If you live in a house older than 1978, there’s a chance it contains paint with lead in it. Now don’t freak out. Even though lead when ingested or inhaled can cause brain damage, the paint itself is not dangerous unless it’s chipping off or is turned into dust by sanding and cutting. In a…
Michelle Kolb of Nantucket, Mass., won Grand Prize in the DIY category of American Clay’s Second Annual Makeover Contest. See her room before and after below: After: Before: The judges for the competition included Mary Cordaro, president of Mary Cordaro Inc. a certified Bau-Biologist; Eric Corey Freed, LEED AP, Hon. FIGP, author, green building expert…
Somehow I missed this whole spectacle last year when Mohawk lined Ricko the rhino’s pen at the Birmingham Zoo with SmartStrand carpet and let him do his thing for a few weeks. Chip Wade, the hunky carpenter from HGTV’s Designed to Sell and Curb Appeal, hosted the event. Apparently there was a 24-hour webcam directed toward…
I dunno about this. Maybe I spend too much time on the road. Or maybe I’ve gotten too many tickets. Or been cursed at by too many irate drivers. Whatever the reason, these chairs made from recycled street signs don’t give me any good juju. At all. See the whole story here On the other…
If you can’t sell your parent’s former home, why not turn it into a showcase for green remodeling? That’s exactly what Jay DeChesere and his wife did with a ranch style home in Wilmington, N.C. that his parents moved out of and into an assisted living facility. You could say the collapse of the housing…
One day, when I wasn’t looking, my once-charming front porch went from shabby chic to just plain disgusting. I waited for the crew from HGTV’s Curb Appeal to show up. When they didn’t come, I decided to take on the job. Here’s the porch I started with: As you can see, I had many challenges:…
A soon-to-be-released light bulb developed by General Electric uses cutting-edge technology to last — get this — 17 years! Let’s put it into perspective. Imagine you have a baby, and you install the soon-to-be-available Energy Smart LED (light-emitting diode) bulb in the baby’s room. That baby will grow up and graduate from high school before that light bulb burns out…
Q: What’s even better than blocking stains with KILZ primer-sealer? A: Doing so without poisoning yourself. I’ve been a fan of KILZ stain-blocking primer for years. It’s one of those rare products that lives up to its hype. And now it come in a formulation with no volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. That word “organic”…
The cabinets in this South Dakota home were milled from a felled black walnut tree. If you’ve ever had to cut down a tree around your house, you know how sad that can be. On one hand, the tree might cause you trouble. It might be dying and in danger of falling. It might shed…
Own an older home? Beginning April 22, only contractors who have been trained in safe handling of lead-contaminated paint dust can legally work on your home. And that’s a good thing for you. If you’ve been keeping up with contractor-type news, you know that contractors are not happy at all with a soon-to-be enforced EPA…