Consumer E-Newsletter - 09/29/2006 (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
Buying in a Soft Housing Market
The Advantages Are With YOU: The Economics of a Buyer's Market
Lower Your Home Heating and Energy Costs in Time for Fall
Loving Your Leaves: Prepping Your Garden for Fall
Time to Tailgate in Your New Media Room
Want to Think Green? Download This Great Guide!
Bungalows: All the Rage
Quick Remodeling Tips to Open Up Your Kitchen
How Bright is Your Future?
Free, Award-Winning Educational Tool for Teachers
Did You Know?
Inside the Homeowner's Mind...Tell Us What You Think!
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Quick Remodeling Tips to Open Up Your Kitchen

The kitchen is more than just a place for eating. For the past decade, the kitchen has been a gathering place for family and friends to spend time together and retell the events of the day, as well as a center for activities and entertaining. A bright and open kitchen can make spending time there more enjoyable for all.

Large windows let in extra natural light, and save you energy during the day.
Read these tips from expert remodelors to open up your kitchen using natural light, then talk to your local Certified Graduate Remodelor about brightening your kitchen.

Donna Shirey, president of Shirey Contracting near Seattle, notes that skylights can be good over a daytime work area but “at night skylights become dark holes.” She says that windows should be unobstructed and on the side of the home most likely to get sunlight. She also says that well-planned electrical lighting is important.
“Natural light should save you energy during the day,” says Ben Thompson, president of Thompson Remodeling and Kitchens in Grand Rapids, Mich. According to Thompson, if you add skylights, they should be close to an adjacent wall so the wall is flooded with light when available.
Erik Anderson of Anderson Moore Builders in Winston-Salem, N.C. says that large bay windows let in plenty of natural light. Many of his clients are adding bay windows with seating areas under them.
“More overall glass space” will surely brighten your kitchen, according to Michael Strong of the Brothers Strong Building Company in Houston. Moving cabinets away from windows and increasing the size of windows will also help, says Strong.

To find your local Certified Graduate Remodelor, log onto www.nahb.org.