green home - Common Sense Home

12 Best Tips for Keeping Your House Cool without AC

July 2, 2018 by Amber Bradshaw 34 Comments

Summertime may bring many wonderful things but the extreme heat is not one of them. For many, using air conditioning is not affordable nor available. Here are some tips for keeping your house cool in the summer heat, with or without AC. We use these techniques in steamy South Carolina to reduce our air conditioning bill. Scroll down to see 12 ways to keep house cool without AC.

Note: See the post “Heat Stroke – Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention” for more tips on staying safe in high temperatures.

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Musty Smells in the House – Finding Them and Getting Rid of Them

February 12, 2018 by Laurie Neverman 8 Comments

If you have musty smells in the house or basement and want to get rid of them, the first thing you need to do is ask some questions. If my house is musty, do I have mold? Does my house get musty in summer? Does my house smell musty only when it rains, or only after I've been on vacation? Once you've narrowed down the symptoms, you can focus on eliminating the problem. The only lasting way to get rid of musty smells in the house is to find the source. In this post, we'll discuss sources of musty smells in the home and how to deal with them. [Read more…]

ICF Construction – What You Need to Know About an ICF Home

January 27, 2018 by Laurie Neverman 39 Comments

Back when we were researching our “forever home”, we chose ICF construction for a number of reasons. It's tough, energy efficient and should last a lifetime with minimal upkeep. In this post, I'll discuss:

what ICF construction is
how it differs from conventional construction
why we chose Insulated Concrete Forms
how much energy is saved (for heating and cooling) by using ICF construction
how an ICF home performs during emergencies
ICF costs
whether it's suitable for the do-it-yourselfer
what it's like living in the house
recommendations for potential ICF problem areas

Let's get started! [Read more…]

How to Get Rid of Ants Naturally & Why You Should Protect Outside Ants

July 10, 2015 by Laurie Neverman 24 Comments

I'm not quite sure when they moved in. First we were seeing one or two small black ants at a time. They were in the basement near the woodpile, so I thought they were coming from the wood. Then we started seeing an ant or two or three on the main floor, closer to the kitchen. I knew those weren't from the woodpile, and it was past time to do something about the ant problem.

How to Get Rid of Ants Naturally - 3 Ways to Control Ants Without Poisons, Inside and Outside - PLUS - reasons why your home may be getting invaded by bugs.

Borax/sugar water solution placed on a sour cream lid.

Like most of what I do around the home and yard, I wanted an ant control option that was as non-toxic as possible (except to the ants). I hit the laundry room and the pantry and made up the ant bait. I set one spoonful out in both locations, and the next time I checked, both of them were swarming with ants. Yuck! Thankfully, after a few days of frantic bait munching, the numbers have trickled to almost nothing, and our indoor ant problem should shortly be at an end. [Read more…]

Building an Eco Home – part 6 – the Deck, Cabinetry and Woodwork

November 10, 2012 by Laurie Neverman 3 Comments

The “Building an Eco Home” series is nine articles that were originally published in The Healthy Independent while we were in the process of building our current home. I have made only minor edits to include links and format for the online publishing. I will be discussing green building and remodeling in more detail in upcoming posts, so if you want to know more about a topic, please make a request.

Moving In!

Moving day finally arrived on June 22nd, 2005. After a flurry of packing and final push to make the house livable (there was no running water as of 6/20/05), we were in. The next two weeks continued to feature an array of craftsmen finishing odds and ends around the house, much to the surprise and dare I say dismay of our exchange student, Carlota. [Read more…]