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Friday, July 22, 2005 | ||
Home briefsYour wish is graniteDo you dream of someday having a kitchen with laminate countertops? Butcherblock? No, most of us picture the perfect kitchen with luxurious granite, complete with sensuous curved edges, reflections, and deep texture from the natural stone. The L-shaped island of this kitchen has a raised snack counter that provides stadium seating while watching the expert chef, or a place for the kids to eat their breakfast cereal. The raised snack counter also helps hide the electrical outlets that serve the food preparation counter level. The island also includes a granite top and is a great food staging area for the cooktop. Selling your house? Fix it firstPlanning to sell your home? While its a sellers market these days, there are still things you should do to get top dollar. Paint inside and out. It returns two to five times its cost. Replace worn carpets shabby floors bring down the price. Make badly needed repairs. Find the worst things about your house and fix them. Then get a professional home inspection to find and fix flaws that could delay closing the sale. Clean and paint the garage. If its full of junk and dirty, it works against you. If its clean and bright, its a welcome sight. Its time to get organizedWhere are my keys? Who has the cordless phone? Did we pay the power bill? If you have asked any or all of these questions recently, youre not alone. One answer to these questions is a home organization center (above). It may look like just additional cabinetry, but it is actually a multi-functioning stand-up information and organization area. It is strategically located between the kitchen and the garage, just at the entry to the mud room. The location is perfect to leave important messages on the bulletin board for one another, especially if youre not a five-cell-phone family yet. Speaking of phones, it is also wired to be the base station for the main-floor cordless. Next is the triple drawers. They not only look cute, but can be divided into Mom, Dad and Kids, for dropping your keys into when you dash home. Another drawer below it can hold pens and paper for phone messages and bulletin board push pins. Below that, the cabinet is for all the phone books we tend to collect. The triple cubbies above the phone can be for decoration, but can be more useful than that if you sort the family mail. Above that are glass doored display shelves. The height of the granite countertop is higher than the rest of the kitchen cabinets since you will only be standing next to it, not sitting, and the bulletin board is at the height that all the readers in the family should be able to spot the important messages as they dash out. More than stains lurk under wood flooringQ: Could you please tell me what is the best way to get cat urine stains out of a wooden floor? Cindy. A: Chlorine bleach kills the bacteria associated with pet urine, as do other disinfectants. Unfortunately, sometimes the urine and its associated bacteria make it to the area beneath the hardwood the subfloor. When this happens, it may require removal of the hardwood to get to the bacteria with a disinfectant. If the hardwood flooring is tongue-and-groove, the help of a flooring contractor may be in order. However, if the flooring is square-edged (the most common type in older homes) then it is probably a job that you can do yourself. Remember, sanding out the black stains wont get rid of the smell if the urine made it to the area beneath the hardwood. Wall powerSome men just find comfort in striped and foulard ties. They give them confidence and courage. Now they can reap the benefits at work on casual days or at home watching basketball. The New York Times says Brooks Brothers has introduced a wallpaper collection in the same patterns as traditional store ties. An executive team chose the designs from Brooks archives. The wallpapers sell for $29.99 to $46.99 a roll. For information, call (800) 332-3384 and request the Gramercy division of F. Schumacher. Tear out dry rot in privacy of own homeQ: I have dry rot underneath my vinyl floor, next to the shower in the bathroom. There is a bubble formed. What kind of repair is involved and what is the estimated cost? Also, is this a do-it-yourself project? A: Yes, this is a nice and challenging DIY project. Tear out the vinyl flooring and the underlaying. You may also need to remove the shower. The rotted flooring needs to be replaced and this entire process could cost anywhere between a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. Wire services
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