I was surfing around the net today and found a cool website that has a few blogs going about energy saving in the home.  You can save money and the environment if you build a green home but it loses all the its benefits if you stop there.  You need to keep up on your home.  The Home Renovation Guide website has both written articles and video blogs of house maintenance and upgrading.  I found a lot of helpful stuff that I hadn’t considered before.  There was one article about toilet sweating and its remedies.  I could spend hours reading the information on the site.  You can find an answer for just about any question you have about your home.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

You know by now that when I start investigating a subject I don’t stop until I know everything about it.  Yesterday I kept reading about modern house plans and all the modern stuff you can put in your home.  What caught my attention this time didn’t have anything to do with house plans or construction.  I was searching around the web when I found a door hardware website.  The website, directdoorhardware.com, caught my eye because they had a whole section about modern door hardware.  The site had everything you need to make your current house a little more modern.  If you aren’t quite down for throwing away everything and starting over just to have a modern house you can make subtle changes to your home.

The modern section on Direct Door Hardware had every kind of door hardware you can think of.  They have dozens of modern door knobs and door levers.  They had hundreds of modern cabinet hardware options.  They even had modern bathroom accessories.  This site could set you up with all the hardware you need to go along with your geometric furniture and stainless steel kitchen appliances.  Like I said before, most people aren’t willing to sell their home and go through the hassle of building a new home.  Sometimes you just want to bring a little modernization into your home.  You want some change but not a complete makeover.  I think Direct Door Hardware can help you out with that.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

I’m sorry that it has taken me so long to write a new post, but I hope that you’ll forgive me. For those of you who remember taking final exams at the end of the semester at college, you’ll understand when I say that I just didn’t have time.

That being said, I did find something interesting the other day. Behold Vetrazzo®, the world’s foremost manufacturer of recycled-material countertops.

Vetrazzo was invented in 1996 by a passionate glass scientist in California’s Bay area. The main premise behind Vetrazzo is that it uses recycled glass and an eco-friendly bonding agent to create a hard material that is comparable to granite or marble in use and function. Each slab of Vetrazzo is unique. Recycled glass from used bottles, windshields, and even decommissioned traffic lights makes up 85% of each slab. The bonding cement even uses fly ash (a by-product from coal-burning power plants).

Since its invention almost 13 years ago, Vetrazzo has been far more successful than anyone could have expected. Even more important than the popularity and success, however, is Vetrazzo’s committment to the environment.

You see, not only is Vetrazzo made mostly from recycled materials; it is manufactured in a recycled Ford Automotive plant, Workers are all paid a living wage (no exploitation), and all material and labor comes entirely from the USA, making Vetrazzo a truly sustainable organization. It really  seems like they’re trying to make the world a better place for you and me.

Unfortunately, because Vetrazzo is located in the California Bay area, I haven’t been able to see any of it personally. I understand they have distributors located all over the country; I just haven’t had the chance to look into it yet. At any rate, if you are building a new home or remodeling an old one, you should really look into Vetrazzo®. Each slab is a luxurious work of art that can help make everyone a little better off. You should Check it Out!

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

As we all know, our economy hasn’t not been the hottest lately. With frequent changes in the stock market and large fluctuation in oil prices Congressmen are in constant search of a solution. The economic stimulus packages were supposed to be the answer to our problems. These, however, have done little to solve the country’s dilemma.

One idea that has been passed around for years with lukewarm reception is to invest in green industries. Many thought this would only worsen the situation but new light is being shed on how much it really could help. Not only would changes in this direction help our economy rebound, there would also be less of a dependency on fossil-fuel.

The green industry has so much potential right now. Many of the buildings throughout any city in America are aged and were constructed without knowledge of what they would do to the environment and how they would cause such a dependency on recyclable materials. If the government were to spend money on boosting efforts to update these we would get more jobs for the estimated 400,000 construction workers that will be without a job this year. This appears to be one of the smartest areas for Congress to expand funding. To put money in the green sector, the country would gain one of the biggest growths in jobs.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

Freegreen.com is your one-stop green website. This company has everything from products to lessen your carbon footprint to it’s own green social network similar to Facebook and Myspace. You can look at house plans with green features built into them. Once you have a home picked out you can browse over green builders in your area. This website has so many great things to explore you will need to spend a couple hours to truly find all this website has to offer.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

This last week was the The International Home and Housewares Show 2008 in Chicago. A main focus for many companies was greening up their product line. CNET News gave a thorough report on several of the stand-outs.

Among the featured goodies that CNET found are a power strip that tells you how much power you’re using, a mop that cleans with water alone, a space heater that uses less electricity, and an array of water bottles.

I thought the report was interesting. It’s nice to see companies responding to green concerns. CNET did a good job at explaining the products they featured, and pointing out greenwashing possibilities. Check out the article and research the products. Buying green is as important as building green, and can have farther reaching affects. Here’s your link.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

An important aspect of sustainability is preserving the buildings we can and transforming them into renewed and efficient structures. The unfortunate reality is that remodeling can be a tiring and cumbersome process that leaves a bad taste in your mouth (that’s the mold). Thankfully, remodeling homes is now being recognized and aided. The USGBC and the ASID (that’s the US Green Build Council and the American Society of Interior Designers), the two premier organizations in their respective fields, have joined forces to offer guidelines that cultivate green practices and support proper planning.

Titled REGREEN Residential Remodeling Guidelines and released last weekend at the Interiors 08 conference in New Orleans, the 182 page document covers topics such as home performance, major addition, gut rehab, and deep energy retrofit. In the interest of definitions, the guidelines state that “green remodeling is the design and construction of projects that reduce environmental impacts of remodeling, including energy, water, and materials consumption; waste generation; and harmful emissions, both indoors and out.” Clearly the effort is focused on a whole-systems approach, denouncing the thought that bamboo floors and recycled glass countertops make a home ecologically responsible. Planning is stressed, and the document is presented in a project-based approach, helping the reader see similar projects, including case studies, and hear comments of those involved. The format is designed to offer specific and thorough help with examples and an extensive strategy library. Consider this a must-have for anyone tackling a remodeling project.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of this guideline is that it’s a guideline. Don’t confuse this with the USGBC’s LEED for Homes. This is not a certification program, just some helpful hints from those who know the most. In a residential situation, certification doesn’t always make sense. Homeowners can still know they’re following the experts without spending extra money on a certificate that doesn’t hold any real value. Now certification will probably help out your equity, and I can see the importance of LEED for Homes with new construction especially. This may become an issue of codes before long. However, the reassurance that we don’t always need to be labeled by the state is a good thing.

Thanks to the USBGC and the ASID. This may be one of the most important steps in the battle for middle-class earth we’ve taken so far.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

I was watching one of HGTV’s shows called Dream House or maybe Dream Home. The show is about a couple who are making a huge addition to an existing house. It looks like it will be a beautiful house when all is said and done. However, the couple is in way over their heads. The house just barely got a roof and they’re already $50 k over budget. That’s out-of-pocket expense for them. Now they are in a battle with their contractor. He doesn’t seem to have any answers for them other than “it happens”. They are putting in a lot of work by themselves to save money. Then what really boggled my mind is they went kitchen shopping and chose the most expensive kitchen money could buy (the kitchen is the most expensive room in the entire house). I can’t beleive they didn’t plan for extra expenses in their budget. I also can’t beleive they then, knowing about the $50 k out-of-pocket expense they had to cover, bought a rediculously expensive kitchen. If you’re planning on building, make sure you have room in you budget. Make sure you discuss what could happen with your builder so you can have a comfortable cushion between you and broke. About the kitchen… I don’t know, but be smart about it!

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.