Housing & Interior Design

WHAT'S HERE?

Appliances & Tools

Browsing For Housing

Decorating & Designing

Environmental Design

Financial Considerations

Floors

Furnishings For Your

Home

Message Forums

Miscellaneous Matters

Researching Your Move

Repair & Rennovation

Technology

Walls

"OUT, RED SPOT"
To remove a red wine stain from fabric, immediately douse it with club soda or cold water and blot with an absorbent cloth. Sprinkle salt on the stain and set aside for 1 to 2 minutes. Rinse with cold water and rub. Repeat as often as needed. If necessary, treat with a laundry stain remover and launder with detergent.
To remove a red wine stain on carpet, blot with an absorbent cloth and douse it with club soda or cold water. Repeat as often as needed. If necessary, make a paste of 3 parts baking soda and 1 part water, smear onto the stain, allow to dry and then vacum.
More stain removal tips are available through the book Field Guide to Stains by Virginia Friedman (Quirk Books, $14.95)

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Last Modified:
January 21, 2003

Any additions or corrections on the material in this collection of information would be appreciated and can be sent to Kim Burge. Accuracy of the information written in this site is not guaranteed and the maintainer assumes no responsibility for it's use or abuse.

You may link to this page and make copies for private use, however, reproduction for publication in any form is prohibited without consent from the copyright holder.

Appliances & Tools

Black & Decker: Easy to navigate, this site is full of useful information and project ideas.
Frigidaire: This site has an excellent kitchen design template.
How Stuff Works: A great reference point for mechanical, electrical and other functionality type questions. It covers microwave ovens, toilets and more. It's worth a visit!
Kitchen Aid: Information is provided about both large and small appliances.
Maytag: Visit maytag to learn about their appliances. Tips here too!
Thermador: Useful information about baking appliances and their installation.
Whirlpool: Whirpool has put together a fabulous website. It's worth the visit!

Browsing for Housing...

Coldwell Banker: Information about propertes for sale and financing.
HomePath: Sponsored by Fannie Mae. This site discusses both the pros and cons of owning a home.
Home Scout: A database of homes for sale.
IRED Directory: Links to real estate. this site contains a national realtor locator.
Rent Net: Provides listings for over 2 million apartment units in the US and Canada.
Who's Who In Luxury Real Estate: Want to take a look at luxury homes? This site focuses on "more than $1 million dollar homes. You can even check out islands and "chateaux" real estate here!

Decorating & Designing...

Armstrong: Design a room on the Armstrong site. It features an entire house with corresponding floor plan. Even though it is an interactive experience, it is limited in that only three things can be changed in any room - the floor, cabinets and wall colors. It does do a good job illustrating the way different floors actually look.
Better Homes & Gardens Online: BH&G has develped "Quick & Easy Decorating", divided into sections such as living areas and bedrooms, with helpful suggestions and tips for making the most of your space and furniture. Where to buy lists are included and the site shows how to use inexpensive materials in creative ways. Take a look at the two interactive programs Better Homes and Gardens offers - "Plan A Garden" and "Arrange A Room". Simply measure the yard or room you want to plan. After developing your idea, you can save your plan if you register on the site and it is possible to print your plan.
Builder Online: Study more than 1500 house plans.
CABnet.com: This site is actually dedicated to the present and future cabinetmaker however, it contains excellent articles about the craft of working with wood.
Calgary Homes: You'll find this to be one of the best furniture arrangement sites on the Internet. This site uses white silhouettes of furniture which makes the visual presentation pleasing. There are many rooms that can be arranged and lists of furnishings for placement.
Country Sampler Decorating Ideas: Bring new life to your furniture with spray paint. Ths site provides project ideas.
Crayola: One of the best sites on the web. It's worth a visit just to see what's there!
Home and Garden TV: This is the website of the popular television show.
HomeArts.Com's Shelter: Home Arts.com offers information on interior design, household hints, design news and numerous articles from House Beautiful, Victoria, Country Living and Town and Country.
Home Fashion Information Network: Contains information about home fashion....from upholstery to drapery.
Hometime: Project ideas here....based on the popular PBS tv show!
HouseNet: A tremendous site full of resources for the home.
Kitchen Man: The focus is on CKD certified kitchen designers. Information about kitchen redesign is plentiful!
Kitchen.net: Information about tile, showers, tubs and kitchen and bathroom basics. Get new and fresh ideas here.
Kitchen Web: Buiding a house and want to know if your appliances are going to fit? Make use of this site. It allows you to choose the size of your appliances and design a room that resembles your own accurate window and door placement. Save and print your designs.
Ladies Home Journal Online: Online has an interactive decorating program. Instead of hauling that sleeper sofa around the room, just to "see how it looks over there," you can do a virtual layout using the dimensions of your room, and their little graphic sofas, chairs, artwork and such.
Living Home: Gardening, Remodeling, Decorating and Design. There's always something new at this site! Check out their forums, tips and more!
Plasti-kote: Bring new life to your furniture with spray paint. Ths site provides project ideas.
Room-By-Room On The Web: The online home for the popular "Room-by-Room" TV show. This site is friendly and has a helpful tone. Useful sections include information on decorating projects. You can also print out a free decorating guide and graph paper.
Seemy Design: Easy to navigate but limited in furniture choices.
The Traditional Home Designer Finder: Brought to you by the publishers of Traditional Home magazine, this site focuses on major design styles and how to create them in your home. The handy interactive section locates interior designers in your area, lists their typical prices for finished rooms and shows photographs of their work.
Wickes Furniture: This design planner limits color choices and room configuration. Most of the furniture designs are traditional silhouettes.

Environmental Design...

eBuild: Order their catalog of green design and construction products, checklists and technical information.
Envirosense: The Envirosense Consortium is a group of strategic companies who collectively offer a solutions strategy to addressing indoor air quality. You'll find a newsletter, sources, cases studies, books, resources and links for other sources dealing with a "healthy" environment.
Green Builder Program: Sponsored by the City of Austing, this site is a directory of sustainable sources, articles, case studies, catalogs, and services.
Green Design Network: Sign up for GreenClips, a summary of news on sustainable building design and related government and business issues that is published every two weeks by email. It's free!
Green Seal: Green Seal is the independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the environment by promoting the manufacture and sale of environmentally responsible consumer products. It sets environmental standards and awards a "Green Seal of Approval" to products that cause less harm to the environment than other similar products. This site the designer identify environmentally friendly products in design.
ISDesign Net: An online version of the magazine, Interiors and Sources. Deals with "Green Design" issues.
The Not So Big House: The best plans submitted, along with photos of the resulting homes, will be published in a new book entitled The Not So Big House Design Book, which was published in October of 2000.
U.S. Green Builder Council: The mission of this unprecedented coalition is to accelerate the adoption of green building practices, technologies, policies, and standards. Through their committee-based organization, they are endeavoring to move the green building industry forward with market-based solutions. You'll find "green building" policies, programs, technologies, standards and design practices at this site.

Life Stages Design...

Adaptive Environments: This site includes information about the New England ADA Technical Assistance Center and two national programs of Adaptive Environments, the Universal Design Education Project and the ADA National Access for Public Schools Project. It also has links to many universal design and ADA resources.
Barrier Free: Barrier Free focuses on peoples' similarities rather than differences to design the bathrooms so that they can be used by everyone small or large, young or old, able or disabled, independent or dependent.
Builder Online: Take a look at Life Stages '99.
National Association of Home Builders Research Center: The Research Center keeps U.S. home builders in tune with new technology and changing needs.Future trends and developing technologies are fully analyzed, with an emphasis on the impact that such trends and technologies will have on the way the homes are actually built.
Universal Designers & Consultants, Inc.: Universal Designers & Consultants, Inc. specializes in assisting clients in complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state and local accessibility regulations. They provide a "New Product List" that may be utilized when remodeling or building for accessability. Take a look at their residential design case study.

Home/Work Design...

Everythings Organized: A complete source for maximum home office, small business, and corporate productivity.
Herman Miller: Herman Miller is a complete source for maximum home office, small business, and corporate productivity.

Financial Considerations...

E-Loan: This is a great place to research and compare the different types of mortgage loans. Interactive questionaires and calculators can show an adjustable rate mortgage as it compares to a fixed rate loan in terms of total cost.
Home Buyers Fair: An well organized site that provides methods of calculating home buying ability.
Interest.com: Interest.com provides information about loan types (30 year fixed, 5 year adjustable, etc. and will supply you with a samplingof interest rates and up front fees from lenders in various states. Also contains great educational articles on mortgages and the mortgage buying process.
iOwn: iOwn offers all kinds of interactive calculators and articles on the home buying process.
Microsurf Mortgage Quotes: This site lists reputable lenders.
Reekie Properties, Inc.: Information about home puchasing. Includes the buying process, contingency contracts and buyer concerns. Simply click on the appropriate button.

Floors...

DuPont Stainmaster: An excellent resource about carpet selection, care and design.
National Wood Flooring Association: All about wood floors!
Pergo: Create your own patterns using Pergo's colorful new laminates. Easy to use and the effects are amazing.
The Tile Lady: Mrs. Parker gives excellent tips on tile care.

Furnishings for Your Home...

Be Home: Shop for your home online. Benchmark is a pioneering marketer of home furnishings on the net. Many valuable articles are available here about home furnishings.
The Furniture Wizard: This award winning website offers furniture repair strategies, furniture care and maintenance tips, refinishing techniques and much, much more!

Miscellaneous Matters...

The Energy Outlet: Energy efficiency information available here!
HomeSafe Specialty Contracting: Tips are provided concerning fireplaces, woodburning stoves and chimneys.
On The House: This site has a Saturday morning show on over 165 radio stations nationwide.
Minwaax: Information on stains, finishes, cleaners, etc.
Merillat: Cabinet designs and general information. Use the basic kitchen layout.
Pella: Windows! Learn about window purchasing and care.
The Plumber.Com: Just what it is....a plumbing site!
PlumbingNet: Find plumbing manufacturers fast!
PlumbNet: Another plumbing site!
Smart House: Learn about the "smart house"! What an idea!
Toiletology 101: Who would have thought it? This site offers everything you would want to know about toilets and fixing them! Lesson Plans cover plumbing tools, anatomy of a toilet, replacing a wax sealing ring, etc
Weiser Lock: Home Security is discussed in great detail here.
WireNet: This site has valuable information on wiring tips

Researching Your Move....

Money Online: The Best Places to Live in America 1997: Money Online creates this guide annually. You get to control the criteria and decide what factors are most important to you concerning the quality of life you live.
Home Buyer's Fair: Calculators to help compare the cost of living in different states are available. Also, tools for estimating how much your insurance will change, crime statistics for a particular city, estimates on how much your move will actually cost are available.
Project Impact: This site allows you to type in a Zip code, or a cty and state or a congressional district and it will give you a map showing tornados, or floods or earth quates that have smitten that area.
The School Report: School report provides statistics and test scores on over 12,000 public school districts, including maps of school locations, telephone nubers and listings of child-care providers. This site is sponsored by National School Reporting Services.

Repair & Renovation......

Ask The Builder: Tim Carter has developed a warehouse of information on home improvement. Type in your key word and Tim's database will produce the information you need!
Better Home & Gardens Home Improvement Encyclopedia: One of the best repair/rennovation sites you'll find on the Web. Articles about decks, yard structures, walls, floors, plumbing, landscaping. The Tool dictionary tells you which tool to use.etc.
Build.com: An online directory and search engine for building and home improvement products and information.
CBuild.com: Check out the Virtual Remodeling Tour where you can see how actual projects are progressing. Click on the Eplans.com link where your students can search among a vriety of house plans for their housing or interior design project..
Do It Yourself.com: Answers the most frequently asked questions about jobs homeowners often tackle. Check it out, it has excellent information. Also provides links to company sites and other household help sites.
Home Arts: Exhaustive Resources for Home fixer-uppers.
Home Central: Contains an illustrated tool dictionary. Many helpful hints about home repair and tool usage.
Home Ideas: The ultimate home repair site. Discussion groups, articles, links, free product brochures and more!
Home Improvement Net Tips: Includes tips about keeping you home secure, redecorating your walls with wainscoting or wood paneling.
Home Improvement Net Plans: Plans, tips and remodeling advice
Home Improvement Resources by Nerd World Media: Hyperlinks to more tips and businesses nationwide.
The Home Maintenance and Repair Page: Handy hints on home maintenance.
Hometime: From PBS, this site focuses on home maintenance. Divided into four sections: Projects, TV, Store and Information.
Housenet: You name it...it's here. An online resource that focuses on home improvement, decorating, lawn & garden. It also has it's own home decorating library.
KitcheNet: Learn the latest on new materials for the home.
Lowe's Knows Home Improvement Warehouse: Lowe's Knows.....It's their very own home improvement guide.
Remodel Online: You'll find an abudance of tips, how-to-articles and solutions to common problems around the house.
The Sound Home Resource Web: Great information concerning remodeling issues.
Today's Homeowner: Planning to remodel? Check out the helpful information here. Have your students use the handy calculators to determine how much paint, flooring or insulation they'll need for their project.
411 Home Repair: This site links homeowners with established local contractors, architects and landscapers. Tips are provided to help you find the right one for your job. Why not use it to locate guest speakers for your class?

Technology......

The Home Automation Times: The Home Automation Times is all about household technology and the growing presence of computers in our homes and personal lives. A great site to utilize when teaching about technology in the home. This site looks at technology in the home from a variety of angles!

Walls......

Benjamin Moore: This site includes detailed instructions and pictures (in the Designer section) for achieving some of the most popular effects. It also has a section on color selection, tips on hndling common paint problems around the house and a project of the month to try.
Wall Bear Wallpaper Stripper: Excellent tips and graphics on wall paper removal.
Walls With Style: Walls with Style, a great new product web site developed by the producers of craftnetvillage.com. Walls with Style takes all the mess and work out of creating faux finishes - leaving nothing but fun! The site is packed with great home decor project ideas, interactive features and online ordering.

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