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7 Hot Home Improvement Trends that Make Your Home Work for You
Article From HouseLogic.com
By: Lisa Kaplan GordonPublished: May 13, 2011
Home improvement trends embrace energy efficiency, low maintenance exteriors, and double-duty space.
Today's home improvement trends show that we like our houses to work harder and smarter for the money we spend maintaining and improving their value.
       •We no longer want bigger; instead, we want space that's flexible, efficient, and brings order to chaos.
       •We're watching our wattage with monitors and meters, and guarding our weekends with maintenance-free exteriors.
Here's a look at 7 hot home improvement trends that improve the way we live with our homes.
Trend #1: Maintenance-free siding
We continue to choose maintenance-free siding (http://www.houselogic.com/articles/siding-guide-options/) that lives as long as we do, but with a lot less upkeep. But more and more we're opting for fiber-cement siding, one of the fastest-growing segments of the siding market. It's a combination of cement, sand, and cellulosic fibers that looks like wood but won't rot, combust, or succumb to termites and other wood-boring insects.At $5 to $9 per sq. ft., installed, fiber-cement siding is more expensive than paint-grade wood, vinyl, and aluminum siding. It returns 80% of investment, the highest return of any upscale project on Remodeling magazine's latest Cost ... more

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