Replacing the Entry Doors

In an effort to continue to improve the energy efficiency of our house, parts of the last two weekends have been committed to replacing our two entry doors. This job was not nearly as huge as the Cathedral Ceiling Insulation upgrade, thankfully!

I did the back door last Saturday, working alone, and it was arduous. Taking the old door out (which is explained online as simple removing the interior trim, cutting the nails, and watching the door fall outward) was a pain because the Dream has no trim on the inside. Instead, there are drywall corners that run up to the edge of the door. Also, instead of having exterior brick mold (which could be pried off to access the nails needing to be cut) our doors had one solid piece of wood that was the brick mold and frame. I ended up cutting the frame into many pieces, and prying each one off the studs, causing more stucco damage than I would have liked. After a mere six hours, the metal door was installed. Only once did I have to fully remove the door after shimming it and setting the screws on the hinge side.

When planning to tackle the front door, I knew that going it alone wasn’t going to be the best idea. With my co-owned reciprocating saw out with its co-owner, I borrowed my Rain Farming Friend’s saw, and about 3 hours of his time. *I co-own a reciprocating saw, as well as a 1984 Chevrolet 1/2 Ton. Almost all the time this is handy - especially when the time came to pay for said saw and truck. In fact, this was the first truck or saw related conflict* The second door went in more smoothly thanks to another set of hands. Now, instead of two circa 1961 wooden, constantly expanding and contracting, doors, we have two Energy Star approved, fully sealing and sealed doors.

Before we call in the Energuide for Houses folks for our follow up visit, we’ll insulate the basement (only about half is insulated right now), seal the electrical outlets on the exterior walls, and possibly upgrade the furnace. Though we need new windows, and could use some extra r-value on our exterior 2X4 walls, that’ll have to wait until we win the lottery.

For now, we have some nice(r) doors.

Farming Rain

After completing the roof renovation I put up new fascia and soffit, as well as eavestrough. When running the downspouts, I decided to try to run them into rain barrels. On the front of the house, facing the driveway, this wasn't possible. However, on far side, and on the garage, it worked like a charm. There's something about having perfectly clean water run into a storm sewer that seems so ridiculous -- I use water from the tap (that had to be treated) to water the garden. I have two black steel rain barrels that fill when it rains. (I traded my old eavestrough for the barrels - win-win, I'd say.) However, my setup is pretty Mickey Mouse compared to my friend's rain operation, or, as I will now refer to it, Rain Farm.

He has a large house with a large garage, and two 45 gallon rain barrels. Not so fancy, you say, well, that was until today. Now, he still has a large garage, large house, but instead of just 2 measly rain barrels, he has 12. Twelve, I said. He was working in his back yard the other day and peered over his fence (not in a creepy way, it's a 5' fence, you can't not peer over it) and saw 10 rain barrels lined up in his neighbours back yard. He checked with his neighbour, and found out that they used to be hooked up in series to collect rain, but became too much hassle for the old man. He was looking to get rid of them. My buddy jumped at the chance, and now has a veritable Rain Farm. A great example of conserving, happily mixed with a little bit of obsessing.

Carpet: The Devil in Disguise?

The Handyman's Dream has carpet in the three bedrooms upstairs. Gross carpet. I don’t think it is that old (the color and style are contemporary-ish) but it is worn. And stained. And, according to Ecoholic, trapping dust containing heavy metals, pesticides, and persistent fire retardants. Not to worry, though. An environmental engineer told New Scientist magazine that you’d only have to vacuum it 25 times a week for several weeks to bring the levels of contaminants below safety standards. USC did a study in the 90s and found DDT imbedded in 1/4 of the carpets they tested. Even if some of this is conjecture or hyperbole or, well, downright false, I’m still not interested in having carpet in my house. We’re not sure when it will go, but it will go. And we will enjoy it going. But, what to replace it with?

Bamboo is much more sustainable then hardwood, as it grows more quickly. However, a lot of bamboo has formaldehyde in it. If that scares you away from it, consider this – all MDF board (except that from IKEA) has formaldehyde in it as well! Take a look at your kitchen cupboards. Oh my. Reclaimed hardwood is great in theory, but at upwards of $10 a foot, no teacher I know will be installing it any time soon. So, we’ll keep investigating our options. I found a company out of Seattle, Bamboo Hardwoods, that owns a factory in Vietnam, and works with local farmers to ensure sustainable farming practices of bamboo. Another criticism of bamboo is that it is soft – in fact, the darker the color, the longer it has been cooked (carbonized) and the softer it will be. Also, if bamboo is harvested early (called Green bamboo) it will be softer than older bamboo.

So, we have some choices to make. But I doubt we'll choose the Devil's floor covering...