Our Dream House on Lakeview
(picture before we replaced the windows and sealed in that door you see open, but after we replaced the roof)
With our remodel almost complete, I wanted to jot down some of the things we did to set ourselves up for low impact living. While not a green remodel per se, we did try along the way to make conscious decisions to reduce our impact where we could.
The house we bought would be considered a “tear-down” to most people. It had a nonsensical floorplan, a questionable foundation, knob and tube wiring, ancient plumbing, truly funky carpet that smelled mildewy, and a large lot that could accommodate a lot more square footage. Although we gutted the house, by not tearing it down, we saved a lot of lumber (the bones of the place are in great shape), and a lot of concrete and steel. All of the demo debris that we did create (much less than if had been a full demo) went to a facility that sorts and recycles.
In building, the only FSC certified lumber that we used was our oak flooring and our doors. the FSC oak flooring ended up being just about $1/sq-ft more than non-FSC. We also made sure that we got American cherry cabinets. Though not FSC or one of the new-fangled green products, they were decidedly not tropical hardwoods. The plywood and framing lumber were good old fashioned bought-it-at-Home-Depot stuff. Copper wire for the updated electrical and plumbing came from Home Depot as well…so some mine in some place distant. Drywall, plaster, paint. We did consider the low VOC paint, but that stuff is more than twice as much, and the budget is getting thin. I would definitely use if for kid’s bedrooms…when we get to that part of the house. And my big transgression was use of brazilian granite. We did get one slab remnant from Ken’s granite guy, but bought two slabs. But since this is my forever house, I have forgiven myself this one (sorry brazilian quarry!).
But what I wanted to talk about, before I went into full disclosure mode, was some of the stuff that Ken did that will reduce our energy use in the long term. First, he installed way more than the usual number of roof vents, to help keep the place cool. We used a light colored roofing material, to reduce solar heating of the house. We didn’t install air conditioning, which is perfectly ok in our mild climate. In place of airco, we have a whole house fan and a bedroom ceiling fan. He also installed sun tunnels in the hall and his closet, which provides excellent passive lighting. The heater is super efficient, and so is the water heater. (We’ll be upgrading to a flash water heater at a later date.) Appliances are energy star. Almost all of the lights are fluorescent (the bulbs these days don’t have that yucky glow of the old bulbs) and most of them are super low wattage. The outdoor light is a dusk till dawn.
We’ve got solar panels in our sights, as well as a rainwater collection system for irrigation and emergency supply.
(unfinished) kitchen of my dreams…so much room to cook and can
So, I don’t think we get any LEED gold or supergreen accolades, but we did make an effort where we could, and many of our decisions will have long term implications in helping us reduce our day to day energy use. We learned a lot, including things that Ken will take with him to future jobs for clients who are open to considering green(er) options. I’m really proud of what we’ve done, and excited to get on up and live as sustainably as we can.
Rock on the Retaining Wall with Moss, Canon Digital Rebel XTi
this weekend:
- hooked up a couple dozen electrical outlets up at Lakeview. Go pliers, screwdriver, and copper wire! It’s good for me to put some manual labor into the construction of the house, and Ken appreciated the extra set of hands while installing closet shelves and the ceiling fan.
- planted a bunch of succulents beneath one of the oaks. Pretty exciting thinking about them naturalizing. Also planted some Spanish moss, two hostas and two maidenhair ferns.
- thought about planting these three tea roses we bought on sale at the beginning of the summer. I can’t commit to their location. Decided I want a white bougainvillea behind them and growing up the railing. And red day lilies between the bougainvillea and the roses. I think I have their spot locked in…will decide this week.
- Decided I need to buy a shovel and paint it pink, so that Ken doesn’t take it to jobs and so I always have one at the house.
- took Sadie to the park. So fun to watch her run in crazy dog circles. Also, bought an agility tunnel for her. She’s doing really well in her agility class - “a natural” they say. But we need some practice. Got stuff to make PVC hurdles last week (holy pasticville!) , so need to get on that little project this week. Looking forward to being able to say “tunnel” “over” and having her do things in the right order. She is a herding dog and so needs tasks to make her happy.
- confirmed that we love the colors we picked for the rooms. We’ve both always lived in houses painted in shades of rental ivory. My (huge) closet is the most wonderful shade of lavender, our bedroom is perfect blue (we love it!), and the rest of the house with its open floorplan is a nice tan. Yay!
- we get to move into Lakeview in about 3 weeks. THREE WEEKS!! Very exciting.
Have a stellar week!!
Wondering how Biden has fared on the environmental front, I took a look at the League of Conservation Voters Environmental Scorecard.
During the 110th Congress, McCain did not vote on any of the 15 bills included in the LCV scoring, earning him a big fat zero. Obama and Biden had identical votes on the scored bills, with a series of non-votes pushing their 110th congress scores to only 67%. Boxer, my yardstick of Congressional environmentalism, was given a score of 80%.
| Name | 110th Congress | 109th Congress | Lifetime |
| Obama | 67% | 97% | 86% |
| Biden | 67% | 93% | 83% |
| McCain | 0% (!) | 41% | 24% |
| Boxer | 80% | 93% | 88% |
The scoring of the 110th congress set a high bar. Obama and Biden both had the same five black marks against their score:
- #8 Liquid Coal: This bill would was rejected 35-55 by Senate vote. The NO vote was the LCVpro-environment vote. On this bill, Senators Obama and Biden did not vote. Boxer voted no.
- #11 Water bill: Water bills are notoriously complex, oh-so political, and expensive. This bill wold have provided $23b to the Army Corps of Engineers to address its backlog of projects. The bill included a Commission to prioiritze projects and screen back pork barrel projects. The Yes vote was the LCV pro-environment vote. The bill was passed by the Senate, but was vetoed by W. The Senate overrode the veto, but the version that passed did not include the commission. Obama, Biden, and Boxer all voted no. The Boxer not vote makes me think that there was more going on in this bill than the LCV summary indicates.
- #12 Population: As many of you know, W’s administration has made it so that overseas organizations that provide women’s health services are not able to receive US funding if they provide abortion services (the use of U.S. foreign assistance to fund abortion has been prohibited since 1973). This bill included language allowing overseas organizations, otherwise ineligible for U.S. family planning funding, to continue receiving contraceptives from the U.S. government. The YES vote was the LCV pro-environment vote. The bill failed 40-54 by roll call vote.
- #14 Farm Bill Subsidy Caps: This bill included a measure that would address farm bill subsidies. Biden and Obama did not vote. The YES vote was the LCV pro-environment vote. The bill needed 60 votes to pass, yet received only 54 in a roll call vote. Boxer and Feinstein voted yes. Iowa politics probably dictate an out-of-the-fray approach to farm bill changes?
- #15 Farm Bill: Eminent Domain: This bill was rejected 37-58, with the NO vote being the LCV pro-environment vote. The bill would have barred governments from using eminent domain to acquire any land for public parks, recreation, open space or conservation. The ban would even apply to efforts to save lives or property (such as levees).
So my IPOD has been on the fritz for weeks now. I have had a little sad face ipod that makes me want to scream “apple why hath you forsaken me!?” and stamp my feet in a “where did all my music go!” dance. Now, the broken IPOD would not be nearly so t.r.a.g.i.c. if it weren’t for the fact that at about the same time, Ken accidentally plugged my CRICUT power cord into my external hard drive resulting in a deep fried (unrecoverable) hard drive (wrong voltage times 2 divided by “damn”). Add that to the fact that I was using my external hard drive not as a back up (doh!), but as an actual hard drive, and alas all of my musak had gone the way of frazzled and fritzed electrons, the past existence of which was mocked the little sad face ipod staring at me in mild remorse.
BUT THEN….DRUMROLL PLEASE… Green LA Girl twittered that she had fixed her IPOD with a mere business card. I clicked madly. Step 1 had me running to the garage to find a small flat head screwdriver in Ken’s carefully organized man toolbox. Step 2, fold card from last week’s meeting (marked “doesn’t meet quals” and now forgotten) and click closed. Step 3, HOLY HALLELUJAH IT WORKS. So my musak is back, Imogen is chirping again in my ears, and I am one happy camper.
Via I’m Mad and I Eat, a lovely snarky foodie blog where I lurk via google reader, I bring you the Omnivore’s 100. This is based on a list put together by British Andrew of 100 foods he thinks any good omnivore should have tried at least once. So come on’ and get on the foodie blog bandwagon (yes, even if your blog is not a “foodie blog”, which mine will never be).
My results: 53/(100-11) = 53/89 = 60% using new math. I tend to shy away from refuse innards and strange meats; must be a hold over from my vegetarian upbringing and righteous veggie teens.
How the Omnivore’s 100 works:
1) Copy this list into your blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (and say why).
4) Optional: Post a comment at Very Good Taste, linking to your results.
MY OMNIVORE’S 100:
1. Venison (I had jerky my stepdad made, but haven’t had it BBQd or however the proper prep is).
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (i don’t eat things that could eat me, like shark)
6. Black pudding (yeah, I think I’ll pass on this one)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (bony bottom feeder. usually there is something better on the menu, no? Seems like so many other fishies outrank this one in terms of yum.)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush (love!)
11. Calamari
12. Pho (quite good)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi (I didn’t know this by name, but I’ve had the dish described on wikipedia at Indian buffets.)
15. Hot dog from a street cart (with lots of ketchup and relish!)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (lemon port counts, yeah?)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (cruel and unusual)
24. Rice and beans (a household staple)
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (been there done that with habenero. no point to me because I would regret it in the AM.)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters (I have tried. not. a. fan.)
29. Baklava (also, not a fan! too danged sweet.)
30. Bagna cauda (sounds yummy, gonna have to try it)
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (New England, I presume?! among my top 10 favorite foods!)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut (smelly)
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (this must be a dude thing)
37. Clotted Cream Tea
38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O (oh high school!)
39. Gumbo (sans the gambas, or I might die of allergic reaction)
40. Oxtail (again with the weird parts!)
41. Curried goat (have had goat, and have had curry, but not curry goat)
42. Whole insects (would if I had too, or if visiting “the natives”, but not so much by culinary choice)
43. Phaal (spicy mama!)
44. Goat’s milk (as a kid, not since. big fan of goatmilk cheese.)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
46. Fugu aka pufferfish. Don’t see the point.
48. Eel (unagi, we get this as “dessert” whenever we go to sushi)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin (uni, not a fan, and I’ve had it pretty much straight from the ocean)
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone (it pays to have diver friends)
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (Top Chef got me curious to try these)
63. kaolin (I guess I did eat dirt when I was a kid, does that count?)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (fried sugar dough…mmm)
68. Haggis (uh, kinda liver and onions, which also have not crossed my lips in 33 years. So no.)
69. Fried plantain (yum!!)
70. Chitterlings or andouillette (again, no with the innards)
71. Gazpacho (mmm good, in Spain)
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (ugh, I think one of these might still be in my tummy 20 years later)
78. Snail (tasted good, made me retch)
79. Lapsang Souchong
80. Bellini (I think I had a peach one, but that might have been a dream…)
81. Tom Yum (Tom yum Gai is my fave soup at our local Thai place)
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu (a good excuse to head up the road to Napa!)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (oh, the easter bunny!)
87. Goulash (Hungarian!)
88. Flowers (rose petals, nasturtiums)
89. Horse (no way, and no I don’t have to be logical)
90. Criollo chocolate (criollo is the rarest and most expensive cocoa on the market and is native to Central America, the Caribbean islands and the northern tier of South American states)
91. Spam (haven’t in my 33 years on the planet, why bother now?)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano (mole chicken, but not mole poblano)
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
Naked Lady in the Shade
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Every day is ice cream and chocolate cake
And what you make of it, let me say
You get what you take from it, so be amazed
And never stop, never stop, never stop
You gotta be brave
‘Cause all this beauty
You might have to close your eyes
And slowly open wide
And watch the sun rise
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
resting on the way back from the garden, Canon Digital Rebel XTi
Saturdays are by far and away my favorite day of the week. I can be lazy, I can be productive, and then I have one more day to play before I am back to work. Today was an especially lovely Saturday, because I enjoyed doing the following stuff:
- waking up and recollecting the previous evening’s delightful dinner at a Lebanese restaurant we tried after reading about it in the paper (best hummus ever!), with the pulse of middle eastern music in my mind
- eating breakfast at an outdoor cafe
- gleefully picking out veggies at the farmer’s market
- bringing home a bunch of maroon dahlias, accompanied by a bunch of golden dahlias with maroon streaks, and stuffing them into a mason jar (my great-great grandfather was a dahlia hobbyist, so for this reason I feel a special draw to them)
- giggling at Ken’s jokes
- playing ball in the park with the doggie, twice in one day
- planting several succulents beneath an oak tree
- hearing the call of a hawk in the air all morning long
- laying on my back and belly to take pictures of nature with my marco lens
- discovering that the mexican joint down the road has the best veggie burritos in town
I hope you, too, are having a lovely weekend!
Emerging 1, Canon Digital Rebel XTi
A Shell suggestion in advertising that its Alberta Oil Sands projects was a sustainable energy source has been ruled out of order by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, upholding a complaint lodged by WWF-UK.
The ASA ruled that the frequent use of the word “sustainable” was defined as “primarily in environmental terms”. Because Shell had not provided evidence that it was “effectively” managing carbon emissions from its oil sands projects “in order to limit climate change”, the ASA deemed that the advertisement was misleading. (from ENN)
The WWF has produced its own spin on things, with footage of the Oil Sands project, post ruling.
Peach Almond Scones, Canon Digital Rebel XTi
yesterday I was working from home, and from the couch I could smell these two peaches getting over-ripe. They were peaches we bought without tasting a sample, which is totally against my peach policy, for the very reason that sometimes peaches that cost $3.99/lb are just “eh” and not the “ohmygod i am so sure that god invented peaches for me” yum that a peach should be.
so ye ol’ mediocre peaches became super yummy scones, that ended up being kind of like a cross between a muffin and scone, in that scones are oft too dry and these had a bit ‘o moist.
I adapted my recipe from this one from allrecipes. And here’s what I did:
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups all-purpose (organic) flour
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup butter, chilled
- 2 ripe peaches, chopped
- 1/2 cup cream (you could use milk, but I had cream in the fridge)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbs maple sugar
- 1/2 cup chopped or shredded almonds
For the top:
- 2 tbs cream
- 2 tbs white sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (mmm, love cinnamon!)
DIRECTIONS:
- Measure flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt into a large bowl. Cut in butter or margarine until crumbly. Add peaches and milk. Stir to form a soft dough.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently 8 to 10 times. Pat into two 6-inch circles. Place on greased baking sheet. Brush tops with milk, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Score each into 6 pie-shaped wedges.
- Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 15 minutes, or until browned and risen. Serve warm with butter (or ice cream!)
