Sustainable Kitchen Renovations

12 Ways to Be Sustainable in Kitchen Renovations

Healthy HomesRenovating

When you plan on a kitchen renovation you may not be thinking along the lines of a sustainable lifestyle, but there are plenty of ways to be eco friendly and save the earth’s resources when renovating.  Even if you simply order carefully so you are not wasting any timber, that is going to save some of our precious resources from being wasted. However, with some small amount of thought, you can easily find many other ways.Bamboo Interior

  • Choose building materials such as bamboo that are easily renewable or are in plentiful supply. It can be used for cabinets and floors as well.
  • Use paints and other things such as glue and lacquer that does not contains harmful toxic gases that waft up into the air – and into your lungs.
  • Choose eco friendly fabrics – natural cotton or at least cotton blends, bamboo fabrics or even fabric made from wool, all of which is renewable in its raw state each year.
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Kitchen Renovation

Kitchen Renovation Timeline

Healthy HomesRenovating

Renovating kitchens is exciting, but it can also be overwhelming as there are so many decisions to make. There are many different kinds of kitchens and the style you choose will dictate to a certain extent how many other decisions must be made. A modern kitchen design requires fewer materials, so not as many decisions will be needed.

That said, there are still choices to be made about what you want in materials, appliances, colours, textures and so on, so here is a kitchen renovation timeline to help know which to consider first.

Step 1: Choose the appliances, lighting and sink/s. This will help when it comes to planning the design and development of the layout as your professional kitchen designer will need to know what space is left over for cupboards, how big the bench space is and where these things will fit.

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Right Excavator

How to Hire the Right Excavator for Your Project

Healthy HomesRenovating

Once you start to plan a full property renovation it won’t be long before you see the need for plant hire or equipment hire. Most renovators find such equipment far too expensive to buy outright, especially when it won’t be in use all the time. It would never pay for itself by sitting in a shed waiting for the next project to pop up.

If your block of ground is on a slope, it is highly likely that you will need to level off at least some of the ground before you can complete the renovation, especially if you intend to add another room or deck. You might even want to have a veranda going right around the house.

If you are also going to do some landscaping to go with your new renovations, get that work done at the same time you hire the machinery for the other work. It just takes a bit of planning ahead to save money. Hire rates are usually by the hour or the day, so if your building project only takes a couple of hours with the machinery, you may as well use it while it’s there to level off the driveway, fill up a hole, dig a hole for the swimming pool or do whatever else you have planned for the future.

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Glass Showerscreens

12 Advantages of Glass Showerscreens

Healthy HomesRenovating

Just because a home is affordable doesn’t mean it has to be cheap and nasty. Glass shower screens add a touch of elegance to any bathroom, no matter if the home is in the billion dollar range or much less. In fact, there is more to them than their good looks. Here are some advantages of installing a shower screen made of glass.

  • It is less likely to develop mould on the surface, so is easy to clean.
  • Glass in the bathroom makes it look larger as it is transparent so the draws the eye beyond it to the far walls.
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Importance of Scaffolding

The Importance of Scaffolding for DIY House Renovations

Healthy HomesRenovating

When you are doing your own home renovations there will be many jobs that require you to reach up to high places. Painting the walls and ceilings is just one of them. It is very important to have safe scaffolding for these jobs so that you remain safe while doing them, and so the jobs are much easier to accomplish.

Without scaffolding to support you, it is possible and even likely that you could have an accident or a fall, through overextending your reach on the ladder. In fact, the ladder is not all that safe whether it is inside or out. Inside, it can slip on the floor and outside, the ground can sink under one leg and cause the ladder to tip, throwing you off balance.

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Security Fencing

4 Tips For Choosing The Best Security Fencing

Healthy HomesProperty Maintenance, Renovating

Most homeowners have some kind of fencing around the perimeter of their homes, but it is not always security fencing. But increasingly these days, you need to know that your family and home are safe from burglary or home invasion and the only way to do that is to install the kind of fence that will keep intruders out.

Not all so-called safety fencing is going to do what it is supposed to. Here are 4 tips to choosing the right kind of fence.

  • Make sure the fence doesn’t provide a hiding place. Fences you can’t see through will provide a place for any burglar to hide so they cannot be seen from the house. This is the kind of fence that burglars like best, since if you don’t know they are there they can work out how to get over the fence and you won’t know anything about it. They may even be able to spy on your house through a crack – or the gate – and find out if anyone is home or not.
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Limestone Walls

The Many Advantages of Limestone Walls

Healthy HomesRenovating

One thing that most beautiful homes have is some kind of fencing, whether it is a boundary fence, swimming pool fence or retaining walls in the garden, so essential on a sloping or steep block. Rather than having something ordinary, you could have a fence made from limestone blocks that would totally enhance your property and add value to it.

Higher limestone walls would be ideal for both shade and privacy, offering a material that is long lasting, durable and beautiful as well. Lower walls made from the same material would be a great way to put an attractive edging around a garden or along the drive.

There are two types of limestone blocks or bricks.

  1. Natural limestone that is cut from the quarry into the size and shape required.
  2. Reconstituted limestone that is made from crushed limestone with the addition of other materials such as concrete aggregate.
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