Expert Advice for your Lawn & Garden TV Host of Today's Homeowner^® and home expert for The Weather Channel

Framed paintings and photographs add a splash of color to a room and give it a unique personal touch, but some homeowners are reluctant to tackle the job for fear their walls will end up resembling aged Swiss cheese. With the right hardware and know-how, you can approach your next picture hanging project with confidence.

In this episode we’ll give a whole new look to a vintage 1970s house that is in need of some serious updating. Not only is the kitchen to be completely remodeled, but the wall between the den and living room will be removed to open up the living space.

Janette asks, “Our large front windows face west. Is there any new window product that will make the rooms shady and keep out the heat in summer?” Windows have come a long way in recent years and are now able to deflect much of the sunlight in the summer while at the same time retaining the heat inside your home during the winter. One of the biggest advancements has been in low-E coatings.

If you’re under the impression that environmentally friendly flooring products, such as bamboo and cork, are little more than the latest fad that will soon disappear, then think again. Though very different from each other, both are high quality products that make beautiful and durable floors. In addition, bamboo and cork are easy to install and cost about the same as traditional hardwood.

The bath we are renovating is about 50 years old and measures only 4’ wide by 9’ long. With the exception of the shower, all of the fixtures will be replaced and a vent fan mounted in the ceiling. While many of the items we used were available on the shelf at the home center, we were able to special order hard to find items from their catalog.

Danny revisits a couple of NuTone products used during Today’s Addition. The NuTone video answering system helps bridge the distance from the addition in the back of the house to the front door. The system uses a Cat5 cable to relay video from a small doorbell camera back to a LCD display in the master bedroom. Above the breakfast bar, a NuTone recessed light performs two functions. It provides a cone of light and with a flip of a switch it removes humidity and odor as an exhaust fan. The exhaust function is completely housed inside of the lighting unit.

It’s easy to let home maintenance projects around the house slide, but if you don’t take care of them now, they can lead to much bigger problems down the road. Here are a few important weekend projects to put on your “to do” list.

If your garage floor has seen better days, you might consider sealing it. While there are many products available, we used a two-part epoxy kit from Rust-Oleum that is available at The Home Depot. The kit contains everything you need to have your garage floor looking like new including cleaner, two-part epoxy coating, decorative paint chips, and even an instructional DVD.

While ceramic tile can be applied directly to a concrete slab, wooden floors should be covered with cement backer board first. On areas that are not easily seen, start with whole tiles along one the edge. For more visible areas, mark the midpoints of each wall, and pop a chalk line on the floor in both directions. Use the point where the two lines cross as the center for laying out your tile.

A toilet that runs constantly or doesn’t flush properly can be quite a nuisance and waste of water. There are several common problems associated with toilets that are fairly easy to diagnose and repair. When you remove the cover of the tank, you’ll notice that the toilet contains an overflow tube to keep it from flooding, a float to control the water level, an intake valve to let water into the tank, and a flapper valve on the bottom that is connected to the handle by a chain.