Recommended Reading:
Green Metropolis
by David Owen.
He says cities are the best bet for the environment.

Energy Efficient Light Bulbs -- Are they Worth It?

Ron and I keep a fairly green house. We recycle, we conserve water in our toilets (waiting to flush if we do number-one), and we use eco-friendly household cleansers. So it made sense for us to buy energy-efficient light bulbs or CFLs, compact flourescent lights.

They cost a lot more than conventional light bulbs, but they're supposed to last at least three times as long. Also they consume only about 25% as much energy. This sounded great to us, so we went out and bought a bunch of them. We thought that we could live with the less than eye-friendly light they put off. But then we noticed that many of these light bulbs weren't lasting the years they're supposed to last.

And then, when it came time to dispose of the bulbs, we discovered that they contain mercury and have to be handled in a special way. Mercury? Is that the best we can do?

At that point, we began to seriously re-evaluate the use of the highly-touted CFLs. The more we thought about it, the more it seemed like a scam. Well, maybe not a scam but something that the light bulb manufacturerers were pushing really hard before they had perfected their product. I just can't believe we're putting these things in our houses when they've got mercury in them. Where is all that toxic waste going to go when we dispose of millions and millions of these bulbs?

If you factor in the disposal of these lights with their initial cost, are we really saving resources? On top of that, these lights are made to be turned on and kept on. That's when they are most efficient. But isn't that wasting energy too? Did you know that the cost of lighting your house is only about 8% of your total electric bill? So how much are we really saving?

If you use CFLs, you should install them only where you use a light that is on a good amount of time, like in the kitchen. Also, CFLs can't be used with a dimmer switch. Also, you shouldn't touch the glass part with your fingers. Ron tells me you shouldn't touch any light bulb glass with your fingers because teh oil on your fingers will shorten the life of the bulb.

You might have heard that the old incadescent light, which has been with us for over 100 years, is being phased out. A federal law, passed in 2007 made this a reality. It's called the Energy Independence and Security Act . It says that, by 2014, the current kind of incadescent light bulb has to be 30% more energy efficient than it is right now. This doesn't necessarily mean the end of the incadescent bulb but it could be. I bet many people will be hording the good old reliable incadescent bulb in the next couple of years.

Ron and I want to do our part to help make this a cleaner world, but as far as we can see, the CFLs are a bad deal. Too expensive, too limited, and too toxic. We're going back to the old bulbs.

An Artful Coat Rack Made from Antique Salvage

We got really tired of our hall-tree coat rack because it was overburdened and in the way. I decided the coat tree had to go, but, as its replacement, I did't want just coat hangers drilled into the wall.

So I suggested we get a really cool piece of wood, attach it to the wall in the hallway, and screw vintage coat hooks into it. Here's what it looks like. Click on the photo to see more.

Used & Old Tools Are a Great Bargain

Autumn is the season of flea markets and yard sales. It's an especially good time to pick up old tools at bargain prices -- as people are cleaning out their basements and garages. Some homeowners buy a lot of new tools with the best of intentions but then never use those tools, and so they end up selling them off at a yard sale, where everything goes cheap.

I'm really keen on picking up high-end paint brushes (we go through a lot of paint brushes). You can buy them for pennies on the dollar. Ron neally likes scraping tools for paint stripping and spatulas for plastering. Recently he picked up a hand sledge and a masonry hammer, each for just $5. The photo below shows you the haul we brought home from last week's flea market. All of those tools -- which included a never-used caulk gun and some vintage (circa 1950) paint scrapers -- for $15. You can't beat it!

Vintage Hardware Dresses Up Tired Cabinets

Collect sets of vintage pulls and latches to revamp the look of your kitchen cabinets. You can match these to new vintage-style knobs to complete the look

I decided that the chrome pulls, knobs, and latches I had put on our kitchen cabinets weren't quite right for the atmosphere we were going for -- they were a little too plain and shiny. So I did some hunting and found a vintage cast iron bin pull that I could get fairly reasonably at online auctions. It had to be a style that was common in the 19th century because then I could find a lot of them.


I combined these pulls with new knobs that looked like cast iron. Victorian metal knobs are very hard to find becasue the Victorian didn't make many. They preferred wood. So, my new knobs with my old bin pulls

For the upper cabinets I chose an Eastlake style latch to replace the chrome latches. Although these aren't exactly a match for the bin pulls, their ornate design puts them in the same aestehtic neighborhood. So that completed our three sets of hardware: bin pulls, knobs, and latches. Click on the latch photo to see the one it replaced.

I painted the screw heads black to match the cast iron. Together they gave the kitchen a homier, old-time feel. We really like the new old look.

Recommended Reading:
Wiltold Rybczynski
Home: a Short History
of an Idea

Buy Ron's book,
KISS ME, STRANGER
an illustrated novel
at Amazon now!