Month: September 2013

Fort Worth Trinity River Trash Bash and Why We Should Pick up Trash from the Street Gutters


This past weekend I participated in the 22nd annual Trinity River Trash Bash. For the Trash Bash, the city is divided into seven different sections. Groups, families and individuals can choose any one location to volunteer to pick up trash along the banks. Several hundred people sign up for each location and make quick work of picking up a mountain of trash. Our marketing coordinator, Elizabeth, found a barrel floating on the bank and got the nod for biggest piece of trash collected!


Most of the trash we gathered consisted of plastic drink bottles and fast food wrappings. It gets there via the storm water drainage system, which starts at the curb of the street. If a plastic bottle is in the curb in front of your house, and no one picks it up, it ends up in the Trinity. Another drainage system—the sanitary drainage system—carries the waste water from your home to the waste water treatment plant, where it is treated and then dumped into the Trinity River. Read more

Cave Shower

We often get requests to convert a standard 5’ bathtub into a shower without a door, which can be done in many ways. One of my favorites is what I call the “cave shower.” The photograph shows one such “cave shower” we did for a client.

The wall is 30” wide, leaving a 30” opening. Having the wall and tile go to the ceiling—and tiling the ceiling—helps keep the steam in and gives the cave-like feeling. Using a wide shower head mounted up high causes the water to fall straight down so there isn’t much splash to the outside of the shower. The can light keeps it from being dark, and the soap niche mounted at the correct height is really handy. The wall makes a nice separator between the shower and toilet. Read more

Understanding Contractual Remodeling Terms


When you are planning a large remodeling project, you should be offered a well-written proposal from a Professional Remodeling Contractor. The idea is that the proposal answers all the questions and leaves no assumptions. It is important that you understand the terms your Professional Remodeling Contractor is using. Understanding this terminology will help you feel more confident as the project develops, and will ensure you get what you are expecting without any big surprises.

Here is a list of terms that will come up as a project evolves: Read more

Recirculating Range Hoods (AKA Ductless Range Hoods) vs Vented Range Hoods


There really isn’t any argument here; recirculating range hoods just don’t make any sense. The vent pulls the air from above your stove over some charcoal filled metal mesh filters, which remove only a fraction of the contaminants from the air, then blows the still-dirty air right back into your kitchen. The prolonged food smells in a home after cooking is an indicator how infective and dirty a recirculating range hood is.

A vented range hood pulls the air from above your stove and sends it outdoors via a duct system to a roof or wall vent. This safely removes things you shouldn’t be breathing, such as carbon monoxide from gas stoves, nasty gases from cooking oil, toxins from burnt food, and also removes excess moisture which harbors food smells. Read more