March 6, 2008

Not-so-extreme home makeover
How to turn your current abode into your dream house
By Hippo Staff news@hippopress.com

You might not be able to move.

Shaky economy, uncertain real estate climate, so-so job market. Maybe that brand new six-bedroom or that pricey restored loft is not in the picture right now. But that’s OK — there’s plenty you can do to make the place you currently rest your head more like your dream home. From retooling an unused room (is your “dining room” more of an empty room while most of your dining is done elsewhere?) to getting more out of a smaller-than-desired space, here are some ways to move closer to your housing ideal without having to move your stuff.

How to find money for the makeover
‘Your home is not a piggy bank’
By Alec O’Meara aomeara@hippopress.com

It might be an attractive idea to bolster one’s property value by taking out a loan and doing some remodeling, but choosing which room to fix up and how to best finance the work can be the difference between collecting big dividends and just creating more personal debt.

Rick Bouchard, president of Queen City Remodeling in Manchester, said business is decent right now, with several homeowners looking to make improvements, though he conceded that many are hanging on to their wallets in the current economy. If adding value to a home is the goal, a homeowner should be looking at remodeling versus building an addition, Bouchard said, as the initial investment is smaller. Before tackling a project, however, Bouchard advises all homeowners to know their budget, and know as much as possible about the make-up of their home’s construction, especially for older homes.

“You have to know your home and you have to know what you are looking to spend for the improvements,” he said. Nasty surprises like asbestos, lead paint or other toxic discoveries can send a project price into the stratosphere.

To finance such improvements, a line of credit can be attained on the back of a home’s equity. When the real estate market was hot, using equity to make improvements or even to consolidate credit card debt seemed a simple solution to financial hard times. However, the market has changed the viability of equity loans somewhat, said Jane Law, director of communications for the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority.

“In the current market, where we have stagnant home values, or even places where prices are dropping, it is important not to box yourself in by leaving yourself without equity in the event that you need to refinance,” Law said.

When taking out a loan for home improvement, there are a variety of options available, Law said. Borrowers can take out an equity loan that is essentially a second mortgage, which involves separate payments and can be paid off outside the standard mortgage. Lenders also offer the chance to take out a line of credit on the equity based on the mortgage itself, which can simply extend or increase existing payments. It is also possible to get a home improvement loan outside of home equity, but as the credit line will likely be based on equity anyway, the separation between the loan and the home may be little more than in name only.

While there are lenders willing to offer credit on 100 percent of the equity in a home, Law strongly recommends looking into a lender’ track record and attaining a loan that matches well with the current mortgage status and credit rating.

“Just be cautious when talking about home equity. Your home is not a piggy bank,” Law said.

Once the financing is secured, the homeowners must decide how best to use that money to add value to their property. The area with the greatest potential reward, but also the most likely opportunity for unexpected costs to crop up, is the kitchen, Bouchard said. A minor remodeling project, which would include an upgrade in cabinets, counters, sinks, faucets and flooring, might potentially offer the most bang for the buck. Bouchard estimates that such a project could potentially offer an 82 to 87 percent return on investment. However, the more work one attempts to do in the kitchen, the higher the cost can go. Replacing appliances, a costly endeavor by itself, might lead to the need to upgrade the electrical infrastructure, adding more to the bottom line, he said. Following the kitchen, the bathroom offers the next greatest risk/reward, as the small square footage offers a high density of possible improvements. Water-saving “dual force toilets” are a popular remodeling item, as are any appliances that help with energy conservation, he said.

Looking at an entire home, a simple project such as replacing windows can show big gains, both in energy savings and in added value, he said.

One opportunity to learn more about local contractors and remodelers is the upcoming New Hampshire Home Show, a three-day event hosted by the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of New Hampshire. More than 300 exhibitors will be at the Radisson Hotel at 700 Elm St. in Manchester from Friday, March 7, to Sunday, March 9, to showcase all aspects of home ownership, including remodeling. There will be an added emphasis on opportunities to save or conserve energy through “green” solutions. Tickets for the event cost $8 for person, with $5 tickets available for seniors.

Green decorating
Give your house an eco-friendly makeover
By Sarah LaPlante slaplante@hippopress.com

Green doesn’t have to equal expensive.

Using environmentally friendly materials in a home’s renovation doesn’t just give you the same conservation high as using energy-efficient light bulbs or reusable grocery bags. Many of these eco-friendly materials are also wallet-friendly or will prove longer-lasting than cheaper non-green alternatives. Here are a few ways to add some green to your house without spending a lot of green.

• Wall treatments: A good coat of paint can make a world of difference to a room. But many conventional paints used in homes have a lot of chemical additives. Try using water- or milk-based paints. These dry faster and they won’t have the same heavy metals and solvents other paints contain. Meredith Gonzales, owner of Your Home, Your World in Concord, carries the Safecoat brand of paints.

“Many paint products can include exempt VOCs [volatile organic compounds] ... The government only regulates VOCs that damage the ozone, not [those that damage] indoor air. Lots of companies use these exempt VOCs in their products,” Gonzales said.

If you’re feeling green all over and you want to give your walls an eclectic feel, try out the American Clay company. American Clay Earth Plasters come in three different finishes that can be applied for any wall texture you desire and they’re available in a variety of colors. Let the plaster dry out and re-hydrate it later for touch-ups.

“[Earth Plaster] really is something the average home owner can work with.... I put it in my hallway in my home and I never picked up a trowel in my life ... it was a lot of fun to work with. Because it’s clay it stays wet longer than gypsum plaster ... so you can continue working with it. One of the really wonderful things is you can save the waste and if you damage [your wall], you can patch it. With other plasters [damage remains on] your walls,” Gonzales said. American Clay might add as many as 8 LEED credits to your home. For full details on American Clay Earth Plasters, visit www.AmericanClay.com.

• Floors: Many a house-flipper’s first instinct is to tear up old carpets and lay down a brand-spanking new hardwood floor. But many hardwoods used in flooring aren’t harvested in a way Mother Nature would approve of. Cork flooring, however, is sometimes made from the recycled refuse of the wine bottling industry and is a more sustainable resource, as it is harvested from trees that continue to live. Cork tree bark is the material for all manner of cork products and the trees can be harvested every nine years. When you use cork, the tree the material came from is still alive and well, soaking up carbon dioxide. Cork floors are easy to install (they snap together) and they don’t require harsh adhesives, nails or a carpenter to get the job done. Cork flooring can account for as many as 6 credits per LEED category to your home.

Derek Dow of WE Cork, a cork flooring manufacturer in Exeter, explained that cork floors cost about as much as a traditional hardwood floor, but cork takes on different properties than hardwood.

“[Cork] is a wood floor, but it’s extremely durable ... [Cork] will indent like hardwood when there is heavy furniture placed on it, but it has a memory and will spring back, unlike hardwood floors,” Dow said. WE Cork makes two lines of cork flooring and recommends that the classic style, which requires adhesives, be left in the hands of a building professional. The “floating” option, however, is great for the handyman who knows his way around a set of tools.

“The glueless option can used in basements, but it’s not recommended for bathrooms ... mostly because you need to leave an expansion gap around the room’s perimeters, which leaves room for water to get in,” Dow said.

• Textiles: Curtains, carpets, upholstery — what’s a home owner to do? With so many items in the home requiring fabric (and textiles aren’t cheap) it’s easy to go to a big box store and pick out the cheapest window treatments and carpeting available. There’s a sustainable option for just about every textile product available on the market today, from organic hemp or cotton sheets and curtains to organic wool carpeting. The carpeting industry is seeing a steady rise in the amount of all-natural options available to consumers. Biohaus is a carpet company that weaves carpets out of natural, dye-less wools. At Your Home, Your World in Concord, Nature’s Carpet brand claims its carpets actually improve the home’s indoor air quality and Earth Weave’s brand products (available in area-rug sizes) are completely biodegradable.

• Windows: As far as your windows are concerned, there are Earth-friendly options available, but when searching for a window shade, consider a style much like what the folks at Earthshade offer. Their heavier shades and blinds are not only fashionable, they add an additional 4.5 R value to your windows. That means you lose less heat to the outdoors and save money on your energy bills. And they are made from natural fibers. If you ever have to dispose of them they’ll biodegrade. Bamboo blinds are another Earth-friendly option for window treatments and are easy to find at area big box stores

Make over your utility bills
Stay warm in winter, cool in summer — for less
By Heidi Masek hmasek@hippopress.com

There are lots of easy, cheap or free things you can do to lower your home energy costs. Some require behavior changes, like remembering to hit the light switch when you leave a room. If you live in an old, drafty house or have shoddy insulation, do your homework before you invest in major retrofits.

Things you can do now
• Lights: Shut them off when you leave a room.
• Fans: Shut off kitchen and bath exhaust fans when you are done.
• Windows: Pull the shades down. Air is a good insulator. Leave shades up on south-facing windows on sunny winter days to take advantage of solar heat gain.
• Fireplaces: Make sure the chimney damper is closed when there’s no fire; use a fireplace cover.
• Temperature: If you have an electronic thermostat, program it so the temperature is set lower while you are at work or asleep in the winter (higher in the summer if you have air conditioning). That can save you more than $100 per year according to EnergyStar.gov. On average you can save up to 3 percent on your energy bill for each degree you set back your thermostat (energystar.gov). With manual thermostats, make a habit of lowering the heat when you leave the house or go to bed. Make sure the thermostat is calibrated correctly. It shouldn’t be on an exterior wall or near another temperature source, like a computer. Wait as long as you can to get the furnace fired up in the fall. Try to shut it down early in the spring. Use air conditioning sparingly.
• Hang-dry your clothes: Don’t leave the dryer on longer than necessary when you use it. Wash laundry in cold water when you can.
• Air-dry your dishes: Some dishwashers have a setting for that. Otherwise, open it after the rinse and shut it off. Scrape plates rather than pre-rinsing. Wash full loads.
• Cover your pans: Things boil faster that way. Don’t waste fuel boiling more liquid than you need for tea, pasta, etc. Match pan and burner size. Microwaves or toaster ovens can be more efficient for small batches.
• Keep your fridge full: It doesn’t have to be full of food — just water jugs. Same for the freezer. Defrost when needed. Make sure air seals are tight. Keep the fridge between 27 and 40 degrees and freezer at 5 degrees.
• Use the key: Don’t use the automatic garage door opener, lazy.
• Phantom loads: Take chargers out of sockets when you don’t need them. Put things on power strips, like your home entertainment system, so you can shut the whole lot down. Don’t leave your computer running. Try to avoid leaving anything that constantly draws power plugged in.

Cheap or free fixes
• Lights: CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) are all the rage. Buy them for cheap through your utility company. Retail prices have gone down, too. They can last from 6,000 hours to 15,000 hours as opposed to incandescents’ 700 to 1,000 hours. They can use about 75 percent less energy than incandescents. Apparently, New Hampshire folks have saved $648 million on their electric bills since 2002 through such energy-saving products. See nhsaves.com for your utility’s lighting catalog.

Fluorescents can take a while to warm up to full brightness, and shutting them on and off quickly can reduce the lamp life.

CFLs contain mercury. Don’t throw them in the trash. Find out if your town will take them on hazardous waste collection days, or see www.des.state.nh.us or nhsaves.com. If a CFL breaks, vacate the room and open a window for 15 minutes to clear mercury vapors. Don’t vacuum. Use thick gloves and duct tape to pick up small pieces and double bag.
• Not CFLs: CFLs aren’t the best for cold weather. You might need another option for outdoor lighting (which is on motion sensors, of course). Solar-powered patio lights are popular — no electricity and no installation. LEDs are the latest and greatest. Predictions are that LEDs will eventually be used as main lighting sources. For now, use electricity-saving LED light strings for holidays or summer deck parties.

If you use CFLs in a bathroom or someplace where you use a mirror, look for a high color rendering index (CRI). Incandescents and daylight are at the top of the scale at 100. CFLs are more like 80.
• Windows: Replacing windows is expensive. A fast, cheap fix for the winter is that attractive window plastic wrap to trap insulating air. Thermal curtains are another option. If you have single-pane windows in good shape, adding storms can be a cheaper alternative to installing fancy new gas-filled, triple-paned windows. You can also look into air-sealing the windows with nonexpandable insulating foam.
• Heating: Change your furnace air filter monthly, or service your oil system annually. Look for high-efficiency models when you replace heating equipment.
• Hot water: Install a shower water saver. For about $5, screw this on before the shower head. Turn the knob to pause flow while shampooing, etc.

Wrap a water heater insulating blanket around the tank. (Check instructions.) Natural gas customers can install tankless on-demand water heaters.
• Landscape: Plant deciduous trees or bushes to the south. They shade the house in the summer. Bare of leaves in the winter, they allow sunlight to reach your home. For large properties, consider planting evergreens to the northwest to block winter winds.
• Participate: In a carbon or energy challenge to find more tips. See carbonchallenge.sr.unh.edu or find out if your town has an energy committee.
• Cover holes: Find ways to cover whole-house fans open to attics or attic hatches in the winter to prevent heat loss. Take a walk around your house to find other air leaks, like unsealed ducts or electrical sockets. Look at your roof. If snow is gone in some places, you have an air leak or a gap in insulation. (Often this is around chimneys or over recessed lighting.) If there’s no snow on your roof, you are probably paying to heat the outdoors.

Your building envelope
Insulating and air- and vapor-sealing homes is an evolving building science. Luckily, utility companies offer efficiency programs to their customers. Residents with electric heat can take advantage of home energy analysis through their utility and get cash rebates toward recommended efficiency upgrades. There’s even a program to help homeowners with electric heat convert to geothermal. Low-income families can get weatherization assistance from county community action agencies. Those, along with qualified energy raters and contractors, are listed at www.repa-nh.org/consumerguide.php.

An energy auditor will do a “blower door test” to find air leaks in the home.

You don’t want to make the home too tight, though. The current American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standard is .35 air changes per hour before mechanical ventilation should be introduced. However, you might want something higher for homes with several occupants, according to Chris Johnson of NH Electric Co-op.

Another reason to be careful about how you seal and insulate is to prevent moisture issues that could damage your property and cause health problems.

Heat flows to cold, so use common sense to find ways to make your house resistant to heat flow. Avoid fiberglass insulation. Johnson said he’s never seen it installed perfectly. Better options include rigid foam, spray foam and affordable (and mainly recycled content) dense-packed, blown-in cellulose. In basements, rigid foam on walls makes more sense than trying to insulate the first floor around pipes and wiring, Johnson said.

Home rating systems like EnergyStar help you find out how your house performs. Loads of diagrams and tools to learn about making your home more energy-efficient are at energystar.gov.

If you are doing major work, do some math. Find out what upgrades will get you the biggest savings for the least cost, and start there. Figure out how long it will take for those savings to cancel out your investment.

“You can pay for the insulation now or pay for the energy forever,” Johnson said.

Note: The above list was gathered from sources like EnergyStar, New Hampshire utility companies, U.S. Dept. of Energy (www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/), energy workshops and classes I attend at Lakes Region Community College’s new Energy Services and Technology Program.

Naked walls
How to find art for your home
By Heidi Masek hmasek@hippopress.com

Your walls are painfully blank. What to do?

What you don’t have to do is settle for mass-produced commercial prints at a home goods store. You can end up with something far more interesting if you check out a few galleries or art shows.

“I’m always asked, ‘How much does it cost to get in?’ It’s crazy,” said Londonderry oil painter Elaine Farmer. Galleries are stores, not museums; there’s no admission cost. Staff members are there to help patrons and artists. You can wander around, ask questions. At art fairs, you can chat with and buy directly from artists.

Farmer recommends asking artists about media, techniques, inspirations, whether a landscape was done en plein air (outdoors) or in a studio.

“I think we’re pretty friendly,” Farmer said. Gallery staff will even keep an eye out for work once you know what you are looking for, Farmer said.

How do you know what to look for? Farmer recently offered a free lecture on how to buy art at East Colony Fine Arts, the Manchester artist-run gallery she’s a member of. She started out with a questionnaire to get people think about what they like, with questions about favorite subject matter and what a person is drawn to.

“Is it something that you would like to have in your environment and want to live with?” John O’Shaughnessy said to ask yourself about an artwork. The Northfield artist creates landscapes and abstracts represented at Art 3, and teaches at the Currier Art Center.

There aren’t too many absolute rules, these days, say most artists, but here are a few suggestions for decorating your home with art.

Some how-tos
• Matching furniture: “I don’t believe myself that you should go out looking for paintings that match the couch,” Farmer said. Some folks go looking for color-specific work: “It’s an unfortunate thing,” Farmer said. How you feel about a painting is more important, gallery owners and artists say. On the other hand, it can get difficult to find work to place near floral or patterned upholstery. Farmer might use a quiet contemporary piece in those situations. O’Shaughnessy feels that if you are going for a specific period with your décor, “it can be somewhat off-putting to try to mix periods.” Traditional looking-paintings, like realistic landscapes, suit traditional furnishings. But you can use contemporary artwork in juxtaposition or to reflect a consistent element in the room, such as muted tones or simple lines, he said. If you fall for a work that just won’t fit in the space intended, find another room to display it.
• Type: If you have mostly traditional artwork in your house and find an expressionist piece you love, Farmer recommends finding a separate place to highlight it, such as the end of a hallway. Farmer has seen still lifes of food typically in kitchens, florals in bedrooms and landscapes in living rooms, but that’s a preference thing. People might not even realize they are doing it, she said.
• Family photos: If you want to put them on the same wall as art, try separating them with something vertical like a floor lamp, Farmer said. O’Shaughnessy suggests putting personal pictures in a more eclectic environment and use a central or isolated wall for art.
• Grouping: Use symmetrical grouping for even numbers of pictures. Arrange four in a square or line, for example. Arrange odd amounts asymmetrically, and anchor with large pieces.
• Framing and matting: Unify groupings through uniform mattes or frames or be eclectic through different frame choices. East Colony’s Mary Walker recommends letting the artwork dictate the framing rather than the décor. Watercolors and pastels need to be matted and covered in glass to protect them, whereas oils or acrylics don’t — so try to avoid grouping different media (glass and matte can just look odd next to textured paint).
• Small and large: If you try to put something small on a large empty wall, find other objects like sconces or group small works, Farmer said. Use small, intimate work on walls people will be close to, such as a nook with a bookshelf, chair and lamp, print collector Parker Potter said. If you’ll never be more than five feet from a picture in a narrow hall, hang things that are comfortable to view from five feet, not 15. Hang statement pieces meant to be seen from a distance at focal points, like above a mantel.
• Lighting: Don’t put art in direct sunlight, which can damage the pigment, Farmer said. You’ll be able to tell if something is well lit enough. If you want, you can have gallery lights installed over or under a painting, or use a simpler version that screws onto the back of a frame. The cord hangs behind the painting. A lamp underneath can work, she said. If glass glare irks you, you can change it for a new museum-quality low-glare variety.

Money matters
“It’s hard to find that perfect painting that calls you that you’re willing to spend a fair amount of money on,” Farmer said. “So much of it [preference for cheap commercial prints] is the disposable world we live in. If we don’t spend lot of money on it, we can throw it in the trash later on,” Farmer said. “The mentality I’d like to get out there is to really connect with a piece of art and enjoy it for life,” she said.

Beware of “schlock art,” Farmer said. The paintings are labeled original but are made by assembly line.

Real original paintings can range from a few hundred to few thousand dollars. Original handmade prints are another story, however.

Potter’s favorite is a small linoleum block print he found years ago for $10. He and his wife have since collected several hundred prints (it’s more academic now than for show).

“I can’t emphasize that too much, that for really pretty short money you can find original pieces of art that are just great pictures,” Potter said about prints. Most cost less than $100, he said.

Potter annually arranges an exhibit of New Hampshire printmakers at the Franklin Pierce Law Center.

“There’s a lot of confusion surrounding the whole idea of what a print is or isn’t,” he said. “Print” covers both original handmade prints — made from a wide variety of techniques such as etching, wood block and lithography — and reproductions, which are basically photocopied artwork. There are high-quality reproduction techniques if that’s the way you want to go but an artist might still charge you a few hundred dollars.

Potter would rather not buy $20 worth of copy with $180 worth of frame: “I’d rather spend money on the piece of paper and be very, very simple about framing,” he said.

He recommends going to places like League of New Hampshire Craftsmen retail galleries for handmade prints.

“Simply concentrate on what you really like, knowing quality vouched for by juried process,” Potter said. Good galleries offer that, too, he said referencing as an example “Mary McGowan’s excellent eye and 25 years in the art field.” McGowan Fine Art is in Concord.

After you find out what kind of print technique you like (and there are lots, and subjects can range from realism to abstract), spend time focusing on those. Galleries and artists are accessible, Potter said. “One of the biggest pleasures,” in collecting for him and his wife is that they can walk around their house and know personally who made each print. They’ve been to the artist’s studio, even.

Potter does “art counseling” when asked. He’ll come up with a general theme and bring work by four or five printmakers to see what the person likes. Galleries often allow patrons to bring artwork home to see how it looks.

Ways to fill a room with prints include finding different printmakers working on similar themes, or focusing on a particular artist whose approach you like, Potter said. Sometimes he’ll group prints based on a color theme, rather than artist or subject matter. Sometimes it’s by titles. The Law Center show has a print called “Evolution” hung with one called “Intelligent Design” (the title is normally written on the print itself), which “started a conversation between two prints.”

Places to look
• “Prints of the Year 2008” exhibits almost 100 new prints by 50 New Hampshire printmakers at the Franklin Pierce Law Center, 2 White St. in Concord, through March 28. If you find work you like, contact the artist to see more.
• Elaine Farmer recommends Miller’s: Buying Affordable Art, by Hugh St. Clair (Mitchell Beazley, 2005), which covers all media, including photographs and posters.
• Community calendars often list new gallery shows or art fairs. See Hippo’s arts section for ideas.

Art for your ears
Decorating for the TV and stereo
By Brian Early bearly@hippopress.com

Installing a home theater can greatly improve your movie or television experience and make you feel like you’re in the movie. There are almost endless possibilities for how to build a home theater, ones that can cost lots of money, not a lot of money, and anywhere in between.

Ben Fiske is the sales manager at Tweeter, which specializes in home audio entertainment. He says it’s important to think about your needs before venturing to buy a system.

First, how much do you watch movies or television and how much do you listen to music? The more time is spent watching or listening, the more the watchers and listeners should think about the quality of the equipment they are using.

In a home system, he said, 60 percent of the budget should be devoted to audio.

“All the emotion, all the excitement ... that all comes from the sound,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you spend $10,000 on a television. If you don’t have the sound, it doesn’t feel as good.”

Likewise, if you spent $50 on a DVD player, it’s not worth investing thousands in an audio system, because the low quality of the DVD player is not going to be made better with a high-end audio system, he said.

While there is no set cost for an entertainment system, he said the average package for local home owners costs about $8,000, including installation.

But there are cheaper options as well. Michael Whitney, who works for Capital Productions and helps set up shows at the Palace Theatre and the Verizon Wireless Arena, said even the $40 home theater system at Wal-Mart gives decent sound for a low cost.

The important thing, he said, is the spacing of the speakers.

“When the sound gets too close together, the sound bounces into itself, and that creates distortion,” Whitney said. Most homes, he said, are not built for home entertainment systems. The walls don’t come with foam to cushion the sound. Flat walls without foam will bounce the sound around more. Buying foam that recording studios use can be prohibitive.

But whatever system you buy, Fiske at Tweeter said, it’s important to do research first.

“You research a car before you buy it,” he said. The same thing goes with audio systems.

Pump up the Web volume
How to make your Wi-Fi signal stronger
By Brian Early bearly@hippopress.com

Wireless routers can make Internet deployment much easier (and less cluttered) than running Ethernet cables down halls.

Setup usually isn’t too difficult, and within a few minutes you can be ready to take the laptop anywhere in the house. But many times the signal won’t reach everywhere, though there are ways to improve the signal.

Wireless routers broadcast a signal that’s received by wireless cards installed in a computer or gaming device. The current router standard is 802.11 g, but a new protocol, 802.11 n, is slowly coming onto the market. The n protocol will be less affected by signal scattering (that’s what it’s called when a radio signal bounces around and a receiver has a hard time deciphering it). And the new protocol will bounce around walls. The g standard sends a signal more in a straight line, and the signal is diminished as it passes through objects.

But there are ways to improve the signal of the g protocol router. One is buying a new antenna to attach to the router. Most antennas are 2 dBi; you can buy an antenna that is 7 dBi — roughly, the higher the dBi, the more power the antenna has. Also, users can unscrew the antenna and extend it up higher off the floor, which, if it’s on the ground floor, will mean the signal has an easier time passing to the second floor of a home.

Another easy trick is to adjust the antennas. Most of the 802.11 g routers have two antennas that broadcast omni-directionally, which is not exactly a circle. If you make one antenna stick up and the other one sit horizontally, a better signal area is created. The 802.11 Draft n routers have three antennas, so mix and match their positions for the best effects.

You also can use the repeaters to improve the signal. The easiest way to figure out where to install a repeater is to take a laptop and move away from the router until the signal becomes weak.

While the new 802.11 Draft n is compatible with the 802.11 g wireless cards on computers, using even one 802.11 g on a network will make the entire network 802.11 g, negating the benefits of the newer protocol. The new routers can be programmed only to receive the new n protocol.

Cellars and spas
How to add a little luxury to your home
By Susan Ware letters@hippopress.com
 

Want to bring some luxury inside your four walls?

High-end additions, like a wine cellar, home theater room or Jacuzzi, will add to your quality of life, though not necessarily to the asking price if you decide to sell.

Sexy luxury additions are about the homeowner and what makes him or her happy. Oenophiles pine for a wine cellar with neat, labeled bins in a climate-controlled space. Maybe movies are your thing and you swoon at the thought of a 150-inch screen with surround sound and oversized comfy seating for optimal viewing. Like most anything, luxury items typically have a wide cost range, and depending on how much pre-installment work needs to be done in terms of electrical and structural fittings, getting that Jacuzzi or cigar humidor in your home could be a snap.

Home spas
In southern New Hampshire, Nathaniel Cobb, sales manager at Oasis Hot Tub & Spa in Nashua (www.hotspas.com) said his store is selling more home spa products than ever, in all price ranges.

“People realize that one way to feel better and younger is with a home spa, which you are more likely to use … because it is easily accessible. And now it truly is easier than ever to put a spa in your home,” Cobb said.

Jacuzzi, saunas and hot tubs can have an instant impact on your well-being, for short money.

According to Cobb, folks typically start out thinking they need to put the Jacuzzi or hot tub inside their home — he felt the same way when he started out, but says that one of the best parts of the experience is being outdoors.

“Our winters are long and brutal, and there are times when we can’t get outside as much as we want, and it wears on you mentally. Sitting in 102-degree water looking up at the night sky is therapeutic for the body and soul,” Cobb said.

Oasis Hot Tub & Spa believes so strongly that the tubs should be outdoors that they offer customers a guarantee: if you put one of their tubs outside and within a year decide that you want it moved indoors, they will move it at no cost.

Before you decide to buy, a contractor can come to your home to assess your deck — it will need to support 4,000 to 6,000 pounds — or locate a suitable spot in your yard. If your yard is better suited for your home spa, as long as you have a level spot, you can use a portable spa pad to support your hot tub, with no need for concrete or brick work.

If the thought of scampering through the snow to fire up your hot tub turns you off, there are several brands that offer remote controls so that you can heat them up from inside the house. Hot tubs and Jacuzzis range from $3,000 to $12,000.

For those preferring dry heat, home saunas range from $2,000 to $10,000. Typically placed solo in a basement or as part of a workout room, they require a minimum of a four-foot by four-foot space.

“The benefit of a sauna is that it increases your heart rate, so it is good before a workout to warm up because it mimics a light aerobic workout, it improves healing and it burns 200 to 300 calories in 10 to 15 minutes,” Cobb said.

Oasis Hot Tub & Spa sells saunas made by Finnleo, an industry leader. Most home saunas require an electrician to hard-wire them and need to be professionally assembled, which the distributor can arrange. As with hot tubs, a pre-sale site evaluation is highly recommended to ensure you get the right sauna for your space and your needs.

Home theater
For a movie buff, it is likely that the ultimate luxury would be a home theater.

According to Bill Henk, a sales consultant at Fidelis High End Audio & Home Theatre in Derry (www.fidelisav.com), almost any space can be adapted to provide a high-quality viewing experience.

“People are looking at their basements and the big rooms over their garages differently, especially when their children grow up and they don’t need that toy room anymore,” Henk said.

The ideal space for a home theater would be one without natural light — like the basement. With proper treatment, the trendy great room over the two-car garage can adapt nicely.

When someone comes to Fidelis to discuss home theater, Henk says, the experts try to get a clear picture of what is important to the customer, what they expect the result to be and what their budget is.

Buying equipment to outfit your home theater can drain your budget, leaving nothing for flooring, furniture and acoustical improvements if needed.

Ideally, a home theater will begin with an empty room and build from there. A good distributor will want to make a site visit before you buy to identify any challenges, such as reflections, vibration or extensive outside noise.

The one mistake most novice home theater consumers, Henk said, is going for all visual and forgetting to pay attention to the sound quality.

“For an optimal viewing experience, the two really work hand in hand. We strongly encourage people to look at the whole thing when putting together a home theater,” Henk said.

And what will that television set you back? It depends. The trend is flat panel; the type — LCD, plasma or DLP — is personal, and the cost ranges anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000.

If you have the space, Henk advises, consider a projector and individual screen. A projector will range from $1,500 to $20,000, and the screen will cost another $1,000, but it will provide a viewing area between 90 inches and 150 inches.

In terms of outfitting the room, people do everything from creating rows of comfortable over-stuffed chairs with tables in between to making it a multi-use room by adding couches and a pool table off to one corner. 

Wine Cellars
A wine cellar is not just for multi-million-dollar homes. Regardless of your space, you can have a climate- controlled cellar in as little space as a spare closet.

Vigilant, Inc., a Dover-based manufacturer of wine cellars (www.vigilantinc.com), offers a solution for seemingly every situation, whether you are a casual wine drinker who buys in bulk and needs space to properly store a couple hundred bottles at a time or a collector who needs a cellar for both long-term storage and regular consumption.

In your average home, Ben Adams, a representative from Vigilant, Inc., says, a cellar can go anywhere — in the space under the basement stairs, a spare closet, a spare room or a boxed-off section of the basement.

Sounds simple, but the caveat is that if your new wine cellar is anywhere but in the basement, you need to climate-control it. In New Hampshire, we are fortunate not to have to deal with long periods of an arid climate, making a generally good situation for cellaring wine; it is easy to add or remove humidity for short periods of time.

“The basement is the only place, only in New Hampshire, maybe, that I would put a wine cellar without a cooling system,” Adams said.

Once you’ve determined that you want, no, need, a wine cellar in your home, and have identified the average quantity you wish to cellar, there are several routes you can take. If you are handy and are working with a small space, like under the basement stairs, a cellar kit from Vigilant, Inc., might be just the solution. Kits start at $2,000 for a racking system that will shelve between 200 and 500 bottles, depending on the wood finish.

If your basement temperature is stable, you might be able to forgo the cooling system; if not, expect to add $1,400 to $4,000 to the cost. Cooling systems are designed to cool a certain size room, meaning the bigger the room, the bigger the unit and the price.

If you want to leave your wine cellar to the pros, you can still purchase a kit, and Vigilant, Inc., will connect you with a trained installer.

Bigger wine cellars — defined as being suitable for 1,000 bottles or more — can either be built from kits or be customized, often to include a tasting area or more ornate woodworking features.

Wherever you choose to cellar your wine, if cooling is involved, it is best to get expert advice. One common mistake people make, Adams said, is overlooking the importance of the door on their wine cellar. Vigilant recommends an exterior-grade door, rated to R value over 19 (an insulation standard).

“Typically the door someone may pick up at a home improvement warehouse will not be suitable for the wine cellar; it will greatly interfere with the climate-control efforts,” Adams said.

Reclaim the dining room
Empty table? Try a music room
By Susan Ware letters@hippopress.com

The formal dining room has been following the path of the living room many of us grew up with: these for-company-only rooms are no more.

If you still have a formal dining room, it’s likely you use it a few times a year, and one of those times is probably to wrap holiday gifts.

Halifax Home Insurance, a major British insurer, recently conducted a survey and estimates that in the past five years, 3,000,000 dining rooms in Britain have disappeared. The company estimated that by 2020 the dining room will be nearly obsolete in the U.K.

The dining room presents a particular design problem, whether here or abroad. Often centrally located off the kitchen, it likely has two doorways and no closet, so it really cannot become a bedroom.

A home office? Maybe, if you don’t mind working right in the middle of the house. If you are afraid to give up your dining room altogether but you want to utilize the space, consider adding a computer armoire. This multifaceted piece of furniture will give you a home office that tucks out of sight for entertaining.

Christian Boyer, a Manchester-based interior designer (37 Apple Hill Ct., 622-0020, www.boyerinteriordesign.com), has recently converted several formal, unused, two-door dining rooms into something useful.

In one instance, the family wanted to purchase a baby grand piano. They shifted their dining room to a music room with Boyer’s help, widening the doorways to show off the piano, adding decorative panels to the walls, eliminating the chandelier and adding pretty stuffed chairs. The new music room became the centerpiece of the home where people would gather when the couple entertained. Boyer suggested the piano be wired into a whole-house sound system for optimal acoustics.

In another project, the couple had an unused dining room and asked Boyer to create a sitting room.

“When I pointed out that they already had a family room and living room on the same floor and that the space could have a higher use, they were all ears,” Boyer said.

He devised a room that seems to do everything. The washer and dryer were brought up from the basement and installed under countertops. He added countertops and cabinet storage around the perimeter of the walls, a computer station, television and craft center with a sink. The floor was done in vinyl because teenagers in the house drop muddy sports equipment there and he was afraid tile would always look dirty.

When the couple entertains, the crafts, washer and dryer all go behind closed doors and the space converts easily to a bar area with space to spread out appetizers, all centrally located in the home.

“The family was thrilled. Absolutely thrilled. They tell me it is their favorite room,” Boyer said.

Megan Whitehouse, owner of Whitehouse Designs in Manchester (150 Dow St., 644-8484, www.whitehouseinteriordesign.com), finds that clients are asking her to make their formal dining rooms more livable and less fussy.

“I don’t like to see huge amounts of unused space. I want to see people enjoy their home fully to justify the high property taxes we all pay,” Whitehouse said.

Recently Whitehouse took a dining room and made it more casual. She took the standard doorway and expanded it to five feet wide. She replaced the formal rug with something bold and tribal, which complemented a new rug in the adjoining kitchen, making it feel like one big space.

A big fan of built-ins, Whitehouse removed an awkward pantry and added built-in shelves to give the space a lived-in, library feel.

“If you keep a dining room, it should be a place you really use, even if that means that once a week you stretch out the Sunday paper in there, as long as you really enjoy it,” Whitehouse said.

A space thisbig
How to fit more in less
By Susan Ware letters@hippopress.com

Megan Whitehouse really believes that smaller, simpler homes better meet our needs than do overblown homes built only to impress. As homes get bigger and bigger, good design is often lost and comfort is not achieved. Whitehouse says we should tailor the home we have to the way we really live and fill it with things we love, rather than constantly seeking more space.

Whitehouse owns Whitehouse Designs in Manchester (150 Dow St., 644-8484, www.whitehouseinteriordesign.com). Locally she has tackled several small-space projects over the years. (A recent Manchester project is slated to be on the cover of Country Home magazine in April.)

For Whitehouse, the best way to make a small space attractive and comfortable is through millwork and lighting. Millwork is defined as the addition of wainscoting, built-in shelves — anything with wood — which instantly makes a small space better, she said.

A good lighting plan is probably the last thing most homes have, unless the owners have worked with an interior designer, but it can make a huge difference.

“I believe in the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of your budget should be spent on stuff that you will never replace, [like] millwork and lighting, and 20 percent on stuff that you buy and maybe throw out in a few years, like pillows, drapes, etc.,” Whitehouse said.

Improving your current space doesn’t mean that you have to add square footage. Whitehouse thinks people don’t fully utilize their homes, and she says that if you figure out why, and correct it, they will fall in love with their homes again.

“I have a client who said that she never used her kitchen because it was too cold. I had a heating guy come in and take a look, and for a small amount of money he repaired the simple problem and her kitchen was cozy. She fell in love with it for the first time,” Whitehouse said.

For another client, Whitehouse gave a home a complete facelift. The client had bought the small house right out of law school 20 years earlier and hadn’t really made any improvements. Fresh paint, a lighting plan and lots of millwork made the space a home, said Whitehouse.

Used carelessly, built-ins could mean clutter — piles of unopened mail, newspapers, toys, whatever, all could spell disaster for a small space. It doesn’t have to bee that way, Whitehouse says. Once a built-in is constructed, she works with the client to fill it. If the homeowner draws a blank, Whitehouse will be walking through rooms, including basement and attic, looking for things that represent the people who live there.

Christian Boyer, owner of Boyer Interior Design in Manchester (37 Apple Hill Ct., 622-0020, www.boyerinteriordesign.com), says the best way to tackle a small space is to fully assess the way it is used.

Boyer has a long-time client who lives in a smallish Bedford home. The family loves the home and neighborhood and has not been tempted to upgrade, but instead works with what they have. Over the years Boyer has decorated the entire house, including a bedroom for two boys. Originally he had two of everything: twin beds, two night stands and bureaus, all proportionate.

Last year the boys, now preteens, decided that they wanted full-size beds. When space is a premium, this is a problem. Boyer had to eliminate the “two of everything” rule and bring in the bigger beds. The boys also wanted privacy, another issue when two preteens share a bedroom. To solve that problem, Boyer separated the two full-size beds — which had drawers underneath — with a partition. He assembled a partition wall, flush against the bedroom wall on one end, and a staircase on the other, between the beds. It was made of cubes, like solid wooden milk crates. The openings were alternated between each side so that each boy would have the same amount of storage, eliminating the need for nightstands.

For a small space to be successful, every single thing should have a purpose — or even be multifunctional, like Boyer’s partition wall that doubled as storage. Clutter needs to be kept down. Built-ins enable homeowners to utilize unused space and display things near and dear to them without cluttering tabletops.

What about color? For a long time the rule of thumb with a small space has been to go very light. Remember: no matter what color you paint your walls, the square footage isn’t going to change. The best rule of thumb when it comes to color is this: cool hues (green and blue) make walls recede; warm hues (yellow, brown and red) draw the walls in.

Bring the garden inside
The beginner’s guide to houseplants
By Susan Ware letters@hippopress.com

They bring the outside in, brighten up your space and improve air quality.

If you think you have bad luck with houseplants, that yours will wither away while others flourish, choose the right plants for the amount of time and care you are willing to invest and the type of natural light your home has. Beginners are best off seeking the advice of someone who knows plants.

Kristy Youmell is the greenhouse manager at Bedford Fields Garden Center in Bedford (331 Route 101, 472-8880, www.bedfordfields.com) and she is often guiding novices toward the right plants and the best ways to care for them.

“The number one mistake that people make is over-watering their plants. It is best to get your finger right into the dirt. If the top layer is dry, it is likely that the soil just below that is wet. If that is the case, best to hold off watering for a day or two,” Youmell said.

The second most common mistake people make? Humidity. Most houseplants die in the winter when humidity is low. Youmell strongly suggests using pebble trays, available at any garden center, to create humidity for your plants. A pebble tray is a tray filled with small pebbles on which you place the potted plant. Fill the tray with water to just cover the pebbles. An added bonus: when you water your plant, the pebble tray will collect runoff.

The third mistake? Not keeping houseplants clean.

“Dust on leaves rapidly deteriorates the health of your plants and encourages insects. It is easy keeping your plants clean; just wipe the leaves with a damp cloth,” Youmell said.

As winter winds down, people with spring fever are heading to nurseries to pick up flowering houseplants. They are beautiful and fragrant, but they are often annuals, meaning they have short lives, and can be tough for a novice plant owner to care for.

Is you are looking to introduce plants into your home, Youmell suggests Spider Plant, Boston Fern and Peace Lily. All three are top air-purifiers.

Spider Plant has long variegated leaves and is typically displayed on a plant stand, on top of a bookcase or in a hanging basket. It is extremely easy to propagate by removing plantlets, or baby spiders, and rooting them in water. It’s highly tolerant of neglect and amenable to most conditions.

Boston Fern is frilly and has long fronds; this is one of the most popular ferns. It has a reputation for being fussy; it can prefer humid conditions, but if you set it upon a pebble tray, in indirect sunlight, you should have good luck.

Peace Lily is often used in retail store displays or offices because it can thrive in low, artificial light. This plant has broad, waxy leaves and bold white flowers. It does well kept moist. The plant will slump if you forget to water, then spring back to life once hydrated.

If you have small children or pets at home, steer clear of the many poisonous plants out there; garden center staff can advise you. Risky houseplants include poinsettia, hydrangea, azalea, amaryllis, aloe vera and philodendron..