With new houses springing up like mushrooms after a heavy rain, the Wasatch Front has become one of the busiest construction areas around. Since most construction takes place in warm weather, a lot of people are sitting down to make plans right now.
Besides the financing, the landscaping, the schools, the neighborhood and all the other considerations that go into a new home, families planning to build a new house might consider a humble but significant factor - how easy is it to clean?No home is maintenance free, but certain choices can make the difference between a pretty bathroom that looks great after a couple of quick swipes with a cloth and a squeegee or a pretty bathroom with hard-to-clean grout, film-collecting fixtures and an aggravating picture frame around the mirror that collects layers of dust daily.
"Make Your House Do the Housework" is the title of book, now newly revised, by Laura Aslett Simons of Farmington and her father, Don Aslett, the nationally known cleaning expert.
Simons, the mother of five, and her husband, Robyn, just moved into their new home. Despite all the hustle and bustle, especially around the holidays, Simons said she can whip the house into shape in an hour.
Simons is quick to note that she is no housekeeping fanatic - "My neighbors would laugh if they thought I was an icon of cleaning." Being a good wife and mom is more important to her than scrubbing the bathroom.
"I wonder about people who have perfect houses and lots of little kids. If you've ever listed a house and kept it clean for viewing, you know how much work it is. You make yourself crazy," she said.
"You can clean forever and it will never be perfectly clean. You have to do what has to be done to life the life you want," Simons said.
One way to facilitate that is to build as many low- or no-maintenance qualities into your home as possible.
The first step is to make a priority list of the things that take most of your cleaning time. Since most people are on a budget, Simons recommends focusing on the kitchen first, then entry ways, family rooms and other areas that get heavy use.
Her kitchen and bathrooms feature single formed sinks that have no metal rim around them to catch gunk. The faucets are the simple single lever style, and there is no frame around the bathroom mirror.
The kitchen "back splash" area behind the sink and stove is not the standard 6 inches tall - instead, it extends all the way between the counter top and the cupboard. The same is true for the bathroom sink backsplash.
Simons like durable, non-porous counter tops, and the best material she has found for kitchens is Wilsonarts Gibraltar Solid Surfacing. It costs more than regular counter surfacing, but it's a breeze to clean and it can take lots of abuse without being damaged.
A thinner version of this, Solid Surface Vanier, works nicely in the bathroom.
All appliances - can opener, microwave, toaster - are suspended to save space and cleaning time.
Simons dislikes base boards and strongly prefers "coving" floor coverings, or bringing the covering up the wall about three or four inches. That means there are no base boards to dust and no surfaces to get nicked by Barbie's Jeep.
Other helpful features: window sills are smooth synthetic resin, walls are painted with 100 percent acrylic semi-gloss paint, areas that require carpeting are covered with dark commercial-looking carpet, the stove has a smooth cook top, kitchen appliances have round edges for easier cleaning and the space between the range and counter top has been caulked. The deck also is covered with a man-made material that won't rot, stain or crack.
This all might sound pretty spartan, but Simons' house is airy, spacious and quite attractive. Furthermore, certain fancy items actually are less trouble to maintain than simple things. An example? Simons has elegant cut glass in the entry way door. "Smooth clear glass shows every little fingerprint," she said.
Speaking of little fingerprints, Simons is a big believer in taking the time to teach kids to do chores. That not only helps with the housework but instills a sense of responsibility into little ones.
Some of the low-maintenance cleaning features in her house are more expensive than others and Simons acknowledges that most families - hers included - can't have every single maintenance-free item on the market.
Coving the kitchen linoleum costs only $140 more and is worth it, she said. A smooth top range costs an extra $100. Her built-in vacuum is a great help and cost about $350 for the pipe work and $700 for the unit itself. Vinyl window frames cost about the same as aluminum ones.
Installing solid surfacing for counter tops, on the other hand, is more expensive than regular counter tops. "You have to pick the things that are cost effective," Simons said.
Maybe another cost-effective tip would be to buy the latest edition of the book she and her father wrote. It's $14.99.