Hallway

This picture shows an inexpensive idea applied for indirect lighting in a hallway made from a piece of used spouting. It makes excellent night lighting for youngsters when used with a low wattage bulb if there is a need for them to rise in the middle of the night.

Note the hand railing on the right of this picture which descends downward to a bedroom. It is an old piece of discarded copper pipe (1 1/4") which was sanded with steel wool to polish it and then varnished to maintain a better look. It was mounted with wooden blocks discarded from a local sawmill which were sanded and varnished as well. The railing gives a different but handsome look to the stairway yet cost almost nothing.

The light in this picture is one that was obtained at a sale for very little. Quite a handsome light for a stairway. Take note to the walls. The walls were studded with 2 X 4's. At this point of the building there was a lot of scraps left meaning pieces of drywall, plywood, boards, etc. To use up the scraps and cut costs (we thought) they were nailed to the wall in whatever fashion and size they came. As a carpenter might say.....just scabbed in! Yes, there were different thicknesses from 1/4" to 3/4", however, they were fit together. Next sheets 4' x 8' inexpensive Styrofoam were nailed over the scraps which covered the unevenness of the wood. A bonding agent was then applied with a brush and roller to the Styrofoam. A product called both "Quikwall" or "Surewall" was mixed like plaster and troweled over the wall. The Quikwall/Surewall has thousands of fiberglass strands in it and is extremely strong and provides a lovely texture when troweled onto the wall. It probably would have been quicker to install drywall and maybe even for about the same price but there was a need to use the scraps and we found later that Styrofoam does not transfer heat and cold as drywall does. The wall stays very constant in temperature. Overall we feel it was a plus even though we probably did not save much money in the deal but it gave us a chance to use up old scraps which is certainly an ecological issue, provide us with a different look as well as a cooler wall in the summer and warmer wall in the winter.

There are two notable things in this picture. One is the handrail which is different from one noted in another picture that goes down a stairway to a bedroom. This one provides security to the basement. Note the small knob at the end of the railing. This is a piece of black walnut machined to fit the railing and add just a little extra. The second item is the little gray electrical box. This box was originally in the basement but we moved it upstairs at the top of the stairway which is next to the bathroom entry. Reason is this....we found after trial and error we could have hot water for bathing, clothes washing, etc. and save twenty dollars a month plus on the electric bill if we took control of the switch. We did just that. We have a quick recovery water heater which means we get hot water fast and having the switch at our finger tips we could turn the switch off and on as our needs demand. We also have a switch that will over-ride and ensure the water heater goes off at 10:00pm just in case we forget to turn off the switch thus we are not heating water at night. There is no need to. We do save more than twenty dollars and up to as much as forty-five dollars in a month just heating hot water but not all of that sum is dependent upon the switch. Once the sum goes over twenty it is partially due to the switch but also heating a large pot of water on the woodstove which is free hot water when autumn, winter and spring demand the use of the woodstove.