Archive for July, 2005
July 27th, 2005 - Gimme Shelter Online
Despie the corny name, Gimme Shelter builds all their homes green. Despite most of the featured houses being large, a recent/current project is just 1300 sq ft. I wonder how much it cost?
July 27th, 2005 - Green Built Home - Wisconsin’s residential green building program
Green Built Home - Wisconsin’s residential green building program. WI actually has a state-wide network focusing on greener homes. You have exceed standards by 15% to have a home certified.
July 27th, 2005 - Another reason to not like Walmart–several, actually
A Pensacola Wal*Mart no longer carries a local newspaper. Why not? They didn’t like an opinion writer. Not because he wrote untruths, but because he told everyone that 10,000 of Wal*Mart employees’ children are in a state health care plan for the poor that costs the state $10 million. Why doesn’t Wal*Mart pay a living wage, instead? (Thanks to my brother Michael for the link.)
July 27th, 2005 - Estimated Remodeling and Repair Costs
From Freddie Mac via This Old House, here are helpful numbers for Estimated Remodeling and Repair Costs. Of great interest to me is that sanding/refinishing hardwood floors generally is less expensive than wall-to-wall carpeting. I hadn’t imagined that. Hardwood is everywhere except probably the stairs. And our downstairs carpet must be removed before we consider selling this house.
July 27th, 2005 - How Much Will Your New Home Cost?
How Much Will Your New Home Cost is a nice, small primer on things to keep in mind as I consider designs for a new small home.
July 27th, 2005 - Bats in the belfry…no, the library
I had some excitement when I got to work this morning. I unlocked the door and a bat cam tumbling out. It seemed to have gotten caught when the door was closed, which was late last night. So a long time for the poor thing to be stuck. It seemed unable to fly. At first, it just tried to flop around, and it was on its back. I stood there trying to decide whether to grab it by a wing–seemed like a bad idea in case I hurt it further or it bit me*. It was in the way of the door closing, so I had to stand there holding the door open. I decided to use my bike helmet to push it out of the way. As I figured that out, the little guy flipped himself over and managed to hop a little. Luckily, he turned towards the inside, and hopped over the doorway. I closed the door and grabbed a wastebasket and set it on over him. I left my belongings and ran to my office to write a note. (After searching thru the backpack to find NO PEN.) I didn’t want someone else to pick up the basket and either injure the bat or themselves. I collected my things and went back to my office to call Facilities Management. I suspect he will have to be killed, but maybe they will release him or take him to a rehab center. I doubt it, but I sure hope so. I like bats; they are so beneficial for the environment, particularily when they eat mosquitoes!
* If it has rabies, I’m in the right place for a cure. The only person to have survived rabies without getting the shots lives in Fond du Lac. Not that I want to go through the hell she went through. She probably will return to school this year–more than a year after the bite. She was in a coma for a long time, too.
July 27th, 2005 - Ross Chapin Architects
Then there’s the drop-dead gorgeous 1100-sq footThree Gables house. Check out the pictures on the right.
July 26th, 2005 - Tumbleweed Tiny House Company
Due to links somewhere else (was it Treehugger? or Escape Adulthood?), I’ve become interested in small homes. One “manufacturer” is Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. I’m not thinking something quite that tiny…but it did get me thinking. And I’ve long been a fan of Sarah Susanka’s Not So Big House concept. We live in 1500 sq ft. And there’s really a LOT of wasted space. For example, the bath is 9 ft by 9 ft. So is the half bath/laudry/cat room. (The house is from about 1900 and was built before indoor toilets. They used to be rooms for something else. The upstairs one was likely a bedroom. The downstairs one? No clue. Another bedroom? That’s a lot of bedrooms for a 1900 house as there are three others, too!) The kitchen is huge and could easily fit a dining table, except that the layout is horrible–the only place for the dining table is in the pathway through the kitchen from back door to doorway to the dining room/rest of the house.
Anyway…one problem with buying/building our dream house is that I think it would cost upwards of $200,000. That’s a lot we need to save as our current house is worth about $100000 and we still owe $85,000 on it. But what if we found the perfect land and built a smaller house? Especially if we built something with the intention of adding on later. Currently, we need only two bedrooms. We could live with one bathroom (we essentially do as the downstairs toilet is on the fritz more than it works lately and we don’t want to pay someone to fix it but are hesitant to fix it ourselves).
I can’t forget that we’d need to build a garage, too. WI winters call for it. Maybe $100000 is a bit of a dream, but even $125,000 for land and smaller house might be doable. What we really want is 5+ acres with room for the dogs to run. With lots of trees and preferable some water (pond, stream, whatever, just water). Within a 20-minute drive to work since I hate commuting (the 20-minute walk is what I love….replacing it with a drive is all I could handle).
I wonder where we’d put the deep freeze? What’s the point of the big garden I’d have if I have no where to put all the food? Anyway….it’s a nice dream to think about and a small footprint on the earth would go far in my book. (Plus, if we build, we can incorporate more green principles than if we buy an existing house.)
July 25th, 2005 - Meat?
As Roger put it “turkey dinner without the turkey…or tofu”…sounds like something out of StarTrek (or Andromeda, which I watch).
July 21st, 2005 - Lithuania rocks
Treehugger: Collapsible “Mutabor Op” Chair by Ona
July 21st, 2005 - Boycott Exxon
We’ve decided to boycott Exxon (Exxpose Exxon homepage) due to their lobbying for the opening of the Arctic National Refuge to oil drilling. This means no buying gas as Exxon or Mobile stations. (We usually buy from Sunoco and BP, which is doing some nice things to support alternative fuels and energy in England at least).
They (Exxon) also hired the Bush guy who modified reports about global warming to give them an oil industry spin. At least he doesn’t work for the government anymore.
July 21st, 2005 - Seed Savers
I intend to plant my garden next year with seeds from Seed Savers, such as this Yugoslavian Red Butterhead Lettuce which just might enable us to stop buying head lettuce (my husband loves the cruchiness of head lettuce). They even sell ground cherries! Who sees ground cherries for sale? But I don’t need to buy them; I have my own heirloom ground cherries–just dug up from Mom and Dad’s garden curtesy of plants/seeds from Grandpa’s garden. Who knows how far back they go? (I just hope they fruit this year….)
July 19th, 2005 - A great new word: Girlcott
Learn about the newly-coined term GIRLCOTT, the opposite of a boycott (from Treehugger). I love the word, as well as the idea behind it.
July 19th, 2005 - The little things
Little things DO matter. So this morning, when I prepared some kohlrabi for lunch, I wondered how to bring salt. My first thought was, “I’ll just pick up a little pack at the condiments area of the Union.” My second thought was, “No, that’s a waste of packaging. I’ll bring my own in a small container.” I’m glad I did. The salt didn’t enhance the kohlrabi much so I used almost none. (Side note: The kohlrabi also tasted a lot like radish, including the sharp/bitter taste. Yuck. I never eat radishes. It was a small one, so I didn’t expect bitterness.)
July 19th, 2005 - Comments
Since I get about 100 (or more?) spam comments compared to a handful of real comments, I’ve decided to turn off commenting. The Comments link still appears, but it doesn’t allow to add any. In any case, some people (like Roger and my brother!) haven’t been able to have any of their comments even show up, so the non-spam ones don’t even appear. I’d still love to hear from everyone. Just email me instead: paulukon at yahoo dot com
July 18th, 2005 - No Sweat — Union-Made Sweatshop-Free Casual Apparel
No Sweat — Union-Made Sweatshop-Free Casual Apparel is another good place to seek out clothes. Once I have the money to buy more. No, not true. Once I *need* more (well, I could do with another work-quality summer shirt. 4 just isn’t enough, especially when one is a mock-t. It works…but it isn’t pleasant in the kind of heat we’ve been having!)
July 18th, 2005 - ‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says
Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement address
is wonderful. Plus, you’ll get to learn why Macs (and hence PCs) have proportional fonts.