Green Options » home improvement

Dutch Boy’s Refresh Paint: Win a Home Make-Over

Jamie Ervin — Sat, 02 May 2009 03:38:40 +0000

I’ve written about earth friendly paints here on Eco Child’s Play before. With a recent home improvement project (that feels like it will last forever), I’ve had paint on the mind.

Now, Dutch Boy has introduced a line of paint called Refresh. This zero VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint is Greenguard Indoor Air Quality Certified. Another awesome bonus… this paint actually eliminates odors around the house. I can definitely take advantage of this benefit to help reduce the smoke odor in our home from the previous owners.

Dutch Boy is hosting a contest, post your ugly/stinky room story for a chance to win a Refresh paint makeover. I will definitely be going over to enter for a chance to win one of these prizes:

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Home Energy: Why Is There a Need to Improve It?

Jessop Petroski — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:20:44 +0000

Improving Your Home Energy Efficiency

With all the talk of renewable energy and energy efficiency in the news these days it seems to me that having an energy efficient home is the way to go.

So why is there a need to improve your home’s energy efficiency?

A lot of homes these days are beyond energy efficient. In fact, if your home is over 10 years old, it was more than likely built with NO energy conserving features.

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Craft Room Makeover:Ditch Plastic Bins for Vintage Containers

Julie Finn — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 14:12:06 +0000

I don’t yet keep my craft room as green and organized as Lenore does, but it is one of my New Year’s resolutions to decorate my house more nicely (along with learning to sprout seeds, exercising every day, and getting a book contract), and it is part of our family ethic that anything we do must be done as green and thriftily as possible (per my green crafting manifesto), so Lenore and I are going to be craft room buddies pretty soon, I think.

I work almost entirely with found and recycled materials, so one of my biggest problems is the storage of…stuff. Old postage stamps, orphaned game pieces, costume jewelry, wrapping paper, comic books, beach rocks, buttons, and tinsel–you name it, and it finds its way into my work, and if I can’t see it and access it, I can’t use it.

Yeah, I’m tempted every time I wander into some big-box store, 40%-off coupon in hand, by all those clear, organized, neatly-portioned craft bins they always sell. Look, a different compartment for each kind of bead, and I can see them all! Look, slide-out drawers for each different kind of paper!

But I also want my craft room to have character, to not only contain the things that inspire me, but also, itself, BE an inspiration to me. So I have not bought those clear, organized, handy-yet-bland plastic bins. Instead, I try to find vintage, thrifted, or otherwise recycled containers for all my storage needs. Here’s part of my collection of vintage containers:

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Berkeley Architect Constructs Self-Heating Home

Becky Striepe — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:00:39 +0000

A California architect has constructed a home that heats itself from the warmth of its appliances. Homes like this have been popular in Germany, where a local architect built the first of its kind in 1991, but they are only just starting to catch on here in the States.

[Creative Commons photo by KeWynn Lee]

Nabih Tahan’s “Passive House” on Grant Street in Berkeley is the first one in California. It uses a ventilator to recycle the heat that radiates from the appliances, reducing the use of heat from fossil fuels by 80%-90%.

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The Twelve Days of sustainablog: Urban Homesteading, Green Colleges, and Recycling by the Numbers

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:44:15 +0000

Dog days of August? Not at sustainablog!

While most people are wondering if the summer heat is ever going to end, we were hitting our stride here: many more posts, and much more variety. Perhaps it was the cool breeze created by fingers flying across the keyboard…

August 2008

Kelli Best-Oliver reported on a couple of bloggers documenting the American urban homesteading movement.
Low Impact Living discovered a much better investment than the stock market: green home improvements.
Lisa Kivirist showed us how to adopt a neighbor’s fruit tree.
Raz Godelnik of Eco-Libris wondered if free online open-source textbooks represented the future for college students.

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Tax Credits Available in 2009

Dawn Killough — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:27:50 +0000

As was previously reported on Green Building Elements, Congress was contemplating how to include the continuation of energy efficiency tax credits in the “economic bailout.” Well, they did it, and even managed to increase some of the incentives.

Here is a brief run-down of the credits available in 2009:

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Greening Your Home: BottleStone’s Recycled Ceramic

Becky Striepe — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:00:24 +0000

[Image courtesy of BottleStone, used with permission]

California company BottleStone uses local, post-consumer glass combined with clay and cement to create recycled countertops. They have identified four areas of manufacturing that impact the environment and strive to create their product with as low an impact as possible in these areas. BottleStone is eligible for LEED credits and was a Green Building Winner in the 2008 California Clean Tech Open.

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10 Tips for Conserving Energy This Winter

Becky Striepe — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:00:42 +0000

[Image credit: Pirate Alice at Flickr, Creative Commons license]

According to the US Department of Energy, over 1/3 of Americans’ energy bills goes towards heating their homes. By taking steps to reduce the energy devoted to home heating, you can lower your CO2 emissions by hundreds to thousands of pounds. As temperatures drop this winter, there are a few things you can do before reaching for that thermostat. The average American spends $1900 annually on energy bills, so on top of conserving fossil fuels, these tips should save you some cash, too!

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Canadian Proposal for Green Building Incentives

Philip Proefrock — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:20:34 +0000

As part of the current Canadian election campaign, leaders of the Canadian Liberal Party have announced a plan for spending more than a half a billion dollars to improve the energy efficiency of homes across Canada, if they are elected next month.

Under the four-year proposal, the Liberals would offer homeowners $10,000 in financial support for investing in energy-saving measures such as insulation, weatherproofing and more efficient heating systems.

Up to $10,000 would also be available to homeowners as an interest-free “green mortgage loan” to help with up-front costs and major retrofits.

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Book Provides Green Options for Home Improvement

Dawn Killough — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:34:31 +0000

RSMeans recently published Green Home Improvement by Daniel D. Chiras, PhD. It includes 65 home improvement projects that can be used to “green up” a house or building. The projects range from laying bamboo flooring, to heating system upgrades, to building an addition.

The book is wonderfully written, and is meant for the average home owner, not contractors. However, I believe this book would be a good reference for contractors as well, as it presents projects in an easy to understand way that would help educate their customers as to what is involved in a particular project. Do-it-yourselfers would also like this book, as it tells you how much of a particular project you can do, gives pretty detailed instructions, and lets you know when you are in over your head and should call someone.

For those used to RSMeans’ other publications on construction costs, this book will be a bit of a disappointment. It does discuss cost, but only at a higher level for comparison of materials. The good thing is this can start the conversation with an owner about the cost effectiveness of a project, without locking in a price. It also compares apples to apples, when possible, allowing the reader to get a good idea of how much more or less expensive a project will be when compared to other alternatives.

Green Home Improvement is a good reference for both building owners and contractors on some of the possibilities available for greening up an existing building. It provides cost data, along with potential savings, in a way that makes assessing a project easy. With many alternatives to choose from, it allows for a high level comparison of project options. The variety of projects included ensures that information is available for any potential improvement.