Heating options

So, cold weather is fast approaching (honestly, I'm surprised it hasn't been worse yet. Hello global warming?) and the only (safe) sources of heat in our home are 3 tiny electric space heaters. I suppose the stove could sort of qualify as well.

We want heat, but we need it on a limited budget. Getting a new furnace and duct work before years end is completely out of the question.

We have natural gas service, from the city. I loathe gas heat, in any form. They say it has no smell, but i can smell it across the house when we use our stove (which burns much cleaner than many other gas stoves I've encountered). Not only can I smell it, and hate the smell, it dries me out big time!

Even still, I'm inclined to consider one of these...

Solely because it'd heat the house, and one of the #1 discomforts for me (well above smelling stinky gas, or being dried out) is being cold. So, while I have no idea how much they are, they just seem like they'd be fairly affordable.

B wants a wood stove. The thought of having a beautiful wood stove (since we have no fire places) that not only provides warmth, but esthetics, and we could have a nice pot of water on top to keep things moist AND prepare a cup of tea at the drop of a hat sounds wonderful to me! Of course, wood stoves are big business now so we could get something like this...

for over $2000 (ok, that's out of our budget. :( )

or maybe this...

for around $200.

The more expensive one is far more efficient and provides better air quality inside and out. Also, if we buy a stove new (the last one is used) it qualifies for a 30% tax credit.

Of course, used, is typically the "greener" options, but what if the seals aren't as good? (they likely aren't) Or it takes more wood to provide the same amount of heat, is that still ideal?

My biggest concern with the wood is supply. Wood isn't exactly renewable, but it's not non-renewable either. Natural gas is better than coal, and I feel wood is better than natural gas, especially when it's acquired responsibly. But the only tree we have (for now) is a mulberry tree, so us providing it for ourselves all winter is out of the question.

B feels as though we should be able to keep stocked in wood via friends and craigslist easily, but we have a gas line, from lg&e coming straight into our house, and we get billed for it at the end of the month. No driving our tiny car to get a few days worth of wood, or begging friends with larger vehicles to help us out. No worry of a wood drought. 

I mean, I guess I could go all conspiracy theorists and think "Well, what if "the man" decided to shut off our/everyones gas? Huh! What then?" but I'm really not THAT neurotic.

So here we are. Trying to figure out what to do. It may sound like I'm strongly favoring the gas, I'm really not, But I am strongly in favor of being warm, and will take almost anything short of burning down my house (that wouldn't keep me warm long) at this point.

Anyone have a nice wood stove they want to sell?

broken tiles

Our bathroom is super tiny, and super cramped. I have big dreams of moving things around, taking out some walls, ya know, making it my b$#%@. But alas, b had already ran the plumbing back to the original areas, and I didn't have the heart to insist he do it all over, so it will remain for the time being.

Regardless, we pulled up the old nasty vinyl.

Mmmm, yummy.

Then, I laid some tile backerboard, and got to breaking tiles.

And after a few days, we now have this...

How is this green? you may ask. Well, I'll tell you. All of these tiles were chipped, cracked, broken in some form or way at the big box hardware store. No one in their right mind was going to pay full price for them, and they were likely destined for the land fill. (Another big box hardware store flat out refused to sell us broken tiles, its their policy to dispose of them.) So we offered to take them off of their hands, and they let us do so at a whopping .10c a piece. We even have a bunch left. I was thinking I'd tile my laundry room in the ones that just have tiny nips on the corners. 

But this. I love mosaics. For as long as I've wanted to tile (which has been a long time) I've wanted to do a broken tile mosaic like this. Organizing the tiles to fit was the most difficult part.

Hope

We "stole" a few of our plants from our old house. Let's hope they fair well.

In a way, it's confusing. White people (in general) are scared of the west end. When looking at crime for the last 6 months in my area, the only thing that shows up are a couple vandalisms.

People sit outside, they walk around. Even in the middle of the night.
A asked "why do they walk around?". I told her they weren't scared of the outdoors.

Even with all the negative music and media, their culture remains much more true and ancient.

In our first week, we know a third of the people on our block. More of them from them introducing themselves to us, then us approaching them. Our neighbors are terribly friendly.

The other night, A was jumping on the trampoline and said "You can see the stars in this part of town!" I loved it. So innocent and sweet.

I'm proud to give this cultural experience to my children. I hope it helps them realize that all people are, just that, people.

On another note. The power company has yet to shut our power off (at the pole) so B can work on it. I can't help but think "What if we lived in some really yuppie neighborhood? Would it take them this long then?"

It makes me sad, the way some put themselves on a pedestal. It's perfectly ok to dump chemicals, have sewage spills, not assist in repairing power, etc. etc. etc. because these are the "poor" people. Somehow, they deserve it.

Love for all.

Welcome to the neighborhood

It's hard to keep up with everything we've been doing. Right now things are sort of sporadic, and quick-ish.

Carpet has been removed from 3 out of 4 rooms, what are some "green" ways to dispose of, or potentially up cycle? old, gross carpet? the padding?
Below the carpet, original hardwoods! but... they've been painted on!

In any case, the most environmentally thing to do would be refinish the existing floors. They're not amazing, but they're decent. We could certainly make them work, so long as they're salvageable. So we'll have a professional out to give us his thoughts on that. If it looks as though it would be substantially cheaper and/or easier to replace them well likely put bamboo in over top of the wood.

Out back we got the yard secured enough for the chickens.

So they're happy, and handling what few kitchen scraps (being that we have no water or power) we manage to come up with until we're able to set up a compost.

Yes, we have no power. Not by choice, there's just work that needs to be done, that hasn't been done yet. Then it has to be inspected by the city (on their schedule) before that can be turned on, but we're lucky enough to have an amazing friend that's been generously sharing a bed in the a/c (with access to running water and electricity to boot!) with us so we don't have to suffer the 90+ degree nights.

Now, I'm off to post on craigslist in search of used privacy fence panels. 

Moving day

Yesterday, we closed. We paid cash, now we own our home.

Last night and today we've been moving.

We bought a new energy efficient fiberglass door yesterday. Though we have yet to install it, maybe later.

We are currently keeping it green by not having our electricity on. Solely because things have to be fixed first. (namely the meter base)
Waters on but all pipes need re ran, so were not really using water yet either.

Eco-friendly Repairs/Upgrades...

Plans to patch this place up and bring it up to speed with the 21st century:

-New door jam(was busted into before we bought it),

-new gutters that attach to rain barrels(downspouts were jacked by aluminum recyclers),

-thermophilic composting toilet(because I'm not sure the plumbing's all there),

-natural insulation(as this is 95 years old and needs updating),

-and refinishing the hardwood floors(which means tearing up the carpet and doing each room at a time.)

Plans only start there, the updating of the lighting to have a solar tube, a solar attic fan, graywater catchment and irrigation, and solar water cistern are some future plans, just not yet.

Offer accepted!

On July 15th, 2010 we finally went under contract for a house in the west end of Louisville. (You know, the "bad" part of town?)

This was our third house. But you know what they say.

So, soon we will own .12 acres along with a house.
The two large dogs, and 5 (remaining) chickens will help break in the yard.

It's going to be fun!