For the past couple of years I have noticed that Halloween paraphernalia is everywhere. You can’t hide or run from the numerous goblins, ghost, jack-o’-lanterns, or witches. They will track you down in your grocery stores, drug stores and garden stores. They even have their own club in the name of “The Halloween Store.” Am I stuck in a Freddie Krueger movie from September to Halloween?
What amazes me is why do we need to have thousands of items to decorate our houses? Some houses are decorated as much as they are for Christmas. Lights, pumpkins, scary music, and ghosts galore. Halloween is definitely competing with Christmas for the amount of decorations used.
When I was a child, we had a pumpkin. Period. I am curious as to why Halloween has been elevated in status. Is it because Halloween brings out the kids in us? Do we define fun by how much we can buy to decorate our lives? Is it all window dressing,…
(Read the rest of this article at the following article source link for the full story)
Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) are helping homeowners cut their heating bills in half.
SIPs, sometimes known as stress skin panels, are made of an insulating foam core with OSB (oriented strand board) bonded to either side. There are three types of foam cores – EPS (expanded polystyrene), XPS (extruded polystyrene), and urethane (either polyisocyanurate or polyurethane), ranging in R-Values from 13 to 40 (R-value refers to a materials ability to resist transferring heat), far above conventional wall construction with fiberglass or cellulose insulation.
Panels are typically installed vertically on the home walls. Panel connections are fastened with splines or cams and then expanding foam insulation is sprayed directly into the remaining space, sealing the connection and creating a continuous thermal insulating wall for the home. (In a timber frame or post and beam home, the panels are wrapped around the exterior of the timber frame.)
Panel wall R-Values differ according to…
(Read the rest of this article at the following article source link for the full story)
I am not ready to let summer go. The last day of summer was this week; however, it seems like summer has been gone for a whole month. Since August, the nights have already started getting cooler. Once September rolls around, the nights seems a little nippy to me. Reaching for my coat, brought sadden to my heart since I knew that frost was right around the corner and the end of my garden was in sight.
It seems just like yesterday, I was planting my spring crop. I eagerly wait for Mother’s Day since the fear of frost is hopefully past. (Some eagerly wait for Mother’s Day for the breakfast in bed and kisses and hugs. I am lucky I get a grunt that is supposed to mean “Happy Mother’s Day from my kids.)
With a snap of a finger, by August the nights seems to get cooler and I know that fall is right around the corner. I always lament that I wish I had a greenhouse since I am never ready for summer to end. My endless lists (according to my kids) never…
(Read the rest of this article at the following article source link for the full story)
Bonin Architects & Associates is proud to announce it has been chosen as one of the Architects of the elite Guild at the Mount Washington Resort Dartmouth Brook development in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The opportunity to design homes at the Resort was offered to a select group of New England architects who have a keen understanding of the marketplace and a real sense of design in keeping with the Development’s focus on energy efficient home plans.
Permits are already in place for the start of 199 custom homes to be built on 85 acres – but that is just the start of the $1+ billion development plans.
Dartmouth Brook is part of the huge development taking place at the Mount Washington Resort, calling for 900 homes and other attractions by the year 2019. Patrick Corso, President of the Resort, says the development’s first object “is to become a quintessential, definitive resort destination in New England.” Corso has the experience to deliver, having overseen the restoration…
(Read the rest of this article at the following article source link for the full story)
Clorox, the North American parent of Brita, is urging Americans to take the pledge to reduce their use of plastic water bottles via their Filter For Good website, in partnership with Nalgene. They have several commercials depicting our love affair with plastic disposable water bottles in our daily routine, whether at the gym or playing ball. Such slogans as “thirty minutes on the treadmill, forever in a landfill,” or “an hour on the court, forever in a landfill,” drives home the reality that the vast majority of bottles end up in a landfills. More specifically, Americans sent 38 billion water bottles to landfills in 2006. 1
However, I find this campaign to be ironic. The Company is asking us to stop sending water bottles to landfills, but on the other hand, its plastic filters that purifies the water are ending up there anyways. Why? Clorox does not take back its own filters. Watch this video by Jeph and Dorothy of Studio Freshh that nicely sums up the…
(Read the rest of this article at the following article source link for the full story)
The timber frame home site in Lincoln, New Hampshire is coming along nicely! The timber frame is scheduled for delivery September 23rd and the timber frame crew is waiting anxiously to put up the timber frame and T&G decking, which will take approximately four weeks. (The home is 3500 SF and has 300+ timbers.)
The timber exterior envelope will be structural insulated panels (SIPs), which are scheduled to deliver on October 13th and take about two weeks to install. Once the panels are on, the general contractor’s crew will put the roof on and install the Eagle windows into the pre-cut panels, completing the weather-tight shell.
Check back often for more progress updates and new site construction photos.
Stop making that face as you read my title. You know the “ewww” face. And no, I have not lost all of my marble although I have to admit some might be missing. So, how can you reduce your energy consumption and help save the Planet? Isn’t obvious? Eat your food cold instead of heating it up.
Okay, not everything is going to taste great cold, but I could name one dish that it delish cold. Well, I could name a few. SPAGHETTI and MEAT SAUCE. Stop making that face again. It gives me the creeps.
Today, I was so hungry and I remembered that we had spaghetti and meat sauce in the refrigerator. I tend to eat dinner leftovers for lunch. I methodically put in only a cup of spaghetti in a glass container for the microwave since carbs make me gain weight. (I usually don’t use the microwave that much unless I need food heated up quickly. I worry that microwaves destroy the food nutrients. See this article.)
I was so hungry waiting for that darn microwave to heat up my food…
(Read the rest of this article at the following article source link for the full story)
Formaldehyde is a common chemical and a by-product of combustion (tobacco smoke, vehicle exhaust, and fumes from fireplaces, furnaces, and wood stoves). It can also be found in water solutions such as preservatives or disinfectants, and is used in the manufacture of many building materials. Formaldehyde gas has no color, but in high quantities has a sharp smell and can be toxic.
There are two main types of formaldehyde: urea and phenol. The majority of health problems come from urea formaldehyde. In the 1950’s urea-formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI) was developed. UFFI was usually mixed on site during a home’s construction and then injected into the walls where it could “cure” and become an insulator. Because excessive amounts of urea formaldehyde gas escaped from the walls and made people sick, UFFI has not been used since the 1980’s and is banned in many places. However, today urea formaldehyde is also present in water-resistant adhesives and is…
(Read the rest of this article at the following article source link for the full story)
I’m shocked. I was listening to a radio news story about the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in the south Texas area. In an effort to provide local citizens with clean drinking water, a spokesman was saying that they were adding more chlorine to their water purification process.
Subscribe
(Read the rest of this article at the following article source link for the full story)
