonder.....how does one live without a kitchen? It's not easy. My parents remodeled their house when I was in high school and lived there with no kitchen for NINE MONTHS. 2 adults. 3 teenagers. 1 dog. We're just 2 adults and 1 dog but I don't think I could do this for 9 months.

It helps a lot when you have a grill. Or one of these.



Or this.



Or this.



Do you see the stack of Styrofoam bowls and paper plates in the background (gasp!)? I am not a fan of paper or Styrofoam products and they are most certainly not the most "green" alternative, but when you wash dishes in a place like this you get desperate not to have too many.



So...this week and last we've eaten: grilled cheese and tomato soup (illustrated above), re-heated store bought quiche, salad with pre-cooked chicken, bean and cheese quesadillas, pancakes, turkey burgers and veggies, and steak with asparagus. Notice no pasta. I miss that the most. We don't have a hot pot - I wish!

Really, it doesn't matter what I make. When your husband comes in from doing things like this he doesn't care what he eats.

We've been kitchen-less for almost 3 weeks now. Not sure how many to go. I just hope they pass quickly.

Willa Nug

I haven't written much about the Nug recently, but that doesn't mean she's no longer the center of our universe. In fact, she receives more attention now than ever because we're feeling so bad for all the disruption we've caused the poor thing.

Just check out the princess. (Please excuse the unedited iphone photos and multiple shots of the blue room - that's pretty much the only place we can be in the house at this point.)

If you look closely in the background, you will see stick mountain is growing larger as I tackle more and more of the yard....

Today Willow had her yearly check-up at the Vet. Oh how she hates the vet. There is lots of nervous panting, trying to climb in my lap, and tail tucking involved. Somehow I always end up being the one who has to take her (maybe because I work a lot less than Matt?) and it's a pretty sad experience. I can only imagine taking a baby for shots. Yikes.

Will has gained 12 pounds since last year. Not sure how that happened! She's also decided recently that she doesn't want to eat (contradictory I know) unless we coax her with small handfuls of food first. The vet said it sounds more anxiety than GI related.

Wonder why she would be anxious? MAYBE it's because we force her to live in a room that looks and sounds like this.

*Note - you need sound to appreciate this one - the constant humming in the background is some sort of compressor...*

OR maybe it's because she takes after her MOM and starts to become depressed when she sees the forecast looks like this (after 3 days of steady rain already).

I guess there's hope for Saturday.

In other news, the lake is still flooding. Check out these pics of the ferry.

Not operating. No kidding.

OK that's it for now! Back with more house updates at some point....

xoxo