Green Remodelling

In the course of researching and working on remodeling our house, I've tried to keep things as green as possible. Green these days can mean different things to different people, and in my case it has meant focusing on health (particularly in-door air quality), efficiency (using less energy and water) and using renewable resources wherever possible.

Here are some specifics:

• Low-VOC paints (the Kelly Moore Enviro-Cote line). Our painter also did a bit of research and is using a high volume, low pressure (HVLP) spray gun to reduce overspray, which means less paint particles floating around in the air and more paint on the wall.
• More/better insulation - not only will insulation help reduce heating costs, but we're using UltraTouch insulation, which is both good for the environment (uses recycled denim) and better for your health (no VOC, no chemical irritants).
• New energy efficient windows.
• Energy Star compliant appliances:
  • New, high efficiency furnace.
  • New, high efficiency water heater.
  • New refrigerator.
  • New dishwasher.
  • New washer and dryer (there's no such thing as an Energy Star compliant dryer, but it's still possible to find a more efficient one).
• Using fluorescent lighting as much as possible.
• High efficiency dual flush toilets - replaced our old ones with Caroma Sidneys.
• Installed a hot water recirculation system. We used to have to run the water for several minutes before we got hot water in the master bathroom and it was a tremendous waste of water. I didn't want the hot water recirculation system running all the time either, since that would waste both the energy it takes to run the pump as well as the energy to reheat the cool return water, so I opted for a pump that runs on a programmable timer.

Note that our house is roughly 40 years old, and most of the appliances that came with it have probably been there from the very beginning.

At some point in the near future, I'm also hoping to install a PV system, and a smarter water sprinkler system.

Things I've considered but did not do:

• A gray water system - the issues surrounding this are still too murky (no pun intended), and Santa Clara township is actively warning people against any such systems
• An intelligent sprinkler system, one that'll check existing conditions before watering

Moving Back In

After taking a little more than twice as long as originally expected, the remodeling is finally coming to an end. Enough, at any rate, that we were finally able to move back in on Sunday.

The house is pretty bare as we're not moving back our old immediately-post-college furniture, and the built-ins that we'd originally planned on building in haven't quite been, um, built (we're now waffling on what we want exactly). But hey, it's great to finally inhabit the space that I've been obsessing over for the past year!

So what's left? The master bathroom, mainly, which is still missing its shower doors and vanity counter-top. We'd been waiting on the latter, hoping we wouldn't have to buy our own slab of Caesarstone (that we'd be able to split it with someone else who might also want the color we wanted), but with no success and we've decided not to wait any longer.

No Escape / Transparency

There's just no avoiding the talk about the financial meltdown these days, despite McCain's claims that the economy is fundamentally "very strong". And now this bit about a(nother) bailout? Yeeesh.

I was in a news blackout while I was diving off the Channel Islands and we were all caught off guard when we stopped at a Starbucks and saw the news on the front page. And now this mad rush to grant total, unreviewable and unquestionable power to the Secretary of the Treasury to spend $700 billion in what's potentially a total conflict of interest (i.e. the best interest of the taxpayers vs. the best interest of the companies being bailed out).

I'm no economic expert, but what I do know is that no matter what happens, we must have transparency. Everyone should know how the money is spent, and once we start selling of these assets, how much of that money was recovered.

A Bit of Fun

Been listening to music on Pandora again. Adding Bebel Gilberto, Pink Martini, Bitter:Sweet, and Serge Gainsbourg seems to have produced the optimal mix of music for the moment.

Oh yeah: which word would you save? I'm voting for vilipend and periapt, mostly because I'm familiar with them.

Update: As much as I like Serge, adding him just pulls in too much other crap that I'm not a fan of.

More of the Same

The more I learn about Sarah Palin, the harder it is to see how she's any different from Bush. Cronyism? Check. Secretive and negative administration? Check. Total disregard for the separation of church and state? Check.

And while it's true we're not voting for her for president, a lot of people seem to forget this fact. And if McCain does win, she's just a very short hop away from the presidency...

Republican Reform

One of the new campaign directions to have come out of the Republican convention is the whole idea of being a reformer. Palin in particular seems to be tripping over herself in an effort to use the word as many times as possible whenever she speaks.

What I'd like to know is if they realize that what they're talking about reforming is the Republican party? Who are they claiming McCain and Palin went against? The mainstream Republican party! Isn't that basically admitting that the Republican party/system is just deeply flawed? If so, can't they reform their party on their own time? You don't need to run for President to clean up your own house...

In any case, it's nice to see someone finally asking McCain some hard questions, even if he does manage to evade most of them.

Green Change #5

No more antibacterial soap. More specifically, no more triclosan. It's not good for us, it's not good for kids, and it's not good for the environment. I usually don't pay too much attention to this and just pick up whichever is cheapest at Costco, but that's going to change now.

Here's a simple write-up on why it's no good, and if that's too fuzzy for you, here's a more technical doc from the CDC.

Conventions

Now that both the Democratic and Republican conventions are done with, I'm feeling a bit of fear at what November may bring. What I found most interesting between the two were the tone and content of the conventions, with tone being the more critical issue and a probable prediction of things to come.

I generally found the Democrats to be civil and respectful, especially when they were talking about John McCain. The Republicans, however, were totally uninhibited and were constantly on the attack, ridiculing Obama at every turn. Giuliani's speech is a good example. This kind of rhetoric is totally unnecessary in my opinion and turns me off the Republicans even though I think McCain's a good guy. And seriously, most of the arguments they level against Obama are just distractions and FUD.

My other issue, content, is obvious when you compare Obama's speech vs. McCain's speech. While McCain is pulling his grandfather war hero routine, Obama is actually providing some details on what he actually plans to accomplish, instead of what he has already done.

A simple test: just try counting how many sentences in each speech starts with "I will".

So why am I afraid? Because the Republican spin and FUD machine is going to go into overdrive now, and if there's one thing they're good at, it's spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. Don't provide any details, appeal to your patriotism, scare you into feeling insecure, and promise you safety. That's how they won in 2004, and it looks like that's how they're planning on winning this year as well.

But this is just my opinion. Come November, make sure you vote, and vote informed. Don't just listen to the rhetoric and the ads on tv. Want to know where the candidates stand on the environment? Or something else?