Brandoh.com

Posts Tagged ‘home’

When you have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, creating or finding a safe home can be one of the hardest challenges you have to face. As you become aware of the toxic chemicals in your environment, it seems like everywhere you turn there is something that could be contributing to your illness. You feel vulnerable, afraid, and helpless. People do not believe you, so you feel as if you are alone. As you are awakening out of your previous ignorance about chemicals you begin to realize how little you still know. You start making changes. Some you feel make a dramatic improvement in your health, some make you feel even sicker (which you never thought was possible). This was my story. This is my story.

“You don’t necessarily need extra time or money, or the powers of a superhero, to do your part to look after the planet,” says Joanna Yarrow, author of 1,001 Ways to Save the Earth. Yarrow is a sustainable living expert and co-founder of Beyond Green, a company that focuses on sustainable communities. “Pretty much everything we do has an impact on the natural world. So changes to any of our daily activities represent an opportunity to look after the planet better without adding too much to our ‘to do’ list.”

Global warming, soaring energy costs, and other environmental concerns are front-page news – and eco-friendly living means conserving natural resources whenever and however we can. It also means making some lifestyle changes to help save the planet. But the good news is that these changes will help keep your family healthy, and they don’t need to cost a lot – in either dollars or time.

It turns out that “going green” doesn’t have to mean expensive investments like solar panels, sustainable wood flooring, and nontoxic paints. Experts say that simple changes in your everyday life are all it takes to make your home a healthier, safer, greener place to be. But don’t forget that human beings are creatures of habit, and change takes time. Begin with small steps. For example, make a commitment to change just one habit every month.

Doing your part to protect the environment once meant separating paper from plastic in your recycling bin and buying organic greens that you carried home in a reusable tote. But these days, there is a lot more you can do to create a green and healthy home.

What, you might ask, about filtration? Well, filtration can be combined with the ventilation system to remove airborne pollutants such as mold spores and pollen from the incoming air. Or, it can be combined with a forced-air heating/cooling system to filter out pollutants released by low-tox interior materials into the recirculated air (e.g. lint from cotton upholstery or drapery materials). To depend on filtration to do everything – without using the principles of eliminate, separate and ventilate – is difficult to do. Such a system will need to be very effective and very powerful; meaning costly-to-install, expensive-to-operate, and noisy. While affordable, room-sized filters are available, but they are just that – room sized. They aren’t designed to handle more than an average-sized room with the door closed. And even these work much better if you’ve implemented the other principles first. The bottom line is this: Filtration is most effective at removing the pollutants that remain after you’ve implemented the other three principles.

Keep in mind that the air inside HVAC ducts will be breathed by the occupants. Therefore, a duct’s interior should be considered living space. So, a tight structure should also mean tight ductwork to prevent pollutants from outside the ducts (e.g. those found in the attic and crawl space) from entering them and ultimately affecting the occupants. It’s also important that the interior surface of the ducts be inert; so, for example, don’t use ducts lined with raw fiberglass.

Mechanical ventilation is best used for pollutants resulting from human metabolism (e.g. carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane, water vapor, etc.) and for occupant activities generating moisture (e.g. bathing, laundering clothes, and dish washing). Most houses need two types of ventilation. Local ventilation should be used intermittently to reduce humidity levels in kitchens and bathrooms quickly, while general ventilation should be ongoing in order to change the air in the entire house. Certain activities, such as hobbies which generate their own pollutants, need to be dealt with as well. Sometimes less-toxic materials can be substituted, as when an artist switches from oil paints to water colors, but it’s often necessary to use additional local ventilation in a hobby room.

Although it’s usually more effective to pick the right pollution-reduction method for the job, you can certainly use one of the principles of separation, elimination, and ventilation to deal with pollutants originating from any source. For example, you could deal with formaldehyde outgassing from kitchen cabinets by coating them with a sealant. This would be a form of separating the source (the cabinets) from the living space by placing a barrier (the sealant) between the occupants and the source. But, in most cases, eliminating the source is more effective. You could also try to rely on ventilation to deal with all your indoor pollution problems. However, you’ll probably need a more powerful ventilation system; one more costly to install, more expensive to operate, and probably noisier than if you used the principles of separate and eliminate first. Overall, a three-pronged approach is best – build a tight structure, use low-tox alternatives for materials that are directly exposed to the living space, and use a modest amount of ventilation to meet the needs of the occupants themselves.

We often saw them moving nonchalantly along the streaming, dirt-strewn concrete floor of the Bourda Market, swaying from side to side as they went before disappearing into the spaces between the crates and bags of produce or underneath the crude, wooden stalls put up by vendors.
I never saw anyone kill one of those monster roaches : perhaps they were simply too big to squash with a single blow, and a prolonged battle would be too messy and ultimately pointless, since they were an accepted part of the market’s verminous population.
Even the huge rats which we occasionally glimpsed running along the gutters, their long, leathery tails disappearing into a drainpipe, were not worth comment.
The Market authorities, hopelessly outnumbered, had, with almost philosophical calm, simply given up the fight against the inevitability of vermin.
Cockroaches in the home, however, were fair game; and their numbers could be kept down by regular spraying with insecticide and by deftly squashing them with a slipper or a length of rolled-up newspaper when the opportunity arose.
I was reluctant to kill any cockroach, although I hated them, and my squeamish efforts usually ended with the creature’s escape. My mother, however, had no such qualms. Her dislike of all crawling creatures was accompanied by an urge to exterminate them that was almost evangelical.
I remember her chasing a centipede, slipper raised, chanting “by Saint Peter, by Saint Paul” like a deadly mantra. This was supposed to make the creature’s escape impossible, but it didn’t always work. That particular phrase was the one she used because it was supposed to be a specific charm for catching centipedes. It seemed really odd to me: my mother wasn’t even a Catholic.
Years later, I realised that it was further evidence of the survival of the Portuguese culture my mother had inherited, though she never spoke of it.
Fortunately, centipedes were rare. House cockroaches, however, were a daily fact of life. They were always lurking in dark corners; watchful, secretive and sly creatures, emerging in the dark or when your back was turned. If you left food on the table for too long, even during the daytime, you might return to find several roaches already darkening the plate.
If you woke up at night you had to switch on the lights and wait a moment before stepping into the dining room or kitchen, their favourite haunts.
You could hear the scratchy, whispering sound their hard, serrated legs made as they ran across the wooden floor.
Their swift running was hard to follow, and you couldn’t see them easily because they always ran on the dark, wood-trimming along the corners of the room.
We had a wooden cupboard with a hinged, curved lid on top that covered its entire width. We called it a ‘safe’. It was kept in the kitchen and used to store cutlery and perishable foods like rice, flour and sugar.

Construction to Perm loans are a single close loan, and the consumer obtains financing before construction. This gives the homeowner cash to pay the builder and complete the construction. Construction to Perm is a fully amortized loan. Nothing changes in the term ? it?s one mortgage. One of the greatest advantages to the homebuyer with this type of home financing is some lenders allow interest only payments while the home is under construction. This gives the homebuyer a low payment option in the beginning while living somewhere else. Once the home is occupied, the mortgage payments are changed to principal and interest payments.

High credit scores are important to lenders for construction to perm mortgages. Liquid assets are also carefully scrutinized. For homebuyers interested in construction to perm financing, the lender will look for adequate savings to pay for the mortgage during the construction period of the loan.

Expect a 3-10% down payment to be required, depending upon the loan amount for the construction to perm financing. Smaller pieces of land or smaller loan amounts will require a lower down payment.

From the vantage point of the loan officer, construction to perm loans are a win-win situation. The homebuyer is purchasing a loan they feel comfortable with. They have a reasonable payment during construction, and business with the lender is concluded at the time the loan is made. This type of loan allows the person building their custom dream home to take control over their biggest asset during the most critical phase: construction. With financing in place, the borrower can make sure the final product is exactly what they want it to be.

Lenders require standard credit documentation and high credit scores for construction to perm financing. Lenders also request: 1. Final plans and specifications (needed to obtain appraisal) 2. Purchase contract for lot (or settlement statement if already purchased) 3. Property profile (a description of materials for custom building). 4. Line item cost breakdown from the builder 5. The builder?s construction contract 6. A copy of the builder?s license 7. The builder?s statement or application (showing the company as approved or applying to be approved to build a home). In addition to these documents, it is essential that the homeowner obtain the necessary permits to build in the community.

Times have changed, though, and that is no longer the case at all.  Those who have put off buying a home theater system for reasons such as these should reconsider their objections.  It is understandable that those living in a smaller space might associate the idea of a home theater with a tangle of wires and cables and large speakers and screens that take over a whole room, but that is simply no longer the case.

There is a basis in reality for some of the concerns.  At one time, home theater systems were a luxury for the rich, who had the space available to dedicate a portion of their homes entirely to the idea of recreating the feel of a traditional theater.  Components were large, cumbersome and not at all attractive.  No one would have dreamed of putting one these systems in an apartment living room!

Home theaters do not have to be exclusively for those who can carve out a great deal of space.  You can find the right equipment to make an awesome home cinema regardless of where you live!

Today, home theaters can be assembled to fit any sized room or space.  There are smaller systems designed specifically with apartment dwellers in mind that pack all of the punch one would need to enjoy their favorite movie.  People have learned to integrate smaller components in unique spaces and to create home theaters that bend to the space available, instead of swallowing rooms whole.

Everyone loves the idea of a home theater system.  They really are an irresistible consideration.  The idea of recreating the cinematic experience in the home is very attractive for reasons of entertainment and convenience, and nothing compares to a great movie when it comes to fun.  Those who have home theater systems love them and those who do not are usually thinking about how and when to get their own.

That really is not particularly surprising when you think about our ongoing love affair with the movies.  Everyone, it seems, is a fan of film.  Movies entertain and enrich us in a unique way.  Almost anyone you meet will consider himself or herself a movie fan on some level.  Put simply, we love the movies!

Still, some resist buying a home theater system.  Concerned about limited space and the potential aesthetic ramifications of adding a home theater system to their living space, those who reside in smaller homes and apartments often decide to put off buying a home theater system altogether.  Those who subscribe to this notion, however, need not feel that way.  Home theaters today can be assembled to fit any size of room and can be installed in a manner that makes them truly attractive.

There are great hints and instructions available to those who are interested in exploring a home theater in a smaller space.  A good resource can tell you everything you need to know about choosing the right technology and undertaking installation in a manner that will really make your home theater add to your home, instead of merely overwhelming it.

If you have ever considered a home theater system but decided against it because you were worried about space or bothered by the idea of making your living room look like an electronics warehouse, it is time to rethink your position.    Search out some quality guidance, and you can be on your way to having a home theater system you can really enjoy–while still enjoying your living space!  All you need is the right information to bring the movies right into your own home, no matter where you live.

The old concerns about appearance are also falling by the wayside.  Today’s home theater components are designed with a greater eye toward the aesthetic and are generally much smaller than the cumbersome older pieces.  Additionally, the growth of home theater popularity has led to the manufacture of some outstanding furnishings that will house the system while adding to a room’s attractiveness.