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(BPT) – Demand remains high for energy-efficient, eco-friendly home features, according to a survey by the National Association of Home Builders. In fact, the majority of builders now put energy-efficient windows, heating and cooling systems, thermostats and appliances in their construction, the survey says. If you’re selling your home and hope to compete with new construction — as well as set your house apart from other resales — making green improvements could significantly pay off.

“Updating your home with green features can attract more buyers and even increase your home’s sale price,” says Geoff Lewis, president of RE/MAX, LLC. “Buyers are not only looking for cosmetic upgrades, they also want improvements that will help save them money for as long as they live in the home.”

Some green projects you can easily accomplish yourself, like replacing less efficient light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs or LEDs throughout the house, or installing a programmable thermostat. Other improvements may require professional expertise but can result in even bigger payoffs.

Here are five popular green home improvements that could help boost your home’s resale value, and save you money until you’re ready to sell:

* Windows: Replacing older windows with ENERGY STAR-rated high-efficiency windows could lower your annual energy bill as much as 12 percent, according to the United States Department of Energy. What’s more, ENERGY STAR-rated windows may qualify for a tax credit of 10 percent off the cost of the windows.

* Insulation: Most homes in the U.S. don’t have enough insulation, according to energystar.gov. Adding insulation and sealing air leaks could reduce annual energy bills by 10 percent. At the time of resale, adding fiberglass insulation in the attic could recoup 107 percent of the cost, according to Remodeling Magazine’s Cost vs. Value report.

*Front door: It’s a key part of your home’s curb appeal and the last exterior feature homebuyers see before entering your house. However, a front door needs to do more than look good. Replacing an older, wooden door with an energy-efficient, secure steel door recoups more than 90 percent of its cost when you sell your home, according to the Cost vs. Value report.

*Landscaping: With warm weather approaching, it’s a great time to think about landscaping that has green value as well as cosmetic appeal. Adding trees in addition to flowers can provide shade that will help keep the home’s interior cooler in summer months. In fact, according to the National Association of Landscape professionals, planting five shade trees can return up to 100 percent of the project cost when you sell your home.

*Water: Most water heaters last about 10 years, so if your home is older, a new water heater could be a big selling point. A tankless water heater could be even more appealing; because they only heat water when it’s needed, rather than consume energy to hold gallons of water at a set temperature for hours, tankless water heaters use far less energy. ENERGY STAR says a tankless water heater could save you up to $1,800 over its usable life — which is twice as long as the lifespan of traditional tank water heaters.

When you’re thinking of selling your home, you’ll probably invest a lot of time and energy into staging. Consider saving some additional budget for energy-efficient home improvements that may help boost your home’s value. A knowledgeable real estate agent can advise you on which green home improvements can get you the biggest return on investment. Visit www.remax.com to find a real estate agent near you.

(BPT) – Years ago, the kitchen served a very utilitarian function – a place to prepare food and clean the dishes. Today, it’s truly the nerve center of the house where people eat meals, discuss the day’s events, plan calendars, do homework, check e-mai…

(BPT) – Years ago, the kitchen served a very utilitarian function – a place to prepare food and clean the dishes. Today, it’s truly the nerve center of the house where people eat meals, discuss the day’s events, plan calendars, do homework, check e-mai…

(BPT) – What would you rather do: Pay your utility bill or take a much-deserved vacation? With an endless stream of bills each month, you might wonder where you can find the money to jet off to the beach or mountain resort of your dreams. Read on for t…

(BPT) – At its core, the desire to create a home with curb appeal is a desire to make a home uniquely one’s own. After all, no matter how beautiful they are, rows of homes that look the same inherently fail to capture attention. Using personal touches, people want friends and family to know which home is theirs.

Among the dozens of affordable ways you can personalize your home’s curb appeal, the first tip from Better Homes and Gardens is to “dress up the front door.” One way they note to do that is by installing a custom wood door.

“Wooden doors are most often used in custom or specialized design situations since they are easiest to manipulate,” explains the DIY Network. “With the countless options ([wood species], side lights, transoms, decorative glass, etc.) you can custom design the specific look you want for your entryway.”

To achieve a one-of-a-kind look for your front door, consider these three ways to personalize your wood door.

1. Choose your favorite wood

From modern to traditional, doors are available in many different wood species to meet your personal taste. If you like the look of high-end furniture, cherry or walnut might be right for you, while exotic woods like sapele mahogany have distinctive patterns for an eye-catching door. Woods like knotty alder create a casual, rustic look, while Douglas fir provides a timeless appeal.

“We’ve built doors out of more than 100 different wood species — everything from ash to zebrawood — so you’re sure to find a wood that’s right for you,” says Brad Loveless, marketing and product development manager for Simpson Door Company. “We will also make doors using multiple wood species, for a look none of your neighbors will have.”

2. Go big

If you’re planning a new home, or a remodel of your existing home, replacing the front door with an extra-large door is an impressive way to fashion a grand entry. To make a big impression, wood doors can be custom ordered in virtually any large size. For example, a door that is 5 feet wide by 8 feet high is almost two times larger than the typical front door, and is sure to capture the attention of visitors to your home. Wood door manufacturers recommend that if you have a large door, consider making it 2 1/4” thick, which is a common thickness for a custom entry door.

“Another attractive quality of wood doors is that they can be custom made to fit any size opening or trimmed to a specific size doorway,” says the DIY Network. “In this regard, wood is a material that is easy to work with and can be made to fit your exact needs.” Compared to other materials like fiberglass and steel, wood doors offer the flexibility to “create virtually any shape, or make just about any door a Dutch door, move design components around and change the door thickness,” says Loveless.

3. Add a touch of class with glass

Wood door manufacturers offer a wide range of glass designs to complement your door. Depending on the look you prefer, these range from a full lite door, in which the glass extends from top to bottom, to quarter lite doors, in which the pane is limited to the top one-fourth of the door. Glass is tempered to resist breakage and to help keep intruders out. Additionally, you can choose from options with a wide range of transparency, to ensure the right balance of privacy and natural light for your situation. Some manufacturers, like Simpson, offer easy-to-use design tools for choosing door and glass designs. The company’s online Glass Taste Test tool, for example, enables homeowners to see how different glass types will look in their door, and the degree of privacy the glass provides.

Although homeowners can choose from several different materials for their front door, wood allows greater flexibility for customization and creates enduring value. “It’s easy to understand why many of us still like our doors to be made of wood — nothing else matches the material’s warmth and satisfying heft,” says This Old House magazine.

(BPT) – Do you cringe each month when your utility bill arrives in the mail? If high energy costs are getting you down, don’t blame your electronic devices. Heating and cooling are the largest energy expense for most homes, reports the U.S. Department of Energy.

If you dream of building a new, custom home, you must make some fundamental decisions about how the home will be built in order to avoid thousands of dollars in wasted energy costs each year.

When you picture your dream home under construction, you likely think of hundreds of wall studs (the skeleton of a building) creating the frame of your home, as that is how many U.S. homes are built — from tract homes to custom-built mansions. So-called “stick framing” has been the standard practice in home building since the 1800s. Yet, this method is notoriously difficult and expensive to make energy efficient, leading to high heating and cooling bills.

More custom home builders have discovered an advanced method of building that can help reduce a home’s heating and cooling energy consumption up to 60 percent compared to stick framing. The system is structural insulated panels (SIPs), which can be used to form walls, roofs and floors in big sections (24 ft. each) that install quickly and easily. SIPs panels are made when structural wood sheathing is laminated to a rigid foam core for superior strength and insulation. Compared to traditional two-by-four stud walls, SIPs have thicker and more continuous insulation for exceptional insulating power, and have far fewer gaps where heated indoor air can leak out.

“Making a home airtight is the most critical thing you can do for high energy efficiency,” says Garrett Strong, president of Tall Pines Construction, Inc., in Park City, Utah. In one custom home Strong built for the O’Meara family in the snowy foothills of the Wasatch Mountains, the large SIP panels leave few spaces for gaps and help super-insulate the home. This high efficiency allowed the home to supply 90 percent of its heating and cooling needs through passive solar energy.

Likewise, when it came time to design her own home, Montana architect Becki D. Miller, AIA, used SIPs to help create a structure that she estimates is about 30 times more airtight than a conventional home. In addition to being energy efficient, Miller notes that SIPs help simplify and speed construction. “In one step, you can have the walls up and they’re insulated and sheathed,” says Miller. “With SIPs, we had the walls up in only two days.”

“While SIPs are an advanced building method, they’re not new,” says James Hodgson, general manager of Premier SIPs, a manufacturer based near Tacoma, Washington. “SIP homes have been built in the U.S. since the 1960s, but with new interest in energy-efficient construction, more people are asking for SIPs.” Hodgson notes that manufacturers continue to innovate with SIPs, including new types of insulating cores. His company’s Platinum SIPs, for example, use a new type of insulation that increases the panels’ insulating power by more than 20 percent.

Scott Bergford, another custom home builder, based in Olympia, Washington, focuses almost exclusively on SIP construction. “Everyone is so amazed by the energy efficiency SIPs provide,” says Bergford. “It only costs an average of $200 to $300 a year to heat one of my homes. That’s anywhere from one-fifth to one-sixth the typical costs for this region, so the savings are pretty significant, and the homeowners love that.”

(BPT) – At its core, the desire to create a home with curb appeal is a desire to make a home uniquely one’s own. After all, no matter how beautiful they are, rows of homes that look the same inherently fail to capture attention. Using personal touches, people want friends and family to know which home is theirs.

Among the dozens of affordable ways you can personalize your home’s curb appeal, the first tip from Better Homes and Gardens is to “dress up the front door.” One way they note to do that is by installing a custom wood door.

“Wooden doors are most often used in custom or specialized design situations since they are easiest to manipulate,” explains the DIY Network. “With the countless options ([wood species], side lights, transoms, decorative glass, etc.) you can custom design the specific look you want for your entryway.”

To achieve a one-of-a-kind look for your front door, consider these three ways to personalize your wood door.

1. Choose your favorite wood

From modern to traditional, doors are available in many different wood species to meet your personal taste. If you like the look of high-end furniture, cherry or walnut might be right for you, while exotic woods like sapele mahogany have distinctive patterns for an eye-catching door. Woods like knotty alder create a casual, rustic look, while Douglas fir provides a timeless appeal.

“We’ve built doors out of more than 100 different wood species — everything from ash to zebrawood — so you’re sure to find a wood that’s right for you,” says Brad Loveless, marketing and product development manager for Simpson Door Company. “We will also make doors using multiple wood species, for a look none of your neighbors will have.”

2. Go big

If you’re planning a new home, or a remodel of your existing home, replacing the front door with an extra-large door is an impressive way to fashion a grand entry. To make a big impression, wood doors can be custom ordered in virtually any large size. For example, a door that is 5 feet wide by 8 feet high is almost two times larger than the typical front door, and is sure to capture the attention of visitors to your home. Wood door manufacturers recommend that if you have a large door, consider making it 2 1/4” thick, which is a common thickness for a custom entry door.

“Another attractive quality of wood doors is that they can be custom made to fit any size opening or trimmed to a specific size doorway,” says the DIY Network. “In this regard, wood is a material that is easy to work with and can be made to fit your exact needs.” Compared to other materials like fiberglass and steel, wood doors offer the flexibility to “create virtually any shape, or make just about any door a Dutch door, move design components around and change the door thickness,” says Loveless.

3. Add a touch of class with glass

Wood door manufacturers offer a wide range of glass designs to complement your door. Depending on the look you prefer, these range from a full lite door, in which the glass extends from top to bottom, to quarter lite doors, in which the pane is limited to the top one-fourth of the door. Glass is tempered to resist breakage and to help keep intruders out. Additionally, you can choose from options with a wide range of transparency, to ensure the right balance of privacy and natural light for your situation. Some manufacturers, like Simpson, offer easy-to-use design tools for choosing door and glass designs. The company’s online Glass Taste Test tool, for example, enables homeowners to see how different glass types will look in their door, and the degree of privacy the glass provides.

Although homeowners can choose from several different materials for their front door, wood allows greater flexibility for customization and creates enduring value. “It’s easy to understand why many of us still like our doors to be made of wood — nothing else matches the material’s warmth and satisfying heft,” says This Old House magazine.

(BPT) – What would you rather do: Pay your utility bill or take a much-deserved vacation? With an endless stream of bills each month, you might wonder where you can find the money to jet off to the beach or mountain resort of your dreams. Read on for t…