Without a doubt, your first impression of any room in a home when entering it is often determined by the color of the walls, even more so than the choice of carpeting, furniture, and fixtures. Warm colors evoke one set of moods while cool colors bring out an entirely different kind of feeling.

Selecting specific colors to create a mood is recognized by experts who understand the power of color psychology. By choosing the colors that are right for you, you can change your home without doing a major renovation.

Warm Colors, Cool Colors, Or Something Neutral

The Rohm and Haas Paint Quality Institute has identified two groups of colors for setting the mood. I’ll add in a third group, neutral colors, and then explain what I mean:

Warm Colors — Red, yellow, and orange are the brightest colors you can possibly choose, each evoking varying degrees of warmth and energy. Passion, intimacy, and sexuality are some of the feelings ascribed to a room with a red wall, but less so with orange. Yellow can be wonderful choice in dark rooms or hallways, but take care: if the shade is too bright it could create anxiety!

Cool Colors — Green, blue, and violet are some of the coolest colors, offering a sense of peace and calmness. Green and blue, of course, are natural landscape colors — the two colors which evoke relaxation. The perfect color group choice for a baby’s bedroom, play areas, and many other rooms.

Neutral Colors — If it is white, then it is right. White walls look great in any room as they signify cleanliness and purity. Popular in kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms, white and close variations of the same are popular choices, the easiest to match with whatever you’re doing with a room.

Of course, some colors are virtually impossible to use and those include black, brown, and gray — shades which if mixed with white can look fine, but by themselves would create a mood too negative for any home.

Ultimately, your room color choices should depend on your tastes as you’ll be spending the most time in your house. If you decide that you don’t like a particular color or shade, you can always repaint the wall to suit your desires. Not a big home improvement project and a cost effective one at that.

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Tags: Home Improvement, home painting, home remodeling, home renovation, paint

The Autonomous Modular Scanner carried aboard NASA's Ikhana unmanned aircraft captured this image of the Gap Fire in Santa Barbara County, Calif., on July, 8 2008, at 3:45 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The yellow areas depict actively burning areas. The red, pink and blue tones map out burned areas. Multiple Calif. state agencies distributed the information to fire officials minutes after collection for analysis of new fire locations and fire size.

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For homeowners in many California counties this summer, wildfires have been a personal menace. At one point this month, more than 1700 fires were burning threatening huge swaths of the Golden State. Thankfully, almost every fire has been extinguished with the remaining few dozen under the control of firefighters.

Though little can be done to prevent these types of forest fires (lightening has been blamed in almost all cases) there is some sky high assistance fire personnel are receiving thanks to NASA.

NASA is doing its part to help fight California wildfires through satellites, aircraft, and research experience which, together, have created an abundance of leading edge tools to assist firefighters win the battle. These same tools have also helped scientists understand the impact that fires and smoke have on Earth’s climate and ecosystems. To further the effort, an all-new NASA Web site brings to the public and journalists the latest information about this work.

The NASA “Fire and Smoke” website made its debut last week and includes regular updates of NASA images of fires and their associated smoke plumes in the US and around the globe. The site also features articles on the latest research results and multimedia resources from across NASA.

The site is updated regularly with new images from NASA’s suite of Earth-observing satellites and airborne observatories, including the unmanned Ikhana aircraft that recently pinpointed wildfire hotspots across California. NASA’s investment in these observational resources, and the research and development to transform them into practical tools for operational agencies, supports ongoing nationwide efforts to fight wildfires.

For homeowners concerned about their property, valuables, pets, and livestock, the NASA wildfire site can help pinpoint how fires are being fought and the work being done to contain them. Earlier this month California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger received a behind-the-scenes tour of NASA’s Ames Research Center in San Jose to learn more about the agency’s help in fighting wildfires.

The Web site is available at http://www.nasa.gov/fires

(Source: NASA)

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Tags: Ames Research Center, California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, NASA, wildfires

If you are planning to undertake any kind of project around the home, are you always certain the products you are using are safe? Recent recalls include Honda lawnmowers that can lacerate users, circuit breakers which have been proven to be fake, and outdoor benches which can break. Lots of products have been recalled over the years - could you being using something that is defective?

One way to verify whether your product has been recalled is to visit the CPSC or Consumer Product Safety Commission website. As an independent agency of the federal government, the CPSC is mandated to protect Americans “against unreasonable risks of injuries associated with consumer products.”

Hundreds of Recalls

More than 15,000 consumer products are subject to regulation by the CPSC, items which must meet acceptable safety standards. Some of the more recent recalls include:

• Hammer drills from the Robert Bosch Corp. The drill can continue to operate after the trigger has been released, posing a risk of injury to consumers.

• Fireplace gas valves from American Flame. Gas can continue to flow into the fireplace pilot light area after the switch has been turned “off,” posing a fire or explosion hazard to consumers.

• Table saws from DEWALT. The pivot bracket on the saw can separate which can misalign the blade and the fence and cause kick back. This poses a laceration hazard to consumers.

• Lock and Leash Locks from Master Lock. Red surface paint on the locks contains excessive levels of lead, violating the federal lead paint standard.

• Wall furnances from Rinnai. A gasket in the unit can fail, posing a risk of poisonous carbon monoxide gas leaking into the home.

• Tankless water heaters from Power Vent. Components inside the water heater may shift during transit, causing an air filter door switch to operate improperly. If the switch fails and the air filter door is out of place, the water heater could continue to operate and dust and lint could build up, posing a carbon monoxide poisoning hazard.

• Fluorescent ceiling light fixtures made by Lithonia and sold exclusively by Home Depot. A wire inside the light fixture could be loose, posing an electrical shock hazard to consumers.

Finding Recall Information Online

Quite a few of the products recalled have not resulted in injuries, but are listed because of the potential hazard of a particular problem arising. If you are planning to undertake any project around the home, a quick check of the CPSC website will help you determine if that saw, mower, lighting fixture, or other device has been recalled. If it has, the CPSC gives consumers clear instructions on what to do next, a step which usually involves contacting the manufacturer via a toll free phone number for guidance on how to proceed.

You can even subscribe for email alerts to have the CPSC notify you when a particular product has been recalled and you can subscribe to an RSS feed which offers the same type of information for you.

Tags: consumer alerts, consumer goods, consumer hazards, consumer products, consumer watchdog, CPSC, household products, product recalls, recall announcements, recalls, safety recalls