Outdoor kitchens heat up remodeling scene

Outdoor kitchens heat up remodeling scene

By Jim Nowlin, Remodeling Concepts

Many homeowners enjoy the summer months - and spring, fall and winter - with the sizzle of their outdoor grill. But running back and forth between the kitchen and the barbecue can get old quickly.

Outdoor kitchens make life easier for those who enjoy grilling meals and entertaining outdoors, making a deck or patio an extension of your living space. It also can enhance your home's resale value. With the proper amount of forethought and planning, you'll be enjoying your meals in the great outdoors in no time.

Here are some factors to consider when determining if an outdoor kitchen is right for your household.

What works best in your space?

Outdoor kitchens can be as elaborate or as simple as you'd like. But to make the most of your new space, you need to consider the design carefully.

Think about how the space will be used. Do you want guests to eat outside or mingle while you cook? What features (pool, trees, etc.) are in your backyard and need to be worked around? Is there enough ventilation area so smoke from the grill can blow away?

Have a professional check the patio or deck where you plan on building your outdoor kitchen beforehand. While most can support the additional weight, you may need to add structural support.

Make sure there is plenty of space for people to watch without getting in the way or being too close to open flames. Typically, there should be 3 feet of space on either side of the grill for work space and food preparation.

How often will you be using your outdoor kitchen?

This will determine numerous factors, including the equipment you purchase. If you will use your outdoor kitchen just in the summer, a grill with wheels can be moved into the garage and protected from the elements once the seasons change. These types of grills are the most common and come in a wide variety of sizes and prices with a range of features.

If you want to use your outdoor kitchen year-round, consider a built-in grill. Look for one with side burners in the base unit that allow for cooking at different temperatures simultaneously. This base can provide extra countertop and storage space. Make sure the grill is in an area that can withstand high temperatures and is impervious to stray embers or sparks, such as a stone patio. You won't be able to take it with you if you move, so think carefully before investing a lot of money in a permanent grill.

Take into account lighting needs. If you eat or entertain into the dark evening, you'll want direct light for work areas. Softer lighting works well for socializing areas.

What other equipment do you need?

Standard grill accessories include griddles for grilling fish and vegetables, a meat thermometer and tongs. An exhaust hood for a built-in grill will keep smoke out of guests' eyes. Refrigerators with ice makers are ideal for storing beverages and food that needs to be kept cold. An outdoor sink makes prepping and cleaning veggies an easy task. Unless you plan on washing dishes outside, a cold-water connection is all you need.

For small appliances and stereos, you'll need outdoor GFCI outlets. Consult with a professional electrician for local code requirements. Consider purchasing patio heaters or an outdoor fireplace if you plan on grilling in the chilly months.

For those days with inclement weather, you'll want to get a cover for your grill. Select weatherproof materials for countertops, cabinets and other elements of your kitchen. Stainless steel, slate, tile, stucco and stone all work well. A large tent or outdoor umbrella can cover your guests and equipment and provide shelter from the sun or rain.

This article was provided by a member of the Remodelers Council of the Greater Houston Builders Association. The Remodelers Council is dedicated to promoting professionalism and public awareness through education, certification and service to the community. To find a professional remodeler in your area, visitwww.ghba.org/consumers.

4 Home Improvements That Will Save You Money

4 Home Improvements That Will Save You Money
By GEOFF WILLIAMS

Judging by the TV commercials, most home improvements are a blast. You waltz into a store, throw a bunch of new faucets and buckets of paint in your shopping cart, without sweating about the cost, then transform your dingy kitchen into something out of, well, a TV commercial.

Frequently, those TV spots are spot-on. It is fun to have a new kitchen or to show off your newly installed hardwood floors to your friends and family. But it's all too easy to forget about home improvements that will only get you a polite nod when showing them off – and yet if you ignore them, they could cost you serious money.

So if you're a homeowner with some extra cash this month, look around. There's plenty you can do.

The basement. Particularly if you live a humid climate, you could install a dehumidification system, suggests John Isch, co-chair of the American Institute of Architects Custom Residential Architects Network. This is a much more sophisticated operation than your basic humidifier and will get rid of the humidity in the basement, and some are designed for the entire house.

It may not sound like much of an improvement at first, especially if your family and visitors aren't complaining about the humidity in your home, but even if it isn't noticeable, the humidity may well be there. As Dawn Zuber, another American Institute of Architects member, points out, if the humidity is removed, the house will feel cooler – which may mean you use the air conditioning less.

A dehumidifier may also protect your collectibles. "I run one in my basement and as long as it takes the humidity out of the air, it's keeping all the junk I am storing downstairs from decaying," Zuber says.

Typical cost: Expect to spend at least $1,000, depending on the system.

Typical savings: It is impossible to say, and it may not be worth the cost. But consider how often you use your air conditioner and how much the stuff in your basement is worth.

The attic. If you're interested in only heating and cooling the parts of the house that you live in, and not, say, the drafty attic you rarely visit, Zuber suggests homeowners seal up the air in the upper part of their homes.

"Have someone go up in the attic and seal any penetrations between the ceiling and the attic, like where the pipes and vents go through, and add spray foam insulation to the rim joists in their basements or crawl spaces," Zuber says. "This is the area above the concrete or concrete block wall, where the floor framing meets the exterior wall. Adding attic insulation also provides a nice return on investment if there's less than 10 inches of existing insulation."

Why is that important? The thinner the walls, the faster heat passes through. The more insulation you have, the longer your house stays warm in the winter, and in the summer, it'll stay cooler longer, since the heat from outside can't get inside as quickly.

If you're really into this project, Zuber suggests hiring an energy auditor or home energy rater to test your house and recommend the most cost-effective insulation and air sealing techniques.

Typical cost: A can of spray foam insulation only costs about $6. Of course, if you hire an energy auditor or home energy rater, plan on spending $400 to $500. And if you send a professional handyman up to the attic with a can of $6 spray foam insulation, you may want to add another $100 to your cost.

Typical savings: Again, it's hard to quantify, but if all you have to spend is $6 on a can of spray foam insulation, and you find even one gap to fill, you'll probably come out ahead.

Cracks under windows and doors and holes near the foundation. Unfortunately, there probably aren't just cracks and gaps in your attic – your basement may have them, too, and there may be spaces around your windows and doors where air is getting in. (If you want to, you could spend a good month or two, and quite a bit of cash, sealing up all the cracks in your house.)

Dean Bennett, who owns Dean Bennett Design and Construction, Inc., a design and building firm in Castle Rock, Colo., suggests looking for gaps in the walls of your basement. "It's very common to have these gaps in houses that are more than 15 years old," Bennett says. "Construction techniques did not involve sealing between the sill and foundation very well. Now, they use a layer of foam between the two."

If you live in an older home, Bennett says you can do yourself a favor by doing a "close visual check" for any holes around your basement or foundation. He says filling in the holes could help prevent hot summer air or cold winter air from filtering into your home – not to mention mice and other critters.

Advertisements will tell you to replace your current windows and doors with energy-efficient ones, and maybe you need to. But many home improvement experts will tell you that if there's a draft, it may be adequate to simply weather-strip your doors and windows.

In fact, "the biggest home-energy and money wasters are windows and doors because of the heat they let out and cool air they let in, depending on the season," says Andrea Thomas, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of sustainability.

Typical cost: The can of spray foam insulation to use in your basement runs about $6. As for weather stripping, the price varies, but a 10-foot strip of rubber window weather stripping can be found at many stores for less than $10.

Typical savings: If you weather-strip, Thomas says the average homeowner can save $160 every year in heating and cooling costs.

Decks. Have a wooden deck? Don't forget to put a new coat of stain on it, once every three years, according to Bennett. "It will weatherproof it as well as make it look better," he says.

Typical cost: Deck stain can cost anywhere from $40 to several hundred dollars. Add a couple hundred dollars if you hire a professional to do it. And if you want to replace a deck, Bennett points out that those made of composite materials don't require staining.

Typical savings: A wood deck that is stained regularly can last 20 to 30 years, Bennett says. "If you never do it, you'll shorten the life of your wood deck by 50 percent or more."

Cheap improvements to boost home value

Cheap improvements to boost home value

By Polly Keary, Editor of the Monroe Monitor

With housing prices rising, some homeowners are wondering if it’s time to sell.

If you are trying to sell, local real estate experts agree that it doesn’t take a big home improvement investment to get top dollar for your home.

Rather, with some effort and some small expenditures, your home can stand out from many others and fetch you a motivated buyer.

“Fetching top collar for your home in today’s great market doesn’t require an $80,000 kitchen remodel or an expensive landscape redesign,” said Monroe REMAX real estate professional Ed Hurst. “Real estate experts say your best bet is to invest a little sweat equity into a series of small weekend jobs-$300 or less-that boost your home’s appeal and eliminate buyer’s biggest objectives.”

Here are the easiest things that two local real estate experts say to do to add value to your home without breaking the bank.

1. De-clutter 

The single easiest and fastest way to improve that value of your home, said both Hurst and longtime Windermere agent Shirley Hudson, is to get the clutter out.

“De-cluttering should be the first job sellers cross off their list before starting any other project,” said Hurst.

Most people, he said, get used to their clutter and don’t see how distracting it would look to a buyer.

“You want to give a buyer the chance to see their stuff in your house,” he said.

“Rent a storage unit and get your stuff out there, especially the stuff that’s personal, like pictures of your family,” said Hudson. “Make it so someone can come in and see themselves in there.”

2. Repaint to neutral colors

“If a buyer sees an orange kitchen with yellow highlights and a light blue wall, that is a detraction to most home buyers. They look at color,” said Shirley Hudson of Monroe’s Windermere Real Estate. “So one thing to do is look at what a buyer might see coming into your home and consider the colors you’ve used. You might want to consider repainting.”

Neutral colors are best, she said.

3. Update windows

Windows can be expensive to replace. But not always, said Hudson.

“If you are the original owner of the house and your windows are fogged, quite often you will find that you have a lifetime warranty on those windows and you should get them replaced free,” she said. Twice recently clients have gotten new windows that way, she said.

Also, the PUD may have programs to help you replace old windows with more energy-efficient models.

4. Make over cabinets

The kitchen is the room you really want to get right, said Hurst. And cabinets are the biggest problem, he said.

“You don’t need to get your cabinets refaced or replaced to make them look presentable,” he said. “If they’re scratched or look dated, just spring for a couple of cans of paint and put a new finish on them.”

He advised choosing white or other neutral colors for the kitchen, and for bathrooms, too.

“If you have a larger kitchen that gets a lot of natural light, you could even try a dark chocolate brown or black,” he said. And, he said, don’t forget to replace the hardware.

“It’s an accent that people notice,” Hurst said. “Chose something simple and relatively modern for the pulls, preferably in a brushed nickel. Steer clear of brass, brightly-colored glass or anything decorated with pictures of birds or flowers.”

5. Clean thoroughly

Buyers want a house that looks well-maintained. So make sure your home is well-groomed, said Hudson.

“Have it cleaned, and I mean really deep clean,” she said. “Get someone to do the gutters, wash and paint the gutter edges, and get your roof cleaned.”

Pressure wash the driveway for a finished look. Spruce up your landscaping, and take a look at your appliances. If any are decrepit, invest in upgrades.

“If your fence needs staining, stain it,” said Hudson. “Those kinds of things make a huge difference.”

If you are considering replacing an aging deck, use the extruded plastic product Trex, she said.

“It weathers beautifully and it’s low maintenance,” she said. “It’s so much better than old, treated wood decks.”

6. Update flooring

It’s not as expensive as you think to put new floor coverings in your home, and it can make a world of difference, said Hudson.

Putting new linoleum in a bathroom can run a mere $100. And modern nylon or polyester carpets are affordable, wear extremely well and look great, she said.

Above all, don’t spend so much that you can’t recover the cost in the sale price, said Hudson.

“When I go on a listing, I limit what they spend on the home,” she said. “In this market, they probably bought when the market was high, and they don’t have a lot of money to put in.”

The right agent can guide a seller through the process of prioritizing investments to maximize potential return, she said.

“The home is the most expensive purchase one will make in their lifetime,” she said. “It has to make good economic sense.”

Big Home Builders Gobble Up Rivals Starved for Cash

By ROBBIE WHELAN and DAWN WOTAPKA

The nation's biggest publicly traded home builders are on a buying spree, snapping up small privately held companies who made it through the housing slump but now are struggling to find financing.

Big builders are seeing their profits healthy and their homes selling at higher prices. For their smaller, privately owned competitors, times remain tough.

What sets the big builders apart is access to capital. The bond market has been kind to big builders, which issued a record $8.1 billion in bonds last year. Bond issues are on pace to have one of the strongest years ever this year, according to a recent analysis by J.P. Morgan JPM +1.99% .

Private builders have traditionally relied on small or regional banks for funding. But many of those lenders stopped making loans for construction and development during the financial crisis and have been slow to resume. More than 480 banks have failed since the beginning of the downturn, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

And lenders haven't been eager to make new loans to the industry: According to the FDIC, the dollar value of outstanding construction and development loans has declined 68% since the peak of the market in early 2008.

Without bank credit, small builders are unable to buy and develop the land necessary to build homes. That has allowed the biggest builders to rapidly gain market share, in large part by acquiring their smaller competition.

"It's getting tougher and tougher for the little guy," said Michael P. Kahn, a building-industry consultant based in Palm Coast, Fla. "The big builders are coming in with big purses and saying, 'Sell me what you've got, I'll write you a check for it.'"

Mr. Kahn, who has advised builders on 96 mergers and acquisitions since 1987, retired from real-estate deal-making in January 2011, but came out of retirement late last year. He has since advised on three deals, and predicts there will be as many as 20 more over the next two years. "The floodgates have opened," he said.

In the past 18 months, public builders have completed at least eight large acquisitions totaling an estimated $1.5 billion, according to Mr. Kahn, the biggest round of consolidation the industry has seen since 2009.

The largest 10 publicly traded builders, which sold 24% of the nation's new homes in 2007, sold 30% of all new homes during the first quarter of 2013, according to aDeutsche Bank DBK.XE +2.85% analysis. Sales of newly built homes were running at an annual pace of nearly 480,000 in May, according to the Commerce Department.

"We have two ways to win right now: We participate in the natural recovery, but additionally, we're picking up market share from a group of builders that isn't able to get financing," said Stuart Miller, chief executive of Miami-based Lennar Corp.,LEN -1.35% the country's third-largest builder.

Since the downturn, Lennar has gained market position in 14 of the 30 markets in which it builds, according to the company. The gains helped drive home-building revenue up 59% to $1.28 billion in its second quarter from the prior year.
Meanwhile, many small builders are fighting to survive. Craig Perry, who built luxury homes for 20 years in Florida, hosted a party last year in Orlando, Fla., at the industry's biggest convention to show off 2012's "Concept Home," with a poolside dining room and an outdoor cabana guest room.

Last month, Mr. Perry sold his company, along with land enough to build 3,200 houses, to Standard Pacific Corp.,SPF +1.63% a publicly traded builder based in Irvine, Calif.
"Our capital is a lot more expensive than the public builders. There is a sense of, 'If you can't beat them, join them,'" said Mr. Perry.

Even some small builders who were able to secure bank loans have decided to sell out rather than continue to compete.

Eric Campbell founded CamWest Development in Seattle in 1990, when he was 25. At the height of the market in the mid-2000s, his company was selling 250 luxury homes per year and bringing in revenue of $160 million.

But starting in 2008, Mr. Campbell said, his lenders began asking him to contribute more cash to each subdivision he was building, eventually as much as half the cost.

For about six months in 2008, he said, he became sleep-deprived from worrying about how to refinance multiple short-term loans he had personally guaranteed.

In 2011, he said, when he tried to buy a piece of land big enough for 81 homes with views of a lake near Bellevue, Wash., his lender asked CamWest to invest $10 million in cash before it would make a loan.

Instead, Mr. Campbell sold his company to publicly traded Toll Brothers Inc.,TOL -1.13% the nation's largest builder of luxury homes. Now a Toll division president, he bought the land in Bellevue and started selling homes there, priced from $1.1 million to $1.7 million, late last year. He said he has hired 25 new employees for his new Toll division, and the sleepless nights are a thing of the past.

"The lending environment for private home builders just doesn't match the business model," he said.

Other big builders have also been shopping. In May, Ryland Group Inc. RYL -0.70%said it was buying Texas-based LionsGate Homes, its third acquisition in a year. D.R. Horton Inc. DHI -2.34% and NVR Inc. NVR -0.05% also acquired smaller players in the last year.

Small builders, many of which turned to private-equity funds for financing during the downturn, are rushing to convert into public companies. Three new builders have gone public since January, and more are expected. The public market gives builders easier access to capital.

New home sales fell 76% between their peak of 1.28 million in 2005 and low of 306,000 in 2011, the worst year on record. Hundreds of small builders failed, but not one of the 10 largest public home builders failed during the downturn that took hold in 2008.

Large public builders survived by writing down a combined $38.9 billion in value from their land portfolios—a flexibility many private builders didn't have—and pushing the government to refund some taxes paid during the boom years to offset losses during the housing crash. That policy, signed into law in 2008, gained the large public builders a combined $7.9 billion, according to Zelman & Associates, a research firm.

"That was a lifesaver for these publics," said Robert Curran, Fitch Ratings' lead home building analyst. "In the absence of these refunds, another four or five might have gone belly up."