______________________________________________________
Click to see the latest on Kathy's Remodeling Blog
______________________________________________________
 Is it just me, or does anyone else see the connection between these two stories in the L.A. Times?
May 8, 2008: Tejon Ranch pact would allow 26,000 homes on the range
May 14, 2008: L.A. prepares massive water-conservation plan
I'm all for conservation. Really, I am. But what's the real point? Those 70,000 people who could move into the proposed new Tejon Ranch city-sprawl will need some water, and guess who's going to sacrifice for them? Tag, you're it.
The new water-conservation plan calls for fines for watering lawns and washing down sidewalks. And it calls for sending treated wastewater back into the aquifer.
My favorite idea is rewarding homeowners who put in permeable driveways that allow rainwater to percolate down into the aquifer rather than running off into the gutter. We don't yet have a "subway to the sea," but we certainly know how to send our rainwater that way.
L.A. Times readers have even more ideas on how to save water:
— We should all stop eating meat, one reader wrote, as the monumental amount water needed to produce beef is the real culprit. (Another reader said we'd all start eating our pets if the meat was cut off.)
— Control population, another wrote, and heavily tax people who have more than two kids.
— "I'll just dig up my lawn," another reader wrote. "It is not worth all of this."
See all reader comments
______________________________________________________
Click to see the latest on Kathy's Remodeling Blog
______________________________________________________
 Engineered right here in Southern California by BMW DesignworksUSA, the sleek Ecopod is a compact recycling center that makes crushing cans fun! Just drop one in the top, step on the lever, and c-r-u-n-c-h, it's all over.
The bottom holds the crushed cans while the top holds other recycling.
At Gaiam.com, the regular price is $348, while the sale price is $169.
Or you could use the good old stomp-it-with-your-foot-and-toss-it-in-a-bucket method of can recycling.
Watch the video demo below.
______________________________________________________
Click to see the latest on Kathy's Remodeling Blog
______________________________________________________
 Does this bug you, too? You have a pillow, blanket or other textile that is clearly past its prime and too worn for the Goodwill. But you hate to see it take the slow ride to the dump.
Here's the answer: textiles of certified organic cotton and other materials that are designed to be composted when you're done with them. The company's name is Looolo, and its website explains it takes one year for the cushions, blankets and scarves to break down and go back to the earth.
Of course, you'd never want that to happen as the cushions cost several hundred dollars and the blankets twice that. But hey, this is how great things start, and with mass production based on vast consumer demand, the price will go down.
More on biodegradable goods from the New York Times.
(Photo: New York Times)
______________________________________________________
Click to see the latest on Kathy's Remodeling Blog
______________________________________________________
 Tuesday's vote by the L.A. City Council to limit home sizes to 3,000 square feet on 5,000-square-foot flatland lots (a little larger on larger lots) was unanimous at 12 to 0.
But the responses by readers were more, shall we say, well rounded.
Are these restrictions a communist plot? Or necessary to preserve neighborhoods?
Some comments from L.A. Times readers:
Cheers
"It's all about restraining those whose selfishness exceeds their social conscience." — Rocky JS
"The fact of the matter is that these grotesque homes are ugly and that in a few year's time they will fall into disrepair and hasten the decline of the neighborhoods they infest." — Ted Burke
"By the way, even 3,000 square feet is pretty darn large!" — Kirsten
"Awesome. Awesome. Awesome." — Stever R.
Jeers
"It's a sad state of affairs when property rights are considered meaningless, and the government starts taking on the right to limit, regulate, and control every last stitch of our lives." — Sad
"Excuse me!! Who paid for the land???" — Oscar Myer
"Los Angeles is the 2nd largest city of the richest nation on earth — and we're suddenly limiting the size of new homes (teardowns) to 3000 sq ft? This is nuts!" — David in Los Angeles
"Stupid, Stupid, Stupid." — David H
POLL: Complete the following sentence:
(Photo: Building Green TV)
______________________________________________________
Click to see the latest on Kathy's Remodeling Blog
______________________________________________________
 The ReUse People, a facility where you can buy salvaged and new materials from deconstructed homes and other sources, is holding a grand opening Saturday, May 10 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The warehouse is at 11017 Sutter Ave., Pacoima, two blocks north of Van Nuys Boulevard near the confluence of the 5, 210 and 118 freeways.
During the event, all doors will be sold for $5. And a workshop titled “Tax-Deductible Donations for Used Building Materials” will be held at 11 a.m. with ReUse People founder Ted Reiff. See a flier for the event.
The ReUse People is a nonprofit with other warehouses in Oakland, Calif., and Boulder, Colo. The Pacoima
operation was helped along with grant money from the city of Los Angeles.
The Pacoima warehouse had a soft opening in February, which allowed time to collect used building materials from the area. On hand are appliances, bricks, cabinets, doors, electrical, flooring, garden planters, hardware, lumber, plumbing fixtures, roofing tile, siding and windows.
Three Sub-Zero refrigerators recently found their way to the facility, but are expect to be snapped up quickly.
In addition, the organization certifies contractors as deconstruction specialists trained to take apart buildings so the materials can be salvaged and reused rather than sent to the dump.
According to the organization, TRP-certified contractors deconstructed 116 residences and one commercial building in the Los Angeles area in the past two years, representing about 4,680 tons diverted from local landfills.
Here is an update on materials the Pacoima warehouse has received or will receive:
• All materials from a 2,000-square-foot Chula Vista home, including new bath vanity and office furniture, elegant sconce lights, curio cabinet and fencing
• Maple kitchen cabinets and other select materials from a 2,500 sq-ft remodel in Santa Ana
• Materials from a 1,000-square-foot remodel in Pacific Beach, including never-been-used kitchen cabinets and stainless steel appliances
• All materials from a 2,500-square-foot Brentwood home built in 1933, including oak hardwood floors, raised panel doors, premium lighting fixtures, all kitchen and laundry appliances, quality old-growth lumber and ceramic C-tile roofing
• All materials from a 3,500-square-foot Beverly Hills home built in 1959, with premium lighting fixtures, solid raised panel doors, kitchen cabinets/island with butcher block countertop, Sub-Zero refrigerator and washer/dryer
• All materials from a 1,542-square-foot 1951 Venice home, including oak hardwood flooring, kitchen cabinetry, pedestal sink and Sub-Zero refrigerator/freezer
• All materials from a 1,746-square-foot, two-unit beach cottage in Manhattan Beach built in the 1950s, including oak hardwood floors, kitchen appliances and free-standing iron fireplace, children’s dresser, kitchen cabinets
• Kenmore gas stove and ceiling light fans
______________________________________________________
Click to see the latest on Kathy's Remodeling Blog
______________________________________________________
New Orleans is the setting for the National Assn. of Home Builders' National Green Building Conference, which runs Sunday through Tuesday, May 11 to 13.
The conference includes a tour of green homes, including the one pictured here:
1. The exterior of the charming turn-of-the-last-century cottage. The home is owned by a woman who bought it from her grandmother, so it's been in the family a long time. After the levees failed in 2005, it was flooded with at least 5 feet of water and was nearly a teardown.
2. Contractor Julie Groth (pictured here), of Step by Step Construction, said this was the most damaged house she had ever worked on. Now that it has been restored, however, the house feels new, clean and healthy. Green features include paperless drywall to prevent mold growth in the humid climate, nontoxic paints, Energy Star appliances, a dual-flush toilet, an efficient heating and cooling system and kitchen counters made from heart pine salvaged from the framing of old buildings.
3. The home includes a tankless water heater. Out back is a deck built by women in a construction class (titled Sophie the Riveter) that Julie teaches at Tulane University.
4. The ceiling of the attic is coated with blown-in insulation and is not vented. Whereas vented attics in other climates make sense to allow hot air to escape, in a hot and humid climate like New Orleans, a vented attic will bring in hot and humid air that will condense around the air conditioning unit, causing water damage and future mold and rot problems. Thus, no vented attic for this house.
Rebuilding New Orleans is a monumental task, brought about by the hearts and hands of homeowners, volunteers and local contractors. And here's the amazing part: There is a mindset among many in the area to rebuild New Orleans as the nation's first carbon-neutral green city.
Read a long story about green pioneers, featuring this house, in Gambit Weekly.
To read more about the green building conference, click here.
(Photos: KPR)
______________________________________________________
Click to see the latest on Kathy's Remodeling Blog
______________________________________________________
 If you've noticed some houses in your neighborhood being built or remodeled with blue-colored framing lumber, roof trusses and sheathing panels, you may think the Smurfs came in at night and sprayed the place.
Actually, the blue wood is BluWood, building components with a factory-applied treatment to prevent mold and rot in wood and to repel the frisky little critters called termites that come along later to chew up and digest mold-weakened wood.
This blue treatment is gaining interest because highly toxic chemicals once used to preserve wood were recently outlawed. The problem is that much framing lumber is pretty darn wet when it's delivered to the site, and then it might get rained on or absorb more moisture somehow. Then it gets installed in the house and closed in with thermal barriers, radiant barriers, vapor barriers, house wrap, insulation, drywall, wallpaper and so on. So the moisture gets trapped, and when there is lots of water and heat and food (wood), mold has a feast.
The BluWood treatment, the company says, allows existing water to evaporate but prevents new water from coming in. The company gives a limited lifetime warranty against mold and mildew, and the warranty is transferable.
So, if framed houses start looking like they're being built by the Blue Man Group, that's why.
More info:
BluWood has been listed in the GreenSpec Directory.
Read a Garden Web forum discussion of BluWood.
Watch a YouTube video showing an "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" house built with BluWood.
(Photo: Garden Web Forum)
______________________________________________________
Click to see the latest on Kathy's Remodeling Blog
______________________________________________________
 Another jewel in a series of amazing small spaces:
Here's what happens when a native of Japan and a native of the Netherlands, both with architecture degrees, remodel an 807-square-foot houseboat in Seattle.
The floors, cabinets and some of the ceilings are bamboo.
It wasn't a cheap remodel, at $240,000. But there are only 482 houseboats in the city, a story in the Seattle Times says, and people tend to keep them an average of 20 years.
See a view of the dock at dusk.
See the story and more pictures
(Photo: Seattle Times)
______________________________________________________
Click to see the latest on Kathy's Remodeling Blog
______________________________________________________
Reader Elise is having problems with her new tankless water heater: We purchased a tankless a few months ago and have had ongoing problems with low water pressure. The plumber says it is our well, but we had no problems previously, with the exception of running out of hot water, which is why we got the tankless. Every time we flush a toilet, we have no pressure and no cold water in the house.
Some sources: Plumber Terry Love maintains an excellent website and forums. You might find answers on the shower and bathtub forum. GardenWeb also has a lively forum posting on tankless water heaters.
If you have some insight into this, please post below.
______________________________________________________
Click to see the latest on Kathy's Remodeling Blog
______________________________________________________
 I'll admit I've been critical of water-saving schemes that conspire to take away my daily baths while the powers-that-be concurrently approve plans for more, more and more new developments in the Southland.
But the situation facing us this summer is way beyond my little rants. We are in a terrific drought, and a state official says the water shortage is the worst he's seen in 30 years.
Being blamed are outdated water delivery systems and water-diverting efforts to save endangered species. Those endangered species! They're such whiners! (That's a joke.)
So it looks likely that water rationing will be the new green this summer.
And I wonder: How will you deal with it? Which of these will you embrace?
• Adding flow restrictors to faucets and showers
• Getting rid of some lawn in favor of drought-resistant plants
• Adding a drip watering system to the garden
• Putting in a gray-water system
• Capturing rainwater (another joke, as there is virtually no summer rain here)
What else?
|
|
Is it just me, or does anyone else see the connection between these two stories in the L.A. Times?
