GreenBuild Update

For anyone interested in Green Building, the GreenBuild Conference and Expo is a fantastic experience... And I'm only in the expo part of it! There are probably 12,000 people at this expo, from all sorts of backgrounds - architects, interior designers, builders, contractors, developers, brokers, appraisers, students, and even a few homeowners too!
Heads up Bostonians - GreenBuild is coming to Boston in 2008.

The exhibitors reflect this dizzying array, and if it wasn't for the common thread of sustainability, it would be hard to see why so many disparate organizations are under one roof. However, the combined effect is impressive and a great source of information. So far, I've only explored a portion of the expo booth, but was able to visit manufacturers of home products such as Velux, Andersen, Pella, IceStone, Takagi, and others. Some other products were neat too - Uni-solar is giving away free samples of thin-film product used in their solar panels - no silicon though - just the encasing. Anyway, the amount of information at the expo is overwhelming right now, and I don't know if I'll be sure to sort through it all.

As for the conference educational sessions, the USGBC is doing a great thing this year and making all of the presentations available via webcasting live, as well as posting the archives of it. It's like a $700 Conference Pass for free! You can check out more at the "Live" web site they've setup: www.greenbuild365.org

CAPTAIN PLANET

I didn't get home from work last night till nearly 2:30am, which was a blessing in disguise, as I got me some quality time alone with the boob tube as I laid in bed coming down from my eight cups of coffee. Flipping through channels, I landed on "Robot Chicken." I've always been meaning to check it out, especially since it's Seth Green - and this ep featured Sarah Michelle Gellar somewhere - sadly I missed that part. But I did get to see their take on CAPTAIN PLANET - Ted Turner's pet cartoon from the 90's that featured a scantily clad blue-green hero with powers from Earth/Wind/Water/Fire, saving the world from eco-terrorists (read: corporate america and beyond). In the Robot Chicken take, CAPTAIN PLANET was really Mr. Turner, running around screaming CAPTAIN PLANET and dangling evil sludge-dumpers from rooftops (and then dropping them). I haven't laughed that hard in weeks. Or minutes. Or whatever. I dug it.

LONG LIVE CAPTAIN PLANET! http://www.turner.com/planet/

GreenBuild Anticipation

This week, Chicago is treated with the largest conference on green building in the US, if not internationally. The USGBC's international expo, GreenBuild, comes to McCormick Place in Chicago for most of the week. The official dates are Wednesday 11/7 - Friday 11/9, but as with any large conference there are pre- and post-conference workshops and other events that extend the experience to basically all week.

The event has many educational sessions as well as several keynote speakers including former president Bill Clinton. It also has what looks to be an impressively large expo hall which is one of the things I'm personally excited to see. There are going to be all kinds of neat building technologies on display. And although the mass focus for the audience is commercial construction, I'm sure that with the growth of LEED for Homes rating system, there will be some neat residential exhibitors as well.

I'll be helping one of the exhibitors at the expo, and looking forward to posting my reactions to the event. And although it's kind of last minute, I may be able to get some free expo passes. So if anyone in the Chicago area is interested in a free Expo pass for Wednesday or Thursday (9am - 6 pm), leave a comment and I'll see if I can help you out.

The Wrecking Crew's 15 Minutes Are HERE!

Yup, this is it. Our fifteen minutes have come. And we're pretty damn happy about how it all worked out. This morning a segment aired on NBC's TODAY Show that featured Humphrey House and the regulars of the Wrecking Crew doing what we do best: some serious demolition.

A few weeks ago (just after part one of the kitchen demo) we were contacted by producers at NBC's TODAY show, who were looking to film a segment on renovation parties. We were wary after the 'Three Martini Renovation" article, but several emails and phone conversations later, we started to get excited.

The day the crew arrived to shoot we had planned for about 10 people to come over. Sara got the flu, Brian got a job, and so it ended up being Jason and I, plus Kenny (daddoo), Scott, Julie, Mark and Amy. We ended up doing about 90% of the demo work for the kitchen, including removing the cabinets, the wall, the appliances and most of the interior walls. Jenna Wolfe, the correspondent for the piece, was lethal with the sledgehammer - she had some serious power going on. [I have to wonder, Jenna, could you lift your arms the next day?] I worried a bit about the two-person video crew as we were taking out the wall with them on the other side, but they never complained. And then once it was dinner time - we really did work all day - we used the last remaining light to chill in the back with Jay and Scott on guitar (sara, we missed you!) and Mark on the grill. All in all, a pretty good demo day.

Both Jenna and her producer Meredith were very cool to work with for the day, and we couldn't be more pleased with the piece that they put together. They kept the focus where it really belongs: on the fact we couldn't do this without the support and hard work from our friends and family.

View our latest progress since the Today Show

Humphrey House on the TODAY Show - 11/2

Our inadvertent media blitz regarding our home remodel continues this Friday, Nov. 2 when NBC's TODAY Show will be airing a segment they filmed a few weeks ago at our house as we demo'd the kitchen with the help of family and friends (and correspondent Jenna Wolfe).

There's some confusion as to the timeframe, but it looks like we will air during the "third hour of TODAY," which is the 9:00 hour all around, not the 8:00 hour as previously reported (did you know the TODAY show isn't live in any time zone but Eastern? I've been living a lie)

So check it out. If it's great, yeah, we rock. And if we look like amateurs - it's just the editing. :)