House
Green Home Plans Save Money and the Environment
Join the latest trend in construction with green home plans that are good for the environment, better for your health, and easy on your pocketbook. With an increase in demand for eco-friendly and energy efficient homes, more builders are becoming educated in this area and offering a variety of green options that will help you do your part in preserving the planet without compromising quality or style. Recycled and environmentally friendly products are more aesthetically pleasing than ever before so it is easy to build your dream home while also saving money, conserving natural resources, achieving energy independence, and ensuring a safer and healthier world for future generations.
Whether you are building a new house or renovating an existing one, green home plans offer many benefits that make them a wise, responsible, and stylish choice.
1. Energy cost savings.
Build your house with energy efficient windows that are made from recycled glass and tinted to help regulate indoor temperatures in every season. Also, incorporating the use of active or passive solar concepts will decrease energy costs by using the sun to reduce dependence on costly and toxic fuels. Passive, or climatic design is a natural way of generating energy and allows the residence to store heat in the winter and release it in the summer so you can use the weather to your advantage and enjoy maximum cost savings. You can even purchase appliances that operate on solar generated energy, lowering electricity bills while protecting the environment.
2. Conservation.
Green homes are usually built with sustainable design in mind, using materials that are non-toxic, recycled, or quickly renewable. Also, systems can be installed to prevent soil erosion and focus on water conservation. Installing low-flow fixtures, collecting rainwater, and using filtration systems that allow water to be reused for non-drinking purposes such as laundry and cleaning are features that can be included in your green home plan and will help you save money as well as the environment.
3. Health benefits.
Our homes are often filled with toxic materials, chemically treated or finished wood, products that contain formaldehyde or other dangerous substances, and heating and cooling systems that emit unhealthy by-products. Wouldn’t you like to know that you are protecting yourself and your family by providing a healthy environment that uses natural energy, non-toxic materials, and ventilation and purification systems that ensure pure water and good air quality? Look into the options and find out how green homes can make you happier and healthier.
4. Mortgage savings.
Many banks and lending companies are now offering “Green Mortgages” for homes that are built or improved using energy efficient or environmentally friendly products and systems. Such things as solar panels, wind turbines, water conservation features, and high quality windows can translate into greater borrowing power or a discount on rates. Some areas even offer tax incentives for eco-friendly construction. Building a green home can offer better resale value, reduced utility bills, and lower mortgage payments while also giving you the peace of mind …
How To Design A 21st Century Kitchen
The demographic
The first thing an outstanding designer does when putting pen to paper on a home design is find out exactly who is going to live in that home–the exact demographic of the inhabitant. This is specially true about the kitchen which is often the most lived-in space in the house and around which many more activities occur any more nowadays than just cooking. Luckily, today’s demographic in the kitchen ‘mass market’ is easy to define–it is mostly ‘baby boomers’ aged 55-65, followed by ‘leading edge GenX’ers’ aged 45-55 years old. These two demographics between them make up the bulk of the folks looking to design a kitchen as opposed to simply taking what comes with a new house. People older than 65, the ‘seniors’, are no longer the dominant home owning demographic and don’t spend as much time in the kitchen while those younger than 45 are considered entry-level homeowners and are also not as numerous as the first two.
Activities in and around the kitchen
A baby boomer’s kitchen is very likely to have a large flat screen TV as part of it that is easily visible from several activity areas surrounding it. The kitchen is no longer a ‘room’ but a space around which a lot of family activity revolves. This activity could be video games, watching the news, searching for data and even doing homework with access to outdoor grilling and a deck just a step or two away. The common factor is that it all revolves around the kitchen. This often manifests in a ‘living room’ or ‘family room’ area complete with sitting or lounging furniture joined to the kitchen with an informal ‘dining’ area, both divided and united by a cabinetwork peninsula, perhaps with a sink and cooktop on one side and an open area on the other with tall stools for the kids to do their homework on or simply help make dinner.
Baby boomers are no longer willing to risk a back injury by bending down to open an oven door and will likely have wall ovens installed at a carefully measured height. Similarly, the efficiency-demanding boomer will insist on having the pantry close at hand at most 3 or 4 steps away, not in another room and certainly not behind another door. This can manifest as another ‘area’ adjacent to the cooking areas, perhaps with a dividing wall of overhead cabinets and counter spaces open to both areas.
The GenX’er is even more tech savvy and may have several appliances hooked up to the internet with sensors and alarms to remind and warn of upcoming events, like a “cake is ready” message flashing on TV screens all over the house. She may switch on the oven with her phone on her way back from work and set the temperature for baked fish when she is 10 minutes away. Her priority is “get it done quick” and therefore all appliances will likely be electric with a few being dual fuel, all …
Saving Energy – It’s All About the Heat
First, some basic science:
A. Heat naturally flows from warmer areas to cooler areas. Its speed of movement depends upon how much a difference there is between these two temperatures. The greater the difference, the faster the flow.
B. Heat flow can be reduced by insulation.
C. Heat can be artificially made to travel in the opposite direction – from cold to hot. This is done by any device that “pumps” heat. Air conditioners pump heat out of the home. Pumping heat costs about one third the cost to create heat.
D. When heat enters your home, during the summertime, it must be removed by the air conditioning system.
E. Radiative heat, from the sun, can easily flow through glass. It heats up whatever it lands upon. Because of certain physical characteristics (called “black-body” radiation) that heat can’t pass back through glass. It is effectively trapped. This is called the “greenhouse” effect.
F. When you install or provide something which operates without need for additional energy, this is called a passive operation.
Okay – so based upon these simple rules, here are 10 basic actions that will improve a home’s energy efficiency which will save you money. I’ll mention the rule and then what you can do:
1. Rule B – Insulation is likely one of the best investments you can make. There are few actions that can give you a better cost to benefit ratio. This is passive in that it takes no energy to operate (rule F).
2. Rules D and E – Increasing the size of your eaves and other overhangs will reduce sunlight entering your home which just has to be removed by your air conditioner (costing money). This is also passive (rule F).
3. Rules D and E – Windows on the west side tend to bring in the most heat from the sun. It is best to limit western exposure either by design or by blocking the windows with shrubbery. This is a passive action (rule F)
4. Rule E – Using reflective glass can be extremely helpful. Curtains and shades do not work because by the time the sun light hits them it has already entered the home (remember greenhouse). Any time something heats up in your home your air conditioner will have to remove that heat. Sunlight must be stopped before it goes through the glass. This is a also a passive method and will save both energy and money during the summer.
5. Rule A – Place foil on the bottom of the plywood roof sheathing of your home. This is easiest to do while building a new home. If your home exists, then consider a radiation barrier in the attic. This will keep the attic cooler. This is also passive (rule F)
6. Rule A – Ventilate the attic. This can be passive or active. It reduces the attic temperature which slows the flow of heat into your home. The active, but effective, way is with a powered fan system …
Australian Cypress Flooring Is A Great Choice For Your Home!
These days as people are trying to make their home a very valuable investment, many people are thinking about updating their flooring and making the switch to hardwood flooring! My husband and I purchased our first home a few years ago, and the number one requirement on our list was hardwood flooring. You may have purchased a home without this type of flooring, but installation is a snap, and today we will discuss a popular flooring choice that is a great investment – Australian Cypress Flooring!
Australian Cypress flooring is a unique looking wood that many people adore. This type of flooring will add a lot of value to a home is quite durable! Australian Cypress flooring is composed of stunning wood that has a variety of tones to it. This makes it very unique and in a category that is a bit above the rest. This is the type of flooring that will get noticed and you will find your friends and family will probably be quite envious of. This is also a great investment if you are planning on selling your home and you want to up the value of it.
The interesting thing about Australian Cypress flooring is the unique tones of which it is made up from. This is a very stunning wood with a variety of shades and hues, ranging from cream to honey brown. I have seen a few homes with this type of flooring and really love how the tones range from a rich creamy shade to the glorious honey brown that so many people love and adore. This makes for interesting contrast in colors and shades of the flooring.
The details of this type of wood flooring are mind-blowing. The intricate grain and beautiful dark knots make it a great choice when you want to create a homey and rustic feeling to your home or office. This is perfect if you are looking for a touch of cabin-class to your everyday home. It adds a warmth and dimension to the flooring that is truly an interesting feature to a home.
Finally another great feature to this type of flooring is its durability and hardness! This is the perfect choice for high-volume areas such as a living room or anywhere you get a lot of foot traffic. This is the type of wood that can stand up to the kids, the dogs, and whatever life throws at you!…
Building an Eco Friendly Home
You may be thinking of building your first dream home and might be considering going down the Eco Friendly route. Then the questions emerge, like where do you start? What is an Eco Friendly home design? Is using the majority of building materials that are renewable enough to call your new home Eco Friendly? Are the building codes in my area open enough to build the way I’m wanting to?
These are all valid questions! The best place to start is to consider how you use your home. Do you spend most of your time in a living area, a dining area, or an office area? Are you entering and exiting the home a lot i.e. kids running inside and out to a garden. Doors being opened create the biggest loss of heating or cooling which could be reduced with the use of an enclosed patio area at the entrance that is most used. Does your family sleep in or are they early rises? These factors will impact the direction you face your home, as you may prefer bedroom light in the morning and living area light in the evening. What is your local climate like? Can you utilise the sun for heating in winter and make adjustments like using directions shutters for protection from the suns heat in summer.
With these things in mind it’s now time to talk to an architect. Finding an architect that specialises in eco friendly home designs is a great idea as they often have some unique ideas specific to your location. If you cant, you will need to give your architect clear criteria. Here are some important considerations you may wish to discuss:
Water Conservation: Capture and use and reuse of water
Energy Efficiency: insulation, natural heating/cooling, and Solar energy
Building materials: Recycled, recyclable, renewable and toxicity
Appliances: Energy efficient and conservative with water
Remember, The most important factor for your design is how it fits you, your family and your activities. Your home must fit your families’ physical and emotional needs to ensure you live happily in your new environment.
Being Eco Friendly should not just be a home design choice, but a lifestyle choice. Use Eco friendly soaps and detergents; if you’re recycling your grey wastewater, your garden will thank you. Minimise your use of plastic bags when shopping, reusable bags can be obtained from most grocery outlets. Eat healthy, minimise consumption on foods with non-natural additives and flavourings. Keep active and enjoy your new home.…
The Truth About Home Protection Plans
In some cases, a seller may offer you a home protection plan in lieu of an inspection. Before you get excited about a home warranty plan, make sure you understand what you’re getting, and what you’re not getting.
Home Protection Plans Provide Limited Coverage
The coverage you get with a home protection plan is limited. Home protection plans typically restrict you to a specific provider or one of a few providers, who have agreements with the home warranty company. Generally, you make a co-pay when someone comes out to your home to inspect a problem, and you may also have to pay a portion of the repair cost, depending on the terms of the plan.
Unfortunately, home protection services provide limited coverage. They may include many exclusions that prevent the plan from covering common home issues. For example, a protection plan may not cover damage to the structure of the home, or may only cover damage if it occurs in a specific way or during a limited time period. Realistically, these plans have as many exclusions as possible to avoid paying out. These businesses only make money if they pay out less than they take in, so they generally overcharge for these plans and do what they can to avoid making payouts.
Even if a specific repair is covered, it may only be covered up to a certain dollar amount. That means that you’d have to pay any costs over that dollar amount, or accept a less optimal repair just to qualify for the coverage. Over the long term, this can cost you far more than doing a repair properly in the first place.
Never accept a home service plan in lieu of a property inspection. Some sellers or home builders offer home warranty plans as a token of ‘good faith’ to demonstrate to buyers that there is no problem with the property, and that buyers are protected if a problem should occur. Unfortunately, because home plans cover such a limited range of issues, buyers may not have the protection they think they have if a problem should occur. Buyers should never accept a home protection plan in lieu of a property inspection. Buyers should insist on a property inspection, and if the seller isn’t willing to grant one, buyers should walk away from the property.
Great Deals are everywhere right now and we find them all over the the United States.
Let us help you find your next Great Deal!…
Improving Your Kitchen Without Renovating
The kitchen is the heart of your home, and a room you should take pride in and keep up to date, not only so you can cook, eat and socialise in a special area but also to increase the price the property should you choose to move one day. The kitchen is the first room potential buyers will look at, and if it’s up-to-date and looks good, buyers won’t have to worry about splashing out on any renovations.
If your kitchen is fairly up-to-date with appliances and furniture but you want to spruce it up, there are plenty of ways you can modernise your kitchen without a full renovation. Take a look below at some of our lighting tips to help give your kitchen a new lease of life.
Change the lighting
The lighting can really change the overall look of a room so why not speak to a lighting specialist to give you guidance on the best type of lighting for your kitchen? You’d be surprised how lighting can give the illusion of more space in your kitchen and create just the right ambiance for different tasks in the kitchen.
The first step is to make sure your kitchen is getting as much natural light as possible – natural light makes a room appear larger and gives it a light and airy feel. Keep your windows uncluttered so you’re letting in as much natural daylight as possible.
You should then think about practical lighting – for example, over the cooker and over food preparation areas so you have enough light to perform all of your usual tasks with ease. You should also consider feature lighting (if you have the budget for it) – feature lighting is aesthetically pleasing rather than practical, although it can create different tones to the kitchen, which can give the illusion of more space. It would be worth speaking to a lighting specialist if you want to implement feature lighting. You could add feature lighting to your cabinets or a focal area of your kitchen to give it more emphasis – for example, add feature lighting to a breakfast bar to make it stand out and show it off. Pedant lighting always gives a grand impression, think hanging lighting over the dining table to make your kitchen look luxurious.
Lighting is a brilliant way of transforming a room without fully renovating it – and it doesn’t have to cost the world. Some lighting fixtures can be pricey but you can also find cheaper, low budget budget, which still looks fantastic – it all depends on the budget you have.
You should consider using low energy light bulbs for your kitchen as you will be conserving energy to help the environment and also saving yourself money on energy bills, which as you probably know have gone through the roof recently.
It’s easy to give your kitchen a bit of sparkle without fully renovating but if you do choose to renovate or remodel, make sure you plan …
Beauty In Utility Travels With Colored Concrete Flooring
What better way than adorning your floor with colored concrete? Considering the fact that the modern lifestyle today seeks exclusivity, the options available with coloring concrete are endless.
Today’s colored concrete flooring is nothing but an elegant, wearable and a reflection of your personal style. You need the right contractor to describe the imagination you want to have with your flooring. However, note that color matching is not an exact science. Each contractor applies different techniques for coloring the countertops and employing different types and amounts of cement and aggregates to achieve great results.
Therefore, coloring the concrete surface throughout the remodeling schedule is the best way to enjoy the atmosphere in your place. A beautifully adorned place, with a dull and lifeless floor is like a bride covering a stained old coat over her spectacular wedding gown. No matter how lovely the space, the bad flooring kills the entire effect-and it is the first thing clients will notice. Similarly a home’s curb appeal soars when its image is complete. Shine on a floor is the pinnacle of clean, a symbol of a company’s attention to detail, and the best foot forward for your clients. You should remember that the floor is the basic foundation of your room and floor and d?�cor should go hand in hand. The function of a floor is twofold: it should be pleasing to the eye as well as practical.
So, you can enjoy that special feeling in with color surfacing. Color surface comes with assured exclusivity, and elegance; and the success of your business is built on the foundation in which it is handled. Just because concrete is underfoot, do not overlook your floor to be a style-maker. Take a look around. You will be surprised at how much plain and dull concrete is actually there.
It can hide future stains
When pouring new color on concrete, you can add colorant during the mixing process, which will provide a uniform tinting. There are also plenty of options for using color concrete mostly on driveway, parking lots, sideways, and other parking areas. With color concrete you can watch your concrete becoming stained with oil and grease, tire marks, and dirt.
It has chameleon like qualities
Colored concrete flooring has some rewarding qualities that will give you decades of service when properly installed and maintained.
Colored concrete remains a staple in the world of decorative concrete. While the technology has changed gravely in the past few years, its uses and popularity continue to grow. Bringing the beauty of colored concrete flooring into your place is a great way to instantly change the look of a business and home.…
Home Warranty Programs – Home Appliance Insurance That Meets Your Needs
When looking for a good home warranty program, which benefits and details are important to you? One of the first things that many people think about is how much the premium will be. Although this is very important, you should be careful to make sure that you are considering all of your options. I have held home appliance insurance for many years now and hopefully I will be able to give you a few pointers on choosing the best one for you.
The first thing that you should consider is how much coverage you need. The basic question that you need to ask yourself is how much risk you are willing to take. If you have a brand new home, you are probably willing to take a lot more risk than someone living in a 25 year old house with an aging heat pump or furnace. The level risk that you feel comfortable with is the basis for deciding on any insurance policy.
For example, if you feel comfortable with fixing small things around the house like leaky faucets or even a broken garbage disposal, then you would probably feel okay with having a policy that does not include small appliances and the like. But many homeowners want the peace of mind knowing that they don’t have to worry about how and when their appliances will get repaired if they have a breakdown.
Another thing to consider is the cost of a repair of a particular appliance. Many of the insurance policies will cover small things like microwaves. If you have a small stand alone microwave, then the replacement cost will be very minimal these days. But on the other hand if you have a built in microwave that functions as a ventilation hood and lighting for your cook top, then the replacement costs could be substantial.
Believe it or not, there are so many appliances and systems in your home that you can repair or replace yourself with very little know how. If I have a problem with something, I always Google it to see if I can fix it myself. Many of the mega home improvement warehouses are also a wealth of knowledge for the do it yourself repair person.
Here is the main reason why people feel that they need to buy a home warranty; the fear of having to replace or repair their HVAC system. Replacement of your heat pump or air conditioner could cost several thousand dollars. The risk of having this type of failure is more than people want to deal with. That is where these types of home warranty programs offer peace of mind and will serve you well.…
Having a Hoot With Interior Design and Owls
Are you looking to introduce a new theme into your interior design or home decor? Choosing something new is all down to a matter of taste and opinion but if you just want to be trendy and current, there are plenty of pointers available in the home sections of high street shops and stores. If you like the idea of having an “owl” theme in your home, then you are in luck, because (at the time of writing) owls are incredibly popular, not just for home items but for clothes, toys and many other things as well.
We are talking about the home, so what you can do to introduce the wonderful owl to your decor? Here are just a few quick ideas.
Hallway – For most homes, the hallway is the entrance to the house and the first place to make an impression when entering. How about an owl inspired mirror directly facing your front door? It will certainly make an impression on your guests when they enter and it will make a statement that you are right up to date with your home design. An owl shaped clock could also be really cool in the hall. It’s often a place people look for the time as they head out the door and it will add further to your growing theme.
Bedroom – The bed is always the quickest and easiest way to introduce something new to your room. You could treat yourself to a brand new duvet cover that has a cute owl print on it. A tastefully chosen owl picture or painting can make a feature of a bedroom wall whilst complimenting your bed. If you are lucky enough to have fitted sliding wardrobes in your room, then some owl themed transfers on the doors will again make a feature.
Living Room/Dining Room – There are endless ways in which your owls can be implemented into these rooms, whether it’s cushions/covers, curtains, tablecloths, rugs, ornaments and pictures. It’s just a case of deciding what you like without completely going owl overboard!
Bathroom – Once again, you will be spoiled for choice when trying to bring owls into the bathroom with some lovely pieces available. There are trinket holders, toiletry jars, toothbrush holders or even a trendy shower curtain!
Not only will you have the theme you want but also have a bright and trendy look throughout your owl inspired home.…