Homes and Hues

This Home is a Gorgeous Floating InvestmentFor sale: A three-story house in Seattle with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and 4850 square feet of interior space. Nice, huh? But listen- there is no real estate to go along with the house, meaning no land. It's a houseboat! If you've never seen a three-story houseboat before, check out the 40 images at the listing.

How to Make Your Vinyl Siding Sparkle Like NewTime can get away from us, and years pas before you realize that the exterior of your home is getting dull and dirty. The side that doesn't get much sunlight might even have mold or algae growing on it! The good news is that if you live in a one-story house with vinyl siding, you can skip renting a pressure washer or hiring a professional cleaning crew to make that siding sparkle. The secret is getting a brush or broom with an extension handle. The other thing is having instructions from Bob Vila on the proper technique and cleaning agents. You can get away with simple liquid soap and water, or just vinegar and water.See, most of what makes your vinyl siding look so dull is dust, cobwebs, pollen, and some bird poop. These things are fairly easy to remove. The parts of your siding that have mold growing are a small percentage of the total. Yes, it will take a bit of elbow grease, but you can tackle one side at a time and soon your home will be bright and shiny again! Find all the instructions you need at Bob Vila.Now, if your home is two or three stories tall, you may want to invest in a pressure washer, but there are safety rules and a learning curve that requires reading the instructions. Or you could hire someone to get those upper floors clean, and have them clear your gutters while they are at it. (Image credit: Tom Fenenga for Bob Vila)

Paint Your Front Door for Easy Curb AppealI am of the opinion that your front door should always be a different color. That means different fro the rest of the house. It obviously tells everyone where you go inside, and so signifies welcome. It's also an opportunity to add a splash of color without being overwhelmed by it. And since it's a small part of the exterior, you can easily change it if you don't like it. I always admire the contrasting doors in my neighborhood, and there are many. A brick house with orange trim has a turquoise door. A white house with black trim has a bright yellow door, and a wreath to match. Several home have bright red doors. My yellow house has a green door.If you decide to take the plunge and paint your front door, you'll find a complete guide to choosing a color at Better Homes & Gardens. They have color recommendations, a guide to picking the paint, and plenty of pictures to give you some inspiration. There's a step-by-step guide to painting your door here.(Image credit: Marco Ober) 

Budget Kitchen Remodels That Are All About ColorMy once-in-a-lifetime kitchen remodeling project starts tomorrow. The cheap cabinetry and counters are honestly falling apart, so I am taking the opportunity to do everything very different. You may get to see the results this fall. Meanwhile, if you don't need a major remodel, but you're just not happy with the way your kitchen looks, Apartment Therapy has a series of kitchen upgrades that people did themselves to make what they have look the way they want it to. The "before" pictures are okay, but the "after" pictures are a cheery splash of color. One project made a too-modern minimalist kitchen look more in tune with the 100-year-old house, with just new cabinet hardware and a coat of paint.Another family took a perfectly fine but drab white kitchen and livened it up with pink and blue for only $800. A sad beige kitchen got the pink and blue treatment inspired by Polly Pocket. Another kitchen goes from an orangish wood to seafoam green for only $96 in paint! There are other, more pricey kitchen renovations you can see by scrolling down from those posts. But what I took from the posts linked here is that 1. if what you have isn't falling apart, you can update your kitchen without having to take out a mortgage, and 2. there's nothing wrong with color. And there's nothing wrong with painting your kitchen cabinets with your favorite colors to make it a bright and happy place to work in. (Image credit: Lyndsey Wardman)

The Horror of Drop CeilingsThe first house I bought was a fixer-upper. I proclaimed that the first thing to go would be those awful drop ceilings and fluorescent lights. Once I moved in, I got a good look at what the suspended ceiling was hiding. Underneath was all the electrical wiring for the home, which was built before electricity was available. That particular project suddenly looked a lot more involved than anything I could do myself, so I worked on other projects. By the time I sold the house many years later, the entire place had been remodeled twice, but the false ceilings were still there. Ceilings that have been lowered from the original can look good, but most not only look cheap, they look very sterile and corporate, like the office they must pay you to go to. Keep in mind that they are always hiding something. Stewart Hicks gives us the complete history and purpose of false ceilings and their pop culture implications. Just another thing you may to avoid when looking for a home, or at least make concrete plans for them before you commit. The last couple of minutes of this video are promotional.-via Digg 

A Notorious Haunted New Orleans Home is on the MarketIf you've always wanted to own a historic haunted house, we've got your opportunity with a 8-bedroom, 10-bath house in New Orleans. However, you might change your mind after reading the story of property owner and serial killer Madame Delphine LaLaurie. The 1834 fire that exposed her cruel practices and subsequent damage by angry citizens destroyed the house, but four years later it was rebuilt by a new property owner. The mansion has gone through several owners, including Nicolas Cage for a couple of years.