VSR-Mural Completed

Monica from Monica's Painterly Designs has completed the Mural.We meet at a Home-show fair , was impressed with her work. The thought came to me to have her do something in my Vintage Sewing Room project. Thinking through the idea I came up with a store front. My Granny (my Fathers Mother) worked as a Seamstress out of her home. They had a room added on the house for her business. She did alterations mostly, however she love to make things for us kids. I have a lot of her tools, material and items. throughout my life when we would visit I remember watching her work. Received a little sewing machine from her as a child, I remember sewing doll clothes on it. Years later while in High School, one of my classes was Sewing. Made a Plaid Cape as one of my class project, the teacher thought I was a little odd. She stated that plaid was the most difficult fabric to work with. Little did she know I love to sew and had the skill in my Genes! The Coat came out perfect and I received an A.
For my whole life I have dreamed of a Sewing Room. Now it is finally happening. This Store Front Mural is what I think my Granny would of loved to have.

Granny's home was Brick built in the 1950's. She would sit at the window sewing on her machine . Always seeing who was coming up to the home. Grandpa loved his garden, he would be out tending the plants. What is more fitting then to have a market with all the things he loved to grow. Tommy was so funny. My Mom loved parks, she would take my brother and I to one near by. Mom also visited Granny a lot, Granny would do some alterations for her. Granny lived on Springfield Ave and Mom was born in Berkley, Virginia. All these elements are in the Mural. Although the house is gone and Moms birth town is but a speck, each time I will go into the Sewing room, my memories of great life and times will be there. I might even be inspired from my Granny's spirit to try some new things.

In progress collage.
(you can click on the photos to enlarge)

The finished Green Mural project.
all the paints used were No or Low VOCs

We just picked up the Mirror Closet doors..Our next step to install them.
Interested in a mural for your room? Call Monica's Painterly Designs for an appointment.

Going Green together- Monthly Updates.

So we are doing well with our solar power. Feeding the grid and using what we need. Our Utility bill was closer to 104.00 this month. That means it is going down. We haven't seen that low of a bill at all the whole time we have lived here. Mr sun is still shining on us. Our lifetime production since we started in November 2009 is 3,669 KwH. Our highest production amount in a day was 36.46 kwh. We are at present time supplying about 1/2 our power by solar.We have reduced the Carbon footprint by 3,086 pounds of CO2. Planted 68 tree seedlings. and saved the air pollution and oil consumption the equivalent of driving a standard car 6,031 miles. Not bad huh?
As for the Green bag issue... doing well on that. A few times we had to take plastic bags, however we are recycling those.
Our Rain Barrels are filled and we are using the water. Our water bill comes in quarterly so I will not be able to tell how much an impact they are for a few months.
The house Green project is coming along great. We are almost done. Our complete date is set for June the 20th. Still Under budget and loving that! Stay tune for the final photos.
We are looking into getting a thermal solar unit for our Hotwater, that should reduce our dependency on the Electric company greatly. Since heating water is a costly item.
Still looking for ways to become more independent and self sufficient by retirement age.

S-RECs IS GETTING AT BOOST.

I mentioned RECs (Renewable Energy Credit) for the Thermal Solar heater, in a previous post. Some folks are not aware you can sell these RECs. They do not even know that Thermal Solar has RECs. Well they do. RECs are based on a RPS, Renewable Portfolio Standards , system. It varies from State to State. There are many States coming on-board to allow outsource buying of these RPS in RECs. There are some companies that will buy these RECs. One of them is S-REC TRADE AN ONLINE TRADING. This is a portion of their question and answer section.

"......Are solar thermal SRECs valued the same as solar photovoltaic SRECs sold in auction?
Yes, in DC and NC, solar thermal facilities can be approved to generate SRECs that have the same value to buyers purchasing to meet state compliance requirements. Any auction for SRECs in DC will include solar PV and solar thermal SRECs sold at the same price
Both DC and NC allow out-of-state facilities to qualify, so many states are eligible to sell into these markets. If your state is not eligible to sell into DC or NC, then the RECs produced by your facility have no value to buyers in the state compliance markets (i.e. our buyers). You may still however be able to find ways to sell the RECs in voluntary or non-solar compliance markets – also known as generic REC markets. There are companies out there that may help...."

We are with a company that will also buy our Thermal RECs based on the RPS of our system. We have a bill in our legislature right now that is on this very subject. Our hope is that Maryland will come on board and allow the companies in Maryland to buy the Thermal S-RECs.

VSR-Flooring Completed

Over the weekend we put the floor in. We used a recycled-green friendly underlayment From Precision Components. It had its own seam tape included in the product, was easy to install. Since we were putting in a wood floor in an upstairs place, I felt we need a sound deadening underlayment. This one use both sound proof and moisture barrier , great for the Bamboo floor.
The Floor is a Stranded Bamboo with a striated pattern from Teragren. The flooring is harder than Oak and Maple. It was very easy to install. We used a carbide tip to cut, and when we used the sliding compound miter the board were cut upsided down to prevent the edges for chipping. when we used the Bench saw, also with a carbide tip blade, it was cut face up. We had very smooth edges. A scribe saw was used for the vent cut out. Still we had smooth edges.
The flooring part of the Project took us 16 hours. That included the Planning and discussion on each row lay out. Since we wanted as little waste as possible and still stay within the company's guide line on placement. The room size is 10 x 11 foot. We had one closet, one vent and a door way to maneuver.
The cost.....We went to a flooring store to get an estimate on the same flooring to be installed by them. Their cost was 2900.00. We purchased the flooring from the manufacture- Teragren- distributor. The flooring cost was 886.00. We picked it up 6 boxes, 6 panels in each box, at the Distributors Warehouse in Baltimore. The underlayment cost 90.00 at our Home Improvement store. So our savings installing it ourselves was 1924.00.
I have installed, Pergo and Shaw flooring, all click and drop floors. This Stranded Bamboo click and drop floating floor was the easiest yet to install. With the other ones once you click in the floor you can not un-click them or move them easily. With the Teragren Synergy click and drop flooring , the install was very easy and you could adjust easily. However once the floor was in it is very strong. You can not even see the length wise seems of the boards. I am very impressed with this product.
You can click on the photos to enlarge.
this is the view from the doorway looking toward the window and vent.








This is looking toward the mural and into the closet.

Another sneak peek at the mural