Install appropriate insulation in area to be remodeled.

Install high-efficiency windows instead of those that minimally meet the energy code.

Seal all exterior penetrations in areas being remodeled.

Purchase only Energy Star®-rated appliances. Install only low-flow water fixtures.

Upgrade to at least an Energy Star®-rated water heater, or better yet, a tankless water heater.

Purchase the highest efficiency HVAC system you can afford and make sure it is correctly sized for the area you want to condition.

Use programmable thermostats

Greener products to consider:

Non-toxic paints and sealants
Natural flooring
Local building materials
Native plants for landscaping

A Contemporary Becomes Victorian

The second couple had an unusual project that was both interesting and unique. They moved to Spokane from Seattle in 1990, at which time they purchased their 1910 home at a cost of about $55,000. Even though the home required a lot of work just to make it livable, they bought it because of the neighborhood. It was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, one-and a half story contemporary home with 1,900 square feet, including 600 square feet in the basement. He had been a carpenter for 20 years and both are in real estate. This project was so extreme—a major remodel since they wanted a Victorian house—that if you hadn’t seen the home before it was remodeled, you would never recognize it.

He drew his own plans and they decided to handle the entire project themselves. They started in 1991 by adding a 900 square-foot two-car garage. Work on the home actually started in 1992. Before the entire project was completed, they estimated total costs somewhere around $40,000 in materials only since the owner supplied all the labor. This project also allowed the couple to reinvest profits from the sale of their home in Seattle. Again, this home outpriced other homes in the neighborhood which are valued between $110,000 and $150,000.

Some of the products that were purchased and installed will not only save money in terms of energy efficiency but will also enhance the finished look of the overall project. For example, they selected used 2″ decking and used columns for the front porch. They added another 1,100 square feet to both floors for a total of 3,000 square feet including an additional 600 square feet for the basement and an additional 900 square feet above the garage that is used as a self-contained studio apartment (kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom—all electrical is on the house meter). The rest of the home has six bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Incidentally, the sycamore tree in the yard dates back almost 90 years and really enhances the overall transformation this house has undergone. In the early 1900s this tree, along with others (locusts, Norway maples, and elms) were used in plantings designed by the Olmsted Brothers, famous landscape architects of Brookline, Massachusetts. This firm also designed Central Park in New York City and the Stanford University campus. This particular sycamore tree was shipped in from a Boston nursery and was featured in an article in Sunset Magazine in 1967.

There’s a home improvement project this year that not only adds value and curb appeal to your home, but saves energy and offers up to a $1,500 federal tax credit to homeowners. The project? A stylish new insulated garage door.

Huge tax credit
Qualifying insulated garage doors purchased in 2009 and 2010 earn a sizeable tax credit — more valuable than a tax deduction — that reduces taxes dollar-for-dollar from the bottom line of your federal tax bill.

Under legislation passed in 2008, the tax credit maxed out at $500 or 10 percent of the product cost. But under the federal stimulus legislation announced in February 2009, the tax credit tripled to 30 percent of the product cost, up to a maximum of $1,500. This means that the door helps pay for itself through the tax credit incentive.

Full details on the tax credit and qualifying garage doors can be found at GarageWowNow.com, a non-commercial Web site sponsored by the garage door industry.

Energy savings
The driving factor behind the tax credit is energy savings — another money-saver for homeowners and a positive step for the environment. Homeowners find that the room next to the garage is often the coldest room in the winter.

Older, non-insulated garage doors can allow cold air in the winter and warm air in the summer to enter the house, increasing heating and cooling costs. A new, qualifying insulated door can make a difference in the temperature of your home while helping to reduce your energy bills in both winter and summer.

New styles boost curb appeal
In the last five years, a new breed of stylish garage doors has hit the market. And adding style to your home means adding value as well.

A garage door typically makes up more than one-third of a home’s front facade. A “plain vanilla” garage door can make your home look bland and boring — especially if it looks just like every other garage door on your street.

The latest styles offer:
* The carriage house look, a throwback to yesteryear that fools the eye by echoing the hinged, swing-out door styles of quaint and charming carriage houses — yet the doors open just like any other modern garage door.
* Sleek, contemporary doors available in vibrant colors, opaque glass and aluminum, and a range of metallic finishes to complement modern homes.
* Steel raised-panel doors with a wood grain print surface that requires minimal maintenance, beautifully imitating the rich colors and patterns of real wood.

Get the job done
Don’t know where to begin in looking for new garage door styles?

A wide variety of new styles are featured at GarageWowNow.com to point you in the right direction. Before and after images on the Web site allow you to see how new garage doors have dramatically changed the appearance of homes. And if you find a door that catches your fancy, the door manufacturer is clearly listed and you can go directly to their Web sites.

And remember, installation is best left to the pros. GarageWowNow.com’s ZIP code search function will help you find a professional in your area who can install your new door in a few hours.

Shape and Design
Width
Materials

Walkway Designs and Shapes

The geometry of your walkway can be either curvilinear or straight. This is usually determined by the locations and relationships of the places that the walk is connecting. Walkway designs can be of different paving materials. For example, if the walk is to be a short one, forming a connection from the street to the front door, curves may not be possible.

Curves will provide a meandering feeling and create a more naturalistic feeling. One or more curves may make up the walk.

If your garden walkway is coming off a front porch, start off with lines that are perpendicular to the porch. You can then start the curve; the walk can be one large curve or it can have a few curves with “switchbacks”.

Straight paths have more of a directness about them. Yet the widths of the geometry can change and create interest. Rectilinear walkways can be very formal, they can have a traditional look to them, or they can just be a simple access way.

You might also have to consider including steps in the walk.

Widths

Depending on the importance of the walk, it might be wide or narrow. Front walks and those that are main access ways should be a minimum of 4 feet wide. They can be much wider and if you have the room or a wider walk fits with the scale of your surroundings, you might consider it.

Less important garden walkways can be 3 feet wide. These might be those that lead from the driveway to the backyard landscape.

Minor paths can be as narrow as 2 feet. Stepping stones can be even smaller.

If using stepping stones such as irregular pieces of bluestone, consider planting low growing plants, such as Thyme or Sedum, in between the stones for a very casual and natural look. These might be walks that are strictly practical. They also may be ones that lead further back into your backyard landscaping. It might be a path through the woods. Take a look at some walkway pictures and how I used them in my landscape projects.

Materials

The material should go well with material on your house. Expense is often a consideration. Here is the order of materials from most expensive to least costly:

1. Natural stone, such as bluestone, set in concrete
2. Natural stone, dry laid
3. Travertine pavers
4. Brick, drylaid. It is more expensive if set in concrete.
5. Concrete pavers
6. Stamped concrete
7. Concrete
8. Decomposed granite – There are three different applications for this material with varying costs.

Rather than haul out a tarp covered frame, consider building a lovely backyard pergola. This permanent structure will add beauty and value to you home.

To do this yourself, you should be a fairly experienced Do-it-yourselfer, or you might consider hiring a local handyman to follow these plans and create a small retreat for you and your family.

Here’s an overview of the project:

What looks like the toughest part of this project is actually the easiest—the graceful, solid-looking columns. They’re not wood at all but a hollow-core composite material with amazing structural strength and durability. We’ve designed the project so you simply slip these columns over treated 4×4 posts embedded in concrete. When screwed to the wooden posts, these columns provide a stable, solid base for the overhead lattice framework.

These paintable precast columns are available by special order at home centers. They come in a wide variety of diameters and heights and architectural styles. Expect to pay about $200 or more for each column.

Pressure-treated dimensional 2x8s and 2x10s make up the majority of the upper framework, and the decorative end pieces are cut with a jigsaw from our pattern. The whole project can be built in a couple of weekends, with another weekend for staining and painting. You’ll spend about $2,400, including the cost of the columns.

We built our pergola over an existing stone patio; that saved a lot of patio work. If you’re planning to install a patio as part of your overall project, you’ll need to allow extra time.

Choosing the Right Location
Because this project is made to stand independent of the house, you can either locate it right near your house as we did or let it stand alone in the garden. You can also consider using wood chips or gravel as a floor or even pour a concrete slab underneath. By keeping it unattached (about 4 in. from the eaves), you don’t have to deal with moving existing gutters or matching eaves. You also don’t have to mess with frost footings (in colder climates). However, if you have clay soil, it’s best to dig to frost depth (if greater than 24 in.) for your footings to prevent frost heave.

Our existing patio was built over a sand and compacted gravel base, so we removed only the stones necessary to dig the 12-in. diameter holes to secure the posts. You’ll most likely have a different situation. If you’ll be adding a patio later, be sure to pour all the footings at the finished patio height. Keep in mind any slope you’ll include in the patio. Most patios slope about 1/8 in. per foot to drain.

YOu can read all the details HERE

Money Magazine‘s Josh Garskof asks:

If prospective buyers looked at your house today, what would they see outside? A giant evergreen that looks as if it might swallow the station wagon, perhaps, scraggly old foundation plants or maybe a kitchen-table view of the neighbors’ kids’ trampoline?

If so, you have a truly inexpensive opportunity to boost your home’s curb appeal.

By spending $500 to $3,000 on plants and materials and a few hours of time, you can achieve a well-landscaped look without shelling out for professional help.

Besides the personal enjoyment you’ll get from a prettier yard, landscaping adds more value than almost any other home renovation.

Project prioritization should depends on how long you think you’ll be around to enjoy the results.

Selling in a year or less:

1) Edge the beds

• Cutting fresh edges where grass meets mulch makes the lawn look well kept. A move as simple as curving the edge of your flower beds could increase the value of your home by 1 percent, says horticulture professor Bridget Behe, the lead researcher on the MSU study.
• Also, if your foundation plants are overgrown, widening the beds by two feet will make the shrubs seem smaller.

2) Nourish the grass

• For truly lush turf, ideally start regular fertilizer treatments a year before listing the house. Green up the lawn with just a single application.
• Spend $45 on a broadcast spreader, which quickly distributes fertilizer over a lawn, enabling you to nourish a quarter-acre lot in about 10 minutes.
• For a yard that size, expect each monthly application to cost about $20 (for straight fertilizer) to $30 (with weed killer).

3) Scatter color throughout

• For about $1 a plant, you can blanket your yard with petunias, impatiens and other small annuals that will flower throughout the current growing season.
• Also invest a few hundred dollars in some larger perennials and in shrubs that stand at least four feet high. “A few good-size plants have more sex appeal than 20 little ones,” says Chicago landscape architect Douglas Hoerr.

If you’re improving for the long-term

4) Cut back the jungle

• Many everyday yard plants, such as azaleas, forsythia, hollies and rhododendrons, will fill out with new growth after a season or so even if you hack them down to stumps, says Christopher Valenti, a landscape contractor in Lewes, Del.
• Be careful, though, of yews and junipers, which won’t grow new leaves on old wood and may need to be removed altogether if they’re severely overgrown.

5) Add drama with foliage

• A distinctive yard will make your home more appealing to buyers, says Los Angeles realtor Dana Frank. So replace plants that don’t flower, or provide interesting foliage with eye-catching alternatives, like a patch of blackeyed Susans, a flowering crabapple or a cutleaf Japanese maple.

If you’re planning to stay put, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars for big plants.

You’ll save 50 percent or more by buying small ones and waiting a few seasons to get the full visual impact (when planting, make sure to space them based on the mature size listed on the label, not how they look now).

6) Consider new angles

• Most yards have almost all the plants along the foundation and the property lines. But if you place yours throughout different parts of the property, you’ll create a depth of field that makes your home look farther away from the road, says architect Hoerr.
• Try putting some near the house’s corners to accentuate its shape, others near the street to define the yard, and some in between, where they can block unfortunate views and be admired from indoors. Many nurseries offer free design help to buyers.

7) Cover your rear

• It’s nice to wave hello to your neighbors out front, but the backyard should be a private space. If yours feels overexposed, fencing can offer a quick fix.
• For each eight-foot section, you’ll pay about $100 (for a plain cedar stockade fence) to $300 (for an elaborate Victorian model), plus another $50 to $150 a section for installation.
• You can also achieve the same effect at a much lower cost by planting small evergreen shrubs, although you’ll have to wait a few seasons for full coverage.
• Or, rather than pruning those hulking foundation plants (see humorous example, below!), hire a landscaper to transplant them along the property line. As long as they’re healthy and evergreen, it’s a great way to maximize the value of the plants you already own.

Take your home outside: An open-air “room” adds inexpensive living space that may come in handy at resale. And it needn’t have a price tag as big as the great outdoors.

Just as the sun started to set, the column of smoke started to glow orange like a scene from Exodus, and then you could see pillars of fire as the blaze crested the hills facing the Los Angeles basin.  I grabbed these few shots and a bit of video (i’ll try to post it in a while) as the flames raged around the Griffith Park Observatory.

This has been the dryest season in decades for SoCal.  We are seeing fires in May that wouldn’t be expected until the end of summer.  There’s a lot of brush up there so it looks like a pretty nasty fire season yet to come.