Green Home Tour Redux

Despite Chicago receiving a record-breaking rainfall last Saturday, we finally had our Green Home Tour. After weeks of preparation, it was great to finally take a step back and take in what we accomplished, and show off our home to the 60+ people that came through to learn a bit about green building.

Looking back at where we were a month ago, I'm amazed at how much work we were able to get done in preparation for the tour. We'll detail most of these projects in upcoming blog entries, but here's the quick hitlist: Exterior painting, stucco painting, replacing broken glass and re-puttying our porch windows, interior staining and sealing of our kitchen trimwork, wallpapering, major ceiling and wall repairs to the dining room (and adding a tubular skylight), installing an arts & crafts stair banister, and putting together a rough landscape in front of our home. Wow.

In particular, the exterior painting turned out to come down to the wire. We had finished painting on Thursday, but it started raining that night and didn't quit until the day after the tour. This made it quite difficult for the paint to dry. In fact, two hours before people were scheduled to show up, Kenny was helping us dry the paint of our front steps using Jen's hair dryer. We had tented off the steps to prevent them from getting wet for two days, but there was just too much humidity in the air. It's amazing what a hair dryer and a little patience can accomplish! As always, Kenny deserves a big shout out for all the help he gave us to prepare for the home tour.

And for all of you wondering how our colors on the house turned out, we managed to snap a photo during a brief break in the rain on Saturday. Here's before, and now our house looks like this:


I also wanted to summarize some of the things we pointed out about our green home. Thanks to Michelle at Seven Generations Ahead for organizing this list and producing a nice tour program for our home and the others on the tour. I'm sure it will be a great resource for the visitors and their future green remodeling. Here is Humphrey House's "green" resume:

Energy Efficiency

• Over 40 CFL's in the house
• Soy foam insulation in gutted walls
  
• Blown-in cellulose insulation in existing walls
• Daylighting tubular skylights
• Tankless water heater
• PowerZoning air recirculation
• Market-based electricity pricing
  

Water Conservation

• Rain barrel
  
• Low-flow plumbing fixtures
• Low water usage laundry machine

Healthy Air Quality

• Low VOC paints
• PhotoHydrolonization (PHI) cell air purifier
• Zodiaq recycled content / low VOC countertops
• Reclaimed flooring

Resource Efficiency

• Salvaged vintage doors
• Salvaged appliances
• Reclaimed windows

Rapidly Renewable Resource

• Soy foam insulation

Locally Sourced Items

• Soy-based paint stripper
• Oak trim from regional forests

So, that's the virtual Green Home Tour of Humphrey House in a nutshell. We don't have some of the fancy "green bling" such as solar panels (yet), but we like to point out things that show that living or remodeling green doesn't necessarily have to cost a lot of green.

Time for Trim, Craftsman Style

We're down to the final stretch in our kitchen remodel. Those finishing touches that add that extra sparkle to a finished space. Yes, the trim.

I'm glad we remodeled elsewhere in the house first as it's given us perspective and time to figure out how to approach this. And also a chance to research different options. When finishing the basement (our first big project), we went with cheap modern trim options. Not quite as basic as plain ranch casing, but not very consistent with a 95-year-old house either.



However, we wanted our kitchen to flow with the rest of the house, and making the trim similar is an important part of accomplishing this. While we saved all trim that was removed before our remodeling, we quickly realized there would not be enough and without thing feeling too disjointed, we would have to get new trim for most of the kitchen / family room area. Our bungalow has trim pretty consistent with traditional Oak Park area arts and crafts homes, in that the casing for doors and windows is plain and squarish with no mitered corners.



The doorways all have a 9" plinth block at the base to transition from the baseboard trim, which is a 3-piece system of a tall baseboard with a separate curved cap, and then shoe molding along the base (similar to quarter-round) to finish it off. At the tops of the doorways and windows, there are no mitered corners. Instead, the 4" vertical casing ends against a small bullnose piece of trim about 3/8" tall. Above this is a square 1x6 board, with crown molding attached to the top. The trim throughout most of our workingman's home was done in pine or fir instead of the more expensive oak. However, the pine of 95 years ago was old-growth pine, much harder and more durable than today's pine.

During this process, the book The New Decorating with Architectural Trimwork, with detailed descriptions on built-up arts and crafts trim was a great resource in identifying the finer points of our home's style.

A quick trip to the local bigbox hardware stores revealed that it would be tricky if not impossible ot try and replicate this with today's trim options. So it was time to investigate some specialty suppliers. David suggested we check out OWL Hardwood or Hines lumber.

Armed with the renovation experience of having to make multiple trips for any given project, I naturally chose the closer of the two. And learning that Hines Lumber also has a commitment to sustainability was a big plus as well. In fact, they even carry Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) rated lumber. While this certified sustainable lumber is intended for framing and not trim work like we needed, it was good to learn they backed up their word and weren't just trying to "greenwash" their business.

One of the other decisions we had to make was to decide whether to go with pine (cheaper) or red oak (more expensive) for the trim options. David mentioned that since both are harvested locally (within 200 miles), the sustainability factor was sort of a toss-up. It really came down to what we could afford and prefer.

After a thorough analysis, we decided to do a mix of woods. All the baseboard trim would be in pine, and all door and window trim would be in oak. That way we could add a greater sense of character to our newly renovated kitchen / family room area and still blend it with the rest of the house. And once the trim is stained, there shouldn't be too much of a difference.

From working with the helpful reps at Hines, we were able to find trim profiles that were actually really close to the trim elsewhere in the home. The only thing that is really different is the crown molding profile, but it isn't too noticeable unless you really study the two side by side in the hallway.

Realizing we may have to repaint, we've taken an unconventional approach of installing all the trim before staining and finishing it due to some time constraints we're working with.

There are few more elaborate craftsman-style trim details we plan on the column dividing the hall and stairs from the family room, but we'll post more on that another time.

But so far the transformational results have been amazing, and the house really flows well now, with a nice blend between the "old" and the "new."

Lost Post: Repurposed gynasium floors

A while back, Jen mentioned that our hardwood floor installers filled the large gaping hole left after we removed the old kitchen wall by patching it in with some old gym floors. This might have left you wondering, "how do you know that?"

Well, after finally downloading some photos from our camera, we have the documented proof of this interesting way of using recycled building materials. Here is the patch where the original kitchen/bedroom wall used to be located (my, how things have changed):



And another, closer view showing the patched floors:


This final photo shows a bit of floor that needed to be patched as a result of widening the stairs, and leaving a nice open area to allow light from the stairwell to flood the family room / kitchen. You can really see some of the painted gym floor logo on this one:

As odd of a choice as it may seem, once the patches were sanded, the new maple blended in with the old maple pretty well. I just might have to grab the b-ball out of the garage and see if some of the talent that once graced that maple rubs off onto me. :-)

Lost Post: Zodiaq installation

Things were so busy at HH last month, that I never got a chance to get some photos up of the unusual process we went through when our Zodiaq countertops were installed. When they say engineered stone counters, they aren't kidding. Our installers used the latest technology to measure our layout, so the slabs can be cut and manufactured off site. Once we placed the order, they came out and measured with plans to install about 10 days later.

In order to get the proper layout and exact wall dimensions to ensure the counters fit every nook and cranny, their field measurements were done using... a camera? No really! Here's how it works. They had circular stickers about 6" in diameter that were plastered along the backsplash area of the walls above our countertops. These black and white stickers looked like some kind of high-contrast mini dart boards. There were also fancy sliding tools that were laid out at diagonals along the tops of our cabinets.

Witnessing this bizarre process, I asked the measurer guy if I could take some photos for our blog. He replied, "As long as you let me take some photos too." And he pulled out a digital camera and started taking photos from all sorts of angles like mad. It was like some kind of runway photo shoot. The flashes were blinding... but where was Giselle? SIGH ...

In all, there were probably around 50 photographs. Apparently, once the measurer got back to the shop, he simply loaded all photos into a software program, which read the targets and translated them into exact dimensions in a CAD program. My incredulous response was met with an "I've seen this before" look, and once he was done photographing, he took out a tape measure and measured the general dimensions "just to verify," but I think this was really a token effort to appease me.

A week and a half later, when the installers showed up with the actual cut pieces, they slipped into place like a glove. There was only one seam between our stove and sink in the entire installation, which is now hardly noticeable. The Zodiaq counters went in really quickly. Silicon adhesive everywhere, a shim here, a faucet hole there, bada bing, bada boom. And a few hours later, our Cappucino counters were done!

Special thanks to the guys at Sprovieri's for doing a professional job throughout the process.

Flat screen TV's - which is more energy efficient?

With every outlet we added to our kitchen, and throughout the rest of Humphrey House, it has given us a lot more opportunity to crank up the amps and our usage of electricity. While we've brought the house up to date (and up to code), sometimes I wonder if it would be better off if we didn't make electronics as easy to use. Especially when learning that televisions alone account for 1% of the US electricity use each day.

At any rate, when our designer laid out a plan to make the newly combined living space, the family room portion of our kitchen area had a nice feature laid out on it: A flat screen TV. As a red-blooded American male, I began to drool uncontrollably and have clear visions (which were, of course, in High Definition) of how to enjoy the space. Fortunately, Jen was soon dabbing my mouth with a handkerchief. The reality of budgets soon evaporated those dreams, and we pressed on with more important things to purchase for the kitchen. Like an oven and fridge, for instance.

However, once the original kitchen and PO's former bedroom were actually combined into one space, we were able to get a true feel for the new space. Something tangible that was simply too hard to grasp from a piece of paper where 1/4" was supposed to equal a foot. So once we saw the true shape of the room, we realized that the space would be awfully tight to accommodate any kind of couch and traditional entertainment center.

So, the dream of a flat screen crept back. A TV in this area is important not just as a staple of the modern American family room, but also because Jen is a self-admitted television junkie, and she was also looking forward to being able watch shows while cooking (I've been secretly hoping the Food network will be on a lot). We soon realized, that given the space, we would be forced to resort to David's original idea of a flat screen TV. There was no other choice. No, really. (Jay's fist pumping in the background as Jen agrees to the decision).

Anyway, I did a fair amount of research to find out how today's televisions use electricity, because I've been trying to be conscious about the amount we're using. After visiting a few sites, it was apparent that while flat screens use more energy than the old TV's they replace (cathode tubes), there is a difference between LCD and plasma technology. LCD's can use around half the energy that a plasma TV uses. A typical example might be:

• Cathode Tubes = 100 watts
  
• LCD = 200 watts
• Plasma = 400, up to 600 watts

Here's a fun quote:

"In smaller screen sizes – say, less than 40 inches – LCD televisions are generally more efficient than CRT televisions, especially when you are comparing HDTV models... In large screen sizes – the 50 inch and above category – a projection TV is likely to be your most efficient buy... For intermediate sizes in the 40 to 50 inch range, it is difficult to pick a real efficiency champion. Most TVs sold in this category today are LCD or plasma flat-panel displays, and these two technologies are still evolving so rapidly that characterizing their efficiency by technology is difficult. " - efficientproducts.org

Interestingly, I learned that one of the reasons new TV's use so much more energy is because even when you turn them off, they are still in a semi-on state called "standby" which can still draw a fair amount of electricity (25% in some cases). Why standby? So that they power up quickly to satiate our demands for instant gratification.

So while Energy Star doesn't yet have a rating for flat screen TVs, we looked up power ratings and happily settled on a 37" LCD television from Visio, which, while in the "small" category based on the breakdown quoted above, seems quite large to us, and fills the corner of the room wonderfully. We got a wall mount bracket for the television, and I had the foresight to run an 1 1/2" PVC pipe in the wall before our foam insulation was sprayed in, so we can hide all the wires.
And let me tell, you picture just doesn't do it justice. The television looks incredible in real life!

Now if only we can get the Food Network to automatically come up by default each time the television is turned on...

KITCHENY GOODNESS

We're so close now we can taste it. And by it I am of course referring to the three cakes, 64 cupcakes and two batches of muffins I have successfully produced in the kitchen.

Sadly, I seem to have lost my ability to cook, however. My attempt at Tuscan Chicken with a mushroom wine reduction went horribly wrong (hey, guess what, the smoke alarm works!) and I even managed to burn eggs the other morning. Who knew four months out of commission would kill my cooking memory? Well, maybe once I get used to the BEAUTY of this new space my skills will come running back.

In the meantime, we've got several punch list items left, including finishing the electrical, adding trim to the cabinets, windows, doors and floor, hanging shelves in the nook, getting the couch, stools and tv for the sitting area, and more, but we're this close. Below are some photos to whet your appetite for more - BON APPETIT!




TOPS ARE IN

Now we just have to teach Cosmo about not being allowed on the countertops!!!

And on the 1,127th day ....

THERE WAS LIGHT!

After weeks and weeks of endless searching, and armed with our home depot gift cards from Christmas (our families ROCK), Jay and I finally found lighting fixtures we could agree on. From Hampton Bay's Rock Creek Collection, may I present the most well-lit kitchen this side of the Mississippi!
















Mark and Jason went on an installation binge the other day with these babies, as well as one light we discovered in our garage we only vaguely remembered buying a few years ago (sidebar: while we both recall it was for our dining room and it was stained glass, jason thought it was square-shaped and I seemed to recall it being green). This light actually turned out to really rock in the space we'd now deemed it for (the nook). YAY!

Subzero Winter Temps are no match for Foam

Despite the blustery winter chill gripping Chicago this weekend, our kitchen has been remarkably cozy and warm. It turns out our foam insulation installer was right - Harsh winds are stopped outside our home from coming in while we merrily continued to finish the cabinet installation and hook up some of our lighting fixtures. Jen is really excited about the lights, so I'll let her post about it along with some photos soon.

But, i just wanted to let everyone know that if you're considering different types of insulation and live in a place with harsh climates, I encourage you to consider foam insulation (or in our case, soy foam).

Now we're cookin with gas ....

A few months back I began scouring craigslist every night, keeping my fingers crossed for a deal on some stainless steel appliances. Armed with a max budget of $1600 for all the appliances (yes, that's total for fridge, dishwasher, microwave, and stove), I insisted on setting the bar high. time was one thing I had - after all, this was Humphrey House.

It took time, but eventually we amassed an amazing collection, if I do say so myself. Jason found our frigidaire gallery professional dishwasher, and I found our kenmore coldspot fridge, but what took the longest was the search for a stovetop.

Originally our design called for a cooktop, and i found a gorgeous stainless steel kitchenaid cooktop for less than $100 that wasn't too badly scratched. However, my hunt for wall ovens in our price range was fruitless - plus everyone (including our kitchen designer david) was advising that our layout just wouldn't accommodate appliances all over the place. So it was back to the posting boards.

And then after a few more weeks of searching, I happened upon a Dacor PGR30 gas & convection range that actually was priced so we could afford it. A Dacor! Something I never thought we could afford. It was no small miracle, and we've been singing the praises of craigslist nonstop ever since.

As you may have admired on the previous blog, we were able to install the Dacor this past weekend. There was a slight planning snafu - we didn't relocate the gas line to accommodate the fact that our version of the PGR30 is a convection/gas combo that relies on a circulatory fan in the back - thus eliminating any indentation for the gas line - so we have to relocate the gas line.
But it works just fine. Well, at least, pretty much.

The woman I bought the oven from cautioned me that the reason she was getting rid of it was that it took a really, really long time to preheat. She had just moved into the house and it wasn't working out for her, as she was into baking. I figured, hey, I never bake, no biggee for me. And how long could it really take? Surely it wouldn't be THAT bad.

For the record? I turned it on at 7:49pm, set it for 400 degrees and set the pizza on the counter. the temp read 135.

At 8:00, it read 155.
At 8:05, it read 180.
At 8:07, Jason opened it up to confirm there was heat.
At 8:12, it read 270.

At 8:30, the oven beeped to let me know it had reached 400 degrees, and it was time to put our hawaiian pizza in the oven.

I gotta say, it was still one of the best slices ever. :)

p.s. sorry, the cooktop is spoken for.

Leaving our Presents for the Future

As people have done in the past, we at HH like to leave little surprises for future remodelers. Whether it's something simple as our initials or a date, layers of drywall castoffs buried in the walls (hey, it's good sound insulation), beer bottles walled up, or even a poetic note. We love it all.

The joy of finding hidden treasures in our walls help us ensure that future owners (FO's) won't miss out on the excitement either. With that in mind, we left a calling card on the walls behind our cabinets, wrapped up for a Humphrey House FO.

Hello.
Sorry you didn't like our cabinets.
We did. We loved 'em.
Oh well. Jason and I (and our friends and families) worked very hard on this house.
We've practically rebuilt the whole thing.
We were even on NBC's "Today Show" on 11/02/2007.
Go look it up.
Okay, I have the flu and must get back in bed.
Good luck with Humphrey House, and I hope you like your new cabinets.
Jennifer La Fleur

PS. Good luck trying to put anything inside the walls.
This is Solid Foam Insulation, Baby! :-)
12/31/07

Using a Water Level to Overcome Uneven Floors

One of the challenges fun things about living in a 100-year old home is trying to make something level on the original floors. This is no easy task when you sometimes feel as though, while standing in place, one foot is cooler than the other due to its higher altitude. If this sounds scary, just imagine trying to install a 10-foot run of cabinets across these peaks and valleys so that the faces of the cabinets all line up cleanly, and don't resemble something that belongs on the Earthquake ride at Universal Studios.

I have honestly been struggling with approaching this for awhile, but now that we've removed the old vinyl flooring (and its excessively fastened underlayment), we have to confront the issue. To my initial shock, our kitchen designer, David, had a simple solution: water. Even more elegantly, water: in a long tube. The concept is similar to the familiar bubble seen on most carpenter's levels, but works even better for multiple data points. There are ways to do this by yourself that involve a bucket, but it's even quicker (and simpler) with two people. In between playing gigs at CBGB years ago, David spent his days as a carpenter remodeling apartments in New York, and had worked on many floors in much worse shape than ours.

David offered to help us create a benchmark using a water level last weekend, and we started by taking about 20 feet of clear tubing and filled it most of the way with water. David went downstairs and capped the end of the tube with his thumb while I filled the tube most of the way with water (we left about 5 feet of air). Then we grabbed both ends and draped the middle off our balcony (so the tube was in a long U shape), to get rid of any air bubbles. As tiny air bubbles slowly rised (with help from us tapping the tube), the two water levels became closer together until they were finally level. Then we went back inside to our kitchen.

On the wall with the cabinets, we decided to arbitrarily make a benchmark measurement at a 40" height at what seemed like the highest point in the room. At this height, once we snap a chalkline for our benchmark all around the room, we can see where the peaks and valleys are on the floor. Additionally, we will be able to simply measure down from the benchmark line to mark the top of the base cabinets, and measure up to mark the bottom of our upper cabinets.We marked that first location's position at 40"with a pencil and I stayed at that initial point as David moved along the walls. At each corner, David would hold up his end of the tube and move it up or down as I kept my end of the tube stationary. The water line would move up and down at first, but once it stopped moving, David marked the water's level on the wall.
After the first line had two points, we both simply capped our ends of the tube to avoid spilling any water, and David moved along to another point along the wall. We did this along each wall with at least two points (sometimes more if an obstruction might get in the way of a straight line). Once we were done, we snapped a chalk line, and voila! Truly level benchmark!

Only one mishap occurred. As I was explaining this process to Jen, I realized that for a few of our marks, I had not taken my thumb off the tube to let the air escape and the water equalize! So we had to back and redo a few marks that were too high. Listen up kiddies and don't do what I'm doing in the photo here - air and water must mix for a level! It's a good thing we discovered that now instead of after lifting and mounting the cabinets.

Anyway, thanks to David, we now have a point of liftoff for the cabinets to be installed. And just in case we need it again in the near future, I capped both ends of the tube and hung it in the basement (perhaps a picture rail?). Hopefully we'll be trying for the cabinet install next weekend.

Countertops and Color Schemes

Let the kitchen decorating begin! Over the holidays we managed to get the walls up and prime them to be ready for decoration. We're currently having the original maple floors patched where the rooms were combined and refinished by the fine gents at Elm Floor from Elmwood Park who came highly recommended to us. That leaves us time to decide things that, in all honesty, should have probably been done a long time ago. Well, it was hard to visualize how the space and colors will be working together until we had a blank canvas.
While browsing many kitchen design photos, we noticed that light cabinetry generally is paired with dark countertops, and dark cabinetry generally has lighter countertops. Since we already have elected to go with dark cherry cabinets (currently taking up residence in our living room), we thought we were pretty well pigeoned into a light coutnertop. Besides, its a small space, and we didn't want too many dark colors to become overwhelming and claustrophobic. Another plus is that a lighter surface doesn't reveal how dirty they are as easily as dark surfaces (as we learned from having black appliances in our condo!), so we can wait longer before cleaning it!

We went to our local KDA and looked at some Zodiaq samples, and found a style called "Cappucino" that really was great against Cherry cabinets. I've succumbed to the fact that we simply don't have the budget to purchase IceStone counters, as much as I love the idea of having beer-bottle-based countertops. But Zodiaq is a great alternative that is still green, harder than granite, and requires almost no maintenance.

However, some darker (midtone?) counters, such as a rich green, end up looking really sharp with cherry cabinets. I mean REALLY sharp, as we found out by looking at the "Magellen Green" Zodiaq sample in the store. We didn't think much of this color by looking at the brochure (or web site for that matter), but this just proves that it is hard for the web or print to capture the look of these stone-ish counters, especially the abstract "sparkle factor" that Jen loves so much.


I think we've pretty much decided that it is down to these two counter colors. Kudos to Jen for the awesome mockups of our kitchen space with cabinet layouts with both counters done by hand in Adobe Illustrator. It's good to have a graphic designer in the family! Once we decide on the counters, we can figure out colors on the walls that will encapsulate them.

Insulation Made of (Human?) Hair

Our kitchen's breakfast nook is a bump-out over a crawlspace next to our kitchen. We originally thought this was added on, but after peeling back layers of the house, we now realize this was part of the original home. This latest discovery helped confirm that. We had to remove an odd covering that was above the ceiling joists in the nook, and it turned out to be hair! Yes, indeed Hair! After removing this, our floor looked like Cousin It got a trim.


But what exactly is it? We had briefly seen hints of the mysterious building material, but nothing quite prepared me for seeing the whole thing on our floor. It was quite a hairy mess! (sorry, I couldn't resist a pun). For those curious about this material, it was basically a 1/2" of hair sandwiched between 2 layers of building paper. It was clearly very old and practically disintegrated on touch. Unfortunately I don't have any "before" photos of this, but it was placed (not fastened) above 1x6 boards running perpendicular the ceiling joists. Above the paper/hair sandwich, another run of 1x1's were nailed to other framing to hold the thing in place. Here's a photo:


I simply can't believe this was used. Especially since elsewhere in the home (e.g. the walls, floors) there is no insulation! Maybe this was an attempt to keep the naturally cooler addition warmer? It probably only had an R-value of like 1. Also, exactly what kind of hair is it? Part of me wants to take it and get it tested. Is it horse hair, or some other animal? Perhaps human? Maybe a long lost relative? Will I find the body belonging to this hair buried in the crawlspace? All very engaging questions, you be the judge.


Jen and I will be making a tight building envelope and having soy-based foam insulation installed in our walls (more on that later), but while we were getting estimates, one contractor said he had seen this only a few times and it was clearly a sign of a pre-1920 building technique (our house was built in 1912). Hair. I never would have believed it. I'm left in wonder.

Our Cabinet Decision

Trying to be green isn't always as easy as it sounds, especially for remodeling homes. Although there is research that shows that green building adds only a marginal cost to a new building (commercial construction), it's not necessarily the case for home remodelers. We've discovered this the hard way, especially when selecting cabinets for our kitchen.

See, for our cabinets we did the traditional 3-estimates approach, but one of the estimates we did was from a local Chicago manufacturer, Urban Prairie, getting their feet off the ground at GreenMaker, Chicagoland's green building supplier. They offer cabinets made from sustainably harvested wood (not a clear-cut forest), minimizing wood waste, assembled with formaldehyde-free glue and non-toxic finishing, resulting in low-VOCs. The owner was really hip to our green remodeling efforts and tried to work with us as much as possible, but ultimately, the expense was still almost one and half times the cost of other estimates we received.

The second estimate was close to the "green" cabinets, but still a bit much for our budget. But before we went with the third estimate, cabinets from a big-box home store, I did want to know the manufacturer's sustainability practices. Specifically, where they get their wood from and how is it harvested, and whether their adhesives used formaldehyde. When I called American Woodmark, I got a first flustered rep who clearly had never been asked about this before. She took my information down, and I was called back a few days later by Bryan Earl, the vice president of marketing and communications.

Although American Woodmark doesn't score very high on the eco-friendly scale, Mr. Earl was fairly forthright and not ignorant on the topics. He explained that while the wood was not FSC-certified, trees were not illegally logged in some foreign country, but came from Appalachian mountains. One negative was the statement that they don't really replant, they just "let the trees take care of themselves" in terms of repopulating.

As for the adhesives used in the particle board, American Woodmark uses glue that does contain formaldahyde, but their products exceed HUD's air quality standards of .4 parts per million (ppm). Mr. Earl then proceeded to tell me that wood gives off formaldehyde naturally. While I don't doubt the veracity of the statement, I do think it might not be at as high a rate as formaldehyde-based glue.

Anyway, despite these issues, we are limited to a shoestring budget and unfortunately were not able to go with green cabinets, electing for other green features in our kitchen remodel. So a few weeks ago we placed an order for mission-style cherry cabinets from American Woodmark. The cherry is at least a quick growing tree, and more importantly, we have the satisfaction of letting manufacturers know that consumers are starting to pay attention to these issues.

Much to our surprise, our new cabinets arrived earlier than advertised last week. Ah! They're piled up in our living room now, and it have lit a fire under us to get the kitchen ready for them. It's amazing how room utility comes and goes as building supplies find a space in unexpected areas of the home!

Electrifying our Kitchen

Thanksgiving weekend was so busy at Humphrey House that we're still recovering from the work. It began innocently enough by continuing some framing-related activities, and a touch of demolition as the remaining plaster and lathe in our hallway was removed so we could have a clean surface to frame from and also replace the old wiring. Then we started electrical work.

Our electrician friend Fred came by Saturday morning bright and early at 6 am and we began routing the conduit piping for our kitchen. After living in a kitchen for 2+ years with inferior lighting, I now realize how important this is. We used to have one center-mounted ceiling fan light, and a fluorescent light over our sink. The problem with a center ceiling light is that, while functional, there is no place you can go in the kitchen without having your shadow follow you and get in your work space. It's extremely frustrating!

Our new lighting plan will be much more robust with multiple schemes. We're installing a center fixture again, but this will be supplemented by pendant lights over the sink and the peninsula counter. We'll have four 4" recessed can lights (all that would fit in our 2x6 ceiling) focused on work areas like the stove and counters on either side of the sink. And most helpful, we'll have undercabinet lighting for a bright work area!

In order to avoid watching our electrical usage increase exponentially with the new lights, I'd like to get some LED strips for undercabinet lighting and dimmable compact fluorescent light bulbs, also knowns as cold-cathode bulbs (CCFLs not to be confused with standard CFLs). These now have a good color temperature (2800 Kelvin) so it won't give off a harsh white/blue light normally associated with fluorescents, and can screw into any existing light fixture and last even longer than standard CFLs (which of course have a longer life and lower consumption than standard incandescent bulbs).

Anyway, in the course of working this weekend, we discovered that the original wiring feeding much of the first floor ceiling fixtures was in very bad shape. Not originally a huge concern since we were redoing it all in the kitchen anyway, right?

Well, the problem is the wires in our first floor bathroom ceiling light, which serves as kind of a wiring hub, were overheating a bit and the old cloth insulation was all brittle and decayed at the touch. Ouch! So now we have to pull down part of the bath ceiling and try to find a part of the original BX that is in serviceable condition and try to reestablish the line for now. In the meantime, we've cut power to this dangerous line, which means no light for that bathroom, our temporary kitchen, foyer, or front porch until next weekend.

♫ Wide Open Spaces ♪

♪ Room to make our big mistakes ♫

Yes, I'm a Dixie Chicks fan. And we've now got all the wide open space this house can handle. Check it out below!


The plastic sheet is covering the stairwell. I had so much trouble visualizing how this was going to work, so I'm so excited that I can understand the space better! Check out the dual header action!

Also, they removed the arch from the breakfast nook and installed a header so we're gonna give Jenna a call to come back and do some more with the sledgehammer. Just kidding!

The Wrecking Crew's 15 Minutes Are HERE!

Yup, this is it. Our fifteen minutes have come. And we're pretty damn happy about how it all worked out. This morning a segment aired on NBC's TODAY Show that featured Humphrey House and the regulars of the Wrecking Crew doing what we do best: some serious demolition.

A few weeks ago (just after part one of the kitchen demo) we were contacted by producers at NBC's TODAY show, who were looking to film a segment on renovation parties. We were wary after the 'Three Martini Renovation" article, but several emails and phone conversations later, we started to get excited.

The day the crew arrived to shoot we had planned for about 10 people to come over. Sara got the flu, Brian got a job, and so it ended up being Jason and I, plus Kenny (daddoo), Scott, Julie, Mark and Amy. We ended up doing about 90% of the demo work for the kitchen, including removing the cabinets, the wall, the appliances and most of the interior walls. Jenna Wolfe, the correspondent for the piece, was lethal with the sledgehammer - she had some serious power going on. [I have to wonder, Jenna, could you lift your arms the next day?] I worried a bit about the two-person video crew as we were taking out the wall with them on the other side, but they never complained. And then once it was dinner time - we really did work all day - we used the last remaining light to chill in the back with Jay and Scott on guitar (sara, we missed you!) and Mark on the grill. All in all, a pretty good demo day.

Both Jenna and her producer Meredith were very cool to work with for the day, and we couldn't be more pleased with the piece that they put together. They kept the focus where it really belongs: on the fact we couldn't do this without the support and hard work from our friends and family.

View our latest progress since the Today Show

Humphrey House on the TODAY Show - 11/2

Our inadvertent media blitz regarding our home remodel continues this Friday, Nov. 2 when NBC's TODAY Show will be airing a segment they filmed a few weeks ago at our house as we demo'd the kitchen with the help of family and friends (and correspondent Jenna Wolfe).

There's some confusion as to the timeframe, but it looks like we will air during the "third hour of TODAY," which is the 9:00 hour all around, not the 8:00 hour as previously reported (did you know the TODAY show isn't live in any time zone but Eastern? I've been living a lie)

So check it out. If it's great, yeah, we rock. And if we look like amateurs - it's just the editing. :)

Selling Old Kitchen Appliances

Last weekend, we continued the demolition of our old kitchen - more details to come in a later blog post. But in the meantime, our old appliances need a new home.

We've found Craigslist to be an invaluable tool for recycling our building materials, so there's no reason to think people won't be interested in our old Kenmore Ultra Wash II dishwasher, 36" Tappan 5-burner stove, or the original cast iron farm sink from Humphrey House. Of course, this caters to Chicago-area residents.

I really like the idea of finding people that can find a way to reuse parts of Humphrey House as we work on it. Not only does this help keep our remodeling "green" by reducing our contributions to the waste stream, it also gives pieces of our house a second life. For example, there was a lady who took a bunch of the old bead-board that made up our original attic walls and told me she was going to make furniture out of it. Or artists that take old windows and turn them into canvases (you'd be surprised how many people use old windows for this purpose). And as a bonus, you can hopefully avoid having to rent a dumpster!

So if you have some old house parts laying around, give it a shot. You may be pleasantly surprised.