A few weeks ago I was listening to a home improvement show on the radio as I drove to the gym. The caller was looking for a natural stone floor that wasn’t as expensive as marble tile but had that look. The show host recommended travertine.

Sad to say, I wasn’t familiar with travertine. To my ears, it sounded like a manufactured or engineered building material, like Silestone (natural quartz combined with dyes and a bonding resin) or Corian (an acrylic polyester plastic developed by Dupont).

One advantage of Corian, a brilliant marketing move, is that it comes kosher right from the factory!

As it turns out, travertine is a beautiful natural stone that has been quarried and used in construction at least since the days of the Roman empire.
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What about Granite then?

Granite gets a lot of press today because it’s the hot thing. Granite and travertine are similar in appearance, and depending on the grade, can be comparable in price. One of the big differences is that granite isn’t as porous. Regardless, both should be sealed to protect the homeowner’s investment and the property equity.

Both stones have been widely used in construction at much cheaper prices than they are presented today for interior home floors and countertops. Part of this is pure marketing hype but part of it is justified.

Modern stone products prepared for interior floors and countertops are the most select specimens and the finishing is more labor intensive than what’s used for things like exterior building cladding or crushed granite running trails.

So there it is; just two more environmentally-friendly building material to choose from. Have fun.

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We’re now running down the checklist of fall and winter holidays. Halloween? Check. Veteran’s Day? Check. Thanksgiving? Coming up! Christmas? Can’t wait!

Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks to God for the Pilgrim’s survival and their friendship with the Indians who helped them out in the New World. Sadly, of late, liberal revisionist politically correct historians in the public school system have been pushing pioneer guilt down the throats of our children.

How pathetic. They teach how our forefathers were actually blood-thirsty barbarians bent on wresting this land from the native inhabitants by sword and blunderbuss. Guess what, Mr. Academic? It was a harsh world that called for harsh actions at times. The world then was not what it is now. Your lily-liver predecessors did not survive and we have been the better for it.

But let’s forget them; they’re rapidly making themselves irrelevant. What got us through those times was a sense of independence and self-reliability. Inventiveness and perseverance. So what does that have to do with this post?

Just this - this same spirit has stayed with us with the inventors, visionaries, and most of all, we DIY types. DIY skills rarely come simply from natural ability. Oh, that’s an element of it, but it goes much deeper. It’s a desire to discover, to rely on ourselves, and to say no to the nanny state. Let us not go in the direction of Europe; that same Europe that we abandoned to get out from under the heavy foot of tyranny.

So yes, Thanksgiving is the time to give thanks that we still celebrate that “Don’t tread on me” spirit. I can do it myself, or with the help of my neighbors and friends. So I say to the current administration, take your nanny state socialism, your ACORN crooks, and your arrogance back to Chicago.

We can take care of ourselves. We’re Pilgrims, OK?

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Why? Because some email clients filter out unknown domains. Ouch. Meanwhile, visit my main site by clicking on the banner below.

I don’t often wander too far from home improvement and woodworking topics in this blog, but today is a bit special. It only happens once a year.

I signed up for the Houston marathon in the wee hours this morning. They were supposed to begin online registration at midnight but it was an hour or so later than that.

Anyhow, the marathon and half-marathon will happen on January 17, 2010. Anyone that wants to register needs to hurry; they’ve been filling up fast for the past few years and this year is not expected to be any exception.

Even so, they’ve opened up the field to 22,000 runners. You get the registration t shirt and an Under Armor finisher’s shirt. Plus, there’s the usual amount of schlock available for sale if you want it. No doubt there will be plenty of running gear provided by the expo gypsies at the packet pick-up.

One thing I like about this marathon is where it’s located. It’s only about a 45 minute drive. What I don’t like is the unpredictable weather. I like racing in the cold, but not in the heat or freezing rain. Oh, well.

Anyhow, time to get training! I’ve been using Running Meditation MP3 when I run. The results are impressive. More energy and a better pace and more focus during intervals.

We haven’t heard that slogan much lately, although we should. With the instability engulfing that wonderful country of Iran, I hate to think about how much control that monkey Ahmadinejad has over oil transport.

Of course, I’m sure you loyal readers are thinking you clicked on the wrong blog. ICanFixUpMyHome is supposed to be about home improvement and repairs, not international politics and Fred Flintstone-like petro-tyrants.

The subject of drills came to mind yesterday morning, when I was lounging in the dentist’s chair on the business end of a root canal. Luckily, Dr. Blanchard has been my dentist for about 20 years, and he’s the best in the business.

Root Canals and Carpentry. Coincidence?

But boy, he wields a mean drill! Ever have a root canal? First the center of the tooth gets drilled out. I don’t think he used a DeWalt cordless drill, but that would have been cool. Next, he uses a series of little files to  clean out and shape the hole. Again, just like a DIY project.

Finally, he packs the hole with a filler. Kind of like applying wood putty. Again, like a DIY project.

Back to Electric Drills…

What kind of drill do you favor? This is not like the old days when the choice was either the manual “egg-beater” model so popular in wood shop (Fond memories of Balboa High School in the Canal Zone) or that corded electric solid steel model that weighed about 25 pounds.

No, today we have high quality cordless models with lightweight plastic bodies. And we’re no longer restricted to low voltage batteries with narrow windows between recharges. No more running around with extension cords.

Even powerful hammer drills abound for masonry work. I can’t tell you how many times my Makita hammer drill and a handfull of Tapcon screws have saved the day.

Anyhow, just to round out the topic and come full circle, call your representatives and Nancy Pelosi and here band of boneheads, and tell them, “Drill Here, Drill Now.”

If they won’t do it, let’s fire them. Who’s with me?

I got started on my home improvement project yesterday, and as usual, I was just a bit optimistic. I found out why I don’t install radiant barrier foil for a living. I did make a good dent on the job, but got nowhere near finishing.

If you look at the web sites of foil manufacturers, you’re likely to see guys walking around, merrily going about their task. Well, I’m here to tell you, it just ain’t so. At least not in my attic. Our living room has a vaulted ceiling. It’s nice to look at, but the framing makes negotiating the attic space a bit daunting.

All this “work” is seriously cutting into my running time. That stinks on ice.

Don’t get me wrong. I know this project will pay off. I already sprayed radiant barrier paint up there a few years ago, and that really cut my utility bills, but this Energy Q Thermal Barrier foil will block 97% of heat. So they tell me.

At $0.43 per square foot you can’t go wrong.


I’m also adding insulation as I go along. That part isn’t fun but it will also pay off. And the good thing is that all these materials are eligible for the energy tax credit. Not my labor cost, but I guess you can’t have everything.

Now I’ll have to update my homeowner’s insurance policy…

Solar panels seem to be one of those home improvement topics that rotates in and out of popularity. Kind of like efficient cars, eh? When the price of gas goes up everybody wants them. When it drops, here come the SUVs.

Solar panels are like that too. I don’t thing it’s so much a green thing than it is an economical issue. It might be a good time to give it a thought.

Part of Obama’s economic stimulus bill altered available tax credits. One of the changes was that the cap for solar panels went from $500 to $1500. That’s certainly an incentive.

That change also applies to fuel cells, geothermal heat cells, and electricity-producing wind turbines. Don’t try it with a solar water heater for heating your swimming pool, though; they didn’t make the cut. Obama wants to reduce your carbon footprint, but not when it comes to recreation.

Here’s another consideration as well. The administration is keeping it under the radar just now, but when they push in Cap and Trade legislation, your utility bills are going up. Way up. The Heritage Foundation estimates as much as 50%.

So, my outlook is that folks will start taking these things more seriously. And that means a bright business outlook for solar panel manufacturers and electrician installers.

A friend of mine asked me to write an article on the subject of green roof gardens the other day. She writes on gardening as I write on home improvement and sometimes we collaborate. It’s a good thing. It sounded interesting so I started digging into research.

I already knew something about the structural needs; when I worked at the Marriott hotel in the Houston Medical Center, we had a good sized indoor swimming pool on the fourth floor. It was supported by massive aluminum I-beams.

And imagine, it was right over the ballroom (third floor). Yikes! One night the graveyard shift engineer was making his rounds and saw that the jacuzzi was empty. He turned on the water to fill it up. What he didn’t realize was that the jets were removed for maintenance.

Long story short - he continued on his rounds. By the time he came back to check, there were about 200 gallons of water on the ballroom floor and the acoustical drop ceiling was ruined. Ouch!

Green roof gardens have similar structural requirements because of the weight load of the dirt. Traditionally, you had to have a flat roof to put one of these babies in. No longer; entrepreneurs have engineered modular systems that allow installation on sloped roofs.

Am I going to do one on my house? Nah; too much work, and I already have a garden on the ground. But if I was building a new home, you bet!

The answer to this question can boil down to a simple yes or no, but what might motivate you to go one way or the other? I do everything myself, partly because I enjoy it but here’s a few more reasons:

• I have the time to do it. As a self-employed freelance writer, I can pretty much make my own schedule.
• I don’t want to contribute to the illegal alien problem. No politicians will address the issue, not the Bush administration, and certainly not Obama or any of his cronies. The whole extended Houston area is a “sanctuary city” and very few lawn care service employees speak English.
• I’m cheap; uh, I mean thrifty. That’s still a virtue, right?

But if hiring a landscaping or lawn care company is for you, I recommend Angie’s List: Ratings, reviews and sometimes revenge. See what local homeowners say about the service companies they hire. Join now.
Last summer when my lawnmower finally gave up the ghost, I bought myself a Brill Razorcut reel lawnmower. You know, the kind with no motor? It works just as well and drinks no gasoline. And it’s quiet.

Recently I put in an organic raised bed garden and I can’t wait to get some homegrown tomatoes. I’m also going to put in more basil than I did last year. I just didn’t harvest enough to make as much pesto as I wanted. I wonder why fresh basil is so expensive in the store? it’s easy to grow.

In fact, I started some from seed a few weeks ago and I need to get them in the ground today. The 10 day forecast tells me that the temperature isn’t going to colder at night than 55 degrees F.

Since the weather has warmed up, I planted the tulips I gave my wife for out 15th anniversary. They’re just starting to bloom today. Purple ones.

And now that I think of it, I think I’ll wander outside and see if any more asparagus has come up…

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