The Top 5 Tips for Remodeling Your Kitchen

January 27, 2010

Remodeling a kitchen requires more education and decision-making than any other project in your home. The design process begins with the layout, and planning continues with many more decisions to be made!

1.  Use a professional kitchen designer to help plan and create your new kitchen atmosphere from layout, to lighting, to product selections and finishes.

2. The most commonly-used traffic path is between the refrigerator and the main sink. Plan easily-accessible counter space between the refrigerator and the sink for washing  and preparation of food.

3. Locate the microwave oven near the refrigerator and in a wall cabinet or tall oven cabinet, rather than on a counter.

4. Double or single pull-out trash containers are great for trash, recycle materials, pet food, and bulk foods.

5. Pantries don’t have to be closets! Beautiful and efficient cabinet pantry storage is 12″-18″ deep. Wall, base, or tall cabinets and can be designed to look like a pantry hutch or cupboard, or used to create pantry storage at the back of an island or peninsula. Base cabinets 21″-24″ deep with adjustable roll-out shelves increase the amount of base pantry storage.

For more tips on remodeling your kitchen please contact Modern Homes Builders & Remodelers at 847-356-8886.

Chicagoland Natural Gas Savings Program

January 26, 2010

For a limited time there is a Chicagoland Natural Gas Savings Program has been extended! The rebates will be available for qualifying purchases and installations made from January 16, 2010 – February 15, 2010, or until funds run out, for the gas-saving products.

Some of the credit include are High Efficiency:
Attic Insulation
Wall Insulation
Storage Water Heater
Tank-less Water Heater
Furnace
Boiler

The Program is limited to current customers of Peoples Gas or North Shore Gas.

To learn more details about the offerings included in the extension, as well as the requirements and terms and conditions, please see review the following website.

http://www.conservationrebates.com/programs/chi/CHI_Index.aspx

Remember to check your smoke detectors

January 19, 2010

Check the back of your smoke detectors to find the manufacturer stamped date. Use this date in accordance with the manufacturer’s manual to calculate the expiration date. Replace old smoke detectors to ensure the safety of your family, pets, and home. Also, when remodeling, make sure you know the current local building codes. Most villages require smoke detectors in every bedroom and a carbon monoxide detector on each floor level and may require that your smoke detectors be upgrade when remodeling. Some villages even require a sprinkler head over the furnace and water heater area.

Feeling the winter chill?

January 19, 2010

The cold months in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin are here. Is it not just cold outside but cold inside too? Making you not to want to leave the warmth of your cozy blanket.

The plus to this all is that you can get rid of the drafts and lower your heating bill. These upgrade will easily pay for them selves. There are options like solar, wind or even geo-thermal, and other leading technologies. Are these worth while?? Well they all need to be looked at dependent on home location and specific circumstances. Typically I would recommend to first focus on the shell of the home. The less energy that a home needs, is the less energy that there is to be saved.

First start with the shell of your home, which can include air sealing, insulation, windows, siding etc. Attic insulation and properly installed Energy Star windows are two of the easiest ways to increase efficiency. Air sealing is very important and even more important on older homes. Siding and sheathing the home with foam board can also help your insulating value and air infiltration to your home.

Once the shell of the home is preforming the way it should your mechnical needs can dramatically change. Then one can determine the proper mechanical needs for your home.

As additional incentive to increase the efficiency of your home, many of these options have tax credits right now too. If your liking the idea of the savings on your electical and gas bill, and getting some tax credits, contact us to find out what options may be right for your home.

Upgrade the Window, Improve the Efficiency

January 11, 2010

Single paint windows are one of the largest source for heat loss in a home. They have low insulating value, high air leakage and can be responsible for 25 to 50 percent of the energy use to heat or cool a home.

Almost any windows will improve over single pain and new energy efficient glass/window options can even significantly increase the insulating value of dual pain glass.

An easy way to determine window efficiency would be to choose a window with an “Energy Star” label. They do have a National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) energy performance label on all windows that will help you compare energy rating on windows. There is five factor used.

* U-factor measures how well a product prevents heat from escaping.
* Solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) measures how well a product blocks heat caused by sunlight.
* Visible transmittance measures how much light comes through a product.
* Air leakage measures how much air will pass through cracks in the window assembly.
* Condensation resistance measures the ability to resist the formation of condensation on the interior surface.

The optimal combination of U-factor and SHGC depends on the climate zone as well as direction.location of your home. Products with the Energy Star label will include a map to help you determine the right window for your area.

There are a variation of different glass types that can be chosen. Low E Glass is typically the standard in efficiency glass. A Low-E coating is a microscopically thin, virtually invisible, metal or metallic oxide layer deposited directly on the surface of one or more of the panes of glass. There are also argon gas than can be filled in the window to help efficiency as well as Super Spacer® solid silicone foam spacer to help reduce heat transfer. There are also Laminated Glass and Sun coatings that are available dependent on the windows manufacturer.

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