On September 5, 1882, some 10,000 workers assembled in New York City to participate in America's first Labor Day parade. Originally, it was viewed by many not only as a means to celebrate their accomplishments, but also as a day to air their grievances, discuss strategies for securing not only better but also safer working conditions for everyone. Fast forward, a hundred plus years and many simply see Labor Day as the end of summer and the start of football seaso

Hurricane Season - 5 Steps to being prepared

Today is the start of Hurricane Season that has been predicted to be busier than usual. Based on the ocean temperatures and the changing weather conditions, they might just be right this year. With that in mind, below is our 5 steps to being prepared. If you happen to own pets, we added an additional bonus step just for them. While this list is geared for those faced with hurricane evacuations, this is a good list for anyone that may be in areas that maybe affected by ea

September and Early Fall Maintenance Checklist

Summer is slowly winding down; the dog days of August are quickly going to fade into a distant memory as the leaves start changing. The kids are back in school, which gives you some time to make sure that your home is ready for the winter. Why worry about it, fall doesn't officially start until the 22nd right? Well starting next month, you are probably going to end up wanting to use your heater for the first time this season when the Average Minimum Temperature at night

There’s no such thing as a free lunch – Roofing

Knock, knock – Hello? Hi, I’m Mike & we were just looking at your neighbors’ roof and thought we spotted some damage to yours, would you mind if we performed a free roof inspection? It will only take a few minutes, you see we do lots of insurance repair jobs and most of the time we can get you a completely new roof and it won’t even cost you a cent. Really, why that sounds great. (Man, this must be my lucky day)… What’s even better is we have contrac

Renovations & Insurance - What is covered & what isn't

The idea that an article like this was needed was made abundantly clear to me on a recent project I completed. This project required us to completely remove and reframe an existing roof, while leaving the existing walls & floors untouched. During the consultation phase of this project, we covered all the normal items like material choices, options, budget, contractors insurance, the necessity of them reviewing their insurance policy, etc... They were quite shocked on

25 Conservation Tips & Tricks

In our last article, “Energy Efficiency vs. Conservation – what is the real issue?” we covered plenty of the issues that involve your actual house while it is being worked on. While we have also had several articles on making your house more energy efficient, money saving tips & tricks, air sealing, green cleaning, and many others, we have not had an article on just conservation. In order to rectify that, and seeing everyone likes top ten articles, etc... we wo

Energy Efficiency vs. Conservation – what is the real issue?

I have to admit, I was originally confused by some of the attitudes or opinions given about those in the Energy Efficiency fields. I grant you that there are quite a few individuals in the green community that are five cans shy of a six pack, but the following quotes come from some of the “respected” experts. One of my favorite quotes is, “What an awesome presentation! I called Energy Efficiency fanatics "the Sith Lords of Green building"!” Another one is, “T

Designing your Dream Kitchen – One common mistake you can easily avoid

Wow, what in the world is that? Well, before we get to that, I would like to first thank Bill Conley from Northwest Kitchen & Bath in Tacoma Washington for allowing us to repost these pictures. These are pictures he took at a homeowner’s house that wanted a new kitchen. She had apparently spent a lot of time reading articles on kitchen design and she followed one of the best pieces of advice we can give anyone – create a mock up. I have to admit, I am impressed b

Tag Archives: Weatherization

Air Sealing: Materials & Methods for sealing common leaks (Part 2)

By Sean | Published: February 19, 2010

In our prior articles on Air Sealing, we covered how to find the leaks inside your house, along with what tools and basic materials required to air seal your house. In this second part of this article, we will be dealing with tips & tricks on how to seal up the air leaks inside your
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Air Sealing: Materials & Methods for sealing common leaks (Part 1)

By Sean | Published: February 18, 2010

In our prior article on Air Sealing, we covered the benefits, the concerns, and how to find the leaks inside your house. In this first part of this article, we will mainly be dealing with the tools, materials and methods required to air seal your house. In the second part of this article, we will
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Air Sealing: Benefits, Concerns, & How-To Find the Leaks

By Sean | Published: February 10, 2010

Air can easily leak in and out of a home through cracks, joints between different materials, where holes have been drilled to allow pipes and wire to enter the structure, and many other openings. Some of the popular areas for air leakage is around doors, windows, attic access panels, recessed ceiling lights, electrical outlets, switch
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Posted in Maintaining Your Investment | Also tagged Air Sealing & Insulation | 12 Comments

Weatherization Program: Getting the most bang for your buck – Traditional House

By Sean | Published: February 8, 2010

In our prior articles, we covered the Weatherization Assistance Program & delved into DOE’s priority list for weatherizing mobile homes. We started with the mobile homes because they generally are some of the biggest energy hogs out there. In this article, we are going to look at DOE’s priority list for single-family homes. #1 –
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Posted in Goverment Programs | Tagged Weatherization | 3 Comments

Weatherization Program: Getting the most bang for your buck – Mobile Homes

By Sean | Published: February 7, 2010

As we mentioned in the prior article – many of the southern states endured some of the coldest weather, we have seen in some 20 odd years and with it some of the highest utility bills. While it is a little too late now to lower January’s bill, one call still take care of the
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Posted in Goverment Programs | Tagged Weatherization | 10 Comments

Weatherization Program: A primer on the Weatherization Assistance Program

By Sean | Published: February 5, 2010

In Alabama and many of the other southern states, January brought with it some of the coldest weather in some 20 odd years. With the cold weather, many of us also got an additional nasty shock when we opened up our electric &/or gas bills. For those that had not kept up with the maintenance
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Posted in Goverment Programs | Also tagged FAQ's | 7 Comments

Labor Day Safety