5 Ways to Make a Better Entrance
Houzz.com
“The entryway is the first visible part of a home’s interior, so it’s important to keep it neat and stylish. But it also has the inevitable tendency to become a catch-all for everyone’s junk collected throughout the day. The key is to keep both functions in mind when setting up your entry. This is one space guaranteed to be used every day, so treat it as a room and not just an awkward transitional area. These 5 tips should help you create a functional and tidy and welcome to your home.”

Plugwise Eliminates Excess Energy Use
Jetson Green
“California-based kWh Power is tackling phantom energy loss by introducing the Plugwise system in the United States. Developed by Dutch company Plugwise in 2006, this system allows you to monitor, track, and control unnecessary energy use throughout your home or office. The system consists of ‘Circles’ which are plugged into standard wall outlets to measure load on that outlet, and a ‘Stick’ that wirelessly relays data from the circles to your computer, where Plugwise Source, the monitoring and management software, allows you see and control usage. Data can also be uploaded to the web for remote access via laptops and smartphones.”

Small Kitchen Layouts to Inspire Your Remodel
CalFinder Blog
“The kitchen seems a straightforward thing. It’s a place to cook. Entertain. You have a refrigerator, a stove. Often a dishwasher. Food comes in, food gets served. But it’s not as simple as that, of course. Especially if you’re looking at your existing kitchen that your home may have come with, and reconsidering how you can create the exact kitchen you want. Perhaps you’re doing a full kitchen remodel, and have no idea what kind of kitchen will benefit you the most. Well. We are here to serve and help you.”

Thinking about redesigning or just sprucing up an existing space?
Home Renovation Guide
“Unlike the homes in the magazines, most of us will never own a Schonbek crystal chandelier to tower over a twelve-seater dining table. In fact, these days we’re lucky if there’s enough floor space in our homes for a dining room at all! Multi-functional, small scale and affordable is the way many of us live. And as more people move into and vie for premium spaces in the cities, large spaces will continue to be an expensive option. We all want our homes to look good. But money, time and resources often limit what we can accomplish in our homes.”

Here’s an interesting story: a company is hoping to be build a new town in New Mexico. Only thing is, you can’t live there. It’s a ghost town.

The town (currently called the Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation) will have all the amenities that a real city would have, including houses and businesses. Everything would be fully functional with utilities. It would even have a mall (not filled with merchandise presumably)!

So why on earth is this town being built? For research of course! Pegasus Global Holdings will use the town to test energy efficient and green home innovations. MSN Real Estate gives an example of what might take place there:

If it all sounds too crazy, here’s a down-to-earth example: Say scientists want to see if a new kind of smart thermostat can make an entire neighborhood more energy-efficient. They could hand out the thermostats to homeowners in Albuquerque and check in on their meters for the next year. But the results would depend on a lot of factors out of the researchers’ control, such as how warm or cool individuals like their rooms to be or the houses’ insulation quality. And if the experimental system doesn’t work, the scientists would have disrupted people’s lives and maybe increased their utility bills.

But nobody would live in the center’s buildings. Computerized systems would mimic human behavior such as turning thermostats up and down, switching lights off and on or flushing toilets, but they would do so under the scientists’ control. A research team could install the thermostats in a block of the center’s two-story suburban houses, then run multiple long-term scenarios, manipulating the imaginary residents’ behavior to see what the energy use is under different circumstances.

Oh, and since there will be researchers and scientists there to run things in the imaginary city, they’ll be staying in facilities underground.

Although building an entire city that no one lives in might seem odd, having this sort of research space might lead to all sorts of discoveries with energy efficiency in the home. What do you think?

Image courtesy of pascalbovet.com on Flickr.

Hire a remodeling consultant? It’s something to consider
Kathy’s Remodeling Blog
“You’ve got your builders and general contractors and remodeling contractors and architects and designers and engineers and plumbers and roofers and tile setters and butchers and bakers and candlestick makers. Oh wait. Well, anyway, it can be very confusing. And that’s why consultants were invented.”

Kitchen Design: A Picture Frame for Your Backsplash
Houzz.com
“If you are looking for ideas for a traditional kitchen backsplash, consider creating a picture-frame feature above your range or cooktop. These are square or rectangular tile designs bordered by molding, much like a picture frame. Think of it as wall art for your backsplash. Here are some great examples of picture-frame backsplashes and some tips for doing this yourself.”

Your End Of Summer Home Maintenance Checklist
Charles and Hudson
“Moving into a new season typically means that there are some home maintenance tasks you can check off your to-do list. That’s especially true as we head into fall, as much of the country will begin to experience cooler temperatures before winter’s frigid grip takes hold. To make sure your home is in tip-top shape, consider tackling some of these checklist items.”

5 Little-Known Ways to Save on Your Kitchen Remodel
CalFinder Blog
“Once you’ve made the decision to remodel your kitchen, the next challenge may be to find the right balance between getting all the features you want and making costs manageable. Keeping in mind the five P’s – planning, priorities, proportion, placement, and professional – can help you accomplish your goals.”

When it comes to energy waste, tech is hero and villain
CNN.com
“In this day and age, we’ve come to expect that technology will help us save electricity, not waste it. But when it comes to electronics, there are glaring exceptions to the rule that more technology makes our lives more efficient.
It seems technology has become simultaneously the hero and villain of the energy-efficiency movement.”

Most of the nation is enduring a brutal heatwave this week, which isn’t surprising given it’s July. Homeowners face the annual summer quandary: How to keep the house cool without racking up a huge energy bill.

Thankfully, Inhabitat has some advice for staying cool in a sustainable, energy efficient ways as the heat wave rages on. Here are a few often overlooked recommendations:

Keep the heat out. Window treatments are about more than aesthetic. “Covering windows with light colored blinds inside helps, especially on west windows that allow much more heat to permeate later in the afternoon.”

What you’re looking at could be the future of home energy usage.

Sustainable Industries unveiled its ten favorite green building products of 2011 last week at PCBC 2011 in San Francisco, and this device — called Modlet by ThinkEco — is a stand-out.

The device reduces the power pulled by appliances and electronics when they’re not in use, which saves more energy than you might think. Modlet is plugged into an existing outlet and is controlled by a wireless connection through a user’s computer. From there, homeowners can choose to cut power to items not in use, giving them more control of their energy usage.

“It’s a great way to get started with energy management,” said Mei Shibata, one of the company’s founders. “It’s the perfect first product to get people used to energy efficiency.”

The Modlet is only available for commercial use right now, but a consumer version is on the way. According to ThinkEco, the Modlet can reduce overall energy costs by 10 percent.

[photo from Sustainable Industries]

Karim Rashid & Soda Stream: A Bubbly Match
Shelter Pop
“The award-winning designer has a new kitchen device — and he’s giving his only US interview to ShelterPop! With the at-home soda craze in full swing, it’s only natural that SodaStream — maker of the DIY soda maker — would bring some design cred to their machines by teaming up with award-winning designer Karim Rashid. Together. they’ve created a fun and bubbly limited edition home soda maker that us seltzer-aholics here at ShelterPop are crazy about. So when he agreed to give his one US interview to us, we jumped at the chance to talk not only about the DIY soda trend, but inspiration and good design as well.”

3 Smart Ways to Pay for Your Home Remodel
CalFinder
“As you may have noticed, the remodels with the greatest return often come at the highest price tags. Window replacement, for instance, costs an average of $11,066, bathroom remodels go for $16,634, and minor kitchen renovations ring in at $21,695. If you lack the cash up-front to cover materials and labor, how can you afford the work your home needs this year?”

Rooftop Gardens
Design*Sponge
“Outdoor space is most New Yorkers’ ultimate real estate wish. We initially hunt for more light, bigger rooms and better locations, but even after you’ve found a great apartment, it’s impossible to not eventually hope for a place to plant a garden to sit outside. While the reality of an amazing rooftop garden feels about a hundred years away for me, for some New Yorkers, it’s sitting right in front of them.”

DIY: Make a Sewing Kit in a Mason Jar
Casa Sugar
A picture guide to keeping sewing equipment for clothing emergencies in an adorable mason jar.

Why You Should Get an Energy Audit
Old House Web
“The right place to start is with an energy audit, a top-to-bottom look at your house by a trained professional who can then make suggestions on which upgrades can do the most good.”

We ran across an article with some interesting tidbits about what homeowners want in 2011. Are any of these on your radar?

• Outdoor living areas: Are you paying more attention to things like porches and patios? An outdoor kitchen (from simple to grand) and a fireplace can add a whole new dimension. Who doesn’t love an extra room in the great outdoors?
• Green features: Green is hot right now, but homeowners are demanding practical things like energy efficient windows and water and electricity-saving appliances.
• Open kitchens: If the hearth is the heart of the home, it makes sense people want to be in it. Open kitchens allow that cozy feeling while allowing the cook some additional space to maneuver.
• Smaller homes: To go along with the green theme, smaller homes are easier to heat and cool, easier to clean and discourage the mindless filling of rooms.

Do you see these trends in your house hunting and remodeling plans?

While green building and environmentally consciousness slowly catches on across the U.S., Masdar City (in the United Arab Emirates) is leading the way in sustainability by becoming the world’s first carbon neutral city.

Located outside the city of Abu Dhabi, Masdar City is six square kilometers and it’s  part-habitation, part-science experiment. Construction of the project started in 2006. When finished, the city will rely 100 percent on solar energy while providing space for 45,000 to 50,000 citizens and 1,500 businesses. So far, buildings have been strategically erected around perimeter of the city to block hot desert winds while solar panels have been built to create a canopy that shades parts of the city.

To get around, citizens will rely on electric vehicle and mass transit railways. The city will utilize a solar-powered desalination plan for water management. Biological waste will be used as fertilizer or incinerated while plastic and metal materials will go through recycling streams.

Domestically, while we’re thinking about simpler ways to live green by using energy efficient appliances and building materials, a city on the other side of the globe plans to limit its carbon footprint to zero.

Now, that’s inspirational.

Crazy Rooms (That We’re Crazy About) From New York Magazine
Shelter Pop
“This week’s issue of New York focuses on extreme design…and we’re extremely excited. Check out our five favorite spaces.”

Do You Dance While You Iron?
DIY Life
“Everybody, at some point, has busted a move while cleaning. These people were kind enough to share their methods on YouTube. ”

America’s Most Decadent Kitchens
MSN Real Estate
“Forbes compiled a list of some of the most luxurious kitchens in homes now for sale, with help from Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Sotheby’s International and Coldwell Banker.”

How Much Can You Save with Green Remodeling Tax Credits?
Calfinder
“Happy Earth Day, folks! In honor of the 41st anniversary of this greenest of holidays, I’d like to share a breakdown on energy-saving home improvements, and the federal tax incentives that make them affordable.”

Concerned about the state of your lawn and garden after this hard winter? Looking for a way to go green? Oh boy, have we ever got a solution for you: goats! Yes, goats, the adorably mischievous ruminants.

According to The Wall Street Journal via MSN, goats are becoming the new way to keep your lawn in tip-top shape without having to fire up the lawnmower or the weed whacker. Goats will eat almost anything, will work tirelessly at clearing lawns and are a great conversation starter!

Unless you live on a farm, you probably don’t want to invest in a goat, let alone a herd (and local code probably wouldn’t allow city dwellers to), but there are rental options, such as www.rent-a-goat.com. And what about the “fertilization” the goats naturally provide? Reputable goat rental companies will clean up after their animals.

So if you are seeking a unique, green way to clear your yard, how about letting some adorable hard-working goats do it (homeowners should check their local codes to find out if livestock rental is permitted and for what purposes)? Would you rent some goats to spruce up your yard? Let us know in the comments!

Image courtesy of Michael Vincent Miller on Flickr.