 | Accessible Solutions: Kitchens
A wheelchair-accessible kitchen can be one of the most complex design problems in a new or remodeling project, requiring an understanding of both basic kitchen design and of individual user needs and capabilities.
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 | Adding Tile Accents
Preparation, planning and a few tricks of the trade make easy work of installing decorative tiles.
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 | Affordable Kitchens that Work
Three modest homes show how kitchen and dining areas become living space, where daily activities are central and more family-friendly than in a traditional layout.
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 | Asbestos In Your Home
Once a common element in a wide range of building materials, asbestos is now known to be a serious health risk. Before you start a serious remodel on an older home, study these facts from the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Lung Association.
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 | Base Cabinet Installation Basics
The right techniques make cabinet installs a straightforward process. Here, some tips from the pros to make installation a level and plumb job.
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 | Choosing Major Kitchen Appliances
Making the right decision about big-ticket kitchen appliances means taking design options, décor, current trends, and budget into account.
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 | Concrete Countertops
Concrete has come into the kitchen bringing warmth, custom colors, and sophisticated personalized looks. Custom concrete countertops can be embedded with sea shells, marbles, or metals, imprinted, custom colored, and polished to a smooth matte or glossy finish for high-end, handcrafted appeal.
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 | Countertop Options
With hundreds of options for countertops and kitchen surfaces, it's best to narrow the scope by deciding how long the counter should last, how durable it will be, how difficult to install, and how costly.
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 | Don't Be Afraid of the Water
A primer on drinking water, hard water and problem water concerns and solutions.
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 | EnergyWise House: Energy-Efficient Appliances
Appliances account for about 20 percent of your household's energy consumption, with refrigerators and clothes dryers at the top of the consumption list.
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 | EnergyWise House: Energy-Efficient Water Heating
Water heating is the third largest energy expense in your home. It typically accounts for about 14 percent of your utility bill.
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 | Home Maintenance Checklist
Here's a simple bi-annual "Top to Bottom" checklist to keep your home in shape year round.
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 | Indoor Air Pollution - Biological Pollutants
Biological contaminants are all around us—molds, pollen, pet dander, the list is long. However, with a little preventitve maintenece they can be kept at a healthy distance.
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 | Indoor Air Quality - Home Ventilation
If too little outdoor air enters a home, pollutants can sometimes accumulate to levels that can pose health and comfort problems. Likewise, one approach to lowering the concentrations of indoor air pollutants in your home is to increase the amount of outdoor air coming in.
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 | Indoor Air Quality - Kitchen Remodels
Before starting your kitchen remodel or conversion project you should understand and address the various air quality factors that can arise during construction.
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 | Kitchen and Bath Caulking Tips
Simple caulking tips to keep water at bay.
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 | Kitchen Cabinet Options
Cabinets can be budget busters. Whether you choose stock, semi-stock, or custom cabinets for your next kitchen or bath project, here's what to expect when you walk into the showroom.
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 | Kitchen Design with your Lifestyle in Mind
Before you make a major investment in a new kitchen, consider how you will use the new space.
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 | Laminated Kitchen Counters
Kitchen countertops of high-pressure, decorative plastic laminate are affordable, strong, and easy to maintain. With the wide variety of colors and patterns, laminate can be comfortable like grandma’s kitchen or make a cutting-edge architectural statement.
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 | Mosaic Tiles
Top off a table with an easy and atttractive technique.
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 | Planning Your Kitchen with Professional Help
Design professionals can help you realize your design dreams, and save you money.
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 | Properly Handle Hazardous Household Products
You can reduce your use of hazardous household products by choosing safer, less-toxic products.
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 | Putting a Remodeled Kitchen to the Test
A project home’s redesigned kitchen is judged by how well it holds up to the holiday rush. With good planning, the homeowners expect good flow and easy entertaining.
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 | Quartz Countertops
Quartz countertops are the new worry-free alternative to high-maintenance granite. They are stronger than granite, require no resealing, are highly resistant to scratches and stains, and come in a huge variety of colors.
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 | Radiant Floor Heating and Cooling Systems
Radiant floor heating has been used for centuries. The Romans channeled hot air under the floors of their villas. The Koreans channeled hot flue gases under their floors before venting them up the chimney. In the 1930s, architect Frank Lloyd Wright piped hot water through the floors of many of his buildings. Some home builders' surveys have shown that, if given a choice, most new home owners prefer radiant floor heat over other types of systems.
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 | Reducing Lead in Your Drinking Water
Lead, a metal found in natural deposits, is commonly used in household plumbing materials and water service lines. The greatest exposure to lead is swallowing or breathing in lead paint chips and dust.
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 | Refacing Kitchen Cabinets
Refacing kitchen cabinets costs half of what you’d spend for new cabinets and leaves you with a kitchen that looks and feels brand new.
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 | Solid-Surface Countertops
Solid-surface counters come in a wide range of colors and textures, and offer homeowners sophisticated, long-lasting, easy-care surfacing at a reasonable price.
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 | Stainless Steel and Copper Countertops
Stainless steel has stepped out of the restaurant and into the home as a professional-looking, antibacterial, and contemporary kitchen surface. Copper is its more rustic counterpart, bringing warmth and glow to kitchen spaces.
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 | Stone Countertops
A stone kitchen countertop suggests a special sort of luxury and lasting quality, but care must be taken to select the right stone, have it properly installed, and respect its natural vulnerabilities.
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 | Successful Kitchen Planning
For a successful kitchen plan, the homeowner must know family habits, activities, and traffic patterns, available finances and financing options, and the features that are most important.
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 | The ABC's of Tiling
A little layout sooner can save a lot of frustration later. You want to be sure the finished product looks as neat and regular as possible...and to save yourself unnecessary cutting and nipping chores that can double the time required to complete a job.
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 | What is Asbestos?
Asbestos is a serious health risk—and it may be in your home. Educate yourself with this helpful asbestos fact sheet from the Environmental Protection Agency.
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 | Wood Countertops
A wood countertop has natural beauty and traditional appeal as well as renowned utility as a cut-and-chop surface.
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