Super Energy Efficient Windows Complete!

Wow..... the difference it makes is unreal - seriously... unreal....
Before:

After!


ooooo ahhhhh





these are the most energy efficient windows I could get. Low e suck all of the air out and pump in that special stuff that is supposed to defuse whatever...

Here's what you need to know about energy efficient windows. If you want to get the tax credit for energy efficient improvements to your home... I'd invest before the end of the year because chances are those are going to get cut by Congress next year.

Another cool countertop idea

I just got back from DC last night at 11:30pm and slept in this morning before turning on the saturday morning HGTV shows.

Carter Can featured concrete inspired quartz composite counter tops made by Caesar Stone that are so pretty. Everything Carter does is green, so he's always a great resource.


The conference was great but the highlight of my trip was staying with my friend Sarah who has a different cable package than I do. Which means the Do-it Yourself Network. I've never seen DIY, heard about it... used their website... NEVER seen anything on there. I'm a 100% believer. I'm trying to figure out how we can switch to another cable carrier or how much it would cost just to add their channel because it was so super helpful, you have NO idea! This whole show was about building closets, and I think we all know about my closet disaster experience... Which, let me just say again... I was told there was a window behind that wall.... How hard can it be, right?

Best Green Bathroom idea EVER

In looking around for other green bathroom solutions I stumbled across this.
Pretty cool huh? talk about reduce and reuse! I wonder how hard it would be to do this yourself... hurm...

The Countertop Question

Few people know Granite is actually one of the WORST surfaces you can use for your kitchen or bathroom counters because the carbon footprint is SO HUGE. I didn't know... had no idea...

I think our universal fascination with granite countertops is due to the material's tremendous strength and durability, and its aesthetic beauty. Until recently, granite was rarely seen in homes except in beautiful furniture pieces. Now we see it in nearly every mid- to high-end home, and you can buy tiles or order custom slabs at all the big-box building supply stores.

But I have a number of problems with granite and marble materials, and I don't consider many of these products at all "green." First and foremost, granite's extraction does irreparable ecological damage, slicing off enormous sides of mountains and leaving behind altered landscapes and dangerous waste. Granite countertops are gas guzzlers—they create a great big carbon footprint from the energy used to mine, transport, and fabricate rough slabs into beautiful countertops somewhere far away from the stone's original source."

So... understandably I've been looking elsewhere. My options at Lowes are ... laminate apparently. I need to go into the store and ask, however... because they might have other options that aren't on the website. Stone was suggested because it can be reclaimed, or I can look for reclaimed stone... and other recycled materials. One of the most interesting options that was suggested was concrete.

Check these out:

From Concrete Network but they're a little too far away from me... but I love this look!

I actually also found two that had information online and I liked their style Advanced Concrete Designs and Artistic Stone Surface - but only one has emailed me back thus far.

Also an option - Lithistone...?

seen here from Lithistone.net
They're located in Colorado... closer to us... but still a little far away, right? Using local workers is both green and helps promote the state. I'm a fan.
Another option - Ice Stone
From IceStone.biz this is SUPER hawt looking and THEY have a vendor in Tulsa, OK


These guys need better photos that are more detailed and bigger, but another favorite is a company called EnviroGLAS which mixes recycled glass and concrete. Their black version looks pretty much like black granite. Video


Obviously, cost is going to be a major part of this. I hadn't intended to do counter tops but I got a lecture from my mother that if I'm going to renovate the kitchen... I should do it right. To her that means putting in new countertops which would, she said be costly. Little did she know I was going to eliminate granite from any options to begin with.

Ideas? Thoughts? Opinions? Feel free to weigh in any time :)

Windows, doors, and mores

Sorry things haven't been more exciting. Updates this week have included having lots of long conversations with Darren my new BFF in the Lowe's construction department. Darren is a sweet guy, in fact everyone in the store has been so awesome and great at answering my plethora of questions... but Darren and I talked about 30 times in the last few days and not once did he get annoyed!

We talked both about windows and siding. I got an estimate from a great contractor Darren suggested that is an installer Lowe's uses and we are looking at a few different products. When I look at windows I want the most energy efficient I can get for the price. But I also want them to look pretty spiffy too. There are a few options but I think I'm going to go with the middle of the road on efficiency. They are a tiny bit more, but my estimations gave me about $200 per window and with PaPa's discount doing that middle of the road gets us right there. The lower end is $160 so if we want to save we can always go with that... but I really want to do the right thing here. This can save us so much in the end.

They are the Thermastar double hung by Pella

The pic to the upper right is the style our neighbors chose - which I kind of like.. Its a little bit Craftsman style, but I probably wouldn't put the grid thing on the bottom. The cost actually also includes screens, which is awesome, since all of the screens on the south side of the house are shredded. No... seriously... I will have to post pics of that.

I don't think I'm going to have much room in our budget but I REALLY want a new back door. The one we have is literally falling off, its a miracle we haven't gotten broken into because I think someone could probably break it down if they really wanted to. The one I want is white, has a nice window, but the blinds are ... get this... BUILT IN! EEEE!!!

And a normal storm door. My grandfather thinks we're already at an upgrade because the door we have now isn't made of wood and doesn't go SMACK when you let it close. Its actually metal and every hail storm it still stands... somehow.

So... here's my question to you, dear readers... On the south side of the house we have this two windows that are exposed to a huge amount of sunlight. And they've been pretty well taken out via hail damage, rain, time, and other such things. Someone suggested putting an awning over them. Something like what's on the left - which is super cute. Is it practical? Is it effective and efficient? Does it help protect against full sunlight and the elements?

What are some other options or alternatives?

Ideas? Thoughts? Recipes?

Master Bathroom Design Dilemma

I posted photos of the master bathroom and all of its horror.... but the major problem I have with that bathroom is that its about 6 feet by 8 feet in size. Long bathroom... not a lot of room. The bath tub/shower is about two feet from the vanity and sinks. This makes things pretty tight and impossible to turn into a true master bathroom.

Behind the bathroom (which is to the north) is the furnace and a linen cabinet that is accessible from the hall way. To the west of the bathroom on the other side of the wall is the hall way from which that linen cabinet is accessible. From within that hall way there are two hall closets both about 4 feet deep.

My mother's suggestion was to move the furnace because evidently furnaces should be in the center part of the house to be the most efficient in heath distribution. But one estimate on cost from a heating and air company proved to be totally unrealistic coming in at about $27,000. Another company came in and told me it was a total waste of time and money because I could just build into the hall way. I'd anticipated that, but it them limits the closet options for the "piano room" which I've now put a bed in for use as a guest room or sitting room.

I drew up some plans with a neat program I got in the back of a bathroom book I found at Lowe's. The book was $20 but like I said... software! If I break down the wall between the current bath and hall as well as the wall between the two hall closets and create a wall linking everything together - you basically connect a 6X8 foot space to about a 6X7 foot space.

My dilemma is how the heck I create essentially a Jack and Jill bathroom with a large tub, separate shower, two vanities, and a toilet and moving the least amount of plumbing.

Click to make larger

Going Green

Hello again!

So a big part of this project is about going green and greening my grandpa's house. Its a great old house build in the late 1920's and the second floor was put on in the 1930's. Not a time when energy efficiency was the standard. The windows and doors aren't sealed, indeed its amazing they are still in the wall, and there are pretty big gaps even with storm windows on the outside.

As a result my grandfather usually has months in the winter when his gas bills are over $300 sometimes over $400 - and that's keeping the temperature at below 70. He's got an electric blanket and an electric space heater and that helps too but then his electricity bill is over $200 too.

In the summer its worse. There is very little insulation in the house or what is there wasn't installed in the most efficient way. In the upstairs room (that I use as my room) the attic was built out into the roofline for a beautiful HUGE room. The problem is that the sun beating down on the roof makes the walls hot during the summer, and the windows in that room get pretty much full sun all day. Its impossible to air condition!

So a big part of this renovation is making it more energy efficient. Once we get to the point where we're doing the major renovation we're looking at new windows, siding with insulation underneath it, new back door, sealing all of the plugs, putting in a tankless water heater, new furnace and A/C unit for both floors, energy efficient appliances, and finally everything we put up or do if we can do so in a greener recycled way.

Lowe's has a neat little pamphlet my grandfather brought me that basically lists out all of their energy efficient materials, LED Certified stuff, and ways to get that energy saving tax credit. I've been doing a lot of reading and studying to figure out how best to do this and stay within our budget. It isn't easy being green :) At least its not easy to fit it into our budget, but I'm going to do whatever we can.

Where it all began

When you work in politics moving every 6 months isn't outside of the realm of possibility, and when you are willing to move anywhere for any job your experience, resume, and connectivity expands by leaps and bounds. So after college I agreed to go anywhere to work on campaigns or for organizations. I started out as a finance director helping candidates raise money, but in my free time began experimenting with online media - this was right after the House Dean email fundraising year in 2004.

As the technologies expanded so did my perception of how to use them to help candidates. I used MySpace to target rural and minority communities in 2006 and when Facebook opened up in 2007 I began to use it to help elected officials connect with their constituents. Now... online media is the standard, and blogger outreach is a must for any Democratic candidate.

In 2007 I had a great opportunity to work in a family foundation in the Bay Area, that specifically worked to increase the outreach to young people in politics. Youth trend more progressively, and in 2004 they were the only age group to vote for John Kerry. If we wanted to win the White House back in 2008, youth outreach was a must. In 2007 I started working on becoming an expert. I studied and wrote about the Millennial Generation, I looked closer at demographics for social networking sites, and I experimented with previous candidates and current elected officials I'd worked with before as a volunteer to see how we could use these technologies to help be more accessible and transparent.

And 2008 became the election of technology.

During 2008 I had worked closely with several campaigns in the Midwest that didn't understand technology outreach. I hammered into their heads what this could do and how it could be effective. The result was several converts who have now also become genius technology people always looking for what's next. After the 2008 election we all developed an online media and marketing firm in Kansas City called Mixed Media.

But in the spring of 2009 we got our first out of state client - which was also the biggest client we have in Oklahoma - where I'm originally from and where my parents and family live. In efforts to expand Mixed Media beyond Kansas and into the rest of the Heartland I moved back home and began work with our clients here.

When I did that was when the "adventure" began. I had planned on staying with my grandfather, who I lived with in my late teens before I went to college in Kansas. He and my grandmother bought their house in the old part of downtown Yukon, Oklahoma in the early 1980's. They loved that house, my grandmother especially. My entire childhood she worked on making it better. They built out part of the attic into a large room on the 2nd floor, they wallpapered, re-carpeted, painted, everything... But in 1987 she was killed in a head-on collission on Route 66 when her car slipped on a piece of ice.

Her death left my family devastated, my grandfather especially. Since 1987 nothing changed in the house. Well, I should say, very little changed. In 1989 he caught the kitchen on fire while making french fries for me and a friend that were playing in another room. It caused about $50,000 in damage and the kitchen was remodeled, wallpaper was redone, and everything was freshly painted and cleaned.

Living Room mid 1980's






















Random event Dinning Room mid 1980's



This is someone being silly at a gathering in the house. This room, however, is the upstairs room they had just built out into the attic. Lots of great sloped ceilings in this room.


But basically since 1989 - nothing has changed. Twenty years later the house was falling apart. It was dirty, infested, molded, saturated, and a complete disaster. Oklahoma had some flooding in 2007 and while his house didn't flood - the 40 straight days of rain took its tole on the house. With rooms closed off moisture festered and mold grew on furniture. My grandfather never turns on the A/C so there was no way to de-humidify the house, especially in rooms that he'd closed off.

The roof of the porch was falling off because at one time there were two skylights that had leaked - while the roof had been fixed the ceiling of the porch had rotted wood hanging down with critters crawling around above it. In 2003 there had been a major ice storm and a tree fell on the detached garage causing it to lean pretty substantially. My grandfather put in an insurance claim and used the money (which of course couldn't pay for a new building) - not to rebuild the structure but to "fix" the structure. The entailed tying a big thick rope around the whole building and tying it to a tree. I'm not kidding...

The house was infested with bugs, mice, fleas, ants, ticks, and at one point in 2008 a opossum crawled under the house and died leaving a stench that lingered for months.

With me living full time in Oklahoma, and invested at least until the close of the 2010 election I finally convinced my grandfather to make some major home improvements. We began with the little things that I could do, having ZERO experience in home remodel. My grandfather had been working part time at Staples but technology wasn't his strong suite and he went to work next door at Lowe's. For someone with 100% experience in tools and fixing things, not to mention a certification as an electrician apprentice he was perfect to work for them... and it resulted in a 10% discount on anything in the store and 10% above cost on all special orders.

It seemed the universe was telling us this was the time to save the house.

(last year I lost my hard drive, but I know I have the pre-renovation photos somewhere... I'm looking)