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A new but familiar tree battle is brewing along Berry Road.

Oklahoma Electric Cooperative this weekend intends to start the long-planned removal of 17 trees along the road as part of its vegetation management program to protect power lines.

A group of residents, led by councilman Joe Carter, may ask a judge to delay the work. Carter said late Thursday afternoon his attorney planned to file the paperwork with the court today.

This was the same issue in 2017 that spurred creation of the city's tree ordinance.

City Manager Darrel Pyle said the city and OEC have negotiated for months on the project and the power company is within its rights to do the work.

Pyle wrote in an email to council members Tuesday night that although the tree ordinance passed in 2017 was designed to protect street trees such as those on Berry Road, "apparently there are loopholes in the ordinance which allow OEC to move forward with their removal plans."

Carter, in his role as councilman, wants the courts to delay the project to give the city council time to close those loopholes. Council members discussed the issue at a Feb. 4 study session and the tree ordinance has been added to the city's March Oversight Committee agenda, Carter said.

"There is widespread interest in the council to revisit this ordinance, and that could take months," he said. "OEC can trim the branches just as they have for 30 years."

Carter contends OEC wants to take down the trees because it will be cheaper than trimming every couple of years.

Autumn McMahon, OEC spokeswoman, said the company plans to remove rather than trim certain trees at the request of homeowners. The company pays for the tree removal. The Feb. 4 council study session presentation shows 11 homeowners requested removing 17 trees on Berry Road.

The presentation also shows that the city granted permission where trees were not healthy because of excessive topping, decay, dropping or no branches, and massive seed production. Five of the trees slated for removal were not deemed unhealthy and the tree ordinance requires a $5,715 administrative fine be paid. OEC would pay that fee and the money would go toward planting the new trees, McMahon said.

McMahon said the company's vegetation management program not only helps power flow, but also increases safety for members and residents. She said there must be 10 feet of clearance between power lines and the nearest branch, requiring tree trimming every one to four years on average.

The Berry Road trees are sweet gums and grow extremely tall, said Tim Vermillion, city forester.

"This is a painful situation that happens all over the county," he said of the tree versus power line issue. A lot of times the issue comes down to not having the right tree in the right place, he said.

The Berry Road trees were planted in the 1960s by the Lion's Club in an "effort to beautify Norman and add to Norman's sparse landscape," Pyle wrote in his email to the council. "The Berry Road tree canopy is very sentimental to many Normanites."

Carter described the tree canopy as creating a tunnel effect on the road.

Vermillion said he has identified eight tree species that work well under power lines that could replace the sweet gums: Oklahoma redbud, city sprite zelkova, trident maple, Persian parrotia, wireless zelkova, emerald sunshine elm, amur maple and prairifire crabapple. He said the proposed trees would not create the same canopy, but would not need to be trimmed as often.

McMahon said OEC's goal is to make sure homeowners receive a healthy tree that does not pose safety hazards or require repeated trimming.

"We want to make sure we are going above and beyond," she said. "We are working with the city to replant trees that grow the right way."

If court papers are filed and a judge issues an injunction to delay the work, OEC will likely trim the trees, McMahon said. Work was delayed for months during negotiations with the city and now many limbs are close to the power lines, she said.

"Since we continue to delay it gets more dangerous," she said, adding that it is important for work to be done before storm season hits.

Vermillion said "giving them a haircut will alleviate the problem" but isn't a longterm solution. He said some of the trees in question had decay from being topped and others are next to telephone poles creating an unsafe situation.

"I've looked at this project not just at how they are now, but how they will be in the spring and into the future," he said.

Burying the power lines if often suggested as a solution, but it has a costly price tag, Pyle said. It costs an estimated $750,000 to $1 million per mile to bury power lines, he said.

Mayor Breea Clark said she is not sure there is anything that can be done for this Berry Road project, but favors looking at the tree ordinance again and cleaning up any unclear language.

"I admire their passionate feelings on this topic," she said of council members and residents.

Vermillion said he has already suggested a few changes that could be made to the ordinance, such as increasing the fine for removing a healthy tree and adjusting the name to better fit what the ordinance is -- a street tree ordinance.

Christie Swanson366-3543cswanson@normantranscript.com

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Residents want to stop tree removal - Norman Transcript

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) Someone is disrupting years of research and delaying costly time for several projects at the University of Virginia. The question of who is responsible remains a mystery leaving students and faculty with plenty of questions.

The person has been removing pink flags on trees that mark the plots for student research.

Hopefully its a well wishing person thinking they dont like clutter in the forest or maybe somebody that thinks its some kind of project to cut trees down and they want to stop it. We dont know, UVA Environmental Science Professor Hank Shugart said.

The pink flags are there to indicate research plots for a couple of projects.

"Trying to understand runoff and what runoff does to the vegetation. So, we're doing labs and also using sorts of focused research on how water processes and land processes work," Shugart says.

The university is also keeping track of carbon

Were keeping track of tree growth and how much carbon is being stored by O-Hill, which has to do with global change, Shugart says.

Students are also left guessing where to put flags again to continue their research.

We kind of cobbled together where our old plots were with our memories of, 'oh yeah, that tree was in this plot, I think,' UVA PHD Student Elise Heffernan said.

The research could lead to more than a million dollars for the university.

Right now, theres a market for carbon and O-Hill in 70 years could probably store away somewhere between $800,000 to $1.5 million worth of carbon, Shugart said.

That money would come from simply growing trees and then selling the stored carbon that results from not cutting the trees down.

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Years of UVA research is being hindered by the removal of pink flags on trees - WHSV

GRAVETTE, Ark. (KNWA) A growing problem at Bethel Cemetery, as trees on the property are damaging headstones. Now, dozens of trees on the landwill have to be removed.

Benton County Preservation Group President Nancy Feroe said getting rid of the trees is the only way to maintain the cemetery and protect the headstones .

They look beautiful in the spring especially when they have the white flowers but thats only for a short while, said Feroe.

This row of trees, planted more than two decades ago. Bringing life to a burial place that was established over 200 years ago but the trees are also bringing a growing problem.

As theyre getting older because theyve been there for over 25 years their limbs are falling off, breaking off and hitting head stones. Some have actually damaged some stones. They cost problems for the Bethel Cemetery Association to have to take care of.

Just last month, the association removed a large pine tree. Feroe said it was near a historic arch on the property. With so much weight with the pines, it wouldnt take much of a storm to push that over and not only destroy the arch but probably a lot of stones with it.

The preservation group assess cemeteries around Benton county to make sure they stay in good shape. Theyre also working with the association to replat the entire cemetery. Making a map of the burial location, the physical burial locations of each individuals that is buried in the cemetery and where that graves are located.

The tree removal could cost about $8000.

They look great, Im a tree lover too but sometimes there are better places for them, said Feroe.

The preservation group and the association are hoping to work with a landscaper totransfer the trees to a better location.

Original post:
Dozens of trees to be cleared out of Bethel cemetery - KNWA

Update 2 p.m.

OEC plans to replace trees being removed along Berry Road with ones that are better suited to be under power lines, said Autumn McMahon, Oklahoma Electric Cooperative spokeswoman.

The current tree canopy includes sweet gum trees that grow very tall and can create safety and power reliability issues around power lines, McMahon said.

"Each of these trees is being removed by the request of the resident," she said, adding the power company wants to "plant the right tree in the right place.

"This will give homeowners a healthy tree that is not a risk and a tree that does not have to be repeatedly trimmed."

OEC will remove the trees and branches at no cost to the homeowner and is working with the city forester to determine the best tree fit.

The city and OEC have been working together on finding a solution to the Berry Road tree issue which has delayed the project, McMahon said. The work needs to be completed soon for safety reasons, she said.

A group of residents is asking a a judge to temporarily stop Oklahoma Electric Cooperative from taking down trees along Berry Road.

The electric company plans to start removing 11 trees along the street this weekend.

Norman councilman Joe Carter is leading the charge as a neighborhood resident.

"They can trim the trees as they have always done. We think that is a reasonable request," Carter said.

Carter said the council wants to revisit the tree ordinance that the city established after OEC removed 16 trees along Berry Road in 2017. The council discussedtreesduring a recent study session, but Carter said it will take months to finish the process of updatingthe ordinance.

City Manager Darrel Pyle sent an email to council members Tuesday night explainingthe electric company's tree removal plans and stating there are loopholes in the 2017 ordinance that allows the company to move forward with the tree removal.

Pyle told the Transcript state law allows utility companies easements to protect infrastructure. He said there is nothing the city can do to stop the work.

Carter said that is why he and other residents hired attorney Doug Wall to ask a judge to temporarily halt the work.

Calls to Wall and to OEC were not immediately returned this morning.

Link:
Residents trying to stop Berry Road tree removal - Norman Transcript

City Council has extended a moratorium on removing trees from private property for another year.

The council voted Monday, 7-2, to extend the moratorium to Dec. 20, with councilors Denise Simmons and Tim Toomey voting against. The council adopted the ban through a temporary amendment to the citys Tree Protection Ordinance last February, and it was originally scheduled to expire March 11. The council is currently waiting to receive recommendations from the Urban Forest Master Plan Task Force on lasting changes the group would like to make to the Tree Protection Ordinance, according to the council's policy order sponsored by Councilor Quinton Zondervan. The recommendations were originally scheduled to be released in June but were delayed, and the extension prevented the moratorium from expiring before the council could consider new language to the ordinance.

According to the order, allowing the moratorium to expire before the new language could be added would have resulted in a massive citywide cutting spree, worsening our canopy decline and erasing any positive impact the temporary amendments might have had.

Along with passing the extension to the moratorium, the council also expressed its intent to pass comprehensive amendments to the Tree Protection Ordinance based on the recommendations from the Urban Forest Master Plan Task Force ahead of the December deadline.

Zondervan said it's unclear at this point what kind of permanent changes will be made to the Tree Protection Ordinance, but one of the ideas is requiring property owners to come up with a replacement plan if trees need to be cut down.

"So, if a property owner said, 'I need to cut down this tree, but I'm going to plant three more over here,' that somehow that would be part of the law and would be allowed," said Zondervan. "That's how we deal with large projects; we require them to have a replacement plan. That's one example of the kind of thing we need to be considering."

The ban prevents residents from receiving permits to remove trees from their property. The city can issue fines of up to $300 per violation and $300 for each day the violation exists. Violators would also be responsible for the cost of replacing the tree at approximately $800 to $900 dollars per DBH [Diameter at Breast Height] inch. Homeowners with a residential exemption will pay only 10 percent or people on financial assistance will pay nothing when it comes to violations.

Trees removed for city park projects that provide significant negative impacts to existing adjacent structures and dead or dangerous trees are exempt from the moratorium, as well as trees that could be removed for the benefit of the overall tree canopy on properties densely populated by existing trees.

Heather Hoffman of Hurley Street, said she has spoken many times regarding her admiration of trees and said she was supportive of everything on the agenda Monday night that would give the city more trees.

The city of Cambridge should have a default setting of 'keep the tree,' Hoffman said. We dont, [and] we need to get there.

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Cambridge extends ban on tree removal for another year - Wicked Local Cambridge

Update 2 p.m.

OEC plans to replace trees being removed along Berry Road with ones that are better suited to be under power lines, said Autumn McMahon, Oklahoma Electric Cooperative spokeswoman.

The current tree canopy includes sweet gum trees that grow very tall and can create safety and power reliability issues around power lines, McMahon said.

"Each of these trees is being removed by the request of the resident," she said, adding the power company wants to "plant the right tree in the right place.

"This will give homeowners a healthy tree that is not a risk and a tree that does not have to be repeatedly trimmed."

OEC will remove the trees and branches at no cost to the homeowner and is working with the city forester to determine the best tree fit.

The city and OEC have been working together on finding a solution to the Berry Road tree issue which has delayed the project, McMahon said. The work needs to be completed soon for safety reasons, she said.

A group of residents is asking a a judge to temporarily stop Oklahoma Electric Cooperative from taking down trees along Berry Road.

The electric company plans to start removing 11 trees along the street this weekend.

Norman councilman Joe Carter is leading the charge as a neighborhood resident.

"They can trim the trees as they have always done. We think that is a reasonable request," Carter said.

Carter said the council wants to revisit the tree ordinance that the city established after OEC removed 16 trees along Berry Road in 2017. The council discussedtreesduring a recent study session, but Carter said it will take months to finish the process of updatingthe ordinance.

City Manager Darrel Pyle sent an email to council members Tuesday night explainingthe electric company's tree removal plans and stating there are loopholes in the 2017 ordinance that allows the company to move forward with the tree removal.

Pyle told the Transcript state law allows utility companies easements to protect infrastructure. He said there is nothing the city can do to stop the work.

Carter said that is why he and other residents hired attorney Doug Wall to ask a judge to temporarily halt the work.

Calls to Wall and to OEC were not immediately returned this morning.

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UPDATE: OEC plans to replace removed trees; residents trying to stop Berry Road tree removal - Norman Transcript

Characterizing progress on the North South Corridor as glacial is apt on two counts.

For one, it has been extremely slow. Since it was first envisioned way back in 1946, transportation planners have been trying to add a highway that will connect Interstate 90 to the northern suburbs of Spokane along the east side of the city. It took six decades just to get shovels in the ground for an August 2001 groundbreaking that signaled, at last, the start of construction. And now, 19 years later, the Washington State Department of Transportation has set an end date thats another nine years away.

Glacial fits, too, because, like a glacier, the NSC has upended and altered seemingly everything in its 10 1/2-mile path. Railroads, streets and hundreds of properties and buildings have been rerouted or removed to make way for the freeway, which is now about halfway complete, with the multiuse Children of the Sun Trail set alongside the route that exists so far.

On Tuesday night, a legion of WSDOT officials were at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in East Central to talk about what will be final leg of the NSCs very long journey south from Highways 2 and 395 to its eventual intersection with I-90 in that neighborhood and about the impacts it will have.

Planners have long known that the connections effect on East Central will be major. But those plans have changed.

For 20 years, beginning in the mid-1990s, WSDOT pushed toward a plan that would have connected the current and under-construction freeways with whats known as a collector-distributor. That design would have consolidated traffic in wide lanes on either side of I-90 and would have involved reconstruction of I-90 between the Liberty Park and Sprague Avenue exits to straighten the roadway in an area where a curve tends to slow traffic down.

Those plans would have required a huge concrete footprint. And to make way for that footprint, WSDOT removed vast stretches of the East Central neighborhood between East Sprague Avenue and Interstate 90.

But that project was cut due to budget constraints about five years ago, according to Terrence Lynch, assistant project engineer for WSDOTs design office.

Since that time, the Department of Transportation has been pursuing something completely different than that, Bob Hilmes, the engineer overseeing NSCs design, told the audience gathered in East Central on Thursday night.

The new plan is a simpler, smaller and, yes, cheaper plan for creating the NSC/I-90 interchange, though it will still cost between $200 million and $250 million. That practical solution, as WSDOT calls it, would involve adding numerous bridges and a series of new roadways and ramps, tying the local road network, the interstate and the NSC all together.

The revised plan for the interchange has been rolled out gradually over the years, Lynch said, and at Thursdays meeting WSDOT shared revised, but still not finalized, plans focused on the southwest section of the nearly 3-mile stretch of I-90 that will be affected as the NSC connects to it.

Lynch said the biggest change outlined in the preliminary plans for that area will come where Hamilton Street currently connects to I-90.

There, on the ramp that curls up from I-90 to Hamilton, drivers who want to go north on the new freeway would have to begin their move to the NSC northbound, exiting the Hamilton ramp for another ramp about a mile-and-a-half long that will run along I-90 before curling up to the NSC.

The addition of that ramp to the design has necessitated another change: drivers heading south on Hamilton Street would no longer be able to directly connect to I-90. Instead, they would head down a ramp that would place them on East Third Street. They would then travel through the Altamont Street intersection and head up another ramp that would connect to the eastbound interstate.

If it sounds confusing, thats because it is. The maps of the proposed interchange arrangement look like a circuit board and are about as hard to decipher.

What is clear, though, is that the interchange as now designed would have a much smaller footprint than the long-pursued collector-distributor design. And that means WSDOT has quite a bit less property demand, Hilmes said. According to Lynch, the amount of property required is about 30% less than expected under the old interchange model.

But we already bought the property, Hilmes said. So what do we do now?

Spokane City Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson, who lives in the East Central area, said she has one answer: replace some of the housing that WSDOT removed.

I see that land as housing, because they took out so much of it for the initial plan, Wilkerson said. So we already have those lots with infrastructure to build, so we can get some low-income housing for people. That would be great land for housing. It will be accessible. It will be somewhere on STA (the Spokane Transit Authority) so they can get places. That would be great.

Lynch said new housing is a possibility, but likely not on the land cleared to make way for the abandoned collector-distributor.

Replacing the houses displaced by the acquisition is always an opportunity, Lynch said. If there are some areas that are suitable for housing, Im certain that would be a consideration.

He noted, though, that the new design being pursued still uses up most of that space.

Its not like were going to have all this vacant land near this interchange, Lynch said. Its not going to be enough to build an apartment complex or a duplex.

Instead, Lynch and Hilmes say, WSDOTs focus will be on placemaking. Thats the process of gathering community input and combining it with the expertise of professional planners to decide how to develop land around the NSC for the public good. The department has had success doing that on the northern stretch of the road, Hilmes said, and aims to repeat that success in East Central.

Wilkerson said she hopes what they will continue to engage on is that community-engagement piece. They said it out loud, so I think we should hold them to that.

She said its vital that the projects potential be harnessed in an area that has been affected so heavily by a road project that hasnt even arrived yet, and that she predicted is the next neighborhood to pop.

I regret that they (the neighborhood buildings) were torn down, she said. But I think that we should embrace somehow trying to rebuild.

And she wants to be sure the NSC doesnt undermine East Centrals potential by pushing more traffic into the neighborhood without giving people a reason to stop.

Im worried about traffic, Wilkerson said. Im worried about traffic that just drives through. So thats a concern.

Shes hopeful, though, that WSDOTs plan will improve the interstate connections enough that fewer cars will pass through East Central in a hurry to get elsewhere.

If beefing those up would keep the traffic out of the neighborhood, if thats the endgame, then I have to go for it, Wilkerson said.

Hilmes said the flow of traffic on I-90 is a major concern of his department as they continue the work of designing the NSCs connection. As they model how things will look in 2029, when the new freeway is supposed to finally be completed, Hilmes said WSDOT has a goal thats about as modest as it is ambitious: Prove I-90 wouldnt work any worse than it does today, with those connections.

By those connections, Hilmes meant the complex web of on-ramps, off-ramps and bridges that will join the increasingly clogged interstate to the new NSC. And he said the design will help by pulling cars off I-90 before they get to the crowded corridor between Liberty Park and Sprague and sending them to the NSC on long ramps alongside I-90.

The braided ramp design, as its known, will allow designers to take traffic off I-90 before you put traffic onto I-90, Lynch said.

Today, all the traffic is coming on and getting off, Lynch said. Theyre fighting for the same space.

And that, he said, leads to congestion. The new design, Lynch and Hilmes said, should lessen it.

It actually improves the operation of I-90, Hilmes said. Does it fix it? No. But it improves it.

Have strong feelings about the basalt rock sitting in the median of I-90 west of Spokane in the Four Lakes and Tyler areas? If so, you may want to let WSDOT know.

The transportation department is planning to regrade the median in the area and has identified 10 segments where basalt rock and tree removal could affect views along the highway. So WSDOT is considering two options: installing barriers with a guardrail or removing the rock and trees altogether.

You can offer your thoughts on which route the department should take online at surveymonkey.com/r/S2Z53WX. You can also attend an online open house at engage.wsdot.wa.gov/i-90-four-lakes-tyler/.

If you ride the bus, youve seen the fliers. The Spokane Transit Authority wants your input on the big changes planned for routes in North Spokane, Spokane Valley and Airway Heights.

Some of the potential changes were covered in a column earlier this month, and STA still wants your input atsta-servicechanges.participate.online/.

The transit agency also opened an online survey last week for its planned revamping of the Cheney Line. You can offer your input at surveymonkey.com/r/cheneyline, by emailing nhanson@spokanetransit.com or by mailing comments to Spokane Transit, 1230 W. Boone Ave, Spokane, WA, 99201, Attention: Cheney Line Project.

Normandie Street will be closed between Central and Dalke avenues from today through Friday for work on the Central Avenue well.

The north curb lane of Third Avenue between Division and Cowley streets will be closed through Wednesday due to CenturyLink work.

The northbound curb lane of Monroe Street will be closed between Kiernan and Garland avenues through Friday for Quanta work.

The southbound lane of Bernard Street between 29th and 31st avenues will be closed until Friday for Avista work, but two-way traffic will be maintained.

The southbound lane of Lincoln Street between 20th and 21st avenues will be closed and traffic will be flagged from today through Feb. 28 for Avista work.

Northbound Howard Street will have a lane shift between Cataldo and Boone avenues, and Cataldo will be completely closed between Howard and Washington streets through March 6 for Quanta work.

The southbound curb lane of Northwest Boulevard between Buckeye and Grace is closed until March 9 for Sounders Cable work.

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Getting There: After glacial progress, East Central braces for effects of North Spokane Corridor's eventual arrival at I-90 - The Spokesman-Review

A Highland motorist has criticised Bear Scotland for not carrying out appropriate safety checks after a tree came down in front of him during Storm Dennis.

John Mowatt was travelling north along the A82 from Fort William to Inverness when a large tree crashed to earth just seconds in front of him, north of Invermoriston.

The 53-year-old was forced to turn back to Fort Augustus before driving up the right hand side of Loch Ness along the B852 towards Inverness as the popular road remained blocked.

Following the incident, the transport manager explained how he could still see the branches of the tree shaking upon approach, just seconds after it came down onto the Highland route.

He said: Its the first time it has happened to me and I have been driving for years. I was driving quite slowly because of the road conditions.

When I was standing down there, a local gentlemen came along and he also made the comment that it has been like this for weeks. You could see the bleeding on the tree.

Police were called to the scene less than 30 miles outside Inverness shortly before noon following numerous calls from concerned motorists.

A police spokesman said: We received the first call at 11.45am about a tree which had fallen onto the road on the A82 north of Invermoriston.

Mr Mowatt criticised Bear Scotland for not carrying out the appropriate checks to prevent such eventualities from taking place.

He added: The main road into Inverness, whether it is potholes or trees falling, is horrendous. Its a horrendous road to drive and its getting worse.

Why has Bear Scotland, the Scottish Governments contractor who is supposed to do checks on that road every day not seen these trees leaning at a severe angle?

The tree that came down has been at an angle for months.

A Bear Scotland spokeswoman said: All of our routes, including the A82 through Invermoriston, are subject to weekly safety checks to identify if any work, including tree removal or other landscaping activities, is required.

Trunk road safety remains our top priority and well continue to carry out routine safety patrols across the network and respond to any issues.

She added: We thank all road users for their patience while we deal with any incidents during the storm and encourage them to drive to conditions if out.

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Highland motorists criticises Bear Scotland as tree comes down onto the A82 - Press and Journal

You spent the holidays binging on HGTV, and now visions of shiplap accent walls and freestanding soaking tubs are dancing through your head.

Don't let your desire to upgrade your home downgrade your home's market value. Before you make a renovation fantasy a reality, consider whether the project will pay off when you're ready to sell. Plenty of home improvements add value, but others like these five can hurt it.

1. A chef-quality kitchen

If you love to cook, a high-end kitchen could be the ultimate gift for you. But if you think a massive overhaul will majorly impact resale value, you might be in for a surprise. An upscale kitchen renovation recoups just 54% of its cost in added value, according to Remodeling magazine's 2020 Cost vs. Value report.

"If you do marble countertops and high-end appliances, you could spend $100,000, and it doesn't necessarily mean your house is worth an extra $100,000," says Beatrice de Jong, a consumer trends expert for Opendoor, a San Francisco-based direct home buyer and seller.

Smaller kitchen upgrades could yield a bigger payoff. Chris Arienti, broker and owner of Remax Executive Realty near Boston, suggests keeping updates reasonable: Think granite rather than marble, and GE instead of Sub-Zero.

2. DIY painting

A bold statement wall can say the wrong thing to potential buyers if the workmanship is questionable. Streaky, chipped or low-quality paint can knock $1,700 off a home's sale price, according to Opendoor data that looked at home offers made from June 2018 to June 2019.

"A good paint job is not easy," says Sarah Cunningham, a real estate agent with Ethos Design + Remodel in Boise, Idaho. "It is all in the prep work, and most people don't want to do the prep work." Hiring a professional to paint can help ensure a more attractive result.

3. An expanded master suite

Knocking down a wall to create an oversize master bedroom or stealing closet space to build out a spa-style bathroom may sound dreamy. But how about as a selling point? "If you go from five bedrooms to four, and you can make it work, no big deal," Arienti says. But he cautions that losing a bedroom in a smaller house could mean a lower selling price.

As for cutting into closet space, residential building codes don't mandate that bedrooms have closets. But, Arienti says, "Once you take the closet out of a bedroom, to a buyer, that no longer looks like a bedroom."

4. Plush wall-to-wall carpeting

Carpet can be especially unattractive to first-time home buyers, who may be used to landlords updating carpet between renters, de Jong says.

"In general, people are grossed out by (carpeting). It can make a room look a little bit dated."

It can also ding your sale price. Carpet as the primary flooring in a house drops the value by $3,900 and carpeting in the master bedroom causes a $3,800 plunge, according to Opendoor. Conversely, a 2019 report from the National Association of Realtors estimated that sellers could recoup the entire cost of refinishing hardwood floors. New wood flooring could actually add value, with sellers getting $1.06 for every dollar spent according to NAR.

5. A swimming pool

It doesn't matter if it's infinity edge or above-ground: Any pool can be seen as a drawback by buyers who don't want to deal with maintenance or insurance. Even in Florida, a pool doesn't add value, Liede DeValdivielso, a real estate agent with the Keyes Company in Miami-Dade, said via email. If you're thinking resale, it's not worth it you'll never recoup the cost, DeValdivielso said. But if you'll use it and enjoy it, put in a pool.

How to decide if renovation is worth the cost

To ensure you're making an informed decision:

CONSIDER YOUR TIMELINE: "If you're going to be in the home for 30 years, you can do anything, because at that point, your mortgage is paid off," Arienti says. Looking to sell in the near future? Pay closer attention to whether your choices will appeal to a potential buyer.

CONSULT AN EXPERT: "Talk to a professional so you aren't making misinformed choices that are going to work against you in five to 10 years," Cunningham says. A designer can help you tell fleeting trends from future classics; a contractor can explain what kind of work a proposed renovation would entail.

COMPARE HOME FEATURES IN YOUR AREA: De Jong suggests looking at comparable homes for sale near you and going to open houses to make sure your improvements align with the norms for your neighborhood.

GET AN APPRAISAL: A licensed appraiser can do a feasibility study to estimate your home's current value and its likely value after the improvements.

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Related links: http://bit.ly/nerdwallet-how-much-home-worth; http://bit.ly/nerdwallet-tips-first-time-home-buyers

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5 home improvements that may not pay off when you sell - Worcester Telegram

These days, consumer tastes lean toward a more transitional or contemporary aesthetic, and technology has enhanced virtually everything we buy. This holds true for the new kitchen and bathroom products that were introduced by manufacturers at this years Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas.

New debuts included sleeker cabinets and hardware; counters and tile that are more durable than ever; and technology so finely tuned that we can ask a faucet to give us 8 ounces of water at 100 degrees or command a toilet to flush without ever touching a knob.

Everyone was talking about integrating technology, said Agha Mo, a Houston tile and marketing consultant. How products in your home will recognize its you and what time of day it is and what your mood is and turn on lights and music accordingly. Then when you leave the room the lights go off. The idea is super amazing.

Mo, as well as designers Diana Walker of Diana S. Walker Interior Design and Melanie Heinrich of TriFection Remodeling and Construction, attended the trade show and reported back on top trends they spotted.

New products are utilizing voice technology in more refined and responsive ways.

Kohlers 2.0 version of its fancy Numi toilet is so sleek you barely know its a toilet. With a $7,000 price tag, it senses your arrival and lifts its lid automatically and has built-in Alexa voice controls, so the virtual assistant can call up your favorite music, create ambient mood lighting and flush on command.

Simpler examples come in other plumbing fixtures, such as touchless faucets that deliver water at certain temperatures and in any quantity you want, from a tablespoon to a cup or more.

Everything can be done by voice. Technology is taking over everything, Walker said. Dont be afraid of it, its coming, and it will be the way everything happens in the future.

Gray and white arent going away completely, but theyll surely take a back seat to warmer neutrals and more color overall, the designers said of the variety of colors they saw in cabinets and appliances.

I noticed a lot more color a lot of mixed-use bright colors across plumbing and appliances, Heinrich said. Blue is big this year, and what I saw for next year is a deep green. Those natural colors are really trending as we get out of the gray and white age.

Appliance makers already jumped on the blue wave prompted by Pantones announcement of Classic Blue as its 2020 Color of the Year, with GEs lineup soon to include blue, joining companies such as Viking, Thermador, BlueStar, Big Chill, La Cornue, Lacanche and Bertazzoni, all of which offer appliances in a variety of colors.

Wolf, Thermador and Gagganeau came out with more color two years ago, but this years exhibit was really out of the box, Walker said.

The trend toward contemporary design affected cabinets in a big way, with Heinrich noticing more installed flush with walls an installation more common in modern design.

European cabinets are made in modules and installed in removable sections, and Walker marveled at the Nobilia brand that billed its cabinets as a forever kitchen that you could uninstall and take with you when you move provided you could find a home buyer who wants an empty kitchen.

That method could come in handy in flood-prone areas, she noted. Imagine if you had something like a Harvey incident; you would take them out, clean them up and put them back in your house. Thats how they do it in Europe, and its a game changer if you like contemporary style.

For another take on appliances, we might be more likely to see appliances blending in with cabinets as matching panels cover up our dishwashers, microwave ovens and even our refrigerators.

I saw a lot of panel-front appliances, with wood and other materials, Mo said. I saw some covered in fabric that looked like a sofa cushion. People are really taking it to the next level.

Mo noted ongoing trends in the tile industry, where improvements in porcelain tile and slabs have made it look better and be more durable.

Plain white subway tile isnt likely to ever go out of style, and Mo said he saw new versions of it in glassier materials, as well as a number of booths using Moroccan tile in bold colors and patterns as backsplashes.

Manufactured stone continues to grow in popularity, for its improved appearance and tough exterior. Cosentino and Cambria made a good showing in Vegas, with both launching numerous new patterns. Cambria launched 20 new designs as well as a new collaboration with furniture manufacturer Room & Board that uses Cambrias man-made stone on tables and other items.

Cosentino added more patterns to its Dekton, Silestone and Sensa collections, including some that mimic popular types of quartzite and onyx.

Never before have our passions and our indulgences been showcased so much in our homes.

For our pets, KBIS showed a fancy glass-enclosed shower and refrigerated drawers for use in utility/pet rooms for those who feed their pooches fresh food and want to keep it separate from human food.

For those who cant be too far from their favorite cold beverages, Thermador showed a vignette with a refrigerated drawer built into a bathroom makeup vanity, Heinrich said.

One of Walkers favorites was the Plum wine dispenser, a small, self-cleaning refrigerated unit that holds two bottles of wine and dispenses the beverage through a needle to prevent oxidation. Its technology scans the bottles label to identify the varietal, vintage, region and winery.

GE and Monogram both have come out with a machine that can make clear ice, Mo said, excitedly. Man, I am in love with that. Im not joking, it looked like you had crystal balls in your glass.

diane.cowen@chron.com

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Original post:
Pet showers and voice-activated toilets: Whats new in kitchen and bath products - Houston Chronicle