place to hang art

Tired of seeing granite in every home? Want something a little different? Interested in bamboo or cork flooring? Can’t decide? Why not try Corboo-a bamboo and cork combo.  Check out the Columbus source for green products –greenovate

following taken from Columbus Monthly

For kitchen and bath
Greenovate claims to be Ohio’s leading supplier of green building materials, serving both residential and commercial customers. Owner Tyler Steele says there are a lot of environmentally friendly—and beautiful—options available for homeowners.
“A popular option we’re seeing is recycled glass countertops,” says Steele. “We’ve been working with a number of manufacturers of these.”
The countertops are made by mixing glass with concrete. “At the end of the curing process, they are all custom made for the needed kitchen space and the surfaces are ground down,” Steele says.
Because the countertops often are locally made, the customer can contribute to the construction. “The homeowner can provide their own beer bottles,” Steele says. They also can add other personal touches, like their children’s handprints, in the concrete.
“These days, in a world of granite being standard, we see a lot of folks that are interested in making more of a personal statement in their home and this is a great way to do that and create a durable, long-lasting surface,” Steele says.

Under foot
When it comes to eco-friendly flooring, the two most popular options are bamboo and cork, Steele says.
A popular bamboo floor made by EcoTimber recently received high marks from Consumer Reports when it was compared to all prefinished flooring—not just green flooring, Steele notes. It’s made with fibrous bamboo that been compressed and prefinished.

“This one particular line of flooring has incredible durability,” Steele says. “And it comes in good price points.”
Cork flooring is actually made from the same material as cork stoppers for wine bottles, according to John Woods, hard surface buyer at Levi’s 4 Floors. “The wine stop would take the premium part of the cork and what’s left over would get ground up and manufactured into flooring,” he says.
Like bamboo, cork is highly renewable. In recent years, it’s been gaining in popularity, but cork as a flooring option actually has been around a long time.
In fact, Woods says that part of its appeal is its longevity. He notes that cork flooring installed in the main building of the Mayo Clinic in 1912 is still in use today, as is cork flooring installed in the Toledo Museum of Art in 1931.
If you’re having a hard time choosing between bamboo and cork, you soon will be able to pick both. Woods says that Levi’s 4 Floors likely will start carrying Corboo (cork plus bamboo) within the next few months.
Meanwhile, various floor coverings made from natural fibers are growing in popularity. Carpets made of jute, sisal and seagrass are among those found on the market today. Another choice that’s becoming more abundant includes rugs created from recycled plastic.
But for those who prefer a softer feel under foot, Steele says that wool is making something of a comeback as a green option. Greenovate has wool carpets available as both rugs and wall-to-wall. Wool was a popular floor covering in the 1930s and 1940s before inexpensive synthetic carpets mostly replaced them.
“What we’re seeing are folks looking for more natural materials, and one of the easiest ways to make it more natural is to incorporate a wool carpet in your space,” Steele says. “These wool carpets are sustainably created.”
Another old-school flooring that is gaining interest is linoleum. Linoleum is made from renewable, natural materials like solidified linseed oil and pine rosin. It largely has been replaced in modern home construction with flooring made of synthetic materials. “These things are coming back in vogue,” Steele says.

Around the house
When it comes to green furniture, many manufacturers are offering more environmentally friendly choices.
Carolyn Mann, at McVay’s Ethan Allen, says the furniture store offers several products that involve all natural fibers. The company also is moving away from stains that contain toxic chemicals.
“There are water-based stains that we’re putting on more and more of our [furniture] and, within a year, we’re hoping that all our finishes will be water-based stains,” she says.
Piras says that while making choices about furnishings, consumers should think about their longevity as well as their materials. She notes that antiques are the original “recycled items.”
Buy things that last, she says. “You should be trying to buy the highest quality that you can afford and get the best products,” she adds. “Good design lasts a lifetime.”
But, be alert. Knowing what’s green isn’t always easy. Environmentalists use the term “greenwashing” to describe businesses or products that tout themselves as green without truly adopting green practices. Sometimes greenwashing is deliberate; other times it may simply be an ignorance about what makes something environmentally friendly.
Some designers confuse the terms “natural” and “green,” Piras says. Cotton, for example, is natural, but often is very costly environmentally because of farming techniques used to grow it.
Many synthetic fibers may not seem green, but they might be made from recycled material. And, again, durability also is an environmental issue. “You have to weigh those things because [a product] may have ‘green’ roots, but if it wears out in five years, rather than ten years, then it’s not so green,” Piras says. “Because then there’s one more thing in the landfill.”

This story appeared in the October 2009 issue of Columbus Monthly Homes.

taken from Realtor Magazine 2009-2010 Cost v. Value report

1. Tidy up kitchen cabinets.

Potential buyers do open kitchen cabinets and look inside. Home owners can add rollout organizing trays so when buyers peek in, they feel like there’s lots of room for their stuff.

2.  Add or replace tile.

“By retiling very inexpensively, you make a room look way cleaner that it was,” says Javier Zuluaga, owner of Home Repairs and Remodeling LLC in Tempe, Ariz. “Every city has stores that offer $1 to $2 tile, so home owners have to pay only for the low-cost tile and labor to replace a dated backsplash or add a new one. We also use inexpensive tile to upgrade bathrooms.”

3. Add a breakfast bar.

When a wall separates a kitchen from a family room, suggest cutting out an opening to create a breakfast bar. “In one home, there was a cutout in the wall between the kitchen and living room,” explains Matthew Quinn, a sales associate at Quinn’s Realty & Estate Services in Falls Church, Va., who handles estate and real estate sales for family members whose loved ones have passed away. “We left the structure of the cutout, added an oversized granite breakfast bar, and put chairs in front of it. That cost about $600.”

4. Install granite tile instead of a slab.

“Everybody is hot for granite kitchen countertops, but that can be a $5,000 upgrade,” says John Wilder, a general contractor and owner of Fence and Deck Doctor in New Castle, Ind. “Instead, home owners can put in 12-inch granite tiles for about $300 in materials and get very high impact for little money.”

5. Freshen up a bathroom without retiling.

“With a dated bathroom, I recommend putting in a new medicine cabinet for $100 to $150, light fixtures for about $100, a faucet for $50 to $75, and a vanity for $200 to $300,” says Wilder. “And instead of replacing the tile, the existing grout can be lightly scraped and regrouted, which leaves a haze that can be buffed out and will make the tile look brand new. Also install glass shower doors. A French door adds a lot of panache and elegance for $250, and people will notice the door, not the tile. With all that, you’ve done a bathroom remodel for $1,000 to $2,000.”

6. Freshen up the basement.

“If home owners have cement block or poured concrete walls in the basement, suggest they have a contractor fill in cracks with hydraulic cement and then paint with waterproofing paint,” recommends Wilder. “They can then add a top coat to add color. They can also paint the basement floor with a good floor paint, which spiffs it up. The basement may not be finished, but it’s no longer a damp dungeon.”

7. Add a room.

Look for large spaces that can be enclosed to create a new bedroom for just the price of creating a wall. “One time, we closed off a half-wall to an office and added a door to the other side of the room, thus creating another bedroom,” says Quinn. “That $400 procedure, which took a contractor one day, netted about $40,000 in the sales price.” Zuluaga has also added bedrooms inexpensively. “In a two-bedroom house, there was an archway that led to a third room that was used as a den,” he explains. “It had a dry bar where there would have been a closet, so we took out the dry bar and created a closet so the owners had a third bedroom.”

8. Spruce up cabinet fronts.

Suggest home owners update tired-looking kitchen cabinets. Reconditioning is the least expensive move for under $1,000. “If the wood is starting to look shabby from use or contaminants in the air, we take out the nicks and scratches, recondition it with oil, and put new hardware on,” explains Heidi Morrissey, vice president of marketing and sales at Kitchen Tune-Up in Aberdeen, S.D. For $1,500 to $4,000, owners can replace the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, and for $4,000 to $12,000, they can have all the cabinets refaced. “With refacing, owners can change the color of the cabinets by replacing the door and having a new skin put on the boxes,” says Morrissey. “If they have oak cabinets today, they can have cherry the next day.”

9. Replace light fixtures.

“In a foyer and in bathrooms and kitchens,” says Wilder, “replacing overhead light fixtures provides a lot of pop for a little money.” If the kitchen has track lighting, Zuluaga suggests the home owner spend $450 to $600 to have an electrician replace it with recessed canned lights on a dimmer switch to add ambience. For about $700, Zuluaga also suggests installing pendant lights over a kitchen island or peninsula.

10. Tech-up the garage.

“Sometimes we replace the garage door opener with a remote touchpad entry system,” says Zuluaga. “That costs about $425 and makes it look like a high-end system.”