Experts agree that pets thrive on routine. But how can that routine be maintained during a move? There are some simple steps that you can take to make the transition from old home to new home easy on you and your pet.

The first step is to visit your current veterinarian. If you are moving out of the area, be sure to request your pet’s medical files, this way your new vet will know of any conditions your pet has been treated for and when they’ll be due for their next vaccinations. Be sure that if your pet is on any medications, that you’ll have enough of the needed prescriptions to last until you visit your new vet.

While you’re at the vet, consider microchipping your pet. A microchip is a small transponder, as small as a grain of rice, that is implanted just under the pet’s skin. The Humane Society says, “Microchips provide an extra level of protection in case your pet loses his collar and tags.” The cost is relatively inexpensive, especially when you consider that one chip can last up to 25 years. Along these same lines, update your pets ID tags with your new address or phone number if necessary.

When you are beginning the actual process of moving boxes and transferring your belongings to your new residence, consider first prepping, a pet friendly area in your current home, and then in your new home. You can designate one room that will be out of the way of movers. Fill the room with the pet’s favorite toys and bedding, as well as their food, water, and if applicable, litter box. Your home is your pet’s sanctuary, and for the time being, this room will be their connection to this.

Once you’re living in your new home with your pet, the best thing you can do is maintain your routine. If you usually walk your pet in the mornings, make the time to continue this tradition. If you come home at lunches to let your dog out, be sure that either you or a reliable pet walker are there for your dog. This is also not a time to change your animal’s eating habits. Keep with the same brand and type of food as before the move.

And finally, you’ll need to search out your new hot spots. This means pet supply stores, veterinary offices, dog parks, and pet sitter and walker servicers.

If you are new to your area, feel free to ask your real estate agent for recommendations for a new vet, as well as where the aforementioned local hot spots might be, such as local establishments that are pet friendly.

Article Written By: Carla L. Davis, RealtyTimes.com

If you love to garden, nothing feeds your plants better than compost from your very own backyard, and its price (free!) is impossible to beat. But the pile itself isn’t exactly an eye-catching feature. Though you can buy a compost bin made from budget-friendly plastic or even chicken wire, a wood bin, typically made of rot-resistant cedar, will conceal those yard clippings and kitchen leftovers without sticking out like a sore thumb on your landscape. The gaps between the wood slats let air circulate around the pile to keep odors at bay and ensure that wastes are breaking down; removable slats, front panels, or doors make it easy to turn the pile and remove compost when it’s ready to spread. Click here and follow the directions to make a rustic little structure that will help you keep your yard thriving year-round.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) eagerly awaited WaterSense label for showerheads was finalized on March 4, and manufacturers can now submit products for testing.

Like WaterSense certifications for lav faucets and toilets, qualified showerheads must meet performance specifications as well as flow rates. Units receiving the label will have a flow rate of 2 gpm or less—20 percent lower than the current federal standard of 2.5 gpm—while also meeting performance-attribute requirements for flow rate across a range of pressures, spray force, and spray coverage, which the EPA has defined based on its consumer testing.

The specifications apply to showerheads and handheld showers, but not to bodysprays. Showerheads and handhelds must be tested by an EPA-licensed certifying body to qualify for WaterSense.

A number of manufacturers are already offering showerheads that combine lower flows with improved performance, which means buyers won’t have to wait long to purchase certified fixtures. The EPA told EcoHome it expects labeled products to hit shelves as early as mid-April.

Moen, for example, is anticipating certification for its 1.75-gpm single-function Eco-Performance showerheads and Envi three-function Eco-Performance showerheads, as does American Standard for its 1.5-gpm FloWise units and Kohler for its 1.75-gpm Purist and Forte showerheads and 2.0-gpm MasterShower.

Katy Tomasulo is Deputy Editor for EcoHome. This article first appeared on www.ecohomemagazine.com.

The Primrose at Landfall was named First Runner-Up in the Small Residential division. The presentation, witnessed by hundreds of construction professionals associated with the industry, took place last month at the World of Concrete trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For more information about the ICF Builder Awards, go to www.icfmag.com.

• Every ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees compared to paper made from virgin materials.
• Instead of using a new piece of paper for rough work, turn over a used copy and write on the other side.
• Junk mail is more than an annoyance. It clogs landfills as well as your mailbox, and costs millions of trees and tax dollars every year.
• 5.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct mail advertisements end up in U.S. landfills annually.
• The average U.S. household receives unsolicited junk mail equal to 1.5 trees each year—That’s more than 100 million trees for all households combined.
• 44 percent of junk mail is thrown away unopened, but only half that much junk mail (33 percent) is recycled.
• Americans pay $370 million annually to dispose of junk mail that doesn’t get recycled.
• On average, Americans spend 8 months opening junk mail in the course of their lives.
• Start by registering with the Mail Preference Service of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). It won’t guarantee you a life free of junk mail, but it can help.
• You can also go to OptOutPreScreen.com, which can enable you to remove your name from lists that mortgage, credit card and insurance companies use to mail you offers and solicitations.
• One option is to use the Stop the Junk Mail Kit developed by the Consumer Research Institute.
• The website JunkBusters.com provides further guidelines for reducing junk mail and other intrusions, from unwanted e-mail (Spam) to telemarketing.
• Pay your bills online! Eliminate your paper trail as well as the energy used to transport paper bills.
• Go digital. If only 10 million people in the US change Mon-Fri newspapers to online, we could save almost 50,000 trees each year!
• Manufacturing products from recycled materials requires substantially less energy and natural resources than products from virgin materials.
• You may think that a lot of paper gets recycled, but according to the National Recycling Coalition, Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 13-foot-high wall of paper from New York to Seattle.
• Do your part – recycle!

 New Hanover County, NC home builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes realizes that many of our clients have homes to sell before they can build a new home or move to our area. Consider these tips when selling your home. 

Home buyers and home sellers have the same goal: an exchange of property. Buyers want to pay as little as possible for the nicest house they can afford; sellers want to earn as much as possible on their property. They may seem like conflicting interests, but they aren’t. Buyers and sellers goals, at bottom, are both about making a fair trade.

Interior design professional Emily Spreng, who holds degrees in interior design and historic preservation, says working with just two elements of your interior design can reap huge benefits in the overall feel of your home.

Lighting

“Lighting is one of the most important elements in interior design,” Spreng says. “By changing lighting you can instantly change the mood of a room.”

Whether you’re showing your home day or night, pay close attention to the mood being created by your lighting. In the bedroom, Spreng recommends creating a relaxing, ambient feel by turning off your overhead light and adding lamps with opaque shades to your bedside tables.

For cramped or dim spaces, Spreng says mirrors can make a room feel larger and warmer. “Put a mirror on the opposite wall of yours window to bounce the light around,” she says. By reflecting the sunlight, mirrors create the illusion of a second window.

You should also pay attention to your choice of window dressing to use the daylight you have, Spreng adds. “Use blinds that open and close and go up all the way, so you can let in a little bit of light or a lot—it’s just another way to control your lighting.”

Accessories

“Your accessories are the cheapest thing to change if you’re working on a budget,” Spreng says.

Accessories are the stuff you put in the room to make it more interesting, things like vases, candlesticks, pottery, flowers and wall hangings. For Spreng, the thing to remember about accessories is: less is more.

“I think the most important thing to remember when accessorizing your home is that one very interesting accessory is better than six or seven knickknacks,” she says. “If you want to emphasize the design of your home, it’s important to remove as much clutter as you can.”

Spreng advises home sellers to focus especially on area rugs, paintings or photos and throw pillows to spruce up a room. “An area rug is probably the best way to warm up a room,” she says, adding that it will bring a room together and make it feel cozy. Paintings and photos are a good way to add color and character to your room, and you can liven up drab furniture with cheap, colorful throw pillows.

An extra tip: if you have a big room with an empty corner, folding screens are a great way to round out the space and bring the focus back into center of the room.

Courtesy of: Drew Johnson, RealtyTimes.com

Today, more than ever, the environment is a major concern. With the effects of global warming almost universally recognized, and the problems with climate change becoming gradually more apparent, the time to act is most certainly now. Add to that the weight of increasing energy bills, and you have got yourself a real incentive to save energy and the world in which we live.

By making simple decisions around the home, we can increase our insulating properties and require less energy to heat our homes, which can help the earth and our wallets. One such way is through installing low E argon windows. In this article, we will look at the benefits of low E windows, and why they should be a realistic consideration for anyone looking to update their household windows.

What does Low E Argon Mean

Regular windows lose heat through four recognizable processes; namely convection, conduction, radiation and leakages. Convection is where warmer air is cooled by exterior air and as a result moves in a downwards direction, thus creating a draft. Conduction is the loss of heat directly through the window.

Air leakage is the physical gaps within the window and its frame, which is another means by which heat is lost. Finally, radiation is the loss of heat in the form of infrared energies through the window. This process is obviously inefficient and costly, in terms of the wasted energy.

What is more, this means that we aren’t getting the most from the energy we are producing, which means we need more energy, which is subsequently more harmful to our environment. However, low E argon windows can change all that.

Low E argon windows work primarily by reflecting heat which would otherwise be wasted back into the room in question. Because it contains argon, the window is significantly better at reflecting heat rather than conducting heat, and consequently keeps the heat in, and keeps the unwanted heat out. This results in a massive energy saving, which is reflected in the first instance when the bill arrives at the end of the month.

Why Low E Argon

Low E argon windows should be a very important factor when it comes to replacing windows. One thing you may notice in the first instance is that low E argon windows are more expensive. This is due to the more technologically advanced manufacturing process, which is also more labor intensive. Having said that, it is estimated that the average household could save $240 every single year through installing low E argon windows, a massive saving over its lifetime. By making the initial investment, the windows will generate a tangible saving, year on year, whilst also going a long way towards saving our planet.

Low E argon windows are becoming increasingly popular and it is easy to see why. With society’s greener conscience, and a determination to cut down on energy bills, there has never been a better time to install low E argon windows in your home.

With that minimal initial investment, you can rest, safe in the knowledge that you are increasing your energy efficiency and doing your bit to protect our volatile environment in these crucial environmental times. Alongside household recycling, maximizing energy efficiency is one of the easiest tangible things you can do, and with such an enormous saving, it is hard to justify not making the transition.

Courtesy of: OnlineTips.org

St. James Plantation, NC home builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes knows that energy bills can get pricy in the winter months.  These cold-weather tips, courtesy of Progress Energy, are great ways to keep energy costs down:

Keep the thermostat on your heating system at the lowest comfortable setting. Progress Energy recommends a setting of 68 to 70 during the day and 60 to 65 at night.

Check filters at least monthly and clean or change them as needed. Dirty filters can increase operating costs by 20 percent and can damage equipment.

Use insulated or heavy curtains on windows facing the north side of the house. Keep curtains and shades closed at night and on cloudy days.

Caulk any space around windows and other places where air leaks to prevent cold drafts and heat escape.

If your home has a fireplace, be sure the damper fits tightly, and close it when the fireplace is not in use. Add a glass fireplace screen.

Use microwave ovens whenever possible. They use less than half the power of a conventional oven.

Whenever possible, wash full loads in the dishwasher and clothes washing machine, rather than partial loads.

Take short showers instead of tub baths and install a flow restrictor or energy-saving shower head.

Look for EnergyGuide labels on most major home appliances. The more efficient models save you money in the long run.

Courtesy of: Progress Energy

Pender County, NC new home builder Mark Johnson Custom Homes would like to wish all of our reader’s a Happy Valentine’s Day and share this very informative article courtesy of NC GreenPower that gives Green gift suggestions for this special day.

Flowers, cards, candy? GREEN up your Valentine’s Day with these ideas that both your significant other and the environment will appreciate!

•  Instead of traditional flowers for Valentine’s day, give a beautiful, long-lasting potted plant from a local garden.
• Cook a romantic meal using all organic ingredients from local markets. www.carolinafarmstewards.org
• Want to take your date to dinner? Then think about supporting a restaurant that uses locally-grown produce.
• Around a billion valentines are sent each year globally, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. Those one billion cards laid end to end would stretch around the world 5 times! That’s a lot of trees. NOT including cards exchanged in classrooms between children, 180 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged in the U.S. alone. So forget traditional paper Valentine’s Day cards! Instead send an e-card that will save paper and get to your Valentine right on time.
• If you’re really splurging this year and want to get jewelry, find a jeweler who uses conflict-free diamonds, like www.brilliantearth.com. Brilliant Earth uses Canadian diamonds and recycled gold, which means their sales never support slavery, child labor, or terrorism.
• Take a green vacation with your loved one – visit our website to purchase carbon offsets for your trip.
• Send your sweetheart organic fair trade chocolates this V-day. www.equalexchange.coop
• If you want to get a really unique gift, check out Ten Thousand Villages. It’s not only a socially responsible business but also eco-friendly.
• For a simple $24 tax-deductable donation, you can also give the gift of clean air with an NC GreenPower gift card! www.ncgreenpower.org
• Consider natural perfumes. Other fragrances are synthetic and often from toxic petrochemicals from crude oil.
• Take a trip to your local park, aquarium or zoo. Or better yet, make a donation to the ASPCA or Humane Society.
• If Valentine’s Day is an important day for you, show a bit of extra love for the environment by carefully considering what you buy.

Courtesy of: ncgreenpower.org