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What I've done and where I've been
Since the book was published in 2005, I've appeared on:
CNN Open House, with Gerri Willis
10! Live WCAU-TV, Channel 10, Philadelphia
Real Estate Today with Tom Kelly, Business Talk Radio
CN8's Your Money, Comcast Network
The Money Pit Radio Show with Tom Kraeutler and Leslie Segrete
All About Real Estate, with Jay Lamont, WPEN Sports Talk 950, Philadelphia
Art the Builder Home Improvement Radio, with Art McKeown, WWDB, Philadelphia
The Wilson Group Real Estate Show, with Hal Wilson, WLAC-AM, Nashville
Radio Times, with Marty Moss-Coane, WHYY91FM, Philadelphia
HGTV Radio, with Nancy Glass on XM Radio
The Building Coach's Corner with Sara Lamia, KRFC, Fort Collins, Colo.
Ilyce Glink Show, WBS Newsradio, Atlanta
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 The book has received mention in The New York Post, The Oakland Tribune, The Hartford Courant, San Diego Union-Tribune, St. Petersburg Times, New York Times real estate blog "Walk Through", Realty Times, Palm Beach Post, The Kansas City Star, Orlando Sentinel, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, AARP Books, Bookmarks Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Philadelphia Inquirer, PhillyStyle magazine, Consumers Digest, Inman News Service, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chicago Real Estate, Bookviews.com, Agent News, Providence Journal, The RealtyGram, American Homeowners Association Newsletter, DecoratingHomes.com, and many other publications and Web sites.
I was a speaker at the International Builders Show in January 2006, the NAREE Spring Summit in Charlotte, N.C., April 26-29, 2006; the International Hardware Show in Las Vegas, May 9-11, 2006, and at the Southeast Builders Conference in Orlando Aug. 3-5.
E-mail me at alanheavens@hotmail.com. |
Combination bookcase/windowseat,
completed in October 2005 |
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This is one of my latest projects: A bookcase for cookbooks in a window seat that runs across the end of the sitting area at the back our kitchen, overlooking the back yard and garden. The project, which was completed between the last week of August and middle of October, was of my own design. The frame was made of 2 by 4s. The bookcases are made of panels of clear pine that I crafted in my workshop, running the lumber through a thickness planer, then through a jointer planer, after which the boards were glued up and doweled into panels that covered all but the top of the frame. The top was made of three pieces of laminated Chilean pine. The entire project was painted with semi-gloss white that matched the existing trim. The four cushions, made by a craftsman in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, are pieces of foam covered with cloth from the same shop in the city's Southwark neighborhood that made the chair covers five years ago. The toughest part of the project: Reconfiguring the HVAC vent, which originally was aimed upward. Using hard-foam insulation, I created a tunnel to redirect the heat and a.c. from the front. Regrets: I should have used biscuits to create the panels instead of dowels. In the photo of the current project in the masthead of the page, the poplar mantel for the electric fireplace was assembled with glue and dowels. Favorite tool in the project: The Paslode 16-gauge angle nailer. |
My workshop, completed in May 2004,
takes up an 18 by 18 cedar-side detached
garage just a few yards from my back door. |
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This is the first workshop I've had outside of a basement, and being able to see and move around unrestricted makes a huge difference in my projects. The garage was built by the previous owners on the site of one that had been razed because of structural defects. Whether or not they had intended it, it was a perfect place for a workshop. It is 18 by 18 feet, framed 16 inches on center, sheathed with exterior plywood on a newly poured concrete pad. The footers sit on pressure-treated 4 by 4s on six- inch concrete beds to keep dampness from rising, although the drainage installed beneath the floor keeps the space dry. The building is Tyveked and cedar-sided, with an insulated steel door and Clopay garage door, and two Andersen 200 low-E windows. I insulated with R-13 for the walls and R-30 for the ceiling, which I dropped down to 8.5 feet after baffling between the roof trusses. The walls and ceiling are half-inch drywall; there are six commercial-grade fluorescent lights, the walls are lined with connecting two-tier workbenches made from Simpson Strong Tie kits with 2 by 4s and MDF/exterior plywood tops and shelves. The center workbench is made from a kit.
The insulation keeps the interior 10 to 15 degrees warm than the outdoors in the winter and about eight degrees cooler in the summer. An oil-filled heater can get the indoors to 65 when it is 30 outside in about 25 minutes, and that temperature can be maintained for about two hours after the heater is off. I'm considering solar electricity to run the shop, since New Jersey's reimbursement program is generous -- 70 percent.
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