Ways to Make Your Bathroom More Energy Efficient

There are a number of design features and fittings that can improve bathroom energy efficiency and reduce energy bills and greenhouse pollution. Remodelling your bathroom to make it more energy efficient will improve your home because doing it right will reap the benefits of health, safety, comfort and will save you money and energy.

1. Energy Efficient Hot Water System
Select an energy efficient hot water system and place it as close to the bathroom and laundry as possible to reduce pipe length and reduce heat loss.

2. Energy Efficient Labelled Ventilation Fans
Bathroom moisture is often controlled by the use of an exhaust fan. The fan sucks out the moisture-laden air, which is then replaced by drier outside air.

Install properly sized energy efficient labelled ventilation fans to control moisture in the air while you shower or bathe. By removing moist air and drying out your bathroom, a ventilation fan will help prevent mold and mildew. Fans help remove moisture, which can increase the level of humidity in your house. High humidity can damage building materials. Worse, high humidity can cause mold growth and mold may affect your family's health. Install self closing exhaust fans to avoid heat loss or gain when not in use

3. Energy Efficient Labelled Lighting
Another easy way to make your bathroom more energy efficient is to install energy efficient labelled lighting (e.g., Light Fixtures: suspended lights, ceiling-mounted lights, cabinet lights, recessed lights, or compact fluorescent bulbs). Attractive, energy-efficient lighting adds value to your home and reduces home energy bills.

4. Insulation - Insulate Walls and Ceilings
The walls behind tubs or showers are often poorly insulated and air-sealed. Opening these walls as part of the remodelling project provides an opportunity to ensure comfort by sealing air leaks with caulk or expanding foam and installing insulation. Also make sure to air seal around plumbing and electrical penetrations.

5. Energy Efficient Windows and Doors
If you are replacing windows, doors, and skylights, consider those with the energy efficient label. New technologies in the glass and frame systems help make your home more comfortable, and lower heating and cooling costs too.

6. Energy Efficient Showerheads
The shower is the largest user of household hot water. Install an AAA showerhead to reduce the amount of hot water consumed. AAA showerheads are available at many bathroom supply stores and hardware stores. A flow rate of approximately 7L per minute is considered as AAA for showerheads.

7. Water Pipes and Water Saving Devices
Insulate hot water pipes to reduce heat loss and save energy. Install water saving devices like water saving aerators and flow regulators in your taps. Select water saving taps that have a similar water saving rating.

An Introduction to Home Wall Murals

Wall murals are a creative way to decorate any room. Don’t be intimated. It is possible to paint a superb wall mural even if you feel like you are not an artist. Wall murals look great in children’s rooms, the kitchen, the bathroom, the family room, or just about anywhere you want to personalize a cold, plain wall. Plan carefully, have patience, and you are sure to be rewarded. You can even practice first on a wall not many people will see, like in the laundry room or the basement. You can decorate a wall while practicing and increasing your confidence.

Have fun picking your image pattern. You can either draw it yourself or pick a favorite picture from a children’s book, art book, or greeting card—anything really! If you want a more elaborate wall mural, you can pick images from different sources, like a border from a children’s book around a scene from a child’s birthday card.

Be creative with your design. Garden murals filled with flowers, ivy, baskets and butterflies are an easy way to brighten a kitchenette. Paint faux brick, tile, or marble to dress up an entryway. An ocean scene with fish, a beach, and palm trees can add whimsy to a bathroom. Paint a scene from a favorite children’s book to welcome a newborn. Or paint a baseball themed wall mural to make a home office seem more playful.

You can also use words in your mural. Wrap inspiring poetry around your dresser to help you start your day happily. Remind your children how much you love them with kind words by their bed, or even paint a playful reminder by their toy box to put their toys.

Remember, you are making the house yours. Take chances to find something you love. And if you get tired of it, you can always paint over it.

Simple Steps To Keeping Your Home Clean

The easiest way to keep your home clean and organized is to keep your home clean and organized on a daily basis. There are many small and seemingly insignificant steps you can take each day towards keeping your home guest ready.

In the living room pick up all the newspapers, catalogs and magazines that have collected. You can do this on a daily basis. Keep a bin for paper recycling. Put what you plan to read in a magazine rack next to your chair.

Before bedtime have the kids pick up any miscellaneous objects they might have left downstairs and have them put their toys back in the toy box.

Once a week you'll want to vacuum and dust the living room.

In the kitchen you'll want to make sure that you keep your sink free of dirty dishes on a daily basis. After each meal put the dirty dishes directly in the dishwasher and wash and dry any remaining pots and pans or dishes and put them away.

Wipe the countertops and table off after each meal. Disposable cleaning clothes come in handy for this. Don't let papers or the mail pile up in the kitchen on the counter. As soon as the mail comes in go through it and organize it.

Sweep and scrub your kitchen floor at least once a week.

In your bathroom you'll want to make sure that you rinse out of the sink, the faucet and rinse off the countertop when you're done. Keep Windex close by in case the mirror needs a quick cleaning.

When you're done in your shower make sure that you wipe the walls of the shower down with a cleaning cloth, like one pre treated with bleach. Leave a few inches open on each side of the shower curtain so that air can circulate through your shower and help dry it faster. Run your exhaust fan when you take your shower and then for a full twenty minutes afterwards.

The blue drop-ins for toilets really do a nice job of masking any dirt - but don't use it as an excuse to not clean. You toilet should be thoroughly cleaned at least once a week. When you're done with the pre treated cloth in shower why not use it on the toilet too? A quick daily wipe can do wonders.

At least once a week you'll want to sweep and wash the bathroom floors. Your bath rug won't need to be washed once a week, but an easy way to freshen it is to put it in the dryer on low with a fabric softener cloth. This gets most of the hairs off of it and fluffs it up.

Seems simple enough!

Tasteful home decorating changes your house into a home!

There is this undocumented story about Andrew Carnegie who kept postponing the decision to redecorate his home just because black, his default color of choice, was simply not used in home decorating those days! Mercifully today, you could well translate your home decorating ideas into alluring reality. For home interior decorating no longer means just coloring your walls in pastel shades and showing off your antiques – it is about using all the home decorating tips that one can get to highlight the most of what one possesses. Unless of course you wish to shrug the opportunity and call in a professional designer. But even this experience could be fascinating – what with "walk-throughs" in your "virtually" designed home before even a single coat of paint is applied! Yes, with home decorating, either way you always come up trumps!

Use home decorating tips to your advantage!

Your dйcor should exude your persona. Want it to appear spacious? Eliminate shadows with diffused, ambient lighting. Avoid ceiling lights which make the ceiling appear low. Your ceiling should always wear the lightest color in the room. Then the pastel shades on your wall would help create that feeling of largeness. Limit the use of patterns to accent pieces – the discerning eye should not stop as it travels across the room. And if you want a cozy pad, do just the opposite – use strong colors and heavy, soft textures. Draw attention to that precious grandfather clock with carefully directed light. And if you must, make up your bathroom – in exquisite black – and eliminate that permanently booked suite at New York’s Windsor Hotel – а la Andrew Carnegie!

Home Improvements That Increase Your Home's Resell Price

One of the best things you can do as a homeowner is to use some of your home equity dollars to finance home improvements. Not only will the additions make your home more attractive and pleasant to live in, but certain projects will bring a significant return on investment when the time comes to sell your home. The following 5 projects have been proven to add extra dollars to the average home resell prices. The statistics are courtesy of “Remodeling Magazine.” ROI stands for “return on investment”

1. Minor Kitchen Remodeling: Average cost = $8,655. Average ROI = 88%.

A minor kitchen remodel usually includes replacing the cabinets and countertops with higher quality materials or increasing the total amount of cabinet storage and countertop surface area. It would also most likely include the addition or upgrade of appliances such as garbage disposals, built in microwaves, dishwashers, and higher quality refrigerators.

2. Bathroom Remodel: Average cost = $9,135. Average ROI = 81%

This project would include things such as installing attractive countertops such as stone, granite, or marble. The fixtures would need to be upgraded and the shower and bathtubs should be resurfaced. Also, any tiling would need to be grouted. Other things that could increase the value of a bathroom remodel would be adding an extra sink basin, converting a bathtub to a Jacuzzi, or installing additional showerheads.

3. Major Kitchen Remodel: Average cost = 31,090. Average ROI = 71%

The major kitchen remodel is very costly and will take much more work than the minor remodel. The major version will require all appliances to be replaced. Whenever possible, appliances should be made in stainless steel. The countertops should be made of stone or granite. The floors might be replaced with high quality laminate flooring. The addition of a kitchen island or a centrally located stove could work. For a major kitchen remodel, you should consult a contractor and possible an interior designer. This is definitely not a do it yourself project.

4. Outside Deck: Average cost = $8,022. Average ROI = 55%

The deck is self-explanatory. The larger the deck, the higher the return on investment will be. The deck should obviously be coated with a nice looking finish that matches the outside of your home, and needs to be treated with a high quality water seal.

5. Hardwood Flooring: Average cost = Varies. Average ROI = Varies

The cost and return on hardwood flooring varies greatly based upon the total amount of rooms and surface area is remodeled. Also, the choice in the variety of hardwood will impact the value. Certain woods like Oak and Cherry are more valuable than others. Also, it is very important to properly maintain your hardwood floors. Flooring that is scraped, scratched, dull, or water stained can actually decrease the value of your home. If you have active children, you might want to stick to carpeting.

Maintaining Your Sanity

Finally, the last stages of maintaining your organization… and you thought this section would never come!

Maintaining the Laundry

I recommend doing laundry daily, depending on the size of your family. If you have at least 3 kids, do some every day. For example: baby laundry is handled differently than adult laundry. You shouldn’t use fabric softener for baby laundry, but it’s fine to use with adults’ clothes. So choose a day to do only baby laundry. Choose a different day to do adult laundry. Do your oldest child’s laundry on a given day (maintain that day on a weekly basis), your next child’s laundry the following day, etc. If you keep up on it, it won’t become a Mt. Vesuvius and overwhelm your home again.

If you find laundry tedious, sort and pre-treat while you’re watching TV, for example. It takes moment to pluck a piece of clothing out and check it for stains, squirt it with pre-treater, and then put it in the dirty basket, ready for the wash. Folding can be done the same way. Once it’s folded, I recommend putting it on the recipient’s bed (not in the basket). This way, it must be put away before retiring for the night and you won’t live from a laundry basket full of clean clothes.

If you have things that need ironing, do it when the laundry is clean and hang it up. Be done with the task and make sure that clean, ready-to-wear shirts or blouses are smiling at you when you walk in the closet in the morning.

This is easier said than done, I understand. But what I’ve discovered is that if you put your home on a schedule, things won’t overwhelm you. You’ll know that vacuuming will be done on one day and that laundry will be done on another. You’ll not resent walking in to the bathroom, because it will make you smile to see a shiny sink when you turn on the light. And you’ll know that YOU are special enough to have a clean bathroom, not just the company that comes to visit.

You’ll have peace of mind knowing that if a package comes to your door, you won’t kill yourself getting to it and won’t be ashamed to throw the door open for the UPS guy or mail carrier.

Most of all, you’ll have the appreciation of your family, and you’ll know that you’re setting up good habits for your children to observe and repeat in their own homes. No matter what the Mastercard ads say, THAT is priceless.

Bathroom Interior Design

Any advice or guide on the interior design of a bathroom should be based around one
simple concept: keep it simple. Rooms inside of a home should have functional aspects,
and if one room is designed for very specific functions, it is the bathroom. There have
always been many jokes about the "throne" of a home, but the honest fact is that creating
a visibly appealing and comfortable bathroom will inspire positive feelings to its users.


Hardware choices should be the primary concern when designing a bathroom. Faucets
and spigots, as well as tubs and toilets, produced in a variety of shapes and materials can
centerpiece a design. Open showers are currently popular with the younger upwardly-
mobile crowd, and claw-foot bathtubs are almost always considered to be classic and
attractive. Evaluate privacy issues first; don't put the toilet and tub too close together.


Is it a possibility to center your bathroom around a favorite theme? The answer is most
certainly "yes." Keeping in mind that "less is more" while choosing a decoration pattern
that will coordinate with the rest of the home will open many design possibilities.
Finding a color or pattern inspiration from simple or small artwork may be the first step
toward creating a bathroom masterpiece.


When designing a bathroom's tiling, take the time to shop around through different
hardware, decoration and craft stores. The more expensive of the different types of tiles
should have durability, aesthetic value, and a non-porous surface. It should be easily
cleaned and sanitized, and it needs to install easily without any expensive or caustic glues
or cements. Get creative also; all tile in bathrooms need not be made of porcelain.


After the design and production of a space-conscious and attractive bathroom have been
completed, focus on decoration accessories to bring out personality and individualism.
The bathroom is the most sacred room of any interior, and placing prized possessions on
the walls or shelves is an interesting way to bless this special room. Use courageous
ideas and do not be afraid to take chances, but above all: keep it simple.