It's easy to augment your existing windows to keep the heat in better, but some "window attachments" are better than others.

Try this little perceptual experiment now: look at yourself in a mirror (or your computer or phone camera). Then look at your left eye, and then your right eye, and then back and forth several times. What do you see?

If someone else is around, ask them to look at you, and look back and forth between your eyes.

What do you see? When you're looking at someone else moving their eyes back and forth, that's exactly what you see. But when you look at yourself in the mirror, you never see your eyes move. When I do this, I can see that my eyes are at a slightly different angle, and I can feel a tiny break in the string of perception when moving them, but I can never see my eyes move.

White cedar contains natural oils that protect the Maibec shingles on homes like this from insects, mold, and decay. Photo: Maibec Sidings

White cedar shingles protect a building from the elements, have a small environmental footprint, are easy to maintain, and they look good.

After a long summer of too much rain followed by too much heat, I am finally able start painting the clapboards on our house. The house desperately needs it, but I don't look forward to the prepping, scraping, caulking, and eventual painting. It got me thinking: what siding would I choose if I were starting over with a new home? (Hey, I can dream.) The answer was simple for me...white cedar shingles.

There are good ways to modify windows to prevent too much solar gain in the summer.

A few weeks ago I told a story in this space that was third-hand from Gordon Hayward. Well, a lot changed in the telling, and Gordon got back to me with what really happened.

Three aunts of a young man from Dorchester, Mass., came up to celebrate his graduation from a Vermont boarding school. They asked Gordon how anyone here ever slept at night: it was so dark and quiet that none of them got a wink. They thought there were at least three bears outside.

This brought up the story of the trip. The whole family, in three cars, left Dorchester in the evening heading for Florida. They got across the Tappan Zee Bridge and onto the New Jersey Turnpike when all of a sudden there were no more streetlights. They pulled into a gas station, had a confab and decided it was too dark--they couldn't proceed--and they turned around and drove home. The crucial detail that I got wrong, says Gordon: "No relative of mine would ever turn back from a dark night, I can assure you."

Should you replace your old windows? Using attachments can get more life out of them, and improve performance.

Most of us approach poorly performing old windows with a step-by-step exploration from one less-than-optimal fix to the next. Improving existing window performance shouldn't be that way, and it doesn't have to with new online resources.

Home Sweet Home

In 2000, my wife and I moved into a nearly 100-year old home in New England, equipped with the original wood single- paned double-hung windows. These windows were supported by some pretty typical window attachments: triple-track exterior aluminum storm windows and opaque vinyl interior roller shades.

By and large, the windows themselves operated pretty well. All the sashes raised, lowered, and locked (more than you can say for a lot of 100-year-old windows). But the storm windows and roller shades were another story.

Why isn't construction rebounding more? What is wrong with borrowing to get out of the Great Recession?

Once upon a time in a village there lived a wise old man. Legend had it that he could answer any question posed to him. A village boy hatched a plan to fool him. He caught a small bird, and approaching the wise old man with the bird in his hands, he asked, "Is this bird dead or alive?"  If the man said it was alive, the boy would secretly break its neck and then reveal it to be dead (or perhaps pining for the fjords). If the man said it was dead, the boy would release it alive from his hands.

To the boy's surprise, the wise man said, "It's in your hands. That bird's life is in your hands."

Not only can the earth no longer afford our petrochemical picnic cooler McMansions fueled by coal, oil, gas and nuclear power, but also, our psyches can no longer tolerate such exaggerated encapsulation.

[Editor's note: This the tenth and final piece in a set of reflections by Vermont builder Robert Riversong. Links to the other nine articles are below. Enjoy, and let us know what you think! – Tristan Roberts]

As Massachusetts investigates the causes of three house fires that ignited while insulation contractors were installing spray polyurethane foam (SPF), observers ask if SPF is being demonized.

As an insulation product, spray polyurethane foam (SPF) has many great attributes that we've talked about on this website: easy installation in irregular locations, air barrier qualities, and moisture management potential. Our publications and blog have also been active in covering some of the downsides of this product, including toxic emissions for workers and occupants under investigation by the EPA and the high global-warming potential of SPF. We have also been publishing a series of reflections by a builder who strongly favors more natural, breathable materials like cellulose.

Poetry used to be memorized, not written down, and handed from bard to bard, memory to memory, down through the generations. Perhaps folks out there have memorized poems back when schools taught such things, or for personal interest.

Not counting things I have written, I know only one poem by memory, written by David McCord. As proof, I will recite it for you here.

Epitaph on a Waiter

By and by
God caught his eye.

Water gets in through four pathways

Some things are inevitable. Like the Phillies beating the Red Sox in the World Series. And water getting into buildings. Water gets its way--or four ways, actually.

Water moves in, on, and through buildings through the following four paths. I'll go through these in order of magnitude--the most water is involved in the first path, and the least is involved in the fourth. That order is important because it helps us set management priorities.

LifeLine CS (blue flooring at left) non-porous surface is chemical resistant and won't support bacteria growth, making it a good choice for health care settings like this installation at Mercy Hospital.

The Finnish company Upofloor's PVC-free LifeLine CS resilient sheet flooring is made for heavy-duty commercial use, with a tough surface that doesn't require sealing or complicated maintenance.

Vinyl flooring is inexpensive, which has made it one of the most popular commercial flooring options, but it contains phthalates and other environmentally problematic chemicals, and it requires a lot of maintenance. Enter Upofloor's LifeLine CSsheet flooring (BuildingGreen Suite subscriber link). LifeLine CS is made primarily from limestone (over 60%) along with an ethylene/methacrylic acid copolymer thermoplastic, similar to Dupont's Surlyn.

Given how complex we've made our modern residential structures, it takes a hero to delve sufficiently into the mysteries of physics to confront and overcome the adversaries of heat, air and moisture and to transmute them into allies.

[Editor's note: Robert Riversong, a Vermont builder, continues his 10-part series of articles taking design and construction to what he sees as radical or "root" concerns. Enjoy--and please share your thoughts. – Tristan Roberts]