Updating Your Drapery

 Interior Design, Remodeling, Uncategorized
Dec 232010
 

If you are looking for a change in your home, it can be as simple as changing your your home’s drapery. Drapery, or window treatments as they are also known, can make or break a house in more ways than one. Curtains can keep out unwanted sun or meddling eyes. They can also increase the worth of a home both economically and artistically.

There are many things to keep in mind as you try to give your windows that special look. First of all the dimension of the windows has to be calculated because your curtains have to fit! For example, if the windows are tiny attic windows you don’t need to have drapes that cascade all the way to the floor; this would be a waste of material and might cover wall space that could be otherwise utilized.

Size aside, there is the shape of the window to be dressed. The proportions come into play because the curtains will be different very different for a window that is square than for an octagonal or triangular window.

Then we have to consider the location of the window and the environment outside of it. If the window to be decorated opens out to a magnificent garden or bay area then sheer or thin curtains will due to produce that graceful continuity from the inside out. But, if the space opens up to a patio then the drapes should be of a thicker variety for privacy.

Making Sure Your Contractor is Legit

 Remodeling
Nov 232010
 

All household improvement contractors are supposed to have a license before they can legally do any trade work whatsoever! These licenses state that they have passed all of the requirements and tests that they required to get the status of a licensed contractor. When choosing a contractor you must make sure that they have a valid license. You can also check them through the licensing company.

A household enhancement license is important when it comes to property improvement contractors. If you contractor is not licensed not only are they possibly less reliable, but is something goes wrong there will be ordeals with insurance that you don’t expect. Licenses are vital when it comes to any dwelling enhancement. If you get work done that isn’t licensed there can be some serious repercussions so it’s up to you to make sure that your contractor has a full and valid license!

Make sure to do your research on the company, reviews of their work, BBB, their history, and their license. You will also want to make sure you sign a contract with them that states what work is to be done and how much you will be paying them. It should also state what happens if something goes wrong and damage is caused.

Which Kind of Flooring Should I Use in Each Room??

 Flooring, Remodeling
Nov 052010
 

For many first time home owners, the process of turning a house into a home can be extremely rewarding. However, while it is rewarding, it’s often exhausting and pricey as well! The secret to making the process less complicated is planning ahead. This is true no matter if you are repainting the family room, choosing area rugs for the bedrooms, or installing new flooring through the whole house. While this article can’t cover all aspects of installing new flooring, it will hopefully help you select the right flooring for each area of your home.

Let’s start from the outside in.

The first area of your home people see when they walk in is your entryway or family room. The best flooring for these areas is hardwood flooring or laminate, because it is warm, pretty, inviting, and easy to scrub! Both come in a large selection of colors, styles, and/or woods, and can easily accommodate any budget and style. For those who can’t afford or do not like either of these options, the second best choice is carpet, with rugs to diminish the amount of dirt, water and mud dragged onto your carpets.

Next are the inside rooms of your house such as family rooms and bedrooms. The best flooring for these rooms is dependent on your preference, but often hardwood or carpet is best. Carpets are warm and comforting, and excellent for bedrooms, while hardwoods with rugs are versatile and fashionable for family rooms.

You also have rooms that are most fitted for hard floors – kitchens, dining rooms, lavatories and laundry rooms. The best flooring for these rooms is, of course, one that is easy to clean, sturdy, and can bear water and frequent wear and tear. Laminate and tile are very good options for these rooms, because both are simple to clean, and look stunning even after years of use. Rugs can be employed in conjunction with hard floors to warm feet. They also just look nice in places such as the front of sinks and along walkways.

Basically a good guide is to put flooring that’s easy to scrub in the areas which will receive the most use, and put flooring that stains easily in areas that receive less wear. Full carpeting for bedrooms, dens, and family can be great, while wood and laminate is good for kitchens, bathrooms and entryways. Rugs may be employed in any room to cover damage on both carpets, wood, and laminate.

Average Bathroom Remodeling Costs

 Remodeling
Oct 222010
 

Remodeling a bathroom can seem like an ambiguous project with a large price tag. Before beginning work, in order to calm your money nerves, you should budget everything out and decide which areas you want to spend more on and which areas you’re willing to cut corners on or pick a cheaper material for. This article should walk you through the average costs of the pieces of a full bathroom remodel.

The first thing to consider is cabinetry. If you have custom built cabinetry you can expect the low end to be about $75 per linear foot and for paint grade cabinetry up to $250 per linear foot. To have your custom vanities finished to put the paint or stain on it, you can expect that to be around $100 dollars per linear foot additional. Again that’s for custom vanities. Already-made vanities are less expensive.

The thing to take into consideration with plumbing is whether or not you can use the existing plumbing lines or if you’re going to be doing a major renovation — meaning you’re going to relocate the toilet or shower to a different part of the bathroom. If you are just changing out fixtures (for example, just your faucets and shower head) you can expect that to be around $600 for the entire bathroom.  However, if you’re doing a major renovation changing out the layout of your plumbing, you can expect that to be about $2600. In addition if you want to add a Jacuzzi tub, the average cost of adding that is about $1000. For mirrors budget between $200-500 dollars for a high quality mirror.

Lighting and electrical cost questions are very similar to plumbing. Can you use your existing fixtures and electrical lines or are you going to need to move your existing layout? If you’re just changing out existing fixtures and hang up new lighting fixtures, you can expect an electrician to cost between $75 -$100 dollars an hour. If you’re going to totally revamp your lighting design and add things like recessed lighting or an exhaust fan, you can expect that to cost an average of about $1500.

The next thing would be flooring.  There are two components to your flooring. You need to think about labor and material. Labor install can vary greatly depending on where you live and your project details, but we have found that the average cost is between $4-6 dollars per square foot. Then obviously the tile material or whatever you choose for your flooring can range between $2-$20 per square foot. Tile is the most popular but there are other things to consider like wood.

Moving on to the shower, if you were just going to add a once piece around shower you can expect that to cost around $400. If you want a tiled shower you can expect those costs to be similar to the tile costs that we had talked about with flooring.

Drywall and paint: budget about $600 for basic textured walls. But if you decide to go with something fancy like an artistic plaster finish you can go up to as much as $2500 dollars.

Countertops also vary. If you go with something popular like granite or marble you can expect to pay anywhere from $40-$60 dollars per linear foot, but that really depends on the material you choose.

Accessories range from about $100-500. Accessories include all the little things that you’re going to add to your bathroom from the hardware on your vanity to your towel bars.

Just keep in mind that these are average costs, to help you plan the scope and timing of your project ideas. Happy remodeling!

The Flooring Options from Wholesale Dealers

 Flooring, Remodeling
Oct 072010
 

Flooring for your house does not have to rip your pocketbook into pieces. There are cheap options that will permit you to floor your entire home instead of flooring one room at a time. This is true whether you are choosing floor coverings for a new construction or reworking your existing home. There are corporations that offer wholesale prices for materials bought in bulk that can help!

Many flooring companies offer flooring options at wholesale prices. Some of these include Bigelow, Biltmore, and Montado.

Before you select one of the wholesale firms you have to know what you want in your home flooring. Your choices will be determined not only by your budget, but also by your chosen style, room decor, and conscience. How does your conscience enter the picture? It determines how green you want your choices to be. Every flooring option has advantages and drawbacks which will be covered in short below.

* Carpet – Carpet is flexible enough to provide sturdiness in serious traffic areas and soft enough to make you feel cozy. The major drawback is allergens; particularly dust mites. These should not be so much of a problem with proper maintenance.

* Ceramic Tile – This option offers various benefits including flexibility, low maintenance care, and it’s relatively straightforward to wash. It is a good solution for folks with allergies. The only real disadvantage to tile is that it can be cold on bare feet.

* Hardwood – this kind of flooring is also good for folks with allergies. The advantages to hardwood are that it’s flexible, durable ( sometimes ) and beautiful. The largest downsides are that it can be high maintenance and costly.

* Bamboo – More and more folks are choosing bamboo since it’s a supporting and earth-friendly option. Bamboo is sturdy, versatile and as attractive as hardwood. The major disadvantage is that some bamboo flooring can stain easily.

* Laminate – laminated floors are also flexible, interesting, easy to clean and require little upkeep. There aren’t many downsides with this flooring except that it may not be as sturdy as the other options and it’s not as eco-friendly as bamboo..

Wholesale flooring includes all the above options as well as some others. It is important to do the research to discover which option is the best for your house.

When money is a serious factor in your flooring selection, wholesale prices can come to the rescue.

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The Flooring Debate: Laminate Floors Are Less Expensive

 Flooring, Remodeling
Sep 292010
 

All homeowners would love to have beautiful flooring in their homes, but this can get to be quite pricey, particularly if you like the appearance of hardwood or stone floors. One way to get the outward appearance of these costlier flooring options at a fraction of the cost is to install laminated floors instead.

Laminate flooring comes in all different options, including ones that look like tiles, stone tiles, cherry, oak, maple, teak, Brazilian jatoba, birch, cypress, walnut, rosewood and pine. Laminate is also much simpler to install and care for than hardwood flooring, although it can’t be refinished like hardwood flooring should it get scratched. Nonetheless you can sometimes replace certain sections of damaged flooring without redoing your whole floor.

Regardless of the flooring that you select, you will need to guard it from damage. A good way to do this is to put area rugs or protectors under the legs of your furniture, and to put rugs close to the doorways for people to wipe their feet on. Some people also enforce a “no shoes” policy in their house since shoe muck is famous for scratching up floors or otherwise injuring any kind of flooring you may have.

When looking for laminated flooring, you want to stay clear of the bargain basement options as these many times aren’t of very high quality. Select a high quality option that you like for your flooring, and then search for the lowest price on that type of flooring, rather than the lowest price you can find on any laminate. Unless you’re going to install the floor yourself, keep in mind that you also need to account for the cost of installation.

It is a good idea to check into the costs of both local retailers and online retailers since sometimes you can get a much better deal on the web. Of course that might involve shipping costs, and you may have to find your own installation professional if you purchase online, so be sure to include these costs when you compare prices.

So do some research and discover if laminate flooring is for you!

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The Countless Benefits of Shopping With Online Wholesale Flooring Dealers

 Flooring, Remodeling
Sep 292010
 

If you are planning to install new hardwood flooring in your home, you have to decide where to buy your supplies. While many individuals select local do-it-yourself stores, this is an expensive option. For those on a low budget there are other options including purchasing wholesale hardwood flooring from online dealers.

Online flooring companies that offer hardwood at wholesale prices have countless advantages for home owners looking to transform their homes cheaply. While saving money is the biggest advantage, another is having access to a wider selection than is available at local stores. This is because many online flooring companies work with a wide variety of suppliers and have access to a better selection, including exotic woods.

Even when local stores can offer exotic wood options, these frequently are more expensive, and must be sent to the store. This is a 3rd advantage of shopping from wholesale flooring companies that operate on the web. As you are shopping and buying online, they can ship your order directly to you, without needing to raise the cost. Exotic wood is usually more expensive than regular wood, but it doesn’t have to be overpriced either, and usually isn’t when bought wholesale.

Another benefit of buying wholesale is that you can buy flooring for your entire home from one company, while still saving money. For instance, if you only need hardwood for a few rooms in your home, and desire laminate or tile in the rest, you can buy everything at once.  And usually, you just need to pay one delivery charge once your order reaches a certain quantity. Some online companies even offer free shipping on orders over a specific quantity of money.

When selecting an online flooring company, it’s usually a good idea to go looking for one with showrooms too. This assures that the company is a genuine, legitimate business, and not just a trick website built to dump cheap flooring products. Also, look for ones with non-public showrooms for members only, because corporations like this regularly give members special money saving offers on a constant basis.

Even if you do not become an affiliate right away, if you select a company with a membership showroom, then you can presumably join in the future when you have seen the quality of their flooring.

Lastly, look for a company that offers wholesale carpets as part of their inventory. This way, you can comparison shop their prices, and perhaps add new carpeting to your house and have all new flooring done at the same time.

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Where To Get The Best Deals When Remodeling

 Remodeling
Sep 172010
 

When it’s time to start remodeling a room in your home it usually means you have a budget to consider. In order to get everything you want and still stay within your financial guidelines a little research has to be done.

You can always start in your local home improvement outlets. If you can be flexible with your decorating choices, you can often find some good deals here. Be on the look out for discount toilets, sinks, couches, and bath tubs or shower inserts. However, just because they are discount doesn’t mean they are cheap. Sometimes the cabinet or appliance may have a slight flaw in it, or an irregularity. It will still function just fine, it just isn’t what the manufacturers or retailers deem as ‘perfect.’ So if you’re okay with this you could save a little money! There are also some other factors in determining whether a product is discounted.

Another reason for a big discount is because the product is unpopular. When the factory decides to discontinue the product all together they will try to sell the ones that are left at a huge discounted price. It can also be beneficial to ask for the display model if they are about to remove it. These always have big discounts attached because the company can’t sell them for normal prices. This is due to customers constantly handling them and dust being collected for a long period of time.

Another reason for a discount simply might be that the product isn’t very popular. If by chance the factory believes it’s not profitable to continue to make they will sell off the remaining inventory at a cheaper price. It’s possible you can pick these up for a 50% retail price. You can also get a deal if you are able to purchase the display model. See, retailers won’t be able to sell these for normal prices because they’ve been collecting dust for quite some time. Plus they are often handled by several customers.

While all these places will help you find the best deals when remodeling a bathroom, you can also try estate sales, garage sales, and all the discount outlets. Heading to the thrift store can also be beneficial, but the Habitat for Humanity one is the better choice. They only build a few homes for people in need each year, but thousands of companies donate products.

Since they don’t want all this surplus to go to waste there have been thrift stores built around the country. This is where you get rock bottom prices and can find fixtures, vanities, sinks, tubs, shower inserts, and even toilets. You may even be able to find off-the-wall stuff like tiles, knobs, cabinet doors and sometimes even paint and wallpaper. Best of all the proceeds go back into the charity and help people get brand new homes.

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