| RELATED CONTENT | ||
| • The home of Art Toy, one of the owners of Four Elements Energy in Lawrence, was featured in the Gazette’s “My Place” series last Sunday. See what energy-saving measures he recommends for homes and find out about available energy rebates here.
• Read more about the wind turbine that was installed for the Home Expo. | ||
KALAMAZOO — “Has anyone ever taught you how to paint?” Brian “The Wall Wizard” Santos asked.
There are more options than the basic brush-to-wall standard, and there are tricks to incorporate to make the process faster and simpler, said Santos, who will be the featured presenter at this year’s Home Expo, the annual home and garden event put on by the
.
The Home Expo is to be held Wednesday through Saturday in the former Sam’s Club building next to The Crossroads mall, in Portage.
powering four head lamps on its post marks the spot.
“Painting is one of the easiest things,” said Santos, a regular guest star on home-improvement shows and author of 17 books, including
and
“What I’m going to be presenting is what I call ‘painting from the pantry’ (the name of another of his books) and show you how to speed up your painting 400 percent.”
| IF YOU GO | ||
| What: The Home Expo, a home and garden show put on by the Home Builders Association of Greater Kalamazoo.
Where: The former Sam’s Club building, 665 Mall Drive, Portage, next to The Crossroads mall. When: 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday; noon to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. How much: $8 in advance, $10 at the door; free for children 12 and under. Senior Day is Thursday, when those 65 and older receive a $2 discount. Tickets may be purchased at American Radiant, 95 E. Michigan Ave., Galesburg; Kalamazoo Gazette, 401 S. Burdick St.; and three locations of Harding’s Friendly Markets: 3750 Centre St., 6330 S. Westnedge Ave. and 5161 W. Main St. Save money: A coupon for a $2 discount can be downloaded from the Home Expo’s Web site. | ||
One of Santos’ suggestions is to use plastic wrap to cover things, including your eyeglasses when painting
a ceiling. The painter can still see out, and the lenses are protected from splatters.
Lip balm is more than a treatment for chapped lips. It can keep paint off the ceiling, Santos says. Apply lip balm around the edge of the ceiling and paint won’t stick to the wax in the lip balm.
“When you know the whys of something, you can make magic,” said the fourth-generation painter, who is also a teacher and holds a degree in chemistry.
Santos, coming directly from a home show in Pittsburgh, will give presentations at various times throughout the four-day event. His seminars, like the others offered on roofing, real estate and electrical safety, are included in the price of the $10 ticket to get into the home show.
This year’s Home Expo is expected to be one of the largest, with more than 180 vendors and exhibits taking up the 97,000 square-foot building, said Justin Vander Ark, director of special events for the Home Builders Association of Greater Kalamazoo.
“Remodeling has increased,” he said. “A lot of folks are saying, ‘I can’t afford a brand-new house, but I want to make my house feel new.’”
Instead of making separate phone calls to people who provide services that homeowners are looking for, you can find those people in one place at the Home Expo, Vander Ark said.
The garden area — always a show highlight — will be about three times larger than its usual size, he said. It will be about 200 feet long and about 40 feet wide and broken into five sections that pair landscape firms with other businesses such as spa, pool, fencing and pergola providers, said Sherry Kuzma, owner and designer of Great Lakes Landscapes, in Schoolcraft, who has been involved with the Home Expo for 23 years and the garden for 12.
“We’re finding … that people are staying in their own homes and trying to make the most with what they have,” she said. “They’re not taking the big vacation but staying in their own backyard, literally.”
So they are sprucing up the patio to use as an outdoor room in which to entertain guests — screened-in, of course.
“Mosquitos in Michigan require it,” Kuzma said with a laugh.
The owners of
of Lawrence, who erected the wind turbine in the parking lot of the Home Expo, will also be among the seminar speakers, talking about renewable energy such as wind and solar sources, said the firm’s Art Toy. They will also have a trailer outside of the Home Expo using solar power to charge batteries.
“We’re more for households or small businesses,” Toy said. “Turbines can offset the power you would purchase from a utility and reduce the amount of carbon created from gas-fired or coal-fired power plants.”
.