A photographer's blog

The blog of a San Diego Photographer

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Go Green!

As some of you may know I have a new job installing counters because business is slow. I did it 5 years ago so it's not completely new. While doing this I get to see lots of people houses around the county. I even go out to Indio and Palm Springs. Everyday I am at at least one new house so I get to see a lot of homes.
The other day I went out to Portrero. Way the fuck out in the booneys. It was a retired woman that lived there with her husband. After they retired they decided to build a log cabin. It was a dream house kind of thing. It was pretty frickin cool. Solid logs. I was asking her about how she found information on it and what it's like and everything. She said it's so much better than an ordinary, 2x4's and drywall, house. It is more energy efficient because the logs retain temperature for hours upon hours.
I started thinking about how efficient that is. The sun warms the logs during the day and release it slowly all night. It's a very environmentally friendly house. But what about the logs.
The logs shrink 6 inches as the house settles. That means after you mount the doors and windows and interior walls and stairs and so on, they all have to be adjusted as the logs shrink. This process takes about 6 years! Plus as the wood dries and shrinks it cracks. Not a big deal because it gives the house character without loosing the integrity of the house. Of course that is only for the inside. Outside the cracks need to be filled so they don't fill with water or snow and the water will push the seam apart every winter. The cracks must be filled every year.
She believed that her house was efficient and ecologically friendly but after all of that it doesn't seam to start being efficient for years. That's a lot of solid logs to make the exterior structure of the house.
She was told it was efficient and given reasons that were incomplete thoughts. Does this happen a lot? This woman believes she is good to the environment in her log house but in contrary is quite the opposite. If this example were so obvious in my short encounter with this woman, where else are we being given incomplete reasoning to prove a point that is opposite to the truth? Don't believe everything you hear. It might be just a profit to another

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