We're going with these guys – Oceanside Glasstile for kitchen backsplash, specifically a "Creme Brulee" iridescent mosaic. 100% recycled glass, yada-yada, hecho en mexico. Part of our mini kitchen remodel. We also went with Dawn for our faucet and sink, I guess these guys are out of China.
We should have the kitchen done by end of March. The time issue with kitchen remodeling isn't in the actual construction, it's choosing stuff, ordering it, and waiting for everything to come in. Realistically, it's like 2 – 3 months just for planning and getting supplies. It's going to take all of two weeks max to put everything in (wouldn't be surprised if it only took one week).
I'd love an induction range w/ a convection oven and some sort of solution for a wok (doesn't exist), but instead of that, I hear the BlueStar range is the one to go with and we'll probably be getting one in the next couple of weeks.
Probably the 30" BlueStar Residential Nova Burner. It's supposed to produce some crazy heat, is well reviewed, and beat out Viking and some other "professional for the home" grade ranges.
We're doing a light kitchen remodel hopefully start end of January and end in February, early March:
range, cork floors, new sink/faucet, new counter tops, range hood, backsplash
We're going to go with Paperstone for the counter tops, a 100% recycled paper product. Cheap, looks good, and seems like a responsible company/product. Vetrazzo and Icestone do recycle glass counter tops that look great too. May yet go with one of those companies but might be too expensive.
ecohome improvement is this store in Berkeley that helps you have a nice eco-friendly (cancer-free) home. We've got some more interior upgrades to do namely new carpeting and a kitchen and bathroom upgrade. We're going to do the carpeting later this year but the kitchen and bath much later but within the next 5 years.
For the carpet we're thinking natural wool. They don't put any crap in this carpet, it's all natural.
For the kitchen, we're thinking cork floors. Cork floors are soft on your feet and makes for good warmth and sound insulation and resilient to mold and mildew. They come in lots of cool colors too. We're also thinking bamboo cabinets. Both cork and bamboo are considered environmentally sustainable.
We're also thinking recycled glass/concrete for our countertops. Check out Ice Stone. Pretty cool company.
The Go Solar California program looks pretty cool and starts January 1, 2007. It's an incentive program for people to get solar panels installed for their existing homes (but also for new homes and buildings).
California has made a bold decision… to place 3,000 megawatts of new, solar produced electricity systems on rooftops by 2017. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's goal is to put solar systems on a million California roofs.
Apparently only 0.3% of our energy comes from solar panels. It's nice to see this incentive program.
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We've noticed a lot of solar panels on homes while on vacation in Hawaii but also in our neighborhood. Most of the new complex/developments are being constructed in a "green way" with radiant heating, energy efficient windows, reclaimed wood from trail tracks in China or Brazil (that one is funny), bamboo or cork flooring, and solar panels which is great. Several houses nearby also have solar panels installed too.
It sounds like the cost of installing a solar panel for our small house will be in the $15,000 (w/ rebate?) to $24,000. Given that our monthly electricity bills are under $50, it's about a 25-40 year break even point. $5,000 – $10,000 total installation costs is what it would need to get down to in order for it to be in the ballpark of real consideration.
I've gotten a bit of a home owner's vocabulary now that I'll share in a bit. It's good to know this stuff but I kinda don't want to know sub-flooring, joists, dry wall, copper pipes, forced air, radiant heating, blah, blah, blah.
The next two items on tap is replacing our galvanized piping with copper piping. Galvanized pipes corrode and rust so we're replacing everything with copper pipes which doesn't do that I guess. We're also stacking our dryer on top of our washing machine which is exciting because it's giving us a ton more space. (I'm a tad domesticated.)
Anyway, I've been reading up on tankless water heaters and the benefits are:
unlimited hot water
space savings, since it's a small box
energy savings since it's on demand hot water versus maintaining a hot water store
The cons seem to be that sometimes you have to wait for the hot water to get going which is lame if all you want to do is wash your hands or hand wash dishes.
The brand that people like I guess is Takagi. It's interesting to read up on it anyway, apparently the system can be used for radiant floor heating too. Probably not going to get a tankless water heater but it's cool when I hear other people get it installed, it's becoming quite popular and already used widely in the UK.
There are other energy efficient things we're looking at like insulation (easy to do, just need to get done) and solar panels (but not for another 5+ years). We've got energy efficient windows, a front loading washing machine, and that's about it on the being energy efficient stuff.
