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What makes a modern kitchen? Part-1

First of what is a kitchen? Your kitchen is an amazing room typically used for cooking and food preparation. A modern residential kitchen is equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator, counters and sleek kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design.

Nowadays, more Philippine households include in their kitchen a microwave oven, a dishwasher and other electric appliances.

The kitchen is truly the heart of the home. Since we spend so much time in this space, let’s make it as modern, glamorous and inviting as possible. Clean and simple is the underlying philosophy for modern kitchen design, with high functionality and streamlined for a sleek but livable feel.

Want to have a modern design kitchen?Let us help design and build your modern kitchen, contact SolidAce Construction & Development Corp. at Dr. V. Locsin Street Dumaguete City or call 035 422-9478,226-2880.

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Home Energy Tips Part 2

VIEW PART 1 HERE

Our 2nd installment of applicable home energy saving tips that homeowner can incorporate into their existing houses/apartments/condo as well as give future home owners ideas to incorporate to their modern Filipino home.

Modern homes are called modern for a purpose, they incorporate the latest technologies and best practices in construction and architecture to provide the homeowner the best home experience while embedding home energy saving tech into the home construction process.

Tips in Energy Saving (Appliances/Cooking/Water)

Appliances and electronics account for about 80% of household energy bills in a typical Philippine home. The following are tips that will reduce the required energy of electronics and appliances:

  • Refrigerators and freezers should not be exposed to direct sunlight. Exposure to warm areas will force them to use more energy to remain cool.  
  • Computers should be shut off when not in use. Laptop computers consume considerably less electricity than desktop computers.
  • Chargers, such as those used for laptops and cell phones, consume energy when they are plugged in. If your charger has an LED to show it’s in use, it’s still using energy until you switch it off at the wall. When they are not connected to electronics, chargers should be unplugged.

WATER SAVING

  • Install low-flow showerheads. 
  • Dual-flush toilets. Dual-flush toilets let you choose between a 1-gallon (or less) flush for liquid waste, and a 1.6-gallon flush for solid waste. Dual-flush toilets reduce water consumption by an additional 30%.
  • Have a rainwater harvesting system in place, the Philippines gets lots of free water due to its typhoon seasons, storing and making use of rainwater for washing cars,watering gardens,etc. will help save on water bills.

COOKING

  • Convection ovens are better than conventional ovens. They use fans to force hot air to circulate more evenly, thereby allowing food to be cooked at a lower temperature. Convection ovens use approximately 20% less electricity than conventional ovens.
  • Microwave ovens consume approximately 80% less energy than conventional ovens.
  • Using lids on pots and pans will heat food more quickly than cooking in uncovered pots and pans.
  • Pressure cookers reduce cooking time dramatically.

Consult the Professionals

Needing assistance in making your home energy efficient? Please give us a call SolidAce Construction & Development Corp. at Dr. V. Locsin Street Dumaguete City or call 035 422-9478,226-2880 and our team of experts can help you incorporate energy saving tech into your current and future home projects.

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Choosing the Right Furniture

When you designed your home, you might already have had a good understanding and a vision of how you want your interior spaces to look like. This means that you have probably already selected what types of furniture you want. But in case you need more ideas, you are simply starting out with your decorating plans, or are planning to do a re-envisioning of your living spaces, here are some tips for choosing the right furniture.

  1. Budget. First and foremost, you do not want to go to the furniture store find a piece that you like and then realize that it is too expensive and you end up being disappointed because you cannot have what you like. Setting expectations, in this case through a budget, will make it easier for you to accept that a certain piece of furniture is simply out of the question. Remember that furniture is one of the biggest aspects of the home in terms of cost so plan how much you are willing to spend. If you feel that you do not have enough budget to go and get what you really want, postpone your purchase until you have enough. The biggest reason for this is our next tip.

 

  1. Buy everything more or less at the same time. The main reason for this is that you will only go shopping once and you can then redecorate and position everything only once as well, you do not have to go and rearrange every time you buy new furniture. Another very good reason is that some furniture manufacturers do not mass produce their stocks. They make a limited amount of a specific model and all of its relatives in order to keep the uniqueness of the furniture and also increase their resale value. This means that if you bought a set now, the other pieces that would complement it might no longer be available months from now so you will find a harder time finding alternatives. This is not true for manufacturers like Ikea who mass produce their stocks.
  2. Avoid the trends. This might sound as a shock but trends often have a bad habit of just ending all of a sudden, making your living room look "so last year". That is the precedence that trends make. Following trends is okay, but if you follow you must follow, as designs get outdated pretty quickly. But classical designs like those accentuated by sinuous and bold wooden frames and classic looks will always be in style and the resale value will only get bigger as the furniture ages and becomes more of an antique, providing that you take care of it.

These are just a few simple tips and guidelines for selecting furniture. This is by no means a comprehensive list but I hope that you took something away from this article and we were able to spark a little bit of creativity in your head.

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Modern Home Energy Saving Tips

Modern homes are called modern for a purpose, they incorporate the latest technologies and best practices in construction and architecture to provide the homeowner the best home experience while embedding home energy saving tech into the home construction process.

Here we have our first installment of applicable home energy saving tips that homeowner can incorporate into their existing houses/apartments/condo as well as give future home owners ideas to incorporate to their modern Filipino home.

Tips in Energy Saving (Home/Room Cooling)

  • Cooler lights. Change to new LED light bulbs. Energy-efficient LEDs bulbs have very low heat production as well as higher lumens for brighter lighting. Ideal in keeping your home well lit and cool while saving energy costs.
  • Choose a high-efficiency AC with an Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) of 12 or greater. Inverter type air conditioner saves energy the longer it is used.
  • Maintain your AC well. Running an inefficient AC system can result in high monthly bills. It is important to have your AC have regular maintenance cleaning/check up at least every six months.
  • Close your exterior doors and windows tightly when the AC is on. Save even more by turning off kitchen and bath exhaust fans after use.
  • Keep interior doors and air vents open. This allows air to circulate freely throughout the home.
  • Change or clean your AC's air filters at least once a month to keep your system running at peak performance.
  • Block the sun from overheating your home. Using shades, blinds and drapes to keep the sun out during the day will also help protect furniture and carpeting from fading.
  • Insulate your walls with injected foam insulation to help you save energy by keeping outside heat from seeping through porous block walls.
  • Avoid setting your thermostat at a colder setting than normal when you turn on your air conditioner. It will not cool your home any faster and could result in excessive cooling and, therefore, unnecessary expense. 
  • Plant trees and use outdoor awnings to provide shade on the sunny side of your home.
  • Use ceiling fans to cool off for less. Ceiling fans can make you feel three to four degrees cooler. Be sure to turn them off when you leave – fans cool people, not rooms.
  • Add door sweeps to stop conditioned air from escaping through the gap under your doors.

Consult the Professionals

Needing assistance in making your home energy efficient? Please give us a call SolidAce Construction & Development Corp. at Dr. V. Locsin Street Dumaguete City or call 035 422-9478,226-2880 and our team of experts can help you incorporate energy saving tech into your current and future home projects.

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Home Construction 3

With the assumption that we now have chosen a designer/architect, have a concrete and final design and have selected our contractor through a bidding process, we can now get on with construction of your home. But before that, make sure that you have a written contract agreement signed and date by both the contractor and the designer of your home.

This will contain a listing of all the parts that need to be included in your house, the quality of work as well as the deadlines. This is by no means set in stone since you can still change your mind regarding the designs but this will be costly and will push the project back for another length of time.

Then before the actual construction can begin, depending on where you are, a building permit is required and a fee has to be paid. Your contractor will probably know all of the local regulations and will also probably offer to do all of the permits and legal documents related to construction as part of your package.

When the construction finally starts, it is very important to not be an absentee client because even though you have a trusted foreman on the site, just your presence will ensure that the workers will do their job well because they know the owner is watching. And if you see something amiss, don't hesitate to ask the foreman about it but do it in a nice and inquisitive way.

It's not enough that we know our way in the design and finding a contractor, we also need to watch our budget. Though the construction itself would be the largest cost in the project, the architect or designer would also pose a substantial cost. And keep in mind that the design of the house will be the biggest dictator of cost. Just consider what you really want, need and can afford and let this dictate your design or any modification you might do to your original plans along the way.

This series was by no means a step by step tutorial on building your home, but it was and is simply a rough guide to general approaches on the processes involved in home construction. You have to figure out the details for yourself since not all construction and design projects and situations are equal.

 

We can help you simplify home construction paperworks, please feel free to contact SolidAce Construction & Development Corp. at Dr. V. Locsin Street Dumaguete City or call 035 422-9478, 226-2880.