we went to the home show to get some ideas for future home remodel projects. i was glad that monkey went with me (usually i go alone) because he could get some ideas and start thinking about remodeling in a more concrete way.
speaking of concrete (nice segue, i know), one of the booths that really caught our eye was the concrete sinks and counters. a couple of guys started this business and the examples they had at the show were gorgeous. the sinks are very cool though i think a bit impractical because of the shallowness of the basin. we took their card and will definitely get an estimate when we are ready for countertops.
i was very drawn to the outdoor patio areas. the stacked brick retaining walls, the paver patio, the outdoor kitchens....ah to dream.
the most serious inquiry we had was for installing a geothermal heating/cooling system in our house. i think we are going to this fairly soon (summer maybe). its quite expensive, we haven't had our own estimate done but heard around $17K for the whole shebang. BUT, that money will be completely recouped within 5 years off gas and electric bills. one point the brochure made that really struck a chord with me was that as of right now if you calculate, you'll be saving between $100 to $200 a month (depends on your own utilities obviously) but that number is just going to keep going up because of the cost of gas and electricity rising. Who knows, in five years you could be saving double that.
so the way it works is that these systems of pipes are put into the ground (deep) where the constant temperature is roughly 54 degrees. it pumps a water solution through the pipes to absorb the heat in winter and deposit the heat in summer. this heats your house to 54 degrees so you only need your furnace to heat it up the last 15 or 20 degrees. in the summer, you don't even need your external AC anymore.
there are lots of other good reasons to do it too but ultimately savings is our big motivator.
i read the list of people around here who have it and i know two of the families, i'm going to call them and see what they think of it.
in other news...mazzy was sick again. her fever got up to 104.8 last night. when she gets sick, she really goes for it. she pretty much slept all weekend, poor girl. we had a nice routine of motrin and tylenol going. she had to miss a fun birthday party at gym. i'm just waiting for jude to get sick now...he's a pretty solid chunk of boy though, those germs would have to be supervillans to take him down.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I've poured two concrete countertops...one molded upside down and one molded in place for our outside pavilion. It was a fun project. Have you seen Fu Tung Cheng's (not sure on the first name) on concrete countertops? Some great examples and how-to stuff. Not expensive, but a fair amount of work
Post a Comment