TRC Timberworks is now officially a Licensed Residential Builder with BC Housing (formerly Homeowner Protection Office – “HPO”). This means that we can now make it easy for you to build your dream home. On top of the services of…
These are some cherry trivets (hot pads) that I played around with for the kitchen. The variations in colour and grain in the cherry wood are very attractive, and having beautiful wood trivets for the tea pot makes having a cup of tea even more appealing. They are coated with two applications of LandArk natural oil finish and one application of food grade beeswax and mineral oil top coat.
Our five year old son was so excited to help with the draw for the maple & walnut cutting boards that were the draw prize we offered at the Castlegar Home & Lifestyle Expo. He drew the name of the happy winner, and here is a photo. Enjoy them, Deb!
I have been experimenting with using various types of wood together which have different colours and grain patterns. I liked how the colours of the maple and black walnut woods were so striking when alternated with each other, so I decided to make a set of cutting boards in this style.
The small board is light and very portable, useful as a cheese board or for small items. The bigger board I made with thicker pieces of wood to be a sturdy all-purpose cutting board in the kitchen. I was really happy with the result, and so were all the people who entered to win these in the draw I offered at the Castlegar Home Expo!
The cutting boards were finished with food grade hemp oil and beeswax.
Radiant hydronic floor heat is a heating system that runs hot water through tubing that is embedded in an earthen floor or a poured concrete floor. The heat from a hydronic floor radiates up into the furniture and the feet of the occupants, so the room feels comfortable even at lower operating temperatures. This photo shows a coloured concrete floor being poured.
In the book “Prescriptions For A Healthy House”, Paula Baker-Laporte, Erica Elliott, and John Banta recommend not using copper tubing, as was previously common, because it can conduct electromagnetic fields through the structure if it becomes charged anywhere along its route. Instead they list two types of odorless polyethylene tubing for use with hydronic floor heating systems.
Savings on utility bills and better indoor air quality are just two of the benefits of radiant floor heat systems. The heat from a radiant floor creates warmth that “radiates” into everything it touches – including furniture and your feet – making everything feel warm and cozy.
The radiant heat tubing for this project was laid 9″ apart, which will accommodate several heat source systems, including a heat pump for geo thermal or a boiler (electric or gas). You can also use the water jacket on a wood stove to heat the water in the tubing. The other advantage to having the tubing a little closer together is that there are no pronounced hot or cold spots in the floor.