The Neorest 600 certainly falls into this category. The Neorest takes the cake as the most expensive commode available for purchase in the home. Produced by bathroom fixture manufacturer Toto, the Neorest 600 is a tankless, one-piece toilet. It may not be gold, but you could call it green: It’s a low-flow toilet, conserving water by sending only 1.6 gallons down the drain per flush. But you’ll be too busy sitting in awe of the Neorest to yearn for the water-frivolous days of the full-flow toilet. It’s also a bathroom dynamo, doing all of the work your old toilet used to make you do.

When the Neorest senses your approach, the toilet lifts its lid, inviting you to have a seat. Once you do your thing, a gentle blast of warm water cleans your bottom. This is followed by the toilet’s air-dry function. And after you get up, the toilet flushes the ionized, self-cleaning bowl and deodorizes the air [source: Toto]. With all of these features, maybe the $5,800 retail price for the Neorest 600 isn’t so much, relatively speaking [source: Forbes]. Plus, you can find them for sale as low as $3,159 [source: Buy Plumbing]. Of course, you can get a regular residential toilet in the U.S. and Canada for around $150, but these certainly don’t come with the bells and whistles the Neorest offers.

If you’re going to remodel your New Jersey bathroom, why not go all the way? Talk to your New Jersey remodeling contractor about some gold leaf inlay in the counter’s backsplash? And what about Italian marble tile for the bathroom’s floor?

Be sure to install the big fixtures first. There’s the Idrolux “L” shower, which retails for around $24,000. This freestanding shower includes UV panels, designed to give you a healthy, tanned glow while you bathe [source: Idrolux]. If you don’t like standing when you scrub down, you can opt to rest easy in 21 inches of warm water in Kohler’s Kallista Archeo bathtub. Before you sink into the tub, check the price tag: This freestanding copper bathtub goes for more than $66,000 [source: Forbes].

How about a nice sink, too? The Italbrass Mezz’aria dual basin sink might look nice reflecting the blue UV glow of your tanning shower — the wall-mounted floating sink is stainless steel. The nearly $7,500 price tag doesn’t include the complementary mirror to go above it, but you’ll want a mirror from another company anyway [source: Quality Bath]. Seura offers wall-mounted, over-the-sink mirrors as large as 45 inches wide that feature an LCD television embedded inside. You can get ready and watch the news at the same time. When turned off, the TV disappears, and the fixture looks like a normal mirror [source: Seura]. The mirrors and their frames can be customized per order, and they fetch around $5,000 for the 45-inch model [source: Home Annex].

Still, starting your day off in your New Jersey bathroom with all of these luxury features would probably put a pretty good spin on things. And who can put a price on that feeling?

Article Source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/most-expensive-toilet-in-world1.htm

If you’re looking for a professional New Jersey bathroom remodeling contractor, then give us a call today at 800-734-3737 or complete our request for a design and budget consultation.

1. 1.   Church Homes

• A few people have taken on the challenge of converting old church sanctuaries into their places of residence. For example, ZECC Architects converted an old Dutch chapel into a single family residence. Christopher Wren’s Christ Church was severely damaged during WWII; the roof of the church was destroyed, but the 11-story tower was left untouched. The church is now in private hands, and architect Nicholas Boyarsky converted the roofless church into a flower garden. He transformed the 11-story tower into an apartment with a wood spiral staircase.

Cave Homes

• Since the beginning of time, caves have offered refuge to nomads and travelers, and even today some people choose to live in caves and still have the modern conveniences of technology. In 2010, according to an article in The New York Times, one family set up their entire home inside a cave; they use umbrellas and interior roofs to keep the kitchen sand-free. Besides the cave-like walls, their kitchen looks like any other, with counter space, sink, appliances and cabinetry.

Water Tower Homes

• A water tower home is a modern-day version of living in a tree house that attracts some home-owners, as they like the idea of “living with a view.” In addition, building your home in a water tower provides an opportunity to recycle old buildings. Jo Crepain of Antwerp wanted to preserve an old water tower near a park where he played as a child, so he bought the tower, and along with the help of another architect, he made his home in it. Other examples include a water tower in Essen, Germany, which was converted into a fully operational apartment and commercial property. This water tower houses two apartments, a telecommunications company and a real estate agency.

Bunker Homes

• Many World War II bunkers in various parts of the world are now residential housing; the owners of these fortified residences say that one of the biggest advantages of living in a bunker is the special temperatures maintained throughout the year. In the summer, it is cooler inside, and in the winter, it’s much warmer than outdoors. One architect decided to build his house on top of an old bunker, so he uses the actual bunker for storage and for protection from natural disasters.

Article Source: http://www.ehow.com/info_8518248_extremely-weird-places-live.html

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You might keep these basic tools in a hall closet, a kitchen drawer, or in a handy tool box or plastic box on a shelf in the entry or mudroom.

It doesn’t really matter where you keep them, as long as they’re easy to get at for quick home repairs. You’ll save lots of inconvenient trips out to the garage or down to the basement.

Your in-home basic tool kit should include these basic do-it-yourself items.

Tape Measure
You may not think you need one, but a 25-foot measuring tape will work for most jobs. Whether you measure for a tablecloth or window treatment or a whole room for new flooring, choose one large enough to easily measure your New Jersey home’s spaces. A second smaller tape of 6 to 12 feet can be put in a pocket or purse for shopping trips or for hanging pictures.

Screwdrivers
Two basic screwdrivers are a necessity. Choose both a good quality flat head screwdriver and a Phillips head screwdriver in a medium size. A set of tiny screwdrivers will come in handy when you need to tighten a pair of eyeglasses or fix audio or computer equipment.

Pliers
One pliers will not do. Get a small assortment in various sizes and shapes. You’ll use a needle-nose pliers most frequently, but have a heavy grooved pliers for removing nails or large staples. Wire cutting pliers are good for wiring and craft jobs.

Level
You get what you pay for here. It’s important to get an accurate level for accurate positioning. A good sturdy level will last a lifetime. (These are also called “torpedo levels” due to shapes of the tapered ends.) A level is a must for straightening up pictures, drilling holes in a level line, checking tabletop alignment, or mounting towel bars perfectly.

Hammer
Whether you’re hanging pictures or putting shelf supports up, a medium weight hammer will cover most New Jersey household jobs. Consider other sizes if you’ll be doing either delicate projects or construction.

Vice Grip
This tool resembles a pliers, but has a locking mechanism that grips and holds things tightly. Use it to grip a screw you want to remove or use two to twist sticky things apart. They provide a slip-free hold when you need it.

Assortment of Nails and Screws
You might find prepackaged sets of basic sizes at your New Jersey home center or get a small divided box and put together a custom assortment that will come in handy when you hang pictures or make minor repairs.

Wire Cutters
Save your scissors with this essential tool. A wire cutter makes it easy to snip wire for crafts, electrical repairs, and other household projects.

Pencils
You’ll probably need to mark a drill hole or record a measurement. Have pencils handy and write on post it notes or bits of blue painter’s tape if you don’t want to write on the wall.

Blue Painter’s Tape
Even professional painters use this tape to mask off areas they don’t want to paint. It’s available in several widths and looks like plain masking tape. But this special tape is blue and can be removed from most surfaces without damage. You can use it for other household jobs besides painting. Mark stud locations with a small square when hanging a picture or installing molding. Tape off the edges of a door frame when painting a wall, or tape down runners of heavy kraft paper to protect floors from dirt and scratches when moving.

Article Source:  http://interiordec.about.com/od/careandrepair/a/org_toolkits.htm

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The good news is that the evolution of house paint has come a long way with low-odor and even odorless lines for some applications. The bad news is there are still so many reasons to use the smelly stuff, especially if you’re repainting an older home. Alkyd (oil-based) and shellac or alcohol primers are especially effective in sealing water damage and old oil painted surfaces to upgrade them to Latex top coats. But they’re also very smelly with potentially long-lasting vapors. Even the most common low-odor alkyd paints often used today to repaint wood work can have a lingering odor for days under the most ventilated conditions.

So how do you get rid of the smell?

I’ve just received an email from a mother asking me that very question. Her young child’s room was painted almost two weeks ago and she’s left the windows open and the fan on ever since. Still, the paint smell is strong enough that she’s concerned about letting the child sleep in the room. This interior painting project involved a lot of priming to cover the dark brown oil paint used by the previous homeowner. Since the color needed to be lightened up and the surfaces converted to a far more Eco-friendly Acrylic Latex, a common top brand Alkyd primer was used to give the whole room a fresh start. And although it had “Low Odor” printed on the can, it obviously was NOT odorless. To compound matters, all the woodwork had to be finished in a leading “Low Odor” brand of Alkyd semi-gloss which produced a smooth lustrous finish as well as a migraine inducing vapor.

So what can you do? Well, there a few ways you can overcome these situations beyond obvious ventilation to control, eliminate and even prevent paint odors from lingering.

“An ounce of prevention”…. Before there was such a thing as “low odor paint” we used to add a splash of vanilla extract to every gallon of oil paint to make it “low-odor”. It was cheap, easy to do and had no effect on the color. Now that low-odor alkyd paints are commonplace on the market, adding about a tablespoon of vanilla extract makes them virtually odorless.

Or, as in the case above, the painting is already done. It’s too late for vanilla and the smell won’t go away as quickly they’d like. What’s happening here is that the odors are being trapped in the walls while the paint cures and probably in all the fabrics and rugs in the room as well. They need something else to absorb them for good. So, here’s what I advised her to do. Cut up a few onions and place them in a couple of bowls of cold water. Put one of the bowls in the room and the other in the closet. As simple and crazy as it sounds, the onions absorb and actually eliminate the paint fumes and odors… sometimes as quickly as overnight!

I first learned this trick while creating a baby’s room about 17 years ago. I had spent about 5 weeks converting a badly crumbling and dusty old attic room into a nursery pending the baby’s birth. And as it turned out, the baby was born about two weeks early and was ready to come home just as I was finishing the project. The job required a lot of smelly primers and sealers to bury decades of neglect and water damage. As was customary in those days, I added vanilla extract to minimize the paints’ odor (and damage to my brain cells) but the smell wasn’t clearing up fast enough to bring the newborn in. The homeowner’s Nanny, who was moving into the bedroom next door (and who was also troubled by the smell) used a couple of bowls of cut onions in cold water over night and the smell was gone the next day. I couldn’t believe it!

I’ve recommended this technique ever since with great results. But it should be noted here that this example was in an empty room. In the case of a fully furnished New Jersey room, as in our case above, you should consider airing out clothing, drapery, rugs or anything else which might be trapping the odors and give them a shot or two of Febreeze to do the trick nowadays.

Now sometimes, there are extreme cases where odors are simply not an option. Some people are highly allergic to the VOCs (volatile organic compounds) contained in paints and the tints used to color them. Some can become quite ill with even short term inhalation of the fumes. In these cases, you have to resort to the whole gamut of tricks:

1. Before you paint, empty the room completely to make sure there is nothing that will trap the odors.
2. Open all the windows before you open the paint cans and keep them open throughout the entire painting process.
3. Add vanilla extract to your Alkyd, Alcohol or Shellac based paints. (Latex paints don’t usually need this step as they’re relatively low-odor to begin with).

4. Place several bowls of onions around the room (as above) while you paint to absorb the fumes as they escape.
5. When the painting is finished, seal and remove all paint cans, bag your drop sheets in plastic before taking them out through the rest of the house (or throw them out of the window if possible) to keep from spreading the fumes they’ve trapped indoors.
6. Refresh your supply of onions in water as the old ones will have had their fill of vapors by the time you’re finished the painting.
7. Keep the windows open and wait until the paint has fully dried and the odors have gone before you replace the furniture and other belongings.

Of course, these tips are offered in connection with interior painting but you should also try adding some vanilla to your paint when painting the exterior in Alkyd coatings as well. It saves the painter a lot of headaches… literally. But whether inside or out, these simple ideas combined with some good old fashioned common sense should produce a fresh new look in your New Jersey home, with clean, breathable air you can live with.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dee_L._Potter

If you’re looking for a professional New Jersey remodeling company, then give us a call today at 800-734-3737 or complete our request for a design and budget consultation.

Consider where the piece is now; if it no longer suits its current location, look around and see where it might fit with a new purpose. A hallway near the bathroom might have enough space for the unit as a linen closet, once it is painted. The large opening once used for the old style television can be fitted with shelves for folded linens, towels or even bulky blankets.

If you have a guest room in your New Jersey home and could use some extra storage space, your entire entertainment cabinet could serve as an extra closet or a great place to store all those photo albums you have in closets and drawers.

Some entertainment units can be broken down into separate pieces that you can find a good use for in separate rooms. Children always need space for their stuff; why not consider the unit in a bedroom. This is a great place to experiment with a pop of color.

The center area where the TV once stood could be fitted with a flat panel, hollow core door and a file cabinet or small cabinet to support the end and it becomes a great study area or a New Jersey home office with lots of storage space. This peninsula style desk could provide a place for two people to use the desk simultaneously.

Painted or stained, with doors removed or left in place, panels fitted with colorful fabric or interesting glass can breathe new life into an old piece. Add some pretty wallpaper or a great graphic design in the large open space for high impact design. The unit can store decorative pieces, or a collection of vases, candlesticks or artwork.

If you have a covered area outside at your New Jersey home, your old unit could serve as a garden center with a potting space–a great place to store all your necessary small garden tools, seed packets, extra pots and your notebook of garden ideas.

Think with purpose in mind as you consider what to do with this useful piece. Remember that with cabinet doors and shelves, there are lots of other uses for an entertainment center, and perhaps you can save it from the New Jersey landfill.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_A_Hammond

If you’re looking for a professional New Jersey interior remodeling company, then give us a call today at 800-734-3737 or complete our request for a design and budget consultation.