Eco-Remodelers

The people over at Best Buy have let me know that it’s National Vampire Awareness Day. Oddly enough, it is not in honor of the Halloween holiday.

No, this day is being set aside to make you aware of the energy vampires found in your home. And they’re not sucking your blood… they’re sucking your checking account dry.

Energy Vampires are the electronic devices - your computer, DVD/VCR, stereo, cellphone, etc. - that continue to use energy even when switched off or in standby mode.

This excess energy consumption is costing you money and it’s causing power plants to send more carbon dioxide into the air - for no reason!

Head over to the Vampire Awareness Day website for more details, a fun video, and a Fact Sheet.

What Can You Do?

• Easy. Attach power strips to all your major (and minor) electronic toys and switch off the strip when they’re not in use.

• Unplug your battery and devices chargers when not being used to charge your stuff. That’s right - even your cellphone charger is using power when the phone is not attached to it.

• Don’t rely on the “sleep” mode for your computer - shut it off. Otherwise, you’re blowing $70 a year to keep it powered up (in case you need it at 4 in the morning.)

• Buy only Energy Star electronics and appliances the next time you go shopping for more toys.

Why Should You Do it?

Individually, these appliances and electronics don’t use up much. But every house is full of devices that rob you of money. Add them all up and you could potentially be spending an extra $1,000 a year. Think about how many more electronic goodness you could buy with that kind of money…

For more information on how to save money and energy, check out the Department of Energy Energy Savers page.

So, we’re finally completely moved in to the new house. It’s been a crazy week and a half. But we’re completely out of our rented townhouse and into our new home. There is still so much to do. I’ve still got to finish the bedroom/office that has the bamboo floors. And, well, the list is long…

Being “green” was very difficult during the move. Some things got thrown away that should have been recycled. We had to use regular cleaning products instead of the more environmentally-friendly products. We even burned up a lot more fuel making multiple trips back and forth instead of a few big trips.

Guilt can set in very fast.

Being tired, running out of time and energy, and money can get in the way of regular green activities. The good news from our lapses in green practices? We don’t move all the time. In fact, I hope to never have to move again. Ever. That was the 2nd time we moved in just 5 months. And I’m done. Stick a fork in me…

But moving did not bring out the best in me. This got me thinking - what other anti-green habits do I have?

One bad habit I finally overcame was the need to run the sink water while I brush my teeth. I can’t figure out why I need to do this, but the temptation is still there. I still want to reach for the faucet handle and turn water on while I brush. It drives me crazy.

Where I’m still bad, however, is with paper towels and paper napkins. I love paper towels. I love those napkins. And it’s such a huge waste of materials. It’s horrible to think of all the energy used to make them, the raw materials destroyed to manufacture them, the wasted oil used to ship them, even the materials used up to package them…

But it is so easy to just rip off a paper towel and clean up a quick mess. And it seems so much more sanitary than to re-use a cloth towel.

I need to cut out this habit. I need to start using cloth for spills and for dinner napkins. I know I do. And it’s going to be a very hard habit to break. But I will work on it.

What anti-green bad habits do you still have?

One room is done! The fourth bedroom, which is also going to be my office, is finished. I installed the bamboo flooring in this room because it is my practice room - if I mess it up there, not many will ever see it!

So, the dining room will be next, but it will have to be after we move. Our current, official move-out date for our townhouse is October 15th. I’ll take up the dining room, which is considered a non-essential room at this point, after we’re in and settled.

The bamboo floor was not very difficult to install. And all the planks were perfect. I didn’t have a single bad one in the bunch.

To install this flooring, I had previously screwed down the plywood subfloor to give it a stable base.

Next, I bought an air compressor (that also came with a brad nailer) and I rented a flooring stapler from Home Depot.

I put down the black felt underlayment that I bought with my bamboo flooring. I nailed down my first row of bamboo planks using my brad nail gun. I had to cut a piece around the air conditioner register using my mitre saw. It’s important to start on the longest “outside” wall in the room - it’s usually the straightest. But you’ll want to put down a chalk line to make sure you’re installing the boards straight.

I had to nail down the 2nd row as well.

You might be able to see the brad nails in the picture above. I used a nail set and hammer to tap down the nails below the surface of the bamboo. I’ll use a wood filler that matches to cover up those nail holes.

After that, I had room to use to my stapler. I would tap each plank into place, making sure the bamboo boards were tight against each other, then I would line up the staple gun. I simple whack of the mallet on the staple gun and it would drive a two-inch staple through the tongue of the plank and into the subfloor below.

As you can see in the picture, the staple split the tongue on the bamboo plank. I backed off the pressure of the compressor to under 95 psi. This kept the staple from driving in so hard that it would split the bamboo.

I did it on my own and I completed a 13 foot by 9 foot bedroom in one day. I would line up each row of bamboo and then go along and staple each board down. Luckily, I didn’t have to use a table saw to slice up the last row to make it fit. The last row was an exact width of the bamboo plank. I did, however, have to nail in those last two rows - because the staple doesn’t allow you to have any room to strike it with the mallet when its so close to the wall.

I staggered all the boards in a random pattern. Never let the seams of the boards line up. This helps give the flooring extra strength. Also, you don’t want to install the flooring right up to the walls. You want to give the wood (or bamboo, in this case) room to expand and contract. Leave about half an inch all around the floors to make sure there is space. When you install the baseboards, if you can still see a gap then you can install a section of quarter-round to the baseboard to fill it.

Also, I did one particular room in an “un-green” fashion. While I was at Lumber Liquidators, I tried to see if they had any spare bamboo or other eco-friendly flooring options. But… they didn’t. They did have some hardwood flooring but it was in such a small amount leftover they couldn’t sell it. I only needed to fill a 6 foot by 6 foot walk-in closet in our master bedroom. So… I bought the hardwood. I needed to do it.

Using all the same equipment, I installed the flooring in our closet on Sunday.

It’s a maple hardwood that was stained a rich, red cherry color. I had just enough to fill the small closet with only one 3 foot board left over.

Even though hardwood is not a green material, I was able to put their small leftover quantity to good use so that none was wasted. I know… I’m rationalizing, but I needed flooring and I got it for less than a dollar a square foot.

Here’s a closeup shot of the stapler resting on the floorboard so it can drive the staple into the tongue.

And the final product. It turned out very nice. Now I just need to re-install the baseboards around the floor in both rooms. I’ve primed and painted the baseboards before installation to avoid spilling any paint on the new floors.