Home Depot Archives - Listen to Lena

You’ve heard of driving responsibly – but do you MOW responsibly?

I’m sure there are many people who have not given a second thought to the type of lawnmower they use. New or old, as long as it gets the job done, right? In fact, over the years, I can remember hearing neighbours and friends alike declare with pride that their old dinosaur mower/trimmer/chainsaw is still working like a dream.

So why trade it in? Am I trying to make you spend money?

Not exactly. But consider this: just as cars release toxic pollution into the air, so does your lawn equipment, more so over time and with age. And since I’m fairly certain there will never be government-organized emissions testing for your lawn mowers, the responsibility really lies with YOU.

Here’s how you can help keep our air clean –

From Thursday, April 19th to Wednesday, May 2nd, visit your nearest Home Depot for the Mow Down Pollution event. Trade in your old gas-powered lawn and garden equipment for a cleaner alternative. You’ll receive up to a $100 instant rebate on the purchase of a more efficient mower, string trimmer, hedge trimmer or chainsaw and be assured that your old equipment is responsibly recycled.

Think no one cares about silly lawnmower emissions? You’re wrong. Since 2001, more than 54,000 lawnmowers, trimmers and chainsaws have been permanently retired and responsibly recycled across Canada, preventing the release of more than 2,000 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas and smog-forming emissions. And since an inefficient two-stroke gas-powered lawnmower can emit as much pollution in one hour as driving a car more than 320 kilometers – almost the distance from Ottawa to Toronto – this initiative effects everybody.

(Did you know: Asthma, lung disease, cardiovascular disease, allergies, and many other health problems have been linked to smog and poor air quality. Click here to read more about the program, brought to you by Summerhill Impact.)

I admit ignorance on the make and model of our lawnmower, but since it was purchased less than four years ago, I’d like to think we made an eco-friendly choice. (Note to self: ask husband if we made an eco-friendly choice.) There are just a few days left to participate in the Mow Down Pollution event – tell me, will you be checking to see if your lawn equipment deserves a failing grade?

Click here to read FAQs for the Mow Down Pollution event.

Thanks to everyone who left such wonderful feedback on Ryder’s Reno-cated room. I feel a surge of happiness every time I hear him say, “I like my new room! It’s blue!”

Now the logical thing would be to show off the next bedroom in sequence, BUT, because I have two little boys, and because taking pictures is dependent on which area of the home is tidy at the moment, let’s skip to my main floor – where I’d like to introduce you to my new “Great Room”.

Here’s the scoop: when we first purchased our home, we spent hours going over the floor plan, considering how to set up our domain. The builder had laid out the main floor as depicted on the right (note: foyer, powder room and garage not pictured). So without going against the proposed plan, we proceeded to set up four (4) distinct areas: a family room at the back of the house and a combined living/ dining/ entertainment area in the front of the house.Just in case you’re wondering… all the furniture was purchased literally weeks before I found out I was pregnant with Ryder (who was a most welcome surprise)… so brace yourself – you’ll see a lot of light-coloured furniture that is so telling of a couple who hasn’t considered the joys of sticky fingers and grape juice.

Now having a home that is almost completely an open concept is both awesome and frustrating; awesome because the house looks large and modern – frustrating because all the furniture and décor has to complement each other and lend to a continuous “look”.

Well, this July it will be four years in our home, and we finally came to realize that we spend exactly 99.9% of our time holed up at the back of the house in the family room, and 0.1% of our days in the blended living/dining/entertainment area. Which is all the more tragic considering what a colossal waste of space it is!So I finally decided to do something about it. Instead of having three separate “rooms” upon entering our home, I relocated hubby’s bar to the basement, moved our dining furniture into the family room, and turned the front of the house into a Great Room – which is a much more intelligent use of space. Since the area is quite large, let’s do the “Before” pictures in comparison to the “After” shots one room at a time. You may click to enlarge photos.

BEFORE/AFTER

BEFORE – LIVING ROOM

AFTER – TV AREA

BEFORE – DINING ROOM

AFTER – GREAT ROOM

BEFORE – BAR AREA

AFTER – STILL THE GREAT ROOM!

Paint:

PARA Paints Nature’s Bounty, #P5227-24

NOTES

We love our new Great Room! And, we’re finally enjoying the awesome space in our home! I didn’t include pictures of the family-room-turned-dining-room because I’ll be posting about that separately later this week.

Re: our paint colour choice, since all the rooms mesh together… plus all the way up the stairs and through the upper hallway (did I mention we have an open concept? sheesh) we couldn’t really afford to go too crazy. I chose a very safe mix between beige and taupe… but you’d be amazed at how different the colour looks in different lights! In natural light, it’s downright taupe; with our lighting at night (which has a strong golden hue) the paint tends to look almost a pale yellow (as in the photos above). Regardless, it’s the perfect colour to set off our dark furniture and hardwood, and blends seamlessly with our green kitchen (yes green – but trust me, it’s a nice green).

The sectional was purchase from The Brick several moons ago but in our new room, we feel it takes on a contemporary (but timeless) look.

I also wanted to point out this neat little gadget we picked up at Home Depot: since we live in a semi, it was virtually impossible to fish the wires through the concrete once we mounted our TV. So instead of leaving the wires hanging (yuck!) we found this nifty Flat Screen TV Cord Cover Kit to hide the unsightly cables. A bonus: it can be painted to blend with your wall!

More Reno-cation wrap up to come!

Are You Mowing Responsibly?

Reno-cation: The Great Room