Expo showcasing home improvement

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008 | midnight

The Galleria at Sunset mall will bring together more than two dozen home improvement and related contractors for the Home and Lifestyle Expo, running at the mall Sept. 5-7.

Marie Martorano, director of marketing at the Galleria at Sunset, said the expo is designed to provide a one-stop shopping experience to mall patrons.

"It's beneficial for the shoppers because these are booths and spaces that are non-competing, so it provides a complementary addition to our tenant mix," she said.

The expo will take place indoors, on the lower level's center court near J.C. Penney and on the second floor between Macy's and Dillard's. Exhibitors scheduled to participate include retailers in windows, patios and flooring; contractors in landscaping, plumbing, heating and air conditioning; real estate agents; and child-care professionals.

The expo will run during regular mall hours, which are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 5 and 6 and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 7.

Martorano said organizers are aware of the economic downturn, but he didn't think it would have a negative impact on the expo's success, because the mall and the expo working together are expected to generate a lot of shopper traffic.

Expos tend to do well because shoppers find them an easy way to learn about services and do some comparison shopping, she said.

"Shoppers do appreciate it," she said. "They find it very convenient that they're already here and there are these additional services."

Jeremy Twitchell is a reporter for the Home News. He can be reached at 990-8928 or jeremy.twitchell@hbcpub.com.

Discussion: 1 comment so far…

By Dan_DHRT

9/4/08 at 4 a.m.

Suggest removal

Prior to undertaking any home renovation we recommend home owners first have an energy audit peformed on their home.

Energy audits are invaluable to home owners when performed by an accredited, independent professional. We had an energy audit performed on our home last fall. Many local utilities offer them for free.

The energy auditor took just over 2 hours inside and outside our home. He explained what he was doing, why, etc. The energy audit report we received was invaluable on many fronts. It provided an overall rating for our home's energy efficiency, a comparative rating for other similar homes, numerous general energy conservation tips for the home and specific recommendations for our home.

There were charts, graphs and the recommendations specific to our home indicated the relative benefits of each recommendation. What also made the report of value to us was that it was not performed by a company who also just happened to provide services to implement the recommendations, i.e. the independence factor.

We couldn't find an actual copy of an energy audit report for a home on the internet so we ended up writing several articles about our home energy audit on the ECOENERGY page of our home's web site if folks are interested.

We have undertaken many, but not all of the recommendations contained in the report we received. We are still investigating both solar water heating as well as solar air heating.

We highly recommend any home owner of any age of house to undertake a home energy audit by an accredited independent professional so they know exactly how bad or how good their home is regarding energy efficiency and so they have facts upon which to base their decisions on which home renovation and/or energy conservation measures, especially any which may cost any amount of money, to undertake this fall and beyond.

Dan
DailyHomeRenoTips.com