Taking the LEED
Homebuyers no longer have to become instant experts to find homes with high efficiency and environmental performance. Certification labels like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) help consumers understand a home’s actual environmental content, and guide professional buil...
Designer Decks
Thinking of building a deck or expanding an existing one? Your timing is right. Today’s decks are often larger and more customized than ones built even just a few years ago. Not only is there a broader choice of decking materials, but you can also take advantage of increasingly popular design elements such as a recessed hot tub, a brick or terra cotta fireplace or firepit, an outdoor couch or even a full-fledged outdoor kitchen. A new deck designed to comfortably accommodate your family’s lifestyle outdoors is a deck well done.
The Tipping Point
Most homeowners today recognize the fact that, sometime in the past few months, we reached a tipping point — a threshold when gathering pressures beyond our control have forced us into a period of rapid change. It’s happening all over the world, and in our own homes. It’s happen...
Give Your Yard an Organic Makeover
Most of us spend many hours in the fall and early spring taking care of our yards — raking, sowing seeds, planting, fertilizing and watering — so we can enjoy a lush landscape by the time the warm weather rolls around. But when the long, hot, dry days of summer arrive, we often find our e...
Home Weather Stations
Here’s the hypothetical situation: You’re planning a two-week vacation and need to make sure the lawn and garden are properly watered in your absence. The irrigation system can be programmed but you’re not sure where to set the watering level. How much rain did the area get this ti...
Storm Proofing
Here’s an eye-opening statistic: 43 percent of U.S. homeowners live in hurricane-prone coastal areas. In Florida alone, 800,000 homes are potentially at risk from hurricane damage. One more interesting statistic: 50 percent of damage claims filed after a hurricane result from catastrophic r...
Smart Summer Furniture
Relax in style this summer, and help the environment while you’re doing it, with these colorful Adirondack chairs made from recycled plastic milk jugs and water bottles. Shoreline Adirondack chairs, from Lancaster County, Pa.-based Millcraft Poly Furniture, are made from 100-percent recyc...
Drink to Your Health
Water quality has become an important issue for many homeowners, given recent reports about the quality of tap and bottled water. According to the National Tap Water Quality Database (www.ewg.org/tapwater), 260 contaminants have been found across the na...
Keeping a Low Profile
Smoke alarms have been integral safety devices in the home for nearly four decades, but during that time they haven’t changed much in appearance. The Silhouette Low-Profile Smoke Alarm is out to change that. With a sleek design that protrudes just a half-inch from the ceiling, it blends e...
Taking Care of the Air
Air conditioners are not typically known as eco-friendly appliances, thanks to the use of refrigerants like Freon (also known as R-22), which has been shown to deplete the ozone. However, Freon is being phased out (as of 2010 it cannot be used in any new equipment), and a new generation of ec...
5 Bathroom Remodeling Tips
Planning a bathroom remodeling project this summer? It’s one of the best investments you can make in your home, according to real estate experts. Should you ever consider selling your home, the condition and amenities of the bathrooms “can really make or break a sale,” says Sila...
Growing a Green Home
Linda Lessner describes herself, her husband Michael and their four children as “central Austin folk.” And being that green building has been central to Austin for more than 20 years, it’s little surprise that the Lessner’s home is in all probability the greenest one on ...
Creating a Fire-Resistant Home
Wildfires were particularly destructive last year, especially in the West, where thousands of homes were destroyed, and in the South, where drought left trees and shrubbery tinder-dry. Already this year, wildfires have sprung up in Virginia, the Carolinas, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Nevada and C...
High-Performance Prefabs
The one shining light in the real estate industry these days seems to be in green construction. Today it is far more chic to say your house is green than to mention you have granite countertops in the kitchen. Many homeowners are foregoing traditional materials like granite for more renewable o...
Roofs on the Cutting Edge
Flowering succulents may seem more suited to a rock garden in your yard, but at Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta, Ga., a team of workers recently planted rows and rows of sedum, hens-and-chicks and other types of vegetation up on the roof of the nonprofit organization’s new Eco Offic...
Watch Your Water!
Nothing drives me crazier than seeing lawn sprinklers going off during a rainstorm. Potable water is a precious resource we must manage carefully and responsibly. By adopting water-conserving strategies and making use of a growing number of products on the market today, homeowners can not only ...
Off-the-Shelf Green Homes
As we pointed out earlier in this issue, green building is one of the few bright spots in today’s housing industry. That’s good news for home buyers and builders alike, as it’s an indication of a healthy trend that shows no signs of slowing down. Even better, a growing number ...
