By Jonathan Deesing In 2015, the United States reached 27.4 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity. That’s enough power to serve 5.4 million homes, making 2015 the biggest solar year yet. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) predicts that residential installation of solar power in the U.S. will break more records and double that capacity this year. Between...
By Susan Finch Interior design trends for 2016 include consigning your way to style, says House Beautiful. This is good news for anyone looking to give their home an end-of-summer makeover. Get rid of your old wares for something new, or pick up fall decor in all your favorite colors. Start the transition with a good cleaning and end with a backyard bash. Here’s...
By Kevin Sheehan, District Manager of The Davey Tree Expert Company’s Long Island Office Along with the natural beauty of summer comes rumbles of thunder, high winds, flashes of lightning and heavy rain —all of which wreak havoc on properties. Wind can completely uproot saturated trees and break branches when summer storms hit. A hazardous tree that is sick...
By Meghan Belnap Energy bills are way too high, and unfortunately energy-saving methods, like solar panels and high-efficiency appliances, cost money, too. However, there are many ways to reduce energy expenses without spending anything. Here are five practical, energy-saving tips. 1. Unplug Devices and Keep Lights Off The household appliances that tend to use the...
Whether we’ve decided to go to grad school, have moved to a different country or state for a job, or have simply left our family home for the first thing we could afford, we millennials are usually not living somewhere we expect to stay forever. And while this might sound exciting, the truth is, that lingering sense of instability often causes us to basically live...
When you take your monthly mortgage payment, utility bills and other expenditures into consideration, it’s no surprise that owning a home is an expensive proposition. But have you ever considered just how many hours you have to work to afford your home? Or how many hours you’d have to work to afford your dream home in Hawaii? (Spoiler alert: don’t buy your plane...
By Roy Rasmussen Relocating to a new state offers the opportunity to start fresh and experience a life you may not have otherwise planned. But, like anything new, moving can present its own unique challenges, from organizing what to bring and discard, to deciding where to enroll the kids in school, to ensuring everyone remains happy and positive. Truly, the devil...
By Matt Parker My brother’s favorite summer car game was table tennis. Off the back of my head in a minivan, with a rubber bouncy ball on a string. Now, as adults, we all play a different game in summer car rides. It’s called: “Hey, we should all chip in and buy a cabin together.” Done well, this is a generational dream come true. Done poorly, you will...
Regardless of the size of your kitchen remodel, adding an island to your design is one of the best things you can do to make your home more livable. There are many ways to fit an island into your kitchen. Here are some types of kitchen islands to consider: 1) Go traditional. If you have a small kitchen, you may not think you have room for a separate island. But even...
What goes around… Kitchen design’s trending more behind the times than ahead of the curve, with once-dated features like colored appliances and tile countertops resurfacing in new, of-the-moment styles. One of the comeback kids is the enclosed kitchen, reimagined as a flex-space that opens today, closes tomorrow. Credit: HGTV.com Why closed-off? For those of us...
