re: re: re:

for a while now we have been working on the house. like any other house reno all the work must come in stages. you can't paint before there are walls so to speak.

from the time the plans were complete to this point in the construction process everything was about doing it right. now, as we begin to round the corner toward finishing the choices and decisions become limitless.

so to address that issue I think we've informally begun refining the materials design manifesto. from the start we've thought about design principles and guidelines from every angle. materials use was a big part of that thinkng. the eco friendly hardie plank that we installed on the exterior and the the bamboo flooring we are about to install on the third floor were not impulse aesthetic purchases that we rationalized in some other way after the fact. as we begin to make visible interior choices the adage of reduce, reuse, recycle combined with reinvent and recontextualize I think may begin to help narrow more material choices.

striping back materials to replace them with more eco friendly materials is really only half the battle. in fact, as you will note from the previous post, the amount of debris we generate is somewhat alarming. there are a couple of things we've decided to do with some left over "old house" that decidedly point to the materials reasoning. we are planning to reuse the old tin ceilings that had been hidden for years as a wall covering. we are refinishing the original pine floors. we are planning to recontextualize certain building materials (in more than likely an excessively time consuming manner) to do some detail finish work.

needless to say the white board has been diagrammed to death over the last few days, we've been working on a design for a sliding door that will go between the second and third floors. hopefully we will get a few of the shcematic drawings up on the blog soon. I guess what I am trying to say here is a lot of new stuff jelled over the weekend making for some slightly heady (if not pointed headed) times.

finally, a question to you all, in keeping with the desire to reuse: to expose the old pine floor on the first floor means ripping up the cheap, short oak plank, home depot floor that is already there. that's a lot of crappy oak, but still, throwing it out seems wasteful too. anybody got any ideas on what we might do with it once we rip it up? come on give it your best shot!

Comments

[Derek]

It would make good fire wood, or you could reuse it instead of the bamboo floor. It's a lot of work to pull up, I'm sure the restored pine will look a lot better though.

[anita_cocktail]

use it in some way for your outdoor patio - well sealed.
ship it to burning man.

contact habitat for humanity - perhaps they could use it?

offer it up on craigslist.

[Jeff]

Build a wooden statue of your contractor and burn it in effigy.

[Charlie]

Use it as paneling for a future project/
but mostly don't feel bad about ditching it.