360renos: November 2011

How to make your home stand out when selling

We can help your house sell quickly and at a good price -- even in a slow market.

It takes a lot more than sparkling windows, scented candles and chocolate-chip cookies to sell a home in today's market.

Improvements should be made so that the property shows well, is consistent with the neighborhood and does not involve capital investments.

Beyond any doubt, the best investment you can make is new paint. Painting can make a room or an exterior façade look brand-new, and totally transform the look and feel of a room or the entire residence. It is always wise to be somewhat restrained when choosing colors for a home-staging paint project. Avoid choosing colors that are too individual or flashy and favor neutral colors and schemes. This does not mean painting everything white, however.

Use subtle color schemes to accentuate the home's strengths and minimize weaknesses. Dark colors, for example, tend to make a room feel smaller, while lighter colors and pastels can make a room feel bigger.

There is another benefit to painting as well: the process of preparing the interior or exterior surfaces of a home for painting automatically allows us to go over the entire area receiving paint in great detail, and this can often expose items or areas requiring repair. It seems you always discover where the caulking has let go, where the wall is dinged.

It is always preferable that we discover and deal with these items before the real estate agent (or worse, the prospective buyer) points them out to you!

Dave - 360renos

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Saturday, November 12, 2011

New 360renos.ca Brochure

Awesome new brochure designed and printed by the great folks at Sureprint.ca in Orleans

If your a Realtor, Interior Designer or Decorator, Home Staging and Property Scene specialist send me an e-mail if you would like a professional brochure that you can include in your client packages.

360renos offers many services which can help your clients who may be in need of a small fix repair or painting project that is needed to sell their home quickly.

My brochure outlines what we offer and my quotes are always free!

Dave

Owner 360renos

phone 613.429.5000
mobile 613.282.2124

email dbennett@360renos.ca
www.360renos.ca

Saturday, November 5, 2011

LED Light Bulb Cost and Return on Investment

The LED bulb I bought was pricey at $29.98 but like CFL's they will come down over time and as more manufactures come on-line. I sure wouldn't want to re-lamp my entire home in one shot. I will do it though as existing bulbs burn out.

Another area I was very impressed was the many varieties of LED bulbs available for the numerous applications out there. LED bulbs available as floods, PAR 20, GU 10, etc. I love it that my customers don't have to retro fit light fixtures to accommodate the new bulbs. I haven't seen any 3 way LED bulbs though.

So I did some math on the LED ROI because my curiosity got peaked upon reflection of the bulb cost.

For a lamp that's on six hours a day, that would give us 12 watts x 6 hours x 365 = 26.3 kWh. At $.092 per kWh (mid -peak price) that's $2.42 a year to operate. Subtract that from $12.09 (incandescent cost) and that's a savings of $9.67 a year.

The bulbs packaging says it has a lifespan of 25,000 hours, it should theoretically last for about 11 years in this application. Over 11 years, we would otherwise have to buy 22 incandescents, for a cost of $16.50, or about $1.50 each year. With the annual savings of $9.67 in energy and $1.50 in bulbs, the LED will pay for itself in just under three years.

Not bad!

I could see these bulbs being very beneficial in commercial applications which need a lot of light. It would be a huge cost savings for them.

I'm definitely looking forward to being able to provide my customers with an alternative lighting solutions now.

Dave

Owner 360renos

phone 613.429.5000
mobile 613.282.2124

email dbennett@360renos.ca
www.360renos.ca

Thursday, November 3, 2011

New LED light bulbs are brighter and more efficient

I just installed our first LED light bulb in our home.

Yes those same idea as a LED flashlight that has many little bulbs. Those numerous bulbs make a bright light shine from your flashlight now work very well in a household bulb.

I'm very impressed with the new product for numerous reasons.

The 60 watt equivalent only uses 12 watts of electricity and emits a very warm soft white light. Very similar to regular incandescent bulbs.

It turns on at full intensity instantly which those CFL's sure don't. Sure great for stairways!

The LED bulbs can be used in dimming light fixtures which most CFL's aren't. And the LED dimmable bulb does not hum like a dimming CFL.

These bulbs are reported to last 20 plus years which makes changing the open concept 2nd story ceiling fixture less of a hassle.

One test will be our cold Canadian winters. How will they work in the porch light at -20C? As you know heading out on a cold winter morning it would be nice to have some light.

Dave

Owner 360renos

phone 613.429.5000
mobile 613.282.2124

email dbennett@360renos.ca
www.360renos.ca

Which Paint Is It - Latex or Oil?

Determining, definitively, whether a given paint was oil or latex has always been a bit of a problem, but an important one as you can paint oil over latex, but not latex over oil unless you use a special 'super adherent primer' first.

I used to recommend taking a bit of paint thinner on a clean contrasting colour cloth and wiping hard. If any colour comes off, it is oil based paint. If nothing happens, it is latex. But that didn't always work. Sometimes if the paint was very old, nothing at all came off.

Now a product has come out that reverses those rules. These swabs have acetone in them and they have no affect on oil based paints, but do take off latex. If the surface is stripped, it is Latex paint. If it just cleans or polishes the surface, it is Oil/Alkyd paint. Instead of the special swabs you could just use acetone and a contrasting coloured rag, if the paint colour shows up on the rag, it is latex. Acetone will do nothing to oil based paints. Old fingernail polish removers were made with acetone, and many still are -- look for a bottle that does not say 'without acetone'. You should test it first on a surface that you know is latex paint to be sure you have acetone in your liquid.

By the way, if you really want to paint latex over oil -- you can do it if you sand off the gloss and apply a "super adherent latex primer" first. Then you can continue with ordinary latex paint!

Dave - www.360renos.ca