http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Bruce/RLSG-66-2012-1209.mp3
This time I decided to focus on extreme temperatures and money - two things I have a problem with.
For this conversation, I invited Duo Dickinson (who happens to be an architect with a passion for such matters), writer Bob Tedeschi, animal rescuer (and farm gal) Kathleen Schurman, travel industry goddess Katie Gerhard, and our resident genius, Harlan Brothers, to talk about how we heat (and cool) our homes for a reasonable amount of money.
We gathered around the front table at Cave à Vin, a wine bar on State Street in the East Rock section of New Haven on a really nice fall day.
The Guest Editors;
For the past 13 years Bob Tedeschi has been a weekly technology columnist for the New York Times, and for many of those years he's also written weekly or monthly columns on other topics, including travel, mortgages, small town life and, currently, do-it-yourself home improvement.
Bob is also a high school lacrosse coach and a longtime youth basketball and lacrosse coach in Guilford, where he lives with his wife and four children (two boys, two girls), whose ages range between 10 and 23.
Katie O’Keefe Gerhard is a real New Haven native, born on Sept 25 a long time ago to John & Maisie O’Keefe both immigrants from Ireland. Katie was raised "to be thankful for what you have and don’t expect anything out of the ordinary". Her parents provided a happy and stable home, and Katie decided to stay in New Haven and has been here ever since.
Katie works for Carnival cruise lines in sales, and says "therefore I keep people motivated and focused for a living!!" (She has been working in the travel industry for 25 years and will say it’s the most FUN industry to be part of!)
Harlan Brothers is a successful inventor, mathematician, musician, researcher, and educator. He has published numerous journal articles related to number theory and the fractal geometry of music. He is also the co-developer of the iKandl birthday greeting and shopping app for iPhone.
Kathleen Schurman owns Locket’s Meadow Farm in Bethany, CT, where she rescues horses and other farm animals from slaughter situations then rehabilitates them to work as therapy animals.
Kathleen is also a journalist and author of children’s books, sales from which help to support her animal sanctuary. She has just published her first book for adults, Three Days in August, and is busy finishing a workbook for people who want to learn to communicate with animals, which she finds easy. Communicating with people, however, is far more puzzling to her.
Duo Dickinson has written seven books on architecture. His latest, “Staying Put: Remodel Your House to Get the Home You Want”, was published by The Taunton Press in November 2011.
He has been the contributing writer for home design for Money Magazine, is the architecture critic for the New Haven Register, and a contributing writer in home design for New Haven magazine. He has written articles for more than a dozen national publications including House Beautiful, Home, Fine Homebuilding and was the “At Home” editor for This Old House.
Please feel free to share your secrets for home energy conservation in the "comments"!
Bruce