Green Home Updates: Year 3

What a year! As I look back over the last 12 months SO MUCH has changed in our house, and it was finished just in time for us to really have a chance to enjoy it all day, every day. I’m kinda kidding, though, in all honesty, it is nice that we’ve had a bright, updated space to be in during this time. Over the past year we tackled several projects on our green home updates list and really made a dent on updating our home to the current decade. Let’s start back at this time last summer!

(If you’ve ever read “If You Give A Pig A Pancake” this story may sound familiar)

A Non-Toxic & Green Kitchen Update

Kitchen photos by http://emmaloo.co. These were taken prior to the floor refinishing.

This time last year our entire kitchen was being torn out. We were going to try to keep the existing cabinets in an effort to be sustainable, but as soon as we had contractors come in to change countertops, add new appliances, etc., we quickly learned that much of the kitchen wasn’t up to code with the spacing of the counters and the size and placement of the vent, and more. By the time we would have fixed all of that it made more sense (timewise and financially) to just start from scratch and get everything up to code.

You can read all about that adventure here. I don’t know that I want to live through a kitchen renovation again anytime soon, but I will say that it’s dramatically changed our home. The old 80s cave is now bright and open! We added new cabinets, countertops, tiling, a huge stainless steel sink, a more powerful vent (which is important for air quality if you cook with gas), and all the while tried to choose the most non-toxic & green options available within our price range. We also renovated our powder room and wet bar at the same time. We’re so happy with how it all turned out! We’re still waiting for some sustainable floating shelving to come in, which was affected by everything shutting down, but overall we’re done!

Of course, when new cabinets were installed it became apparent we’d need to redo the floors..

Non-VOC Hardwood Floor Refinish

Whew, this was the hard part. Truly. First, it was incredibly difficult to find a contractor willing to work with green materials. We even had one bail on us after we’d moved all the furniture out ?. Second, no one could just do the kitchen. Since the entire first floor is hardwood floors, they all said we’d have to refinish it all if we didn’t want a really obvious seam. In the end, we found a contractor that could come a few weeks after the other one bailed and the final result is stunning.

I love the feel of the floors so much. We used Rubio Monocoat. It’s an oil that bonds with the floor and cures very quickly. It doesn’t have the traditional glossy finish. Instead, it’s more matte and very smooth. It’s one of the first things people comment on when they come over (prior to lockdown). Everyone says the feel of it is really smooth and unique. You can read that whole story and more about the products we used here. I would definitely use that floor finish again if we ever moved. 

Since the hardwood floors go all the way up the front stairs, effecting an area on our landing, which made us have to remove some carpeting to complete the refinishing…

Non-Toxic carpeting

Are you sensing a theme, yet? We had it on the list to replace the old carpeting, though probably not so soon. But as you’re probably picking up, a lot of these projects bleed into one another. We decided to go with all-natural wool, zero VOC carpet and padding from EarthWeave. You can read the full review on that here.

I have mixed feelings on this one. The carpet is truly non-toxic, there were no weird smells, and it feels soft and dense. The padding has left a lot to be desired. If I ever use EarthWeave carpeting again, I would definitely look into a different pad.

The carpet has been okay. I knew it would shed some, but I had no idea what a full-time job it would be to manage the shedding. It’s constantly getting on everything or making its way downstairs to make little wool bunnies, as we call them, that float around like tumbleweeds forcing me to continuously clean the floors. Vacuuming upstairs is quite a chore as I have to empty the vacuum bin 3 times to do the whole floor. They say the shedding lessens over the first year and I’ll admit that just this month (roughly 6 months in) have I started to see a little less shedding. So I like that they haven’t added anything bad to our indoor air, but there are a few things I don’t love. 

Of course, when we changed the carpeting out we realized the new carpets were much shorter and now all of the baseboards need to be painted…

But that is an ongoing project we’re taking room by room.

Air Purifier

Obviously, we’ve worked really hard to protect our indoor air quality and make sure the renovations haven’t added any bad stuff into the air (you can read more about indoor air quality here). Along with that, this year we added in a pretty powerful air purifier to our downstairs. We went with AirDoctor and it can filter a 2,400 sq. ft room in an hour and since our downstairs is mostly open, we felt it was a good choice. It won’t work the same if the space is closed off into separate rooms, so we still have individual air purifiers in our bedrooms upstairs. 

So far, we really like the AirDoctor Pro! You can read my full review here. It does a good job of sensing when I’m cooking something, ummm, a little too well done, and adjusts itself accordingly. I’ve also noticed it hate when we diffuse essential oils. It starts working hard to clean them out of the air. Otherwise, it’s improved my husband’s seasonal allergies and helped keep the air smelling fresh!

Well, that about sums it up! Not bad for a year’s worth of renovations. We’ve done some little things along the way and still have some other projects ahead (upstairs bathrooms, I’m looking at you!), but I think we’re going to hold off and take a breather for now. After going through all of that, Teddy said the 80s bathrooms are starting to look not so bad after all lol. We’ll see about that!