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Get the most from your space
There are many ways to give a bathroom a facelift. You can make it visually larger by decorating with light colours. Large prints and bold stripes tend to overpower a small room. Stick to small prints whether you are painting or wallpapering. Limit your accessories. Remember, less can be more!
Try to create a sense of continuity. Bathrooms are chopped up enough by fixtures, so paint and wallpaper walls and ceiling the same colour.
When choosing a wallpaper make sure it is a good vinyl, that isn't prepasted. Wallpaper paste is water based and if the shower isn't ventilated properly, the vapour may cause the wallpaper to lift from the wall. When you paste by hand, use an oil-based glue.
Update your fixtures
If your colour fixtures are outdated, and new ones are out of the question, consider having them refinished. White is always a classic and an excellent choice.
Shower curtains can also make a room visually larger. Choose a clear shower curtain with a solid colour fabric curtain. And mirrors are another good trick to visually expand your space. A long mirror with plenty of lights increases the visual space and prevents having to jostle for mirror space when two people are using the bathroom.
Storage solutions
Extending your counter-top over the back of the toilet is known as a "banjo top" counter. Be sure there is enough clearance space to raise the tank top should it require service. Open shelving between the toilet and vanity creates handy storage space, looks less bulky than closed storage space, and eliminates the need for clearance for a cupboard door.
A plastic coated wire mounted on a pegboard above a low profile toilet is another way to create storage space and works well as a decorative element.
If you don't have room for a shower stall, try installing a rounded shower base in the corner of a small bathroom, leaving no corners to jut out into valuable floor space. A folding door eliminates the need for clearance space between the pedestal basin and door. If your bathroom is too narrow for a standard vanity, ask your designer or contractor to build a bank of cabinets half as deep. Install a bump out sink because a regular drop in bowl won't fit in this type of cabinet. Since lower cabinets will be shallow, you won't have to reach as far for supplies.
Both light and ventilation are important in a bathroom. Light expands the space and prevents shadows. Ventilation keeps air circulating. A combination fan forced heater/ventilator/ceiling light allows all three work separately or together. This eliminates the need to buy three different fixtures.
Whatever your decorating style, there are a host of new patterns, colours and designs available that will reflect your particular tastes and serve to make your bathroom more functional.
Prime Lending Rate to Rise
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Your Heating System
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Check your heating system first
Oil and gas fired furnaces require a constant supply of air to operate, because fire needs oxygen to burn. Air is also needed to exhaust the products of combustion up the chimney. Sometimes a furnace may become starved for air because household air is being rapidly expelled from the house through other routes such as a roaring fireplace, an upper-level window left open, a clothesdryer or exhaust fan left operating continuously.
An air-starved furnace can cause carbon monoxide to buildup in quantities that can be dangerous.
Warning signs of inadequate ventilation are stuffy atmosphere, lingering odors from in complete combustion, back drafts and smoking fireplaces.
Additional ventilation can sometimes be required in houses with heating systems that require little or no indoor air, electrically heated homes, homes with chimney-free condensing furnaces, or houses with a fuel burning furnace enclosed in a room with air for combustion from the outside. Furthermore, super energy-efficient houses usually require special ventilation.
Improve heating efficiency
Turning down the thermostat is a good way to save heat. There are several brands of programmable thermostats on the market today that will regulate your home's temperature.
Hot air ducts are notorious wasters of heat and money. If your basement feels too warm, too much heat is probably seeping out of your ducts. You can seal all joints and seams in the ducting with vinyl duct tape. Some ducts registers empty into the basement and these should be sealed or closed if they are not needed.
Ducts that run through unheated basements or attics should always be insulated. Fiberglass batting or commercial duct wrap can be used.
Make sure both return air grills and supply registrars are kept free from any obstruction, including drapes and furniture. With forced air-systems, the furnace filters should be changed regularly.
With hot water systems, the exposed accessible heating pipes should be insulated with flexible foil- faced fiberglass at least 19mm thick. A rigid, foil-faced insulating board between the wall and the radiator will reflect much more heat into the room.
Some old hot water systems rely on gravity to circulate the water, and adding a circulating pump to the system can lead to potential fuel savings of as much as 30 percent.
If there is an aquastat on the boiler, (a water temperature control) the water temperature can be reduced to about 49 Celsius of 120 Fahrenheit during warmer parts of the heating season. This reduced setting will prevent overheating your house in the spring and fall.
A more expensive option is to install an automatic aquastat to reduce water temperature as the outdoor temperature rises. (If your boiler is made of stainless steel, or if your main boiler also heats your domestic hot water, you shouldn't reduce the water.
"Downsizing" your oil furnace can reduce fuel bills by seven to 10 per cent. Downsizing means reducing the firing rate by changing the burner nozzle to a smaller size.
Retention head burners that can save as much as 20 to 25 per cent of your fuel can also be added to some furnace units. Retention head burners mix the air and oil spray very quickly which permits the combustion of oil with less air. Less air entering the burner means that less heat escapes out the chimney.
If you think you might be having problems with household air supply, contact a registered heating contractor for advice. If the problem turns out to be inadequate air supply, the contractor will be able to find ways to bring in outside air. There are specific requirements for this which depend on the type of system you have.
What can I do to update my bathroom?
Today more and more homeowners are directing their energy and creativity towards redecorating the bathroom. Be it the family bath, or the master ensuite, the primary focus is on increased luxury comfort and convenience. Many homeowners are looking for new ideas to make their existing bathrooms larger.
Redecorating a small bathroom is a common design problem. If you can't expand the room, either by building an addition or by incorporating space from a nearby bedroom or closet, here are some ideas to help you get the most out of the space you have.
Whether you are bold, colorful, soft or subtle, there are fixtures available that will reflect your persona and express your style. Everything from hand painted porcelain fixtures complete with matching gold plated faucets, to a variety of natural fixtures including granite, marble, onyx and teakwood are available. Leading manufacturers now work in harmony to create colour coordinated bath products.
If you are planning to change your fixtures, you may want to consider replacing your vanity and sink with a pedestal sink. This will give you more floor space, but you will lose some storage space. Storage space problems can be solved in a variety of ways. Wall-mounted cabinets are a great way to hide bathroom clutter, without taking up valuable floor space. Units can be installed above the toilet, above the mirror or in the deck space below a raised bathtub. If you purchase a low profile toilet, there will be even more room for wall-mounted storage above. Choose cabinets that are no more than six inches deep so they don't get in the way.
What is The Bank of Canada Lending Rate?
The Bank of Canada www.bankofcanada.ca influences the prime lending rate by changing their overnight rate. The overnight rate is the interest rate the Bank of Canada will charge the Chartered Banks (CIBC, RBC, TD...) if they need to borrow money from the Bank of Canada to meet their daily reserve requirements. Currently the Bank of Canada's overnight rate has a target of 3.0%. The prime lending rate charged by the Chartered Banks is usually set at 1.75% above the Bank of Canada's overnight lending rate, hence the current prime rate of 4.75%. Therefore if a Chartered Bank needed to borrow money to lend to a client at prime they could go to the Bank of Canada, borrow at 3% and charge their client 4.75%. Note even at prime -.75% Chartered Banks make 1% minimum a year on the spread.
Now how do we know what the markets expect the Bank of Canada to do? Well we know the most a Chartered Bank would ever give an investor on an overnight investment is 3% because if the Chartered Bank ever needed money they could get it at 3% from the Bank of Canada www.bankofcanada.ca. The current yield on a 90 day Banker's Acceptance is 3.27%, a little higher than the overnight rate of 3%. You don't need to know what a Banker's Acceptance is, you only need to know an investor can get a 3.27% annualized return for a 90 day investment with the credit risk of a Chartered Bank. On the Montreal stock exchange, there are futures contracts that trade on the future interest rates of these Banker's Acceptances and can be found at www.m-x.ca/cotes_en.php. All you need to know is 100 minus the last price, is the current yield someone locked in for a Banker's Acceptance that starts on the date of the contract (date to the left) and runs for 90 days. If we look at the December 2005 date with a current price of 96.51 we know the yield we could lock in today for a 90 day investment starting in mid December is 100-96.51 or 3.49%. If we compare that to the current 3.27% an investor could get today, we know the market is expecting the Bank of Canada to increase interest rate by 3.49%-3.27% or .22%. Let's call it a .25% increase when the Bank of Canada meets again December 6th. Note from the quotes at the time of this email, that by September 2007 the rate you can lock in today for a 90 day investment starting in mid September 2007 is 4.12%. Comparing that to 3.27% today and we can see the market is expecting a .85% increase from where we are today. Since the Bank of Canada traditionally moves in .25% increments we know the market is expecting a move up in rates between .75% and 1%. Since these Banker's Acceptance futures are traded daily they constantly change to reflect the markets expectations on the future direction and magnitude of interest rate changes.
What should I know about my heating system?
A heating system converts fuel into heat which then flows through a house. The efficiency of a heating system depends on the amount of fuel consumed to meet heating needs. Using less fuel means your system has increased its energy efficiency.
One way to maximize output using the least amount of fuel is to reduce air leakage. Before deciding to replace or upgrade your present heating system you will have to consider how much of your present system can be saved. Can the boiler or furnace be salvaged by tuning or retrofitting? Are the heating ducts or water distribution pipes in good condition? Heating system work can be very inexpensive or quite costly depending on how much efficiency you want to buy.
If you decide to change your system, you'll have to consider what type of fuel you want to use. Cost and availability of fuel is usually the deciding factor. If you're keeping your present system, here are a few ways you can improve its operation.
