Halloween is like real life

There was a “For Better or For Worse” cartoon strip in which Michael is all set for trick-or-treating with his friends. He’s a WWI flying ace. With helmet, goggles and, of course, the flowing white scarf. Even better, a cardboard biplane replica hangs from his shoulders, putting him in the cockpit. He is so cool!

He and his plane are almost out the door when Mom tells him to take his little sister Lizzie along, just until Mom can get out. Michael thinks it is a disaster that will cramp the boys’ style.

But at door after door the homeowners exclaim how nice it is to see the little one out with the bigger kids, and they dump extra candy in the group's bags. So when Mom arrives as promised to take Lizzie, Michael says, “Never mind, Mom—we’ll keep her!”

Michael has learned something new, and so can I. 

I can enjoy the creative masks and costumes of businesses and political campaigners looking for candy for themselves or their sponsors. And then, reward those who are looking out for Lizzie, whether she is our sister, our community or our beleaguered planet. 

Hardwood flooring leads to rugs which. . .

. . .which lead to rug pads or mats. Another choice to make, not that I should complain!  Mr. W has secretly saved up for nicer wool rugs and they are going to be great in the hall and living room.

The floor care information left by the installer calls for an open weave mat under rugs. I find vinyl with tiny air spaces, and I find a nice-looking flat mat made of PVC material. Hmm.

I also found an "Eco Hold Non Slip" rug pad online. Says it is made from plant oils. So I've called my floor guy and will let you know what he says.

70-year old dining chairs

It hadn't sunk in how old this dining set was when I bought it. They were marked 1942, still with the label of the manufacturer, Showers Brothers. One looked like a throw-away, braced as it had been with plywood. The rest seemed sturdy, that's all I went by. That, and that the label underneath indicated "mhg" for mahogany, and we were enamoured with the idea of expanding our "Duncan Pyfe style" (we have lugged around a drop leaf table for 30 years) and we have mahogany (we thought) china hutches.

I didn't know whether it was realistic to refinish them, or anything about the process. Once I had made the trip a hundred miles to look at the set, I pressed on and bought it. Not good logic, I know, but the price came down quite low as I examined each item closely, and before I knew it, a friend and I were placing and padding, bracing, strapping and bungeeing for the trip back home.

I went to a local furniture guy who fixed the table's pedestal leg. So far so good. But he wasn't a specialist at refinishing and I began to think there was more to this than getting a bottle of stripper and cans of stain and varnish. (I was right about that.)

The chairs came out very well--pretty color and finish to match the table, which my photo doesn't show. Also "well" in the sense of healed--they are almost new in their sturdiness and first-rate finish. What the photo really shows is the construction underneath the seat. According to Kelly at the shop, that cross-piece business is the main key to the chairs' longevity. They are relatively lightweight (some of the high-priced new chairs are heavy, not congruent with gracious living) and Kelly has seen almost new chairs in to his shop because they came apart, even at the $300+ price level.

I found the right shop. Kelly knew to glue the de-lamination I hadn't even seen, then strip (by hand, no dipping), then glue again and patch a couple of places, then sand, stain with a special stain you and I don't find. Then, because the chairs are mostly maple and very little mahogany, some "toning" to even out the color, and finally the varnish. Joyce, did I do right?  I didn't buy new. $1,000 in refinishing went into the local economy, including the sixth chair that wasn't a throw-away after all. 

Magogany?  Kelly said it's too brittle--that's why veneers and small bits are used, but maple for the main frame.

Dining set: buy new or refinish a used set?

It's been a "Be careful what you wish for" summer, with one thing leading to another. The desire to pull out the upstairs carpeting in favor of a wood floor kept me busy for two months. No, I'd say three. And we didn't even install the floor ourselves. There was packing and moving out, at least to the garage and downstairs. And then painting. And then the question, "Do we really want to put all this stuff back like it was?" That question generated weeks of work. And back and shoulder pain. Kick me if I ever propose to install pull-out shelves in an existing cabinet again. This was for music storage, and it's nice, but the manufacturer wasn't kidding when they rated the alternate installation on exact-sized uprights as "challenging."

How we arrived at swapping out our dining table and chairs, who can remember? Oh, yes. The rolling office chair that was more comfortable than the hard dining chairs now is a problem--non-rubber wheels that likely would dent and groove our new floor. Skipping the details, let's just report that I drove our pickup to Renton for a Craigslist 1942 table and chairs in the Duncan Phyfe style.

When I got there it was clear the chairs would need refinishing, the table a repair, and were they really the mahogany we had set our caps for?

What we didn't know about furniture! However, the instinct to stay with "old" seem to be turning out well, if our repair and refinish expert is right.

So unlike the patio set, I didn't buy new from a factory far away, and instead boosted the local economy (the refinisher's business). We'll know in a couple of weeks how this calculus turns out.

Energy audit today

I felt like a corpuscle gliding throughout a hospital patient watching the doctor at work. The house was the patient. Every fan had a tube dropping down from the small gap under the cover. The cold air return was sealed off, half with green tape and the other half by the "doctor" who clapped on a cap, it's hose running to some digital measuring device.

That was one small part of nearly five hours of an energy audit. Darn it, I forgot to get a picture to post. But next week I'll sit down for the consultation and learn what can be done to make the house more energy efficient and comfy. Meanwhile I'll follow the advice not to use the fan in the laundry room--my technician Levi was able to induce a backdraft, which could be dangerous. It seems it can really matter what water heater you choose and how it is chimneyed. We (and the plumber) apparently didn't choose real well, given the furnace we have, the gas dryer nearby, and the vertical climb of the chimney to the roof.

I'm happy I did this audit.

Deal or no deal?

Isn’t it funny how we characterize commercial offers? Depends on whether we like or approve of the seller or not. A great idea is an incentive, like our local private electrical utility’s current offer. Called Green Power, they’ll put 100% of what we pay for our electricity into renewable sources—either buying the power or investing. We then pay a surcharge of 10%. Agreed, that’s not a savings for us the homeowners. But that’s not the deal. The current deal is they are giving out a popular local coupon book, “Where the Locals Go.” Right away I save the cost of the book and $10 off my favorite groceries. And this is just for our lights and fridge, not for heating and cooking, so 10% isn’t going to be a big sacrifice to be able to do good. I like this offer.

On the other hand, Chase Bank wants to buy new deposits, including ours, and this offer I don't call an incentive but a lure. A lure into a game that forgets about the recent history of big banking. They are offering a $200 gift card (with a few strings attached) for a new account.

Now, this is one month after I went in to one of their branches with my three-inch deep pile of their direct mail pitches and asked them to take us off their mailing list. They seem very confident that money talks. It does, but no deal. What may benefit me a little today can bloat Chase and other big guys. Then when they fall on us, it's crushing. I am not calling it cynical or intentional how scandals develop. I like business. But it just seems clear that in letting such "deals" concentrate financial power, stuff happens. Often when there's a Goliath, there's no David around. I'll stick with my credit union, which demonstrates commitment to the community and treats me well.

Now in the news is the falling price for natural gas. Credited is the “success” of fracking. So, do I just shut up and take my part of the savings?

Reaching 100 and time for tea

Done! See if I take on a rash challenge again soon. Last 15 makes 100:

86. Sign up for Green Power. OK, we did this awhile ago, before I gave myself this 100 action challenge. But let’s up our contribution. It’s really wonderful how alt energy projects are getting funded. And that’s green jobs as well as greener energy.

87. Organic cotton towels at the local chain store, with vegetable dyes, a new product line for Fred Meyer. I didn’t need more towels, but I bought two anyway. Just another vote in favor. And I like them a lot—nubby and the right thickness so they dry well.

88. Tweaking oven use. It's been suggested to cook more than one thing at a time. Like a whole pumpkin along with baked potatoes, recently. A friend has frozen her excess baked potatoes. They defrosted a bit soggy when I did it, but worked for hashed browns. So the next ones I roasted, quartered, and kept them in the fridge for reheating. Using glass pans for a lower oven setting can save energy because they cook in the same amount of time. And I’ve successfully turned off the oven 10 minutes early and finished baking, but this feels fussy to me. When I'm done, I just open the oven and let it raise my 65 degree kitchen a notch.

89. Outlet sealer pads. Little white pads for under the perimeter walls outlet covers, fitting around the outlets perfectly. Done.

90. I got to borrow a thermal sensor camera, to look for cold air leaks in the house. It seems to have pinpoint accuracy and fun to use. Still, I think interpreting its findings may be a job for a pro, who can also do the work much more easily than we can.

91. Get an electric or battery-powered mower for the remaining lawn. That was in the Watershed pledge I took on some time ago. I thought I’d make the need for it moot and just weed-whack what’s left, but Mr. W bought an electric mower this year. Said it can mulch leaves. We’ll see. Great if it does, because Leaves R Us. So far, a little tricky to get the timing right for leaves to come down without also a lot of rain.

92. Another item pledged was to use re-refined motor oil in my car. I think that is happening. Will check next time I have the oil changed.

93. Reading by a window rather than turning on a light. It’s just from habit that I set my reading on the interior side of our dining table. It’s nice to go to the window side and pull a chair back to the window.

94. Metal litter box scoop. I had a nice one for years till it broke. My pet food store only offers the plastic kind, so I asked about this. “We used to have the metal ones, but not anymore.” It would have been easy to sigh and go along with this trend. I almost did. But I said no thanks, and bought a metal slotted spoon at the Goodwill store.

The spoon is a bit too small and doesn’t have the nice square edges (Miss kitty likes the sides and corners.) So I’m open to improvement.

95. Kitchen garbage liner. Hmm. My town is banning plastic grocery bags next year. No problem for shopping. But for the pull-out garbage bag rack these bags are the perfect size. Now what? For starters I’ve used paper garbage bags I also had stashed—not as messy as I’d thought, since messy stuff is now mostly going to the Food+ Toter. But paper bags seem like just a transitional solution. Maybe be less trash overall we can get by with fewer, thinner, smaller bags.

96. Fair trade—coffee, chocolate, sugar. I don’t think I’ve listed that one yet.

97. Keeping the refrigerator full, for less air exchange when you open the door. Not hard with two tubs of homemade pickles taking up real estate.

98. Ask the city council to consider incentives for homeowners who maintain tree canopy. Did that this week. If they can do it somewhere in Texas, they can do it here. And how about cisterns or permeable pavement? Builders have griped for years that they are the only ones being asked to change. Retrofits for water-savings should be next. Grey water systems, now that I think of it. I forgot in my letter to urge legalizing grey water systems. I talked with a builder last evening at Green Drinks, and his firm is already up to speed on it and just waiting for the city to reverse its ban.

99. Waste less food. Composting food scraps is good, and I’ve been excited to take it up a notch recently (No. 74 on this list). However, here’s a sobering factoid from the University of Michigan report assessing the U.S. food system (report No. CSS00-04, page 38)

If a mere 5% of the 96 billion pounds of unspoiled discarded food were recovered, this would be enough food to feed 4 million Americans every day.

This has prompted me to give a close look at whether I’m throwing away food that I could eat. Like those greens that come with the beets—I can cook them to go with lunch if I have other vegetables for supper. Leftovers we’re pretty good with, but I’m having a close look anyway.

100. The romance of old appliances (not). I wonder about my use of time. Every time I get down on my hands and knees with a sharp tweezer to pluck out bits stopping up the dishwasher’s spray wand. What a rotten design that the arm can’t be taken apart for cleaning.

As for the oven, if I am baking or roasting, I have to go back every 20 minutes and, get this, turn on the stovetop burner which prompts the cooling oven to re-light. The Garland repair man charged $100 to tell me this association is purely coincidental and my oven is working well enough. But I know what I know. And recipes were taking an extra half hour before I instituted this work-around. I just try to get my baking done in an hour or so because the oven also coughs and sputters in the second hour.

Why keep old appliances going? Well, I admit that if I were flush with cash I’d replace my fridge, dishwasher, and stove. But meanwhile I appreciate knowing that I’m getting the most from the “embodied” energy in these appliances. It's surprising to learn how much energy goes into building new energy-efficient appliances. When you buy new you see the savings right away, but the planet doesn’t, not immediately. Fortunately, we don’t have to do calculus. I just let it keep me humble whenever I’m tempted to push for "the" green fix that involves buying something new. I guess that would include the new car I’ve wanted since the top of this 100 actions list. Hmm. I guess that’s right.