Speaking of Heating Bills...

 As a continuation on the series about timing of renovations and home upgrades, the best time to replace your heating system is after insulating your walls and attic and ultimately, when it is showing its age.  If you have just installed a new system, this is not the time.  If, like ours, your system is over 35 years old, it's time to start planning.  Obviously it's not ideal to allow your system to completely die before replacing it.  When you are ready to replace it, move away from fossil fuels.  There are several systems out there that are very much in the mainstream.  Just because you currently have a gas furnace, doesn’t mean that you can’t upgrade to an all electric one.  Don’t worry, I’m not talking about electric resistance, which is expensive to run.  I’m talking about a heat pump.  These are super efficient and relatively inexpensive to run. 

Again, there are often government sponsored programs that can help you pay for this. Mass Save will cover $10,000.00 of an air source heat pump, and $15,000.00 of a ground source heat pump.

Our existing, dated gas furnace.

We have decided that it's time to upgrade. We had an issue with the furnace last year on a zero degree day and woke up to a very cold 40 deg. F. house. It was fixable, but in the end, this furnace is over 35 years old, and pretty inefficient. We are working with Mass Save to do a new, whole home heating system switch. The new system will be a Mitsubishi mini split heat pump system. I'll post an update after the project is completed in a couple of weeks!

Becoming a steward of your property

I've been thinking a lot lately about the idea that we not only own our property, but are, in fact, stewards of this piece of land.  We are the second owners of this house and property and plan to be here for a long time, but our lives are finite.  I'm not saying I'm going to kick the bucket tomorrow, but someday we might decide to move on and sell this property to someone else.  Most people talk about that in terms of resale value.  Am I doing things that someone else will like?  Usually you don't want to do something like remove a bathtub and replace it with a shower because the next owners might have kids and want a tub.  Those ideas are valid, but that's not what I'm talking about here.  

I'm talking about making the right decision now even if you won't see all of the benefits right away, or ever.  If you make the right decision on something now, the next people that own the house won't have to.  It is quite literally the opposite of kicking the can down the road.  Sometimes we hear the words, "the next person can deal with it."  The problem with that argument is that the next person is probably my kid, or someone else's kid.  Or, in extreme cases, my kid's kid.  Wow, that was a lot of kids... 

Anyway, my point is that I was taught to pick up the trash in the hallway and not walk past it for the next person to deal with.  We think that, if we possibly can, we should make the more sustainable choice on the small stuff and the big stuff.  You will likely see some benefits now, but there will probably be long term benefits for someone else.  In fact, maybe that's your resale value.  You've done all of these things that benefit the next buyer.  Perhaps you can command a higher price because your house is "Zero Energy Ready"; because every time something in your house needed replacing, you made the most efficient, low energy decision.  You might not be able to afford solar panels while you are living there, but maybe that's the contribution the next person can make to the property. 

I'll give one example:  We bought our house for the blueberries... The previous owners planted about 50 blueberry bushes.  It likely took 20 - 30 years (possibly longer we aren't sure) for the bushes to grow to their current size.  They probably got plenty of benefit (in the form of blueberry harvest) while they were living here, but we, as the next owners, also get that harvest! (About 130 pounds this summer...)  It really was a big selling point for us.  The house on the other hand was... rough.  There were lots of bad decisions made for the longevity of the house.  We are trying to be better and make good decisions going forward, i.e. upgrade the electrical service, convert the heating system to electric, fully insulate the walls.  It isn't easy, but we'll get there.

-Nate

P.S.  For your enjoyment, here are some of the decisions we or the previous owners have made for our home with an eye on stewardship.

In addition to blueberry bushes, the previous owners also planted apple and pear trees.  We aren't the only ones that benefit from that decision.

Old electrical panel with our home inspector's understated comment...

He also said, "I've never seen one like this before." He has been doing this for 30+ years.

New electric panel with plenty of room for future expansion.  

It also has a 50amp circuit for:

New Chargepoint car charging port.

The blueberries... 1/4 of the daily harvest in July.

Turkeys among the blueberry bushes

The best time to insulate

Continuing on our series about timing, we thought it would be best to start at the beginning. Insulating your house depends a bit on what you already have.  Our house had 1.5 inches of foil faced fiberglass batt insulation in the exterior walls.  Restated, we had almost no insulation in our house...  The best time to insulate a house like that is, as soon as possible.  I would also say, the best time to insulate your attic is as soon as possible.  Heat rises, and it will rise right out of your house without a properly insulated attic space. 

Let’s say however, that your house is pretty well insulated, meaning that the exterior walls are fully filled and the attic is perfect.  If you plan to replace the siding on your house, this would be a good time to add some continuous exterior insulation.  Think of it like wearing a sweater in the winter (normal insulation), but then you go outside and realize that a big puffy winter coat would really be a great addition.  This is what I’m talking about.  Wrapping your house with a layer of insulation is like putting on a winter jacket.  It helps bridge all of the gaps between the buttons, or in this case, the wall studs.  I’ve put together a fairly standard detail drawing of how this might work.  If you are talking to a contractor about this kind of work, show it to them and tell them you are interested in continuous insulation.  It will add money to your project, but the benefit will be noticeable in the winter when your heating bill goes down.

There are some options here in terms of types of insulation and there is an opportunity to make a better decision. When we talk about insulation "in" the walls, cellulose is, by far, the best. It doesn't have the highest R-value, but it is easy to retrofit an existing home, it's made from recycled paper, and, most importantly, it can dry if it gets wet. (walls are prone to develop moisture either from temperature changes, or the fact that you breathe inside your house... and your breath contains moisture.) Foam insulation is not ideal. It contains lots of harmful chemicals and tends to shrink over time, negating the effort now. That said, there are some very difficult areas to insulate, so this might be the right solution given the circumstance.

Exterior insulation is a little different. There are a couple of options, but usually you want to go with a rigid board type of insulation. Mineral wool, or a wood fiberboard are good alternatives (see below for links) They are good at wicking moisture, and they are good insulators.

There are other ways, and if you are interested, feel free to reach out and we can talk about some other alternatives. They are just a little too complicated to explain here.

Sometimes there are government programs that can help you to pay for a project like insulating your house.  A quick google search will probably help you determine if there is a program near you.  In our case, we live in a town that uses National Grid (local utility), so the Mass Save program helped us.  They paid for 75% of our insulation project, bringing our total out of pocket cost from $7,500 down to $1,200.

Mineral wool: https://www.rockwool.com/north-america/products-and-applications/products/comfortboard-80/

Wood fiber board: https://gutex.de/en/product-range/products/walls/

(this product comes from Germany, so it is likely more expensive due to shipping etc.)

Our own insulation project:

Holes in the exterior where they "blew in" cellulose insulation.

Fiberglass insulation (pink) between the floor joists in the basement.

Spray foam (yellow) sealing the joint between the wood framing and the foundation.

Ways to Make Your Home More Environmentally Friendly: Intro

House projects can be daunting and, if you don’t have a frame of reference for it, you might have a hard time deciding where to start on a project, or even which project to start with.  Even for us that was a challenge.  It occurred to me that there is a very rational way to look at this problem.  There is an order in which home updates can and probably should happen.

Sometimes it's easy to prioritize a particular project and know exactly when to do it.  In the case of our moldy carpet, we decided to immediately rip it out, but then paused and decided what the best replacement would be.  We waited 2 months, did some research and saved some money, then bought what we felt was the most sustainable flooring we could.  The flooring is sustainable in several ways.  It is going to last a long time, the material itself is renewable and it was purchased through a company that puts environmental concerns first.  It was not the most expensive thing we could buy, nor the cheapest.  We also tried to make a good decision about the way we installed the floor, knowing that buying a little more up front would allow us to have a seamless transition down our hallway to the bedrooms.  We know that this flooring will not need to be removed until it has completely worn out (hopefully a long time).  My goal in talking about this is to show that even in a crisis, it is important to stop and think long term about your project.

Sometimes however, it isn't so easy. Those reasons can be wide ranging from financial hardship to a lack of time to do it.

So, over the next few weeks, we are going to explore this topic of when and why to do projects, as well as some suggestions on how to make your decisions as sustainable as possible. In the meantime, here is the final result of the flooring project!

Wood Shop Magic

 It has been a busy winter!  I believe I mentioned my new source for industrial pallets in my last post called "Pallet Wood Fun."  This time the objective was night stands!

Last summer we bought a pretty nice dresser for our bedroom from the ReStore by Habitat for Humanity.  If you've never been to one, it's like a huge playground.  They have leftover materials from builds, used furniture from donations, tools (my favorite), and many other things.  This dresser that we bought is painted white and has legs and drawer faces that are proud of the front of the cabinet.  It's a pretty nice design and functions fairly well.  There are six drawers and Stephanie and I share it.  The problem is that Stephanie filled one whole drawer with socks... she has sooo many socks!  They are all sorts of fun colors and designs, and they seem to make her happy.  So, with one drawer full of socks, it only leaves two drawers for the rest of her clothes.  She mostly makes do, but we thought that having a little more space would be helpful.  We thought nightstands would do the trick... except that apparently nightstands don't come in pairs? Ridiculous, I know, but we looked for a couple of months both new and used and either couldn't find a matching pair (used), or ones that fit our space (new).  Night stands are apparently 30" to 36" wide these days for bedrooms that are larger than our living room.  I know this because I've designed several of them (bedrooms, not night stands). 

Anyway, I had just taken another load of industrial pallet wood home, so I thought I would endeavor to build a couple of nightstands that matched each other and our dresser.  It was an interesting journey, let me tell you.

I started with 2x6 lumber which, for those of you who aren't initiated into the world of lumber, means that the dimensions of the wood are 1 1/2"x 5 1/2".  I figured out that if I cut a length of it and then re-sawed it on my table saw, I could get (2) 5/8"x5" boards out of each piece.  That meant that I could make the sides, back, and drawers out of the same material rather than buying plywood panels.  I had a few challenges in that I don't have a planer or a jointer, so in the end, the panels I glued up are not perfect.  I did have a large sanding block so, by hand, I was able to flatten each panel.  I now have muscles in places that I didn't know I could have them...

The legs were easy to make, and the whole thing went together with pocket screws drilled into the inside of the panels.  I inherited a small nail gun from a friend and was able to use that to put the drawers together.  

The entire outside of the cabinet was painted white to match the dresser, and then it was done!  Well, I still had to make another matching one for me, but one done and one to go!  The second one was easier, or at least more streamlined.  This time I cut everything I needed all at the same time and bought the right sized clamps to make the process a little easier.

Anyway, I think they came out pretty nice and we now have a matching bedroom set!  In the end, I learned quite a bit, used wood that was destined for the landfill, and supported the local hardware store where we bought drawer pulls... and a lot of screws.

Adventures in a New Home

 Painting.  Ahhh the joys of a fresh coat of paint.  Plus the chemicals in the joint compound to cover up those holes you made while hanging pictures, the toxic dust when you sand it.  Don't forget to wash the walls with something like TSP (which can also be found in cereal?).  It isn't strictly toxic, but it isn't exactly healthy.  Then we get to the paint.  Isn't it fun watching it dry?  Did you know that while you are watching it, there are serious chemical reactions happening?  Some even produce toxic smells that fill the air.  We are going to TRY to do better.

Washing the walls:

Apparently, there are very natural home mixtures that can be used to clean the walls of all of that dirt, grime and grease.  We did a little research and found a very easy mix which includes water vinegar and baking soda...its like we are in 4th grade science making exploding volcanoes!

The recipe was found here and consists of the following:

4 Liters of warm water

1/2 cup of vinegar

1/4 cup baking soda

Then, just like Mr. Miyagi would say, wipe on, wash off... okay, maybe I'm paraphrasing there.  Anyway, you wash the wall with the mixture, and then wash again with warm water only. 

**So, while we did try the mixture, we also found out that straight vinegar would also do the trick, and it did.  No exploding buckets, but pretty clean walls, so I'd call it a success.

Prepping the walls:

I always thought that joint compound was a pretty benign thing.  It's basically just plaster like we played with in art class right?  Well, in order to make the pre-mixed stuff last on the shelf, there are all kinds of preservatives in it.  Sometimes you can find VOCs like formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, as well as other carcinogens like crystalline silica.  Many of the ready mixed brands also make a powder form of their product which, when mixed with water gives the same performance without all of the preservatives etc.  The best brand I have found so far is Murco.  They claim zero VOC, and a pretty benign formula.  Unfortunately they are located in Texas, so ordering it would be expensive and non-sustainable due to the distance traveled.  So, we are going to go with USG brand.  You can get it at the local hardware store and its relatively inexpensive.

**In the end, we ended up using some of the premixed stuff.  My dad had some that needed to be used up (shelf life issue) so we opted for using something up before it went bad instead of buying new stuff.  We also didn't need as much as I thought we would.

Painting:

Benjamin Moore offers zero VOC paints across most of their products now.  I am pleased to say that some of the more saturated colors we picked come in a zero VOC version.  Here again, we made an exception and for some of the paint, we worked with the local hardware store to use up some paint that they were trying to get rid of.  It was low VOC rather than zero, but we felt like we were helping them out a bit.  Primer, ceilings and most areas were done in the Benjamin Moore Zero VOC.

As it turns out, "zero" is not exactly zero, but very small amounts that the EPA allows to be called zero.  Again, better but not perfect.  

The project went very well, though it took longer than we thought.  The prep work was difficult and it dragged on for weeks.  The actual painting part was a little easier, and a little more enjoyable due to the fact that progress could be more easily seen, and we could enjoy the fruit of our previous efforts.  One thing to note is that when you do any project like this, it is best to do your research ahead and be prepared for the time and cost to do it.  It is easy, if you don't know what you are getting into to take shortcuts.  You might buy something less than ideal because it is less expensive, or you might decide not to do part of the prep because it takes a long time.  While the immediate feedback might be good i.e. more money left in your bank account, the end result may be a smell that takes weeks to dissipate, or walls with divots that show up in the light.  Take your time, buy the right thing, and enjoy the process.  

Maybe someday I'll take my own advice...(better, not perfect)

We would like to say a special thanks to all of our friends and family who offered support during this project, both physical and emotional.  It was a crazy month leading up to our move, but we got it all done and it looks fantastic!

Bib:

https://thediydreamer.com/diy/how-to-clean-walls/