The HTRC

The Homeowners & Trades Resource Center

Building Semi-Floating Shelves with Hidden Fasteners

A traditional “floating” shelf looks like the shelf (or slab of wood) simply sticking to the wall with no visible support. In most cases this is done with a specialty metal hanger mounted to the wall with two or more pins mortised into the shelf which are held in with a few screws from underneath. […]

Illinois GreenBuilt Home Tour 2015

This July 25th & 26th, marks the third year that the USGBC of Illinois has hosted the Green Built Home Tour & my second year participating. Just like last year there are 16 houses on the tour ranging from simple remodels, to custom houses integrating different “green” features. Looking for more cutting edge, some are achieving “net-zero” usage to one that is still […]

SkillsUSA 2015 – TeamWorks the Pics

This last week marked SkillsUSA 50th year with the Nationals (NLSC) now being held in Louisville, Kentucky. One of the nice things about this is that the TeamWorks event (a team of 4 – one carpenter, an electrician, a plumber & a mason work to complete a project in less than 2 days) isn’t being held a few miles […]

Condensed Gardening Checklist

This condensed checklist is derived from Monthly Home & Garden Maintenance checklists much like our Condensed Home Maintenance checklist. The catch as many know is that there are 15 “planting zones” in the US & our checklist was for Zone 4. In order to combat that issue we broke this up into specific zones – like pre & planting […]

BS4D: Breathing & Drying Out- two most overused terms

On the good news front it appears that the “but my house needs to breathe” argument is finally dead for most… Unfortunately though, a new “the wall assembly needs to breathe” &/or “dry out” are now becoming vogue. Shoot I am even guilty of using the term in the DER (Deep Energy Retrofit) Conversation piece I […]

FAQ: How quickly will my water heater…

I just drained my tank, how long will it take to heat up? How much hot water can I expect with my shower running? Will I have enough hot water with three teenage girls… These are just a few questions that revolve around just how well a water heater will actually perform based on your needs. In order […]

Droughts, Lawns, & Reducing Use

For four years most of California has been in drought status and yet they never instituted any reduction strategies until now. This has left many scrambling to not only see how much they are using now but also how to reduce. One of the quickest methods for most is to stop watering altogether or changing […]

Did Passive House US (PHIUS) just jump the shark?

For those that may not know, jumping the shark is a term to describe a pivotal moment when a television show begins to decline in quality. This term was originally coined when the Fonz jumped a shark in a Happy Days episode. While the US version of Passive House is not a TV show (hereby to be called PHIUS), it sure has had it’s share of drama […]

FAQ: Does my freezer really need to be kept at 0º?

What is the ideal temperature I should keep my freezer & refrigerator at; is it really 0º & 40º? Doesn’t “freezing” always mean things are frozen? I turn my thermostat up during the summer & down during the winter to save electricity, hmm can I raise the temperature of my freezer likewise to save? Recently I ran across this tidbit […]