Protect your home, Add a dash of glamor to dining room household during power outage
A:Q:A:Q: A:More than half of all homeowners suffer a power outage each year, but a few simple steps can help keep it from turning into a catastrophe.
Last week, power to all of the homes in our neighborhood was knocked out for about two hours. When the lights came back on, the bulb in one of the lamps that had been turned on in our living room literally blew up and sent glass flying everywhere. No one was hurt, but what could have caused this? Is there a way to prevent this from happening again?
There are a number of reasons the bulb may have exploded when power was restored. The most likely is there was a brief power surge, and the outlet, the lamp’s electrical cord or the bulb itself couldn’t handle the extra electric “juice.” Or, you might have a serious problem with your circuit breakers.
Your best bet now would be to call out a professional electrician immediately to inspect the home’s entire electrical system and to make any needed repairs or upgrades. It might be an expensive proposition, but you cannot risk the chance it might happen again and cause injuries to your family or a devastating house fire.
Whenever there’s a power outage, you should unplug nearly every electrical item in the house — especially if they were being used when the outage began. But leave one lamp or small radio on, so you’ll know when power is restored.
It’s also wise to make sure any computers or other high- priced electronic products you have are hooked up to inexpensive surge protectors, which can prevent everyday electrical spikes from damaging their internal components. Also consider using protectors on any cable and phone lines.
Keep the doors on your refrigerator and freezer closed during power outages to keep food as cold as possible. Most homeowners’ insurance policies will pay $ 100 or so for food that is spoiled after an extended loss of electricity.
Of course, you should always have lots of flashlights and fresh batteries in an easy- to- reach area so you can use them until the lights come back on.
Some owners purchase small and relatively inexpensive gas- powered generators they can use during a power outage or emergency, though the devices must be set up in a dry area outside, away from any windows or other air intakes to the home, to help prevent breathing the potentially deadly carbon monoxide or other gasses that the machine may produce.
Real estate trivia: A new Labor Department study says falls and electrical strikes are two reasons being a “roofer” is America’s fifth- most- dangerous job. Only fishermen, loggers, private airline pilots ( mostly in remote parts of Alaska) and sanitation workers face more dangers: Police and fire department personnel didn’t make the list.
There is a 2- foot- high brick wall that separates my neighbor’s lawn from mine. I would like to build a 6- foot wall so our family could have more privacy, but the neighbor said that doing so would be illegal. Is this true?
You will have to call your local building and safety department, or perhaps your city or county district attorney, for guidance.
Many local governments demand fences or walls be at least 5 or 6 feet tall between neighboring properties. If that’s the law in your area, you can go to small claims court to have the tiny bricks removed and later have a newbut higher wall installed.
The judge likely would rule the cost of the new fence or wall be paid 50/ 50 by you and your neighbor. We are getting ready to sell our home. How can we verify the agents we interview have a valid real estate license, or don’t have legal complaints against them? The best way is to contact your state’s real estate department or real estate commission. In most states, these regulators can confirm whether a person is licensed and can disclose whether a licensee has been disciplined for violations in the past.
A good alternative is to visit the website that’s operated by the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials ( www. arello. org). It represents government realty regulators in all 50 states, and its website lets you type in a salesperson’s name to verify he or she is licensed — although usually it cannot offer the more in- depth information that your own state’s regulatory department may be able to provide.
Q:Our booklet “Straight Talk about Living Trusts” explains how lowand middle- income homeowners can reap the same benefits creating an inexpensive trust once provided to only the wealthiest. For a copy, send $ 4 and a self- addressed, stamped envelope to David Myers/ Trust, P. O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231- 4405. Send questions to that same address and we’ll try to respond in a future column.
Q:I’m moving into my ( second) husband’s apartment, and he’s agreed to let me do some redecorating. The apartment is in a historic old building built in the Art Deco style. We plan to entertain a lot, and I want to make it glamorous, especially the dining room, but I can’t find many glam dining rooms to inspire me. Then you haven’t yet seen a new book by designer Amanda Nisbet, aptly named “Dazzling Design” ( Stewart, Tabori & Chang, publishers).
Based in New York City, Nisbet knows glamour, and Art Deco, too. Just seeing the Chrysler Building gleaming on the skyline is inspiration enough. The dining room we show here could inspire yours, with its deep, rich color scheme and high- gloss sparkle.
Nisbet custom- designed the black glass- and- brass dining tables— a secondmirrorimage dining arrangement sits just out of the photo to the left, so there’s ample room for eight dinner guests.
There’s another pair of those vintage crystal light fixtures hanging from the ivory- painted ceiling she had lacquered high- gloss to bring “sparkle to an already- sexy room.”
More ideas to investigate: the dramatically scaled abstract art on the wall echoed in the rug; the banquet seating that wraps one end of each table, balanced by pull- up chairs; her inspired use of color “that effectively functions as an architectural element by influencing the ways inwhich the room’s tectonic properties are perceived.”
In other words, if you knowhow to harness the power of color, you can visually raise or lower a ceiling, push walls back or bring them closer, smooth out architectural eccentricities such as niches and load- bearing beams, energize or pacify the overall attitude of a room.
Here’s the key: Dark colors “advance.” That is, they make surfaces look closer to the eye. Light colors recede, so things look further away, ergo, more space.
Matte ( flat) finishes workmuch like dark colors, while glossy finishes act like mirrors, creating more space than what actually exists.
Colors have attitude: The warmer the hue ( think sunshine- hot yellows, oranges, reds), the livelier the space. The cooler the colors ( think ice blue and green, blue- white, and frosted yellows and pinks), the more serene the
A:scene.
Back to the subject of glamorous decor: The last word may be the Swarovski fireplace ( introduced by Napoleon Fireplaces& Grills, napoleonfireplaces. com). Available in one- or two- sided versions, the limited edition comes with a bed of authentic precision- cut crystals that shoot “sparks” when you turn on the fireplace lights.
I’m looking for something new in cabinets for my kitchen, which is contemporary. I am bored with stainless and don’t want painted cabinets — or do I?
High- gloss painted cabinets, say in dove or charcoal gray, black
Q:A:or bright white, would be smart in an haute- contemporary kitchen.
New and even newer- looking: Check out the textured high- pressure laminates about to be introduced by one top cabinetry company ( wood- mode. com). The surfaces are textured to look like real, raised wood grain, giving cabinets the look and feel of weathered wood that promises to wear like iron.
Vanguard Plastic Texture Laminates will be available in four natural- woodlook colors in December.
Rose B. Gilbert is the co- author of “Manhattan Style” and six other books on interior design.