Aww the days of summer, almost over but I'm sure Mother Nature has a few more hot summer days in store. How about for those last precious summer days, and cool summer nights, hang out on a new deck?  Building a deck is simple, if you just do a little research and have some time on your hands. It will add tons of value to your home and make it look priceless. There are many good decking options out there it's just up to you to choose the look and feel you want.

The most popular type of decking is pressure treated wood. People like using wood primarily because it's long lasting and is the cheapest type of decking on the market. There are problems with wood though. Wood decking if not sealed properly with stain will start to fade. If left untreated decking will become a grayish color and will splinter. Pressure treated wood is a greenish color and comes from the factory with a special chemical infused into the wood under pressure. This chemical will not allow it to fade for awhile but after that it will go a grayish color. This chemical will also detour bug infestation. Other woods that you can use but will need to stain are western red cedar, redwood, and mahogany. These woods will need to be stained periodically through the life time of the deck.

Composite decking is becoming the wave of the future. In newer subdivisions this is what is primarily used because there is no maintenance required, it will not fade or deteriorate for awhile, and it will not splinter. There are multiple colors, textures, and installation systems to choose from. The down side to composite decking is that it is costly, it does not have the same appearance as natural lumber, and it won't give you the same wow effect as natural wood does. Another benefit of composite decking is that it is eco friendly. It is composed of fifty percent recycled and reclaimed plastic and fifty percent reclaimed wood. A good composite decking company is Trex, take a look and see what you think.

Aluminum decking is the cheapest decking on the market. But, it is the least good looking and does not have as much added value as composite or wood decking. Aluminum decking is pre-fabricated deck boards with an enamel coating on top.  A good aluminum decking company is Versadeck.

A good site to check out if you have any further questions or concerns is decks.com. Or you can ask your local real estate agent before selling your home about good contractors and decking options available to you.  

Painting your home can be very beneficial when trying to do a quick, easy fix to sell your home faster. Painting will make your home look more up to date and will have it smelling fresh and new. Not only does painting help sell your home, it will make your home much more cozy. You will be able to add your personal touch without breaking the bank.

Choosing a good color is what it's all about. You have to keep in mind that if you are looking to sell the home picking more neutral colors might be your best option. If you will be staying in the home for awhile the options are endless. Choosing the colors and finishes for your home is a great way to make a house seem like a home, especially if you are a first time buyer you can pick exactly what you want your new home to look like.

Wall paper is more than likely not the best idea. I feel as though, and others will agree, that wall paper is a thing of the past. If you are looking to sell the home, you may want to remove any wall paper in the house. This way when potential buyers come in to take a look they aren't thinking about how big of a pain it's going to be to remove the wall paper themselves. Removing wall paper is not all that difficult, it just takes time.

There are many options when it comes to the types of paints and style you can use on your home. Faux painting has taken the place of wall paper. Faux painting is types of painting techniques that make the wall look like another type of material such as marble or wood, giving the paint a different texture. Faux painting techniques are applied with different types of tools then regular paint. Faux painting has been around for thousands of years. There are classes on faux painting given at your local home depot store all the time, check out what all the fuss is about.

If you would like to think green while painting there are multiple options to choose from. Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams are on the fore front of low VOC (volatile organic compound) paints which are much better for the environment and for the inhabitants of homes and offices. Low VOC paints do not contain formaldehyde but are organic or milk based. In some markets in Colorado, such as the Boulder real estate market, have a high percentage of new construction using low voc materials.

Would you like to save forty to fifty percent on your heating and cooling costs? Installing new windows could make that dream a reality. If your home was built before the seventies you probably have single pane windows. Single pane windows are the worst when it comes to r-value, (thermal resistance of an insulating product); there is only one pane of glass separating the inside from the outside of your home. There are better window ideas, that costs of replacing your old windows will be re-cooped on the resale of your home.               

Insulated, or double pane windows, have two panes of glass with an air pocket in between. This helps the heat in your home not pass as quickly through the windows. The pocket of air holds the warm air in during the winter; in the summer keeps in the cool air. Also the fact there is two panes of glass keeping air in.

Thermal pane windows have the best r-value. Thermal pane windows have argon or krypton gas factory sealed in their air pocket. These gases are great when it comes to insulating; they have little to no thermal conductivity. These gases will slow down the escape of warm/cold air from your home. In the winter your home will stay nice and warm and in the summer it will stay nice and cool.

Low emissive window coatings are good for cooler climates. These coatings are composed of a see through layer of metal or metallic oxide. These coatings keep in that valuable warm air in the winter and will keep out harmful UV rays that can destroy your furniture or rugs.

In new homes such as the Summerlin home in Boulder, Colorado these new innovations are becoming more common place. Even though these innovations cost a bit more now, in the future you will be saving thousands of dollars. Also, you will have the good conscious that you are doing your part to help the environment. National window companies that I like are Pella and Anderson. These companies are on the fore front of new window innovations.

Blogging can be a very useful tool if done right. On the other hand it can be detrimental if not done correctly. There are some key principles to abide by when blogging to make sure people will want to read your blogs. Here are six simple steps to keep you on track while blogging.

Step one- Make sure not to use other people's material. Just this last week presidential candidate John McCain was caught using material from Wikipedia. First of all this isn't good because he is plagiarizing Wikipedia. Second, he is using Wikipedia which is not a credible source. Make sure when writing your blog's use information that you have come up with or site where you found that information.

Step two- Another good tip is using hyperlinks while blogging. Hyperlinks work well when you want to show someone something that can't be put into the blog page, such as large pictures or graphs.

Step three- Good places to find material are everywhere on the net. But this is very dependent upon the blog you are writing. Where I start though is reading through the latest news articles that are online. This is some of the latest information you can get. I personally like writing about all the new "green" innovations that are coming out for construction. I also like going on to www.inman.com to found out what is going on in the real estate world. Find something that interests you and type it into Google, read up on it, and post your blog, it's that simple. 

Step four- Grammar is important to make sure people want to keep reading what you have written. Make sure to write your blog first in Microsoft Word. Spell check, proof read, then add your blog to the site.

Step five- Places to post blogs are endless. My top three favorite though are Activerain, real town, and Shirelife. These sites are all free and very user friendly.

Step six- Make sure you are blogging consistently. If you are not blogging on a regular basis your blog will not show up as high on Google and your clients will not be able to see all the work that you have done, and the best part of blogging will be lost. So make sure to go onto multiple sites and post your blog. I would say post different blogs at least three times a week.

Every couple months there is the dreaded water bill. It seems that it doesn't come very often but when it does, especially in the summer time, it is a hefty price to pay for the privileges we have become accustomed to. What if you could minimize, or even eliminate that pesky problem; with xeriscaping. The word is derived from the Greek word "xeros" which means "dry."

Xeriscaping refers to landscaping that requires little to no supplemental irrigation. This trend is catching on in south west states such as Arizona, New Mexico, and now even here in Colorado. The main goal of xeriscaping is using plants, trees, grasses, and shrubbery that are native to where you live. You're probably thinking that this will limit you to a small amount of plants, trees, and shrubbery. But there are an abundance of plants that are possible for xeriscaping due to their low watering requirements.  Go to, www.csbe.org, they have tons of plants that you are able to use to xeriscape. Another great benefit of xeriscapes is that they do not require pesticides or fertilizers that are harmful to the environment and people.  Xeriscaping can be done cheap and with little help from outside contractors. It will give your house a new look that is being evermore contemporary in new home designs. There is less maintenance and watering required by xeriscapes so this leaves you more time for your family and friends. The major benefit of xeriscaping is saving water, over 50% of residential water is used for landscaping, and xeriscaping can reduce water use by 50-75%.

The major steps to start xeriscaping are simple. First, you must plan and design. Ask your local gardening store what are some good plants for your particular region and some attractive and appropriate plants for your size lot. Second, is soil improvement, the soil needed to xeriscape drains quickly and stores water at the same time. You will need to put more organic compounds in your soil to make the soil more rich and suitable for these types of plants.  Also keeping the plants well aerated is key. Third, would be creating limited turf areas; grass takes up much more water than other types of plants. Fourth is mulch, so the sun does is not allowed to penetrate to the soil, making it dry and not as efficient. Following these four easy steps will put you on the road to an attractive and efficient xeriscape.

Xeriscaping is new and different. Wouldn't it be nice if when your neighbors came over they always commented on your landscape, and wouldn't it be great if you had more time with friends and family instead of watering and maintaining your lawn in the summer! All this and more can be achieved with xeriscaping.

When thinking of building a home people usually just think of bricks, mortar, and two by fours with no consideration for the sustainability of those materials. But new age homes, that have environmentally conscious builders running the show, are built with sustainable materials. Some of these materials include; bamboo flooring, plantation grown hardwoods, low volatile compound finishes, and stone that is synthetically made and also recyclable.

Sustainable materials are becoming more and more popular due to the fact that the public has become more environmentally conscious. Major brands have started to come up with many new innovations in sustainable materials. Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams are on the fore front of low VOC (volatile organic compound) paints which are much better for the environment and for the inhabitants of homes and offices. Low VOC paints do not contain formaldehyde but are organic or milk based. In some markets in Colorado, such as the Boulder real estate market, have a high percentage of new construction using low voc materials.

One great sustainable project that has become increasingly prevalent in building is FSC certified lumber. The FSC, or Forest Stewardship Council, is an organization has had great progress in Europe, Central, and South America and is becoming more widely recognized here in the United States and Canada.  The lumber that FSC promotes and sanctions is plantation grown that is specifically planted for logging, thus preventing lumber companies from disturbing as many natural forests.  The way you know lumber is FSC certified is from an actual logo that the FSC organization puts on all the wood that meets FSC standards. This certification means that the loggers who logged that lumber took special precautions to obtain the hard wood, such as reforestation, logging only trees that are dying or logging areas with an over population of trees. Bigger corporations are helping out as well. Home Depot has FSC certified lumber, IKEA only uses FSC certified lumber for its furniture, and Smith and Fong's has just introduced FSC certified Bamboo.

When buying or selling your home, talk to you local real estate agent to find out how you can either improve your home using sustainable materials. Also, when looking to buy a new home make sure to ask the builder or the real estate agent if the home has sustainable finishes incorporated into the home.

      Photovoltaic energy is becoming much more popular as the ever increasing rise in energy prices and environmental awareness. The technology has been around since 1839 when first solar voltaic panel was created by Charles Fritts. Fritts coated a semiconductor, selenium, with a very thin layer of gold to form the conduction. This efficiency of this photovoltaic panel was only one percent. Starting in 1988 with new improvements in the industry the efficiency rating rose to seventeen percent. Today most voltaic panels are thirty percent efficient.

      The advantages of photovoltaics are tremendous. Photovoltaic energy is limitless considering it is derived from the sun. Solar power is completely pollution free and there is little to no maintenance necessary when using photovoltaic cells. When using a renewable energy source such as photovoltaic cells you will use little to no energy from the grid which means lower energy bills. Hopefully in the coming years there will be legislation put in place in Colorado that will allow a home owner to sell excess energy back to their energy company.

      Another option of making a home more efficient is using solar heating. Solar heating is when you run cold water through roof top solar panels as to heat up the water and in turn can be used to heat the house or as a source for hot water. The house is heated through pipes in the sub floor that radiate heat throughout the house.

      Developer and Devonshire broker Steven Caplan is putting both of these solar systems to use in his nearly completed energy efficient luxury home in Boulder. Most of the Boulder real estate market is finding newer energy efficient ways to heat homes and bring in lower cost energy. Boulder is on the fore front of the west in new energy efficient technologies. For the time being though, give consideration to installing a new solar system in your home, or when shopping for a home make sure to ask your local real estate agent about these efficient and increasingly popular technologies.