I’d like to speak to you about something most ladies don’t like to discuss: Air leaks in your home’s ductwork.

Now, I know this is not something we talk about at parties, but the fact is leaky ducts are a common affliction and a major source of energy loss in homes. Homeowners pay dearly to heat and cool the air traveling through their home’s air delivery system.  Unfortunately in many homes a significant amount of that air escapes through duct leaks before it ever reaches the living space.

Finding duct air leaks and then fixing them (as opposed to replacing every duct run in your home) has been an ongoing challenge for the HVAC industry.  First, you can’t fix a leak if you can’t see it, and even if you can, slapping some duct tape on has proved an imperfect and temporary solution.

A more lasting solution might involve a product/process I encountered a few weeks ago at the AHR Expo in Chicago:  Aeroseal.

Aeroseal Duct Sealant Technology
Aeroseal technology was developed at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with partial funding by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which gives the product a little added credibility in my opinion.

Aeroseal is a duct sealant that is applied as an aerosol mist that travels throughout the home’s ductwork, accumulating in the area of a duct leak until the hole is sealed.  Certified applicators use a machine patented by Aeroseal to apply the product, which, when dry, reminds me of coagulated hair gel.  The company says the sealant it is totally non-toxic, and, in fact, is made with the same key ingredient as chewing gum.

I saw the demo machine at AHR and I have to say, it didn’t look like much.  But really, it is a pretty simple process.  You are basically spraying this hair gel like substance into the ducts.  How fancy does it have to look or be?  The question I had was:  How does the sealant know where the leaks are?

The answer is simple physics. When the material is sprayed into the duct, the small aerosol particles are kept in suspension until the air stream makes a sharp turn to exit through a leak.  The hole itself causes this change in direction.  At that point the particles collide with and adhere to the leak edges until the hole is all sealed up.

(I’d love to see a cartoon animation of this, wouldn’t you?)

Prior to this process, the Aeroseal applicator measures the duct leakage in the home using the same, patented equipment and controller.  Integral software measures the actual leakage in the duct.  Next, Aeroseal is pumped through the duct system, a process you can actually observe via the controller computer screen where a graph shows the steady decline in leakage as the holes get sealed.

Cost vs. Savings
So what does it cost and what is the potential payback? Cost actually depends on the complexity of the HVAC system, but the company says that costs typically run between $1,200.00 and $2,000.00, with an average annual energy savings of $650.00 to 800.00.  I’m guessing you can pull the plug on the process if you find your ducts are tight as Tupperware.  However, if you are like most homeowners, this is probably not the case.

I look forward to following the progress of this company.  The concept is so simple that I believe it has a good chance of intriguing more homeowners than confusing them.  Most importantly, it might just get homeowners thinking and talking about their ductwork — the home’s equivalent to the human cardiovascular system.

Nest Thermostat

Ecobee Thermostat

By Trish Holder

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, which is the fairest thermostat of them all?”

This question came to me a few days ago as I was searching for reviews on the new Nest™ Learning Thermostat™ – a product I encountered at the AHR Expo in Chicago a few weeks ago.   Looks is what kept coming up as a positive for this new thermostat, an innovation developed by Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, of Apple iPod and iPhone fame.

It is a pretty nifty look, I’ll admit.  But it wasn’t the looks that impressed me so much when I sat down the with a company representative at AHR; it was the concept.  You see, the Nest is marketed as a self-programming thermostat and to me (someone who has to ask the kids which buttons to push to record a TV show) that was exciting.  Mind you, I have programmable thermostats and in terms of ease-of-use have found them to be about as intuitive as a Rubik’s cube.  I hate them.  So when the folks from Nest told me that the Nest learns your habits and programs itself for the efficiency given these habits, I was pretty intrigued.

It’s all about the algorithms – a fancy word that doesn’t get used too much in daily conversation.  Suffice to say that these are mathematical calculations that sort of “automate” reasoning.  In terms of the Nest, think of it as a brain that monitors how you adjust the temperature settings on the thermostat for a couple of weeks, senses your occupancy patterns and comfort preferences, and decides, “Oh – no one seems to be here between the hours of 7:30AM and 5:30PM, so I’m going to back off the heating or cooling during this period to save these hardworking folks some money.”

That is what the Nest is supposed to do, learn your occupancy and comfort patterns, and seek out energy saving opportunities without compromising comfort.

Nest Reviews
I loved the concept and felt my cool factor surge just goofing with it at the show.  But I’m a realist and know that cool “is” only so far as cool “does” so I couldn’t help but dig a little deeper to see what some actual users were saying about the Nest.

It was interesting.  Users seemed to love the look and found it to be just as easy to install as promised.  In some cases, however, enthusiasm started to wane in terms of actual performance.  It seems the Nest’s isn’t quite as ‘intuitive’ about the habits and comfort preferences of homeowners as some anticipated.

I am hoping these kinks, which I think are natural for any new product introduction, will be addressed and resolved, either through better user support and instruction, or by tweaking those pesky algorithms.  I want one, but I’m not rushing to buy one.  Speaking of which, they are a bit pricy for a thermostat at $250.00 a piece.  Would that discourage me from buying one if does everything they say it does?  Heck no!  I’m just looking for a few more field reports before I leap.

In the meantime, I’m waiting for a couple of homeowners to step forward and tell me about their experiences with the Nest.  We’d love to publish a thorough homeowner’s report.   Any takers?

But back to the “Mirror, mirror” question….

About a year ago I wrote about another thermostat I encountered at last year’s AHR Expo, the Ecobee.  The Ecobee doesn’t program itself, but it sure is easy to program.  And, like the Nest, it has sophisticated remote capability, meaning you can access it completely via the internet if you are the nerdy, control freak that many of us are these days.  Anyway, when I started researching reviews on the Nest, I instantly started seeing a lot of comparisons with the Ecobee.

The Nest is sleek and attractive in a minimalist sort of way.  The Ecobee is cute and cheerful in a Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island sort of way.   The question is, which one do you think has the most visual appeal?  Cast your votes in the comments section below.  And may the sexiest thermostat win!

Our culture LOVES convenience: Clap on Clap Off, drive-thru, timers, DVR. We can’t wait for the next great invention. I wonder why, after a century of popularity, “convenience” hasn’t made our lives more stress free.  And then there are the “disposables”: wipes, brooms, contacts, razors, forks, plates, underwear…spouses.  Why, the medical industry alone has made disposable a veritable quest. The only thing my doctor touches me with that is reusable is his stethoscope. Even that thingy-majiggy used to check my ears has a disposable liner.

It you’re going to live green you’re going to have to make it convenient because the last thing Mother Nature wants to be is your greatest burden. Since our society has not made environmental living the easier choice that leaves us holding the recycle bag.

Recycling-Easy as 1, 2, 3… and 4?
On a recent survey I was surprised by the number of people who listed “recycling” as the number one thing they could do to improve their lives. Luckily, it’s one of the easiest green habits to pick up.

When I lived in Austin, Texas, recycling was the more expensive, time-consuming choice. This discouraged residents to line the streets with green buckets. Our waste management company was excessively finicky. They would only accept specific plastics and certain colors of glass. The only paper we could recycle was newspaper and office paper. That’s great, unless you enjoy eating.  The vast majority of our total waste was paper/plastic food packaging. So I set up a large cardboard box next to the trash in our walk-in pantry. Every week I would load it into the back of my van and drive it to one of the community recycling dumpsters. I admit, as I drove to the bin I’d ask myself, “Is the amount of fuel and personal energy I’m using to recycle this stuff completely obliterating the benefits of doing it?”  So I made a conscious (living green requires a bit of that) effort to haul the box only when I was driving in that direction.

If you don’t have a great city recycling program (or no recycling program) you’re going to have to get creative. Decide what you are willing to recycle over time because the goal is to make it habitual. This is not a short term goal. After that, you can establish a system that will require the least amount of energy and effort. Remember that composting your biodegradables on your own is a valid option.

The Art of Recycling
Mother Nature must have taken pity on me; before I knew it we were moving to the San Francisco area. Now California knows the art of recycling. They’ve made it a veritable quest. Our home came with four waste cans, the smallest of which (17 gallons) is for the actual trash. If we had wanted a bigger trash can we had to pay significantly more for it. Recycling is the cheaper option here.

One of the cans is designated for biodegradable waste (grass, weeds, meat, moldy cheese). Another can is for ALL recyclables (all plastic, glass and paper) while the fourth can is for aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles. California charges a nickel for every can/bottle which you get back when you return them to a recycling center.

The problem became clear before we had our first moving box unpacked. How were we going to sort our trash without running outside every time to do it? I was unwilling to run my wine bottle out to the recycle can at midnight and my cantaloupe peels to the organic can seven hours later.

We needed four trash cans in our kitchen.

The Set Up
Because most builders are not installing a recycling station in the kitchen we had to construct our own out of the broom cupboard. We put two 13 gallon cans on the bottom, one for the recyclables and one for the actual trash. Then we installed a shelf to hold a smaller box (we bought a cat liter box for its open side) for all the aluminum/plastic/glass.  The kitchen compost pail is next to our sink, above the dishwasher for easy plate scraping.  It took us (and our guests) less than a day for this system to become mindless; the only way to live green.

Have you come up with a recycling system that works well for you? Did you have to convert a space in your home for a sorting center? We’d love to hear you ideas.  Just email Greenpsiration Home publisher, Trish Holder, at trish@greenspirationhome.com.

Monica Wilcox blogs regularly for Care2.com, OwningPink.com, and FemCentral.com. Her work has been featured in Parent: Wise Magazine and on McSweeney’s.net. She loves to write about the environment, women’s issues and anything woo-woo. When she’s not hashing over her first novel, she’s raising her kids, snuggling her husband and chasing down the family beagle. You can find more of her work at FemmeTales.com.

All that said, I know that some people simply will not be dissuaded from their love affair with granite.   And that being the case, I’d like to offer up a more environmentally responsible option:  Scrap.

Why not use a smaller-size piece of granite from the scrap yard of a local countertop fabricator as the top for a bathroom vanity?  Better yet, why not pop this scrap piece of granite, which might otherwise be bound for a landfill, atop a used dresser? Perhaps one you find at a yard sale or something collecting dust in your attic?

That’s what I did and I love it.

A Bright (Green) Idea
For my own powder room I chose to use an old chest of drawers as a bathroom cabinet – one that had a peeling wood veneer top, the restoration of which was beyond what either my husband or I was realistically capable.

We didn’t have the need or the space for this piece of family furniture, but it was sentimental to my husband and no amount of nagging would convince him to get rid of it.  So when we built the Greenspiration Home, someone (I can’t remember who) had a brainstorm and decided it would make a great vanity for our downstairs powder room.

This was not a big deal — something you will very rarely hear me say when it comes to matters of home construction or renovation.   We simply got our countertop contractor to cut a piece of scrap granite to size and then install it on the chest.  All they needed was the specifications for the sink that we had chosen so they could cut the appropriate size hole in the granite.

A Little Granite Goes a Long Way
I chose a lovely piece of Rainforest Green granite, which I found in my countertop contractor’s scrap yard.  We had the piece cut to fit atop the old chest of drawers, which we painted to avoid the nightmare of stripping.  Easy.

Rainforest granite, by the way, is an unbelievably rich looking piece of material.  Like a sliver of cheesecake, a little goes a long way.  The end result is a lovely powder room vanity that isn’t like anyone else’s in the entire world.

So let’s review:

• I avoided the cost of fabricated or custom cabinetry for my powder room.
• I used an old piece of furniture that was taking up space (and creating marital strife) in my home.
• I got to indulge in a little bit of granite without feeling responsible for the embodied energy that it takes to transport an entire slab across the ocean.
• I have a wonderfully unique looking powder room vanity that gives me pleasure and pride each time I enter the room.  Plus, I get tons of compliments on the piece.

Call me crazy, but I think I ‘done good.’

How about you?  Have you had great success using scrap granite for a home décor project?  I’d love to hear from you.  Contact me at mailto:trish@greenspirationhome.com

2010 Jan.21,Bathroom renovation. by gardener41, on Flickr

1. An improperly installed shower liner had left the area beneath the shower floor and all surrounding areas exposed to excessive (you could say buckets) of moisture.
2. The tile in the shower had been applied directly to sheetrock instead of cement board – a big no-no.

There was no question that Fred and/or his crew was at fault.  As Madeline described it, a “sickened look” came over the contractor’s face when he saw what lay below and behind the shower tiles.  He saw the problem immediately.

Now, Fred knew how to complete a proper shower install.  The problem was, one or more of his hired help didn’t, and it was at this crucial juncture that Fred had his back turned. The result was tens of thousands dollars of mold and structural damage.

Time to Buy A Lottery Ticket, Madeline
Now here’s where I’m going to interject and say that Madeline, despite the fact that one part of her home was completely infested by mold, is one of the luckiest homeowners I know.

Why? Because her contractor acknowledged his mistake, and, without a fight, agreed to fix it.  This meant committing himself and his crew to 8 hours a day of labor for over 2 months.

During that time Fred replaced every bit of damaged or wet structural material, including floor joists, wall studs, subfloor, wood floors, drywall, cabinetry and closet space.  He also completely reinstalled the shower, waterproofing, tile, and all.

“Do you know how lucky you were?” I asked.

She did.  The mold remediator who inspected the damage and consulted with Fred, left no doubt in her mind how lucky she was.   When this type of problems occurs, he said (and it occurs “a lot”), homeowners are almost always left holding the bag.  Some homeowners end up in a legal battle with the contractor to recoup the restoration cost but it is always a long, hard fight that is ultimately hard to win.  Most homeowners just give up.

Fortunately, Madeline was spared this nightmare.  Her bathroom and all the areas surrounding it were completely restored at no cost to her, and she and her contractor remain friends to this day.

What Have We Learned?
So, what are the lessons here?  Only hire contractors that are close personal friends?  No!  Friendships tend to become pretty tenuous when thousands of dollars are involved.  Friendship has nothing to do with it.

If you want to avoid what happened to Madeline, show this article to your contractor and let him know that you read it twice and that you will be photographing your bathroom and shower installation throughout the process – particularly the waterproofing stages.  If he shows any signs of resistance to this level of scrutiny, rethink your decision to hire him.  A good contractor won’t have a problem with it – in fact he’ll be happy that you know the difference between good work and bad work.

Finally, be willing to pay for quality work.  The cheapest price is not always the cheapest long-term solution.  In fact, when it comes to home construction, it rarely is.  The $1000.00 dollars you save on a home renovation, may become the $20,000.00 you spend to fix the problem created by that renovation.  Think beyond the price.  And never ever underestimate the damage that water can do to your home!

Photo by PhotoDu.de, on Flickr

After getting some idea of the magnitude of the mold growth problem in her home, Madeline’s first scream for help was to the insurance company.

“Does our insurance cover mold damage?” she asked.

“Mold?” replied the adjuster.  “Oh no.  You have no mold coverage.”

(Gulp.)

Here’s an important factoid for homeowners.  Most homeowners’ policies do not cover mold damage – at least not from a prolonged or overlooked moisture problem.  They typically cover mold damage that results from a single, catastrophic event such as a pipe bursting and the resulting flood, but not a gradual condition.

What Lies Beneath….
Madeline’s next call was to the contractor – a trusted friend of the family – who had renovated her master bathroom 10 years earlier.  We’ll call him “Fred.”

“He didn’t want to believe that the water was coming from the shower.  He really believed there had to be another explanation.  But I made him knock out part of the shower wall so we could see what was happening when the shower was turned on.  That’s when we saw water pouring into the wall.”

It didn’t take Fred long to see what the problem was – two problems to be exact.  And the look on his face told Madeline that he was, himself, sickened by what he saw.

First, upon dismantling the shower, it was discovered that the shower liner (an essential part of a tiled shower installation) was cut short on one side – the side adjacent to the bedroom with mold on the wall.

A properly installed shower liner in a new construction home.

Shower liners are flexible, waterproof sheet membranes, typically PVC (poly-vinyl chloride) that are installed above the subfloor of a shower.  A layer of cement mortar goes over the liner, followed by the tile – the only part the homeowner will typically ever see.

Liners should be cut to size so that they come up the sidewalls of the shower to a point that is above the shower curb – usually 5 inches.  If this isn’t done, trouble will most certainly follow because (drum roll, please) tiled showers are not are not waterproof, they are water-repellent. Let me say that again.  TILED SHOWERS ARE NOT WATERPROOF!  Thus, the mortar beneath the tile floor where your little tootsies are, is typically wet, even saturated most of the time, assuming the shower is used regularly, which Madeline’s was.

The role of the shower liner is to catch the water transferring through the tile floor and direct it down the shower drainpipe.  If, however, that liner is cut too short, water can and will spill over into the adjacent wall space – which is exactly what Madeline and Fred saw when they turned on the water in the partially dismantled shower.  I believe the word Madeline used, was “waterfall.”

But a short-cropped liner wasn’t the only installation sin here.  The tile had been installed directly onto drywall instead of cement board, which is what should be used behind a tiled shower wall.  Keep in mind that drywall is basically paper.  And what happens to paper when it gets wet?  It soaks the moisture up and breaks down.

In short, there was nothing of any substance in the shower to stop this daily flow of water between the shower and the wall space.  It was, however soaked up by every bit of porous material it encountered, including wall studs, floor joists, wood flooring, etc.  Madeline didn’t realize it, but this area of her home was not only moldy, it had become unstable.

A Sad and Scary Truth
This is a lousy thing to lay on homeowners, most of whom never give much thought to their beautifully tiled showers except …well…to admire how beautiful they are.  But what happened to Madeline happens all the time.  The only thing that is unusual about Madeline’s situation is that it took her nearly 10 years to discover.

However, if you spend as much time as I do eavesdropping on conversations between people in the construction industry, you’d realize how common this problem is.  Plumbers know it, builders know it, mold remediators know it, tile installers know it, and unfortunately many homeowners know about it too, only they usually find out too late.

So, there was Madeline, face-to-face with a contractor, a trusted friend, wondering what would happen next.

To be continued…

Photo by PhotoDu.de, on Flickr

“Trish, there were mold hairs on the closet wall that were as long as my finger,” she said, her face contorting in displeasure as though she were recalling a gruesome crime scene.

I tried to visualize what “Big Mold” might look like, making a mental magnification of the worst refrigerator discoveries of my life.  All I could think was I never wanted to see such a site in person – and certainly not growing on the walls of my home.

Who was this unfortunate homeowner with a fuzz factory growing inside a closet?  She prefers to remain anonymous, but for the sake of this article we’ll call her Madeline.

The “M” Word
People are funny like that when it comes to discussing mold problems in their home.  When I asked this homeowner if she would write a guest blog for Greenspiration Home she looked at me as though I had mold growing out of my own ears.

“Are you out of your mind?  I want to sell this house one day!”

You see, mold is to the home as “cancer” is to the human body.  It is something that everyone fears and many will experience, but few like to talk about.

But don’t be fooled by the lack of open conversation about the dreaded “M” word.  Off hand I can think of at least four or five homeowners I have personally known who have had catastrophic mold and moisture problems in their homes.  By “catastrophic” I mean to the tune of mushrooms popping up through the carpeting.  A few of these homeowners were construction professionals themselves and they were as blindsided as anyone else.

Madeline’s Mold Story
Madeline owns a nice suburban home with a large, luxurious master bathroom, which had been expanded and renovated 10 years prior to her unappetizing discovery.   Adjacent to this bathroom is a bedroom, once occupied by her teenage son.

One day Madeline noticed that the wood floor in her son’s bedroom had started to warp and buckle – a fact that was partially obscured by an area rug.  The warped floor prompted Madeline to push aside a chest of drawers that happen to be on the other side of the wall from the master bathroom.  The wall behind the chest was covered in mold.

The discovery got worse.  Still trying to wrap her brain around just how bad this problem was, Madeline went downstairs to a large sewing room below the bedroom.  She flung open the doors of a closet that sat directly below her son’s bedroom and began pulling back boxes of toys that were stored there for the grandchildren.

There it was – a solid wall of mold with filaments as long as a grown woman’s finger.   Boxes that probably had not been moved for years obscured the mold and the extreme dampness.

Frantically, Madeline wondered where could all this moisture be coming from?  There were no visible signs of a roof leak upstairs and the sewing room was next to the garage, so it was unlikely that this moisture could be coming from the outside.  Eventually, Madeline had to face the facts.  The water had to be coming from the shower in her beautifully renovated master bath.

Oddly, the shower itself showed no signs of trouble — that is until Madeline pressed her hand against the custom tile work inside the shower stall and felt the wall move beneath her hand….

To Be Continued…

Presumably they were making a lot of money or hoped to do so.  Sprayed foam insulation is very expensive.  Some of these folks were new franchisees, builders, and/or other types of contractors looking to add some extra income.  I didn’t think much of it at the time.  I was still trying to choose between open and closed-cell foam.  (That debate rages on but interestingly has become less heated since most installers now seem to offer both.)

In the end, I chose closed-cell, the more expensive of the two, and as best I can tell after 3 years of living in this home, all has gone well.  My home is undeniably well insulated.  On mild winter days (say a high of 50°F) my heat pump rarely comes on at all. I’m satisfied with my energy bills for this 3200 sq. ft. all electric house and our electric bill rarely exceeds $150.00.  Sometimes it’s much lower.

A Word of Caution
I was present when my contractor applied the spray foam to the exterior wall cavities of my home.  It was pretty interesting to watch this cake batter like substance puff up and harden before my eyes.

I remember being surprised that the fumes were relatively low – not really bothersome to me even during the application.  I was surprised because a few months earlier I was at another under-construction home during a spray foam installation, also closed-cell and the fumes were so overwhelming that to this day I worry if what I inhaled that day may one day manifest itself as cancer.

Two very different experiences to be sure – had by me.

More recently, other homeowners throughout the country have come forward with some very bad experiences with sprayed foam.  Financially, these experiences have been catastrophic.  Imagine building and moving into your dream home, only to be plagued and sickened by a persistent fishy smell that just won’t go away.  These incidents are real. These homes are unlivable and salvaging them means a lot of deconstruction and, at a minimum, a painstaking removal of all foam and residue that would be something akin to using a toothpick to remove dried cheese and tomato sauce from a lasagna pan.  You and I both know you’d throw that pan out.  But this is a home.

So think about it.  Do you think the builder, the installer, or the manufacturer is standing in line to fix this?  No.  Trust me.  Finding accountability in cases like these is like flushing a rattlesnake out of a 1000-acre preserve with a posse of two – you and your lawyer.  Better hope he’s not afraid of reptiles.

Get Educated About Sprayed Foam Applications
It has been determined that these situations occur because of one of two reasons. The installer sprayed the foam too thickly or the chemicals were not heated to the correct temperature before they were sprayed.  That, and proper ventilation measures were not taken at the time of installation.  These cases are rare, perhaps even less that 1% of all jobs, but given the nightmarish consequences for homeowners, they are plenty cause for concern.

You want the fabulous efficiency benefits of sprayed foam insulation?  Fine, but do yourself and your family a favor.  Get educated and proceed with caution at every juncture.

Never ever assume your contractor knows what he or she is doing.   Nice guys make mistakes too.   I urge all homeowners to read this article, Spray Foam Jobs With Lingering Odor Problems, written by Martin Holladay of GreenBuildingAdvisor.com. The article does a fantastic job explaining the problem and what precautionary measures should be taken.  Also, read the comments posted to this article by construction professionals speaking candidly on this topic.   You’ll get a great overview of the dynamics of this topic.  As Mr. Holladay writes:

“….the stories I heard from homeowners with odor problems were a wake-up call.  The bottom line is: know the credentials of your contractor, and weigh the risks of failure against the benefits you hope to achieve.”

Remember, it’s your home, your money, and the health and safety of your family that’s at stake.

Several months ago, the sawdust hit the fan when it was discovered that Shanghai-based retailer, Da Vinci Furniture had been making its supposedly Italian-made furniture in China.  To make matters worse, Da Vinci was charging the same high-end prices for substandard furniture made of questionable materials.   A little investigation revealed a hideous and not-so-creative cover-up that could only be worthy of soap opera drama.  Young and the Restless writers, are you listening?

So let me summarize this for you:  Affluent Chinese consumers were ticked off to find they had paid good money for furniture made in China. Does anyone else see the irony here?

There was and continues to be a lot of hullabaloo over the controversy.  Simply Google “Da Vinci Furniture Shanghai” and you’ll get some idea.  The story originally broke in July 2011 and news is still trickling in.  As recently as a few days ago the China Daily reported that Da Vinci was fined 1.33 million yuan ($211,777) – a sum that many argue was but a slap on the hand for this level of consumer deception.

Most Retailers Not Going Out on a Limb for American Consumers
Several months ago Tom Russell, an associate editor of Furniture Today reporting on the story wrote, “Chinese consumers are pretty savvy folks who demand truth in labeling.”

Is there a message there for U.S. consumers?  Do we care where anything comes from any more?

I know I do, and I know a lot of people tell me they do as well.  But I also hear many homebuilders, manufacturers, retailers, marketers, etc. they say that U.S. consumers (meaning you and me) don’t care – as long as the price is right.  The implied message here is that until most consumers start demanding American made building materials and home décor items, these folks aren’t going to go out on a limb for “savvy” Americans who do care.   And if my shopping experience this Christmas is any indication, they are staying true to their word.  Most retailers are decidedly not going out on a limb.  A recent shopping trip to various home goods retailers, both large and small, convinced me of this.  I couldn’t find a single thing that was made in the U.S. or Canada at TJ Maxx, and nothing more than some handmade earrings at a local home décor and gift shop.

Would it really destroy the profit margin of these businesses to stock just a few American made goods?  How else are we to learn how to discern the difference in quality, as clearly the “savvy” Chinese have learned to do?

Having the “You-Know-What’s” to Go Out on a Limb
I have to wonder, what do Chinese consumers think of American consumers?  Are they laughing their butts off?  If I were them, I’d have to chuckle.  Our own manufacturing practices meet the highest standards in the world, but instead of supporting our economy and investing in quality, we continue to buy cheap crap from other places.  Presumably so we can have as much cheap crap as possible.

But what is a consumer to do when there are no other choices?  Well, you’re on your own when it comes to clothes, shoes, and electronics; can’t help you there.  However, I can help you find home décor goods that are made in the US.  In fact, Greenspiration Home has invested time and money in an initiative to introduce consumers to more American made choices for their homes. It is called our American Made Décor Pick-Week campaign.  Each week we scour the internet for American made (and preferably environmentally responsible) home décor items that really catch our eye.  We interview the companies and write a news release about our pick and distribute it through our own paid newswire service and various social media.  Some of these releases get over a thousand reads.

Are these companies advertisers on Greenspiration Home?  No.  But we’re betting that at least a few will become advertisers.  After all, we’ve stepped out on a limb for them because educating American consumers about domestically sourced home materials and goods is a big part of who we are.

Win or lose, at least we had the “you-know-what’s” to gamble on something we believe in.   The question remains:  Do you?

Well, I did it.  I presented my niece and her new husband with their wedding gift – and can now unveil this American made treasure to my audience.  It is a limited edition art print by North Carolina artist, William Mangum, called “Gentle Passage.”  It is a painting of a North Carolina intracoastal waterway and a scene that is so very familiar to me.  Hopefully it will bring my niece fond memories of the many vacations our family has shared on the Carolina coast.

This particular scene makes me think of that tired but happy sojourn to find a good seafood restaurant after a full day on the beach.   Crossing the bridge to the mainland on any North or South Carolina beach, you can look back over your shoulder and see a scene just like this.  It is a very different coastline from that of San Francisco where my niece lives.  I like to think of her having a piece of home hanging on her wall.

Mindful Shopping = Soulful Giving
I promised myself I would enjoy the process of finding the perfect American made wedding gift and I did. I had a few simple criteria for selecting this gift.  I wanted to find something that was made in the U.S. – preferably North Carolina — and something that would impart a strong connection with home.  I wanted it to have value but by that I don’t necessarily mean financial value.  Rather, I wanted it to be something my niece would want to pass on to her children.

I found this print with the help of my dear friend, Joy Ross, who is the Gallery Director at the William Mangum Fine Art in Greensboro, NC.  So not only did I find what I believed to be the perfect gift, I had the pleasure of giving a local business and friend some business.

The selection of this gift provided a great “kickstart” to my holiday season. I think I’ve enjoyed “giving” more this year than ever.  And it all started because I wanted to find that special American made wedding gift.  I couldn’t do it with every Christmas gift I purchased this year, but I did it when I could.  Hopefully, through Greenspiration Home’s continued emphasis on American made building materials and décor products for the home, we’ve inspired a few of you to do the same this holiday.