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SPRING home improvementhome improvement

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SPRING HOME IMPROVEMENTS8 • Thursday, March 22, 2018 The Bartlett Express

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Living in close prox-imity to one’s neigh-bors has its benefits. But many homeowners would no doubt admit that privacy at home is a good thing.

Whether homeowners are enjoying their yard in spring or summer or simply want their in-home activities to be less obvious to neigh-bors, their privacy is a year-round concern. If privacy is a concern, homeowners can take certain steps to ensure their homes stay or become the sanctuaries they were designed to be.

Window treatmentsand frosting

Windows allow natural light to enter a home, but windows also enable neighbors and others to see into a home. If thieves are the ones looking inside, wide open windows present a security issue. Window treatments are an effective way to add privacy to a home. Closing curtains or blinds limits others’ ability to see inside the house. Switch to more opaque window treatments when using

interior lighting more of-ten, as gossamer draperies may still make it possible for outsiders to under-stand what’s going on inside the home if people and items are backlit.

For those who do not want to compromise natural light, frosted windows can satisfy a desire for privacy. Windows can be purchased with frosting in place, and home improvement retailers sell various products that can create a frosted look.

Fencing andperimeterplantings

Privet hedge, arborvi-tae or Italian cypress are fast-growing evergreens that provide priva-cy around a home for homeowners who do not want to install traditional fencing. These trees also provide a natural habitat for various yard animals. Layering various plants of different heights and textures also can create a more natural and less imposing look.

Fencing remains a viable option to create privacy and stop noise pollution. Privacy fences come in various mate-rials, colors and sizes, enabling homeowners to choose styles that fit their landscapes.

Pergolas andenclosed patiosHomeowners who like

to entertain outdoors may want to make their out-door living spaces more private. Pergolas allow light to filter through but obstruct direct view of patio activity, especial-ly when combined with some gauzy draperies hanging on the sides. An enclosed patio or three-season room can be a worthwhile addition for homeowners who like to enjoy the great outdoors without being in the elements or on display for neighbors. Structures vary from screened-in porches to greenhouses to removable gazebos. Pot-ted plants or trailing vines can soften the structural edges and help the priva-cy devices blend in with the natural surroundings.

Personal tactics

Homeowners who do not want their neighbors or others knowing what they’re up to in their free time can limit what they share through photos and descriptions on social media. Doing so also cuts down on neighbors’ curiosity.

Improve privacy and security at home

with these tips

Fencing and well-placed plantings can improve privacy for home-owners who desire it.


Home improvement projects ramp up when the weather warms up, as home-owners channel the rejuve-nating feelings of spring and tackle their home to-do lists. Large-scale renovations can greatly affect a home, but smaller projects can yield

impressive results and be completed over the course of a single weekend.

If time is of the essence, these weekend or one-day projects may satisfy home-owners’ desires to fix up their homes.

• Create an accent wall. Painting a focal wall in a home can create a serious

impact. The bonus is it will not take as long or require as many materials as painting an entire room. Accent walls frequently feature a bold col-or, so decide on placement and tackle this project in less than a day.

• Install stair runners. Dress up hardwood stairs with decorative carpet

runners. Runners come in elongated pieces of carpet-ing or individual pieces that can be placed on each step. If carpeting doesn’t fit with the home’s design, painting individual stair treads also can create visual appeal.

• Dress up the entryway. An entryway is a guest’s first impression of a home. Many entryways can use a minor overhaul, both inside and outside. Paint the front door a different color so it pops from the curb. Install a new mailbox or decora-tive house numbers. A new welcome mat can change the look as well. Inside, consider laying a new floor. Resilient vinyl tiles come in many different patterns and can mimic the look of wood, travertine or marble. Installing a floor can take a day or two.

• Install a new faucet. Instantly improve a kitchen or a bathroom with new fixtures. New faucets can provide aesthetic appeal and low-flow faucets can help conserve water.

• Create a gallery on the staircase. Gather and arrange framed photos, artwork or wall accents so that they ascend the wall of a staircase. This creates a designer touch and can dress up an often barren area of wall space.

• Install a fresh light fix-ture. Improve drab spaces with a little illumination. Better Homes & Gardens suggests replacing an exist-ing fixture with something new and vibrant. If hanging a new fixture is not within one’s skill set, free-standing table or floor lamps also can cast a new glow on a space.

• Add molding. Molding can add instant aesthetic appeal to a room. Molding is appropriate near the floor, at the top of walls where they meet the ceiling, or even mid-wall as a chair rail. Some homeowners like to create framed molding on walls in formal living spaces.

• Update kitchen or bathroom hardware. Replacing hardware is a fast and easy project, but one that can have immedi-ate impact. Swap out tired or outdated hardware for newer brushed metals and more impactful shapes and designs.

Home renovations do not need to take weeks or months. Many projects can be completed over the course of a weekend.

Complete these home improvements over the weekend

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The DIY movement has inspired many homeown-ers to tackle home repair and remodeling projects on their own. DIY proj-ects can be rewarding, and many homeowners who have embraced the DIY movement have dis-covered talents they never before knew they had.

But no matter how simple popular home renovation television shows make remodeling projects appear, home-owners should know that such undertakings are far more difficult than they appear on television. Homeowners who over-estimate their abilities and the time they have to complete projects can cost themselves substan-tial amounts of money. In fact, there are a variety of reasons homeowners might want to work with professional contractors when tackling home im-provement projects.

ExperienceA trial and error ap-

proach can work with various projects and problems. But applying such an approach to home improvement projects is risky and potentially dangerous, not to mention costly. Experienced pro-fessional contractors with strong track records (seek recommendations from friends or neighbors) won’t have to go through trial and error and are therefore more likely than DIYers to complete

a project on time and on budget.

InspirationOne oft-overlooked

benefit of working with professional contractors is the likelihood that they

can draw up ideas for projects that homeowners might otherwise never have thought up on their own.

Homeowners without specific ideas in mind can ask contractors to come

up with various scenarios before committing to a particular one. Veteran contractors can draw on years of experience to create designs that DIYers might be incapable of coming up with and/or in-

capable of seeing through to completion.

CostConventional wisdom

suggests it’s less expen-sive to do something yourself than to hire

someone else to do it for you, but that’s not necessarily true of home improvement projects. Labor costs typically account for a substantial amount of professionally contracted projects, but homeowners can cut those costs by volunteering to do some of the simpler tasks themselves.

In addition, contractors often purchase materials at a much lower cost than individual homeowners because contractors buy in bulk. So while labor costs might be lower on DIY projects, the cost of materials can offset those savings.

Resale valueMany homeowners

renovate their homes with eyes on improving the resale value of those homes. But if homeown-ers want to showcase a newly remodeled kitchen when selling their homes, they should be prepared for prospective buyers to ask who worked on the project. Fearing potential problems down the road, some buyers might be put off by homes that were remodeled by DIYers and not professional contrac-tors.

Renovating a home on your own can be a re-warding project for home-owners. But it’s important that homeowners recog-nize the many benefits of working with professional contractors before making any final decisions with regard to who will tackle their next project.

The benefits of hiring professional contractors

Contributed photo

The DIY movement has inspired many homeowners to tackle home repair and remodeling projects on their own. DIY projects can be rewarding, and many homeowners who have embraced the DIY movement have discovered talents they never before knew they had.



Gardeners eager to revitalize their lawns and gardens may spend hun-dreds of dollars on tools and products designed to improve soil and grow-ing conditions. Although many of these items can be advantageous, gardeners also may want to look to natur’s best garden help-ers: earthworms.

It is believed that nearly 3,000 different types of earthworms inhabit the planet. Worms have been around for hundreds of millions of years.

Worms can be seen as bait dangling on fish-ing lines or as meals for red-breasted robins. But these subterranean dwell-ers play their biggest role beneath the soil.

Earthworms move through dirt as they search for food. The worms con-sume particles in the soil, helping to recycle materi-als like dead leaves, plant parts, decaying animals, and feces. Through their travels, worms also serve to aerate the soil. Worms bring the subsoil closer to the surface and mix it with the topsoil.

Earthworms’ castings also help naturally fertilize the areas in which they reside. The slimy mucus

that worms leave behind contains nitrogen, which also helps to amend the soil.

The University of Illi-nois Extension says most earthworms found, particu-larly in North America, can only grow so long, even though some worms seem like they stretch forever underneath the ground.

Depending on the type of worm and how many segments it has, as well as its age and ability to get

nutritious foods, worms typically reach only a few inches in length, offers National Geographic.

There are some anoma-lies, however. The Oregon giant earthworm is one of the largest earthworms found in North America, growing to more than three feet in length. That worm is very rare, however.

In 2016, a 16-inch-long earthworm was discovered in England and became part of the collection at the

Natural History Museum in London. Some Austra-lian and South American earthworms are known to grow much larger.

Worms need the correct mix of oxygen, moisture and favorable temperatures to survive. If they do not have these components, they will seek them out elsewhere.

Because of the many benefits earthworms pro-vide, they can be a boon to landscapes.

Introduce earthworms into the garden

Contributed photo


Beauty, spaciousness and interior design are all important when building a personal dream home.

Today, however, with the reality of energy and environmental concerns, homeowners also insist their for-ever home must be as eco-responsible as pos-sible. And it turns out many decisions initially based on being envi-ronmentally friendly can deliver unexpected aesthetic results, too.

“Sometimes the least glamorous decisions can be the ones that give your lifestyle far more quality and value _– and a good case in point is the use of con-crete to build the walls, instead of traditional wood framing,” says Natalie Rodgers of Nudura, a leading name in this field.

“Our technology has advanced the develop-ment of the insulated concrete form, a system

that interlocks like Lego to erect a building. For the occupants, the bene-fits of improved comfort, energy efficiency, safety and interior air quality are delivered immediately with ICF construction. For the homeowner-in-vestor, all those benefits assure top resale value.”

In addition, an ICF structure can be finished on the exterior just like traditional wood frame structures. Stone, stucco, brick or whatever mate-rial is envisioned can be used with the insulated concrete forms.

Building the walls with concrete needs to be decided early in the plan-ning, Rodgers explains. The method discards wood framing in favor of pre-assembled, interlock-ing concrete forms filled with concrete. Take a look at a few more of the benefits of concrete:

Fuel savings. Com-pared to wooden walls, solid concrete walls vastly reduce air infiltra-tion, optimizing energy performance and reducing the carbon footprint.

Comfort. Outside cold easily travels through wood-framed walls, caus-ing thermal bridging and creating uncomfortable chilly spots inside your home. Walls with a solid concrete core address and prevent thermal bridging to deliver even tempera-tures throughout the house.

Quiet. Solid concrete is an effective sound barrier. It dampens sound vibra-tions from outside noise such as traffic, trains and neighborhood parties.

Safety. ICF has a fire protection rating of up to four hours. If high wind in your community is a concern, data shows that Nudura homes demon-strate impact resistance up to 250 miles per hour.

Improved value. A stronger, safer, greener home that is more cost-ef-ficient and needs less maintenance and repair is generally expected to build and hold its value.

Building decisions deserve

benefits, tooWith the reality of energy and environmental concerns, homeowners also insist their forever home must be as eco-responsible as possible.

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SPRING HOME IMPROVEMENTSbartlett-express.com Thursday, March 22, 2018 • 11


Nearly everyone has ex-perienced a sticking door that just will not close properly. This problem may become more notice-able when temperatures rise and humidity con-tributes to the swelling of wood doors and frames.

According to home improvement resources, the standard remedy for alleviating a sticking door is to remove the door and pare down the edges that are rubbing so that the door will once again swing freely. While this can solve the problem, it can be a hassle, as it

requires refinishing the pared-down edge and rehanging the door.

before creating more work than might be necessary.

• Identify the problem area and rub it with a dry bar of soap. This should re-duce friction and allow the door to close more easily.

• Remove humidity with a dehumidifier or by running an air condition-ing unit.

• Check for loose hinges or sagging around the hinge. Tighten the fasteners to sure up the door and create better alignment.

• Spray the hinges with

lubricant if you suspect sticking is originating be-cause of squeaky hinges.

• Look for obstructions at the bottom of the door. Is the door dragging on carpeting or being caught on something on the floor? It may be a matter of simply clearing away the obstruction.

Contributed photo

According to home improvement resources, the standard remedy for alleviating a sticking door is to remove the door and pare down the edges that are rubbing so that the door will once again swing freely. While this can solve the problem, it can be a hassle, as it

Special to the Express

Succulents can be just what indoor or outdoor gardens need. Even though succulents are becoming more popu-lar, there are still some people who are unaware of their attributes. By learning more about succulents, people may become devotees of these unique plants.

The word “succulent” brings to mind juicy, savory foods. But succu-lents aren’t meant to be consumed. In fact, they get their mouth-watering name from their uncanny ability to store water in

That means they do not require frequent watering like other plants might. Succulents also may prove more durable in the face of drought and are a handy plant for forgetful gardeners or those who travel often and want something more hands-off in their gardens.

According to the suc-culents resource, “Suc-culents and Sunshine,” most succulents prefer warm temperatures and are not very cold-tolerant. However, there are some varieties that can survive freezing temperatures. Still, for most succulents, it’s best if they are kept in warm, moderately sunny conditions. The DIY Network says succulents grow best in bright light, but not always in full, hot sun.

Succulents also may attract gardeners thanks to their diverse looks. Better Homes & Gardens says that color variations of succu-lents are quite varied and include green, yellow, bur-gundy, white, blue-green, pink, red and variegated combinations. Their shapes can be just as diverse, with many having pointy, round-

People may be particular-ly familiar with one type of succulent: cacti. These tra-ditional desert-dwellers are prized for their water-reten-tion abilities, but some seem downright scary with their prickly exteriors. While all cacti are succulents, it’s important to note that not all succulents are cacti. Less needle-like succulents include aloe, jade, snake plant, and agave. Hens and chicks (sempervivum) and wax plant (hoya) are other succulents to consider.

Searching for succulents online is another great way for gardeners to discover these wonderful plants.

Photo by YinYangAloe vera, a succulent, is a popu-lar medicinal herb.


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Although the heydays of the real estate boom of the early 2000s have not quite returned, things look positive. In the Unit-ed States, 1,226,000 new homes were built in 2016, according to data from Consumer Reports. That was the most since 2007.

Resales also have been more promising. The National Association of Realtors¨ says the me-dian number of days a home was on the market in April 2017 reached a new low of 29 days.

However, low supply levels did stanch existing home sales somewhat. By mid-2017, the market was a seller’s market, with more people in the market for homes than proper-ties available. But sales during that time were still outpacing sales figures from a year prior. In fact, in May 2017, home sales in Canada increased to their highest level in more than five years, according to the Canadian MLS¨ Systems.

Low interest rates on mortgages and more con-fidence in the economy

has driven many people to make improvements to their existing homes. As is typical, the things homeowners are looking for in 2017 have evolved from years past. The following are some trends that are helping to steer the real estate market further.

• Smaller homes: Home sizes in the United States steadily increased for decades, eventually leading to an average of 2,453 square feet in 2014, according to U.S. Census figures. However, Realtor.com reported in

2015 that new construc-tion homes have already begun to shrink by 40 square feet. There seems to be a slight trend toward more modest homes as people consider afford-ability and maintenance on larger properties. The National Association of Home Builders states buyers are now looking for smaller, more livable homes with flexible floor plans, energy-efficient appliances and plenty of storage space.

• Matte finishes: Stain-less steel and luster have been popular for years. However, the next big thing is matte finishes on faucets, appliances and even in countertops. These less flashy finish-es are prized for their warmth and elegance.

While some high-end models with matte fin-ishes have been available for several years, even less expensive models are now available.

• Smarter technology: Many homeowners are embracing smart tech-nology throughout their homes, but it’s not just lights that turn on with voice command or more efficient thermostats. Innovative technology includes toilets that can

autonomously stay clean and sanitized, refrigera-tors equipped with camer-as so homeowners can see the contents inside and indoor food recyclers that can turn food waste into fertilizer.

Staying abreast of the ever-changing trends in home improvement and real estate can help consumers make the best choices with regard to buying and building their homes.

Growing trends in today’s homes

Contributed photoHouses are shrinking, selling faster and getting smarter upgrades according to industry statistics.

Although the heydays of the real estate boom of the early 2000s have not quite returned, things look positive. In the United States, 1,226,000 new homes were built in 2016, according to Consumer Reports.

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Homeowners are discover-ing that architectural accents can go a long way toward improving both the look and value of their homes. When renovating a space, the term “millwork” may be mentioned by designers and contractors. While it might be a mystery to some, millwork can give rooms unique looks.

Millwork refers to items traditionally made from raw lumber in a sawmill. Ex-amples of millwork include crown molding, base trims, door frames, window casings, chair rails, and paneling. Cabinets may also classify as millwork.

Used for both decoration and to increase the function-ality of buildings, millwork comes in various types. Gen-erally, millwork is fabricated in two ways. Stock millwork tends to be mass-produced commercial items. These low-cost items are interchangeable and may be widely available at retailers, including home improvement centers. Custom millwork is a product that is custom designed and produced for individuals and special building projects. Sometimes referred to as ‘architectural millwork,’ these pieces may be more ornate and made-to-order. Home-owners who want to match a focal point of a home or an existing style often turn to custom millwork.

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, ornate millwork was largely reserved for royalty or the very wealthy. Skilled carpenters would hand carve each piece, taking

Eventually, millwork became more commonplace. Distin-guishing one property from another today could mean

turning back to the more dis-tinctive designs of the past.

Homeowners looking for ways to enhance their prop-erties can embrace millwork to achieve a luxury feel without a sizable investment.

millwork that will coordinate with the era and style of a home’s existing decor. Ornate millwork in an overly modern house may seem out of place. The millwork should match the architectural theme of the home.

Although some do-it-your-selfers can successfully install prefabricated millwork, for custom designs and a truly seamless look, it is important to have millwork profession-ally installed. Individuals should research carpenters

who specialize in millwork and verify their license and reputation through a consum-er protection agency.

Popular types of millwork include crown molding, cor-bels, wainscotting, and cus-tom bookcases. Homeowners may not realize that millwork can be added to spaces of all sizes to give them an air of sophistication.

Although millwork was traditionally formed from hardwoods, eco-friendly

millwork crafted from synthetic materials and even reclaimed woods.

Millwork can add that special touch to the interior or exterior of a home. Learn more by visiting worldmill-workalliance.com.

Millwork can add appeal and a classic feel

Contributed photoArchitectural millwork can be seen in many areas of a home, including kitchens.

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