When considering energy-efficient and environmentally friendly improvements to make to your home, the attic is an often overlooked area that, if poorly insulated, results in higher heating/cooling costs, not to mention a general inefficiency that compromises your home's interior.
To find out if you need to replace your insulation, the U.S. Department of Energy recommends an insulation thickness of at least R-30, or 11 inches of fiber glass or 8 inches of cellulose. If you find yourself below those amounts, it's time to add more.
A friend who is an avid DIY enthusiast, recently shared his love for his new oscillating power tool. He has the Fein Multi-Master which I had the opportunity to test at the International Builders' Show a few weeks ago. It's really been the only player on the market for some time and according to Toolsnob Fein's patent on the tool expired and now new offerings from Dremel and Rockwell have become available and at a lower price.
Rockwell was certainly pushing their oscillating multi-tool at the Builders' Show and had a board setup for attendees to cut out small squares with and take note of how quickly and quietly it operated.
One Project Closer recently did a thorough review of the Dremel Multi-Max and came away very pleased and highly recommend it.
Painting a tired cabinet facade in the kitchen is the hands-down easiest way to update in a weekend. Glazing takes your new and improved surfaces to another level by adding paint or wood stains to the surface once the first coat of paint or primer is dry.
Glazes are available to purchase pre-mixed or you can make your own using a four part water to one part paint or stain mixture. They're sometimes refered to as a "wash" effect and can lend an antiqued look to cabinets.
Here's how to get the look.
Painting hardwood, concrete or tile floors can open up a new world of color palettes that add just the right amount of panache to your home's interior. Yet some, like designer Stephanie Wirth, question the durability of painted hardwood floors, complaining that the paint has a tendency to chip.
The alternative?
As Wirth shares in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Chicago Home + Garden, stained floors are her go-to method, and not just any stain: a deep, dark ebony that imbues a richness and depth to any room.
With the housing crisis still rippling through the country, many homeowners may find themselves living in more of a graveyard instead of a neighborhood. Homes are becoming (and remaining) vacant at an alarming rate, and while these vacancies bring down property values and become eyesores, remaining homeowners need to take into account extra safety measures to protect their own homes.
A great deal of vacant homes are just abandoned by their owners, and a certain amount of time has to elapse before the bank can seize it and either resell it, or in some cases, destroy it. So many of these homes sit in disrepair and decay without proper care, which depending on the season can result in frozen pipes flooding, wooden siding rotting, windows cracking, driveways and porches crumbling, and litter amounting. And as the house sits empty, local critters of nearly every variety will come looking for shelter from the elements, some becoming very territorial of their new homes.
In areas hardest hit by economic struggles, vacant homes often become the targets of various sorts of crime. People will break in and rip metal fixtures and plumbing from the structure to sell for scrap metal. Squatters can enter and create large messes in homes without proper water or sewage capacities. Often further damage will be done to the home with vandalism and arson. And vacant homes can quickly become the sites of illegal dealings with no one to report the activity. Each of these events lessens the likelihood of resale of the home and greater depresses the area surrounding the vacant home.
So what can you do if you find yourself living next to a vacant home?
Here are a few pointers:
The Wall Street Journal is one of my favorite papers and this goes beyond their outstanding business news. If you dig a little deeper you'll find some of the greatest coverage of art, science, fashion and home related stories that you would read anywhere and with newspapers and original reporting becoming more scarce the WSJ is a must-read.
I always peruse the Real Estate/Home Garden sections and they've recently launched a series called Brownstone Diary which will follow the gut renovation of a Harlem Brownstone by a couple who have two kids and both work full-time. She (Julia Angwin) is the senior technology editor for the Journal and it seems the couple has very limited experience in the process of remodeling a home.
We will be following along what should prove to be an interesting journey.
The place needs a complete overhaul: new electrical, new plumbing, new roof, new windows, new floors and all new appliances and cabinetry.
As was already pointed out in another post, there are many new eco-friendly, naturally-based household cleaners appearing in your local grocery and home improvement stores. One of these brands, Seventh Generation, is one of my household's absolute favorites.
From their bleach-free laundry products to their recycled paper and plastic goods to their AWESOME baby diapers and wipes, Seventh Generation has become a well-loved and trusted brand in these parts.
So naturally, when I find something I love, I e-stalk it. I become a fan of the Facebook page, I follow the Twitter stream, and I sign up for emails. It should be noted that these are all ways to find out about great sales and be privy to online coupons that make changing your household products to green ones all the more simple and nicer on your wallet. But I digress.
The only thing that I (and many others trying to convert) struggled with concerning green cleaners was that there was a marked lack of anti-bacterial and disinfecting products that are eco-friendly.
I've seen hand sanitizer claiming to be organic, but in the realms of hard-core cleaning materials there just weren't products meant to sanitize your home as well as clean it without harsh chemicals and fumes.
Until now.
In an incredible display of do-it-yourself ingenuity and sticktoitiveness, a couple in Surrey, England constructed a castle/tudor home. But the kicker is that they did this without the knowledge of neighbors or local building authorities who had repeatedly denied the proper permits to build such a structure.
How'd they do it? By hiding the structure behind 40-foot walls of hay for four years!
These hammer and saw cufflinks from designer Debbie Howe will add a little DIY flair to your finest shirt and suit.
Hand-made in New York of sterling silver and real wood. Available for $88.
If you have the need to retain soil or prevent erosion, a wall may be just the thing. Any projects under 18" in total height are simple and straightforward. Once you go over that height the project becomes more complicated, but with the proper machinery and prep, it's still entirely doable.
Prepare the Site Dig back the soil and level the ground for the entire length of the wall and also about 3 - 4 feet back for anything over that magic 18" number. This may require some of that machinery or just a bunch of generous friends.
The Base Lay a gravel base about 6" deep along the line of the proposed wall and pack it down well. This helps with drainage, so don't skip it and don't skimp on the depth. Make absolutely sure that your first course or layer of wall is level. Whether you're working with stone or wood, use a level to double and triple check.
Show pride in your favorite TV programs with this sharp looking tape measure from Komelon that's branded with a badge from the DIY Network. As a courtesy to our readers the DIY Network has offered this as a giveaway on our website.
The 25' tape is stainless steel with double-sided printing and enclosed in a durable rubberized case. This isn't a cheap piece of swag and could be your go-to tape measure for years to come.
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A good friend of mine just bought a house recently and is taking on the necessary renovations head-on, and all on his own. Looking at pictures of his kitchen post-gutting (like the one above) I began to consider the importance of kitchen cabinets in functionality and over-all aesthetic.
When we redecorated our kitchen, we actually had nice, fairly new and very spacious cabinets. We opted to just paint them to get the look we wanted - which while labor intensive and fairly tedious, only cost us a couple of gallons of paint and some added knobs.
Now, as we work on our dining room and want to add storage, the idea of more built-in cabinets seems to be the most functional for everything from our china and fragile display items to a serving surface and extra storage for kid-friendly miscellanea. However, we're struggling to decide exactly what kind of cabinet we want - pre-fab, custom, or Ikea.
Here are the pros and cons we can divine thus far:
During the overhaul of our kitchen, there were a couple of things that despite my best efforts, I couldn't quite come up with a game plan for. Some things, like my kitchen countertops, were just shrugged off as a bigger worry for another day. But other things, like the decorative tiles in the backsplashes, seemed like there should have been a simple and easy solution to cover.
The decorative tiles in question were pictures of fruit and vegetables, some scattered, and some 4-inch tiles placed in two by three rows together to make a little vignette of produce (see below). When the kitchen was dusty rose and beige and belonged to an elderly lady, they sort of made sense. But now, as a part of my bright and graphic new young-couples' kitchen, they looked disjointed and glaringly wrong.
