Tag / plan ahead

by Ted

Follow These Rules To Instill Value In Your Home

You can give your home a new look with feng shui or new paint. It could be as easy as adding new curtains or paint to the room in question. To give your home a better feel, use this article’s tips.

Clean your air conditioner’s filter frequently. If the filter is clogged, it will make it hard for the unit to cool your home. It may also stay on for a longer period of time. Try to change your filter each and every month.

It’s a good idea to use many fans during the summer months. Ceiling fans help circulate air, which will help in cooling the room. You can place some smaller fans around your home as needed. This will help you lower your electric bill during the summer months since fans use less electricity than an AC unit.

TIP! Add some storage areas to your home by using old shoe boxes for loose items. Take leftover fabric or wallpaper and cover the shoe boxes in order to get a pleasing design.

Increase your home’s energy efficiency by adding weather stripping to your doors and windows. This is a cheap fix but can save you lots of money on heating and cooling costs for your home. You can also reduce the drafts you feel inside your home on windy, cold nights.

It is important to thoroughly dust your home weekly. The accumulating dust is a potential allergy hazard that can easily be prevented. Besides keeping everything as clean and beautiful as it should be, when you dust regularly you’re in an excellent position to observe the first signs of damage, wear, or pest infestations in your home.

Protect your floors at all times when you engage in painting your home. This will be your front line of defense against paint stains. You could make use of old newspapers to cover your floor inexpensively. A paint cloth works well too, as you simply need to create a barrier to prevent the paint from hitting the floor.

TIP! There are many options available when it comes to updating your kitchen appliances. Don’t throw out a good functioning refrigerator because the color is outdated or scuffed up.

Creativity is one of the most important factors in home improvement. You want to steer clear of the bland and boring. Once you have begun the project, having a plan will make it easier to follow through on. There are many places out there to draw inspiration from. Your friends’ homes, design TV shows, books and magazines and much more. You can certainly find it if you’re looking.

When tackling any home-improvement project, it is important that safety is considered before anything else. Risk is always involved in improvement projects to some degree, so make sure you understand how to use your power tools safely and never be afraid to ask someone for help if you are confused. You can also find many online tutorial which can help you with the project.

To add a unique touch to a bookcase, invest in the help of some wallpaper. Choose a fun and original wallpaper design. If the wallpaper is put on the back of the bookcase, the design shows as a backdrop to your books when they are lined up on the shelves. Your new, distinctive bookcase will look better, and it can even dictate the decor of the rest of the room

TIP! Downspouts, gutters and chimneys often do not get the attention they deserve in an annual maintenance schedule. It is critical to inspect these items regularly to see if you need to make repairs.

You may be eager to demolish things that you intend to rebuild, but doing so incorrectly could have serious consequences. Do not tear a wall or cabinet down before checking what is in the supporting structure. If any electrical configurations are involved, repairs may be costly.

Create a contract with the handyman when they arrive to look at issues. A contract will help keep you safe. If you fail to get a contract, you might be in for a wild ride.

Use a floor lamp in place of table lamps to free up space on your end tables and night stands. They are portable. Table lamps are attractive but take up a good bit of the limited space a table has. Make sure the lamp you choose fits your decor and tastes.

TIP! Light colors create an air of peace and tranquility in your home. Choose soft material such as cotton or linen to make a room more welcoming.

Plan Ahead

The best thing you can do for any home-improvement project is to engage in sufficient planning before starting any project. Failure to plan ahead of time can be disastrous due to poor and impulsive decision-making. When you plan ahead, the work will move along much more smoothly.

A finished basement adds value to any property, making it an ideal investment. When you finish your basement, you will have a whole extra room to enjoy. You buy the needed materials from discounts’ stores. By putting in the work to finish your basement, you can increase the value of your home by as much as thirty percent.

TIP! Crown molding can add a remarkable effect to walls. Plain, flat walls receive added interest and detail when crown molding is added.

When putting your house up for sale, a bathroom is an important room to consider remodeling. While most rooms can be customized by the owner, the bathroom must be in tip top shape. Be sure that your tub and sink are in great shape and if they aren’t you should replace them. Put in tile if you have linoleum flooring.

Cut off, or tie up, the loops or extra cord on your blind cords. The cords can easily strangle pets and children, if left dangling. Leave an adequate amount of cord so that it is still functional and nothing more. Snip it off or tie it up before it causes an accident.

You can refresh your bathroom by putting up some new artwork and wallpaper. A cheap way to redo a room is to get some wall paper trim, it is versatile and will compliment your color scheme. It’s also not hard to put up. You can totally redesign your bathroom with just a few inexpensive pieces of artwork.

TIP! How long do you plan on staying in your home? If you don’t think you will live there for long, it might not be worth it to spend lots of money changing things about the house. While you should still repair problems, you may want to leave the upgrades to a more permanent owner.

If your home is in need of more space or you are not happy with the appearance, consider beginning a home improvement project to change it. Home improvements give you the ability to put your own style stamp on your home so that it fits your needs and wants better. Buying a new house can be very expensive, whereas making renovations to your existing home can be much more cost effective.

Garage Door

Before you take on any home improvement project, you should put together a list of whatever you’re going to need to do from beginning to end. Get another opinion from a contractor to find out if there are things you might have missed. Make sure your timelines are generous, too.

TIP! It’s critical to tape off wall trim correctly whenever you decide to paint them. No matter how careful you try to be, you will probably have a problem with paint dripping and running.

Give your garage door a fresh coat of pain in order to provide your home with more curb appeal. This can be a quick way to update the look of your house. A freshly-painted garage door improves the appearance and value of your whole house. Instead of going with the standard color, try changing your garage door, to better compliment your home.

Do you want to add some sophistication to your home but are low on funds? A really good way to improve the look of your home is replacing your old door bell with an elegant one. A doorbell is one of the first things vistors will notice upon arriving at your home.

Your bathroom can be redecorated quickly and on the cheap. Get new towels, a shower curtain and a new rug. You will find that this adds a bright new feel to the room. Plants are an easy way to bring some life into a bathroom, just be sure you choose plants that are tolerant to low light and high humidity conditions.

TIP! Homes with updates tend to sell quicker than older homes with little renovations. Bringing some light and fresh looks to your kitchen is a valuable addition to your home.

Add fruit and flowers to the kitchen for a bit of brightness and color. Beautifully arranged flowers and fruit look great in any kitchen. This method is very cheap and can instantly liven up your kitchen. Looking at a vase filled with vibrant flowers any time at home will elevate your mood and make your kitchen look really nice.

If you aren’t good with a hammer and nails, you can still make improvements to your home by decorating the inside. Using new colors or fabrics can transform a previously dull and lifeless room into something that is truly stunning. Remember the home improvement advice from this article!

If you want to boost efficiency, reduce the length of your dryer hose. Disconnect the dryer hose, then vacuum completely. Cut the hose by a few feet, making it half as long as before. It should allow for the machine to be pulled out for cleaning, but no longer.

TIP! Consider the location of your home before making home improvement decisions. A warm climate makes central air a desirable thing.

by Ted

Read These Tips To Get The Right Tools And Materials For Home Improvement

If you want a new look for your home, consider feng shui and re-painting a room. These can give your home a new look and cost less than other pricey improvements. Simply purchasing new curtains could liven up a room. The following tips can help you spruce up your home.

You can stop any floor squeaks with construction adhesive. While this requires you to complete the work from a basement or crawlspace, the result is well worth your trouble. With a caulking gun, place a line of construction glue along the sides of each floor joist, allowing the glue to secure each adjoining subfloor plank to your joists.

Even a small home improvement project can mean a big increase in your home’s value. If you want to sell the home, think about making a few small changes. One thing you can do is to paint you home inside and outside. This is simple and can increase the value of your home.

TIP! During the summer, use all the fans that you can. Using a ceiling fan to circulate air in a whole room is a smart way to keep cool.

Attaching two PVC pipes is a simple process that requires PVC primer and PVC cement. These products are recommended in order to keep your pipes from leaking, as other cements and glues will not work. In addition, make sure there’s no moisture on the pipes.

Think about installing insulation. Windows and doors should all be weather-stripped. By lowering the air flow in and out of the home, you can lower an expensive power bill and keep your wallets heavy. This means your energy costs will decrease.

If you want some new tile floors, think about getting radiant heat tiles. This type of tile ties into your home’s electrical system to provide toasty heat, and they look great, too. If you follow the instructions, you could even do it yourself. This makes it a project you can add on whether you are hiring someone or doing it yourself. When winters rolls around you’ll be happy you completed this project.

TIP! While painting, you should always remember to protect your floors. You don’t want your flooring stained by wet paint.

If you have building materials to store, put them between your floor joints or ceiling rafters. Larger materials can even be stored without problems. Just put some furring strips across rafters or exposed joists and store the material beneath them.

When you plan for any home improvement project, be sure to decide where you will put the debris that accumulates when any work such as this is undertaken. Removing a lot of debris can cost quite a bit, so planning for a space to put it in can keep your project running smoothly.

It isn’t hard to connect PVC pipes to each other, you just need PVC primer and cement. You need to use these products that are specially formulated for pipes because no other types of glue or cement will hold, and the primer will ensure that a leak does not develop. Furthermore, the pipe surfaces must be completely dry.

TIP! If there is a good view, your house could increase in value. There are some instances where the extra expense for a good view might not be worth it.

Don’t get too carried away demolishing everything in your path when you begin a project. Check for structural integrity in the wall cavity before you remove something. There could be electrical systems you could damage that would cost quite a bit to fix.

Find the gas shutoff prior to starting any home improvement project that is located in the kitchen or in any other place that contains a gas line. You should exhibit caution when you are doing this. If you don’t heed our warning, a fire or injury will likely be the result.

Replacing your front door for one that is nice looking and well made can boost the value of your home substantially. You can customize your door with new knobs or locks, which are fairly inexpensive. There are many options as far as finishes and shapes.

TIP! By repainting your walls, you can transform the look of a dreary, dated house. You will change the look in your room and you will change the feel as well.

Plan Ahead

It is always best to plan ahead when working on any home improvement project. Failure to plan ahead of time can be disastrous due to poor and impulsive decision-making. If you plan in advance, you will have a much easier time completing the project.

To get a better looking basement, try staining its floors. Staining a concrete floor is very cheap and stylish. By staining the floor, you improve its durability and cut the time needed to keep it clean. Purchase a stain that provides good texture and shine. Doing this will create the illusion that they are more expensive then in reality.

TIP! Replacing your floor with a new material can be quite expensive. If you are looking to save money, think about staining the concrete subfloor instead of going with one of the above options.

Investing in your own drain snake can be a wise investment to save you money over the years. This will prevent you from buying drain cleaners. Using a drain snake can be difficult the first time. You might need a plumber to show you how before you try yourself. Be certain to purchase a drain snake that is appropriate for your own drain, or you may damage pipes.

Even if your home improvement project is solely focused on new landscaping, you should make sure that the new work complements your home. When you put in a garden or patio it should look like the rest of your home, it will be better to look at and not be a conflicting style.

Have you lost water pressure? It can be easy to diagnose this problem. Start by consulting with your neighbors and see if they’re experiencing the same problem. If they are not, then the water pressure problem is exclusive to your residence. Check each faucet’s water pressure to see if the entire house is affected. It could be an aerator you need to adjust, but if not, a professional may be needed.

TIP! On major home improvement jobs, homeowners should always take information from their contractors with a grain of salt. Contractors, even those with stellar reputations, could take advantage of homeowners who place too much trust in them.

If you replace a full floor with hardwood or other materials, it will be very expensive. You can add a stain to your concrete foundation to save money. This will give your home a modern and industrial aesthetic that can work well with a variety of different decors.

Don’t let a contractor trick you into using their services when they promise that a job will be done in a super quick time. There are many reasons contractors want to get things done quickly. They might want to rush workers to get them to another job. This can be negative as well as positive, as they may try to charge extra for a job that took too long, but should not have.

Before starting a new project, you should alert your neighbors of the schedule for your project. Living next to a construction job is a genuine irritation. Your neighbors will appreciate it if you tell them how long your disturbance will last.

TIP! Not only is a bathroom renovation a tiny area, you should consider a smaller budget. It doesn’t really take much to make a big difference to the appearance of a bathroom.

One of the most cost efficient improvements that you can make in your home is replacing old leaky windows with well insulated new ones. You will be rewarded with substantial savings on your heating and cooling bills.

Replace old window blinds with updated options to make a huge difference in the look of your home. Over time, blinds can become faded by the sun, and damaged thanks to children and pets. You’ll be surprised by the big difference new window treatments can make in your home.

When outsourcing your home improvement project to a contractor, the reputation of the contractor is more valuable than the discounts offered. Any contractor who vastly underbids a job and has a bad reputation is not the best choice. Soon after, you may discover that the work is not holding its value. Not only will you have additional repair costs, his poor work could make it dangerous to live in your house. Pick someone you can trust.

TIP! When replacing exterior lighting of your home, you should consider putting in outdoor motion detectors. These sensors activate the light upon movement, and this is very effective.

You can upgrade appearance and security with a new doorknob that replaces old and worn ones. You can easily do this under an hour. The hardest part is going to be when you use the screwdriver. Check your local hardware shop for replacement knobs.

When did you last look over every door handle in the home you live in? Quality doorknobs and cabinetry hardware make a home seem unique and add quality to even the simplest homes. Inspect each handle in your rooms and replace them with brass hardware instead.

Take time and get ready to do your home improvement job. Whenever you plan to paint, don’t forget to throw coverings over furniture ahead of time. Paint splatters on furniture can cause lasting damage. Use old sheets to cover your furniture.

TIP! A bar for your basement can be a very enjoyable home improvement project. Designing a bar or designing anything from scratch can be very exciting.

Many people enjoy manual labor such as carpentry, but if you need a simpler project, interior decorating can be done by anyone. Changing out colors and adding in new fabrics can really change the look and feel of a room. Remember the home improvement advice from this article!

by Ted

Make Your Home Improvement Projects Easier With These Quick Solutions

Is there a specific room in your home that you would like to remodel? You have found the right resource. Keep on reading if you want to discover some easy ways to make your home even better.

In many cases, just a small project can make a huge different to a home’s value. If you want to sell your home, do a few small projects first. For example, you can paint the interior and exterior of your home. Doing this simple job, which only costs a few hundred dollars, can add almost $1,000 to the value of your home!

Build an interesting and unusual addition to your home for sophistication and class. Perhaps you want to add in a library or a wine cellar. Future home buyers and guests will be impressed by your improvements.

TIP! Go with real floors over laminate if you have the money. Real wood can be refinished, but laminate cannot.

Keep an eye out for deals on carpet installation offered by national chains. To boost sales of carpeting, retailers will frequently advertise installation at rock-bottom prices. This could be a great opportunity to replace your flooring or to get something done that requires too much work for you.

Stay away from busy fabrics when picking out furniture. Doing so may lock you in to a certain style in your home. Choose solid tones for your furniture such as blue, brown, green, beige or black and choose your accessories carefully. Experiment with different pattern combinations with your pillows and throws.

Add weather stripping to doors and windows to give your home’s energy efficiency a big boost. This is a cheap fix but can save you lots of money on heating and cooling costs for your home. This may also help to eliminate feelings of draftiness around your doors and windows.

TIP! There are a couple of simple tricks you can use to give your ceiling the appearance of being higher than it actually is. Consider painting vertical stripes on the walls, or adding a floor lamp.

Prior to purchasing brand new hardwood floors, have a pro look at your current floor. You may find a lovely, natural hardwood floor buried beneath layers of linoleum or carpet. You could find beautiful wood floors just waiting to be found and refinished.

Plan Ahead

Painting is a simple project you can do. Fresh paint has the ability to make a home feel new again and is easy and cheap to apply. Fresh paint makes your home more attractive to buyers.

TIP! Today’s solar panels are more efficient than ever and easier to install. The high initial investment will be offset by years of lower electric bills.

It is always best to plan ahead when working on any home improvement project. Leaving important decisions unmade until the day the work gets done is a recipe for disaster. You could make the wrong choices, or delay your project by not making any decisions at all. When you plan ahead, the work will move along much more smoothly.

If you discuss routes you will take in your home in case of an emergency, it can help the safety of your family when in the house. If there is an accident, many people have the tendency to panic. You can also have a burglar system installed. So have a family meeting to make escape plans, and consider all the ramifications of each.

If you want to make improvements to a home, one thing you really must have is some kind of drill. A drill allows you to drill different diameter holes, as well as screwing in a variety of screws. A drill that is cordless and battery operated is easiest to use because you can take it anywhere. You might also want to invest in an assortment of drill bits also.

TIP! Never waste your money on materials that do not meet quality standards or pose a risk to yourself and your family. Getting new floors can be expensive, and when you compare prices you get a good deal.

Sprucing up your walls with art is a great improvement idea, but it doesn’t have to be a painting. You can use practically anything for artwork. Choose tiles in two complementary or contrasting colors, such as blue and green, and arrange them in an interesting mosaic-style pattern on the wall to create your own original work of art.

Improve your living room by using your luggage rack as a side table. Simply take out glass from a frame and attach it to the rack. Place a lamp on top and enjoy.

For an elegant jewelry display, put up a wall-mounted coat rack with no curves. You should only display costume jewelry, not anything valuable. If you display your jewelry nicely, it keeps things organized and looks pretty too. Keep a few pieces in an easy to access location.

TIP! Building supplies are valuable and are prone to theft most of the time. Always see that all materials are fully secured when nobody will be around to watch them.

Purchase a drain snake to save money. This can save you from buying drain cleaners. Novices may not succeed at using drain snakes, and therefore it may be wise to ask a plumber for a lesson first. Snakes come in different sizes, so it’s important to know your drain size and buy the right one. Otherwise you may damage your drain.

Never ignore problems with mold or rust, no matter how small that problem seems to be. These problems generally occur in homes that are older and may end up becoming very large problems quickly. Taking care of them before they get too big is much more efficient. A small headache can turn into a giant headache if you wait too long. You can easily eliminate mold with some bleach. Sand down areas that have just a little rust.

Great quality materials don’t have to break a homeowner’s wallet; they just need to be long lasting and affordable. The reason is simple, decor and furnishings are taken when you move. Attractive and durable fixtures remain in the house and add quite a bit to the home’s resale value.

TIP! Start your project by writing a list of steps you need to take, and then get this list looked over by someone in the know. Although you don’t want to include anyone else, this is necessary, because if a crucial step is omitted, you may end up spending more than necessary or even cause damage to your home.

Plenty of individuals love the outdoors, but don’t care for the sticky legs of the local insects. The addition of a screened porch can be the perfect solution. A screened enclosure gives your family a nice shaded and protected area that keeps the bugs out but lets the fresh air in. You can even install a ceiling fan to make the space even more comfortable.

Now that you have the know-how, you are prepared to start some of those projects you have been putting off. We hope you found this article on home improvement informative.

When planning landscaping, design it to complement the style of your home. A garden and patio that match the style of your home will help bring the whole property together, while clashing styles will look unplanned and even unattractive.

TIP! Always seal the grout following the laying of the tile. Moisture can infiltrate grout if not sealed.