Eco-Friendly Bathroom Renovation

My new eco-friendly bathroom is almost finished! My brother has taken a short hiatus from his woodworking to do the construction. My house was built in 1964 and most of the bathroom was original. The toilet was permanently stained, the counter was brown, white and beige flecks...it was pretty hideous.

Originally, the bathroom had a small window, but it leaked and was removed years ago. Now, it features two casement windows that together are 4' x 4' and take up most of the wall.

The bathroom is small. The toilet and sink area is 3' x 8' and the tub takes up an additional 3'x5' and extends the length of the bathroom. The window sits on the far side of the tub.

The messiest part of renovating is the demolition. The sheetrock dust gets everywhere and it is awful. My old Pug, Toast, just happened to wander into the bathroom when most of the demolition had occurred, but lots of dust remained. I found her in there and immediately scooped her up.

She began to cough and as the day progressed, it got worse. I took her to the vet and they had to give her antihistamines and kept her there to watch her. She also has a heart condition and that worsened as well and we had to increase her heart medication.

Fortunately, she got better and is now back to her sweet and adorable self. Thing is, I was careful--and I know better. Don't forget to keep your pets out of harm’s way when renovating!

Eco-Friendly Products
Tile: We used river rocks that were came in one-foot square tiles, as they were glued to a mesh backing. They are eco-friendly because they only needed to be extracted from the earth; no further manufacturing was required.
Soapstone Vanity top and Door Saddle: Mined in Vermont, the natural products were delivered by FedEx , thus saving on transportation fuels.
Good Quality Products: faucets, toilet, tub, and accessories meant to last a lifetime and stay out of landfill.
No Voc Paint
Energy Star Rated Fan/Light Fixture with CFL bulbs
Low-flush toilet by Toto: extra cool feature is 'softclose" lid--you simply tap closed the lid and it gently closes on itself!
Vanity: solid wood from sustainable choices, no outgassing. as would occur from manufactured wood products like particleboard.

I'm waiting for "Sparky" (Australian for electricians) to come and install lights and switch plates and my brother to do the final touches and then it's done!

I want to put photos up, but can't find installation CD for my digital camera for my new computer. The best feature is the river rock tiles. They are dark grey with blue/green tints and they are on floor, in front of tub and halfway up three walls. My brother made them so they flow--it's really cool.

We painted the un-tiled walls white with a blue tone that matches the tiles exactly and picked out towels in a slightly darker shade of white with blue tone.

Also, there is only a hand held spray to rinse after a bath, so no need for a curtain or shower door of any kind. Consequently, you see out the windows to my backyard. The windows frame the bird feeders and hemlocks and it is a beautiful sight.

I'll add photos when I can.

The tub is a Bain Ultra "Hydro-Therma Massage" bathtub. What that means is that it is like a whirlpool, only air is forced into tub to create bubbles and massage. It is the same size as a standard tub, but deep. It has the added feature of chromotherapy lights.

One note about water. usage. I used to believe that water should be only be used conservatively. However, I now believe that water should be used wisely--when there is an abundance of it (ie. reservoirs are full) it is OK to indulge a bit. I live in the Northeast and we have plenty of water now. I also have a well and it is full. In fact, part of my lawn is covered in water.

if I lived in an arid area, I would not take baths, or I would invest in a grey water system. Likewise, if we were experiencing drought conditions, I would not bathe, but take quick showers instead.

That said, with lots of water, I can enjoy guilt free baths! Last night, I put the dimmer switches on low for the two lights on either side of the vanity and lit two lavender scented soy candles around the tub. I also put some natural lavender bubble bath and sea salts in. I put the yellow chromotherapy light on and sat back...Got pretty hot, so I opened the window a bit. The dark river stones glistened in the light and I felt as if I were in an outdoor natural hot mineral spring! It was really nice.

Is Green Cleaning Romantic?

Do you know how many books are out there about green housekeeping? Annie B. Bond has two, Better Basics and Clean and Green. Deirdre Imus wrote Green This Volume I in 2007 and Volume II is due out later this month. There is Green Clean (2005), Naturally Clean Home (1999), Clean House Clean Planet (1997) Naturally Clean (2006). And a new batch of green cleaning books for 2008: Green Housekeeping, Green Up Your Cleanup, Green This Volume II, Squeaky Clean: The Method Guide to Cleaning Your Home and more.

And don't forget, even though it's not green, but almost five (5) POUND book by Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home.

Now, I am happy to see housecleaning books using green cleaning methods. But, do we really need so many books? Do you really need an entire book to help you clean your home? Is there some new romance about housecleaning and green?

I just don't get it. I devoted four (4) pages in my book, Harmonious Environment. to cleaning. I really don't see it as complicated, I guess. In fact, I further reduced the cleaning thing to a one (1) page chart: From Toxic to Safe and Healthy Cleaning Products Guide.

Some of the books mentioned have dozens of cleaning recipes for different tasks. What the heck for? You simply don't need them.

Virtually all of the books are written by women. Women, I dare say, that have way too much time on their hands. Unless that's the secret--people are "so busy" nowadays because they spend hours making ridiculous recipes and cleaning for hours.

I have a clean home and absolutely feel that it is important. But, I don't spend hours first being guided about how to clean my home and then hours more cleaning.

Another possible explanation for this green cleaning frenzy is that it is one of the simpler ways to green your lifestyle. This makes it a relatively simple book to write and could explain why there are so many of them out there. Since green cleaning is new for many people, I guess they want guidance.

I don't know. Green or not, I hate to clean.

For more information, go to Harmonious Environment.

Corned Beef from Fleisher's

This is the best corned beef I've ever had! I didn't make sandwiches (that's for today,) we ate the meat, cabbage that had the mild and delicious flavor of the meat brine and roasted potatoes, turnips and carrots with garlic. I was on a food high! For more musings on the corned beef, go here.

Corned beef and Cabbage with Roasted Vegetables
3lb Corned Beef
1 small head cabbage, quartered
Put enough water in a large pot to cover meat. when boiling, place meat in pot and cook one hour for every pound. Add cabbage last 20 minutes. Slice meat against grain.

For more information and roasted vegetable recipe, go to: http://www.harmoniousenvironment.com/Article%20Recipes.htm.

Natural Sugar Scrub by Irena Marchu

1 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup or less of natural coconut oil
1/2 cup of natural liquid soap
essential oils to suit

Mix all ingredients in small bowl. Spoon into
a jar. This recipe makes about 8 ounces. The oil will
settle on the top, just stir before use. This is
an invigorating scrub so rub gently. Not
recommended for faces. Essential oils like Citrus,
Sage, Rosemary or Mint can be used in a small amount.

Irena Marchu is owner and creator of body products at Ginger's Garden. See her website for a terrific assortment of natural body products.

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Choosing Eco-Friendly Light Bulbs

When shopping for a compact florescent bulbs (CFL's), the following is considered the standard equivalent for incandescent versus CFL. However, I have found this comparison to be a little off—that CFL’s tend to cast less light than their incandescent equivalents. However, because a watt is a watt, if your lamp indicates a maximum of one hundred watts, and a twenty watt bulb CFL isn’t bright enough, you can safely use a twenty-three CFL watt bulb.

Incandescent CFL
60 watts 11 watts
75 watts 18 watts
100 watts 20 watts
150 watts 23 watts

Natural-spectrum bulbs are another great choice, and they mimic natural sunlight and last thirty-five hundred hours. As the name implies, the light cast imitates the full-spectrum—or natural daylight—and so makes colors appear bright and true.

Recycling Refrigerators and Freezers

• Large appliances cannot be sent to a landfill and must be recycled. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that ninety-five percent of the materials in refrigerators and freezers can be recycled!
• Refrigerators and freezers manufactured before 2003 contain the ozone-depleting compound Freon.
• Refrigerators and freezers must be removed by a certified technician. To locate a certified company to pick up your appliance, contact your local government solid waste department, scrap shops or refrigerator repair shops.
• The EPA website lists recycling centers by zip code (see “Resources”).

The New – and Disimproved – Meaning of “Self-Publishing

This article was originally printed in PMA Independent , February 2008.

Not long ago, an issue of Publishers Weekly had numerous articles -- and eight-pages of ads from subsidy publishers, which included a four-page advertorial -- on how the book publishing world is changing.

The lead article -- “Can Small Press Distributing Survive?” -- cited both the recent demise of Book World Companies and National Book Network’s recent statement that it was phasing out Biblio, its small press distributor. (Biblio distributes my book and it’s in the clear until at least next September.)

In the meantime, Barnes and Noble just gave its online store a makeover and Borders released a beta version of its new site; B&N continues to be a major shareholder of iUniverse, and Amazon owns Booksurge. Books printed by subsidy presses like Booksurge and iUniverse rarely make it into bookstores. Clearly, Barnes and Noble didn’t become an iUniverse stockholder because it counted on money from store sales of iUniverse books; it did so because iUniverse makes money off the authors and the books sold online.

Online, buyers shop differently. With search words and listmania lists and other tools, they can and do find a wider variety of books, including books that would never fit into a physical store.

Online, B&N and Amazon know that there is a place for specialized books. So do the executives who have come from the traditional publishing world and other professions to run the modern vanity presses that have now hijacked the terms “self-publishing” and “self-publisher.”

Which leads me to the eight-page advertisement. Headed “Self-Publishing Comes of Age,” which includes four pages of text. The subhead on the ad insert says, “Leaving vanity behind, today’s top self-publishers achieve success and offer models for the future.”

The text then coyly suggests that this kind of “self-publishing” is profitable and smart for authors. “The category [self-publishing] once so aggressively cordoned off by other participants in the industry, has over the past decade turned into a booming market, drawing entrepreneurial investment and top editorial talent.”

After discussing how the term vanity press came to be and how authors used to spend lots of money with vanity presses only to have their books collect dust in their garages, the ad announces that now it’s all different. “Self-publishers” help authors market their books and make storing them unnecessary because copies can be produced one at a time with Print on Demand (POD). The ad also sites the Internet as a huge factor in getting these books into marketplaces—something I do agree with. But it really irks me that these subsidy publishers are using the term self-publisher—which they and their authors aren’t.

My company, Lingham Press, is a self-publisher. Now that the subsidy press has latched onto the term, though, it makes my company sound bad.

Enticing Unwary Authors

All of us true self-publishers aside, the worst threat from this advertorial is to naïve wannabe authors, who may fall for the idea they have two choices: publish with a traditional publisher or with a subsidy publisher.

Wannabe authors can get a bit of a reality check from a close reading of PW’s coverage. Some of my favorite lines:

“…there’s no guarantee of success—and the top providers have become savvy about keeping reality in check for their author, since referrals and satisfaction are critical to their business models.”

“… hopeful authors—who remain self-publishing companies’ primary revenue stream ...”

“Our sales of self-published authors are minimal overall, but some rare, self-published authors sell exceptionally well.”

“Today’s top self-publishing companies are heavily invested in the idea that a happy customer is a valuable customer, which leads to the management of expectations, along with the provision of services that can genuinely help author achieve success.” [Gosh, how swell are they!]

What ticks me off most about all this is the gleeful message that this “new model” of publishing is making oodles of money for cutting-edge “self-publishers” coupled with statements showing that only a fraction of the authors using it will have anything more than a trophy book.

Having read what the subsidy publishers wrote for the publishing world, I needed to read the ads they aim at authors. Looking through the current issue of Writer’s Digest, I noted how each publishing company offers something slightly different. (or uses phrases that make them appear to).

Outskirts Press allows authors to contribute to making their books by, for example, using their own cover designs. Lulu lets authors set their own prices. Trafford guarantees that its method is the best.

The only company honest enough to use the word subsidy was Vantage Press, established in 1949 and probably just getting over referring to itself as a vanity press.

Although I saw many ads for subsidy publishers in Writer’s Digest, I did not see any ads for book printers, graphic designers or book cover designers.

Again, the message to the uneducated aspiring author is: There are only two choices: publish with a traditional house or “self-publish” with a subsidy publisher.

The Real Alternatives

I find it interesting that there are seasoned author/publishers who agree with the statement that subsidy published authors are self-published. Some quick comparisons among three types of publishing companies will illuminate why they are not. Please note that hybrids exist, but these are the three main types.

Traditional Publishers

An author who signs a contract with a traditional publisher usually receives an advance against royalties. The publisher owns the ISBN, but the copyright is generally in the author’s name. The publisher pays for and makes decisions about the editing, cover, size, price, production and marketing of the book, and sales channels generally include book wholesalers and retailers, perhaps along with other conduits to readers.

Authors are expected to do a good deal of book promotion and publicity (although this is often not explained to them until it’s too late).

This general business model has not proven to be all that effective, as publishers often report losing money on the books they issue.

Subsidy Publishers

Authors who are accepted by subsidy publishers – and I’m estimating 99% of them are -- pay to have these companies publish their books and get royalties on copies sold.

The publisher generally owns the ISBN, but the copyright is in the author’s name. The author pays for all steps in the publishing process but the publisher makes most or all of the decisions about editing, cover, size, price, and production of the book, and sales channels are generally limited to the Internet and whatever routes to readers an author can use.

Authors are expected to do all or close to all of their own promotion and publicity. If a book sells exceptionally well, some subsidy publishers provide [is this free?I ‘m not sure] promotional services. (Wheatmark, for instance, does this for books that sell 2000 copies, which it says 1% of its books do. This is brilliant -- not only an attractive come-on, but also good business since if a subsidy book actually sells 2000 copies, it is in the publisher’s best interest to take advantage of the momentum.)

Unlike traditional publishers, subsidy publishers take no risks; they get paid up front for their services. And since they make money up front, there is no incentive to design a standout cover, or to be particularly careful about fixing typos and other glitches. If a book actually sells, the publisher makes even more money.

Self-Publishers

Self-publishing authors assume all responsibility for their books and get 100 percent of the profits. They also own their books’ ISBNs and copyrights; they pay for and make decisions about the editing, cover, size, price and production, and they can use a wide variety of sales channels, including but definitely not limited to the Web.

Self-publishers understand that they must do all their own marketing, including promotion and publicity. If a self-published book sells exceptionally well, traditional publishers may want to buy rights in the book from author/publisher.

Call Me Independent

I hope this comparison makes it clear that subsidy publishing is simply a way of doing business that requires payment from authors for publication of their books.

Subsidy publishers is not self-publishing but subsidy publishers have ruined the term self-publisher. From now on, I will be referring to myself as an independent publisher.

Norma Lehmeier Hartie’s first book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify & Energize Your Life, Your Home & Your Planet, is the Grand Prize Winner of the 15th Annual Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Awards and Finalist in ForeWord Magazine's and Nautilus Book of the Year Awards.
http://LinghamPress.com