Lighting Your House for a Happy Planet and a Healthy Home
While energy-efficient lighting is a simple and effective alternative for your home and your carbon footprint, it is important to consider the cheapest and most renewable source of healthy light, the sun. The challenge is to find ways to utilize the sun’s light inside your home throughout the day.
An intentionally well-designed new build or remodel can produce ample amounts of natural light. Well-placed windows, skylights, doors, (and one of our favorites) Solatubes allow in the sun’s light, even in your home’s darker spaces. Letting in natural light will lower your energy bills and contribute to happier and healthier lives.
If installing new windows, skylights, or Solatubes is not in your budget; there are cheaper alternatives that can help maximize light throughout your home. Choosing light-colored paints, shiny flooring like linoleum, and reflective materials for your walls and ceiling can create a lot of fluid light that will brighten up even the darkest of rooms.
Learn more about different lighting solutions in recent Mighty House projects, including this video from the 2021 NW Green Home Tour, showcasing Solatubes and the reasons for specific placement. Please reach out to us and let us know how we can help adapt your home to allow in the most natural light possible for a healthy, eco-friendly, and happy home.
Rethinking The Details Of That Cozy Retreat
If you watch HGTV regularly or constantly browsing Pintrest, you will undoubtedly see the trend of adding fireplaces (sometimes in the most unique places) into the design of new builds and remodels. Who doesn’t love the idea of a cozy warm fireplace in their home? Although we recognize that most of the appeal is in the ambience itself, to keep our commitment to provide sustainable innovative solutions, we usually try to steer our clients away from installing wood-burning units.- Always burn seasoned firewood. Using dry firewood greatly reduces the particulate matter that is released into the indoor and outdoor environment.
- Burn hardwood trees. Hardwoods burn hotter, longer, and cleaner than softwoods.
- Avoid a smoldering fire. A smoldering fire yields a lot of smoke and releases hazardous particulate matter into the indoor and outdoor air.
- Keep your chimney clean and in good working condition.
Using Salvaged Materials To Create A Unique Charm
And, lessening the impact on the environment and your wallet!
Salvaged or reclaimed materials are building materials that have been recycled specifically for reuse. Some people conjure up images of dumpster diving – and while they could be from dumpsters (Doug has been known to pull materials out of dumpsters for reuse), most are building materials that were carefully deconstructed from or home or building and one way to greatly lighten your remodel’s carbon impact. Not only does the reuse of materials lessen the overall impact on the planet, it also can lessen the impact on your wallet while also adding unique character that is hard (and sometimes impossible) to replicate.
Mighty House Construction is a huge proponent of using salvaged materials and finishes. We encourage clients to check out the warehouses at Second Use and like businesses during the early planning stages of their projects.
Often you can find salvaged cabinets, lighting, windows, doors, and fixtures (to just name a few) for up to 50 percent less than buying new – like these cabinets in Doug and Laura’s own kitchen (pictured above). Sure sometimes there are additional costs to making the salvaged materials work in your home (like Doug had to build two upper cabinets to infill), but often there is still a cost savings plus now we get to tell a fun story about our kitchen. (Ask us later!)
The trick with utilizing salvaged materials is that you either let the materials dictate the design or find materials that will fit or can be modified to work with your design. Then you begin the hunt for what will work and start collecting your items. Similar to shopping for that perfect prom dress or tux from a used clothing store, committed hunting usually will lead to some great finds! Like this gem of a counter and backsplash (pictured below) one client found awhile ago planning ahead for the ADU she knew she wanted to build.
Reach out to us anytime if you have ideas of unique ways to used salvaged materials in your project or if you have some items you’d like to use just to update your existing space. No project is too big or too small.
Salvaged Kitchen Backsplash
Salvaged Materials Kitchen Counters
Battling Those Lingering Fall Odors
Whether it is your stinky child or a wet dog, fall is the season of stink. As the weather turns colder and wetter we also have less opportunity to open our doors and windows or to air out stink before bringing it in. We recently learned about seemingly simple, healthy, and effective options for battling those lingering odors.
Ozone Laundry System. Ozone is often used in commercial laundry systems as a way to conserve energy and lower overall costs. by replacing hot water and reducing the need/desire to use chemicals. Ozone laundry systems create ozone by combining electricity and oxygen and then dissolves the ozone into the washing water. The oxidation process happens when the ozone water is mixed with organic or “dirty” materials in your laundry and works to kill bacteria, fungi and live viruses in your clothes. It appears that most ozone laundry systems may easily attach to existing washing machines.
Another chemical-free “ozone approach” to keeping your clothes and your home free from lingering odors are Closet Ionic Air Purifiers. They are small, hang in your closet, and use advanced plasma breeze technology to quietly remove odors with safe, natural ozone.
Both of these “smell removing” options are seem safe for you, safe for the environment, affordable, and easy to install.
Speaking of stink… Most people know by now that many laundry detergents don’t completely biodegrade and they contaminate rivers, oceans, and our water supplies, with toxic heavy metals – not to mention their heavy contribution to plastic pollution on a daily basis. Obviously people need to wash their clothes, so we have some simple ideas that can keep your clothes clean and lessen your carbon footprint.
Make the switch away from liquid detergent and pods. These products are usually at least 50% water (an expensive commodity to transport) and may contain toxic chemicals. Choosing powder detergents in cardboard containers (or in bulk in your reused container), is two steps up from the liquid because you tend to use less, save on the added water, and the cardboard packaging is easier to recycle. However, the packing is still very bulky and costly to transport. A third step forward would be to select one of the number of safe and healthy environmentally friendly detergents on the market today that feature zero (or little) plastic packaging with detergent sheets. Google “detergent sheets reviews” and you will find many happy customers.
Let’s not confuse detergent sheets with dryer sheets…just ditch the dryer sheets altogether or use dryer balls or reusable sheets if you must use something.
Let us know if you have other ways you try to keep your home sport stink free or if you try these solutions, we’d love to hear what you think.
Finding the sweet spot between budget – aesthetics – and function
If you have seen or heard Laura give a presentation, you’ve heard her talk about how Mighty House is skillful at finding the sweet spot between budget – aesthetics – and function and that you do not necessarily need a radical change to make a radical shift in how you live, play, and grow in your home. However, as she says, sometimes you do! Here are two examples in a bathroom remodel.In the realm of “sometimes you do need radical change to make a radical shift” was this bathroom remodel in Madrona (pictured below). The layout was odd, awkward, and not functional. We were able to leave the toilet in the same location (off to the left of the new shower), though the rest really had to shift in order to have substantially more functional – and more lovely – space.
Summer Smoke Season is Upon Us
Things you can do to reduce your family’s exposure to smoke.Clean air in the home is crucial for the health and well-being of our families. To combat smoke particles finding their way in through tiny cracks and crevices in walls and windows, and to minimize your chances of breathing viral particles and standing smoke we have come up with a few suggested approaches:
- Attaching furnace filters to box fans.
- Window fans blowing outward to expel stale or polluted air.
- Avoid unconditioned spaces.
- Improve central air filtration.
- Ventilation and filtration provided by heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems can reduce the airborne concentration of SARS-CoV-2 and thus the risk of transmission through the air WITH the right filtration (that is a whole science on it’s own!)
- Wear a mask, yes even in your home or vehicle.
- Air purifiers work by creating finer and finer filters.
- Whole house ventilation and air cleaning.
- Avoid activities that create more fine particles indoors, like:
- Using gas, propane or wood-burning stoves and furnaces.
- Spraying aerosol products.
- Frying or broiling food.
- Burning candles or incense.
- Vacuuming, unless you use a vacuum with a HEPA filter.
We are happy to consult with you on what installed or stand-alone solutions might be best for your home.