Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

What does the Elextrolux Trilobite vacuum have in common with a bat? It navigates using ultrasound and won’t bump into the walls like those other automatic vacuums. Much like the famed Roomba, the Trilobite moseys around the room sucking up dust and cat hair of its own accord. The Trilobite can be programmed to clean as often as you want and any time of day, so you can have it zip around the house while you’re still at work and come home to a freshly cleaned home. It’s short enough to vacuum under sofas and chairs and smart enough to keep from falling down stairs. When it’s done with its work, it automatically returns to its charger. The only thing for you to do is change the filter and empty the dust catcher when needed, but the company promises this is a breeze to do. The automatic vacuum will be available soon (no word on price yet). What are the odds they want to send me a freebie to try out?

http://trilobite.electrolux.com/

If you’re like me, the laundry room isn’t your favorite place to hang out. Doing laundry isn’t fun, and to add insult, the washer and dryer add dollars onto your energy bill every month. If you’re looking to cut down on spending, it’s a good place to start. Here are five tips for saving money on this thankless household chore:

1. Avoid washers and dryers with lots of fancy features — If you’re shopping for a new washer and dryer, stick to the basics. More expensive machines may have extra cycles and electronic control panels, but these units don’t wash clothes any better and these features usually just add to the operating cost of the machine.

2. Wash with cold water — Hot water loads use four times as much energy as cold water loads. You may want to do your whites in hot, but towels and linens are fine in cold. In fact, experts say the majority of your clothes are fine done in cold water, unless they’re very dirty.
3. Don’t use warm-rinse cycles — Many of the washers on the market today have warm-rinse cycles, but studies show you never need warm water to rinse your clothes, and you can waste $50 or more a year on this feature.
4. Clean the lint trap after every load — Extra lint isn’t just a fire hazard. Your dryer actually has to work harder when the trap is full, thus using more energy and costing you more money.
5. Don’t use the maximum dryer setting — Unless you’re doing a load of towels or other hard-to-dry items, don’t use the dryer’s maximum setting. Medium settings works fine for most clothes and save you pennies a load. That adds up to hundreds of dollars over the life of your dryer.

More information: The Home Energy Diet: How to Save Money by Making Your House Energy-Smart

If you’ve ever wonder who has the fastest hammer in the household or on the job site, now you can hold quick-draw contests with the Prazi QuickDraw. This update to the old-fashioned tool belt loop lets you slide the business end of your favorite hammer into an adjustable saddle. Then when an ornery nail shows itself, you can grab the handle of the hammer (instead of the head) and swiftly take care of trouble. The QuickDraw retails for $12.95.

QuickDraw via the Aug 2006 issue of Popular Science

Toilet looking a little bland? A little blah? Maybe you need a decorative toilet lever. Okay, okay, nobody needs a decorative toilet lever, but it’s a way to add some personality to your bathroom without spending a fortune. You can find elegant, stylish, handsome…. and you can find surfboards. You can also find fish, dolphins, and other tropical images over at Aloha Toilet Handles. The chrome surfboard handle is $37.50 and comes with a 5-year warranty (though I think you’d have to be doing something pretty creative with your toilet to break the flusher).

Aloha!

Most of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our outdoor faucets. As long as you turn them on and water comes out, we’re satisfied. But what if you could get warm or hot water? You could wash the dog outside, rinse off muddy feet, or fill the kiddy pool without giving the young-uns hypothermia. Yes, all this is possible with Moen’s hot- and cold-water delivering faucet. It looks a lot like a normal spigot, but the single handle has some added features: push or pull to adjust the water flow and twist to select the temperature. The faucet automatically mixes some cold into the hot to prevent scalding. In addition, a frost-free interior cartridge keeps it from freezing in the winter. The outdoor faucet is available in 8″ or 12″ lengths, and it will cost you $64 or $68 respectively.

Moen

Yes, that’s a picture of a New York City sewer cover. It also happens to be a rug. Now, I’m not sure this would fit in with everybody’s decor, but it could be a fun gift for someone living in a bachelor pad. Since it’s suitable for outdoor as well as indoor use, you could also drop it on the porch and use it as a door mat. It’s a little more interesting than the ubiquitous “welcome!” mat. The rug is made from recycled tires, so you can feel guilt-free about your purchase. Want the small details? The rug measures 24″ in diameter and the price is $29.

http://www.alphabetsnyc.com

Pot racks are a great way to create extra space in your kitchen cabinets, and they work particularly well if you have an island or a peninsula. If all you care about is hanging cooking implements, any old pot rack will do, but if you want to add a decorative element as well as a functional one, then why not try a pot rack with some flair? Maybe because I’m a Seattle girl, I was drawn to this “Chinook” rack from Flavour Design. All of our old totem poles up here favor these kind of designs, and I thought this would be fun for someone who collects Native American knick knacks from the Pacific Northwest. Now if eastern design is more your preference, the company also sells pot racks based on Chinese symbols. Both styles are the same price, $420 for a black/red color combination or $750 for stainless steel.

Flavour Design

Car turntable, you ask? Isn’t that what the dealers showcase their latest models on? Well, yes, but you can also get a turntable for your garage or driveway. Hovair Systems in Kent, WA makes residential turntables for anyone who’s tired of trying to maneuver the car into a tight spot in the driveway or garage. Imagine if you live on a busy street. It’s a pain to back your car out in the morning, isn’t it? You can always try to back in the night before, but that causes its headaches too. Now imagine driving straight in, pressing a button, and watching as the turntable rotates your vehicle. The next morning, you drive straight out again. Not a bad idea, huh?

The turntable has a low-profile design, and it operates on a thin layer of air. You don’t have to dig a huge hole in your garage to install it–a shallow 4″-5″ pit is what’s required. You can operate the system via a mounted control panel or remote control.

Hovair

I’ve talked about outdoor drapes, outdoor clocks, and outdoor rugs this summer. I’d feel negligent in my outdoor-informing duties if I didn’t mention outdoor pillows. Yes, that’s right: you can get pillows designed to stand up to the wear and tear of storms, sun, and spilled lemonades. The soft but sturdy pillows shown here are available over at Cozy Days for about $30. According to the company, they’re made from high quality weatherproof polyester fiberfill and foam that’s covered with colorfast Sunbrella fabric. Zippers along the edges let you empty the insides and wash the fabric.

You may love your dog, but you probably don’t love cleaning up after your dog. If Fido is a messy eater or slobbers water all over the floor when he drinks, maybe a “pet placemat” is what you need. This Waterhog mat, which is available through L.L. Bean, has a ridged border designed to contain your pet’s spills. It also has a rubber backing that is supposed to keep dogs from scooting their bowls all over the floor as they eat. Available in blue, burgundy, khaki, and green, the placemat comes in two sizes and holds two standard 10″ diameter dog bowls. The price is $16.50 for the small version and $19.50 for the large (both hold the same size bowls–there’s just more mat area in the larger one).

Waterhog Pet Placemat