After the new room is painted, furnished and finally ready. You sink into the couch and turn on the television expecting a blissful evening at home. Instead you’re accosted by a nasty echo. “No big deal, I can ignore it”, you murmur. But soon you’re acting like a torture victim. What seemed like a minor problem is destroying your life. Continue reading Room Echo is Annoying and Unhealthy
What Your Contractor Can’t Tell You: The Essential Guide to Building and Renovating, could be called “What Your Contractor Should Tell You”. This paperback is full of valuable advice for everyone building or remodeling. Written by a construction manager, the focus isn’t about self-building or self-contracting. Instead, the reader will learn to reduce risk and increase success when hiring building pros. Thorough discussions about working well with others, budgets, contract types and avoiding common pitfalls are included. Also covered are tips for using budget as a management tool and understanding the pro’s perspective. Continue reading Review: What Your Contractor Can’t Tell You
Can Homes be too Clean for Health?
Yes, a growing body of evidence suggests hyper-clean homes aren’t always healthy. Not only are today’s homes dirt free, energy codes encourage tight building, effectively sealing the environment like Tupperware. Together these trends reveal Westerners live in sterile bubbles. Yet the research is clear, this lifestyle choice is causing a public health crisis. Continue reading The Not So Clean Home
Can Homeowners & Pros Prevent Mold?
Homeowners often wonder if mold can be entirely eliminated from their home. Sadly, the answer is no. Don’t panic, mold naturally occurs in every environment. Humans have evolved to coexist with small amounts of this tiny microbe. Many foods humans love, including cheese and soy sauce, contain mold. Antibiotics like penicillin, which transformed modern medicine, are derived from mold. Continue reading Mold Resistant Home Design
Carter’s Way: A No-Nonsense Method for Designing Your Own Super Stylish Home is an interior design book based on Carter Oosterhouse’s HGTV program. Sadly I’ve never seen his show. But I have read this book. Switching between images of well decorated rooms and Carter pretending to cut boards, at first worried me. Employing a ghost writer furthered suspicion. And suggesting his method leads to “super stylish” homes didn’t help either. Yet buried within these pages are loads of practical advice that may help homeowners take charge of their interior design projects. Continue reading Review: Carter’s Way