by Guest

Being eco friendly and living a more sustainable lifestyle is a hot topic these days. As a result eco friendly furniture is hitting the online shopping market with full force. There is a variety of choice already available; so if you are looking to live greener, read on for how to find the hottest eco friendly styles.

You might be asking yourself; just what is eco friendly furniture exactly? Eco means that the furniture is produced in a way that it has the least negative impact on the environment possible. This includes things like when wood is utilized, it is derived from renewable sources, protected lands are not involved, and any chemicals employed in the process do not contaminate or damage the environment. Eco can also mean that a minimalist approach is used for manufacturing—for instance, delivery and mileage are kept to a minimum and the manufacturer is recycling energy and product wherever possible.

Another form of eco friendly furniture can be defined as furniture that has been made—in part or whole—from recycled materials. Furniture created from recycled items helps keep waste materials out of landfills and minimizes the need to consume precious resources.

Many retailers are now offering various environmentally friendly products. Many furniture retailers are actually now selling more environmentally friendly furniture pieces along with their other products due to customer wants, so don’t hesitate to ask staff if eco friendly furniture pieces are available. For this type of product, shopping online is ideal; you can compare and contrast designs, costs, and level of eco friendly materials faster and in the convenience of your own home; it’s also the perfect place for environmentally sustainable furniture because most online retailers are using less energy due to not having a brick and mortar store, thereby making them greener too! Also be sure to use the internet for finding tips on how to buy and find environmentally friendly products.

When you decide to purchase new furniture, be sure to dispose of your old items in the most eco friendly way possible. You have several options available to you. You can donate the items to places like Goodwill or your local women’s shelter. You can hand it down to a family member that is just getting started with their first apartment. Or you can even sell it at a furniture resale shop. Your items will surely find new life with a new owner because there are several ways of giving furniture a new look; reupholstering, a new coat of paint, a slipcover, a few throws and new pillows. So, please consider recycling before you put your items out at the curb.

Environmentally friendly furniture is stylish and readily available, so get shopping.

This article has been provided by Julia Ritzenthaler, owner and founder of several online boutique home furnishing stores including http://www.UniqueEcoFurniture.com/ visit or call 1-866-526-1843 for more information.

image from Sico Paints

During these darkening days that more becoming more and more gray and chilly weekends make for more homebodies, it’s the perfect time to get started on perking up the home.

Quick & budget Ideas to improve curb appeal:

* Paint the front door – A high-gloss bold colour that complements the exterior material or coordinates with the garage door will instantly create a sense of new. Perhaps a perky new welcome mat would be a nice accessory.

* Add potted plants around the entrance way. For a greater spruce up, tidy up the landscaping. If you haven’t done so yet, it’s also a good time to get your plants ready for the winter. Trim unwieldy branches, lay down mulch, or rake up those soggy fall leaves.

* Brighten up with lights. Light up your walkway or backyard patio with a landscape lighting kit or install post lights, ceiling, or hanging types at entrance ways. Look for Energy Star rated designs.

*Upgrade fixtures: How is your doorknob holding up? How would a classic door knocker suit that new paint? New hardware can show off your individual taste or consider a new mail box or window boxes to dress up your home’s facade. At the very least touching up paint chipped spots and rust can go a long way.

If however, you’re more of a condo dweller, new light fixtures and fresh paint can do wonders.
What’s the best colour to set off the new mini chandelier in the dining room or trio pendant lights over the island? Whether it’s a neutral tone or dramatic hue, when it comes to a professional looking paint job, proper prep really makes a difference. Washing walls and lining edges with tape (or more taping over areas like light switches that you want to keep paint free) will make for better paint adhesion and straight edges. If you’ve decided to go with low or VOC-free paint, eco-friendly masking tape goes in tandem. Made of 30% post-consumer waste, recycled fibres and natural rubber adhesive, 3M’s Scotch (R) Painter’s Masking Tape is a greener choice.

If winning free paint however, is the impetus that you need to redo the living room, enter BEHR’s Paint Your Room Contest. Entrants are to submit a picture of the room in question and explain in 50 words and under why it needs a makeover. The winner scores 3 gallons of  BEHR’s PREMIUM PLUS ULTRA™ Interior paint.

Wondering about what the hottest colours are for 2010. A recent report from Sico Paints sho

wed that mood enhancing palettes are what homes will be dressed in. Deep, vibrant, or calming hues make the home a refuge from the tumultuous year we’ve all faced. Colour psychology has been referred to by many designers and homeowners to create rooms that evoke cheeriness (yellow), calm (blue), and warmth (reds and oranges).  For more details, read the rest of the article.

Once the painting is all done, it’s time for the wall hangings. Whether it’s a mirror to bring in more light, favourite framed photographs or art, it’s always been more of a two person job because it’s not that easy to know how high to hang it or just where to hammer in the nail.

The Hang & Level tool by Under The Roof Decorating is a handy item to fix your hanging woes. The tool helps you to mark where th nail goes, has a built in level to keep things straight, and works with horizontal or vertical mounts, and is great for groups of hangings. Remember that positioning pictures higher up on the wall can create the illusion of a higher ceiling and that an interesting montage of sepia tinted photos can really dress up a naked wall.

The same company that makes the Hang & Level also manufactures the Stoppy – a door and window stop that comes in a variety of colours. It’s more becoming than an old school wooden wedge under the door and works for all types of surfaces and doesn’t mark.

To help with your decor dreams, Chatelaine and Home Depot are offering 4 prizes of $5000 certificates in their Home For The Holidays Contest. The contest closes January 5th.

For more painting or interior decorating articles, visit HRG’s article library. Check out our Hot Products section for more ideas from the latest in hot home products.

Want a free quote? Submit your project here and get contacted by local contractors.

Winterizing your home should start with thinking about Safety First, and the best way to ensure the safety of your HVAC system is to get a heating tune-up to be sure its efficient operation throughout the cold season.

After that’s accomplished, all you have to do is be sure you’re not wasting additional energy. You can reduce your heating costs further by doing a few simple things yourself that won’t cost a ton. One way to find out if you’re wasting energy is to do your own 5-step Energy Audit:

1.    Take a walk around the exterior of your house and check for cracks around windows and doors where cold air can come in. Also examine brick work, stucco, siding and the foundation for any gaps. And be sure to check around gas and electric lines and plumbing, too.

2.    Your next step is to get to the hardware store to purchase weather stripping, caulk and foam. The money you save on energy will be well worth the small price you pay for these materials. Then take your check list and plug those cracks and install the weather stripping. It shouldn’t take more than a couple hours depending on the amount of cracks and the size of your home.

3.    Do a similar inside audit, check for air infiltration around windows, doors and switch plates on outside walls. To find air leaks use a piece of tissue on a tooth pick or an incense stick. Air coming in will make the tissue flag wave or disperse the incense smoke. Temporary caulking can be used around windows and then removed in the spring. Foam inserts behind switch plates will eliminate that infiltration problem (be sure power to switch plates is turned off when adding insulation).

4.    Take your Energy Audit into the basement, attic or crawl space. Since insulation gets compacted over the years, add insulation to keep the heat from escaping. Check vents and duct work for leaks or separation.

5.    Turn off the water supply to outside faucets, and even cover them with insulating material. Water damage caused by broken pipes can result in untimely, expensive repairs.

FIVE WARM TIPS THAT WON’T COST YOU A PENNY

With just a few free tricks, you can quickly trim down your bloated heating bill into something a little more appetizing. Did we mention these tricks are free?

USE YOUR BLINDS
Use the sun to your advantage. After all, it’s the best source of energy we have. To maximize the sun’s heat, keep your blinds open during the day. This will allow the natural sunlight to heat the air inside your house. But once night rolls around, be sure to close those blinds, otherwise warm air will escape back through your windows, leaving you to shiver under the cold winter’s moon.

SPARE THE SPARE
Don’t pump costly warm air into your spare and vacant rooms. Simply close off any ducts in unused rooms to ensure you won’t blow a gasket when you open your heating bill.

KEEP AIR MOVING
Hot air rises. But that doesn’t exactly keep your toes warm, or any part of you for that matter. To redistribute the warmth in your house, just turn your ceiling fans on low. The ceiling fans will ensure that the hard-to-find warm air moves to heights a little closer to your heart.

DROP IT LOW
Sometimes we can surprise even ourselves. Test out your temperature tolerance by dropping your thermostat one degree each day. Keep going until the temperature in the house is just too chilly for you. Once the house gets too cold, turn it back up a degree. You can easily save some cash just by testing out your comfort zone.

BUNDLE UP
Wooly socks. A tuque. That old sweater grandma knitted for you. It doesn’t matter what your clothing of choice is, just be sure to bundle up with your preferred warm and fuzzy favorites. Because there is no reason to heat the whole house when you are the one who really needs to stay warm.

This article was provided by Service Experts. Service Experts is a professional, quality-driven company providing sales, installation, maintenance, and repair for all brands of heating, cooling, ventilation and indoor air quality (IAQ) systems. We provide Quality Service Every Visit, and we’re available to meet your needs 24/7, Daytime, Nighttime, On-Time. Our NATE-Certified Professional Technicians are qualified to work on all brands of comfort equipment. For more tips to energy-and-cost-saving ideas, visit www.ServiceExperts.ca and click on Sam’s Blog.

by Kert Heinecke

Green building in its current manifestation is primarily hype. The market, quick to jump on the bandwagon, has focused primarily on tangible products that may draw envy from neighbors, but do little to actually preserve precious resources and reduce your energy bills. The real decision to go ‘green’ should start with the decision to minimize the home energy footprint. Growing consensus among building scientists suggest that the first major step to improving a homes energy efficiency is home air sealing, and it is feasible for all existing homes. When you add the current tax credits and utility company rebates to the equation, the opportunity to take this first step towards the energy smart home is nearly impossible to ignore.

So why Air Seal?

Starting back with the energy crisis of the 1970’s and continuing into the 80’s, there was a push in the building industry to make homes more energy efficient by increasing the R-value of the building envelope. The thinking at the time was that if we add more insulation, and thereby increase its R-value (a measure of a materials resistance to heat flow) we could slow down the heat loss that is conducted through the building envelope. While this thinking was right on and took us a step in the right direction, it failed to consider the complete heat transfer picture. More recent studies have now concluded that houses will continue to under perform thermally unless air leakage has been addressed.

A tight building envelope, one that has been properly air sealed, can provide numerous benefits to its owners and the environment. Energy conservation quickly rushed onto everyone’s radar last year as the cost of fuel skyrocketed.

As we see the cost of energy continue to rise, conserving energy and reducing our energy bills will continue to be at the forefront of the public consciousness. In several recent projects, we have seen energy bills reduced by as much as 30% through the implementation of strategic air sealing.

In New England, where cold winters and chilly evenings are a given, we can all appreciate the value of occupant comfort as we are forced to put on sweaters or sit under blankets to combat a winter chill. Leaky window sashes and doors that lack weather stripping are obvious sources of drafts. On the other hand, the less apparent sources, the smaller gaps and cracks that exist in all structures seem to small to be concerned with. When added together, all of these smaller gaps can equal the size of a typical window sash or larger being left wide open in the middle of winter. While sweaters and blankets have become iconic symbols of winter coziness, no one would choose to wear a sweater instead of closing the window.

Perhaps one of the strongest arguments for air sealing is building durability. The greatest contribution we can make towards green building and resource conservation is to construct buildings to last for generations. When it comes to building durability in cold climates like ours, Air sealing is used not to stop infiltration, but ex-filtration of air. In the winter, warm interior air is laden with moisture from occupant respiration, cooking, and bathing. When this moisture filled air moves through the building envelope, it eventually comes into contact with a cold surface that is below the dew point temperature. When this occurs, the moisture condenses and builds up leaving large quantities of water in the building structure. This water can lead to rot, decay, and mold growth that undermine the buildings integrity.

The other impact on building durability from air leakage is ice damming. Icicles are a standard prop in the stage set of New England winter, but they are also evidence of a problem that can lead to numerous areas of damage including plaster and structural damage from leaks inside the house as well as damage to siding, gutters, and shingles outside the house. Ice damming is typically caused by the stack effect. As warm air rises within the conditioned interior, it escapes through the numerous small leaks in the ceiling. Over time, this escaping heat can greatly increase the temperature of the roof surface melting the snow which then refreezes as it reaches the cold eaves line forming the ice dam. The only way to effective way to battle all of these issues is through strategic air sealing.

Air Sealing Basics

The premise of air sealing is really quite simple, but execution is the key. Air sealing is the systematic location and sealing, or stopping, of the major leaks in a homes building envelope.

The process typically starts with a thermal envelope performance audit consisting of blower door testing, and a visual inspection of the building envelope using an infrared camera. The blower door is an indispensable tool. The blower door is a large fan that is installed in the main entry door and depressurizes the house. It is used to run a series of tests that result in a calculated volume of air leakage under normal conditions. With this data, it is possible to determine how much money and energy is being lost to air leakage. Conversely, it makes predicting savings from air sealing a snap and provides an important piece of data necessary for cost benefit analysis of the actual work ahead.

The blower door is also used during the visual inspection. Again, by depressurizing the building, it is possible to exaggerate the effects of air leakage. With even a modest temperature difference between indoors and outdoors, the leaks become immediately apparent when viewed with an infrared camera. The camera uses infrared technology to read the surface temperatures of the building envelope from the interior, and represents them graphically with an operator determined color coding scheme (e.g. Blue is cold, red is hot). With these two tools, an inventory of problem areas can be developed in about 1-2 hours time, and the remediation plan can be targeted to realize the greatest reduction in energy consumption and the largest improvement in building performance and durability.

This article has been provided by, Feinmann Inc., a Boston company known for its thoughtful and beautiful design, a well-articulated process, superb craftsmanship, responsive service, and the best value for the cost. With a little inspiration and a lot of follow-through, the Feinmann team has transformed hundreds of homes in the Boston area from good to great. Photographs courtesy of Feinmann Inc. For more information visit www.Feinmann.com.

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