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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Aug 28 2009
Steve Thomas, host of Renovation Nation, recounts his home-improvin' exploits in Boulder, Colorado. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Aug 28 2009
Steve Thomas, Host of Renovation Nation, answers some questions about insulating your attic and roof. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Aug 21 2009
Steve Thomas, host of Renovation Nation, discusses the benefits of radiant floor heating. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Aug 21 2009
Can solar panels survive hurricanes and other forms of severe weather? Steve Thomas, host of Renovation Nation, explains. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Aug 13 2009
Steve Thomas, host of Renovation Nation, answers a question about drilling for geothermal energy. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Travel & Outdoors Aug 13 2009
Steve Thomas, host of Renovation Nation, explores an aquifer in Texas and the value of water conservation. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Aug 13 2009
Steve Thomas, host of Renovation Nation, looks at the problems + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Aug 13 2009
Steve Thomas, host of Renovation Nation, meets a couple who go green in order to control costs during retirement. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jul 31 2009
In Alexandria, Virginia, I helped a stay-at-home dad whose aspiration it is to build wacky, cool structures for money. He had two kids. His wife is a lawyer. Somebody had to stay home. Otherwise, you're spending millions of dollars in childcare. The task of child-rearing fell to him. He also does sculpture. So he decided to build a studio in the backyard built out of a recycled materials. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jul 31 2009
When I sprayed Michael Olinde with foam, he got it. Michael is a salesman-type. He thought that the way to go in terms of insulation is with fiberglass because fiberglass is tried-and true and foam is new and different, and he didn't trust it. That's it in a nutshell. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jul 24 2009
Steve Thomas is the host of Planet Green's Renovation Nation, a program that focuses on making green renovations to homes across the country.He wanted to utilize ash and red oak from his own acreage and it was about 2.5 times more expensive to use his own wood that it was to buy wood. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jul 24 2009
The Moon Brothers were young. They were enthusiastic and they were committed to building the greenest house in all of Portland, in all of Oregon, in all of the USA. They were really cool guys.. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jul 15 2009
Green building has unified as a number of separate disciplines into one rubric which we call green building. LEED has emerged as the standard nationwide. Therefore, products are being developed to satisfy these LEED green building standards. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jul 15 2009
In most urban areas, there are places where you can donate the scrap parts of your home. Habitat For Humanity has a service where they will come and take apart your building and resell the material. I think it was the Restore in Portland where we got all the stuff for the railing we built with the Omies. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jul 14 2009
I think the idea of raising chickens is really cool.Even though building a chicken coop may look simple, it can be very complicated. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jun 15 2009
Dads like tools. You may be thinking of getting your father a tool set for Father?s Day. Today, most tools are made cheaply overseas and don?t often last for more than a few years. So if you want to get Dad a set of tools that will last him the rest of his life, you should get him a set of Lie-Neilsen tools. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jun 15 2009
On the Tucson episode of Renovation Nation we featured a father-and-son contractor team. The son, Nathan Kappler, was poised to take over his father's business. Working with your father can be rewarding. However, from a business standpoint, working with your father is always challenging, because you're going to want to establish your independence as a young man. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jun 15 2009
On my upcoming media tour, we're going to be discussing Father's Day and looking at a couple of different hand planes, a couple of tiny little block planes and 24-inch joiner planes. Modern planes can be plugged in, but a good handheld plane is a treat to use. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jun 5 2009
Corey and Deb Omie from the Rock, Paper, Scissors, Concrete Episode, were doing really interesting stuff. While they were renovating their home, they were concerned about staying within the home's existing footprint. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jun 5 2009
I cannot stress enough how much of a game changer bamboo is. There are 15,000 species of bamboo. It grows all over the world, except in the Arctic and the Antarctic. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Jun 5 2009
Steve Thomas is the host of Planet Green's Renovation Nation, a program that focuses on making green renovations to homes across the country.The guys who worked on this project were cool, and the railing was great.All the railing features were bought from the recycling company that you'll see in the clip. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden May 21 2009
The Flemming family, Nica and Robert, were a nice Philadelphian couple who wanted to put solar panels on their roof. The Flemming's roof was in terrible shape. It looked like it was about ready to collapse, but instead of fixing it, they were spending twenty-thousand dollars on solar panels. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden May 21 2009
There is something like 15,000 species of bamboo. Some of them are suitable for structural uses and others aren't. The are species of bamboo that you can't build with. It's just junk. But that stuff that the Flemmings have in their backyard and the stuff that I have in my backyard make lovely trellises and fences. There are all kinds of things you can do. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden May 21 2009
In Alabama, we ran into a termite problem, and we were looking for an eco-friendly compound to remove them. Sodium borate is the compound. It's pretty benign. I wouldn't eat it. It's mildly Sodium borate destroys the termite's ability to process food by killing the protozoa that assist the termites in digesting the wood. The surviving termites will actually avoid the wood after it has been treated. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden May 15 2009
I've posted on renovating historical buildings before, and one of the biggest renovation problems with these buildings is that you can't change anything. My own house is in the historic district, and I really can't change very much. You can't even change out the windows, because the historic commission requires single pane, true divided light windows. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden May 15 2009
Before you install any bamboo materials, you have to check on the supplier. Some bamboo suppliers are not very green. In some places, they are cutting down other native plants to grow bamboo, because bamboo is hot right now. You have to buy your bamboo from a reputable source. This may require you to do some investigation of the supply chain. But you want to make sure that you are making a contribution to sustainable building rather than taking away from it. That?s the main point that should be made about bamboo. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Work & Connect May 15 2009
The army understands in short dollar terms the value of going green, and they have turned a lot of their housing renovation and production over to a private company, Actus Lend Lease. This company will build housing for the army, and then Actus Lend Lease is responsible for running it for the next 50 years. At which time, they give it back to the army. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Travel & Outdoors May 15 2009
One of the interesting things we did while we were in Hawaii was take a look at a technology called OTEC, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion. The concept has been around for a long time. The idea is that you have warm water on the top and cold water on the bottom. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden May 7 2009
What's amazing about bamboo is that it will quickly grow to full maturity, so it is harvestable in three or four years. The new stalk begins growing immediately, so they'll shoot up about sixty feet in the course of a year. The bamboo then spends the next three years getting thicker and stronger. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden May 7 2009
I recently went to Tuscon, Arizona where I helped an expectant mother prepare the nursery for her new baby. Our goal was to create a healthy atmosphere for the baby by improving the indoor air quality. Breathing quality air isn't just important for baby, it's important for everyone who lives in the home. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Apr 29 2009
The technique of building rain screen walls has been around for awhile. It's one of these things that have come under the general rubric of green building. What it does is space the padding off the sidewall of the house by about a quarter of an inch to an inch, so that the sidewall sheathing has a breathable, waterproof membrane on it. Keep in mind, it?s important for your sidewall to breathe. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Apr 29 2009
The benefits of downsizing your home are pretty obvious: Less to clean, less to maintain, less to cool, less to heat and a lower carbon footprint on the earth. Downsizing your home takes a real commitment to living with less stuff and less space. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Apr 29 2009
Steve Thomas is the host of Planet Green's Renovation Nation, a program that focuses on making green renovations to homes across the country. In his regular column on PlanetGreen.com, Steve goes behind the scenes of the show and offers additional tips and insight on green renovation. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Apr 29 2009
In Tuscon, we looked at how expensive it is to go green. If you're trying to get the most LEED points in the United States, you may have to shell out a few bucks. However, you always have green options, no matter your budget. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Apr 29 2009
Structurally insulated panels are, of course, a foam sandwich. Typically, they are oriented strand board on the outside and foam in the middle. The particular panels in the Greenest House in America episode were made of fiber cement on the outside with EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam insulation in the middle. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Apr 22 2009
It may be difficult to find a reputable green contractor. Most experienced and proficient contractors won't advertise. They get enough work through word of mouth and return business. So finding a green contractor can be quite the task, but it is not impossible. Ask around, before reaching for the phone book. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Mar 24 2009
Local historic commissions are good at preserving the character of historic neighborhoods, but sometimes their well intentioned regulations hinder green building. This was the case with the renovation of the Edgar Degas House in New Orleans. Steve Thomas talks about convincing your local historic commission to embrace new green-building techniques. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Work & Connect Mar 24 2009
Steve Thomas, host of Renovation Nation, discusses the volunteer organizations that are helping to rebuild New Orleans. + READ MORE
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By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Mar 24 2009
The renovation of the Degas House featured on Renovation Nation faced several constraints due to its historic status. Steve Thomas explains how they dealt with the restrictions and still made the project green. + READ MORE
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