Green Real Estate Appraiser

Button Up Your Home This Winter

Posted on October 20, 2012 | Leave a comment

Before long we’ll be complaining about the cooler weather and the high cost of energy bills.

But you can change the script this year by winterizing your home. It need not be a massive undertaking. Small steps can often add up to significant savings and prevent problems in the future.

In Midland, Mich., for example, the Dow Chemical Co. teamed up with local contractors on the Revitalize Home. The 1960s ranch-style house got air-sealing and insulation upgrades last winter, and is expected to show a 30 percent energy savings this winter. And that’s without major improvements such as window replacements or HVAC upgrades.

Keep the cold air out, and winter won’t seem so bitter.

“The average home has half a mile in gaps and cracks,” says Kaethe Schuster, remodeling market manager for Dow Building Solutions. “That’s equivalent to a 4-by-4 window left open. So I don’t think people are aware of the impact (of drafts). Twenty-five to 40 percent of energy loss is because of those gaps.”

There are a variety of effective measures to winterize a home, some extensive and best left to the pros, but many others of the do-it-yourself variety. Run down the list and save yourself money — and keep warm and cozy in the bargain.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

The (Almost) All-American Home

Posted on October 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

Chocolate limestone from Lueders, TX

When Karen Lantz, a Houston architect, was in high school, the Armco steel plant where her father had worked for two decades shut down.

“He was 47,” she said. “It was tough.”

He found other jobs, but the financial loss stung, and the family’s options became more limited.

Lantz put herself through community college and then architecture school at the University of Houston. Now 37, Lantz is a working architect, but in 2009, when she started planning her dream house in the grip of a recession, her father’s experience weighed on her.

People all over the United States were out of work; if she bought American-made products for the house, she could do her part. But how far could she take it? Was it possible to build a house entirely of products made in America?

Will this add value to your home? Contact the appraisers at http://www.scappraisal.com for your value questions.

Some things were easy. Lantz traveled to a quarry in Lueders, Tex., to find chocolate-brown limestone. The marble chips that made up her terrazzo came from Marble Falls. She found Heatlok Soy 200 foam insulation in Arlington and windows manufactured in Stafford. Other items required her to look further afield: Lantz bought shower drains from Iowa, a skylight made in South Carolina, hose valves made in Alabama, fences from California and baseboards from Georgia. She developed the skills of a private investigator.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

How to Lighten Up a Dark Home

Posted on October 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

The narrow terraces that characterize older areas of inner Melbourne bring with them a bunch of problems when it comes to extending the living amenity.

The single-level ”tunnel houses”, especially those just five meters wide, such as the 1880s St Kilda property architect Tony Vella was engaged to change, are often compromised for natural light and have unwieldy internal arrangements.

In the 1980s, the house had been extended towards the north and had a long footprint incorporating a small side courtyard as user-unfriendly as the tiny backyard and ”the dark, central living room and kitchen”. In a commission to modernise to give the house three good-scale bedrooms, two bathrooms and a living-dining-kitchen, Vella was given an extra hurdle. With a pending addition to the family, it needed to happen in a hurry.

How to accelerate a rebuild that Vella said came down in essence to an interior-design project on a tight budget and in a precinct with heritage overlays, when the town-planning processes ”can often become difficult and lead to lengthy delays, and when a big part of the brief was to minimise delay”?

Solution: build within the existing house fabric. Vella says the ’80s brick additions were ”solid and well built. So we held on to the existing fabric and kept the window openings in the same positions.” The strategy sped through planning within three months. ”We spent another three months on the documentation and made the decisions quickly. We took another three months in the construction.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Button Up Your Home This Winter

The (Almost) All-American Home

How to Lighten Up a Dark Home

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