My Green Home Project, the Blog

When this painter showed up for work without brushes, rollers or ladders, I should have listened to the flea in my ear. Instead, I loaned him my own equipment. He worked for one day and never came back, leaving every room in this kind of condition.

I used to say if Home Depot didn't carry it, it didn't exist. Well, this is the only gallon of vapor barrier primer in this part of the world, and it didn't come from Home Depot. Home Depot Canada does not carry vapor barrier primer. The Home Depot staff doesn't even know it exists. But I had to have it, so I could try it and write about it, so after using the Home Depot phone and yellow pages, I drove across town to the ICI paint store. I wouldn't have purchased more anyway, because at $30 a gallon, it would have cost too much, and also because at 100 g/L, it doesn't qualify as a low-VOC product (VOC = volatile organic compound, something undesirable if you're trying to be green). The product that I bought in quantity, and which cost 1/10th of the price – ICI's Speedwall 8130 Interior Latex Sealer – has a maximum VOC of 41.92 g/L. The maximum acceptable VOC level for this kind of paint product is 65. Sometimes you have to compromise.

When you're greeted by a cloud of dust and you see a guy on a scaffold, merrily sanding away, you know you're getting near the end of the renovation ordeal.

Folding attic ladders have got to be the neatest invention ever. Whether you call it a pull-down attic ladder, a foldaway attic ladder, a retractable attic ladder or a telescoping attic ladder – or, as the Quebec-based manufacturer calls it on his website, a disappearing attic ladder – it was the perfect way to retain access to the former second floor of the house after having turned it into an attic and eliminating the original staircase. You pull down your folding attic ladder when you need it and send it back upstairs when you're through with it, leaving only a trap door visible. If you paint the trap door the same color as the ceiling, it's practically invisible. Cool!

See that window at the end? In a few months my desk is going to be under it. To get to this point, my sunroom-office underwent a few major transformations. First, we rebuilt the roof. Then we put in new walls and reinforced the foundation. This was followed by spray foam insulation . Then the vapor barrier, then the drywall. And it only took one year. Only?

LEFT: March 10th — CENTER: March 20th — RIGHT: March 21st