You are here: Home / Archives for Home improvement

4 Ways to Plan Your Bathroom Make Over

Thinking of giving your bathroom a facelift? Wondering where to start? Remodeling a bathroom can seem to be a daunting experience, especially if you have never done it before.

Don’t let the fear of the unknown stop you. As long as you take time to plan everything out before you get started you will be fine.

There are websites available that are helpful in getting you moving in the right direction. One of these sites will have almost anything you need; so take time to browse their bathroom suites.

Four things to consider before taking the plunge are:

Money:

How much money do you have to work with? This is important to know up front. It will help you to decide what you are keeping or replacing. A bathroom is a costly endeavour, so keep your budget in mind as you look at items and plan what you are going to change in your bathroom suite.

Labor:

Will this be a do-it-yourselfer? Or will you hire someone to do it for you? Possibly you can do some of the work yourself and hire someone to do the things you are unfamiliar with and unqualified to do. These are all issues you need to address before beginning the job.

 Fixtures:

Take a good look at what shape your fixtures are in and be sure to replace those that are in the worst condition. Make a list of your priorities so you know exactly what to do.

Time:

Have a schedule of when things will be accomplished. If you have hired someone to do the work be sure that they are finishing in a timely manner.

When the bathroom is finished you will have something you are proud of. Take the time and do it right.

Filed Under: Budget Decoration Tagged With: , , ,

Getting Over Your Fear of Decorating

If you have a great sense of style when it comes to your clothes, you just might have a natural talent for interior decorating. Interior decorating is all about creating an atmosphere that fits the room and the people in the home. Interior decorating is about designs, colors, and making a room come to life. A drab room is boring. With the right design, you can turn that room into a place where everyone wants to be!

If you have never dabbled in interior design, do not be timid! This is your chance to turn your home into a place that reflects you. You want your personality to shine through in each room of your home. If this seems a bit complicated, relax. It is easy. You know what you like and what you want your home to look like. Just take those ideas and make them happen. If you always wanted a yellow kitchen, get painting! Just temper your creative thinking with some logic. Instead of choosing a bright yellow that may quickly wear on your nerves, choose a more subtle yellow. Then, if you get bored with the color, you can change the room’s accessories and have a completely new look.

If you are afraid of messing up and making your home look disastrous, just breathe. There is nothing that you can do to your home that you cannot undo later. Even if you choose the wrong paint, you can always paint over it. It may take a little more time to fix mistakes, but nothing is permanent. This is your chance to shine and let your home shine, too. Interior design is not just for the professionals. The experienced and the inexperienced can have great, personal success with decorating. Even as an amateur, you can still create the home and atmosphere that you always wanted but did not know how to acquire.

Filed Under: Budget Decoration Tagged With: ,

Home Improvement Help

There are many times when you walk through your house and the ideas start flying about what you’d like to do to improve the space. You may be thinking of knocking down a wall to open up a room, putting on a deck, building a shed, or adding on a new room. No matter how big or small your dreams are, there is home improvement help out there to help you make your dreams come true.

Your local library is a great resource for home improvement projects. You can go there and browse tons of books on the subject. Find designs and plans for the specific project you are working on, all for free. Take the book home with you to use as you complete your project. Then, simply return the book when you are done. Not only are you saving money by not buying the book yourself, but you are stopping clutter from entering your home because you can give the book back to the library when you are finished.

Another great way to get some home improvement help is to go online. The Internet is chock full of resources on anything you can imagine and even things you can’t. What is good about researching home improvement projects online is that you are in the comfort of your own home, and you can go at your own pace. If you find something you like, you can print it out, without having to take an entire book with you.

Besides free plans and project information, the Internet will also provide a lot of free tools, like material estimators and measurement conversion charts. These are all handy tools to have when doing both large and small projects.

Lastly, ask one of your buddies who may be experienced in carpentry or home improvement projects. Better yet, invite a few friends over, fire  up the grill and take out the beer and have a home improvement project party!

Filed Under: Budget Decoration, Restoration Tagged With:

Repairing and finishing drywall

One of the simplest and easiest things to overlook when considering a repair or install job on drywall is the amount of mess even a small job can create. And most of the mess doesn’t come from the drywall compound going up. Most of the mess comes after the Spackle and putty-knife work is done and the sanding has begun.

That said it’s a good idea to quarantine the area you are going to be working in, if at all possible. Remove whatever smaller decorative and furniture items you can from the area. Whatever is left should be covered either with a sheet or with some other material. You can also use plastic which is available in sheets or rolls at most hardware or home renovation stores.

If you are repairing small gouges in drywall the process is pretty simple. Also available at the hardware store will be a drywall repair compound. It’s usually in a small bucket or pail with a resealable lid. Inside you will find a white pasty substance which will spread on to a wall fairly easily. After you have sanded the damaged area smooth of all rough edges and any pieces sticking out, apply an even coat of compound to the area with a putty knife. Sometimes it’s easier to use a knife with a very broad edge. This gives you more control over the area of the compound and makes it easier to press everything flat.

If you are repairing a larger section requiring a section of drywall to be added, be sure to know where the studs are on the back side of the wall. Using a Fein Multi-master utility power tool, or something similar, it’s easy work to cut along a stud to remove a section of drywall and then simply match the same size section back in.

Filed Under: Restoration Tagged With: ,

Renovate a home using creativity and imagination

A popular trend in home renovation today involves people using their imagination in making subtle or major changes in the home.

People renovate their home for many reasons. Adult children move out of their parents home. Additional space for hobbies or for home-based businesses is another.
Still another reason is a wanting a change of pace.

The possibilities are endless, once homeowners decide how much they want to spend on renovating their home. If there is not a lot of money to spend, imagination takes over. They then decide how much renovation is enough.

Some people think about how much time they spend in a room, doing something they love. Avid readers and writers love a bright, sunny room away from the rest of the house and the noise from radios and from the television.

If a home has a large enough attic, installing lights or windows can bring in enough light to turn the attic space into a quiet place to read, write, or to take a break in a quiet place. A table, lamp, and a comfortable chair will produce a reading nook or a place to write down thoughts.

Some people may consider radical changes, such as turning a bedroom or garage into a living room. Still others may think about placing furniture in spots where you least expect it. If space is available, placing a love-seat in the corner of a kitchen, or putting a chair in the bathroom may work double duty.

Homeowners can convert storage rooms that contain clutter into rooms for listening to your favorite music or watching television. Spaces in large garages can become a sewing nook or an artist’s studio.

If major renovation is what people are looking for, that may take lots of time and money. On the other hand, using imagination and creativity to renovate your home or areas within the home, is priceless.

Filed Under: Fashion, Lifestyle Tagged With: , , ,

Home renovations made simpler with planning and preparation

A Stasi basement hallway
Image via Wikipedia

Taking on any renovation project in the home can be daunting, but rewarding once it is complete.

One popular renovation for homeowners is the finished basement. Transforming a basement into a den or study takes some planning before any actual construction or renovation begins. If someone else will be doing the construction work, you still need to do some work of your own.

Finishing a basement requires a homeowner to ask, and answer, the following questions:

- How much space do you have to work with?

This is important because a basement normally serves as the area that contains the gas and water heaters and the laundry room facilities as well. After you decide how you are going to cordon off those spaces, you will have the size of the space you will be able to finish, in the basement.

- Is it really just the heat or is it the humidity?

Even if flooding or water infiltration is not a problem in your basement now, you may want to plan for the possibility in the future. Choosing the right floor, wall, and ceiling treatments to prevent or at the very least, cut down on possible water damage, is essential.

- Will you need to consult plumbing, lighting, or sound experts?

Depending on what you plan to use your finished basement for, you may need to call ahead for estimates.

If you plan to add a bathroom, discuss the work and money involved in this process with a plumber you know or one a friend recommends. If a place to read and study is the idea, you may need an electrician for rewiring. Recessive lighting might involve additional construction. If the rock star in the family will use the basement as a recording studio, soundproofing the walls and ceiling is something you may need to look into as well.

When you know exactly what you want in a finished basement ahead of time, working on making it happen becomes easier.

Filed Under: Budget Decoration, Fashion Tagged With: , , ,