And update to remodeling

Here we are, two month after we’ve closed, and our house is still a disaster.  I’ve been putting off updates on the condition of the house simply because I really don’t want pictures of our ransacked house spread across the internet!

But we did install the bamboo floors and the windows I talked about, though if you compare the picture I posted (from Lumber Liquidators’ Website) to the actual floor, you can see the floor color is quite different.  I’m not sure why that is, but when I complained to my husband, he said the sample in the store of our floors was almost the same as what we got.

Lesson learned:  Don’t buy hardwood floors off the internet.

The bamboo floors in our living room.

Don’t get me wrong, they are beautiful floors.  But they show everything – and I have two boys (and a little girl on the way in May), two cats and a husband.

I think we have a couple mice, too.

Needless to say, I am trying to teach the kids and reteach my husband to take off their shoes at the door!  (I grew up in Minnesota where this is standard practice.  Husband grew up in coastal North Carolina where it is common to leave the shoes on until you climb in bed at night.)

But we do love the floors (I think my husband loves them even more because they are darker!) and they are holding up very well.  We were pleased at how easy they were to install, so I definitely recommend them – just make sure you see the color in person before you order!

We still have a lot to do, especially cosmetically.  The windows are in, but we have to come up with the money to trim the sills still.  We’ve spent that on other, more necessary repairs, like the leaky water spigot outside!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will admit, our electricity bill last month was $550!  Not much better than the $600 electric bill I mentioned our neighbor had a past winter.  This set off yet another flurry of draft-searching and we’ve changed the way we do a few things.  My husband went under the house and repaired some of the venting that was dangling incorrectly and reinsulated a few things in order to improve efficiency, and I’m pretty sure the bedrooms are as air-tight as a house from 1905 can be!

The fact that this is one of the coldest winters on record really isn’t helping us!  We did crunch some numbers, and realized that our winters in Ohio were no cheaper, but because of how we paid for it (usually up front for heating oil) we didn’t think of it as a monthly expense.  Thankfully, last month the bill was $300 – half of this month’s bill.  So I can expect that as long as it doesn’t keep acting like Ohio in Tennessee, we’ll see that this isn’t the norm!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I could easily go on and on about our repairs, but those are the significant ones that actually pertain to this blog.  As for the others, well, some like hanging shelves and pictures are truly cosmetic and just daily life.  Others, like installing a HE washer and dryer set, a new fridge, and CFL bulbs, are certainly within the scope of my blog but just so very obvious.  I don’t feel they are really worth mentioning.
Anyone want to come swing a hammer? LOL

Waste Not, Want Not – Phantom wastes that suck you dry…

Tuesday I received both the quarterly water bill and a shock.  For the month and a half since we turned on the water – and a month of residence – our water bill was nearly $130!  This is only for the city water that comes into the house – it’s disposed of into a septic system we own.

I immediately picked up the phone and called the Local Water Company.  The kind woman on the other end agreed – this water bill was enormous!  She sent out a water meter reader, who told us we had a leak.  A bad one.

Next up – a plumber.  He and my husband immediately found the problem – an outside spigot was cracked so badly it was basically running like a faucet.  Another $129 later, and the spigot has been capped until we make some changes to the location.  Thankfully, the current location was several feet from the house (it was put in early on in the house’s life, around 1905, and still has the original pump handle.)  So we don’t anticipate any foundational water damage.

Now, inside the house we were clueless.  The plumbing inside is working beautifully.  That water bill, though, was a wake up call.  What else are we missing?  What else is draining our financial and physical resources?

Since then, we’ve made some changes to our house to curb electricity use.  To be honest, much of this house, including the heating system, is so well ventilated that you could blow out a candle from one end to the other.  (Our bill last month for electricity, which includes all systems, was about $335.  If you remember this post about the house, you’ll understand how much work we’ve already done!)  So this weekend, my husband got under the house and taped up a lot of falling insulation and weak spots in the tubing, my father shoved insulation in the back door jamb and put a rubber threshold on the bottom where it was still drafty, and we closed a sneaky upstairs window that managed to open itself up when we weren’t looking.  We need to remember to lock those windows, especially when we have wind storms!  The guys also worked on some areas that needed to be spackled and painted where there used to be doors to the outside, which added a more effective layer of insulation against the cold.

Already that’s made a lot of difference in just the feel of the air.  Our bedroom isn’t as cold as it normally is, despite nearly record-breaking cold outside.

We’re already looking for more “phantom” wasters – those things you don’t even notice that suck energy or money from your wallet.  Other random phantom wasters?

* Paper towels (put your cloth towels in an easily accessable place with a designated bin for dirty rags)
* Uncaulked window frames  – it’s amazing how much air can come through between a frame and the wall if the window is improperly insulated or on a windy side of the house!
* Hot water heaters set too high – they should be set at 120 degrees F.  Better yet, buy a water heater timer that will turn off the heater during times you never use hot water – like while you sleep.
* Disposable diapers and menstrual pads – name brand can cost up to $0.30 a piece – and you may use several a day!
* Commercial floor cleaners – many of them, like the Swiffer Wet Jet, use a solution that never rinses completely clean.  That means that it feels sticky and collects dirt quicker.  Not to mention the disposable pads!  Instead, use a vinegar and water solution with your own homemade wet jet cleaning cloths.
* Warming up your car – unless you have a very old model, it’s not necessary to warm up your car more than a couple minutes.
Sometimes the phantoms can be hard to find because they are just that – phantoms.  If our water bill hadn’t been so shocking, I would never have questioned it, and I could have been wasting both water and my money.  Sometimes we just need to have it pointed out to us – do any of my readers have any stories to share that will help us all find those phantoms?

New Windows and Flooring for the house

Well, our closing on our house has been delayed until we can complete some major repairs to satisfy our lenders.  Everything is working out fine, though I’m getting a bit impatient to get back into my own space rather than usurping my parents’ dining room table!

My husband B went on down to Nashville (my parents live in Minnesota) to do the repairs.  Over the weekend, he ripped out old flooring and discovered several interesting surprises – apparently the previous owner (PO) didn’t know which way to overlap shingles, so we’ll be ripping out some kitchen drywall to get rid of mildew and possibly mold.

He also bought the new windows to replace the original 1923 windows and new bamboo hardwood flooring.

I can’t say much now, because I have very little information on the windows, but I do know that they qualified for the US government energy credit.

The bamboo flooring?  I know it’s probably not sustainably harvested.  We actually bought it because it was: 1. the color we wanted; 2. actual hardwood and not laminate, and 3. because it was the price we wanted to/could afford to pay.  It will be beautiful, though:

Bamboo has been lauded as a green material because it’s a great alternative to traditional woods, very versatile, and regrows fast. It only takes about 4 years for bamboo to grow to maturity, while traditional woods take decades.  But what has happened is that many old growth bamboo forests have been harvested – even clear cut – to supply the demand for this revolutionary new wood.  When forests are clear cut (everything is cut down and then it’s sorted through for what the harvesters really wanted.) it leaves the ground bare and rootless.  When winter rains come, it creates the perfect storm of mudslides, erosion, and just general chaos.

Until there are enough bamboo farms to supply demand, and until we demand bamboo grown only sustainably, this practice will probably continue.  (And as you know, I’m a culprit, too – there was no information on the hardwood floors to tell me how the bamboo was grown and harvested.)

And that really brings me to another problem – either manufacturers don’t realize we want to know how it was grown or they realize that when it comes down to it, many of us just can’t afford the time or money to look at that when we buy.  In the first case, we need make manufacturers aware of our concern.

The second?  Well, I’m not sure what to do about that, yet.  It’s a very real social concern as well.  And there will always be people like us, growing and learning to be “green,” who when faced with either getting the unknown or waiting months to close while finding the perfect, sustainable, affordable product, will choose to close on the house sooner.  But the convenience of “green” is a topic for another day, I suppose!

So to sum it up: our “green” score is not great so far, but I suppose it’s better than it could be.  The windows are going to make a huge difference in the electricity bills.  (Not-broken windows will do that!)  And the floors are still a fast-growing hardwood that should last at least 30 years according to the warrenty, so less waste will come from replacing them down the road.

Next: paint and light fixtures.  And how to use what you have and still get your dream kitchen.