Whole Life Make-over

No matter the degree of our comfort level, the world has become an unsettled place. Riots and revolutions, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, tornados and economic collapses can be seen as the apocalyptic precursors predicted and parodied to culminate in 2012.

The housing market that has been blamed for much of the downturn of the last few years still struggles to come back and is forever radically changed. Sub-prime mortgages have resulted in a banking industry too focused on profits to take a risk on the common family just wanting to buy a home. Stuck with an inventory, developers are hesitant to bulldoze fields into suburbs, making renovations to existing homes the most viable option for bettering our quality of life.

In the good times, our culture tends to be mobile and impulsive. As an expression of success, the standard has been a bigger home in a better neighborhood easily accomplished by a quick move across town. Proceeds from the sale of one put the money down on another and payments remained largely the same. Assumptions that values would continue to rise made playing as easy as the game of checkers.

Sub-prime mortgages changed all that and it can no longer be the expectation that anyone who works hard enough can earn their own home. Real estate is accumulated by fewer and fewer people who rent it out to the many. Ownership is less a right than a pride and privilege.

Staying put and renovating to meet expanding needs for many reasons is a wonderful way to spend a lifetime. Deep roots, relationships with neighbors and the creation of traditions are just a few obvious reasons. Nothing better than a well-established home life can assuage the discomfort of global uncertainty.

On the local level, the decision to stay put and improve the home can be a terrifying prospect to those of us raised in a lifestyle that used houses as commodities so easily bought, sold and left behind. Often brand new, we have not stayed long enough to enjoy the shade of the trees we planted, nor shared the celebrations and sorrows from births to graduations to weddings of our neighbors' children who are friends with our own.

Renovations are dusty, inconvenient and hugely stressful, lasting one or many months. The contractor and workers invade the castle, often becoming part of the family in that time, sometimes the enemy. He might turn the corner and catch you in your underwear or arrive at three AM to tighten the tarp in a rainstorm. Homework still has to be done; holidays arrive; visitors want to tour and advise.

Marriages are seriously tested living through remodels, often stripping and re-painting the relationship in unexpected colors for better or worse. At the design stage, one man's recreation room bar is the woman's whirlpool spa. The screaming saws of construction might sound like the pitter-pattering little feet to the other. Constant decisions as small as round or lever door handles create relentless strain when all he really wants to think about is a round of golf.

Despite it all, the process of transformation, with proper planning, care and room for breaks, can be a time of great joy, anticipation and satisfaction. Lives are changed by taking the wall out that has separated the kitchen from family. The extra bedroom can save a marriage or unite sisters who could not share the same space. Staying in the same school system avoids the traumatic disruption of having to make all new friends all over again.

In thirty years as a contractor, my best of many moments is easily identified in the eighth month of a year long project that doubled the size of the house and touched every room existing, centered upon a massive restructuring of the kitchen. With a two year old, she had been washing dishes in the bathtub, the heat was off for the day in February in Vermont. The entire first floor of furniture was crammed into one room with a tiny path to the computer where she huddled in a down jacket.

"I love it!" she exclaimed, mist on her breath.

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How to Grow Your Own Home

Three and a half years ago, in a commitment to honor my passion for writing as well as run a construction business, I started this blog as a tool to market. Rumors surged on the internet that thousands of clicks could generate income as well as clients. It helped that some basic education about the working reality of the industry (kitchens are not renovated in a week!) could be useful. Simple logic, curiosity and desire justified the experiment.

Changes in my personal life, the passion for writing from my heart and the closure of my construction business all combined to cement my focus on my other site, leaving this one long dormant. The ads were not generating the revenue anyway and the terms "SEO" and "back-links" were not yet common, so the effort was easy to lay aside.

More importantly, the transition to a life with pen instead of hammer was developing at a rapid pace. Fortunate to still have all my fingers and with rotator cuffs strained but functioning, I felt lucky. Twenty years earlier I had promised myself to not be carrying plywood at this age, but when it looked like I might continue accepting contracts, one day my scaffold suddenly collapsed, the choice no longer mine, landing me on the sofa to sit still until I reached the inevitable conclusion that I should not be working with my hands any more.

Once again, the need of some quick dollars in exchange for so many hours charged enticed me. Intuition was strong that morning to finish the essay I was writing, but integrity compelled me to go to the site and finish the work. In a safety harness earlier on the roof, after lunch, work at gutter height off of ladders with a plank in between seemed another easy dance I had been stepping for thirty years.

I always imagined, were I to fall, there would be time to jump away and go limp, roll to cushion the blow, but this was all much too quick. As the ladder slipped out, I immediately blacked out, an unconscious act of protection so intense I remember actually thinking I had died before landing hard on the pavement, straddling the extended prong of the ladder jack.

The chipped bone in my wrist was the over-riding pain, but ultimately nothing in my life compared to the ruptured urethra that forced me to live nearly two years with a catheter (a tube out of my belly into a plastic bag strapped to my leg) before it could be properly repaired. Added to the insult was the injury that by divorce my health insurance had terminated just a few days earlier, compounding the problems.

The details are well-documented at "Zen & the Art of the Midlife Crisis" and a forth-coming book tentatively entitled "The Peequel", while the most important fact is that after surgery this past June, I am well-healed and emotionally fit to take up my pen again (as well as being once again insured and more careful about the scaffolds upon which I choose to dance). Determined to earn my keep with more words than nails, but loaded with knowledge and experience of the construction business, logic dictates again that the two worlds should blend.

Lately, my hands have gotten dirty with several projects for myself and others. In breaking out the tools and balanced gingerly on a ladder, pondering the low cost and high convenience of self-publishing, essays constructed here can easily be produced into ebooks. By a few simple key strokes, they can be readily available to the transformed demographics of this new generation of home owners who are comfortable with computers and less skilled with their own hands.

By economic necessity and less abundant resources, the expansive developments of new houses are dwindling and renovations of the huge inventory of existing homes become the attainable standard. Transformations of smaller capes into beautiful colonials are more easily financed than skipping about from neighborhood to neighborhood.


The need for education is profound and the internet has become the resource from which all else flows. People are more empowered than ever to make their own choices, but need impartial guidance to learn the way. In seeking a contractor or before taking a sledge hammer to their own walls, it will help to find information about the processes physical and emotional they may have to endure. With this site and ebooks to follow, I can weave some experience into a supply that can feed the demand.

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Heating Basics 104

Hot Water Heat

More often than not, my experience points to hot water base board being the choice of heat most commonly made in homes, compared to hot air, wood stoves, and fireplaces.


The warmth is delivered by moving the heated water through a network of pipes around the house, usually divided into separate zones on each floor. Radiating outwards from the water into the air in each room, the heat is accelerated and amplified by fins in the baseboard or reflectors in the floor. It is a passive, unobtrusive friend.

In older houses, this system is identified by the ornate bulky cast-iron boilers in every room. Homes less than 50 years old have sections of bulky baseboards along the wall, noticeable only as limiting for the placement of furniture.
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In the basement, the efficient system sits contained in a small box (size of a filing cabinet) with a well-organized mane of pipes and valves. Often now, the hot water tank for dishes and showers serves as auxiliary to hold water heated by the boiler, no longer a heater by itself.

This system is the most expensive to install and cheapest to maintain, quietly (well, older versions provide the comforting gurgle and knocks moving through) providing an even, warm heat without another thought. Anyone who just wants to go about their day should live with hot water heat.

Baseboards, like grilles of a forced air system, are usually set under windows to offer the strongest defense against the largest loss. A large room requires longer runs, limiting some locations for a sofa or bed. The pipes can remain effective built into a shelf or cabinet unit.

Although the most expensive installation, most people would prefer to run radiant in the floor, especially in a solid slab concrete floor. This requires a web of pipes weaving to cover every square foot of the floor for maximum warmth and effect. The mass becomes warm enough to live in bare feet while winter rages outside, heating from your toes upwards.

Beyond cost, there is no downside to hot water heat. Solid and persistent, this is a heat source that does all the work with little complaint beyond the creaking of expanding pipes. There are no pauses in the day to feel cold or hot; simply set the thermostat and live.

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Confessions of a Sub-Primer

I am a contributor to the sub-prime fiasco.

So much blame for the current economic crisis is placed on the shoulders of the mortgages made to people with less than stellar credit desperate to buy homes they could not afford. The rising rate of defaults on these so-called predator loans, it is explained, has shaken confidence around the world, and the entire economic system is on the verge of collapse.

This bail-out package has been rushed so quickly—desperately—to vote, one wonders if taking just a little more time might uncover better solutions. If, in fact, failed mortgages are at the root, why are we not looking at supporting those mortgages instead of bailing out the “evil” men who made them? This answer seems just as poor a decision as the one that made me sign that mortgage in the first place.

In the super-charged economy of pre 911, when contractors had all the work they wanted and not enough labor to get it done, I rushed along, putting unqualified people in place, making mistakes that tumbled my company into serious debt. Unwilling to face bankruptcy, over-confident that money alone would cure the shortfall, equity in my home seemed the best way to rescue my company, the men, and our families we were feeding.

My own credit had been destroyed in the effort to pay bills late instead of borrowing. Taking advantage of “No doc” loans available, we used my wife’s name, supported by my unproven income.

The interest rate was an affordable 6.5% for 3 years. The processor agreed enthusiastically that I could rebuild my credit and refinance by then, and rates were holding steady anyway, unlikely to rise. I even checked the index rate that would trigger an adjustment and was again re-assured.

So with hope and optimism in ourselves and our commitment to work hard, and in desperation to bail out a business that could turn profitable on the very next project, we met with the courier, and my wife signed the papers. What I did not see in the pages of fine, fine print--rushed through and signed in under 20 minutes—was that the link had enough points over the index to guarantee adjustment upwards.

It angers me to hear commentators speak with scorn of the people who made such decisions. We, The People, who are leading desperate lives to pay these mortgages of 12% are just as much “Main Street” as the citizen asked to pay for the bailout. In fact, we have to pay the mortgage and our taxes.

I chose this option when it was a rate I could afford, but as payments have risen more than $1,000 a month—money that goes entirely to the profits of the lender--my back has been slowly, painfully broken.

The demise of my business, the dissolution of my marriage, the search for a new career cannot be blamed on the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. The desperation to solve financial problems was an imposing factor. I am fortunate to be able to sell my house and get out from under this pain. I know there are others in neighborhoods who have lost all value and are forced to just walk away.

Perhaps there could be a solution that simply adjusts these mortgages back to the original affordable rates, and supports those unable to pay even that. People remain in their homes (perhaps other marriages can be saved), lenders see fair and modest returns, and confidence is restored.

Very simple, yes. But like a frightened child, I am listening carefully to the arguments and reassurances of our President and Congressionals sitting around the kitchen table late into the night. They want to leverage the perceived equity in our government’s home and it sounds eerily familiar.

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Heating Basics 103

Air Ducts & furnaces

If you know the feeling of damp shivering chilled to the bone cold, and you want to come into a house and be embraced like a mother wrapping a sick child in a blanket, then forced –air heat is the one to choose. Turn up the thermostat, stand on the grate and the warmth surrounds your chill and smothers it.

Forced air systems are easily recognized in a basement as the network of silvery trunks and pipes converging on a large metal box. The older the unit, the larger the box and the more places to duck underneath. In the rooms upstairs, the system is identified by the simple or decorative grilles in the floor, usually under windows. Typically the grills do not interfere with furniture placement and are a great delight for kids to stand over in bathrobes.

This system, aptly named, makes the cold air hot and pushes it through a duct system, entering each room through the grilles in the floor. Another set of grates, usually in central common areas, returns the cooled air back to the furnace to be heated again. This is an on-demand system: a call for heat delivers immediate satisfaction with a rush of warm air no one could deny. The heat is a comforting embrace, a luxury of warmth.

But in any house, especially a drafty one, the heat soon dissipates. The cold slowly creeps back in. A whirr of motor and a fluff or breeze soon delivers more heat. The body constantly readjusts.

All that movement of air also stirs up and redistributes the dust we wish was not actually there. This could certainly be a problem for allergy sufferers, but additional filters installed within the system provide a strong argument that this system actually cleans the house while heating. As long as they are maintained regularly, a series of filters in the ductwork may actually catch and control a healthy portion of the dust naturally floating around.

Air movement also accentuates the amount of moisture drawn out naturally in the process of heating air. Felt mostly in our dried out nostrils, this is often experienced by an increase of bloody noses. Here too, a humidifier can be added to the system to replace moisture lost in the changes of temperature blown through the house. Humidifiers in various strengths being necessary to balance any form of winter heat, this system may actually hold the advantage, being directly applied internally and requiring no oversight.

While these drawbacks make people avoid furnaces, each problem has a solution that actually improves it overall. Forced air is less expensive to install (about $6,000) and costs about the same to run relative to natural gas, LP, or oil. No system satisfies our need for heat more quickly and the fluctuations may be controlled by well-placed thermostats. The vicious claws of winter are well-tamed with a forced-air system.

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Heating Basics 102

Hearth & Home

Heating your own home is all about comfort. The goal is to efficiently create warmth, with minimum effort and cost, to enable easily living the rest of your life (obtaining food in all forms) while winter rages outside.


Fireplaces satisfy that basic urge to bring the flame into the home, creating the direct warmth on the face and the extended, rubbing hands around a campfire feel. The mantle provides a place for stockings with care, and a visual focus for the artwork of the Home. During a gathering of friends, the ambient flame welcomes guests to feel safe.

While it satisfies a basic psychological urge, unfortunately, in addition to being dangerous when not-maintained properly, the fireplace is not able to offer much heat into the room, spitefully pushing it up the chimney instead. Even worse, it sucks already conditioned air from every nook and cranny throughout the house, causing drafts and discomfort.

Woodstoves are a great compromise to the nearly-hands-on afficianados, providing much of the ambiance of an open flame, but turbo-charged to provide serious heat. No other source can match the saturating blanket of warmth, the embracing feel of entering a room toasty and sizzling.

The word “cozy” is perhaps best defined by an evening heated by a woodstove. As darkness descends and winter cold creeps in, the appliance becomes the center of life. The warmer you want to be, the closer you get. Children play on the floor in front of it. Animals sleep practically under it. Mittens dry on hooks behind it. The sizzle and crackle is as soothing as classical music.

Cheaper to install ($2-3000 plus labor), and one third the cost to run, wood heat is a great alternative for the energy conscious, but requires a year round commitment not suitable for the feint-at-heart. No matter how comfy the sound, heat by woodstove takes constant attention, and armfuls of work.

The adage is absolutely correct that woodstoves heat you twice: once when you burn, and once collecting the wood. As winter ends, the real work begins to secure and cure enough cords (typically 3-5 at $150 each) by late Fall. The stack must remain dry and close enough to be easily hauled inside. The chips of bark and dust fall where they may, littering the pathway, and just when you are really settled down and comfortable, it demands another log.

Efficient designs allow for stoves to burn all night, but like feeding a pet, there is a problem for those who spend the Holidays away. Additionally, the amount of heat enjoyed is directly proportional to the proximity to the stove, so the far reaches of a home tend to remain chilly and comparatively uncomfortable.

While a great solution for someone concerned with economics and a greener lifestyle, in cold climates the drawback of a woodstove is that it requires the support of another system to ensure that pipes are never frozen. Discussion of these will follow in future entries.

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Heating Basics 101

3 Ways to Heat Your Home

The high cost of heat and the number of calls for help with weatherization invites a few basic lessons on the subject of creating efficient comfort in colder climates.


This week, a friend called complaining of cold feet. With rolls of fiberglass insulation laying in the basement since purchasing the house, it was only logical for her to finally take the time to hang it between the hand-hewn (this means really old and imperfect) joists under the floors separating the living spaces from the cold basement.

In actuality, the warmth generated by finally taking this action would have only made her feet colder come winter. Like our bodies, a house is a complicated system, and a chill is not always cured by putting on a sweater.

Comfort in the home is all about the condition of the air and surfaces. In hot climates, the solution is named air-conditioning for a reason. Against the cold, heaters are the appropriate solution.

How best to heat and move the air has been under discussion since people first shivered. The invention of fire has not only led to filet mignon, but created sophisticated ways to ensure comfort in the home.

The fire itself has remained a choice for those who love the psychological warmth of hands close to the heat. From the primitive lodges with a hole at the top to Rumford fireplaces channeling hot air through the chimney, an open flame within the house has provided warmth throughout the ages.

But also danger.


Unfortunately, with the benefits has come the pain of too many lives destroyed from fire burning out of control. A multitude of heaters have been designed to contain the fire safely and distribute the warmth efficiently. In my experience, there are three basic methods: the woodstove containing the raging fire; the furnace heating and distributing the air; and the boiler heating and distributing water which radiates heat outward to condition the air in each room.

How each of these works and how to hold their heat in your home can be the topics for many entries to come as the leaves change and temperatures drop, heading towards a long, cold winter.

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