While you're relaxing at home this summer, you might as well make sure you have all the best tips and tricks to keep your house in the best shape possible. Kathryn Emery, home improvement and lifestyle expert, joins Cheddar News to share the many ways you can save money, energy, and water this summer. 

Summer Sizzle

The Hottest Home Trends of the Summer

Welcome back to cheddar summer sizzle. If you prefer to be a home body this summer, you're certainly not alone. No, you're not. But while you're hanging out at home, you might as well make sure you've got all the best tips and tricks to keep your space in tip top shape, joining us now to discuss this. Catherine emery, home improvement and lifestyle expert Catherine, welcome to the show where okay, I'm trying to see everything around you. It looks awesome. What is? Thank you Hannah again. I'm so, hey, happy summer you guys summer. So Catherine, what is one improvement project that people should take up this summer? What difference is it going to make in people's homes and of course their lives ultimately So add shade to the backyard, right? Because with heatwaves skyrocketing across the country, adding a little bit of shade. Your backyard can actually cool it up to 20%. So look for portable sail shades as you can see there because you can hang them up, you can fix them to any item, you can tie him to a tree, you can tie them to a post, you can tie him to the house. So what you see there, that's a brand called kuru and what I like about that is there naturally mold mildew and stain resistant with this HDP fabric, but a breeze can get through so you're not baking underneath that sail shade and you can bring it to the park, you can put it in your house. The nice thing is when the season's over. If you want to take it down, you just take it down like super easy thing anybody can do right? How can people fix up their home to be prepared for anything this summer, such as a blackout, ken, Don't rely on the grid, take power into your own hands. So everybody's talking about getting a generator, but I recommend getting a solar power generator because then you're getting a clean source of energy. So when that power does go out, you can bring it inside and no carbon monoxide poisoning. So you, that's gold. This is gold zero. This is the Yeti series. What we're looking at right here. But what you do is basically you put out solar panels after 12 hours, it fully powers that unit that you see right there and then you can plug almost anything into it. I'm talking heavy appliances, refrigerators, medical devices, lights, wifi internet, it can do single family home. Hey, guess what? You can have fun with it too. As you can see here, right, take it camping, take it tailgating. Just have that power that you need for, just in case a disaster or to have some fun with it has a nice app too. So you can monitor it. So if you really need to maintain it, see right there, just put it right there on your kitchen counter and you're saving hundreds of dollars of food going wasted. So as we all know, there's so many rolling blackouts and hurricanes disasters, et cetera. So just be prepared and get that. So that's like I said, that's the goal zero Yeti series. It's just amazing. Yeah, that looks amazing. I have solar panels and it really is life changing. What's a hot home trend for 2022 Catherine that won't break the bank but instead will save you money on those very expensive energy bills that we're seeing this summer. I'm so here for this trend and I know you guys are going to be to, everyone's getting portable outdoor pizza ovens. It's amazing. So isn't that ken you've not heard of this? I mean they're popping up everywhere. So when you're looking for one because I know now you guys are going to go look for one, right, This is the Halo vs 16. I found this in national hardware. Should I run around there and find really cool products? But there's so many features. So number one, you push start, it's got dual burners, one in the back that gives it the convection style cooking a burner underneath the stone and infrared style you push a button, the stone moves for you goes up to 950°. So that thing's getting hot in 10 minutes, you're cranking out pizzas and 3-5 minutes. Everyone in the neighborhood's come in your house. Sorry to say whether you want it or not. I love it too because again, it's portable. You know, you can have it on the go. But it also so you can put a little £1 tank on it. But you can also put a £20 and then look at the hinge lid here. So it's super easy to easy to clean. And you mentioned saving energy. You don't want to turn that oven on all the time inside. Try to cook everything outside because that really will reduce your energy bills. You have a grill, try cooking on the grill, you know, you're cooking pizza and you can cook more than just pizza in this too. So try to cook outside as much as you can to save the money on those energy bills. We could bring that to burning man too if you wanted to see that or a picnic. Well that's So what about conserving water? Do you suggest any specific tips when it comes to watering systems? Yes. So have you guys walked around your neighborhood and seen trees getting watered from the top and wondering where all that water is going? It's a wasteful way to water. And irrigation is the number two water waster in your household. So this is the root quencher and what it is is it's basically going to go underground and water your trees from the ground. So you'll, so you'll look, so what you'll do is you'll find an existing irrigation line near existing tree or bush, dig a hole, cut a line attached the root quencher, adjust it for your valve so that you can see there, see there it is underground, they're adjusted for your sprinkler system while you're good to go cap those wasteful sprinklers so you can save up to 50% off your irrigation costs just by this simple, simple thing. The nice thing is you're saving water better for the environment, You're saving money on your water bill and it's healthier for your trees. Your trees are going to last longer. They're gonna be fuller, they're gonna, fruit trees are going to yield fruit. So just a great way to water from root quencher. I love that idea. I have less than a minute Katherine. What are the activity trends to participate in this summer? Have you guys played paddle ball? Pickleball? Sorry, pickleball, pickleball. So this is a rising trend. Did you know that pickle ball is the number one fastest growing sport in America? I love it. So my husband, my husband and my son were supposed to be out here helping me, but they're at the beach right now. So playing pickleball. No, I'm just teasing. So this is, this is uh, this is wild monkeys paddles here. As you can see, I just wanted to let people know when they're looking for paddles what to look for. So you have the elongated version, you have the short version, there's fiberglass, there's carbon fiber, there's all sorts of options available, but really go after that grip. You want a high quality sweat proof grip when you're going to get into this game. The reason I think it's really growing in popularity is because it's low impact. So we're all looking for a way to exercise outside. Pickleball is a great way and check out these wild monkeys paddles because they look pretty cool too, right? I pretty much want everything that you just showed us. Yes. Catherine emery, home improvement and lifestyle expert for more home tips visit be the best home dot com. Thank you so much.