Articles tagged “Steve Thomas's Travel Journal”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

DIY Greenhouse Means Year-Round Local Food for Boulder, Colorado Couple 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

Can You Use Spray Foam to Insulate an Energy-Rated Metal Roof? 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

Step Up to Radiant Floor Heating By Steve Thomas IN Home & Garden Aug 21 2009 Steve Thomas, host of Renovation Nation, discusses the benefits of radiant floor heating. + READ MORE

How Sturdy are Solar Panels? 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

Is My Geothermal Well Deep Enough? 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

Exploring a Texas Aquifer: A Lesson in Water Conservation 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

Plan for Your Retirement By Going Green 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

Building a Backyard Yoga Studio 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

Converting Non-Believers with Spray Foam Insulation 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

Permaculture Gardening on Renovation Nation (Video) By Team Planet Green IN Home & Garden Jul 27 2009 In the Salvage Brothers episode of Renovation Nation, host Steve Thomas visits a Boulder Colorado couple who give him a lesson in permaculture, and how to create a sustainable garden.Not only will the permaculture garden be beautiful to look at, it will grow and thrive sustainably to be naturally balanced, require fewer resources. + READ MORE

Harvesting the Urban Forest: The Value and Drawbacks of Using Backyard Wood 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

Steve Thomas Experiments with a Composting Toilet 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

How to Shop for Green Building Materials 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

How to Find Salvaged Building Materials 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

Keep Your Chicken Coop Simple (Video) 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

Renovation Nation Slideshow: a Ground-up Green Renovation and Building a Bamboo Structure By Team Planet Green IN Home & Garden Jul 9 2009 Steve Thomas lends a hand in Portland, Oregon with a couple's ground-up renovation. Later, Steve goes to Maui, Hawaii to help out at-risk students by pitching in to build a bamboo structure from the bamboo harvested on the island. + READ MORE

Renovation Nation Slideshow: Building a Bamboo Tree House and Eco-Renovating a Historic Hotel By Team Planet Green IN Home & Garden Jul 2 2009 Steve Thomas visits Hana, Hawaii, where his eco-friendly building plan involves some hunting and gathering for green materials . Then Steve travels to Little Compton, Rhode Island restore a historic hotel with eco-friendly systems like geothermal heating and cooling. + READ MORE

Dads Build an an Eco-friendly Mancave on Renovation Nation (Video) By Stephanie Sharpe IN Home & Garden Jun 18 2009 How many dads does it take to build an eco-friendly man cave? When Steve Reilly Jr. of Boston wants to build an eco-friendly office in his back yard, which they dub the 'man-cave,' 4 dads work together to make it happen. In the Renovation Nation Episode: New Orleans, LA?Greening a Historic B&B, Steve Thomas assists Steve Reilly Jr. who has invited his father, Steve Sr., and father-in-law, Larry, to work alongside him to get the job done the green way. + READ MORE

What Tools Should I Get Dad for Father's Day? 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

How to Convince Your Family Contracting Business to Go Green (Video) 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