It doesn’t have to be an expensive makeover of a house, Plumley said. “People can start with insulation, weather stripping around doors. That’s the biggest thing, air getting in around windows and doors.” Plumley, who does energy inspections for homes, advises that homeowners don’t have to do everything at once.

“Do what needs to be done first,” Plumley said. Curtis Nelson of NCP Solar in Frederick installs residential and commercial solar thermal water heating systems. The Maryland Clean Energy Tax Incentive Program will rebate 30%. If a system costs $6,000, the state will send a check for $1,800 with a maximum of $3,000. A tax incentive from the federal government is 20%, with a maximum of $2,000. “At the moment, the state has spent the money for 2009, what people are doing is installing and applying for 2010,” Nelson said.

Plumley said that the state program will give tax credits for one-third of projects.

“For each $1,000 spent, you get $300 back up to $1,500,” he said. Tim Jones of Glory Energy Solutions in Boonsboro said any energy-saving improvements must be in place by Dec. 31, 2010, and the site must be the owner’s principal dwelling.

Jones said homeowners should save all receipts and the Manufacturer Certification Statement. For windows, the Energy Star label should be saved. Improvements made in 2009 will be claimed on 2009 taxes, filed in 2010. Jones said there are incentives on windows, heating, cooling and ventilation systems, doors, roofing, insulation and water heaters.

Linton Shafer Warfield & Garrett, a Frederick-based CPA firm, noted in its latest newsletter to clients that federal tax incentives are available for small wind turbines for residential and commercial use through 2016. Commercial energy-efficient tax credits are available through 2013 for interior lighting systems, heating and cooling and hot water systems when installed as part of the building’s envelope.

In a recent presentation to local remodelers, Dan Taddei, director of education for the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, said too many people want to start with solar panels on the roof. That should be the last step in an environmentally sound house, Taddei said.

“Get the rest of the house totally energy-efficient, then do the roof if you want to,” he said.

He told remodelers the jobs had to be done right: “Don’t just put in a high-efficiency furnace and then not seal it. That’s not green.” Plumley said even older and historic homes can benefit from energy-efficient upgrades without taking away from the vintage look of the house.

For new-home construction, owners can apply for tax credits in photovoltaic systems, solar water heaters, small window systems and fuel cells, but not windows, doors, insulation, roofing, heating-cooling systems or nonsolar water heaters, according to the Energy Star website.

Copyright © 2009, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Some annuals, such as morning glories, hyacinth bean, cardinal climber and moonflower, climb by leaps and bounds. Sunflowers, in shades of red, cherry, gold or white, turn their “faces” throughout the day to follow the sun. Some annuals are fragrant, like the night-scented tobacco flower, and others can add zing to a flower arrangement.

Unlike perennials, which typically return every spring, but usually flower for just a few weeks, annuals tend to bloom their little heads off from late spring right up until frost. When they finish flowering, they produce seeds and then head for that garden in the sky. You can collect the seed for freebie flowers next year and rearrange where you use them for a new look.

By sowing annuals from seeds, “your world opens to plants you never knew existed,” says garden designer Patti Kirkpatrick of Joliet, Ill. “My advice to newbies and other gardeners is to just try it.” Each spring, she sows seeds of Chinese forget-me-not (Cynoglossum), which offers shades of blue and pink and will bloom in full sun to light shade. “It’s a must for those tiny little flower arrangements.”

Some annuals, such as four o’clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) will self-sow in spring if you let the seeds drop in the ground come fall. “Four o’clocks are excellent for nighttime pollinators, like the hummingbird moth,” says Nancy Kuhajda, Master Gardener coordinator for the University of Illinois Extension in Joliet. Among her favorite annuals for sowing each spring are zinnias, larkspur, love-in-a-mist (Nigella), cosmos and cleome, also called spider flower for its wispy petals.

“Cleome is great for sunny places where nothing else will grow,” she says.

And there are annuals to suit every garden style. The uniform shapes of marigolds, begonias and salvia make them excellent edging plants in a formal or geometrical planting bed. But the more willowy and wild-looking annuals, such as cosmos, sunflowers and amaranthus, are best for a loose or more natural-looking flower bed.

“A lot of annuals look garish in a natural border,” says Jill Selinger of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Ill. “You see geraniums or petunias in a natural planting and they just don’t jibe.” In her own garden in the conservation-minded Prairie Crossing subdivision in Grayslake, Ill., Selinger sows seeds of the tall, fragrant tobacco flower (Nicotiana sylvestris) and Italian White sunflowers. The heirloom morning glory, called Grandpa Ott reseeds on its own each year, with a slight vengeance. “It comes back great and they were coming up everywhere, but you can get your little trowel and flick out the ones you don’t want.” Or give them away to those other gardeners who are watching their wallets.

Successful Sowings

Many gardeners who try seed-sowing outdoors for the first time get frustrated when few or no plants germinate, says Nancy Kuhadja, Master Gardener coordinator for the University of Illinois Extension in Joliet. Here are her tips for getting seeds off to a good start.

“Wait for soil temps to warm,” Kuhajda says. “Seeds planted in cold soil often rot or succumb to disease before they can germinate.” The last frost date for the Chicago area, for example, typically takes place about May 15, so in that region plant mid-May or later.

Prepare the planting area. Loosen the top few inches of soil with a trowel and rake it smooth before planting.

Read the seed packet. “Most people plant seeds too deep. The depth should be only double the size of the seed,” Kuhajda says. Some seeds need light to germinate, so simply sow the seeds on the soil surface and press them down lightly with the palm of your hand.

Show ‘em the light. Most annuals require six or more hours of summer sun. However, many will tolerate light shade-the result being fewer flowers.

Water gently, deeply and slowly. “Just like a baby, the tiny seedling is vulnerable,” Kuhajda says. Use a water-soluble balanced fertilizer once the plants are 4 inches or taller.

Thin out seedlings. “Either mix seeds with sand for better spacing or prepare to pull some seedlings out. Crowded plants are not healthy plants,” Kuhajda says. Mark the area with a labeled stick or seed packet so you don’t accidentally pull out the new seedlings.

© 2009, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

“Despite the tough economic times, people who want to sell their homes don’t have to wave a white flag in surrender. Relocation.com wants to help educate consumers about the selling process so that they can make smart decisions about moving to a new home,” said Sharon (Ron) Asher, chairman and founder, Relocation.com. “With these sales strategies, consumers can get their homes sold and on to moving into their new residences.”

Tips for Selling a Home in Today’s Market

1. Do not overprice the home. Buyers today are looking for a bargain, and the seller in the end will likely have to bring the price down to meet market demands. The longer the home sits on the market, the stronger the negotiating position of the buyer.

2. Select Internet-friendly pricing. More than 80% of home buyers begin their real estate searches online. Most real estate sites filter the prices in $25,000 to $50,000 increments. So while a creative price of $555,777 may grab attention, buyers who set their search maximum filter at $550,000 will exclude it. Additionally, prices ending in 000 (such as $500,000) tend to sell at a larger discount than homes ending in 500 (such as $524,500).

3. List the home on a Friday. Most buyers are checking out new listings on Fridays so they can see what is new for the weekend.

4. Occupy or stage the home. Buyers appreciate a home that is well attended. A vacant home typically feels cold and empty, while one that is still occupied has a warm, cozy feel, attracting more buyers. However, keep the personalization minimal; having neutral decor and paint colors will make it easier for a buyer to visualize their own style in the home. If a seller moves to a new residence before selling the old residence, it is a good idea to have the home professionally staged as if someone still lives in it.

5. Monitor local foreclosures. Foreclosures are costing sellers money and have become very aggressive opponents in today’s market. If the seller’s neighborhood has a lot of foreclosures, wait until they are sold before listing the home, if at all possible. Most banks are extremely eager to sell, thus creating an underpriced competitor. If the seller cannot wait to list the home, it will need to be priced competitively with the foreclosures, which can dig significantly into the home’s equity.

6. Keep the home neat and clean. With so many foreclosures on the market today, buyers are seeing homes at their worst. If the home is presented in the best possible way, it will attract more positive attention.

7. Keep records. Foreclosures do not come with any disclosures. Sellers who keep updated records, photos and permits handy for the buyer to review will make them feel much more confident about buying the home, giving the seller a competitive advantage over foreclosed properties in the neighborhood.

For more information, visit www.Relocation.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Related homeowner tips and topics on RISMedia.com:

• 8 Predictable Closing Day Obstacles – How to Avoid Them
• Teaming up with Your Lender for a Loan Modification

As people are forced to cut back their water usage, they may look to get rid of their homes’ biggest water user. And sorry, lawn, that’s you.

There are several alternatives to a traditional lawn, alternatives that conserve water and help reduce the pollution from mowing traditional lawns. And, by the way, all the alternatives require less maintenance than the lawn you likely have today.

Artificial Grass

A red-blooded American’s attachment to green grass is the stuff of legend. “People don’t want to give up their lawns, they just don’t,” says Scott Ose of the Fremont, Calif.-based PolyGrass, the company that installed the faux grass in the front and backyards of Jean and David Hansen’s home in Orinda, Calif.

Jean Hansen says green grass is warm, soft and feels like home. But, she says, the environmentally concerned couple felt guilty about the hundreds of gallons of water they were pouring onto their lawns every month.

So the Hansens replaced 2,000 square feet of lawn with Ose’s product. This is not the familiar electric green AstroTurf. The blades of grass are 1-inch high and look extremely natural.

Artificial turf is designed to mimic the real thing. Some models have yellowing and browning strands woven with the green to give it a more realistic appearance. The Hansens’ model-there are several to choose from-looks damp as it glistens in the sun.

Ose says the grass is permeable, meaning water can pass through it, and odorless. Dogs and cats can even do what dogs and cats will do on it without creating stains. You just clean up the mess with a paper towel.

“And once you install it, it’s virtually maintenance-free,” Ose says.

The Hansens’ summer water bill dropped dramatically after installing the new lawn, going from $600 for three months to $150. Their new, artificial lawn should last 15 to 20 years.

“I am very happy with it,” Jean Hansen says.

The drawbacks: Despite rebates and special offers, installing artificial grass can be prohibitively expensive at $12 to $15 a square foot. The price is high because crews have to first remove your old lawn, prepare a base of rock and rubber to prevent sinkholes, then lay out the plastic grass.

Critics also argue that this alternative is not environmentally friendly because the grass is made from plastic and, when installed, does not add anything to the soil. Finally, like concrete, artificial grass also gets hot on warm days and homeowners may need to spritz it with water to cool it down.

Drought-Tolerant Grasses

Several types of grasses on the market are both drought tolerant and lawn-like, the most popular being a California native, carex pansa.

“Maybe all lawn isn’t evil-just some lawn,” says John Greenlee of Greenlee Nursery, which specializes in grasses.

Carex pansa is an evergreen, creeping grass that will grow into a natural-looking lawn. It only needs to be mowed about four times a year, Greenlee says, and it will stay green and attractive with only two to four watering sessions per month. After killing or removing your lawn, place plugs in the soil 6 to 12 inches apart, depending on your budget, Greenlee says. A 100-plug pack sells at some nurseries for about $120.

The drawbacks: Greenlee cautions that the old lawn must be completely killed before the carex pansa or any other native grass alternative is planted.

“It’s really important to get back to square one,” he says. “If people are not thorough in eliminating the weed grasses in their old lawns, they’ll be very less than satisfied with their results.”

A contact chemical herbicide such as Roundup will kill a lawn, he says. Nonchemical methods such as sheet mulching or soil solarization-covering the lawn with black plastic to kill the lawn with solar heat-also will work. Just make sure everything is dead before you attempt to replant.

Also, carex pansa and other native grasses will not likely conform to a manicured lawn look. Often called “meadow-like,” these lawn alternatives look wilder and less maintained.

Strolling Garden

When one of Susan Morrison’s landscape clients wants to get rid of a lawn, she suggests making the space into a strolling garden.

A strolling garden has paths that meander among raised beds. Gardeners can add flowers or edible plants in the beds and non-gardeners can install more durable, low-maintenance plants.

“By doing this, you’ve created a space that you can walk through and enjoy that is visually more exciting than a lawn,” says Morrison, who owns Creative Exteriors Landscape Design. “And if you’ve got kids, it’s a great way to get them interested in gardening.”

The first step to creating a strolling garden is to design one on paper, either on your own or with a professional landscape designer. Look around for gardening classes that offer design tips, if you want to do it yourself.

The drawbacks: Depending on the size of the area, creating a strolling garden can be a major investment. Also, if you don’t select low-water plants, you may end up using a significant amount of water in your strolling garden anyway.

Functional Lawn Alternatives

Many plants that require less water than turf grasses serve the same purposes as a lawn. Some accept light foot traffic; some give the appearance of a lawn with a meadow effect.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile)
Silver carpet (Dymondia margaretae)
Beach strawberry (Fragaria chilensis)
Woodland strawberry (Fragaris vesca)
Cat mint (Nepeta racemosa)
Thyme (Thymus sp.)
White clover (Trifolium repens)
Blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis)
Pacific dune sedge (Carex pansa, C. praegracilis)
Berkeley sedge (Carex divulsa, C. tumulicola)
Red fescue (Festuca rubra)
Idahoe fescue (Festuca idahoensis)
Purple needle grass (Nasella pulchra)
Torrey’s melic (Melica torreyana)
Foothill needle grass (Nasella lepida)

Source: Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening, www.bayfriendly.org

© 2009, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.).
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Read more homeowner tips and topics on RISMedia.com:

• Healthy Humidity and Your Home
• Home Improvement Q&A – Questions to Ask When Interviewing Contractors  

We feel the most comfortable when our home’s humidity level is between 35-50%. Keeping your home at the correct humidity level will also save you energy and reduce maintenance. Too little humidity and you can have chapped skin and lips, scratchy throats and noses, static and even problems with electronic equipment and damage to furniture.

When humidity is too high in your home, it can cause condensation, stains, mold, and more on windows, ceilings and walls. It can even trigger allergic reactions, contribute to ongoing allergies, and dust mite proliferation.

How do you know what your home’s humidity level is? Most hardware stores have hygrometers you can purchase to measure humidity. They generally run from $10-$50. Remember, moisture is created in your home in many uncontrolled ways from showering, drying clothes, cooking, and washing dishes to perspiration and breathing. So it is important to be able to monitor and control the humidity level in your home.

To control the humidity level, you can have a whole house humidifier and/or dehumidifier installed directly to your heating and cooling system, or you can purchase individual units for rooms or areas in your home.

Don’t forget these units need to be cleaned and maintained as directed. Be sure to check operational temperatures before purchasing a dehumidifier. Some are designed to operate at temperatures above 75° F, and some will operate at temperatures down to 45° F.

Chris Kaucnik is marketing director for Home Warranty of America, Inc.

For more information, visit www.hwahomewarranty.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Related homeowner tips and topics on RISMedia.com:

• Buy a New or Gently Used Home? It’s a Question of Budget and Lifestyle
• Part II: Show & Sell-Smells that Sell
  Show and Sell – Tips You Can Use From Retail Sales

A: Something I always emphasize is that no matter how many contractors you interview, you should ask each one the same questions. That applies as much to contractors as to architects, real estate professionals and anyone else to whom you will be entrusting great gobs of money.

Another thing I stress is that you should only hire a contractor with whom you can communicate easily and intelligently. There’s no reason you should pay a fortune to someone who is unwilling to discuss your concerns. Be sure to ask how such matters will be addressed.

A third important bit of information to seek is how long the contractors have been working in the field. Many businesses fail and, especially in these uncertain economic times, you don’t want to employ a contractor who won’t be in business a year or two from now, in the event something needs fixing.

Other questions: How many people do they have working for them? How long have their employees been with them? How many employees will they be able to dedicate to your project? Is work going to be subcontracted out? If so, what work, to which subcontractors, and how long has the contractor used them?

Contractors should provide proof of general liability and workers’ compensation insurance, in case your house or a neighbor’s is damaged during the project or one of the workers is injured on your job.

Have the contractors estimate the time when each phase of the work will be completed. That includes estimated start and completion dates and, in your particular case, specific estimates on how long the two distinct phases will take during which the house will be open to the elements.

There are some homeowners who try to keep their job on schedule by offering bonuses if the contractor finishes on time or earlier. The downside is that to obtain the bonus, some jobs get rushed and shortcuts are taken, so you don’t always end up a winner.

References are extremely important. My recommendation has always been to locate the jobs on which the contractors you interview are working now, visit the job sites, and ask the homeowners how things are going. If you wait until the job is completed, memories of good things, as well as bad ones, become distorted.

Once you’ve selected a contractor, make sure that every facet of your job-especially the products to be used in it-are spelled out fully on a written contract that neither you nor the contractor signs until you both have read and discussed it. If you need a lawyer to help you, hiring one is well worth it.

Any change orders must be spelled out contractually as well. If you change the kind of tile you want mid-job, you’ll need to get it down in writing, specifying if the new tile is more expensive than the original or will require costlier labor.

Good luck.

© 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Read more home improvement tips and topics on RISMedia.com, see:

• Builders Launch Tax Credit Website
• How Not to Get Soaked When Buying That Dishwasher
• Home Energy Q&A – Is Your Thermostat in the Right Place?

RISMEDIA, February 23, 2009-(MCT)-Q: Even though we’re nearing spring, the winter is still making me miserable. The days get dark so early and the overcast, stormy skies outdoors really make me unhappy. I know this is a psychological problem that many people get, but I have read many articles that say that daylight is a key to solving this. What can we do in our home to make things better?

A: Over the years, I’ve written many articles about the benefits of daylighting. These range from studies of schools with lots of window space that allows for greater use of natural light where students were healthier, had less absenteeism, and did better on standardized tests, to a chain store that had 40% higher sales in their locations that had skylights.

If you read technical articles on daylighting, you’ll see a lot has been written about the energy-saving benefits of buildings with large window space and skylights. What these articles often leave out is the simple fact that people tend to be more comfortable and relaxed in areas that are brightly lit, especially when that light comes from the sun and not from electrically lit bulbs.

Obviously, the best way to increase the use of natural daylight in your home is to move to a house that has more window space or skylights than you have now. Builders around the country have been increasing their ratio of windows to floor space over the years, especially as window manufacturers have come out with so many new types of windows that protect the home so well. It wasn’t too long ago that people considered windows just holes in the building’s basic protective envelope. Today’s windows are actually essential parts of the building’s protection from the elements and are far from a liability.

What you need to do in your home is control the sun that you let in. During the winter, open the drapes and blinds to let the sun provide warmth and light, then close them at night to keep that heat indoors. If you’ve got blinds or louvers on your skylights to help regulate the sun’s warmth in summer, make sure you keep these controls open during the day. I’m also a big fan of the tubular skylight that let a great deal of bright, diffuse light into the home, and if you’re considering adding a skylight or doing any remodeling, consider them in the mix as well.

I’m seeing a lot of home plans these days that have more and more skylights, often in places like a porch adjacent to a window where the light will get indoors but the heat will stay outdoors, letting you take advantage of the sun’s brightness but not its unwanted heat in hot weather. And no matter what type of skylights you have, some types of controls-shades, blinds or panels-are important in letting you regulate the light and heat that gets indoors.

A few years ago, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research Center found much fewer “negative moods” in people who worked during the day in an office with big windows as opposed to no reduction in negative moods in people who worked at night in the same office building.

Sunlight can make you feel more relaxed, happier, and more comfortable. Many people share your discomfort on those gray, sunshine-less winter days, and instantly perk up when the weather changes. Keep the drapes and blinds open during the day and take advantage of whatever light you can get from the outdoors.

Ken Sheinkopf is a communications specialist with the American Solar Energy Society (www.ases.org).

© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Related articles on RISMedia.com:

• 10 Easy Ways to Become a Green Homeowner
• Goodbye, McMansions: Americans Buying ‘Right-Sized’ Homes

Know what to mix with what and you could make your own household cleaners and save money at the grocery or drugstore. Be careful and make sure you follow all the directions to be safe.

Instead of paying extra for Pine Sol, Windex or Tilex, make your own floor, window and tile cleaners, suggests website www.creativehomemaking.com. The site is full of frugal cleaning tips, from making your own solutions to substituting bubble bath for the more expensive liquid hand soap. Many of the ideas will not only save you money but help eliminate having to store toxic chemicals in your home.

For a general purpose floor cleaner, the website says to mix 1/3 cup of Borax with one gallon of warm water, then add one teaspoon of liquid dishwashing detergent and one tablespoon of ammonia. For a wood floor cleaner, it says, mix 1/2 cup of white vinegar and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. For shower cleaner, mix 1/4 cup of Lysol or another concentrated cleaner with a half cup of isopropyl alcohol and water.

Clean chrome, the site says, with toothpaste or crumpled up aluminum foil. Clean glass with plain white vinegar. Reuse dryer sheets for dusting.

Other tips are available at www.thriftyfun.com.

One word of caution: These sites remind us to never mix ammonia and bleach, which can create a harmful, potentially lethal gas.

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

More homeowner tips and topics on RISMedia.com:

Teaming up with Your Lender for a Loan Modification
Will the Stimulus Benefit Homeowners and Buyers?
10 Easy Ways to Become a Green Homeowner

Because so many of us have delegated the dishes to the box beside the sink, and because those boxes-a.k.a. dishwashers-eventually go kaput, we thought you might want to know five things before trekking out to buy a new version of the machine that’s all but shoved aside elbow grease and dishpan hands.

Here’s what the folks who make, sell or repair dishwashers think you should know.

1. Noise control. Who knew scraping off the caked-on macaroni bits was such a noisy proposition? Actually, it’s not the scraping that’s so loud, it’s the grinding of the food bits by the built-in disposal within every American-made dishwasher. That’s where most dishwasher noise comes from, and that’s why European models, which don’t have disposals but rather a simple strainer, make so little noise. In fact, you might say they barely purr. The other factor affecting noise–which salespeople say is the No. 1 consumer concern when it comes to dishwashers-is how much insulation surrounds the box. Chances are, the more you pay, the more your dishwasher will purr instead of roar.

The average dishwasher registers around 52 decibels, which is louder than a soft whisper in a library but softer than a quiet living-room conversation. Even the quietest ones don’t dip much below 47 decibels, according to industry studies. There’s not a dishwasher on the market these days as loud as that genteel living-room tete-a-tete. So the clunkers of old, the ones that drowned out all talk, are pretty much on the scrap heap of history.

2. Button up? Fess up, folks, just how many times do you think you’ll really punch the “baked-on cookware” button up there on the control panel? Maybe once a year, when you forget and leave the pizza pan in the oven overnight? Maybe never? Here’s a little secret from the folks who sell these things: Think twice or thrice before falling for every bell and whistle in the book. You pay for every one.

“Don’t spend money on cycles you won’t use,” says Dennis Williams, who has been selling dishwashers for 15 years at Plass Appliance in Chicago. At least 90% of the time, you’ll be using only your normal cycle, salespeople agree, so try not to succumb to the urge to splurge on every cutesy function.

Nearly every dishwasher on the market comes with a high-temp wash, which heats water to 160 degrees (as opposed to the machine’s standard temp of 110 to 120 degrees). That’s a smart option in cold-and-flu season when you want to wipe out many nasty bacteria and viruses. And it beats running your mitts under the hottest water you can stand.

3. The Durability Dept. Sorry, Mr. Maytag Repairman, we’re not hankerin’ for a house call. There’s not much around the house as bothersome as thinking you’ve run the dishes, only to find the darn thing never started and won’t without a call to the fix-it shop. Durability is everything in the dishwashing world. We’re going out on a limb here and letting you know that in our unofficial survey of three salesmen at top Chicago-area appliance centers, plus a crew of repairmen, the one dishwasher that never seems to need repair is the German-made Miele.

“Nobody’s ever called me to have one fixed,” says Williams, the Plass salesman. KitchenAid, according to folks in the appliance business, is the American-made dishwasher likely to last the longest.

And, while you’ll pay for it, a stainless-steel interior compartment, as opposed to a polymer plastic casing, provides superior durability (as well as insulation from noise).

4. To drawer or not to drawer. Suddenly, it seems that every haute kitchen must have drawers for everything–certainly for washing dishes.

Maybe not so smart. Drawers take up 15% more space for the same internal washing capacity. So if you stack two drawers on top of each other, you’ll wind up with less dishwashing volume than you get in one conventional dishwasher. However, if your household is small or you sometimes like to wash just the glasses, a drawer will save you in the long run. Whereas a conventional dishwasher consumes some 45 to 50 gallons of water per load, a drawer will only use half that, says Herb Braidman, who has been selling for 10 years at Abt Electronics and Appliances in Glenview, Ill. What’s important to know is that it’s a give-and-take equation, and you’re the one who calculates the answer. One thing not to worry about: Nearly all models these days are a standard 24 inches wide, so in virtually every case, you can swap one model for another without having to get out the buzz saw.

5. Getting started. And you thought you could just shove it in the open space, connect some pipes and be done with it? Rule No. 1: Do not skimp as far as installation. Don’t think just anyone can get that sleek new washer up and running without a kink or two.

Installation should run you anywhere from $120 to $160, according to Chicago-area sources, and the installer often brings the dishwasher along, so there’s no extra delivery charge. You want someone who knows the appliance inside and out. In other words, save yourself money and hassle in the long run and get the job done right. Otherwise, you’ll have the sponge out again-to mop up all the leaks.

© 2009, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

The RMI measures remodeler perceptions of market demand for current and future residential remodeling projects. Any number over 50 indicates that the majority of remodelers view market conditions as improving. The RMI has been running below 50 since the final quarter of 2005, following decreasing remodeling expenditures since that time.

“During the last quarter many remodelers were asking if their phones were still working because they received virtually no calls for work,” said NAHB Remodelers Chairman Greg Miedema, CGR, CGB, CAPS, a remodeler from Tucson, Ariz. “The jobs we are getting are for smaller projects and necessary home maintenance.”

Nationally, market conditions for major additions and alterations shrank to 20.2 (from 29.4 in the third quarter), while minor additions and alterations conditions slowed to 33.5 (from 38.51). Maintenance and repair dropped to 27.6 from 30.9 in the previous quarter. Overall, major additions and other large remodeling jobs have experienced a greater decline than smaller remodels and maintenance.

“Remodelers suggest that the huge decline in consumer confidence, volatility of the stock market, and uncertainty about the future of the economy have made homeowners delay remodeling decisions,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “These anxieties are causing consumers to wait and see if conditions improve before they are willing to commit to home improvement spending.”

All measures for future expectations in the remodeling market (calls for bids, amount of work committed for next three months, backlog of remodeling jobs, and appointments for proposals) dropped. Current market expectations slipped in all regions during the fourth quarter, with the Northeast declining to 24.9 (from 32.9 in the third quarter), the South 30.7 (from 31.5), the Midwest to 28.0 (from 36.2), and the West to 25.0 (from 36.1).

For more information about remodeling, visit www.nahb.org/remodel.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Many solar products are available, though there are limits to what some can do. Still, anything to reduce your carbon footprint is worth doing.

Solar computer bag: Voltaic Systems’ Generator bag ($499, www.voltaicsystems.com) uses the sun to charge a computer notebook. The battery pack included stores a charge that will deliver the required power automatically. Also included: adapters for cell phones and other portable equipment.

Solar charger: Solar Style’s SC002NBC ($59.99, www.solarstyle.com) will charge cell phones, PDAs, MP3s, handheld video games and digital cameras, as well as operate radios, CD players and other portable devices. It also has an emergency light and can be used with a car adapter or plugged into a regular outlet.

Wireless speaker: With the Arius solar-powered wireless speaker ($260, www.novatechgadgets.com), you can have music outside without running wires. You can even plug an iPod directly into the weatherproof speaker. Fifteen watts of sound are produced; technology and signals are transmitted through walls, floors and ceilings up to 150 feet away. Once fully charged, the speaker lasts eight to 10 hours.

Water bottle: During the day, the bottle stores a solar charge (the water doesn’t heat up); at night, it’s a spare LED lantern ($19.95 www.nexusgadgets.com).

Portable multiband radio: This unit ($69.95, www.global-merchants.com) has four shortwave bands, a medium-wave band, FM, two television bands, and a weather band. It can be powered by the sun, by dynamo (cranking), battery (not included) or AC/DC adapter (included).

Bluetooth car kit: Iqua Vizor SUN ($110, www.store.apple.com) is a hands-free speaker that clips onto the visor and uses solar power to recharge. When your visor’s up, the solar panel doesn’t get any sun, however. Battery life is 20 hours. Dedicated buttons let you answer and end calls and access other features.

Computer keyboard: Proponents of the Cherry CyMotion Master Solar M86-21950 ($135, www.nationalbarcode.com) say it’s the first step to a solar-powered PC. The keyboard charges with operating, has 10 side-mounted keys for horizontal and vertical navigation, and allows quick access to complicated key sequences. Nineteen programmable function keys allow access to multimedia, Internet or other commonly used programs.

Speed racer, mini division: The World’s Smallest Solar Car ($19.95, www.earthtechproducts.com) has adjustable steering and rubber tires, for fun on tabletops or smooth surfaces wherever there’s sunshine. Excellent for demonstrating solar power in action; not so good for long trips.

© 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

We learned this the hard way after many months in an uncomfortable new home when an auditor from our utility company finally figured out that the thermostat was on a wall getting direct sun so it was sensing an indoor temperature that was much too high so the heater never turned on. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Answer: More often than you realize. I first heard about this a number of years ago in Florida when I met some people whose electric bills in their new home were sky-high and the house was always super-cold. After several people failed to diagnose the problem, someone pointed out that the thermostat was getting hit all day long by direct sun, similar to what happened in your home, so it registered as high heat indoors and ran all the time. Since then, I’ve met some people whose thermostats were affected by heat from appliances near them and a whole variety of other problems caused by their locations. I know that most homebuilders are aware of the best placements for thermostats and usually do it right, but occasionally some of them do slip up.

If you wonder how much this can affect a thermostat, think about a letter I got several years ago from a reader who noted that his first home many years ago had a simple old-fashioned type of thermostat that they were constantly adjusting since he and his wife liked to keep the home cool in winter when they slept but warm in the morning when they got up. This was before there were programmable thermostats that can do the adjustments for you, and he had a hard time getting used to waking up to a very cold home.

Instead, he rigged up a small night light and timer combination and hung the light about three inches below the thermostat with the timer set for just before their bedtime. The light would turn on and its heat would activate the thermostat so the furnace turned off. Then when the timer turned the bulb off at 5 a.m., the heat would come back on.

Today, we have a wide variety of easy-to-adjust automatic thermostats that can make all the setting changes you want, including different settings for weekends and even vacations, but this simple set-up took care of the problem of changing the setting to improve the indoor comfort. And it did it by using the same strategy that caused you problems with your home’s thermostat.

Ken Sheinkopf is a communications specialist with the American Solar Energy Society (www.ases.org).

© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Read more homeowner tips and topics on RISMedia.com:

• Economy, Cold Snaps Accent Need for Winterizing Homes – Tips That Save
• Save Energy – Pull the Plug on Electronics
• 9 Trends Not to Miss for Your Home

RISMEDIA, January 27, 2009-(MCT)-Walk into the American Red Cross 2009 Designers’ Show House in southern Florida and it looks like business as usual. A French parcel-gilt turquoise chandelier in the living room. A custom-made chest inlaid with mother of pearl imported from the Middle East in the “Glamour Girl” bedroom. A totally remodeled kitchen with countertops of French blue limestone, Jenn-Air appliances in oil-rubbed bronze and a pair of barrel shade chandeliers from Jacques Garcia for Baker.

Despite the high-end glitz, the show house also delivers a few inexpensive ideas you can steal and plenty of fantasy to tuck away for when the good times start to roll again.

“To me, these showcase houses are like the runways of the fashion world,” says Joseph Pubillones, a Palm Beach, Fla., designer who created “Midnight at the Oasis,” a bar room in a Moroccan theme with tented ceiling and wide horizontal striped walls inspired by the mosques in northern Africa.

“You have to do things that are a little unexpected and untried. You have to push the envelope to convey a message or concept. It’s about a concept, a kind of wow. It’s not about a literal translation to your home. You can see it and take away an idea.”

Whether the ideas are high in the “wow” factor or concepts you can steal, we have nine things you shouldn’t miss in the 2009 show house00Providencia House, the 11,000-square-foot West Palm Beach, Fla., home owned by Tim and Florence Harvey.

1. Foyers need drama. The entry should let your visitors see a little into your soul or at least reveal some of your personal style. Lon Morris, of Lon Morris Interiors in New York, winks at Palm Beachers’ love of shells with the over-the-top bust, “A Sea God,” from Christa’s South in West Palm Beach. The bust is encrusted with amethyst and quality sea shells and sells for $6,900. Foyer walls should also make a statement like those Morris painted with brush and rag and seven layers of glaze.

2. Enjoying outdoor life. The southern climate is perfect for outdoor rooms, and on the second floor terrace Palm Beach designer Jennifer Garrigues illustrates how people live in South Africa.

“They all live on verandas and it inspired me because I love Africa and the animals so much,” she said. “In Kenya and the south, this is the way they live with white curtains and accented with color.” This space, which Garrigues said was long and narrow like a train, was wide enough to be broken into three areas-one for dining flanked by two conversation areas.

3. Wallpaper isn’t just for walls. It’s a designer’s trick to wallpaper the insides of bookcases to add interest and cover imperfections, but West Palm Beach designer Lisa Erdman makes it work especially well with this oversize pattern in the master sitting room. The walls are painted with Benjamin Moore’s Palladian Blue (No. HC 144) from the low VOC Aura line. Erdman cut the color 25% with white paint to tone it down.

4. Collections should make a statement. Palm Beach designer Jack Fhillips’ dining room was inspired by the Hollywood Regency style he was exposed to while working on Veranda magazine’s Beverly Hills show house. “There’s a certain hipness, a little luxe that’s a little different from Palm Beach and Florida,” he said. The lines are clean with focus on the artwork, such as the Square within a Square painting by Richard Serra, used over a 1940s console that he lacquered black and gilded. Collections also look better when used en masse. Fhillips used his collection of selenite crystals. He loves their texture and the way they change color. Why not paint your furniture to create a black-and-white room?

5. Scaling down high style. The dining room may look like a departure from Fhillips’ typical Palm Beach style, but some of his details are evident-such as use of menswear fabrics and tape-bordered drapes. You don’t have to use the linen menswear fabric on the chair seats, but you can use a similar look and copy the embroidered detail. The embroidered tape on the edge of the linen drapes comes from Samuel and Sons, but Fhillips said you can achieve a similar look with grosgrain or dressmaker ribbon from a craft store.

6. Bathroom makeover on a budget. Joseph Cortes, of HomeLife Interiors in West Palm Beach, kept budget in mind when transforming the old-fashioned bathroom with Formica cabinets that adjoin the bedroom he designed. He installed Flor carpet tiles ($60) over the flooring, a Caesarstone quartz countertop ($1,500), two sinks ($300 each), a Plexiglas cover over existing big bulb light fixture ($250) and drapes ($500). He hired a faux painter to update the walls and cabinets ($500). Total cost: $3,350. You can steal his idea and save more by buying less expensive drapes and countertops and painting yourself.

7. Make big impact with wallpaper. Large prints in wallpaper are a hot trend, especially those papers with shimmer or flocking. Cortes applied shimmery large-scale wallpaper by Studio Printworks in San Francisco on an accent wall to break up the dark paint he used in his “Pearl Essence” theme bedroom. And check out the flocked paper from Osborne and Little that Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., designer Angela Reynolds used in the bathroom next to her “Glamour Girl” bedroom. You can re-create a similar look with large-scale damask patterns at grahambrown.com for as low as $5 and $20 a double roll on sale. Another great idea: Look on the window shelves in Cortes’ room to see how he covered books with the same wallpaper for a high-end look.

8. Kitchens need a break from stainless and granite. Scotty Rawley and Melissa Zober of RZ Design Group in Palm Beach used Jenn-Air’s appliances with a rubbed bronze finish, which Rawley calls “the new stainless.” Unlike their orangeish appearance in the advertisements, they look almost like wood. Instead of granite, they used French-blue limestone from Haifa. Rawley estimates the kitchen makeover at $150,000. But here’s a budget idea you can steal: Have walls you want to hide? Drape them with sheers like they did to cover the brick walls in the breakfast area.

9. New heights for the bedroom. Who says you can’t use a chandelier in the bedroom? Cortes added drama and light to a bedroom with dark walls with this Hollywood chandelier by Brandon and Egmond from Carriage House at the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach. It’s coral reef-inspired in a nickel finish and would cost about $11,000 from a designer.

© 2009, Sun Sentinel.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Don’t miss other homeowner tips and topics on RISMedia.com, see:

• Downsizing a Home Requires Cutting Contents, too
• Moving with Pets – Impossible or Possible?
• Setting the Mood with Color

RISMEDIA, January 21, 2009-(MCT)-Color affects mood, as every pop psychologist knows. Considering the pall of gloom cast by the dire economy, it’s no wonder color-trend forecasters are predicting a bumper year for yellows and purples-the former to cheer us up, the latter to calm us down.

Not that everyone is rushing out to purchase paint or furnishings in yellow and purple, just because those have been declared the trendy colors for 2009.

“No matter what the trends, put colors in your home that you feel good about,” advises Jack Fowler, an Orlando, Fla., interior designer. “Take what the experts say, then adjust for your personal taste.”

With that in mind, here is what a trio of color experts is saying:

Toast mimosa yellow. “Yellow symbolizes sunshine, warmth, optimism and good cheer,” says Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Color Institute in Seattle. She predicts the color of the year will be “mimosa yellow”-the golden-yellow of fluffy mimosa blossoms and the orange-based champagne cocktail.
Mimosa reflects “the warmth and nurturing qualities of the sun, properties we humans are drawn to for reassurance,” says Eiseman. “It’s also a hue that sparks imagination and innovation.”

In other words, it’s well suited to a stalled economy in need of bright ideas to spark a recovery.

Use mimosa yellow as an accent color-as paint on a single wall or pillows on a sofa, suggests Eiseman. “It’s marvelous with gray or taupe. It gives them a lot more life.”

Yellow is also a top pick of Debbie Zimmer, color and decorating expert at the Rohm & Haas Paint Quality Institute in Spring House, Pa.

“But not school-bus yellow. A softer shade,” she says.

“Yellow is a refreshing color. It can brighten any interior space. It’s terrific for sprucing up a house for potential resale. In an entrance hall, it’s really welcoming.”

Warm up to purple. Muted shades of purple also will grow in popularity and become one of the year’s memorable colors, predicts Zimmer.

“As we head toward a more difficult economy, we’ll see more conservative colors-dusty purple, lavender, violet,” she says. “The softer purple hues are soothing. The darkest hues provide a dramatic backdrop for brighter accent colors.”

Americans are looking for something uplifting, says Patricia Call, an interior designer in New York and a board member of the Color Marketing Group in Alexandria, Va. And that translates to purple power.

“Historically, purple is associated with royalty. Now it’s being use for everything from cooking ranges to washing machines,” says Call. “In a bad economy, it gives you a lift to feel royal in the kitchen or laundry.

“It’s also a wonderful accent color. Purple Murano-glass sink stoppers bring glamour to a bathroom. Purple vases or pillows add an exciting pop of color to a living room, especially in combination with sophisticated neutrals like grays and browns,” she says. “And as a wall color, the softer shades (of purple) are fabulous with southern natural light.”

While purple may not be the top interior-decor choice of most people, “once it’s been in fashion for a while-and purple has been in fashion for a year or more _ it enters people’s consciousness, and people become comfortable with it,” says Call.

Other fashionable options. Don’t care for yellow or purple? Zimmer sees several other color trends emerging for 2009.

Americans yearning for “artisanship and authentic materials” are turning to “menswear colors” such as gray, navy blue, brown and black, she says. All are colors that will inspire textured finishes on walls, and furnishings featuring argyle, herringbone and pinstripe patterns.

In addition, Americans’ growing eco-consciousness is expanding the decorating palette beyond green to embrace the blues of the oceans and skies, and fruited shades such as mango, orange, apple and pumpkin, says Zimmer.

“Exotic brights,” such as orange, red, turquoise and teal are high on Call’s list of trendy hues. So are white and a whole range of blues.

“Blue is important for our sense of tranquility,” she says. “And blue is the obvious replacement for all the greens of the last few years. If you’re ready for a change, blue is the comfortable choice.”

When choosing a color for your home, it’s worth considering the psychological effect a shade can have on your mood.

Here is a list of colors and their emotional associations, some positive, others negative:

- Yellow: cheerfulness, hope, energy, creativity, caution.
- Purple: calm, uniqueness, meditation, bravery, royalty, spirituality.
- Red: warmth, love, valor, glamour, celebration, danger.
- White: cold, purity, cleanliness, goodness, austerity.
- Black: opulence, sophistication, drama, gloom, dread.
- Green: nature, nurturing, fertility, restfulness, luck, jealousy.
- Blue: tranquility, mystery, freshness, uniqueness.
- Orange: warmth, exoticism, excitement, sociability, change.

© 2009, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Don’t miss other homeowner tips and topics on RISMedia.com:

• Do Your Homework before Refinancing Mortgage, Experts Say  
  Want to Get Your House to Sell? Try Making an Offer

RISMEDIA, January 14, 2009- (MCT)-It seems like hardly a day goes by without some new report about the health hazards of plastics. If it’s not plastic teethers, it’s baby bottles, or sports bottles or old Tupperware. Trying to tell the polycarbonates from the polyvinyl chlorides is enough to make your head spin.

For an informed yet practical approach to plastics safety, we consulted two experts who also happen to be parents:

Susan Nagel, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and women’s health at the University of Missouri, who’s been researching plastics for more than 10 years. She’s also the mother of 6-year-old twins. She is slowly but methodically replacing all her plastic food storage containers with Pyrex.

Vincent Cobb, founder of the online store Reusable Bags, which features nonplastic-or at least safer plastic-food-storage products. Cobb has two children, ages 6 and 4. This Thanksgiving, he tossed out the plastic turkey baster. “It’s now a squirt toy for the kids.”

The first bit of advice from our two experts: Don’t panic.

“When people first found out about lead, they were like, ‘Oh my gosh! We have to strip the paint! We have to move out of the house!’” Cobb says. “That’s where people are now with plastics.”

Plastics aren’t as toxic as lead, and there’s a lot of research still to be done. But since there are alternatives, it makes sense to limit your exposure. How does that old saying go? Err on the side of caution.

Two problems: BPA and phthalates

The chemical that’s grabbing all the recent headlines is bisphenol A-BPA for short. It’s a synthetic estrogen-yep, like the hormone-and has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and behavioral and reproductive problems. Scientists worry that developing fetuses and children younger than 6 are particularly vulnerable.

Canada is planning to ban BPA in children’s products. Consumer groups are calling for a ban in the U.S., and the Food and Drug Administration recently agreed to reconsider the issue.

BPA is found in hard plastic products like baby bottles and sports bottles and in the linings of metal cans for food, soft drinks and beer. It’s also in eyeglasses, bike helmets, CD cases and, well, just about everywhere.

“With BPA, we cannot completely figure out where it’s all coming from,” Nagel says. “If you add up people’s exposure from canned foods, dental sealants, drinking out of polycarbonate bottles, all those things we know about, you still can’t account for as high a level as we find in people.

“It’s in so many products. It’s been found in household air. It’s in dust, then you breathe it in. You can decrease your exposure, but you cannot eliminate it.”

The other buzzword lately is phthalates (the “ph” is silent), additives that make plastic more flexible. Phthalates have been linked to reproductive problems and have been falling out of favor for several years (remember the Great Teether Panic of 1999?). The U.S. began banning several phthalates in children’s products in February, but Nagel warns that phthalates will still lurk in older toys, as well as scented soaps, lotions and cosmetics.

The Solution – Reduce Your Exposure

If you’d like to reduce your family’s exposure to plastics, here are 10 places to start:

1. Food storage. As you can, replace plasticware with glass, porcelain or stainless steel. Until then, just be cautious in how you use plastic storage containers. Don’t put plastic in the microwave, ever. Heat can break down plastic so that it leaches chemicals into food. Try not to put plastic in the dishwasher-it’s too hot in there, as well-although you do have to clean the stuff. If you put it in the dishwasher, use the top rack, away from the heating element. Older plasticware tends to leach the most, so replace it first.

2. Other kitchenware. For plastic glasses and sippy cups, see No. 1. There are glass, metal or wooden alternatives to plastic mixing bowls, colanders, funnels, cutting boards, spatulas and spoons. Ditto for plates and silverware. Some blenders and food processors come with glass bowls. Instead of a vinyl tablecloth, use real cloth.

3. Plastic wrap and bags. There aren’t as many practical alternatives to this one. Try aluminum foil. For microwaving, you can cover foods with paper towels. “I can’t speak to the safety of freezing in freezer bags,” Nagel says, “but I do it because at some point you just don’t have a choice.”

4. Lunch stuff. Another tricky one, since you can’t send your kids to school with breakable food containers. Reusable Bags has started stocking some options, including snack-size stainless-steel containers and cloth snack bags. “We’ve been waiting for somebody to do this,” Cobb says. “We’ve been looking all over the place.”

5. Water bottles. Yes, Virginia, it’s possible to live without a plastic water bottle. Nalgene, which pioneered the shatterproof sports bottle, is now making BPA-free polycarbonate bottles. “I’d still recommend something else,” Nagel says. “Use stainless steel or glass.”

6. Canned foods. Many of the metal cans used for food are lined with a resin that contains BPA. Instead of canned fruits and vegetables, buy fresh or frozen. Instead of canned beans, buy dried. Look for tomatoes in glass jars, or try canning your own.

7. Baby bottles and formula. Use glass baby bottles if possible. If not, several companies make BPA-free bottles. Also avoid liquid baby formula in metal cans, since the liquid can absorb high levels of BPA from the can lining. Powdered formula is a much better choice.

8. Plastic toys. Remember the uproar over the news that Thomas the Tank Engine was covered in lead paint? We need to bring the same level of awareness to plastic toys. Instead, look for natural products like wood. “One thing I found hard was that I liked to buy secondhand toys from garage sales and whatnot,” Nagel says. “I started focusing more on classic, natural-products toys.”

9. Cosmetics and baby products. Phthalates are often used in bath and beauty products as carriers for fragrances. Buy unscented soaps, shampoos, lotions and baby powder instead.

10. Stop buying junk. This is the most important change you can make, according to both of our experts. “This is really hard for Americans, me included, because we’re such consumers,” Nagel says. “If we can, we need to just slow that down and not buy so many products, especially those that are disposable.”

Here’s a rundown of plastics by their recycling codes, and their potential health effects.

A caution: Researcher Susan Nagel warns that BPA and phthalates, the chemical additives that are causing the most concern right now, can be added to many different plastics, and there’s no requirement that they show up on the label.

The plastics considered the safest for food and drink are Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5.
The plastics most commonly accepted for recycling are Nos. 1 and 2.

By the Numbers

No. 1: Polyethylene terephthalate (PETE or PET). Used in food and drink containers, including milk jugs and all those thousands of disposable water bottles. Generally considered safe.

No. 2: High-density polyethylene (HDPE). Used in food and drink containers, detergent bottles, grocery bags, trash bags. Generally considered safe.

No. 3: Polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl). Used in food packaging, cling plastic wraps, vinyl-lined lunchboxes. Gets its flexibility from phthalates, which are possible carcinogens. When PVC touches food, especially anything hot or fatty, the plasticizers can leach into the food.

No. 4: Low-density polyethylene (LDPE). Used in dry-cleaning bags, bread bags, frozen food bags, squeezable bottles. Generally considered safe.

No. 5: Polypropylene (PP). Used in food and medicine containers. Generally considered safe.

No. 6: Polystyrene (PS). Used in egg cartons, packing peanuts and disposable cups, plates and cutlery. Some scientists worry about the health effects of the component styrene, which can leach into food and drink.

No. 7: Other (often polycarbonate, PC). Used in hard plastic sports bottles, baby bottles, 5-gallon water jugs. BPA, the chemical that the U.S. is being urged to ban, is found in polycarbonate products. There are BPA-free products made from polyethersulfone (PES), which will be marked with “7″ but not PC. “Consumer Reports” recently tested a handful of BPA-free baby bottles and found that they contained only negligible amounts of the chemical.

Source: Consumer Reports Greener Choices (www.greenerchoices.org)

© 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

RISMEDIA, January 10, 2009-(MCT)-As homeowners recommit to their current house in the economic and housing downturn, they’re looking for ways to find more space to make the most of what they have.

“People are saying, ‘We’re here for a while, so what can we do to make this place more usable and give us space?’” says Laura VanSickle who with her husband, Eric, owns Closets by Design in Charlotte, N.C.

The recession has been bringing people to her doors, VanSickle says, as homeowners look for ways to make their cluttered homes feel roomier.

But finding more space is often harder than installing a few bookshelves or cleaning out a closet. We asked area storage and organization experts for their best tricks to adding more square footage to your home without adding a room.

Here are their tips.

1. Think up. There’s often plenty of space up high in closets and pantries for another row of shelves — and often we don’t fill the ones that are already there.

“We’re really good at maximizing the horizontal space, but we forget about the vertical space,” says Carson Tate, founder of the Charlotte organizational services company Living Simply. She recommends using the backs of doors to store items like shoes or accessories, and even the roof of a garage can be fitted with shelves to keep Christmas decorations or rarely used items such as car-top carriers.

2. Try to get some items off the ground if possible to free up floor space and make your rooms seem bigger. Would a lighted wall sconce work, instead of a table with a lamp on it? Do you need an entire bookcase, or would a few wall-mounted shelves suffice? In an office, install shelves 12 to 18 inches below the ceiling and line the walls with books. Add a small ladder and it’ll have a library feel. And wall-mounting a flat-screen TV eliminates the need for a big media center.

3. Have a bonus room? Put every inch to use. “They’re big, odd-shaped rooms and you don’t know what to do with them,” Laura VanSickle says. The trick, she says, is to carve them up into smaller spaces. Buy a wrap-around desk and fill it with office supplies to become your kids’ homework corner. Use low shelves to create a nook for toys, and another nook for video games and all the gaming accessories. “It’s amazing how you can squeeze a lot of use into a room,” VanSickle says.

4. Transform your guest room into an office, exercise room or living area by adding a Murphy bed. Murphy beds flip up for vertical storage inside a cabinet, and are ideal space savers because they are just 18 to 20 inches deep — in some cases even allowing your bed to transform into a wall of bookshelves.

Today’s Murphy beds are far more comfortable and easy to use than those of decades past, and much prettier, too. Now, Murphy beds accept regular mattresses and can be flipped open or closed easily with one hand. One Charlotte-area Murphy bed retailer, Buy Bye Beds, sells Murphy beds starting at $1,599, including the mattress. The company also sells cabinets that contain fold-away “drop tables” ideal for crafting, sewing or other projects that you don’t need out every minute.

Murphy beds are making a comeback in urban settings — Buy Bye Beds has been hired by developers to install them in some condominiums in uptown Charlotte, says owner London Scialdoni.

5. In kids’ rooms, don’t toss toys into giant toy bins, but instead give them low bookshelves with small containers for different types of toys. Says Tate of Living Simply: Don’t stack books on a bookshelf, because young kids often have trouble inching one book out and putting it back correctly. Instead, place a stack of books in a large square basket where they can be flipped through.

6. Choose furniture wisely. Skirted tables are perfect for stashing almost anything, and can be placed in almost any room of the house. A bench with a hinged lid is perfect for the foot of a bed or under a window, and is nice for storing linens, towels or clothes. Use long, flat storage boxes to keep items under beds or buy a set of ready-made steel bed risers to hike the bed up and allow for more storage. Leather storage ottomans do double duty in family rooms as seating or storage.

7. Got a small, useless space? Fill it in with cabinets. Master bathrooms tend to be huge in newer homes, and open walls are ripe for an extra cabinet to store necessities such as medicines, towels, linens or bath supplies, VanSickle says. One client asked her to create a built-in vanity in the corner of an odd-shaped closet.

8. Install a hanging bar in your attic. It’s the perfect place to hang tablecloths that are used only a few times a year, Tate says. Buy a canvas bag at a storage or discount store, toss in some cedar chips and hang the linens. “They’re out of the way and they stay nice and crisp and fresh.”

9. Create more space in your closet. Tate recommends having just one kind of hanger in your closet, as it makes clothes easier to see. Her choice: the slimline hanger (www.slimlinehangers.com). The hangers are slim, so they take up little space, and they’re covered with a velvet-like material that won’t allow your clothes to slip off. They’re strong, so they won’t bend even under the weight of a winter coat, she says.

© 2009, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.
 

To participate, contestants can simply create a video, 90 seconds or less, that demonstrates entertaining ideas or tips related to changing furnace filters. Entries can include clever how-to videos or creative recycle/reuse options for our old, dirty filters.

The funnier and more creative, the better, but the video must contain real and useful information, such as:

- Changing air filters regularly helps prevent dust and dirt from building up in the system leading to expensive maintenance and perhaps early system failure.
- A clean, quality air filter can help reduce the amount of pollen, bacteria, pet dander, mold spores and other airborne particles that often cause allergy attacks, eye irritation and discomfort.
- Clean air filters will help remove dust and other particles from the air, resulting in less dust on furniture and indoor surfaces.
- Changing air filters regularly helps reduce the burden on your HVAC system and saves energy.

“One of our most important goals is to help homeowners remember to do the routine maintenance steps that help prevent unexpected and expensive breakdowns in their homes,” said Dave Quandt, senior vice president, American Home Shield. “Home maintenance tips can be a little dry, so we’re trying to make the subject more fun and rewarding.”

A home warranty is a service contract that covers the repair or replacement of many of the most frequently occurring breakdowns of home system components and appliances. More than 1.3 million American homeowners protect their homes with AHS warranties each year.

Deadline for submission is February 17. Winners can receive a year of home warranty coverage or a number of other prizes. For complete contest rules, home maintenance tips and some examples of clever maintenance videos, visit www.ahsvideocontest.com. On the site, you’ll also find a 60-second video that AHS created to kick off the contest, featuring an animated, fictional scenario where the President-elect and his wife discuss the need to change the air filters in their new home, the White House.

Top 5 Tips for Chancing Your Air Filter:

1. Look for the MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) rating the next time you buy an air filter. The MERV rating informs you of the efficiency you can expect from your filter. The scale ranges from a MERV 1 to MERV 16 (95%+ ASHRAE filter).
2. The MERV rating tells you in microns what size particles each type of filter can trap. Particles less than 35 microns are not visible to the naked eye. Pollen particles range from 10 to 100 microns in size; dust from 0.5 to 5 microns. Most harmful particles are less than 5 microns in size.
3. Electro-statically charged filters will trap smaller particles that many other types of filters because many of the smallest particles that would otherwise pass through are “magnetically” drawn to the filter.
4. Pleated filters provide greater surface area and therefore can trap more particles than flat filters.
5. Flat polyester or fiberglass filters should be changed every month. Pleated, electro-statically charged filters can be changed less often, perhaps every 2-3 months. As always, consult with your system’s manufacturer for tips and recommendations specific to your model.

For more information, visit www.ahswarranty.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

RISMEDIA, Jan. 3, 2009-(MCT)-Everybody could use a little help now and then, especially when it comes to decorating. But not everyone can afford it. At least not in the traditional, hire-someone-to-transform-your-entire-house sense. What many people don’t realize is that there are affordable ways to get professional-quality design advice-some of them even free.

Designers for years have been willing to customize their fees and services according to a client’s budget. This is especially true in today’s economic climate, when even the most upscale interior designers are giving their fee structures a reality check. “Interior designers are having to re-market themselves at the moment,” says River Forest, Ill., interior designer Karen Sheridan. “Very rarely have I ever taken on a project that’s less than a whole house, but that may start to change.”

Here’s a broad look at three different ways to tap expert design help-from the resourceful (read: DIY and affordable) approach to the “menu” mode of picking and choosing select design services to the more traditional (and more costly) professional-all-the-way route.

Level 1: DIY
Scope of work: Research and implement design guidance on your own.

Cost: Free (or, if using a design software program, $10 to $100)

You’re rearranging your living room but are clueless as to where to start. You’re buying a new sofa but have no idea what style will look right next to your grandma’s antique cocktail table. Or you’d like to paint your kitchen cabinets in a bold red but worry they could end up a bloody mess. And other than the cost of the sofa and the paint, you have no money to spend. Not a cent.

Resourceful types can get a lot of help with a little legwork. Start by gathering inspirational references. “Make a project of studying interior design books and magazines,” says Chicago interior designer Janet McCann. She also sends her clients on field trips to showhouses and design events-such as the Dream Home or Dream Rooms at Chicago’s wholesale venue The Merchandise Mart.

Take pictures, clip tear sheets and make sketches of what appeals to you most. This will define your personal style, which, in turn, will drive your purchases and decorating choices.

When it comes time to make those shopping choices, get more help by asking for it. McCann recommends taking advantage of the sales associates at the place you’re buying furniture. Sheridan loves stores such as Macy’s, Toms-Price, Crate and Barrel, Room & Board, Dania and Z Gallerie for the design services they offer. Room & Board features an in-house design station where design associates can walk shoppers through fabric selections, draw up floor plans and schedule “fit calls” (for a small fee) at the shopper’s house to ensure a desired piece of furniture will fit through doorways and around tight turns in stairways.

“Take photographs and measurements of your space with you,” Sheridan says. “Tell them, ‘We need a sofa. Given the color of our walls, the room’s measurements, and this one chair that’s staying put, what do you think is going to work in terms of style and color?’”

For not much more than the cost of a magazine or coffee-table book (and sometimes for free), you also can answer those questions with the help of DIY tools.

Free online planners such as designmyroom.com and scenecaster.com let you enter a room’s dimensions or choose from a menu of template rooms and try out different brand-name furnishings, paint colors and room arrangements.

Manufacturers such as Benjamin Moore and Armstrong Flooring let you upload photos of your room and swap out paint colors and flooring materials.

Room spacing kits such as Canvas (around $10) tackle space planning with the help of graph paper and repositionable stickers.

Serious DIY-ers might consider software programs such as Better Homes and Gardens Interior Designer ($79). These comprehensive programs produce professional-quality plans that can be handed over and implemented as-is to an interior designer-or realized by yourself. Though you can expect to invest many hours on tutorial and practice, the effort is worth it if you are serious about creating a meticulous, well-conceived design.

Level 2: A la carte
Scope of work: Hire an expert for one specific, short-term task.

Cost: $50 to $300 an hour or one flat fee from $200 to around $1,000

If you have a little money in your budget, pick the one project that you need the most help with-or the part of your space that gets the most eyes-and hire an expert to help with that task alone.

Furniture designer Angela Finney-Hoffman, who also owns Post 27, an 8-month-old furnishings store in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, took this approach with the newly renovated Chicago home of Tereasa Surratt and David Hernandez. The husband and wife had a garage full of collections that they had no idea how to live with.

Finney-Hoffman hand-picked the most graphic, right-sized pieces from the couple’s stash, sketched out custom displays, and then handed the sketches over for the couple to install themselves. Surratt’s vintage suitcases are now displayed in a 12-foot-tall graduated tower in the living room, and Hernandez’s collection of antique cameras now cover a canvas above the guest bedroom’s headboard. “Ninety percent of what we used they already owned,” Finney-Hoffman says. “We basically shopped from their garage.”

Designers amenable to this kind of selective service will typically charge by the hour or with a flat fee. The payoff, of course, is not having to spend thousands of dollars and not having to commit to more than one project at a time. “I was so intimidated to use a designer,” Surratt says. “I had never used one before. This was a great way for me to not have to put out a lot of money but still get exactly what I needed.”

Christine Frech felt the same way after her mini-project with designer Anne Chalesle. Christine and her husband, Todd, built their house in Chicago’s Lincoln Park three years ago. The architecture was the easy part. The interiors, not so much. “I’m lame with decorating,” Frech says. “I can tell you what I like, but I’ve never been able to pull the individual things together into one complete look.”

With two young children and a baby on the way, what Frech really needed help with was the kids’ bedrooms. Six-year-old Maria would be sharing a room with new baby sister Sofia, while 4-year-old William was transitioning from his crib to a big-boy bed. Christine had come to admire Chalesle’s style through frequenting her former textiles boutique, C’est Moi. For several hundred dollars, Chalesle came to the house and rearranged the girls’ room, and helped Christine pick out new bedding, a rug, and paint colors for William’s room. “She did things like suggest I replace my glass lamp with a red lamp and gingham shade, and suggest I frame some of William’s maps and hang them above his bed,” Christine says.

Before saying goodbye, Chalesle left Christine with a floor plan to implement when Sofia is ready to move to her big-girl bed.

Level 3: I’ll take it all
Scope of work: Hire an interior designer to design your entire house, from the bottom up.

Cost: $50,000 to sky’s-the-limit, depending on furnishings purchased, size of house, duration of project and homeowner’s budget

By the time Julie and Louis Bucksbaum decided it was time to build their dream ranch in 2001, they had already formed a strong mental image of what it would look like inside. “We wanted it to have a mountain, rustic, lodge feel,” Julie says. “We wanted it to feel like we were on vacation every day.”

The Bucksbaums also had an unlimited budget, something not uncommon in this kind of upscale, whole-house project. Their example is what many people think of when they hear the word “interior design.” It entails large budgets, subcontracted custom work, extended timelines-two years in the Bucksbaums’ case-and a top-to-bottom scope that covers everything from the plumbing to the stair rails to the drapery. The Bucksbaums began working with their designer, Janet McCann, even before ground had been broken on their Northbrook, Ill., property, but such whole-house projects also can include remodels or straightforward redecorating jobs.

Whichever the project, the process is generally the same. It starts with the designer getting to know the homeowners and their personal style. “I’ll often do several interviews in the home,” says interior designer Karen Sheridan, who recently completed a whole-house project in Lincoln Park. “I observe their existing interiors, their style vocabulary, even the way they dress.” Next, Sheridan gives her clients a homework assignment: “Go buy as many magazines as possible and tear out the images that appeal to you-and the ones that don’t.”

Ever the over-achievers, the Bucksbaums already had completed that assignment before hiring McCann. “For a long time our Friday and Saturday night dates consisted of going to Borders, getting coffee and working our way through piles of design magazines,” Julie says.

The getting-to-know-you phase can take anywhere from one week to three or four months. Considerably more time-consuming is the next phase: creating layouts and selecting furniture, materials and finishes. Layouts help designers determine what size, number and types of furniture and materials will best fit each space. Once those parameters are established, the designer can get to work on selecting those products. “I go shopping by myself first just to see what’s out there,” Sheridan says. “I’ll take tons of pictures, maybe 20 pictures of different sofas. Then I go back and edit down those to a top three or four to show to the client.”

This can take up to a year depending on how decisive and involved the homeowner is. Julie happened to love not only being involved in final selections, but also tagging along with McCann on shopping excursions. “I loved going to the furnishings stores, picking out fabric. I loved it all,” Julie says. “Janet (McCann) had to put blinders on me or I would have gotten distracted. That’s why I needed her; she kept me focused.”

Once materials have been selected and ordered, it becomes a waiting game.

“You can get all of your list ordered and then find out the focal point of the room-the cabinets, for example-are going to take five months to arrive,” McCann says.

The final touch, what’s considered the fun part by most, is the installation. “We’ll take at least a good week to install the carpet, the window treatments, arrange the furniture, hang pictures,” McCann says. “It’s my job to ensure that the client is going to be nothing less than thrilled with the end result.”

© 2008, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

RISMEDIA, Dec. 2, 2008-(MCT)-Whether you’re looking from an economic or from an environmental angle, it makes good sense to tighten up this autumn.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that plugging holes around doors, windows, pipes and ducts could save you as much as 10% on your heating bill.

One of the primary ways to stop cold air from invading your warm house is to seal doorways with weather stripping and other forms of insulation.

We asked Cary Patrick of Patrick’s Hardware in Hampton, Va., to show us how to stop doorway leaks with the use of commonly available products. Patrick has plenty of experience to share. He’s been selling hardware in Hampton for more than 30 years.

The following tips and others on B2 came from our conversation:

- Use jamb-up weather stripping on wooden, exterior doors. The pieces-a rubber bead mounted on a metal strip–are to be installed on the two sides and top of the door frame where the door and frame meet. Install it with screws or nails, the top piece first, then the legs. Cut it to length using snips or a hacksaw. Pieces should be attached so the rubber side just meets the door, Patrick said. Too tight a seal will prevent the door from closing correctly.

- Install a sweep on the bottom of exterior doors. A door sweep–a metal plate fitted with a rubber or silicone lip–is intended to be mounted to the face of the door at the bottom. Used in conjunction with the aforementioned three pieces of weather stripping, a sweep completes the seal around the door. Again, Patrick recommends that the sweep be installed so the rubber meets the floor, but isn’t pushed up against it. It should stop drafts, but not impede the door from opening and closing.

- Tighten the seal with self-adhesive weather stripping. Foam strips with adhesive backing on one side can be used to fill dead air space between the door and the frame. Use it just inside the jamb, where the door and the jamb meet. Patrick said this type of weather stripping should only be applied in relatively warm temperatures. “In cold air, the adhesive doesn’t stick as well,” he warned.

- On metal doors, check rubber gaskets, replace if necessary. Many modern, manufactured doors come with weather stripping already attached. But rubber gaskets can fail over time. Replacements can be found at hardware or home improvement stores.

- Test your seal. One simple way to see if you’ve successfully tightened your doorway is to use your eyes. If daylight can been seen peeking around the edges of the door, you’ve missed a spot. You can also use incense to check for drafts.

- Move beyond the doorway. Once you’ve tightened exterior doors, attack leaks elsewhere. Seal older, double-hung windows with caulk or self-adhesive weather stripping. Shrink wrap troublesome windows with a commonly available kit. Heat from a hair dryer allows you to seal the inside of the window. Elsewhere, use caulk to fill cracks between baseboards and hardwood flooring.

Prevent Pipes from Freezing

But preventing frozen pipes is much less expensive than the cure. Roto-Rooter recommends that Southerners take preventive action before Dec. 1.

Here’s a cold-weather checklist the company compiled:

- Disconnect outside water hoses. If left connected during freezing temperatures, water in hoses will freeze and expand causing connecting faucets and pipes to freeze and break.
- Inspect outside faucets. If dripping or leaking, make the necessary repairs or call a plumber before a hard freeze.
- Note that when pipes freeze, water pressure builds causing cracks, no matter if the pipe is made of plastic, copper or steel. Even a tiny crack can unleash 250 gallons of floodwater in a single day.
- If your home is equipped with interior shut-off valves leading to outside faucets, close them and drain water from lines.
- Cover outside faucets using a faucet insulation kit.
- Insulate pipes in unheated areas. It’s a lot easier to do this on a pleasant day than when cold winds are blowing. Apply heat tape or thermostat-controlled heat cables around exposed pipes.
- Your water heater works harder during winter months. Drain sediment from the tank, which causes corrosion and reduces efficiency.
- Set water heater thermostat to 120 degrees Fahrenheit for optimum performance while reducing the risk of scalding.
- Clear leaves and debris from roof gutters and downspouts to ensure proper drainage throughout the winter season. You may have to do this again until the leaves are off of the surrounding trees.
- Inspect and clean basement sump pit. Remove any rocks and debris from the pit then dump a bucket of water into the pit to test the sump pump. If it turns on, empties the pit quickly then turns itself off, it is operating properly.
- Make sure the furnace is set no lower than 55 degrees during the winter to prevent pipes from freezing.

Roto-Rooter has additional seasonal tips available online at www.rotorooter.com.

© 2008, Daily Press (Newport News, Va.).
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your email to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com

RISMEDIA, Nov. 17, 2008-As the weather turns cooler, creating a warm and inviting kitchen can make a big difference in a home’s overall appeal. With a few well-chosen finish updates, you can shift tone and mood and purchase interest.

Fifty years ago, the American kitchen was pretty predictable-a sink, a refrigerator and a range, and for a lucky few, a dishwasher-connected by simple cabinets and countertop. As long as basic conveniences and functionality were covered, there was little need-or demand-for more. The house I grew up in was designed by my dad, who integrated new ideas and features into our compact kitchen-a “breakfast bar” for casual dining and a stainless steel cook top and wall oven. The lively yellow, brown and knotty pine scheme was warm and welcoming and it was our favorite hang-out space for cooking and conversation.

Today, the kitchen has migrated to one of the most experiential rooms in the house, where gourmet cooking rides along with bill paying, crafting and homework. And as the social hub for family and friends, it’s more important than ever to buyers and sellers alike that this key room be fresh and inviting. If the kitchen is outdated and tired, the whole house can feel that way, so a few simple updates can make all the difference in getting the green light on the buying decision.

Fit and finish in a room convey quality-or lack of-so it’s important to look around and pay attention to details. Color and light are the easiest, most cost-efficient elements to add warmth to the kitchen, and you need go no further than the vegetable bin or spice cabinet for inspiration. A scheme of natural greens, yellows, mustards and russets washed with dimmable overhead and under-cabinet lighting can add energy as well as create a level of calm-a kitchen for any mood. If the existing cabinets are sturdy but the finish is sending out a distress signal, a well-executed paint job can turn it around. Mismatched appliances and worn flooring are other leading visual cues, so if the budget permits, replace them.

Last but not least, add sparkle and a new point of view to the kitchen by replacing the metals palette-cabinet hardware, faucet, lighting and outlet covers. A few thoughtfully chosen, simple finish updates can seal the deal.

Melissa Birdsong is vice president for Trend, Design & Brand, Lowe’s Companies, Inc.

For more information, please visit www.lowes.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Related articles by Melissa Birdsong on RISMedia.com:

• Adding the Human Element to Your New Home  
  Go Beyond Beige – Color vs. Neutral Schemes  
  Getting Personal – Three Easy Ways to Make a House a Home