4 Kitchen Remodeling Tips to Help Sell Your Home

The old saying that “Kitchens and bathrooms sell homes” may not apply to every home sale, but a well-budgeted and strategic kitchen remodeling and appliance upgrade project can be a deciding factor in the transaction while also adding to the selling price of the home. If you are contemplating a kitchen remodeling project that is purposed toward selling your home, following these guidelines can create a beautiful space that provides a return on your investment.

1) Set your budget in stone – The rule of thumb for kitchen remodeling projects is to limit the budget to 15% or less than the appraised value of the home. A budget that goes over this benchmark will likely result in diminishing returns for each additional dollar that is spent.
2) Upgrade your appliances – Old appliances will give the kitchen a dated look, even if cabinetry, flooring, and countertops are in good shape. Many home buyers perceive the appearance of the kitchen as a proxy for the condition of the rest of the house, with a particular focus on appliances.
3) Buy appliances that you will use if the new owners decide to bring their own with them – The appliances that you buy as part of the kitchen remodeling project may be coming with you, depending on the terms of the home sale. These situations are actually a win on two fronts with appliances playing a role in the sale and then going into your next home as well.
4) Focus on energy efficient appliances – An energy efficient kitchen will make a positive impression by offering modernized functionality, savings on utility bills and a lighter environmental impact.

A strategic kitchen and appliance upgrade project can increase the appraisal value while also being the deciding factor when buyers look at your home. Additionally, by staying within your budget you’ll have the potential to turn a profit on the money that was spent on the endeavor.

Optimizing Your Kitchen Island

Kitchens islands offer a variety of design opportunities including the enhancement of your cooking experience, providing a new place to entertain and as a location for appliances such as a range and/or a dishwasher. The first thing you’ll want to do is to determine the appropriate size of the island for your kitchen. The general rule of thumb is to allow between 3 ½ to 4 feet of space between the island and the countertops, shelving and appliances that surround it to provide plenty of room for a multiple of people in the area. After determining the size of the island, there are several options you can consider to optimize the centerpiece of your kitchen including:

* A cooktop – Locating a cooktop on your kitchen island will result in more counter space around the perimeter for meal preparation and for storing kitchenware. Having a cooktop on an island also eliminates the necessity of the cook facing away from other people who are gathered in the kitchen while preparing meals on the range. If this is a new location for the cooktop, you’ll want to install adequate ventilation for the removal of heat and smoke.
* As an area for entertaining and dining – A kitchen island can offer an added location to entertain guests, whether you’re serving wine and appetizers before moving to the dining room or will be staying in the kitchen for the entire meal.
* Larger appliances – For spacious kitchens, a large island can be used to house a dishwasher or an oven. A centrally-located dishwasher can make cleaning easier, while an oven in the kitchen island can expand the options for configuring where other major appliances will be located.

An island planned around your cooking and entertaining style can enhance the environment in your kitchen and expand your design options. Additional benefits include more storage, increased counter space and an optimized cooking experience.

Do You Need a Wine Refrigerator a Wine Cellar or Both?

Wine refrigerators and wine cellars provide separate functions with the essential difference between the two being the optimal length of storage as well as the temperature at which bottles are cached. Generally speaking, sparkling wine, champagne, and lighter bodied white wines such as pinot grigio’s are at their best when they are chilled to a temperature range of 40 to 45 degrees. Full-bodied chardonnays, on the other hand, should be served at temperatures that are about 10 degrees warmer.

Considering that the family refrigerator will normally run at temperatures between 36 and 40 degrees and a wine cellar should maintain a range of 55 to 65 degrees, the best solution for serving these types wine at their optimal temperature will be a wine refrigerator. These refrigerators come in a variety of sizes, with storage capacities ranging from 6 to 200 bottles.



Despite the fact that a wine refrigerator will enable white wines to be served at their best temperatures, it will not be the best choice for the long term storage of a collection. This work is best left for a wine cellar with an environment of 55 to 60 degrees and a humidity level that consistently hovers around 70%, because long term storage at lower temperatures in a wine refrigerator can mute the flavors and varying levels of humidity can lead to a drying out of the corks.

For serious wine collectors, the best solution is to go with a wine refrigerator and a wine cellar. The availability of both storage options allows for bottles of sparkling wine, champagne, and white wine that are ready to be served to be rotated from the cellar to the wine refrigerator where they can be chilled to their optimal temperatures. Bottles that will be aged, as well as the red wines that are ready to be served, can be stored in the cellar, giving the collector perfect wine storage solutions for both the long and short term.

Are You Grilling or Barbequing?

While the terms “grilling” and “barbequing” are often used on an interchangeable basis, about the only similarities between the two cooking styles is that they both involve the cooking of meat in the outdoors. The determination of whether you will be grilling or barbequing starts by defining the cooking style.

Grilling, in terms of sheer numbers, is the more popular and simpler cooking style between the two, being a common sight at beach cookouts, parties, and other events. Grilling recipes are as varied as the people that prepare meat in this fashion with an almost limitless number of rubs, sauces, marinades, and spices that combine with the carmelization of naturally-occurring sugars in the meat to provide a wide range of tastes.
 
If you are grilling:

• You are cooking with high heat temperatures that run in the vicinity of 500 to 600 degrees.

• The meat you are cooking is being directly heated by burning coals or a gas flame.

• Your cooking time is relatively short.

• You are probably cooking higher quality steaks, hamburgers, chicken or hot dogs

Barbequing is completely different from grilling in that the process takes longer and requires some expertise to deliver a successful meal. Most of the meat’s flavor is derived from the smoke that emanates from the embers of selected types of wood.



If you are barbequing:

• You are cooking with lower temperatures ranging from 180 to 250 degrees

• Your meat is not in direct contact with the heating source

• You are cooking cuts of meat that benefit from longer cooking times such as ribs, shoulders, etc.

While the terms are often interchanged, grilling and barbequing are completely different styles of cooking. If you happen to be a person who enjoys cooking with both styles, the Primo ceramic grill is designed to allow grilling on one half while meats placed on the other side of a divider receive the indirect heat of the barbequing process. The grill can also be converted to a full grill or barbeque, depending on the size of the meal and the method of preparation.

5 Ways to Cool Your Kitchen the Heat of Summer

When the temperatures rise throughout a hot summer day, the last thing you probably want to do is turn on the oven and start cooking. If going out to dinner every night isn't an option, here are 5 tips to make sure your kitchen doesn't feel as warm as your preheating oven.

• Experiment with other cooking appliances – Microwave ovens can now brown and crisp dishes and crock pots cook at lower temperatures for longer periods of time. In fact, once a crock pot has been loading with the meal that will cook over the next several hours, it can be situated anywhere, including the patio if you have an outlet nearby.

• Add a ceiling fan – Ceiling fans tend to be under-utilized in kitchens but they can provide significant cooling as well as the dispersal of heat from the oven.

• Get outside – One of the pleasures of summer is cooking outdoors and the new barbecues and grills make it easy. In fact, outdoor cooking gear has so many optional features that you can prepare an entire meal on a barbecue/grill.

• Create sandwich and salad bars – These are fun meals that don’t require any heating. 

• Increase your venting capacity – One of the things that gets overlooked in terms of cooling a kitchen area is the venting system over the oven/cooktop. Improving your venting capacity can remove more smoke, steam, and heat from your kitchen area, making it far more comfortable to prepare meals. 

Summer evenings can be extremely enjoyable, unless you’re sweating them out in a hot kitchen. Follow these tips to vary your routine, get outdoors, and stay cool while you’re in the kitchen.

Blu-ray 101

Blu-ray is the name of the optical disc platform that has been designed with the intention of replacing the widely used format of digital video discs (DVDs). The technology gets its name from the blue laser that reads the information on the disc, at a rate which occurs at a higher storage speed than DVDs that are read by red lasers.

The advantages of Blu-ray include:

* Better picture quality – Blu-ray’s better picture quality starts with its increased resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 versus the standard DVD resolution of 720 x 480. The higher number of pixels available in the Blu-ray format results in far greater detail and picture clarity. The Blu-ray format also has deeper colors and enhanced contrasts.

* Better sound quality – Higher resolution audio formats deliver a richer sound experience that can rival movie theater audio.

* The Blu-ray format optimizes HDTV – Owners of HDTV screens can only optimize the picture from discs with the Blu-ray format due to the fact that DVDs are not designed with enough pixels for the display screen. Trying to integrate a DVD with a high resolution screen can result in a lower picture quality than that of a screen that doesn’t have HD technology.

* DVDs work in Blu-ray players – This avoids the situation where a new technology renders the one being replaced as unusable (VHS tapes versus DVD’s, for example). Being able to play DVDs means that a new Blu-ray owner doesn’t have to start from scratch in terms of a movie collection and can continue to play DVDs while adding Blu-ray movies.

As a relatively new technology, buying a Blu-ray player will still cost more than the DVD version. That being said, enhanced viewing experience is the name of the game for virtually all new technology in this category, which places Blu-ray in the middle of the next generation of video-related electronics.

Electrolux Dealers See the Future of Cooking

Electrolux dealers are excited about induction technology because it represents the next generation in cooking. Induction cooking employs high frequency electromagnets and sophisticated electronics to generate a magnetic field on the cooktop of a range. When a magnetic pot or pan is placed on top of the electromagnetic field, energy is transferred from the magnet to the pot/pan, which then heats the metal of the cookware. Heating of the cookware then cooks the food held inside. Increasing or decreasing the power of the magnetic field can then control the level of heat transferred into the cookware.

This dynamic presents many benefits including:

• Induction cooking is more responsive than gas or electric because of the capability to instantaneous adjust the heating level. Water boils faster and heat can be reduced more quickly as well. In fact, water can be brought to a boil in 90 seconds.
• Induction cooking provides a more efficient transfer of energy than gas or electrical heating elements, which can save both time and energy.
• Being able to control heating with electromagnetic energy means that cooking temperatures can be set precisely.
• The cooktop stays cool – Because heat is transferred directly from the electromagnets to the cookware, the cooktop stays cool. This can reduce accidental burns and make cleaning easier.
• Flexibility - Sensors automatically detect magnetic cookware that is placed on the cooktop and then activate the induction field, which can be adjusted to any sized cookware.

One issue that could be seen as a disadvantage of induction cooking is that at present, the only cookware that can be used must be a metal, such as iron, that responds to a magnetic field. Non-ferrous cookware like aluminum simply does not work on induction cooktops. This issue is mitigated by the fact that most cookware lines have plenty of products that will work on induction cooktops. Additionally, as induction cooking gains popularity, expect even more cookware options to become available over time.

Electrolux dealers know that the many benefits of induction cooking, including precision temperature selection, rapid heating, and savings in time and energy make induction cooktops a solid choice for any kitchen. For more information, visit: http://eastcoastappliance.com/index.html