Don’t let Old Man Winter push you around.  A gas fireplace is something to appreciate, especially since it will be a welcome heat source when the power goes out.

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A refresher for you if you have a set of gas logs.  These are installed in what was a woodburning fireplace and are lit manually with a match or lighter.  In the event of a power outage, light ‘em up as usual.  Some log sets have a standing pilot with a remote or wall switch – while many will work in a power outage, it would be worth a call to your dealer to make sure.

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What do you say – let’s skip winter this year.  One of the easiest ways to jump into spring is the 2012 Portland Spring Home and Garden Show at the Expo Center. 

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2012 brings some changes to the popular Energy Trust rebate programs – so here’s the latest.

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It’s now Oregon law (April 1, 2011) that if you are building or remodeling and you take out a permit, you must install a Carbon Monoxide Alarm.

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Cooking with gas

Come on, you know you wanna….Ever thought about all those restaurant chefs busy tossing, flipping, stirring over those big beefy restaurant burners?  It’s the control that cooking with gas gives them – hot is hot, off is off….and all the temperatures in between.

While you may not want the hassle of trying to install a true restaurant range in your kitchen (can you say structure reinforcement, completely non-combustible walls and surfaces, massive venting?) many of today’s gas ranges come pretty close to commercial strength.

With gas, you’ll want at least one range burner 12-thousand BTUs or better.  It’s not unusual to find burners capable of 15-thousand, or 18-thousand BTUs or even higher.  For some folks, one of the biggest knocks against cooking on gas is you can’t turn the burner low enough…many ranges now have low, low, low simmer burners.

30″ is the standard size for ranges, but with many of the premier manufacturers, 36″, 48″ and even 60″ ranges are possible with a number of different burner configurations possible.  You could get a griddle, a grill or even a step-top where the burners are on two different levels.

All ranges require ventilation these days and we sell vent hoods from Broan and Vent-a-Hood that will cover just about any need.  If you’ve never had a gas range, and you need an installer, we can help with that, too.

Check out this link to a video and great recipe for cooking mushroom chicken on the Dacor range

Check out this link to a You Tube video of Pancakes on the gas Dacor range

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Did you know that adding a Natural Gas Fireplace can make your home more green?  

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