The average U.S. household spends over $1,300 per year on their home utility bills for heating or cooling. Unfortunately, a large part of that energy is wasted unnecessarily. We Americans waste, through poorly insulated windows and doors, about as much energy as we get from the Alaskan pipeline every year. The typical home loses over 25% of its heat through its windows. However, by using a few simple inexpensive energy-efficient... more

Retro Fit Radiant Heating Into Your Older Home Imagine yourself curled up at home on a typical cold, rainy Northwest autumn afternoon. You put your feet to the floor, expecting the usual bone-chilling arctic freeze. Instead, your toes touch a warm surface that radiates gentle heat up toward your limbs like asphalt on a summer night. This is just a preview...Read the rest... Read More →

This is Part 2 of a two part series on patching, sanding, and sanding a wood floor. In Part 1 we began a floor repair for three boards. After the floor was stained, dents in these boards had become apparent and had to be removed. Without using any topnails or damaging any nearby boards, the offending boards were removed and replaced. Now it’s time to sand them down and stain them to blend in with the original floor. This is just a preview...Read the rest... Read More →

This is Part 1 of a two part series on patching, sanding, and sanding a wood floor. Whatever the circumstance, the time may come when you need to replace some boards in your home’s hardwood floor. Unless refinishing the entire floor is a possibility, the only option you may have is to replace the damaged board and blend the repair into the rest of the floor. Part 2 will cover sanding and staining. This is just a preview...Read the rest... Read More →

When choosing a contractor to work on your home, the one universal bit of advice is: Interview three contractors and choose the middle bid. The reasoning behind this theory is, supposedly, that the highest one charges too much for his services and the lowest one underbids and then asks for more money later. The middle bid, however, is just right. This is just a preview...Read the rest... Read More →

By Jeremy Vesbach Many volatile organic compounds (VOC) stink, some cause environmental damage, and some are known to cause health problems. And unless you pay attention to which paints, varnishes, and adhesives you use, it’s easy to inundate your home with harmful VOCs during a remodeling project. This is just a preview...Read the rest... Read More →