I have to admit, my husband and I usually base our house renovation decisions on budget, artistry or simple nostalgia. But living green is all the rage these days and, for the sake of appearing hip, I’m going to write about us using yellow to be green.

Southern Yellow Pine, that is.

Recently my husband dismantled our “lovely” pantry (said with great facetiousness). This was the 8×9′ room we used as our kitchen for 20 years. The cabinetry was limited. And it was falling apart. But much it was constructed with clear Southern Yellow Pine, a strong, glorious wood that, believe me, you won’t find in your neighborhood Home Depot or Menards stores.

At one time, forests of  Southern Yellow Pine were prolific all along the southeastern coasts of North America. Also known as Longleaf Pine, this resinous wood was used by 19th century craftsmen for everything from furniture, flooring, woodwork and cabinetry, to the actual building construction.

Of course, we over-harvested and under-replenished. Why do we always do that?

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, the Longleaf Pine was “a once-abundant tree which has reduced in area of occupancy from 24 million ha to 1.6 million ha in 1985″ (from 59 million acres to 3.95 million acres). Thankfully, organizations such as the Longleaf Alliance are striving to restore such forests.

Nowadays, Southern Yellow Pine is a valuable treasure and we certainly don’t want to throw any out. That’s not how my husband does things anyway. Instead, he stripped the wood of it’s painted finish and used it as side and back pieces for our new kitchen cabinets.

We’re being green and we’re saving money. Best of all, we’re saving one more bit of our house’s heritage.

My husband’s dovetails are just so fine (joinery, that is…as in drawers). So fine is his craftsmanship, I felt it should be showcased with undermount drawer slides. We used the Accuride Extension Center Mount.

Well, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. The slides are fine in quality, however they just don’t allow the drawer to open enough. It’s like you’re losing a third of your drawer space. We used the drawers for about six months and decided we’d had enough.

So now we’ve switched to the Accuride Full-Access Undermount Slide. At $35.99 a drawer, they’re a bit pricier but definitely much nicer. We now have both form and function!

But, hey! I was searching online to link my slides for your easy reference and I found even more. Accuride has come out with its Eclipse Undermount Slide with “easy-close mechanism to prevent drawer slam and tolerance-absorbing design for flawless movement.” So says Rockler. For only a mere $59.99 a drawer.

My husband would probably love these slides since he finds my habit of not fully closing drawers quite irritating. Apparently, others love them as well. They’ve gotten pretty good reviews.

Oh well. Next time.

Pot filler faucets are one of many commercial kitchen items that have worked their way into today’s family kitchen. Located on the wall or countertop near the cooktop, a pot filler dispenses cold water and saves half the work of hauling it around the kitchen. It has a heavier flow than a conventional faucet and fills large pots considerably faster.

I wanted a pot filler because we do lots of home canning in the summer and I think filling a 33-quart kettle with water and lifting it out of the sink gets rather tedious. My husband wanted a pot filler because he thinks being called in from whatever he’s doing just to carry a kettle a mere seven feet from the sink to the stovetop gets rather tedious.

Turns out we both love our Danze Opulence pot filler. And not just for filling the canning kettle. We use it for cooking pasta, soup, vegetables and for measuring that one cup of water called for in a recipe. You name it, we use it every day. What’s especially nice is that it eliminates traffic jams at the sink when multiple people are cooking together, an activity our whole family does now that we have a large kitchen.

So what’s the debate with pot fillers?

Aside from cost, which varies greatly, the biggest concern people have is that the pot filler might leak—there is no sink beneath the faucet, after all. However, most pot filler faucets on today’s market have a double shut off valve, one at either end, and this serves to minimize damaging drips.

Aesthetics are another concern. People are doing some pretty artistic backsplashes these days and don’t like the idea of a wall-mount faucet interrupting the design. A perfect solution for this is the deck-mount, which also works well for islands and kitchen remodels where a wall-mount is impractical. In my opinion, the articulated extensions in both the wall and deck-mounts are art forms in themselves and look very, very cool.

And for those with technical concerns: there’s always the installation. I’m fortunate to have a handy husband that can do it all. He plumbed the one-half inch water line during our renovation process when the walls were completely gutted. He did the final installation and hook-up after we completed the backsplash. If your plumber or contractor is professional, he or she will certainly be qualified to install a pot filler in a variety of design situations.

Convenience. Safety. Cool factor. And most important: family togetherness.

I say there’s no debate at all!

The beautiful season of Christmas…

A new-fallen snow,
a brightly lit tree,
the joy in a child’s eyes,

Yet, none compare to the beauty
of our Savior’s grace,
his love for each of us.

Heating with wood warms you twice, once when you cut it and once again when you burn it.

Thus said Henry David Thoreau, or supposedly something to that effect. As a longtime wood-burning compatriot, I agree with his poetic words.

We’ve burned wood as our primary heat source for over 20 years. My husband grew up in a house heated solely with wood. Between the two of us, we’re qualified to say wood has a charm all it’s own. Its warmth and nurturing nature can’t be replicated with conventional oil, gas or electric. Perhaps even more charming is the huge savings it offers in fuel costs.

There are many options today for heating with wood. I have zero-tolerance for technical details, so I won’t go into any product comparisons. But, as mentioned above, HDT and I are like kindred spirits so instead, I’ll expound on the wood heating system we use and how it warms us twice.

Our Wood Heat

We live in a 1917, three-story, 2500 sq. ft. American Foursquare house. This doesn’t include the 1170 sq. ft. field stone basement because, needless to say, in a house this old you do as little basement living as possible.

Our heat is a combined furnace system of wood and LP gas generated by forced-air. The two furnaces sit side-by-side in a basement wood room. We burn wood for 95 percent of our heat and should the fire ever go out, the gas is ready to kick in.

Our setup is about 15 years old. By today’s standards, its likely not the most efficient and it certainly has some drawbacks. For example, someday we’d love to replace the dusty forced-air with radiant floor heating. But for now, our system suits us well enough because:

1. It’s located conveniently in the house yet the mess isn’t in our living space,
2. As a graphic designer, I work from home and can easily put another log on the fire,
3. My husband is dedicated to proper maintenance and cleaning (in winter he cleans the chimney once a month),
4. We have free access to “making wood,” which is field jargon for cutting wood.

So, even with this 15-year-old furnace system, what are our annual fuel costs? About $500. Five hundred dollars a year for LP gas, which includes the gas we use for our stove top and hot water heater.

Pretty sweet, eh? Yep, it is.

But wait. There’s a kicker (of course). This is where “heating with wood warms you twice” comes in.

The Real Cost of Wood

Wood isn’t free. You have to either buy it or make it, meaning you’ll pay for it one way or another.

Buying wood pretty much negates the idea of saving fuel costs. Depending on its availability, wood may or may not be cheaper than conventional fuel. Here in Wisconsin, a full cord of hardwood averages $200 on Craigslist. Comforting, nonetheless, is the fact that wood is a renewable resource compared to finite fossil fuels such as coal or gas. If managed right, burning wood can be environmentally beneficial.

We’re fortunate enough to be able to make our own wood. We have access to woodlots where each fall, winter and spring we cut enough dead and fallen trees for an ample supply. Well, I should clarify—my husband cuts the wood and, as is his nature, he continuously cuts enough to keep us warm well into the future. I simply help load it into the trailer, stack it, and later throw it into the basement through a wood chute. Yep, we handle our wood quite a few times.

Which leads me to the costs of making wood. Making enough wood to heat a home requires tools, time and labor.

A good chainsaw is a necessity. So is a means of transporting the wood from the woodlot to the burner. We also use a gas-operated log splitter, because as he-man as my husband is, splitting wood with a maul gets pretty tiresome after a while.

Time and labor? Well, yes.

If you’re one who has more productive things to do with your time or if you’re the least bit adverse to outdoor physical activity (hey, aren’t we all, at one time or another), consider that heating with wood may not right be for you.

That disclaimer aside, think of wood in more optimistic terms. Wood heat is warm and comforting. Making wood is cheaper than any gym membership. And spending time in the woods is a beautiful reminder of God’s creative hand.

Go for it!