An Eco-Friendly Home That Really Gets Around

An Eco-Friendly Home That Really Gets Around

Published: November 13, 2012

We love eco-minded concept houses, like this energy-efficient creation that resembles a giant caterpillar.

This self-supporting abode was dreamt up by Michael Jantzen, an architect known for his imaginative conceptual works, especially when it comes to alternative energy and storage systems.

His Transformation House is a design concept that truly lives up to its name. The structure literally alters its appearance to take advantage of weather conditions.

The cylindrical building’s exterior is divided into five sections that automatically, or manually, move so it can catch energy from the sun to power it, let the wind in to cool it, and collect rainwater for its inhabitants.

That makes it a self-supporting home with one-of-a-kind curb appeal: Every time one of the five sections rotates, it alters the building’s caterpillar-like appearance.

And it’s not just the exterior that moves. Everything inside this home can be shuffled around.

The windows move 360 degrees so you can tweak your views at the push of a button. The interior also cleverly maximizes space by storing four containers, each one being a room, under the glass floors.

That’s especially convenient if you want to hide a messy room — just store it away and call up a clean one.

If you want to see more of Jantzen’s work, you can visit his site.

By: Deirdre Sullivan © Copyright 2015 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

 

Why Gardening is Good for Your Heart

Why Gardening is Good for Your Heart

Published: December 10, 2012

Gardening and cholesterol-lowering drugs cut death risk in high-cholesterol adults.

Gardening not only is good for your soul, it’s good for your heart.

That’s the conclusion of a new Veterans Affairs Medical Centre study that shows combining cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins) with moderate exercise (gardening) lowers the chance of premature death more than either drugs or exercise alone.

The study, conducted with more than 10,000 U.S. veterans with high cholesterol over 10 years, showed that participants who were fit and taking statins cut their risk of death over that decade by 70%, far better than participants who exercised without drugs (50%). Veterans who didn’t exercise or take statins increased their risk of death by 35%.

Best part: It doesn’t have to be strenuous. Moderate exercise, like gardening or walking, is enough to increase the ability of statins to stave away the grim reaper.

 

By: Lisa Kaplan Gordon © Copyright 2015 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

 

Ginormous Kitchens: Are They Really a Good Choice?

Ginormous Kitchens: Are They Really a Good Choice?

Published: December 3, 2012

Huge, open kitchens continue to grow in popularity, getting bigger and bigger. But is bigger really better?

Houses with cozy eat-in kitchens are common. But enormous kitchens that consume most of a home’s square footage continue to be the trend.

High-end kitchens can top 3,000 sq. ft. and are becoming more and more popular. Even kitchens in mid-level housing are ballooning, swallowing dining rooms, living rooms, even garages.

Here’s the punch line (courtesy of the Wall Street Journal): Many home owners with ginormous kitchens don’t actually cook in them.

Instead they buy ready-made food to eat at home, and use the kitchen for socializing as friends gather and prepare food together.

Some even have smaller kitchens tucked away. These secondary kitchens, often called “wok kitchens,” hide the mess and smells of meal preparation, while creating the illusion of food being prepared in its larger counterpart.

So what’s the point?

Although, I confess, I completely understand large-kitchen lust.

When we designed our Virginia house 15 years ago, our son was a baby and I couldn’t envision him ever growing up. I wanted a space where I could keep an eye on him while I cooked. So we built a 500 sq. ft. kitchen with space for cooking, eating, lounging by the fire, and watching TV.

And it has its advantages:

  • The space is an open, delightful place where I cook, work, watch birds at the window — feeder, and feel embraced by a flickering fireplace.
  • The baby survived while I cooked, paid bills, attempted to write.

But the list of cons is much longer:

  • Noise: It’s impossible to talk on the phone while someone is watching TV, and our 15-year-old dishwasher is running.
  • Mess: When I entertain, piles of dirty dishes and utensils attend the party with us. So, I only invite good friends who love my mess and me anyway.
  • Diet: It’s hard to fight fat when you work three steps away from the fridge.
  • Temperature control: The room is always drafty and hard to heat without the gas fireplace going.
  • Family dinners: Rarely do we eat a family meal without the TV blaring some must-see ballgame.
  • Unused space: My adjacent dining and living rooms are obsolete dust collectors. I can’t pay guests to take coffee there.
  • Teenagers: The baby is now 16, and would rather eat nails than spend time with Mom, no matter how big the space.

 

By: Lisa Kaplan Gordon © Copyright 2015 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Holiday Hotline Helps with Carpet and Sofa Spill-mergencies

Holiday Hotline Helps with Carpet and Sofa Spill-mergencies

By: Dona DeZube

Published: December 11, 2012

It’s not a holiday party until someone spills something on your carpet or upholstery.

Every year my daughter asks if she can have friends over for a holiday party. Every year I say “Sure,” and then lay down some pretty tough rules about drinking. First, I screech “No grape soda!” followed by “And no alcohol!” now that she’s in high school.

You’d do the same if you’d seen what happened when a grape beverage met a white shag rug at my friend Pat’s house a few years back.

But this year is going to be different, and it’s all thanks to Rug Doctor. The carpet cleaning company just opened a telephone hotline to deal with holiday spill-mergencies.

Whether the spill hits your rug or your sofa, the company’s trained cleaning experts will be available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. CT at 1-800-Rug Doctor to tell you how to get it out.

Grape soda for everyone!

Meanwhile, if you’re going to use a rug shampoo machine to clean the carpet or upholstery before your holiday parties, handle the waste water properly by using these tips from Washington State’s Ecology Department:

  • Vacuum before you wash carpets to minimize debris in the water.
  • Empty wash water down a sink, toilet, bathtub, or shower drain, and never pour it down a storm drain.
  • Strain the waste water before pouring it down the drain to help prevent clogs.
  • Raleigh, N.C., environmental officials suggest using undiluted vinegar in your steam cleaner instead of soap and the Portland, Ore., metro government offers recipes for green carpet cleaning solutions.

Read more: http://members.houselogic.com/articles/removing-carpet-stains/preview/#ixzz3iQsIIjes
Follow us: @HouseLogic on Twitter | HouseLogic on Facebook

You’r Green, They’re Not. How Will You Stay Friends?

You’r Green, They’re Not. How Will You Stay Friends?

Published: December 6, 2012

A green lifestyle means different things to different people. How do you deal when your friends and family don’t think like you?

When Kermit the Frog sings about how it’s not easy being green, boy, is he right.

The hard part isn’t adopting a green lifestyle — that’s getting easier these days. Non-toxic cleaners are simple to make; recycling centers are everywhere; and there’s no shortage of green living guides online.

But what happens when your lifestyle clashes with someone whose take on green living is different from yours?

A few months ago, I threw a party that happened to coincide with a three-digit heat wave. As I was cleaning up the next day, I found an incriminating piece of evidence that a guest had forgotten: A small personal fan. My friend later confessed that she’d brought the fan because, knowing of my green lifestyle, she assumed I wouldn’t have the air conditioner on.

Ouch! Of course I had the air conditioner on — it was over 100 degrees outside! Did she really think I’d let my guests suffer? I may be an environmentalist, but I’m not a wacko!

Obviously, even though the environmental movement has gone mainstream, you’re still bound to meet people who don’t see eye-to-eye with you. As a heartfelt environmentalist, how do you handle it? When you go to a friend’s home and they don’t recycle, do you say something?

I’ve learned that it’s best to lead by example. When my friend saw that I’d turned on the air conditioner at my party, I hope she learned that my green lifestyle doesn’t mean I live uncomfortably — or force others to do so. (I also hope she noticed the eco-friendly choices I did make, such as serving organic hors d’oeuvres on reusable plates.)

The fact is, eco-friendliness is a spectrum, and no one’s version of green living matches perfectly with anyone else’s version.

Sure, when I go to someone else’s house, I cringe when they hand me a plastic fork and throw their food waste in the trash instead of composting it. But do I lecture them about their lifestyle? No, because no one likes a sanctimonious guest, and as important as environmentalism is to me, I value my friendships more than I value composting.

 

The owner of this website has made a commitment to accessibility and inclusion, please report any problems that you encounter using the contact form on this website. This site uses the WP ADA Compliance Check plugin to enhance accessibility.