8 Tips to Make Your Remodel More Energy Efficient and Your Home Healthier

By: Dona DeZube

Published: October 18, 2012

As long as you’re remodeling, why not cut your utility bill and make your home a bit healthier?

Saving energy wasn’t on the list of reasons we’re finally ripping out the kitchen in our mid-century home (green-veined, imitation marble laminate countertops figured much more prominently). But, a session at the recent 2012 Remodeling Show in Baltimore clued me in as to why adding a few simple tasks to our remodeling plan could lower our home’s energy bill, get rid of some of the annoying hot and cold spots in our house, and make our home less hospitable to mold and other allergens.

Carl Seville, author of Green Building: Principles and Practices in Residential Construction, shared some simple, inexpensive ways to make remodels and additions more energy efficient from the standpoint of energy usage and conservation of resources.

Try these eight tips from Seville:

1. Check for water intrusion, condensation, and excess moisture before you begin the project. Fixing those issues during remodeling can improve your home’s indoor air quality (excess moisture encourages mold).

2. Use the least amount of framing allowed by your building code when adding walls. Not only will you have to pay for less lumber and fewer nails, the contractor will have more room to put insulation in your walls, making your home more energy efficient.

3. Resist the urge to splurge on multiple shower heads. Opt for a single low-flow shower head rather than installing a car wash-style plethora of shower heads.

4. If possible, add new HVAC ducts to parts of your home that are heated and cooled, rather than placing them in a space with unconditioned air (like the attic). If that’s not possible, insulate the ducts. Have an HVAC diagnostician analyze your system to make sure it’s sized correctly and balanced to properly exchange old and new air.

5. Be sure to insulate around recessed lights that protrude into un-insulated attic spaces — these are major sources of air leaks.

6. If you’re wasting water, you’re wasting energy. Look at high-efficiency or solar water heaters, and insulate your water pipes. If you want hot water faster, move the water heater closer to the faucet or install demand pumps to drive hot water to the fixture.

7. Install wall-mounted efficiency toggle switch plates for the outlets where you plug in your televisions and computers to make it easy to cut off the power to electronics you’re not using.

8. A humidistat that automatically turns on the bathroom fan when moisture rises beats depending on teenagers or tenants remembering to use the fan. Reducing bathroom moisture reduces the chances you’ll have mold.

When I pull the kitchen cabinets off the wall, I’m going to use caulk to seal between the wallboards and the floorboards before I put down new flooring and install the new cabinets. And since I’ll have the caulk out, I’m going to seal the top of window trim, something my home’s builder didn’t do.

What are your tips for smart energy savings during a remodel?

Top 7 Mistakes People Make When Trying to Protect Their Home

Is your home an unwitting beacon for thieves and burglars? It could be if you aren’t careful. Take a look at these next 7 tips to make sure you aren’t unknowingly saying “welcome” to every criminal that might pass by. 

1. Hiding a Key On the Property  

Sure, hiding a key under a rock may fool an amateur thief once in awhile, but hiding a key on your property in case you lock yourself out is not a good idea. A career burglar will know where to look every single time, making your home security efforts practically useless if the burglar simply walks through the front door. It is a much better idea to leave the key with a neighbor or in a secure lockbox.

2. Not Fixing Broken Locks

Broken locks on doors or windows are quite inviting to intruders and burglars. Sure, you mean to fix them, but you just never seem to get around to it. Having a broken lock on a door or window is about as safe as not locking your home at all, so fixing locks as soon as they break should be a top priority. When you do fix the lock, think about upgrading to a more secure piece of hardware.

3. Not Trimming Shrubbery 

Overgrown landscaping does more than keep your house cool; it act as a great hiding spot for an intruder as he tries to find a way to break into your home. Cut back the landscaping and make sure all bushes and shrubs are trimmed on a regular basis. If your home becomes too hot in the summer, install window awnings to keep your house cool.

4.  Keeping One Light On

Keeping one light on all the time is no better than keeping your home dark. One light signals to a smart thief that no one is home as there is no movement inside your home. It is better to get a few inexpensive lighting timers that will turn lights on and off when you are not home. This gives the appearance of people being inside and a professional burglar will just move on.

5. Stopping Your Mail and Newspaper When on Vacation  

Contrary to popular belief, don’t stop your mail and newspaper when you leave town. Even though you may trust your mail carrier and newspaper delivery person, that does not mean they are trustworthy. Even if they are trustworthy, you don’t know who they might tell that you are away. It is not worth the risk. Have a trusted neighbor get your paper and pick up your mail instead.

6. Getting a Big Dog

Yes, big dogs are scary looking. But little dogs make noise, usually a lot of noise. Getting a small dog is better protection as the noise the dog makes will discourage a professional thief from trying to break into your home.

7. Letting Burglars Know What Type of Alarm System You Have

A professional burglar would love to know what kind of burglar alarm system you have. Don’t tell him. Rather than posting the lawn sign and window stickers your alarm company gives you stop by the hardware store and get generic signs. These will alert a burglar that there is an alarm to deal with but will not give him the information he wants in order to bypass it.

8. Not Turning on Your Alarm System  

The burglar alarm only works if it is turned on. Whether you are going away for a few minutes, all day or on a trip, get in the habit of setting your burglar alarm every time you walk out of the house.

Home security is a matter of maintenance, common sense and good habits. These seven tips do not guarantee that your home will not be burglarized but do make it more difficult. So, make sure that your renters or homeowners insurance is up-to-date and make an inventory of your belongings – just in case.

Author Bio:  Elli is a guest author who writes for www.yourlocalsecurity.com.  When she’s not blogging about home security, she enjoys spending time in the outdoors, hiking, fishing, and backpacking!

Today at 9 am Steve Babbitt, President of the Greater Rochester Association of REALTORS@ released the second quarter statistics to the press. The stats released showed a decrease for the second quarter, but 3 hours later, we realized a mistake had been made in the transfer of the 2011 number for the second quarter and it was corrected to show an increase.

Here are the second quarter stats:

Home Sales for 2011 - 2,371 Home sales for 2012 - 2,640 - 11% increase

Median Price for 2011 - $120,000 - Median Price for 2012 - $122,500 - 2% increase

This makes four consecutive quarters with an increase!

3rd Quarter 2011 - +8% increase

4th Quarter 2011 - +5% increase

1st Quarter 2012 - +9% increase

2nd Quarter 2012 - +11% increase

Our Rochester real estate market is on the move towards recovery!  The Greater Rochester Association of REALTORS@ continues to support the local residential real estate industry by promoting the benefints of home ownership and using the services of a REALTOR@ when buying and selling a home.

National Open House Weekend 2012

REALTORS across the country held their listings open to promote homeownership!  There were more homes open today than any weekend of the year!

Did you attend one? 

Did you buy one?

I’m starting to hearing the reports come in from my REALTOR friends across the country and they are fantastic!

Do you look for Open Houses on the internet or in the newspaper or just drive around and look for the signs?  Many of them will have balloons on them!

Usually when you arrive at an Open House, you are greeted by the agent and then asked to sign in.  Do yoiu know why they are asking you to sign in?  Do you mind signing in?

How do you like to see the house?  Do you like to wander through by yourself without being escorted by the agent?  Or do you like having the agent take you through pointing out different aspects of the home to you?

Statistics show that only about 3% of buyers come from an Open House, so the motivation to hold them open is not to sell it but for other reasons.  Those reasons are to meet and pick up new buyers or to satisfiy the sellers that the agent is working for them.

What are your thoughts on Open Houses, RochesterREguy would like to know?

Can you believe it?

Happy Birthday Twitter!

It seems like I have been tweeting for at least 5 of the 6 years!  My current numbers are 2,709 people following me (followers) and 2,216 people that I am following (following) and I have made 15,086 tweets!

I have met people on twitter and then met them in real life (irl).  I have done real estate referrals because of twitter and sold houses to buyers who I first met on twitter.

A lot of people don’t understand twitter!  They think it is all about broadcasting or spamming!  Or, they think it is a bunch of gibberish!

Twitter is about sharing and complimenting!  It is all about interaction!  It is all about engagement!

Try it!  Then read about it or go to a rebarcamp and you’ll begin to understand the importance it has in our society!

Follow me @RochesterREguy

It’s Sunday morning and you just woke up, you turned on the coffee pot and you are thinking, ” I’ve got plenty of time before Church or my first appointment.”

But did you turn your clocks ahead?

A popular saying to help remind you is “Spring Ahead, Fall Back.”

If you did before you went to sleep, then you are in good shape! If you didn’t, then you had better hustle, because it is an hour later!

It means more daylight in the evenings for doing things, like showing houses!

I like it!  Do you?

Tips For Sellers:

1. Do not stay in the house with the buyer and their agent is going through!  Buyers and their agents like to talk through each house to point out the pros and cons and they won’t do that if you are within earshot!

When a buyer walks through your home, they are going to try to see themselves in the house!  With you there it will be impossible!  Also, they will feel very uncomfortable looking in to closets and kitchen cabinets!

Best advice - LEAVE!!!!

2. Make sure you have done everything possible to have your home in showcase level!  And don’t you decide if it is in tip top condition, as the Realtor, or better yet, hire a Staging Coordinator!

Showing a messy house is a kiss of death! Remember, it is work to keep your house lookiing like a model home, but you must if you want to compete with the other homes for sale in your price range!

HGTV has infused buyers with visions of what their next home should look like, so make yours match their impressions!　

3. Rent a Storage Locker!  If you really are planning to move, then pack up your “stuff” and move it into a short-term rental storage. Make your closets look half empty! Make your counters cleaned off of appliances and personal items!  Look under your beds and remove everything!  Clean out your basement and garage!  Believe me it will make moving a breeze!

4. Don’t Price your Home! Let your agent work up the market price and be ready to lower it every two weeks! Most buyers won’t even bother looking at your home if the asking price is clearly higher than the market stats that they are looking at online.

Top experienced agents like Steve Babbitt understand the history of the market and the conditions that affect the market price.

Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution?  Who hasn’t?  This past week, I have been seeing many different resolutions posted on Facebook that are good ones to think about using for your own New Year’s Resolutions.

Here are a few of them:

Stop runniing away!

This could be from a relationship, from your problems, from your mistakes, from your opportunities, from your family, from your friends!

Be yourself!

This could be to yourself, around your family, around your friends, take off the mask, let people know your true feelings!

Think Big!

This could be at your work, with your career, with a relationship!

Read More!

Play More!

These are a few, and I will add more over the next couple of days left in this year 2011!

REPLACEMENT  WINDOWS  

 The story as it was told to me:

Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with those expensive,
double-pane, energy-efficient kind.

Today, I got a call from the contractor who installed them.  He
complained that the work had been completed a year ago and I still
hadn’t paid for them.

Hellloooo,…………just because I’m blonde doesn’t mean that I am
automatically stupid. 

 So, I told him just what his fast-talking sales guy told me last year…
that these windows would pay for themselves in a year.

Helllooooo?  It’s been a year, so they’re paid for, I told him.   There
was only silence at the other end of the line,
so I finally hung up.  He never called back.  I bet he felt like an
idiot. 

Professionals are predictable, it’s the amateurs that are dangerous.