In-law apartments have become a very valuable draw in the real estate market. With the changing needs of today’s families, flexible accommodations are often required to adapt to this economically rising housing market.
The primary benefit of this cape apartment, however, is that potential homebuyers do not need to purchase an overgrown home in order to acquire this benefit. This four bedroom cape is priced at a reasonable $499,000 and its residents will receive multiple benefits for their investment. Read more…

If you are considering a room addition or a major remodel, then you need to begin thinking about the floor covering as soon as possible.
Even though flooring is normally the last finish to be installed, you will need to decide on the flooring type early on so that doors, cabinets and other finishes can be properly installed. For example; door frames are installed directly onto the underlayment when vinyl flooring is used. When carpet is to be installed, the door and frame are held to the top of the opening to clear the carpet and pad.
There are plenty of flooring options: sheet vinyl, vinyl tiles, hardwood planks, wood parquet, carpet, ceramic tile, brick, slate, stone, granite, plastic laminate and more. Here is a look at the pluses and minuses of each type: Read more…

During the recent real estate boom many of us played residential musical chairs, “flipping” houses for profit, parlaying the winnings into ever bigger McMansions, movin’ on up.

Now the music’s stopped and we’re all stuck with our current houses, hunkering down until the signs of a market boom resume.

While we catch our breaths, it’s a good time to inventory the furnishings in the risky investments we call home. Maybe it’s time to retrench, to pour some of our hard-earned money into new furniture. Read more…

The advent of Swedish furniture giant Ikea in Japan in April was likened by domestic rivals to the arrival of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry’s “black ships” in 1853 ending the country’s 200 years of isolation, but some see it now as a chance to expand the nascent home furnishing market in this densely populated country.

Ikea opened its first directly operated outlet in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, just east of Tokyo, boasting a floor space of 40,000 square meters. It is the global retailer’s second attempt to crack the Japanese market after a bid with a joint venture ended in failure 20 years ago.

Weighing its impact, the government’s Japan Investment Council headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi referred to Ikea in March as a good example of foreign investment in Japan, saying it offers customers “one-stop shopping” service. Read more…

A slew of sophisticated software for home design has recently hit the market, allowing homeowners embarking on a remodeling project to plot everything from shingle styles to window placement and even see how shadows fall across the porch at different times of the day.

If used properly, the do-it-yourself products can save thousands of dollars in architects’ fees on a major project. But the growing popularity of the products is making them a point of tension between builders and their clients. Homeowners can spend hours on a design, only to be told they’ve taken out a key beam or put in a toilet where there are no pipes. Read more…

Furniture manufacturer Flanders Industries is closing the Arkansas factory it’s operated since 1970. About 40 jobs will be lost.
The company will consolidate its furniture manufacturing and distribution at a plant in Menominee, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Flanders makes metal furniture at its Fort Smith, Arkansas plant. The company will start phasing out those jobs in August.

C-E-O Dudley Flanders says the company will help affected employees with résumés and references and help them find new jobs. www.woodtv.com

The emergence of new suppliers of furniture in the world threatens the market share of Filipino furniture exporters, an industry official said.

Vietnam has overtaken the Philippines as a furniture supplier to the world market, said
Michael Basubas, president of the Cebu Furniture Industry Foundation.

“In 2000, Vietnam was behind us. Now, they’re ahead of us,” Basubas said.

Vietnam, which started overtaking the Philippines in 2003, averaged 0.78 percent in market share annually from 2000 to 2005, he said. Read more…

The performance of Cebu’s furniture manufacturing and exporting industry has been affected by the stiff competition in the global furniture market posed by other Asian countries.

This is why the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF) is calling on industry players to be “on their toes” and to constantly find ways to improve and innovate.

“We can’t be complacent. We need to do something as an industry to compete with the ever-changing landscape. We have competitors and they have overtaken us,” said Laurie Boquirin, member of the board of trustees of CFIF. Read more…

Piano lessons may teach you how to play Chopin’s etudes, but techniques of a different sort are needed when figuring out where to put a piano in your home.

A badly chosen location can spoil the piano’s tune, crack the sounding board and bleach out the finish, costing $10,000 to $20,000 in repairs, says Rick Schaeffer, owner of Schaeffer’s Piano Co. in Rockville, Md., a 105-year-old firm started by his grandfather. He offers the following advice for piano owners to consider when picking the perfect spot for their verticals or grands: Read more…

Death row inmate Curtis Giovanni Flowers has won a new trial for killing four people at a Winona furniture store because prosecutors sought to keep blacks off his Montgomery County jury.
The Mississippi Supreme Court decision came today (Thursday).

Flowers had argued before the justices in a February hearing that race discrimination in the selection of the jury cast doubt on the fairness of his trial.

Flowers, 35, who is black, was convicted in 2004 of capital murder in the deaths of four people during a shooting spree at a Winona furniture store in 1996. Death penalty cases are automatically reviewed by the Supreme Court. Read more…