| Under-cabinet lighting brightens shadowed space and is easy to install | | Posted Wednesday, January 17, 2007 3:08:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | DEAR TIM: Do you think under-cabinet lighting is a smart thing to do in a kitchen? Is it hard to incorporate cabinet lighting into cabinets? Is installing it something a homeowner can do safely? I'm afraid that modern under-cabinet lighting will make my kitchen not match the rest of my home. What would you do? -Linda H., Belleville, Ont., Canada DEAR LINDA: Not only is it a good idea to install under-cabinet lighting in a kitchen, it makes sense in a wet bar area, a bathroom, a study or any other location where wall cabinets overhang a counter surface. Wall cabinets create a dark shadow area in kitchens and other places where ceiling lights are placed close to the face of the wall cabinets. Under-cabinet lights eliminate these shadows and create abundant light to help you see what you are working on in the kitchen.... | |
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| | | Bridget A. Otto | | Posted Friday, January 05, 2007 1:05:13 PM by Blog57 Team | | I was in the grocery store the other day looking for non-sudsing ammonia -- a cleaning agent my sister swears by. Although a pretty basic product, it was difficult to find. Most of the store's shelf space is devoted to tub and tile scrubbers, lemon and orange-scented window cleaners, abrasive liquids infused with bleach, polishers and brighteners -- literally hundreds of products. It seems there's a cleaning product for just about every surface, and all promise to do the job with little or no work. Which leads me to wonder: Is it really necessary to have a zillion cleaning solutions? Or, can we simplify this a bit and still get gleaming tiles, sanitized toilets and squeaky-clean glass surfaces? And so what if we have to add a little elbow grease? How toxic would a product have to be to eat away mold with no scrubbing? Do you really want to wash something like that into our rivers -- not to mention what it might do to your lungs if you happen to breathe while you work? Maybe I'm an alarmist, but with all this talk about green building and sustainable approaches to living, I thought it might be time to create a cleaning kit that is effective, safe and simple.... | |
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| | | Provence: French affair | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 11:03:40 PM by Blog57 Team | | Working in a restaurant may be a natural stepping stone for an actor in LA, but in Provence the kitchen is a more natural place to aspire to for a starring role. So, when I arrive at Le Bistrot de Patrick, in the small French village of Goult, it comes as a surprise to find that the owner is a frustrated thesp. In fact, he recently appeared in a Hollywood movie, playing a banker in Ridley Scott's latest production. Filmed last autumn in Provence, A Good Year went on general release in the UK yesterday, much to Patrick's approval. "Some of the crew were renting one of my houses and they came to eat in the restaurant. It was natural that they would ask me to act," he brags, placing a small plate of canapés on the table. Did he get to meet Ridley Scott? "Sure. He has a house in the area.... | |
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| | | Do-it-yourselfers coming out of the woodwork | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 7:08:32 PM by Blog57 Team | | When it was time to take out some walls in the 1960s-era ranch house that Rhett Bainter bought from his parents, he and his friends were the ones who swung the sledgehammers and hauled the mess out to the trash bins. When the tile guy working on bathroom floor needs someone to hand him the next square, Bainter does it. When it's finally time to paint the brand-new kitchen, he'll be the one wielding the brush. "If I'm not working, I'm here helping," said Bainter, 26, a mortgage broker. He's not sure exactly how much he's saving on the $150,000 project, which includes adding central air conditioning, replacing windows and expanding the garage. But he figures it's thousands of dollars. When renovation aspirations outstrip the budget, grit and hard work can bridge the gap.... | |
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| | | A Federalist Fantasy | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 1:27:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | THE VENERABLE brick Federalist sits grandly on Magnolia Boulevard taking the deep-blue view across the street for granted. Elliott Bay and endless skies meet proper verandas and elegant columns. The landscaping is graceful, terraces traipsing toward the Sound. But this dowager queen, built 76 years ago by the Blackstock family of lumber fame, has a rockin' owner now with terrific taste and a passion for design. Do not let the stately faade fool you. "My mom's house has always been, and always will be, white. White. White. White. You will find no white walls in my house," Kelly Rivelo insists over coffee on a sunny fall morning in her soft blue kitchen. Louie, her faded-gray tabby, rubs in and out of the kitchen table legs. Rosie, Rivelo's Cavalier King Charles spaniel, looks like she popped right off one of the kitchen tiles in toile, more commonly seen on fabrics.... | |
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| | | Which is your dream kitchen? | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 3:11:05 PM by Blog57 Team | | Many house buyers are placing a lot of importance on the kitchen. Indeed, it is reclaiming its past role as the central living space of home life, writes YEANG SOO CHING. APART from it being the place where the womenfolk (and many men) can show off their culinary skills, todays kitchen is also the place where families gather for meals, and where, in between meals, everyone runs to for practically every need! After all, where else in the home can you find home remedies, herbs and spices, first-aid kit, food and beverage, storage bags, rubber bands, light bulbs and a whole fridge full of yummy stuff? Everything you need is right there in the kitchen. In homes where the kitchen also houses the computer, the kitchen also becomes the place to pay bills and do e-mailing as well! You can also watch your favourite TV programme while cooking in the kitchen, or relax in between cooking with freshly brewed tea while the stereo on your worktop blasts your favourite rock n roll! These days, the ingenuous combination of functionality and decorative makes a great difference to a kitchen which otherwise remains just functional.... | |
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| | | Bathe yourself in a rainbow with colored tiles | | Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 7:05:54 AM by Blog57 Team | | Tile is an easy way to inject personality into a kitchen or bathroom remodeling project. The November issue of House Beautiful features a gallery of 101 tiles that hint at the range of colors and styles available. It's a fascinating collection that's sure to inspire. Nature is well represented with sea turtles, koi, deer, bees, crabs, dogs, spiders and more. Styles range from art deco to Old English to abstract to Asian. Some of the tiles are three-dimensional, some are glazed, others are hand-painted -- all are beautiful. Some are real artworks and are priced accordingly. But it may take just a few set amid a less-expensive field tile to make a real statement. Elsewhere, the magazine asked designers which color paint they would choose for a bathroom.... | |
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| | | New luxury home must-haves | | Posted Monday, November 06, 2006 3:10:01 AM by Blog57 Team | | You have an elegant gunite swimming pool, mottled granite countertops and a steam shower in your master bath. But in the race for the ultimate home, you're still behind. Home trends move fast - especially at the very high end of the market, where new ideas take hold. Whirlpool baths, once a rarity, can be found in many a decent new subdivision. Ditto for double-height living rooms. Stainless steel appliances are practically standard. Time for the newest wave of desirables. Among the current must-haves for very luxurious homes: serene bathrooms with souped-up saunas, towel warmers and heated floors (to bring the spa back home); "green" elements such as eco-friendly woods and nontoxic building materials; and technology that integrates the controls for lighting, heating, security and other systems.... | |
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| | | Entrepreneur waits six months to get electricity into his new home | | Posted Tuesday, October 31, 2006 1:11:45 PM by Blog57 Team | | MAHOPAC - Andrew Young has managed Cafe des Artistes in Manhattan, spearheaded the opening of three restaurants at Rockefeller Center, was a sous chef at Ma Maison in Los Angeles with Wolfgang Puck and co-owned Bistrot Les Halles in San Francisco, where he was its chef. But getting electric power wired into his new 2,500-square-foot home on Wixon Pond Road in Mahopac had stumped this 50-year-old entrepreneur and consultant to the hospitality trade's most high-end clients. That is until Friday. After six months of trying, he finally got the juice flowing in his new home. "It is so anticlimactic. I've been waiting for so long," Young said at 3:30 p.m. after workers attached a meter and said he was all set. "The length of time that it took to install this service was not normal," Jim Salmon, a New York State Electric & Gas manager, said in an e-mail Friday, adding that the company's goal is "to connect 90 percent of service requests within 10 days of a customer meeting all requirements." Despite an army of NYSEG workers showing up this week, Young wasn't optimistic until Friday afternoon.... | |
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| | | Selling green | | Posted Monday, October 30, 2006 11:23:12 AM by Blog57 Team | | Rachel Maloney's new construction supply business in south Minneapolis, you'll find plywood made from sunflower seed shells, non-toxic paint, kitchen countertops made from recycled paper, bamboo flooring, glass tiles made from recycled bottles and handcrafted sinks made from recycled aluminum. The products are free of harmful chemicals and toxins and in many cases are recycled or made from reusable materials.It's like the local hardware store meets the co-op.At heart, Maloney's store is at the leafy green tip of a new eco movement among home builders and renovators, one that promises to bring to home construction the same ethos of conservation and healthful living that's driving sales in the booming organic foods movement.Maloney has invested her life in the business at a time when the movement is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, she said."Sometimes when people think of green building they think of a yurt in the middle of Colorado, but that's not what it means," she said.Maloney was a behind-the-scenes research scientist when she and her husband moved to Minneapolis three years ago.... | |
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