Take the Guesswork out of Home Buying

There’s nothing like light to enhance the beauty of any room in your house. Natural light, especially, opens up dull, dark rooms and creates the illusion of roominess and a feeling of comfort. If you’ve been looking for simple, cost effective ways to use natural light to brighten your home why not consider flexible tubular lights. These new skylight “portholes” provide much of the natural light you’d get from a traditional skylight, but in only a fraction of the space, and for much less cost. If you’re do-it-yourself person you can even install them yourself!

These innovative, energy efficient tubular skylights capture sunlight on your rooftop and redirect the light down a highly reflective shaft. The sunlight is then diffused into your house. Think of how wonderful it would be to have natural, full spectrum daylight in virtually every room of your home. Tubular skylights can allow natural light into small, closed in areas such as walk-in closets, hallways and bathrooms. These are often the darkest rooms in a house.

There are other important advantages to natural sunlight apart from its marvellous beauty. Natural light can help reduce eyestrain and increase productivity. This can be especially beneficial if you have a home office. Think too about the advantages of full spectrum, natural light -- particularly in the winter when we are often sunlight deprived! And with electricity costs rising, natural sunlight will save you money on your hydro bill!

Another creative way to bring more light into a dark room is to hang as large a mirror as the wall space allows opposite a window. With this decorating trick you create the illusion of additional space in the area, while you double the benefits of the original light source, and its reflection coming back into the room. Hang a light reflecting crystal and watch the rainbow of colour sparkle across the floor and walls of your room.

When it’s time to replace the lights in your lamps and other fixtures you might choose to switch to full spectrum bulbs. These light bulbs give great colour rendition and generate a whiter brighter light. Full spectrum light bulbs are available in a wide variety of incandescent, fluorescent and halogen types.

Perhaps you’ve got a window that could provide a good natural light source, but you don’t like the view. Now you don’t have to cover it up with heavy curtains, blinds or shutters that block the view and your light source too. Most decorating stores that carry paint and wallpaper also carry new film products that can easily be added to your windows to give the effect of frosted glass. You can let the sunshine in, without detracting from the overall effect with an unappealing view.

Now that spring is here it’s a great time to brighten up your home with the beauty of light—the natural way. And remember, when you’re getting ready to sell your house, buyers react more favourably to homes shown under bright light.

Be sure to ask us for advice on how to show your home in its best light.

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Lars & Michele Nielsen are Real Estate Sales Representatives working with Coldwell Banker Coburn Realty