Near where I live, there are many towns where people buy the old homes for the land, knock down the old house, and put up something new, and usually hideously large, in its place. Some of the houses, 1960’s era ranches for example, are not difficult to see go. But when people buy older houses and demolish them, my heart breaks a little.

But in all of the cases of tear downs, there is an enormous amount of waste that seems hard to justify.

Nancy Keates from the Wall Street Journal has written about the more eco-friendly option of unbuilding, something which they are doing to their Portland, OR home.

The Building Materials Association estimates that in the U.S., 315,000 to 360,000 tons per year of reused building materials are sold by reuse centers — not even 0.2% of the total waste from building activities each year.

Keates writes about how her house was painstakingly disassembled. Things that were going to be reused in the rebuild were separated out. Once that is done, “the Rebuilding Center will send in their deconstruction crew to take everything else apart. They will start with the hardwood floors, then take apart the windows, doors and even pipes — down to the house’s foundation.”

Doing this does end up costing more money than a traditional tear-down. The unbuilding at the Keates home took an additional 2 weeks and approximately $4000. Not adding to landfills, however, priceless.

The chance to own a piece of history, isn’t that the reason many of us collect antiques? Well what about owning a big piece of history in the form of an 1864 log cabin currently residing in Mequon, Wisconsin.

The owner has decided to build a new house on the picturesque 3 acre property and therefor the cabin must go. It is priced at $20,000, BYO foundation.

The actual price of moving the house can be many times more than that.

Moving a house is more about the journey than the load, says Jim Dreager, deputy state historic preservation officer at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

“It’s the capacity of freeway bridges and the width of roads and obstruction of overhead lines - the cost of making those arrangements. It’s over $1,000 each time you have to drop a utility line to move a building past it. It doesn’t take too many utility lines for that cost to add up,”

A couple of years ago there was an historic house in a neighboring town that was offered in much the same way. For a year it sat there, free for someone to move to their own property. Eventually it was demolished. I certainly hope that someone steps up and buys the log cabin. It seems a shame to allow it to vanish.

When my 7yr old son was a baby he was obsessed with the kitchen cabinets. Every day he would go over to them and grab a hold of the knob and pull the door open. The safety locks we had on the doors allowed the door to be open slightly. He would open and shut, open and shut, open and shut, that half inch of space until his little arm got tired.

One day I came into the kitchen and noticed that the door was missing. All of the opening and shutting had caused the hinges to give way. I only wish that I had a secret camera to have seen his expression when the door came off in his hand. The funny thing is that he didn’t take anything out of the cabinet. Instead he took the door away with him and I had to go search the house for it.

Most of us parents are familiar with the tiny plastic plugs that go into outlets, the doorway gates that turn homes into a track and field event, and the cabinet locks that turn our kitchens into Fort Knox. But what about the other things inside of our homes that pose a safety hazard.

Parent Wonder has a list of 101 Childproofing Tips for Parents. Most of them are very basic, but for a new parent who looks around their house and feels overwhelmed it might be a good place to start.

Good Housekeeping Magazine has an article listing the best and worst childproofing products. I really liked this list. Any parent knows the feeling of standing in the aisle at your local big box baby store with an entire row of products and having no idea which one to chose, or why a certain one was superior to another similar one. Good Housekeeping has taken the guesswork out. Print this list off and take it with you the next time you need some cabinet, oven, or toilet locks. Or even better, print it off and include it with your gift at the next baby shower you attend. The new parents will surely thank you.

Many new parents are turning to so-called childproofing professionals, who will come out to your home and asses your individual home and needs. Professionals like this one featured in this South Carolina newspaper.

What is the price of living in an ongoing renovation? I don’t mean the monetary cost. The cost in time, time that might have been spent doing something else.

Every weekend we spend time working on our house. Time that could be spent elsewhere, relaxing, preferably with a drink with a straw in it…

David Giffels and his wife have spent 12 years renovating their home.

The strain on their marriage, as Mr. Giffels admits in his sweet and funny book, “All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House,” which will be published next month by HarperCollins, has not been inconsiderable. Weekends, vacations, time Mr. Giffels might have spent with his two children, have been given over to such projects as removing, cleaning, and re-caulking the 733 windowpanes in the house. (He counted.)

And yet, they are still not done. The Giffels do not believe in credit cards and other than their mortgage, they have no debt. This means that they do not embark on any home improvements until they have the money. What a novel idea! Quaint, even. My mother, a product of the Great Depression, doesn’t believe in credit cards either.

How long did projects like re-caulking 733 window panes take?

“Years,” Mr. Giffels says. “This is where I’m glad I wrote the book 10 years later, it gave me a perspective of all the time it cost: All my vacation time, all my possible spare time, a number of years of my children’s growing up I gave to my children’s house. And once you get in it, you can’t get out, you can’t sell a house in that condition. When all of a sudden you realize what it is costing you in your life, it’s too late.”

And yet Mr Giffels says that they would do it again.

I am looking forward to release of his book next month. Maybe it will remind me of why we chose our house.

This is a nightmare for all of us involved in extensive home renovations and also living and raising families in those homes. I can not even imagine a government agency coming into my home and telling me what I had to do, or face criminal prosecution. Especially in light of the fact that their requirements would most likely do more harm than good.

This week I came across this article online about the Ellis family living in Wellesley, MA that is being forced to do lead abatement in their home.

Court cases involving lead paint are fairly common. By law, the state Department of Public Health must inspect any home where children have blood lead levels of 25 micrograms per deciliter or higher. And if lead paint is found - as it almost always is in old homes - the state can order the homeowners to address the problem, taking legal action if deemed necessary

This case is unique in many ways. First off their 4 year old daughter tested high for lead months before they moved into the house. The family blames a charm necklace that the little girl like to suck on. A necklace which was made in China. Secondly, the family owns the home they live in. Most of the time it is a negligent landlord situation.

As I wrote on the topic of lead paint several months ago:

Turns out there is another more common source of lead dust now– home renovations. Most children now are in fact poisoned during renovations when lead dust flies through the air, through knocking down old painted plaster walls, pulling off old trim, sanding old painted floors. Ah, my own personal hell. I joke with my children that I am going through all of the effort to protect their precious brain cells and IQ they better be thankful. But really it is a serious matter.

It used to be thought that lead poisoning was primarily an issue for children living in housing projects where upkeep by an absent landlord was an issue. Now it is becoming increasingly common for children of middle and upper-middle class homes to become exposed to high levels of lead dust through extensive renovations of older homes in the urban core.

This family in MA did not have any home renovations going on. Yes, their home has lead paint in it. I would challenge anyone to find a house built before 1950 that does NOT contain lead paint.

The Department of Public Health is requiring that the Ellis family delead their home. The family is refusing to do it. Deleading is dangerous because disturbing the paint creates dust and airborne particles. You can’t contain everything. Even the meticulous contractor mentions this in the article. If the lead paint is ENCAPSULATED, it is best to leave it alone.

If you want to remove all the lead paint in a house built before 1978 you will probably have to gut the interior as well as tear off all the siding. But most lead paint is fine. Afterall, most of us grew up in homes that contained lead paint in them somewhere and I daresay that most of us turned out okay.

The cost of such a process factors into this also. The Ellis family has received estimates that say it will cost them $100,000 to delead their home. They will also need to live elsewhere while this process takes place.

One of the commenters said:

I agree with the sentiment that you’d think parents would do anything to protect their children, so why not fix the lead issue?

BUT, it’s not that cut and dry. The law was established to protect children from lead poisoning., yes. But they don’t get the lead in their systemts just by living there, otherwise adults would be at risk as well. They get it by means of ingesting flaking paint, usually in old, not updated, homes. And if this home is well kept, with no flaking paint, then the risk is minimal at MOST. And I believe the parents have a right to determine if they want to live with that risk. The cost of deleading a home is not insignificant, and as their home is 5000 sq ft, that is going to cost a fortune (I think they quoted upwards of $100,000, plus they need to move out for a period of time and live elsewhere). Just because they bought s $1.3 mill home, does not mean $100,000 is chump change. AND, I’ve heard of cases where families moved for a long period of time and spent life savings while their home was deleaded, only to move back and STILL have the child’s lead level too high. Then what?

Then what indeed? Where does it stop?

Families in Massachusetts also report being discriminated against when it comes to finding rental property due to the restrictive lead paint laws. Of course most landlords would not come out and say the reason that they don’t want to rent to families with children is because they fear being held liable should the child be lead poisoned.

In Massachusetts, a state law passed more than 30 years ago says that children under 6 years old cannot live in apartments that contain lead paint on certain high-risk surfaces, such as windowsills and baseboards. And if children suffer lead poisoning, landlords are legally liable. But state law also clearly says that landlords cannot discriminate against families with young children because their apartments are not deleaded. The only way landlords can comply with the law is to delead their apartments, a process that can easily cost $10,000 per unit. (There are some exceptions: Landlords who live in the building and rent out only one other unit, as well as some elderly landlords, are allowed to refuse families with children.)

In January of this year, I wrote about the link between lead paint and the decline of function in older brains.

In March of this year the EPA issued new requirements to keep children away from the hazards of lead paint.

The trifecta of the green movement is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. But how does this apply to the home renovation?

One company, Green Demolitions, is navigating a previously untapped market.

Green Demolitions works with professional, insured contractors who carefully remove and transport donated kitchen cabinets, countertops, appliances, fixtures and building materials.

Green Demolitions establishes a tax deduction for the donor, by reselling the items, and providing the donor with the resale amount.

Buyers save 50- 75% off their ‘new’ kitchens. Most importantly perfectly good cabinets, appliances, counter tops, sinks, etc do not end up cluttering a landfill.

All the proceeds that Green Demolitions makes go to Recovery Unlimited, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to All Addicts Anonymous (AAA) for all addicts and all addictions including alcohol, drugs, tobacco, food, depression, anxiety and anger. Owner Steve Feldman set up this non profit charitable organization to help a program that had helped him in his youth.

Recycling Luxury for Recovery… sounds like a deal in which everybody wins.

Anyone who has embarked on a major renovation knows that it is time consuming, fraught with unforeseen issues, and it costs a lot of money. What if there was someone you could hire to be a liaison or intermediary between you and the contractor or architect? Basically hiring someone to be you without the emotional attachment.

The New York Times just ran a piece about this growing trend of hiring a project manager. Not just for the wealthy, many busy families are turning to this type of service to enable a renovation to run smoothly. Who wants to arrive home form a long day at work, cranky kids in tow, only to discover that something in the project was not done according to plan.

No one, that’s who. I have been there and it is discouraging. Hiring someone to oversee the project hopefully means that the issue would have been nipped in the bud before it ever came to this. A lack of specification in the initial plans is what generally leads to a dispute. The homeowner has pictured it one way and the contractor another.

A Project Manager will sit down with the homeowner and go over plans that the architect has drawn up. They will make sure that you, the homeowner, understand the plans fully. They will be realistic in pointing out how things are going to look and cost. Since most are former contractors they can also give input on how to cut costs if that is an issue.

One such place is the Renovation Coach, based out of Atlanta, GA.

Renovation Coach is a fee-based impartial advisor who assists homeowners and contractors in avoiding the pitfalls typically experienced during the renovation or construction process. We provide guidance, planning, and management tools so both the homeowner and contractor will have a positive remodeling experience. Since Renovation Coach, Inc. has no vested interest in the construction of any project, we are able to be your unbiased advisor and advocate during the remodeling process.

Coaches’ fees typically vary from $90 to $300 an hour, depending on location and the scope of the project. While that sounds like a hefty price, their services can sometimes save thousands of dollars caused by mis-steps and change orders.

Running out of space in your home? Well some folks are turning to storage units to solve their woes.

What do you think of when you picture outside storage units? When I think of storage units I think of those corrugated metal boxes with locks on the front that people stuff with their things and subsequently abandon once they realize that they can live without them. Oh yeah, and that the unit leaked and ruined everything anyway.

I certainly don’t think of a place that I would want to go to and hang out. Last month the NY Times featured people who have turned their storage units into home away from homes. Places that are complete with carpeting, air conditioning, cable television, and wireless internet.

[People] with more toys than space, are spending tens of thousands of dollars to keep their weekend wheels and gear in high style. In response, a growing number of self-storage units are ditching the bright lights, long hallways and sterile atmosphere to become destinations unto themselves.

For many people this is a solution for storing their boats, winter sporting equipment, or motorcycles; things that would be forced to live under a tarp in their backyard or take up their entire garage. For others the storage unit has become a destination that they purchase like a condo. In fact, many places are calling their storage units “condos.”

(photo credit: NY Times)

Do you picture something like this? No, me either.

These large storage areas, which top out at 2,000 square feet, hold not only sports cars and skiing equipment, but also pool tables and personal gyms, or as in Mr. Hunt’s case, a batting cage.

From the outside, the Idaho garages look like industrial warehouses with metal siding, roofs and roll-up doors. Step inside, and the units can resemble an art gallery or rec room. They have become places where people want to linger for a televised football game or a poker game in the clubhouse or just hang out with other condo owners.

While I understand the need for storing items like small boats and jet skis, especially when neighborhood associations prohibit the building of sheds in backyards, the idea of using a storage unit as a place to hang out is lost on me. Maybe I just don’t have enough stuff.

Do you find the idea of making your home energy efficient overwhelming?

The Money Pit has just the answer for you. The first ever video podcast by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR program which shows the simplicity of home energy efficiency.

“This podcast is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to make green improvements to their home while saving money,” said Kraeutler. “Homeowners can use it as a step-by-step guide to improving their home’s energy efficiency. The tips we discuss are incredibly simple yet make a great impact on energy bills and the environment.”

Taking you on a room by room tour of a typical American house and offering tips for improving energy efficiency.

The New York Times recently ran an article about people who are capitalizing on their windy locations and installing turbines to harness the wind and provide energy for their homes.

Sales of wind turbines have been growing steadily since 1990, when the American Wind Energy Association, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, D.C., began tracking them. Last year, about 7,000 small wind turbines — defined as those that have a capacity of up to 100 kilowatts, roughly enough to power a large school — were purchased in the United States, according to the group, which said it expects sales to reach about 10,000 this year.

If I lived somewhere windy enough I would definitely consider this. While the cost sounds high, when you figure in your utility costs and heating costs, which for those of us in northern states are significant, a turbine would pay for itself in within a decade.

Residential turbines… are typically 33 to 100 feet tall… cost between $12,000 and $55,000, but in recent years, 19 states, including California, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Ohio, have begun offering incentives and rebates that can cut purchase prices by up to 50 percent… the United States House of Representatives passed a bill that would help states provide grants and low-interest loans for residential turbines (as well as solar panels and geothermal heat pumps), and that would offer a 30 percent federal tax credit on turbine purchases, up to $4,000; the Senate is now considering a similar measure.

One man featured in the article has a turbine which not only powers his entire house, but makes surplus power which he “sells” to the power company. How awesome would that be? Not only would you be reducing your own carbon footprint, but helping to make the power company a little more green.

However, there is a booming market right now beyond the homeowner. In places like Texas where there is lots of empty land and lots of wind, enormous turbines are beginning to dot the landscape.

Photo: Brian Harkin for The New York Times

The wind turbines that recently went up on Louis Brooks’s ranch are twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades that span as wide as the wingspan of a jumbo jet. More important from his point of view, he is paid $500 a month apiece to permit 78 of them on his land, with 76 more on the way.

Texas, once the oil capital of North America, is rapidly turning into the capital of wind power. After breakneck growth the last three years, Texas has reached the point that more than 3 percent of its electricity, enough to supply power to one million homes, comes from wind turbines.

Utilizing wind energy has grown 45% over the past year. While still a small percentage, if it continues to grow as expected it will eventually make a significant contribution to the electrical contribution of the entire nation. To quote the television commercial, moving towards a more energy efficient and environmentally friendly future, priceless.