Renovation & Design
Renovation & Design
Beware of over insulating attics in older homes
111There are several existing vents near the peak of the roof but they are usually covered with snow. I want to add more insulation but I have to solve the ventilation issue.Thank you for any information you may be able to provide.
--Tina, e-mail
ANSWER -- The condensed answer to your question is that you should be able to install air chutes from inside your attic before upgrading your insulation. The only concern is that they will not serve to add increased ventilation to your attic, but may prevent another potential problem.
In homes of your design, with brick exterior walls and no soffits, adding additional ventilation to the attic from the eaves may be nearly impossible. While the addition of vents to allow cold air infiltration from this area is highly desirable before upgrading attic insulation, it is not critical. What is very important, however, is to avoid over insulating the attic at the perimeter, near the eaves. Yes, I did say over insulating. While this may seem contrary to much of the current information available to homeowners, it is a potential problem which I will further explain.
Most older homes, especially those built in the early part of the last century like yours, have very little room between the top of the ceilings and the underside of the roof sheathing at the ends of the attic. This area is often called the hip, and is quite small due to the older practice of notching rafters where they join with the top of the exterior walls of the home. The ceiling joists and rafters are often constructed of two by fours, which limits this space even more. This area was not given much consideration when your home was built, because insulating attics was not a high priority back then.
Current homes with manufactured trusses have enlarged hips, allowing for installation of large amounts of insulation in this area. Because of the small space at the perimeter of your attic, there is minimal room for insulation between the ceiling and the roof, certainly not enough to accommodate conventional insulation up to current standards of R40 to R50. For this reason, it is quite easy to fill this entire area with insulation, especially when loose fill insulation is blown in.
When this area is filled to capacity with conventional fibreglass insulation, or other highly breathable types of insulation, warm air intrusion from the home is very likely through the ceiling or exterior walls. If this insulation is touching the roof sheathing there will be little or no way for this warm air to escape into the main part of the attic. In that case, condensation will be a certainty, often causing moisture related problems in the attic or home. In the worst cases this condensed air will turn to heavy frost in the winter and may melt and run back in through the ceiling or walls during the spring thaw. Also, this insulation may trap enough warm air to prevent excess condensation but will alternatively melt the snow on this part of the roof causing ice dams and rapid deterioration of roofing.
Either way, over insulation of attics at the eaves is one of the most common defects I seen in homes. I probably have taken four or five hundred digital pictures of attics with this problem, during the course of normal inspections. The interesting thing is that the problems can normally be prevented, quite easily, before adding insulation. The solution in your home is to install a baffle between the rafters in this area to prevent the insulation from touching the roof sheathing. While these components are often called air chutes they can also serve a dual purpose as insulation stops, in situations like yours.
Insulation stops are normally available constructed of either foam or coated cardboard and can be installed, and secured with a staple gun or large-headed nails, between the rafters at the perimeter of the attic. They are designed to leave approximately three to five centimetres of open air space between their tops and the underside of the roof sheathing. This opening may be sufficient to prevent excess frost from developing on the underside of the roof, but will certainly help maintain a cooler roof deck, preventing shingle damage. If there are any small openings between your rafters and the exterior brick walls some beneficial air infiltration may also occur, further improving the situation.
Unfortunately there is one drawback of installing the air chute/insulation stops in the manner I recommended and that is minimal insulation in this area compared to the rest of the attic. While this may prevent ideal levels of attic insulation, it is unavoidable with conventional insulation. However, this will certainly be preferable to damaged roof sheathing, shingles and possible leakage. Fortunately, there is one upgrade that will improve this dramatically, but may somewhat more costly.
After the insulation stops are installed, and old wood shavings or poor quality insulation removed from between the ceiling joists at the attic perimeter, a higher quality product may be added to this area. Blown-in polyurethane foam insulation can be installed to provide a more complete air seal and higher insulation value. A few centimetres of this material may be enough to stop most air infiltration through the ceiling, while adding a reasonable level of insulation compared to the much thicker material in the rest of the attic. This will be the best of both worlds, eliminating the moisture problems while adding maximum insulation value even in areas where there is not enough height for regular insulation.
Ari Marantz is the owner of Trained Eye Home Inspection Ltd. and the President of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors - Manitoba (www.cahpi.mb.ca). Questions can be e-mailed or sent to: Ask The Inspector, P. O. Box 69021, #110-2025 Corydon Ave., Winnipeg, MB. R3P 2G9. Ari can be reached at (204) 291-5358 or check out his website at www.trainedeye.ca.
trainedeye@iname.com
Renovation & Design
A good centrepiece is key to a great table
You've worked all day for your dinner party. The table is set, the wine glasses polished, Molly Johnson drifts invitingly from the CD player. And yet it feels as if something is missing.Maybe, you think longingly, just maybe one of the guests will bring flowers so you won't have to pull the emergency candles out of the utility closet and stuff them into those candlesticks you purchased, inexplicably, at the church garage sale.
Too often, a centrepiece is the last thing hosts think about, which is a shame, because it is the first thing guests notice when they enter the dining area. With the purchase of a couple of staple items that can be reused over and over again, an inviting centrepiece is both easy to create, and a pleasurable part of dinner preparation.
Wendy Turner, co-owner of Artworks in Edmonton's City Centre East mall, says home entertainers don't need a big budget or a china cabinet full of crystal to create a stylish heart for the dinner table. The centrepiece she designed for the Edmonton Journal is simplicity itself -- three glass vessels filled with river rock, moss and orchids -- and could be put together in a short amount of time, and for little money.
A variety of inexpensive glassware and jars of polished stones ($3.99 at any Superstore) line the shelves at any big box grocery store worth its giant asphalt moat. A single stem of cymbidium orchids would yield enough blooms to fill several small containers. Depending on where you buy your flowers and glassware, a trio like Turner's could be put together for less than $50.
Turner says home hosts with a centrepiece fantasy should start by thinking about the tone of the evening.
"Is it elegant? Is it a casual get get-together? Or a few friends making their own pizzas?" she says.
A sophisticated evening might be reflected in a flower arrangement that leans towards soft greens, or neutral tones. A night that focuses on fun may demand a bold pop of colour, or benefit from a casual arrangement of flowering branches such as coffee berries, with their inviting red, orange and brown fruit.
Turner challenges decorators to get away from the concept of vases, and just think about "vessels" -- which can be anything from a teacup to a pop bottle. At her dinner parties, Turner likes to put "a lot" of small vessels on the table (as many as a dozen depending on the size of the table and the scale of the vessels). Each one may hold a different flower. She favours ranunculus (which looks like a tiny rose, but is actually a bulb) as well as freesia, miniature hydrangeas and tulips.
Another idea is to place blown glass flower floaters topped with, say, gerbera daisies, in a bowl of water. Then let them bob happily while the guests gab.
Turner says not to worry about making sure that things match. It's often better to let the creative spirit wander and see what emerges.
--Canwest News Service
Renovation & Design
In Brief
Save energy and money with timely home tipsWinterize -- You've officially retired your shorts and T-shirts for winter, making room in the closet for cords and sweaters. But how do you get the rest of the house ready for the long, cold season ahead? The Home Depot offers the following suggestions to heat up your home and help the environment at the same time:
Install a programmable thermostat and stop wasting energy (and money) by heating the house when you're away.
Install weatherstripping to minimize heat loss through doors and windows.
Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
A long, hot shower on a winter morning is a luxury. Try to keep it under 10 minutes, and install a low-flow shower head to minimize water waste.
Install a ceiling fan in vaulted areas to push down hot air as it rises.
Shovel away winter worries
DON'T freak out as the flakes start to fall. Instead, take control of old man winter with these cool snow tools from Garant:
The Sleigh Shovel is ergonomically designed and allows for easy snow removal by scooping and sliding, with no need to lift and hurl snow in the traditional manner. It comes in three different sizes.
The Twinter is a snow broom that does double duty sweeping snow off outdoor steps and around doors and balconies, and also brushing the white stuff off cars. The gadget comes with a removable ice scraper.
For those who just want a regular shovel, Garant delivers with a range featuring VersaGrip handles. This allows multiple hand positions, the idea being to facilitate better shovelling posture and avoid back pain.
Garant's winter snow removal products are available at hardware stores such as Home Hardware and RONA. Go to garant.com.
U.S. for the birds, snowbirds, that is
THE percentage of North Americans, led by Canadians, buying U.S. homes is up almost 10 per cent this year from 2007, says a study.
A survey by the U.S.-based National Association of Realtors says 32.7 per cent of homes bought in the U.S. went to Canadians and Mexicans --- up from 23.4 per cent in 2007.
Doubtless, the rising value of the Canadian dollar, and the declining fortunes of American real estate, were two of the key reasons.
The North American contingent replaced Europe -- which declined to 31 per cent this year -- as the most active buying region.
-- Canwest News Service
Renovation & Design
Straighten up! There's no excuse for clutter
There's a reason it's called the mud room. Kids track it in, along with leaves, pebbles and other debris from the yard. After they kick off their shoes, and throw coats, hats and gloves onto the accumulating pile, what you get are dirty clothes.This is why, in many newer homes, the laundry room and mud room have been combined.
But I digress.
As fall progresses, the mud room seems to collect far more clothing items than its meagre shoe cubbies and coat hooks allow. This in-between-season calls for Crocs and a hoodie one day; boots and a down vest the next. Add kids to the mix and the space becomes not just cluttered, but chaotic.
I wish I could say that before I had children my mud room looked like an ad from California Closets. With custom-built lockers in the back entry it definitely had potential. Sadly, shoes have always been my downfall, leaving their multiple muddy prints on clean tiles before piling up for lack of enough room to properly line up. Now there are even more pairs kicking around -- my son's tiny Robeez slippers and my daughter's white and pink Adidas and fashion-forward leopard-print flats all need floor space.
"Girls like our shoes and our purses ... we get too (many) of them," says professional organizer Deanne Eade of Dee-Clutter. She organizes closets for a living and frequently works with young families. She understands how extra sets of shoes and mittens can snowball into a style crisis that needs straightening out.
Eade also has two children of her own, a 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. Apropos of an organizer, she engendered in them a love of all things neat and orderly from an early age. As soon as they could walk and talk, Eade had them putting away their runners and stowing their scarves.
So, perhaps I have been the architect of my own angst for failing to train my three-year-old in a similar fashion. Which raises the question: At what age is it reasonable to expect children to put away their own stuff when they breeze through the front door?
"It depends on what age you send them to military school," says Calgary interior designer Bruce Johnson of Johnson & Associates.
He's joking. Sort of. His five-year-old daughter started on the path to cubby super-stardom at the age of three, while his 10-year-old son still needs to be reminded. Every day.
It helps if kids have a designated space to discard their outdoor wear, say Johnson and Eade. It could be their own entry locker complete with shoe stall, drawer for hats and gloves, and hooks for coats and backpacks. Or, in a traditional entry with a coat closet, it could be a shelf and basket for shoes and accessories. Show your children where everything goes, and involve them in the organizing process.
Once they're willing to help, the space is easier to keep tidy and the battle half-won. Winning the war -- getting organized in the first place -- is tougher. Eade and Johnson offer these ideas:
Entry closet
If you didn't design it, there are options for turning a builder-standard entry closet into an organized, kid-friendly space.
"It's really looking at the space as a vertical space" instead of a horizontal one, Johnson says.
Move the coat bar higher, then add another half-width bar low enough for kids to hang up their own coats.
On the other half of the closet, install shelving. Use the bottom shelves for shoes (keep in mind winter boots are taller and require more room). Make sure it's a tight wire-mesh or solid shelf so children's shoes don't fall through. Place rubber mats on the floor to catch mud and water drips from footwear. Beware too-deep shelves: "Stuff just gets lost back there," Johnson says.
Purchase some plastic bins or wicker baskets for the top shelves. Use them to collect hats, gloves, scarves and other accessories.
Ideally, each family member will have his or her own shelf and basket.
Can't be bothered with shelving? Move an old chest of drawers into the hall closet. Each drawer becomes an insta-cubby and the top becomes a shelf.
Open mud room or entry
Many newer homes have a mud room connecting the garage to the kitchen; older homes have an open entry with a tiny coat closet. Without designated places to put stuff, these spaces quickly become overwhelmed when kids pull off hats in a hurry.
Invest in a coat tree. An antique adds classic style and offers a place to hang your hat and coats.
Mount a row of double coat hooks on an entry wall. Ideally, they'll be in a place that's not in the way. Hang one to two hooks per child, at an accessible height.
A simple shelving unit pushed against an entry wall can be dressed up with inexpensive lined wicker or faux-wicker baskets purchased from a retailer such as Superstore or Ikea.
-- Canwest News Service
Renovation & Design
Get the popcorn ready
Let's say you're not quite satisfied with the 37-inch flat-screen TV you bought a few years back. You're looking for something a little bit more impressive, a system to give you that gasp-inducing, jaw-dropping, toe-curling movie theatre experience. Maybe it's time for your own home theatre.What kind of equipment to buy depends on your budget, how much time you have on your hands, your technical prowess and -- of course -- how much you tend to drool over the latest high-tech gizmos. Those inclined toward do-it-yourself projects can buy a high-definition set or projector, hook it up to a DVD player and a surround sound system for US$3,000 or less.
But if money is no object, you can get your home cinema professionally designed, acoustically engineered, installed and tricked out to look like a real movie theatre... for US$25,000 and up. Like luxury cars or motorboats, there's practically no upper limit for those with money to spend.
Sal Alfano, a retired Wall Street executive, had a US$9,000 home theatre system built in his Pennsylvania home last fall as part of a basement renovation project.
It features theatre-style seats, a 103-inch screen (measured diagonally) with a high definition projector, a popcorn machine and soundproofing to preserve neighbourly harmony.
Having the system professionally installed made sense for Alfano. "I'm not a technician. Let them do it," he said.
Since then, he has enjoyed having his three grandchildren over to the basement to watch DVDs, and friends to watch sports games. "Even my doctor came over one night," he said.
Like Alfano, most people don't have the time or inclination to wire their own components and configure them for the optimal sound and picture, said Scott Oglum, founder of Newark, Del.-based TheaterXtreme, a chain of retail stores that specializes in outfitting home theatre rooms at prices starting around US$7,000.
A dramatic drop in prices for digital projectors in recent years has made it possible for ordinary Americans and Canadians to afford an impressive home theatre system. Until a few years ago, Oglum said, "it was strictly something that you saw in the Hollywood homes."
For those who are more technically inclined, designing and installing a system yourself is well within reach.
Greg Scavezze, a 37-year-old software engineer who lives near Salt Lake City is outfitting his basement this summer with a US$3,000 theatre system as part of a bigger basement-finishing project. An audio-video buff since high school, Scavezze already had several flat-screen TVs around the house, but wanted something more theatre-like.
"Each time I've done it, it's kind of gotten a little more grandiose," he said.
Before ordering his equipment, Scavezze did intensive research on the Internet, perusing sites such as CNet and www.avsforum.com -- a discussion site for audio and video enthusiasts. "This stuff is really not that hard to figure out," Scavezze said.
Home theatre aficionados say a digital projector, which can display a high-definition image on a screen mounted on your wall is the best way to get a movie-theatre experience. But flat-screen televisions remain far more popular among U.S. households than the projectors favoured by home theatre purists.
Shipments of flat-panel TVs of 40 inches or larger are projected to rise to more than 11 million this year in the United States, from 9.3 million last year, according to market research firm Pacific Media Associates. By comparison, shipments of projectors are far lower: about 150,000 units last year.
Possible reasons include the immense marketing behind flat-screen TVs and the fact that projection systems don't carry quite the same bling factor for most consumers. While projection systems are able to deliver a larger picture at a lower price, "the projector itself is not showy," said William Coggshall, president of Pacific Media Associates.
To be sure, the economic downturn and housing crisis have put a damper on some of the home theatre and consumer electronics market. Clients have been more hesitant lately about big-ticket projects, installers say.
"It's a harder sell," said Dean Callis of Paragon Technology Group, an Aspen, Colo.-based company that specializes in custom-built systems for the vacation home market.
Among those who are able to afford new home theatres despite the tough economic times, some are trying to make their theatres a more active space for their families.
They are installing small stages where kids can set up their musical instruments, or play virtual tennis on a Nintendo Wii. "They don't want to have it be a space... where their kids are just brain-dead, watching TV," said John Baumeister, president of Illinois-based Baumeister Electronic Architects, which specializes in custom-designed high-end systems ranging from US$50,000 to US$1 million.
Clients can get such features as a curved screen that gives you that wide-screen Lawrence of Arabia look, or a remote control that scrolls through a list of movies stored on a computer server.
Another plus: moving curtains that replicate a movie theatre's look. "You want the lights to dim, you want the curtains to open up," Baumeister says, just like in the movies.
-- The Associated Press
Renovation & Design
Don't scrimp on the audio system
YOU can't have a great home theatre system without great sound.For the uninitiated, home theatre audio comes with a confusing set of technical terms like DTS, SDDS, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, to name a few. But all the lingo boils down to something rather basic -- the number of speakers that surround the viewer, providing an immersive, enveloping experience.
The main goal "is to feel like you're actually sucked into a movie," said Dave Pedigo, senior director of technology at the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association.
And newer technology, such as high-definition Blu-Ray players, can deliver an even more impressive effect. You can even get rich surround sound from game systems such as the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.
The most popular surround sound system is known as a 5.1 channel system, which uses five speakers to create three-dimensional whooshing sound effects. The next level up is a six-speaker, 6.1-channel system, and then there's the maximum 7.1-channel system with seven speakers.
Included in all three varieties is a subwoofer for thumping bass and other low-frequency sounds. A 5.1-channel system includes three speakers in front of the viewer and two rear speakers, while 6.1-channel and 7.1-channel systems add more rear speakers.
One easy option is to buy a "home theatre in a box" system that -- for US$200 to US$1,000 -- includes a receiver, speakers and sometimes a DVD player. Consumer Reports gives top ratings to systems made by Onkyo, Sony and Yamaha.
For the true audiophile, putting together your own stereo component system is the best option. Speakers made by Infinity, Bose, Polk Audio and Sony all get good ratings from Consumer Reports. Basic bookshelf speakers sell for as little as $95, but high-end speakers can sell for thousands. In Canada, Canadian-made Paradigm speakers are also a top choice. Britain's Monitor Audio also makes top-notch speakers at reasonable prices.
Picking which one is best for you really depends on the size of your room, experts say. If you have a relatively small basement and your couch is backed up against the wall, a 5.1 channel system works just fine.
"A lot of times people will say 'I want the biggest and the best,' rather than finding what's appropriate for them," said John Wanderscheid, vice-president at Aperion Audio, a Portland, Ore.-based designer of speaker systems ranging from US$1,200 to US$4,500.
In rooms where there is more than 4.5 metres of space between the rear speakers, Wanderscheid recommends a six- or seven-speaker system. But to have the best surround sound experience, they should be at least one metre behind your couch. Otherwise, he said, "in a small room it doesn't really add to the performance."
Another issue to consider is what kind of cables to use on your system. The latest and greatest audio and video equipment comes with a new cable that is designed to simplify the process.
High-Definition Multimedia Interface, or HDMI, cables can transmit digital high-def. video and surround sound audio signals over a single cable. That's far simpler than the older analogue standard, which required three video cables (usually coloured red, green and blue) to transmit high-definition signals and separate audio cables.
HDMI, however, doesn't work with older televisions sets and DVD players. Most of the time, HDMI works pretty well, experts say, especially if your setup is relatively simple.
But home theatre installers say they sometimes run into problems with repeated images using HDMI cables over long distances. And HDMI comes with a built-in copy protection so you might not be able to record some programming.
-- The Associated Press
Renovation & Design
Digital projector? Plasma? LCD? The pros and cons
TECHNOLOGICAL advances have made giant flat-panel TV screens with intensely detailed pictures affordable to the average consumer. But which one to choose?Home theatre enthusiasts say you can get the best bang for your buck with a system that uses a digital projector. They can easily be hooked up to your computer, video game system or DVD player or cable signal and display images in a variety of sizes.
These days, high-quality home theatre projectors by makers like Mitsubishi and Samsung sell for as little as US$850.
If you're on a tight budget, you can set up your projector in your apartment or dorm room by simply directing it towards the wall. If you want a more impressive display, you can buy a screen (measured at 70 to 200 inches diagonally).
These screens, made by companies such as Elite Screens and Da-Lite, cost anywhere from US$225 to more than US$3,000 for deluxe models that have a motor to retract the screen into an aluminum casing.
There are some downsides to projection systems: They use a specialized bulb that needs to be replaced every few years for around US$350. Another drawback is that projection systems work far better in a dark room. So if you don't have a windowless basement, or a room with dark shades, you're probably better off with a plasma or LCD (liquid crystal display).
Plasma TVs and LCD sets look alike but actually use different technology. Plasma screens use a gas that's charged by electricity, while LCD screens create images by charging a different material: liquid crystal.
Some experts prefer plasma screens because they display better black hues, have sharper images and can be viewed from all angles, but the TVs have a shiny screen, making it harder to see the picture if there's a lot of light in the room. They also are big energy hogs: Consumer Reports says its tests show that plasma sets use up about twice as much energy as comparable LCD screens.
Experts say LCD technology is better for a bright room, though fast-moving images can blur a bit and the image often doesn't look great if viewed from an angle.
Prices of flat-screen TVs -- made by dozens of companies like Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, LG, Olevia and Vizio -- dropped dramatically in recent years. It's even possible that 32-inch LCD TV sets, which now usually cost US$600 to US$700, could drop to as low as US$350 in stores by the end of 2009, analysts say.
Regardless of which one you're inclined to pick, experts advise taking your time and inspecting the television's picture carefully to examine the brightness and colour.
Before deciding to buy, bring your favourite DVD to the store and test it out on a new set, advises home theatre designer Brian Lamont of Presque Isle, Maine.
"If they won't allow you, say 'thank you very much' and go someplace else," said Lamont, who has designed projects around the country.
There's also a lot you can do to make it easier to choose a movie from your collection. Massive media servers -- basically giant computer disk drives -- make it easy to sort through hundreds of movies, sorting it by actor, genre and the like.
Apple Inc.'s Apple TV starts at US$229. A competing Internet set-top box from Vudu Inc. that launched last fall has roughly 5,000 movies available and sells for US$295.
"You don't have to remember where all the DVDs are," said Lewis Franke, a home theatre systems designer with DM Home Entertainment in Carrolton, Texas.
-- The Associated Press
Renovation & Design
Even hardiest of trees can suffer from wind chill
111ANSWER: You don't have to wrap all evergreen conifers. Most of them are native to our climate, and are able to withstand the winter quite comfortably. The hard waxy covering on their needles usually protects the foliage against drying out.
But there are some occasions when conifers might need a bit more protection. These occasions usually always relate to the wind.
It's one thing to tolerate the freezing temperatures of mid-winter, but it's quite another situation when the wind howls. Just as humans can stand around waiting for the bus in minus-20 degree weather without getting frostbite, we soon rush for shelter if there's even a gentle breeze. The wind-chill factor comes into play, and our skin cools down to dangerously lower temperatures when the heat is sucked out of it by the wind.
The same thing applies to conifers.
They don't mind cold weather, but they have difficulty ignoring strong winter winds. Foliage that's constantly barraged by wind during extremely cold weather can soon give up what little moisture it managed to trap before the plant went dormant. And once that happens, the foliage will dry out and die.
The evidence of this is when we see surface foliage or whole sections of needles turn brown. We call it winterkill. Once foliage has died in this manner, the only way to handle it is to trim off the brown parts in the spring and let the healthier green foliage grow.
Winterkill might not affect very large conifers that are well established in their location, but it can be a problem for many of the smaller shrub-like trees or any conifer recently transplanted.
The highest risk is to conifers that are exposed in very windy locations.
Picture an ornamental thuja or juniperus planted near the corner of a house or in a side garden between two houses. The positioning of the buildings can cause an acceleration of even the normal winds. Plants like this will be prime candidates for winterkill, no matter how mature or hardy they are.
The easiest way to protect your conifers that might be at risk is to create a wind barrier around the plant, something that will cut the force of the wind back to manageable proportions. The cheapest method is to wrap the plant with a double layer of burlap, held in place by a few loops of garden twine. It's not very elegant, but it does the job. You can make it look a bit more professional if you put three or four stakes around the plant first, and then stretch the burlap over them. A cylindrical section of snow fence works well as a frame, as long as it's tall enough to hide the plant.
If you want to be even more discrete, replace the burlap with a new winter-wrap material, made of a layer of felt-like fibre bonded to a thin plastic film. It blends with the landscape much better than the sacking. Even one layer of this cuts the wind quite effectively.
This winter-wrap can be tied around the plant with twine, but it holds better if you staple it to a frame of wooden stakes.
Some people use this winter-wrap to protect their coniferous hedges against the damage caused by the salt used on streets.
If the fabric is stretched across posts in front of the hedge, it makes a very effective barrier against the salt, and is well worth the one-time investment.
--Canwest News Service
Renovation & Design
A floor so beautifully unique it will floor you
Part sculpture, part mosaic, part Zen retreat, the floor inside the bedroom of this Calgary condo is everything flooring usually isn't. Put simply: It's a work of art.It sparkles in the sun, appearing to flow serenely between the queen-size bed and a bank of custom-built maple cabinets. It collides with the rest of the room's red oak hardwood like waves hitting a beach. It looks like a Japanese stream, but it's not water.
Made of flattened sand (the part that looks wet) and white pebbles preserved under a clear epoxy finish, the waterproof, resurfaceable floor is a prototype for Calgary artist Paul Lloyd.
He's added three dimensions to it by strategically placing four hand-ground stones of Carrera marble that rise above the epoxy, giving the illusion of worn stepping stones across a glistening curve of water.
Look closely and you'll see tiny shells that seem to lap against the marble. It's perfect inside this spare, modern space because it's been custom-designed for it.
"It is a piece of art and designed that way," says Lloyd, a self-taught artist and woodworker with an inventive streak, who's dabbled in the arts for 20 years.
"We wanted something that was continuous, we didn't want something broken into bricks or tiles," Lloyd explains when asked how he and the homeowner came up with the idea for a floor that looked fluid.
He also needed to find a material light enough so the floor wouldn't require additional engineering.
"It was a creative journey because everything had to be developed. It was a matter of, how do I do that?"
Good question.
Lloyd, trained as a chemical engineer, developed his bent for artistry during a seven-year stint in Sydney, Australia, where he launched a company that specialized in decorative boxes, vases and address books for the gift market.
After moving back to Canada, and a short stint in IT, the 44-year-old found a way to marry his entrepreneurial skills and creativity with the design aspect of being an engineer. Custom woodwork called, followed by flooring.
His initial goal was modest: Find a way to bring artwork and personality into the structure of a home instead of merely hanging it on the walls. A floor is a floor; how do you bring variety and interest to it?
After deciding on a Japanese stream for the Calgary condo, Lloyd took six months to develop the floor, two of which were spent testing out different products.
Along the way he discovered new techniques in custom floors he believes will appeal to a niche market. He realized his flooring lends itself to many different applications -- depending on the client, he could incorporate fabrics, handmade paper or even semi-precious stones into the surface where people place their feet, rarely looking down.
As far as Lloyd knows, flooring like his doesn't exist on the market.
"The closest I've seen are one or two artists in Calgary who do paintings on the floor and then cover them with a thin coat of epoxy," he says.
Are homeowners ready to walk all over its art?
"Designers are very interested in seeing something new and different," says Lloyd.
So are Calgarians, who are always looking for unique ways to put a personal stamp on interiors.
The only caveat: Any client must appreciate quality workmanship and understand the time it takes to develop a custom floor, since, in a way, each floor would end up being a prototype.
Says Lloyd: "In this marketplace, especially on the upper end, people want originality in their homes.
"People like to put their personality and image into their homes. It's an outward projection of their accomplishments."
Paul Lloyd can be reached by e-mail at pjlloydtelus.net.
--Canwest News Service
Renovation & Design
Not So Big idea spreads 'all over the world'
It's been a decade since a soft-spoken architect from North Carolina shook up the sometimes haughty world of design and architecture with her hugely popular book, The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live.Sarah Susanka demystified architecture and injected every-day sensibilities into the sometimes dry theories behind why one space feels delightful while another comes across as dark and poky.
Then she launched a campaign against the proliferation of the big, bland McMansions that builders were hurrying to build in suburbs across the United States during the boom of the late 1990s and the seemingly insatiable years of the new millennium.
"There is very little living going on in the living rooms of new homes," the woman who has been called a cultural visionary told delegates at a gathering of the International Home Builders' Association in Orlando, Fla., in 2005.
Huge, two-storey living rooms are noisy and impersonal, said Susanka, who was named a top newsmaker in 2000 by Newsweek. Instead, it would make sense to cut back homes by one-third the square footage and inject the savings into finishing details such as window seats, away rooms and lowered ceilings to create intimate spaces. Concentrate on sustainable, energy-smart designs, Susanka told the giant gathering of builders from across North America and Europe.
Remember, this was before the housing crisis surrounding the subprime was a blip on anyone's radar.
In the process, the architect with a zealot's determination started a housing revolution, popularizing design and convincing a growing number of builders to adopt her smaller-is-better strategies.
She followed up the first book with a collection of six Not So Big books on renovations, gardens and how to have a satisfying not-so-big life. Her message: Ratchet back on activities and the business factor and concentrate on the moment.
In life and design, Susanka speaks to quality, not quantity, to details, not big, empty spaces.
During the past decade, she has gathered a loyal and growing army of buyers and builders.
Susanka translated architectural talk into popular, people talk, says Jacques Hamel, former chair of Ottawa's Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee and the city's committee of adjustment.
"There is no doubt Susanka popularized design and the feeling of being in a space and understanding why certain spaces felt good," says the Ottawa architect. "She's marvellous at articulating architectural talk."
Before Susanka, American architect Christopher Alexander laid down the concepts of good design in his book Patterns of Language, says Hamel. Susanka made good design even easier to understand.
Ottawa custom builder and top renovator of 2008, Steve Barkhouse is more direct.
"Sarah Susanka made it sexy to be smart and thoughtful about good design, about creating a sustainable house or a flex house that changes with a family's needs," says the owner of Amsted Construction and a Susanka fan who renovated his own bungalow in the Kanata community of Beaverbrook. Barkhouse won a "green" award for his design.
Earlier this fall, Susanka came out with the 10th anniversary edition of her first Not So Big House book.
"What has changed is that the Not So Big message is spreading, not only in the United States, but all over the world," she writes in the book's final chapter. "I've discovered that the starter castle phenomenon that I'd believed was unique to the United States is, in fact, a problem almost everywhere in the developed world. China, Russia, the Middle East and Australia are all grappling with the same set of questions as we are: Is this what we really want? How can we design better homes for the way we really live? How do we make them energy efficient and build them sustainably?"
"The approach to the development of the new blueprint described in the Not So Big House has offered a road map not only for enthusiastic homeowners but also for architects, designers, builders and developers looking to find a desirable alternative to the standard bigger is better house plan."
Then Susanka took a close look at three homeowners who were inspired by her first book, and walked through the top 10 characteristics of a Not So Big House certain to make one feel at home. They include making spaces personal, fitting a new home neatly into a neighbourhood, rethinking a floor plan to make it change with a family, changing ceiling heights, including a private room or space, creating interior views, having a sense of shelter, paying attention to details, walking toward the light and, finally, wrapping all of the pieces together under one snug roof.
Mostly, Susanka's success came because she threw open the doors and windows of good design to Joe and Josephine, the buyers.
The Not So Big House: A Blueprint For The Way We Really Live, Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition is published by Taunton Press and costs $32. It's the ideal gift for anyone buying their first, third or 10th home.
--Canwest News Service