The Remodeling Corner – December 2014

Janet Cook

For our loved ones, we want to think of meaningful gifts to give to express our feelings to those special in our lives. We can even get clever, or even corny in how we say it as a symbol of our affection. Sometimes it can be those little things with thought that will be treasured.

You can say to someone that they light up your life with a gift of smart lighting. It can be as simple as a dimmer switches that glow when turned off (so one can orient themselves in the dark), a motion detection sensor switch that will automatically turn off the lights when the room is not occupied, or a lighting system with preset levels of brightness for different tasks that you can initiate even as you are pulling into your garage so you can walk in a well lit home. You can get creative with rope lighting both indoors and out, installing them under base cabinets to light up the floor or underneath upper cabinets. There are under cabinet lighting tracks where the light pucks are magnetic and can be moved to shine where you desire.

You can show you care by installing a showerhead that filters out chlorine from the water. Chlorine is commonly added in city water as a disinfectant and has been shown to be harmful when inhaled while taking a hot shower. There are whole house filtering systems as well. A Tornado Body Dryer is a product that can easily be retrofitted in a shower that offers many solutions; it can pre warm the bathroom space, one can go from the warmth of water to the warmth of air without the need for a towel and it can help take excess moisture out of the air. You can see a photo of a Tornado Body dryer on our website.

Good things do come in small packages. Several manufacturers have 24 inch specialty combination wall ovens that can make cooking faster and healthier. No need to preheat the oven, and with the same unit you can steam, proof, brown, crisp and bake. A favorite setting may be a steam reheat mode, you can throw out that microwave oven that zaps all the nutrition out of food!

Other kitchen ideas can be a gift of a custom island for more storage, countertop space for food preparation and serving guests buffet style, perhaps with a breakfast bar. If you don’t have room for that, create an outdoor kitchen and entertainment space, complete with outdoor light posts (or as the French would say, “Lampadaire exterieur“). A green gift could be a point-of-use hot water heater at the sink so the water will be hot right out of the tap. This will eliminate the waste of running the water waiting for the hot water to get to the kitchen sink from the hot water tank.

Happy Kitchen and Bath Remodeling!

Janet B. Cook, CAPS, President of Cook Remodeling who is celebrating its 35th year, voted Top Ten Best Kitchen and Bath Remodeling Business in Ranking Arizona, partners with Jeff Cook, CEO, a Certified Graduate Remodeler.