Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

Fried food might be one of your weaknesses, and in all fairness, it’s hard to pass up this delicious comfort food. So what if you could make healthy fried food for your family and guests right from your kitchen?

The Healthiest Deep Fryer can make your wish come true, and the silver finish will look great on any counter. With this deep fryer, you can make two pounds of fried food by using one tablespoon of oil. You can fry potatoes, chicken wings, shrimp or even spring rolls.

This fryer evenly distributes the hot air and cooks the food consistently so it has a crunchy outside and a moist inside. It has a nonstick basin, which makes it easy to clean, and it also has a paddle that turns and mixes the oil and any ingredients you want to add.

If you enjoy having a cup of hot coffee or tea while you read your morning paper or check your email, you may be disappointed when your leisurely drinking results in a cool beverage halfway through.

The solution?

An electric mug warmer.

This handy gadget can go to your favorite coffee/tea-consuming spot and be plugged in to keep your beverage warm–no matter how long you take drinking it. The mug-activated unit only turns on if your beverage is on it, so don’t worry about wasting energy or burning yourself on a hot plate.

Pick up the Mr. Coffee Mug Warmer from Amazon for less than $10:

Mr. Coffee Mug Warmer

Buying fresh herbs from the grocery store or farmers market is more fun (and flavorful) than using dried ones, but unless you do a lot of cooking, they often go bad before you’ve finished them. While keeping herbs in the refrigerator can help, this gadget is designed to keep them fresh even longer.

The Herb Keeper works much like a flower vase, allowing you to put the bottoms of the stems in water. The handy kitchen gadget is spacious enough that you can store several bunches of herbs in it at a time.

Designed to fit in your refrigerator door, the clear plastic Herb Keeper comes with a removable insert and perforated cup for easy draining. The greens rest in an upright position, so it’s easy to grab a stalk or two when it’s time to cook. You can also keep asparagus crisp in the keeper.

$20 at Crate and Barrel.

Herb Keeper

Not everyone has natural talent when it comes to baking and cooking. If you have to follow a recipe down to every last measurement in order to get it right, it’s helpful to have a recipe calculator on hand for those mind bending conversions.

When you’ve been out of school, basic mathematical skills can go out the window. Instead of messing up a good meal because you failed to cut the recipe properly by 1/4, the Calculated Industries KitchenCalc 8300 Recipe Calculator can help you do it the right way.

In addition to downsizing and upsizing your recipes, the calculator can also convert temperature, keep track of time, alert you with a timer and do more than 146 other measurement conversions.

The hard plastic case protects the calculator from kitchen spills, and it runs on a lithium battery.

Living in a big, bright city makes star gazing pretty close to impossible. It’s natural to miss seeing those beautiful constellations, but you don’t have to miss them just because of where you live.

The Sega Toys Homestar Pro 2nd Edition Home Planetarium is a way that you, your family or friends can enjoy stars right from the privacy of your home. This gadget can project 60,000 stars and other space elements right onto your ceiling, wall or other flat surface. There are six project lenses and 3W white LED lights. In addition to viewing the earth, moon and stars, you can also see your horoscope signs.

Adding a home planetarium to your theater room provides you and your guests with another form of entertainment and relaxation. It can also be a cool learning experience for all ages.

Your topiary designs that you worked so hard on perfecting can take a beating in the winter. You’re might even already be dreading spring, because you know how much work you have ahead of you. However, if you have the right type of tool, reshaping your shrubbery will be a piece of cake.

The Shrub Sculptor is conveniently designed to fit in your hand, so it’s about the size of a telephone handset. It has 4” stainless steel rotary blades, and it can cut through branches that are 1/4” thick. It can also mulch down these clippings, which can make perfect compost or extra mulch for your landscaping.

The receptacle holds 1.5 gallons of clippings, and the bag fits comfortably over your shoulder. In addition, the sculptor has a 7 1/4-volt motor as well as a rechargeable battery that lasts for 35 minutes of trimming. One downside is that it requires five hours of charge in order to trim for 35 minutes.

If you, or your home-improvement-happy spouse, loves tools and gadgets, here’s a must have: the MagnoGrip Magnetic Wristband.

Just strap it to your wrist before you start your next project, and toss a few nails, screws, drill bits, or even small tools onto it. Instead of fishing into your pocket or toolbox, you’ll find everything close at hand (er, at wrist).

Since, these days, women are just as likely as men to tackle home improvement projects, the wristband is available in pink as well as red. And, for those who need more than a few nails at a time, consider the MagnoGrip Magnetic Carpenter’s Tool Belt.

All these home-improvement helpers are available through the same company, with costs running $15 (wristbands) to $40 (belt).

The birds in your backyard are beautiful to look at, especially if you’re an avid bird watcher. However, these melodious creatures can be pests when they choose your patio to be their bathroom. So how do you prevent them from doing their business where you enjoy eating?

The Solar Powered Bird Repeller is an eco-friendly way to stop birds from getting onto your patio, pool area, A/C unit, boat or car cover. This gadget functions off of the solar energy that it captures, and it has rotating arms that act as a scarecrow to nearby birds.

Since this green gadget is made from a weather-proof plastic, you can mount it anywhere. Also, there are steamers that you can attach that further ensure the birds are deterred from your property. Who knew that repelling birds could be so effortless?

The LS6245 from VTech is an expandable cordless phone system that has Bluetooth wireless technology. This phone has so many features it’s sure to fit all of your communication needs.

It has touch controls on the handset and base, quality sound and range and LCD screen with white backlighting. Since the phone has wireless technology, you can connect it to your cell phones, and you can also use up to 12 handsets with one phone jack. The digital answering system provides callers with 14 minutes of recording time, and you don’t have to worry about tapes or moving parts.

In addition to all of these high tech features, you can store 100 names and phone numbers, and you can also make conference calls or intercom between handsets. This slim, handheld phone has so many functions to make your life easier. Plus, it’s WiFi friendy and Energy Star efficient.

Everyone has a preferred temperature, but it’s too hard to adjust the thermostat to a temperature that meets everyone’s needs. When you have a spouse, partner or children that like the rooms to be warmer or colder, someone is going to end up being uncomfortable. However, this doesn’t always have to be the case.

The Mutli-Room Climate Monitor can be used to track the temperature as well as the air moisture in more than one room in your home. It’s important to monitor these measurements for comfort purposes, but it’s also good for health reason since mold and dust mites thrive in relative humidity higher than 60 percent.

The set comes with a base, which has a backlit 4” square LCD screen, as well as a remote indoor sensor. The sensors send information to the base wirelessly, and you can purchase three more to put in other rooms of your home.