Lack oft ‘IT’S no surprise, but someone has finally surveyed North American homeowners and discovered the truth: renovating can be a nightmare. More and more home- owners. are remodeling their homes, yet a remarkable _number — nearly nine out of ten — acknowledge that home improvement and maintenance is toc compli- cated, time-consuming and costly, and they don’r know ’ where to turn for help. “According to “House/Work: A Study of American Homeowners” conducted by Owens Sales all wet home | ations rene or 997 ie Wednesday, October 15, 1997 ~ North Shore News — 35 ime, money, information for home projects Corning, among 400 house- holds throughout North America, 88% said they really enjoy making improvements or additions to their home. The study showed that fix- ing things around the house is costing homeowners more than money; it’s also costing them time — lots of it. A surprising 16% said that they spend more than 24 hours a month — or more than six hours a week — doing home repair. *The study also confirmed that homeowners invest a sig- nificant amount of their income in home improve- ment: 71% spent more than $1,000 on their most recent home improvement projects, with 31% spending more than $5,000, and nearly five per cent spending $25,000 or more. Homeowners said their top home improvement gripes are high cost of materi- als and installation, followed by lack of convenience, including jobs that were larg- er than planned, tools and equipment that weren’t read- ily available and insufficient time to complete the job. A booming housing industry, with two years of strong new and existing home sales, has created a whole new generation of honrcowners. Now, these homeowners are looking to remodel and improve their homes, driving non-maintenance home NEWS phote Cindy Goodman . "NOTHING beats the winter chill Jike a soak in the hot tub. Here, Doug Hansen of Pacific Pools puts a shine on one. “.. QCTOBER SPECIALS ALL SUMMER PERENNIALS & SHRUBS REGULAR PRICES BULB SELECTION 10% discount per dozen. NEW FALL ARRIVALS: GRASSES, WINTER PERENNIALS, SCULPTURES, MOSAIC STEPPING STONES, QUALITY WOODEN GARDEN FURNITURE MADE TO ORDER FLORAL ARRANGEMENT WORKSHOPS. Located im rear lane nging . 2474 Marine Drive, West Van 925-1082 * Store Hours: Mon-Sat 10-6; Suns 11-5 5 improvement spending to grow an estimated 28 per cent through the year 2010. In fact, 48:6 million households do some form of home improvement cach year, spending $3,800 over a two-year period, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. With more and more women buying their own homes, women are taking an even greater role in home improvement projects. A whopping 70% of women took on home improvement projects within the past five years, a dramatic rise from 50% six to 10 years ago, and 18% more than 10 years age. More than 40% said they did the project themselves. Top projects for the women surveyed: remodeling a kitchen or a bath (46%) fol- lowed by converting a base- ment or attic to a new use (14%) and adding a room to the house (8%). These women also spend a great deal of time on home maintenance and repair, spending an average of two hours per month more than men on such projects. The study uacovered a major source of frustration among women: 75% said the biggest obstacle they faced when maintaining and repair- ing a home was difficulty in getting the help they needed — particularly from their hus- bands. Three-fourths of respon- dants said they would like to take on more home improve- ment projects, but don’t know where to get all the information they need. An overwhelming majori- ty of respondents — 78% — said that when they start working on a home improve- ment project, it almost always leads to another project that they had not anticipated. Seventy-two per cent said they are often surprised to uncover problems they had not expected. Approximately half said ir was “very difficult” to get good information on how to do a project or how to prop- erly install a product. Nearly 70% rely heavily on advice from home improvement retailers when making deci- sions about products. But if most homeowners appear to agree on the prob- lem facing them, there also seems to be a consensus on a viable solution: an integrated system of home products ANT: OF THEW YEEK Knot Obedient Plant Physostegia Perennial, summer-early autumn flowers “THIS WEEK’S BEST BUYS designed to work synergisti- cally to enhance the home’s overall performance, backed with useful, practical informa- tion. In response to this, Owens Corning has _— introduced System Thinking for the Home. The concept features—a”* four product systems — insu- lating, roofing, sound control and exterior —- cach com- prised of products’ designed to work together to create a high-performance building envelope. The system approach also rovides the information and knowledge homeowners need to understand how their home works and plan and manage home building, remodeling and repair pro- jects. ; “House/Work: A Study of Amencan Homeowners” was conducted by NFO Research, Ic. on behalf of Owens Corning to profile North Americans’ experiences with home improvement and niaintenance. Telephone mterviews were conducte during August 1996, among a representative sample of 400 North American home- owners. 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