July 12th, 2007
7:57 pm by Sandra F
4,400 Bonjour Professional Culinary Torches are bing voluntarily recalled by the manufacturer, Meyer corporation. The cooking torches are a fire hazard, as there is a fuel leak problem in the torch assembly near the nozzle.
From the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission press release:
Description: This recall involves the BonJour® Professional Culinary Torch sold alone and as part of the BonJour® Bain Marie Set. The torch is 7.5 inches high and has a visible fuel gauge. The base is black, and the handle is either black or brown. The torch assembly is silver-colored with the word “BonJour” printed on the side.
Four consumer complaints have been filed but no injuries or property damage has resulted so far. Consumers are advised to stop using these torches immediately and contact Meyer for a full refund.
How to contact Meyer: Call 1 (800) 226-6568 between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday. I wasn’t able to find recall information on the Meyer website.
July 11th, 2007
12:05 pm by Sandra F
Who wants to admit their front door is an eyesore and the “ugliest door in America”? Quite a few people actually, which shouldn’t be surprising as the warts ‘n’ all reality makeover is now a staple of the home improvement industry. Therma-Tru Doors has just announced the winners of their Third Annual Ugliest Door in America Contest.
The grand prize winner is shown left, selected from over 200 entrants. To enter homeowners had to submit 2 photos and an essay explaining why their front door deserves to be named as the Ugliest Door in America; “worst in show” wins.
Judging was done by a team of 6 home improvement industry professionals including consultants from HGTV, Qualified Remodeler, the “On The House” radio show, and Home magazine.
The 2 winners will each receive a $3000 - $5000 front door makeover.
To see the winners and later the makeover results, visit www.myuglydoor.com.
July 11th, 2007
11:00 am by Sandra F
Limestone? Concrete? Granite? Corian? Tile? Laminate? Marble?
The answer none of the above. The toughest, most resilient and stain resistant counter top material is Quartz.
… the fastest-growing countertop surface. Also known as engineered stone, quartz outperformed even granite in our tests, especially in stain resistance. The latest examples also mimic granite, marble, and other natural stone better than before … While you’ll pay about the same for quartz as you will for granite (about $45 to $90 per square foot, installed), you’ll never have to reseal this engineered stone like the real stuff.
More countertop insights at the Consumer Reports Home & Yard blog.
July 9th, 2007
9:04 am by Sandra F
Eubiq (”electricity ubiquitous”) brings you something unique for your home: the movable electrical power outlet. Meet the Eubiq Power Track System, a sleek, elegantly designed electrical power outlet alternative that lets you “add, remove and reposition power outlets anytime anywhere - by just a simple twist”.
The Eubiq Power System gives you more convenience, flexibility, and choice. It eliminates the need for snaking electrical extension cords and having to move furniture to get to electrical power outlets. The system is available as 110V or 230V and in 2 prong, 3 prong or high capacity electrical outlets versions.
The electrical outlets (”power points”) are mounted on a track as shown above and right. Power points can be positioned anywhere on the track. You simply twist and pull to remove and push / twist to insert elsewhere. Power points are independent of each other. You can also add extra power points to an existing track. Special adapters are needed to actually plug in; adapters are available for Britain, Germany, India, Australia and Japan. The product will be available in North America once it gets UL (Underwriters Laboratories) approval later this year.
The Eubiq Power System is child safe. The track is designed to prevent the electrical parts from being touched. Stick your finger in, nothing happens. The power points have a “patented Grounded Sentry Shutter system that prevents users from touching the live wire parts”. The system has received ASTA BEAB Safety and Quality Product Certification in the UK as well as KTL Safety and Quality Product Certification; more safety certifications are sure to follow.
The Eubiq Power Track System will be available in various lengths and should retail for about $30 / ft. Each track system comes with 3 power points or electrical outlets.
Props: Sci Fi Tech Blog via Cool Gadgets.
Check out the Eubiq demo & website for more information. All photos are from Eubiq’s website.
July 6th, 2007
9:21 am by Sandra F
Want good, insightful reading on the challenges of the green revolution? Then look no further than Is it all a ‘green hallucination’?, a news report covering noted NY Times & Pulitzer prize winning journalist Thomas Friedman’s presentation at the Aspen Ideas Festival last night.
There have been a lot of global warning naysayers in the news lately but Friedman is not one of them; he believes the threat is real. In fact, there’s another problem at hand.
He isn’t buying the hype that humans are doing anything meaningful to promote global cooling …
There is a saying in the Pentagon that a vision without resources to act on it is a hallucination, Friedman said … “Right now I think we’re in the middle of a big green hallucination.”
Friedman goes on to label the global warming crisis as the greatest threat facing humankind - “We’re talking about changing the weather” and advocates that the word “green” be reinvented; ownership of the word needs to pass from “environmental extremists and granola eaters” into the mainstream.
Fascinating ideas from one of the controversial journalists of our time. Read more …
July 5th, 2007
8:33 am by Sandra F
This article features advice from DIY General Contractor expert Pay Fay, author of The Pat Fay Method: How to Manage Your Home Remodel or New Construction Without a General Contractor to Save Serious Money.
Mr. Fay offers some interesting insight into the growing trend of do-it-yourself General Contracting:
The actual cost of home improvements is not aligned well with the prices being charged, the quality of work has been declining and the working general contractor is slowly disappearing. Many now simply arrange subcontractors and provide minimal supervision. Quite frequently, general contractors will take the cost of the materials, add labor, then triple it. People are being charged $200-$250 per square foot for projects that can be accomplished for half that price.
Read How to do it yourself - as a general contractor on the Seattle Times.
Read reviews for The Pat Fay Method on Amazon.com.
See my previous post, The Top 5 Unexpected Pitfalls of being your own General Contractor.
July 3rd, 2007
10:18 pm by Sandra F
Looking for a showcase of real remodeling jobs with real budgets & real results (as opposed to those unlimited budget jobs we see on home and garden TV)? Reflecting current trends? With beautiful workmanship? In your area? Look no further than the Chrysalis Awards, a website dedicating to celebrating “the finest remodeling projects in the United States”. The awards for 2006 were just presented at the Southern Building Show.
The judges are editors and publishers from the Home & Garden industry: Better Homes & Gardens, Woman’s Day’s Home Remodeling & Makeovers, Southern Living Magazine and Sunset Magazine.
The judging criteria?
The projects are judged on design, use of materials, use of space and integration into the existing space. What makes these projects so relevant to you is that these judges apply their training to select project they want the public to see…just as they would do in their publications.
This makes it a little different from other industry awards which are typically awarded by trade associations. It’s very consumer oriented and attuned to what homeowners want to see.
Browse the Chrysalis Awards award winners index to find top renovators & remodelers (and design ideas) in your area.
Or check out our hire a home improvement contractor blog to see photos from award winners in the northeastern states.
Source: Qualified Remodeler via Kitchen & Bath Business.
July 3rd, 2007
7:59 am by Sandra F
The Base Mate Professional Ladder Stabilizer is a “revolutionary” solution to unstable and unsafe ladders for both do-it-yourselfers and home improvement professionals.
The Basemate Ladder Leveller … is an ingenious arc of hardened steel that cuts the risk of falls by allowing ladders to remain stable on uneven ground.
Opposing locks on each side of the arc replace the feet of a standard ladder. As the locks are released, the arc slides over until its rubber treads are firmly on the ground while the ladder stays plumb.
- Vancouver Sun
It looks easier to use than traditional ladder levellers. To see just how easy, watch the video available at the Base Mate website. You lean your ladder, tap-release the lock with your foot, and start climbing. Pretty cool!
The Base Mate Professional Ladder Stabilizer has been tested, used and now endorsed by Mike Holmes who calls it “the smartest foot system of any ladder leveler on the market”.
Some Specs & Features:
- wider base which gives added support / stability to extension ladders
- strong enough for the heaviest construction ladders
- exceeds Grade 1 CDN and type 1A USA ladder requirements by 20%
- made of hardened steel
- insured by Lloyds of London
- patented triple action locking system with one foot operation
- installation to most fiberglass, aluminum and wood extension ladders (12” to 20” rung width)
- weight tested to 1,200 pounds
Check it out at the Base Mate website. The Base Mate Professional Ladder Stabilizer is available in Canada and the UK. Hopefully US distribution will be coming soon; the distributor plans to launch in the US after finding success in other markets.
Note: The system was originally developed in 2001 by home improvement contractor Martin Dennis (Surrey’s Precision Gutters). It received the “most innovative product” award at the Canadian Hardware and Building Materials Show the same year but hasn’t been professionally marketed until recently. Just goes to show you that brilliant ideas do not go out of style.
July 2nd, 2007
1:59 pm by Sandra F
Well at least on TV! This is in response to Robert Tracinski’s recent opinion piece, The Seeds of the Global Warming Police State where he rails against global warming hysteria and environmentalist “eagerness to reach into the smallest details of our private existence and re-arrange our lifestyle to fit the austere requirements of their political ideology”.
He lambastes Australian home improvement TV Show Carbon Cops and other media as examples of green ideology gone too far, criticizes green legislative initiatives, and concludes as follows:
Australia’s “carbon cops” may be fictional, but they are the harbinger of a real attempt to use the power of the state to strip us of the accoutrements of prosperity: our light bulbs, our cars, our televisions, our freshly laundered towels.
Um, it’s just a TV show 
. But let’s hear him out …
In a bizarre inversion of the typical American home improvement show, the experts in this show descend on the hapless homeowners to measure their “carbon footprint,” the amount of fossil fuels involved in the manufacture and use of every item in their house. The “carbon cops” are shown rummaging through a family’s smallest household items, searching for global warming contraband–and then scolding them for “polluting” the atmosphere with carbon dioxide.
Each week they don their orange monogrammed shirts to cordon off the toxic home of an Australian family. They arrive with energy-auditing gadgetry, sobering statistics, and lips and eyebrows curled in withering admonishment. They rate these people, shame them, then challenge them to do better.
What bizarre inversion? Making homeowners feel bad for their tacky taste, DIY incompetence or just plain ignorance in exchange for a free remodel and 22 minutes of fame is a standard formula, totally acceptable as “entertainment” in the Home Improvement TV industry. Reality TV is a faustian bargain at best and we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Green television in particular has suffered from being boring and has failed to catch on, in spite of the weighty issues at hand.
In a medium that thrives on explosive hits, the merely smouldering issue of global warming is proving about as gripping as watching trees grow … This year we’ve already seen two well-intentioned environmental awareness shows come and go …
- smh article
Perhaps the Carbon Cops are trying to stir things up, be controversial for commercial crossover appeal? Hence the dayglo suits and police tape. It’s a gimmick. And going for some emotional shock value by making the family “feel bad about how they live, only in a smiling pleasant way” seems to be part of it, rightly or wrongly. “Blame, embarrassment and middleclass guilt are the key ingredients”.
As Tracinski points out, the “victims” (I prefer homeowners) are willing participants. As the sign up form explains:
Each household involved will have their home’s structure, appliances, vehicles and habits assessed for energy efficiency. You will then be supported and inspired to make physical and habitual changes.
So there you go - “supported and inspired” to change. But if you sign up for a show with the word “cops” in the name, don’t expect it to be “Carbon Crossing Guards”.
The goal of the show is to get behavioral change out of the participants and viewers. To educate and enlighten … but also to trigger a real change in the choices we make day to day. But for people to be motivated to change, they need to feel uncomfortable about where they are now (cognitive dissonance theory). And integrate new information, a better way of doing things, as a way to resolve that conflict. We may not like it emotionally, but Carbon Cops is doing exactly what they said they would do.
A couple of things “inconvenient truths” Tracinski failed mention. First of all, not everyone felt ashamed. Mom was mortified but dad was quoted as saying “the global warming scare is all bollocks anyway“. Secondly, Tracinski chose to ignore the show’s stated goal in the article he referenced: to show people “how easy it is for them to reduce their carbon emissions without having a huge impact on their lifestyle“. Probably because these facts undermine his assertions about the insidious nature of the environmentalist agenda.
Although green awareness has grown immensely over the last few years, legislation of some kind seems to be an inevitable course of action, if the global warming danger is as real as publicized. Behavioral change on a large scale is difficult to bring about. And as behavioral researchers note:
“you might be able to avoid the need to convince your target audience to change its behaviour altogether if you can create structural changes that bring about the same result”. Kline Weinreich illustrates this view with the idea that passing a law that requires all residential pools to have childproof safety fences would be more effective at combating drowning than attempting to change the pool behaviour of parents and their children.
The question then goes back to whether the environmental threat is real and how effectively legislation can reasonably combat that threat. Pardon my cynicism but the “liberty and prosperity” in jeopardy argument just doesn’t wash. Tracinski needs to get off his soapbox and “get real”. The liberal influencers are as affluent as the conservative ones and for all their talk about the issues (Al Gore & Global Warming, Bill Clinton and his sod roofs), have yet to give up their affluent lifestyles. It just ain’t gonna happen. The influencers can say what they want, but the decision-makers report back to the voters and middle America isn’t ready to support any kind of “Global Warming Police State”, now or in the near future.
Yes we will probably see legislation aimed at broad based reductions in carbon consumption. But on an individual level, we won’t see a lot of intrusion, just more of what we are seeing now. More green tax credits and incentives. And more “energy saving behavior” on the part of consumers because it just makes financial common sense, not because environmental activists say so.
By the way, Carbon Cops had a decent rating in its first week. So the Green Police must be doing something right - they got people to tune in instead of tuning out. Now they’ve just got to get people to want to change.
July 2nd, 2007
4:38 am by Sandra F
BSH Home Appliances and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of 42000 Thermador Built-In Ovens Friday. Consumers are advised to not use the oven’s self-cleaning mode and contact BSH Home Appliances to schedule an inspection. Repair, if needed, will be at no charge to the consumer.
Incidents/Injuries: BSH Home Appliances has received ten reports of incidents including one which resulted in a fire that caused extensive property damage. No injuries have been reported.
Description: This recall involves Thermador® Brand built-in single ovens and combination models which have a conventional oven and a microwave. The model numbers of the single ovens are C271B, C301B, SEC271B and SEC301B. The model numbers of the combination models are SEM272B, SEM302B, SEMW272B and SEMW302B. The ovens have date codes between FD8403 and FD8701. The model number and date code can be found on the underside of the control panel.
For more details, see the Consumer Product Safety Commission press release.
Read Thermador’s safety notice about the matter. For enquiries, call BSH Home Appliances at 1-800-701-5230 between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.
