Kat’s Arts Blog

Building a new house presents many opportunities. We are looking forward to a space that is designed just for us, with areas for all our projects and lifestyle. We are also thinking about how to make our new home “low impact” on the environment. Choosing materials and construction methods and designs that take into consideration ways to avoid wasteful practices is one of our goals.

So, what kinds of resources are we aiming to conserve? First of all, water. Even though here in central Texas last week we had altogether too much water, that flood followed several years of drought. And according to the Texas A&M Agricultural Extension, “In urban areas of Texas about 25 percent of the water supply is used for landscape and garden watering.” So, one focus needs to be on how to design the landscape of our yard to conserve water, using xeriscape methods. (Xeri- means “dry” but modern xeriscaping is not all cactus and rock. More on this later.) Since we will be buying new appliances, we can shop for some that use less water than others. Right away we are thinking of getting a dish drawer from Fisher & Paykel, like we have in the RV, since we know from experience it is low-water and low-noise but very efficient.

The clothes washer is another potential water-hog. The little (half-sized) Italian 110v. model we have in the RV seems to use a lot of water, even though it doesn’t use much electricity. It also takes forever to dry because of the low wattage. So, I have some research to do there.

But before we pick out appliances, we need to decide what kinds of building materials to use. We have looked at ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) construction, using forms created from recycled polystyrene, and some that don’t use polystyrene. Then there are more traditional blocks, or frame, or… Obviously, more research is needed, on these subjects and more. To keep up with what we’re discovering, be sure to visit often. I’ve love to hear about your experiences and ideas, too!

In my last post I mentioned that Phil and I are planning to build a house soon. Naturally, as an inveterate blogger, I plan to write about the process, but aside from one entry on my techie blog that mainly discusses how I generated a presentation of our plan, I have not yet started to discuss it online. For one thing, I have had a hard time deciding which of my blogs would be a suitable venue for such content, or maybe should I start yet another one? That would be really excessive since I can’t keep up with the four active blogs I have now. And since architecture and decorating are after all arts, I decided to write about it here.

The things I plan to write about include the house, workshop and garage design, including the xeriscape landscaping we have in mind, the “green” building techniques and materials we are considering, and everything else that goes into planning a new home. In case you haven’t been following my comments on Twitter about it, I should mention that the home site is in the Texas Hill Country, near Canyon Lake. In light of the flash flood here last week, one of the design decisions to cover might well be how to plan to prevent damage from similar events in the future. And while floods and xeriscape design might seem contradictory, they really aren’t. Both semi-arid and disasterously wet conditions are possibilities here at various times, so they have to be taken into consideration.

I won’t be neglecting the other “arts” included in this website. For one thing, there are already photos of our building site in the gallery’s landscape section here, and as for jewelry design, that has to be done somewhere. Designing a really practical workshop with areas for various craft techniques is certainly one of the aspects of this whole enterprise that has me excited.

Along with expanding the scope of this blog, I’m adding another element to the website: ads. I’m working on a policy statement about them that will become a permanent page on the site, but don’t be too surprised to see ads for a lot of home decor products, and possibly more. They do not constitute paid endorsements — I should be so lucky! But it is possible that we may use some of the products advertised here and if we do, I may write about them. When that happens, I will be sure to follow the FTC’s recent directive to inform you, my reader, about whatever commercial relationship exists between me and my advertisers, so you can judge for yourself whether I can be objective or not. While I think it highly unlikely any vendor will be willing to pay me enough to actually affect my judgement or comments, if you know about what’s going on you can make up your own mind. At this point, I feel like I ought to use the phrase “fair and balanced” …. Sorry, this isn’t a political blog. I just got carried away.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the addition. Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions anytime.