For all those times that you told the kids not to write on the walls, scolding them for doodles left magically by markers, now Sherwin-Williams has created Dry Erase 2K Waterborne Clear Gloss. In other words, go crazy, kids. The Dry Erase coating transforms a wall into a surface for messages and artistic expression and is on display at the International Builders' Show.

Glass doors provide views to the outside while allowing natural light into the home. Come nighttime however, they're a window into your home, unless you install curtains or blinds. Simpson Door Company is unveiling another option at the International Builders' Show, a full-lite door with electric glass that can change from clear to opaque with the flip of a switch. Part of its Custom Concept line, the doors will retail for about $2,000, not including installation.

If you're like most people, the idea of a hands-free faucet still conjures up frustrating visits to the airport bathroom. But Kohler says it has fine-tuned the technology, saving you time in the kitchen—plus preventing the potential spread of germs and bacteria. We tried it out at the International Builders' Show.

Getting filtered cold water from the refrigerator is nothing new—but hot water for your morning tea? That's the industry-first promise of GE's new Café French-door refrigerator on display at this week's International Builders' Show in Las Vegas.

Looking for a distinctly American look for your home? A new Armstrong flooring line showing at the International Builders' Show, American Scrape, is a richly textured floor that comes in domestic hickory and oak. Inspired by "the American landscape," as the company claims, the wide-plank solid- and engineered-wood floors attempt to invoke our nation's heritage. A portion of sales also benefits veterans.

Sherwin-Williams ups the ante for greenest paint claims with the unveiling of its reformulated Harmony Interior Paint with "Formaldehyde Reducing Technology," at the International Builders' Show. The company claims it's the first of its kind in the coatings industry.

If you've ever shopped for wood-framed windows, you know that "sticking" refers to the interior edge where glass meets wood, not the resistance you hit when trying to open an old window. Shoppers seeking a contemporary design expect modern choices down to this very detail. Now Marvin Windows and Doors has added a squared-off look to its product line.

For composite decking without the mold issues that plagued earlier products, Trex is showing off its latest line, Trex Select, at the International Builders' Show in Las Vegas. Also on display is a new tropical color for the premium Transcend line.

The best washers in Consumer Reports' tests are frontloaders, thanks to their superb performance and efficiency. But they require a lot of bending over to load and unload laundry, unless you spring for the pedestal available with some models. Enter GE's new ergo-friendly frontloader, whose integrated risers lift the door to a more comfortable height. The washer and matching dryer are on display at the International Builders' Show in Las Vegas.

Our team of editors, market analysts, and television producers departs today for the 2013 International Builders' Show, which takes place January 22-24 in Las Vegas. With the housing market in the midst of a bona fide rebound—home prices rose 4.3 percent in the 12 months ending in October, according to the latest Case-Shiller 20-City Composite—we're looking forward to one of the more energized shows since the bottom fell out of the market in 2007.

If rooms were round, the robotic vacuums tested in the past by Consumer Reports would have been better at tidying up. But in our tests, they tended to miss edges and corners. Now LG has introduced the LG Hom-Bot Square at the Consumer Electronics Show. It claims the vacuum has "newly designed corner master technology" and can now get into hard-to-reach places.

Cleaning the oven is such a detested chore that some cooks admit to running the cleaning cycle of their range or wall oven only once during its lifetime. For almost as long, appliance makers have been looking for an easier way. LG took the plunge this week when it introduced a new series of self-cleaning, large-capacity ovens with a new coating called Aqua Clean Enamel at the Consumer Electronics Show.

As acronyms go, OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, may not roll off the tongue but it is all the talk at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The Consumer Reports tech experts at CES say this technology is radically changing TVs. OLEDs will someday alter lighting too, but until then LEDs are the latest in lightbulbs, with a three-way LED from Switch Lighting also making news at CES.

The performance of robots that take on such mundane chores as vacuuming the floor, mowing the lawn or cleaning the gutters has too often been disappointing. But the dream lives on in the new Winbot 7 window-cleaning robot from Ecovacs Robotics that was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show this week. Intended for home use the white bot mesmerized attendees as it traveled across a pane of glass, cleaning as it crawled.

At this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas you can find connected appliances that turn on from a smart phone, refrigerators that let you know when the milk is sour and washer-dryer pairs that talk to each other. But you won't find any of these whiz-bang innovations at the Bosch booth. The company, known mostly for its dishwashers, said it will forgo those features until smart apps are smart enough to talk to all brands of appliances.