Time to Turn on the Heat!
It happens every year. The winter months come and we watch our heating bills double or triple in costs. The Energy Information Administration is already predicting that the cost of natural gas this winter could increase by as much as 70 percent in the Midwest and 30 percent in the Northeast. |
Green is the New Black: Seven Environmentally Friendly Painting Tips for Your Home this Winter
If you plan to paint your home's interior this winter, make sure the experience is a safe one. "Many people forget or simply aren't aware of important preparations or products when it comes to painting their homes," says Ed Waller, founder of CertaPro Painters. |
Turn Your Powder Room into a Showstopper
You spend hours setting the perfect table, scrubbing your hardwood floors and wiping the dust from your bookshelves, but what will your dinner guests notice the most? A welcoming and beautiful powder room. |
Ten Tips to Liven Up Your Deck
Your kitchen might be the heart of your house, but your deck is the heart of your backyard. It's the place where you gather with friends and family, enjoy home-cooked meals, and relax after a long day at work. |
Old Wood Gets New Life as Reclaimed Antique Flooring
Where some might see a crumbling old barn or a dilapidated factory, Don Carlisle sees an opportunity to preserve history and beautify a home at the same time. Carlisle's Stoddard, N.H. based company has been reclaiming antique wood and turning it into new floors for nearly 40 years. |
Take Back Your Home
If your home has been damaged by hurricanes, flooding or even leaky plumbing, there's a good chance that it's harboring mold growth. Homeowners can take back their property -- and prevent mold from coming back -- by taking a systematic approach. |
Winter Wellness
Why is it that winter seems to take so much out of us? Is it the holidays, the cold weather, or the continuous fight to keep from catching a cold or getting the flu? For whatever reason it's more work to be healthy in the wintertime than in the summer months. |
Enjoy a Trip to a Relaxing Spa -- in Your Own Bathroom
Have you ever enjoyed an hour or even a day at a spa, then returned home thinking, "Wow! I could use this kind of treatment every day!" Well you can. It doesn't take a lot of money or time to turn your so-so bathroom into your personal spa. Here's how to do it. |
Buying a Home and Looking for More in a Home Builder
This year an estimated 2 million Americans are expected to build a new home. As with any home decision, the choice of a home builder will largely be based on three popular criteria: neighborhood location, cost and design style. |
Outdoor Painting Prep Made Easier
Painting a home's exterior is a big project, but one that pays off in curb appeal as well as protection for your home. Having the right tools can make the job easier, faster and produce more professional-looking results. |
How to Find the Best Service in Town
Need to find an air conditioning repair man or plumber? How about a contractor to do your kitchen remodel, an eye doctor, or a lawyer to draft your will? You may be tempted to open the yellow pages and call a business with a location closest to your home, but that could be a costly mistake. |
What's Hot in Home Decor For 2006
For months, industry experts have kept a close barometer on the fashion world, trade shows and other key indicators to help forecast home decor trends for the coming year. And the weather report is in. Within a prevailing climate of personalization, the outlook is both spirited and sassy, serene and stylish. |
Why It's So Important to Protect Your Home From Moisture
Right now it's pretty dry outside; but when winter ends and spring begins, chances are good you'll have problems with moisture in your basement. Whether it comes from the melting snow that finds its way into your home through cracks in the foundation or humidity which comes in through the walls and the concrete floor, moisture is a bad thing. |
Boost the Value of your Home without Breaking your Wallet
Your home is probably the single biggest investment you will make in your lifetime. There are many projects you can undertake to improve your home and nearly all of them have the added bonus of increasing its value. A professional makeover by a reputable company can increase its value even further. |
Warm Up Any Room with a Fireplace
What's hot for your home? A second fireplace installed anywhere in the house. Traditionally, homes have been built with one wood-burning fireplace in the living or family room. |
New Generation of Track Lighting Blends Beauty and Versatility
Jewel-toned glass pendants, suspended by a slender, graceful cable from a sinuous silver track - clearly, this is "not your father's" track lighting. The new generation of track lighting brings design-friendly beauty to what has always been one of the most versatile lighting styles available. |
Don't Get Left Out in the Cold - Study Provides Energy Saving Suggestions for Winter
With winter heating costs projected to reach all-time highs this year, many Americans will have more to shiver about than just the cold temperatures. |
How to Make Your Backyard More Appealing
When you're at home after work or on the weekends, where would you rather spend the majority of your time? Inside doing household chores or outside enjoying the backyard? If you'd rather be inside, that's probably because your backyard isn't as attractive as it could be. |
New Government Mandate Affects Home Cooling Systems, Efficiency
About 50 percent of the energy used in a typical home today is spent on heating and cooling, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It's no wonder that your utility bills can be as unpredictable as the weather! Now is the time to learn a little bit about the new government standards affecting air conditioners and heat pumps and to consider purchasing a new home comfort system that could help you save substantial money over the years ahead. |
Get Sunglasses For Your Home -- Why Shade is So Important
We've been hearing this advice since we were kids. Before you go outside on a warm, sunny day put on sunscreen to protect your skin, a hat and sunglasses to protect your eyes. And while you're outside, drink plenty of fluids and seek out the shade. If you don't, before you know it, you could be dealing with heat exhaustion and a pretty bad sunburn. |
What's Hot in Home Decor for 2006
For months, industry experts have kept a close barometer on the fashion world, trade shows and other key indicators to help forecast home decor trends for the coming year. And the weather report is in. Within a prevailing climate of personalization, the outlook is both spirited and sassy, serene and stylish. |
Vast Window Options Add to Home Design and Appeal
Ice cream shops thrive today because they offer a variety for every taste bud. If basic flavors aren't enough to satisfy, you can mix in delectable toppings to create a custom concoction. Everyone craves personal satisfaction and what satisfies you today may be different tomorrow; and is very likely different than what satisfies your neighbor. |
Tips for Remodeling Projects That Add Value to Your Home
Whether you are planning to sell your home or just want a new look, remodeling can lend one of the greatest returns on your investments and puts your home equity to work for you. The best returns come from updated flooring and remodeled kitchens and bathrooms, which, upon sale of your home, typically recover an average of 90 percent of the costs. |
Wide Plank Floors and Radiant Heat - a Great Combination
Wide plank floors are prized for their weathered patina and the sense of history and character that they add to a room. Among the many attributes of wide plank floors is the fact that they can be used with radiant heat. |
The Safe, Easy Way to Hang Things on Your Vinyl Siding
Homeowners love to decorate their houses - inside and out. But hanging pictures on the wall in your living room is a lot easier than hanging a planter on your siding. |
Make Gutter Clean-up Easier and Safer
Owning a home may be the American dream, but taking care of it can be a nightmare. Across the country, warm weather is prime time for clean-up and home improvement projects. |
Seven Tips to Slash Soaring Home Heating Bills
The bad news from Hurricane Katrina is now spreading across the country. The Department of Energy states natural gas prices will leap up to 71 percent this fall and winter, due to damage caused by the storm. This translates into a $600 jump in home heating for most homeowners, according to the Georgia Public Service Commission. |
A Home Improvement Project That Will Add Beauty and Value
The persistent rise in home prices over the past decade has given a substantial boost to homeowners' equity. You'd think a lot of people would be cashing out and moving to bigger, more expensive homes; but according to a study done by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, that is not the case. |
Movies for the Great Indoors
As the seasons change, so do movie viewing habits -- from movie theaters to home theaters. According to a recent Associated Press-America Online poll, 73 percent of adults said they prefer watching movies at home rather than in theaters. |
Fall Home Deck-orating: Creating an Outdoor Space for All Seasons
Does the approaching season not only cool the air but also chill your spirits? If the first cold snap sends you indoors to embrace warm blankets, you'll be happy to know your enjoyment of outdoor living spaces doesn't need to succumb to the elements. |
Make a Design Statement with Table Lamps
Upgrading lighting is one of the easiest ways to instantly update your home decor. And the most effortless way to change your lighting is by using table lamps. All you need to do is put a plug in an outlet and, voila, instant ambiance. |
More Protection Needed from Household Fires
Fire-related deaths in this country have decreased in recent years thanks to better technologies and consumer education, but the U.S. fire problem remains one of the worst in the industrial world on a per capita basis. |
Natural Light from Above Important for Health
Bringing more natural light into our daily lives may be more important for our health than we realize. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is known to be related to how much sunlight we receive. Individuals with SAD may experience emotional depression, a drop in physical energy, increased appetite, and increased need for sleep. |
The Real Story Behind ABC's 'Hot Properties'
The show ABC is hoping will be one of the biggest hits of the season has raised a lot of eyebrows in Chicago. "Hot Properties," a sitcom about four women who run a Manhattan real estate office, just debuted this fall. It takes its title from a company that has become synonymous with residential real estate in the Chicagoland area. |
Everything New is Old Again
"Distress" is not necessarily a bad thing if you are talking about wide plank hardwood floors. In fact, hand-distressing - the process of making new wood appear old is an increasingly popular design technique. |
Make Your Floor a Showpiece
Sometimes older is better (ask any wine connoisseur). But sometimes, new technology and techniques create a product that is better than the original. |
Outfitting a Tool Box: What to Consider When Selecting Tools for Household Tasks
- Homeowners are increasingly becoming do-it-yourselfers, choosing to take on more home improvement and repair projects by themselves. According to a 2004 national study on consumer usage of tools by Mintel, an international market research firm, 74 percent of men and 65 percent of women reported doing home repair or improvement projects themselves. |
Come in Out of the Dark This Winter
Ever feel uncomfortable entering a dark, empty house? Chances are you have, whether in the pit of your stomach or somewhere in the back of your mind. So then why is it that you don't feel uncomfortable when entering a well lit home? |
Avoiding Slips and Falls
'Tis the season . . . for family visits and festive gatherings. It's also the time of year for Mother Nature's worst. Rain, sleet and ice coupled with less sunlight may have you worried about company - or yourself - slipping on sidewalks or driveways. But did you know there's another area of your home that poses a greater risk for falls and accidents than anywhere else? And it's the one place you and your visitors can't avoid - the bathroom. |
Storm Doors Help Cut Heating Costs
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that home heating prices will jump by 47.5 percent this winter, the biggest one-year increase in three decades. But not everyone is going to be severely impacted. |
