From Homescape

After a marathon of a winter, I can’t begin to tell you how ecstatic I am to finally hear birds chirping outside my window and not to see snow barricading my sidewalk. With the first balmy weekend, I noticed my neighbor out in his yard replanting the grass that had wilted away during the winter months. Sprucing up the yard may be a basic cosmetic upgrade to a home, but its value stretches beyond the lawn.

Show me the green
The Turf Resource Center reports that a study conducted by Michigan State University and funded by the Horticultural Research Institute found that depending on where a property is located, high-quality landscaping adds 5 to 11 percent to the home’s value. The study reported that landscaping adds more value than any other home renovation project.

And a recent survey of 2,000 realtors by HomeGain.com reported that an investment of $500 in lawn improvements would likely yield 400 percent of that total when selling the home.

Smells good, sells well
Making over your lawn doesn’t have to empty your pockets, either. A great landscaping tip I recently got from fellow Homescape blogger Frank Schulte-Ladbeck is to add some aromatic herbs such as mint and lemon thyme patches to the yard to create a fragrant smell. A rolling breeze will carry the enticing aromas throughout the surrounding area. This is great for a seller having an open house.

Schulte-Ladbeck says many professional gardeners of large estates are gussying up their traditional lawns with more than just grass. “The use of various herbs and weeds are a great addition, because it doesn’t require as many herbicides or fertilizers, making it an eco-friendly option. These botanic alternatives will also fill in sparse patches faster than grass, so the lawns look fuller.”

First impressions are everything when you’re selling a home. So it only makes sense to spend a little quality time to improve your landscaping. It’s the first thing buyers see — and probably one of the last things they’ll remember.

Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@homescape.com.

Every morning I usually create a to-do-list of things I have to accomplish for the day, and in celebration of Earth Day today, I’ve decided to add a couple of eco-friendly chores to my list. While tasks such as opening the windows instead of turning on the air conditioning or turning the lights off in rooms that aren’t being occupied seems pretty minimal, I believe some action is better than no action.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to install a geothermal heat pump or a solar electric system in my home, but these energy-efficient gizmos come with a pretty hefty price tag. If you’re like me and are still trying to pay off college loans and credit card bills, you can still live an eco-friendly lifestyle without sinking further into the quicksand of debt.

Green revolution

Eventually, as demand increases for these types of green products, more builders will begin standardizing them into their designs. Here are some current data and trends:

• In the American Institute of Architects’ fourth-quarter survey of 500 architects, 61 percent said their clients are interested in “renewable” flooring materials like cork and bamboo, up 53 percent a year earlier.

• The market for green homes is expected to rise from $2 billion this year to $20 billion over the next five years, according to a 2007 report by McGraw-Hill Construction and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

• According to the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s New Sustainability Initiative (NSI), 66 percent of retailers have begun the transition to green. The study also found that green flooring will leapfrog from the slowest-growing segment of the green building market to the fastest-growing by 2011. Bamboo flooring imports grew 50 percent between 2005 and 2006.

• Homeowners are using green products such as kitchen countertops made with recycled glass and concrete for 40 percent of their remodeling work, according to McGraw Hill and the NAHB.

• The American Institute of Architect’s Local Leaders in Sustainability reported that since 2003 the number of cities with green building programs has risen from 22 to 92 percent.

Calculating carbon footprint
So how green are you? Author Alexandra Shimo-Barry has created easy steps for consumers to calculate their own carbon footprints. In Shimo-Barry’s new book, “The Environment Equation,” she teaches readers how to quickly calculate the amount of greenhouse gases in units of carbon dioxide by following a basic formula:

A) Multiply your monthly electricity bill by 105.

B) Multiply your monthly gas bill by 105.

C) Multiply your monthly oil bill by 113. (If you don't use either B or C, enter 0.)

D) Multiply total yearly mileage by .79.

E) Multiply the number of flights — 4 hours or less — by 1,100.

F) Multiply the number of flights — 4 hours or more — by 4,400.

G) Do you recycle newspapers? If no, add 184. If yes, add 0.

H) Do you recycle aluminum and tin? If no, add 166. If yes, add 0.

A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H = your carbon footprint. A number below 6,000 (reflected in pounds per year) is excellent. Over 22,000? Not so great. Good is anywhere from 6,000 to 15,999, while 16,000 to 22,000 is average.

I see a future where every homebuyer will be afforded the opportunity to live in a fully environmentally sustainable home. For today, on Earth Day, remember to think small and think practical, and your green habits will ease the burden on your pocketbook and the planet.

Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@homescape.com.

Are you having a hard time determining where to start your own home staging? Well, I feel your pain. When I Google the phrase “home staging tips,” I came up with 29,300 results. Going through that result list is a daunting task and would be overwhelming for any home seller.

To help home sellers narrow down their options, I did my own research on the Web and found a great list of basic tips on HGTV.com. The recommendations I found can be applied to both dwelling and selling. While there’s plenty being written when it comes to home staging, this list of tips is a great starting place for advice that will help any home seller begin their own project. Here are my top 10 favorite tips:

WORK ON YOUR ENTRANCE

Whether you are on a job interview, going on a first date or selling your home, first impressions matter. What buyers see on the outside starts to inform them on what to expect on the inside. So clean it up, touch up the paint, add plants and flowers, and in general, make the buyer feel welcomed.

CLEAR OUT CLUTTER
We think countertops, cabinets, closets, garages, basements and attics as storage spaces, but often they become clutter keepers. Purging out the old is not only therapeutic but allows a path for the new. Remember, too much clutter distracts and obstructs buyers from seeing what you are selling. So clear it out.

LESS FURNITURE, MORE HOUSE
A room full of furniture can feel as cluttered as an accountant’s desktop during tax season. Removing all but what is necessary in a room will make it look and feel bigger. Extra furniture can always be used in another room.

FLOAT YOUR FURNITURE

When you float furniture, remember to bring it off the walls into the center of the room. The rooms will begin to feel more open, interesting and visually appealing. Experiment with angles and corners when moving furniture.

CROSS-POLLINATE
After living in a home for a long time, sellers have a tendency of seeing their furnishings, art and accessories used only one way. But moving pieces that have always been used in one room into another can give new meaning to any old space. And don’t stop with furniture. Color, texture and style elements that dominate one room can be moved into another to help create flow and continuity from one area to the next.

GIVE OLD ROOMS NEW PURPOSE
As time moves on, the way people live and use their homes often change. Extra bedrooms become television dens, which then become home offices. Basements go from being storage areas to recreation or media rooms. Setting up an old room with a new purpose will help buyers see the potential and possibilities of how the room can be utilized.

LAMP AND LIGHT DONE RIGHT
Lighting in a home that is too dim, too harsh or too cold can work against the sale of it. Warm and balanced lighting is what it’s all about. Using a combination of different lighting types — such as overhead, accent or task lamps — in each room will give a home the overall appealing glow buyers like. Oh, and don’t forget to light up the exterior, especially near the entrance. Utilizing natural sunlight by opening up drapes will also help buyers see the home’s distinct features.

COLOR WITHIN THE LINES
Wallpaper is out and color paints are a must, especially when selling a home. Wallpaper is typically a very personal design expression that looks dated overtime. While the popularity of color does trend, updating with paint is an easy and inexpensive way to freshen up a home that is for sale. Don’t limit yourself to white as the only neutral color. Some shades of white can be the worst color for neutralizing a room. There is a wide variety of beiges, tans, taupes, soft gold and greens that are not only trendy in a buyer’s eyes, but will also work well with your furnishings while you are selling.

HANG ART ARTFULLY
Considering the average person in this country is between 5-foot-6- and 5-foot-8-inches tall, you should always try to hang art at the eye level. As a rule of thumb, the viewer should always be looking slightly above center of the piece. Placement is also important. Sellers should envision how a homebuyer will walk through the home and which walls they will actually look at. That will help determine where the art should be hung and where it’s not needed.

OUTDOORS COMES IN
Bringing in flowers and plants can help breath life back into a home. Adding foliage will help to soften a room, especially if it’s in an area that’s darker and more rustic. While bringing the outdoors inside is a great tip, sometimes live plants are not available or practical. Don’t be afraid to invest in QUALITY silk plants and dried flowers, but remember a dusty silk or old faded dried arrangement can look as dead as any living plant that died. Finally, avoid seasonal plants and flowers and go for the green basics.

Market It Forward…

Craig Schiller, founder of Real Estaging

A report released last week by Better Homes and

Home buyers are looking for large kitchens that are fun, but practical.

Gardens magazine found that buyers who bought a new home in the last 10 years or plan to build one, say they’re through with cookie-cutter houses. The research study surveyed more than 2,000 homeowners from across the country, and about 70 percent said they wanted a house that has character and charm.

Top five priorities
1. An all-new kitchen that looks great and is fun to work in
2. The right amount and type of customized storage
3. A master bath and bedroom that feels like a luxurious hotel room
4. Well-designed spaces that can be personalized
5. A separate and conveniently sized laundry/workroom

The study also found that more than half of those surveyed wanted green-certified building and remodeling options presented to them. This figure jumped to more than two out three in the Generation Y age group (people born between 1977 and 1998).

Another growing trend among homeowners in the past few years is the need for expanded outdoor living space. About 40 percent of respondents said that their outdoor living areas are almost as important as their interior home. The traditional barbeque grills and patio tables just aren’t cutting it, and consumers today are shelling out big bucks for customized stone firepits and elaborate outdoor dining furniture.

Planning for life changes

When asked what specialty space the homeowners would prefer, 36 percent named the sunroom, 35 percent said an extra-large porch and 34 percent said an oversized laundry room. Many new homes being built today have turned the dull, often cramped laundry room into a multipurpose area with extra space to do arts and crafts projects or wrap gifts.

“Today the pace of change, in families and with technology, is so fast that consumers demand homes that will change with them,” says Gayle Butler, editor in chief of Better Homes and Garden.

Baby Boomers especially are planning for these changes. In the next five to 10 years, about one out of three Boomers expects an aging parent to move in or an adult child or relative to move back home. As a result, the need for guest accommodations will be in demand. The survey also found that this generation will be looking for single-floor living.

So whether you’re preparing your home to sell or looking to buy a new one, it’s always good to keep in mind the ever-changing trends affecting the housing market.

Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@homescape.com.

Over the weekend I stopped by the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show & Conference held here in Chicago. While I saw my fair share of sleek new bathroom faucets and granite kitchen countertops, nothing topped the list of cool new gizmos like Kohler’s VibrAcoustic bathtub.

I could hear the oohs and ahhs as I approached the crowd of spectators converged around this state-of-the-art tub. Like something straight out of “The Jetsons,” the long, white multisensory bath integrates light, choreographed music and soothing vibrations to create the ultimate relaxation experience.

The science of bathing                                                                                                                                      

Kohler's VibrAcoustic bath intergates light, music and soothing vibrations to create a relaxing experience.

Barry Glasford, a project analyst with Kohler and one of the brains behind the creation of the tub, told me the VibrAcoustic bath successfully marries the science of water and sound with the art of ergonomic design. Vibroacoustics is a technology-based sound therapy defined as hearing and feeling sound vibrations through the body. Glasford says it’s proven to promote relaxation and is an ideal feature to add to a bathtub that is designed and engineered to instinctively ease tension and stress.

Who needs whirlpool jets when you have a selection of four uniquely composed music numbers creating a soothing synchronized vibration. Transducers producing the vibrations are strategically placed on the backside of the bath allowing the bather to not only hear but also feel the music streaming in from one of the four preset fountainheads. The sound waves travel through the water and gently resound in the body.

“During our test runs, I would see people fall into a deep, relaxed breathing, as they lay there in the bathtub,” Glasford says. “The vibration and lighting encourages the bather’s breathing rate to align with the beats or chord structures. The experience is truly three-dimensional.”

Creating euphoria
The four VibrAcoustic original compositions were created in collaboration with a renowned sound therapist and are choreographed uniquely for this bath to optimize the vibroacoustic effect. Two massaging beat experiences add even more physical vibration that can be adjusted to the desired level of intensity for a personalized bath experience.

But if you’re more of a Guns N’ Roses fan like myself, the DTV bath interface allows you to download your own songs from a MP3 player or radio station from a home computer. Glasford, however, says he wouldn’t recommend up-tempo tunes if you’re looking for a euphoric experience.

The synchronized lighting is truly the psychedelic eye-catcher on this suped-up tub. The four lights in the bath can create eight different colors and a myriad of color combinations and patterns. A color dial even allows bathers to choose a particular hue of each color. The lights are synchronized with the four preset fountainhead experiences and will also align themselves with the rhythm of outside music.

Bath design
The bathtub is made of acrylic and available in two sizes: 88-by-48-by-24 inches and 72-by-42-by- 26 inches, which allow bathers of different heights to be submerged completely. The 88-inch tub will cost you around $13,000 while the 72-inch bath retails for $10,500. For some people, the price will be worth the experience.

Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@homescape.com.