Do you have a budget in mind for your remodel? You want to have your kitchen or bathroom remodeled, and contact a remodel contractor to get a quote. If the contractor asks you “what is your budget?” does this mean they are just trying to find out how much they can get away with charging?… Read More »
Picture Framed Flat Screen TV
Here’s a pretty cool project, mounting your flat screen TV in a picture frame. This project for one of our customers started as an alcove above a fireplace, but you can do the same thing just wall mounted and have your electronics stashed somewhere else. With the alcove it allowed all the electronics to be… Read More »
Preparing for a kitchen remodel
So, you’re considering having your kitchen remodeled or at least updated and may be wondering just how long you’re going to be without that heart of your home. Your family depends on the kitchen to, well…survive right? We need to eat and we need a place to store, prepare, and serve the food. Just how… Read More »
Tile Repair Mastic Wet Locations
A tile repair job prompted me to post this. There are many factors that influence the quality of a tile installation. While I can’t possibly include all the information in this post, I will attempt to touch on the mastic vs thinset. There are basically two types of “glue” used to install tile, thinset and… Read More »
Under Cabinet Microwave Drawer Design
Under Cabinet Microwaves Adding an under cabinet microwave is an excellent option while remodeling your kitchen. If you are planning a kitchen remodel and wish to use a custom hood vent, or other range exhaust hood rather than an over the range microwave/vent combination you’ll still want a microwave to use in your kitchen. You… Read More »
Replacing Fiberglass Showers
Are you wanting to replace your one piece fiberglass shower? Let me just say this right from the beginning….very rarely are you able to replace them with another one piece unit without cutting up some walls. They are originally installed before all the framing is completed around them. They are wider than most interior doorways,… Read More »
Comparing Estimates Costs Factors
When a potential customer is comparing estimates from different contractors, what are some of the important parts to pay attention to? It’s no big secret that usually the very first thing that gets looked at is the price. The bottom line. How much they are going to spend if they sign that contract, choosing that… Read More »
Renovating or Remodeling
Are you remodeling or renovating your home? What is the correct terminology for your project? By definition remodel means to alter the structure. When used in reference to a house, or an individual room it would indicate changes to the floorplan, or location of amenities. Maybe that’s a room addition, or restructuring by means of… Read More »
Bee Hives and Wasp Nests
Spring is here . The flowers are blooming, the grass is growing, the temperatures are rising….and the bees and wasps are looking to expand and build new homes. It’s a good time to walk around your house and check for any signs of this. Wasps will most often begin building thier cone shaped next in… Read More »
What’s under your tub liner?
While those “one day” bathroom remodels may seem appealing I would caution against it. I’m sure you’ve seen advertisements that claim no hassle one day bathroom remodels. They try to sell the convenience of virtually no down time, less mess and expense, and show pictures of newly completed projects that appear fresh and clean. They… Read More »
Modular Cabinets vs Custom Cabinetry
In my opinion the “need” for custom cabinets falls into three places. One instance is trying to add to/match existing cabinetry whose manufacturer can not be determined or replicated within the enormous variety of styles and finishes provided by numerous current cabinet manufacturers. A second instance is, regardless of the vast number of size combinations… Read More »
Avoid over stuffing under sink cabinets
Avoid plumbing leaks This time I’d like to talk about what’s inside your cabinets, under your sinks. We all have things stashed under there…it is a cabinet after all. However, I’d like to draw a little attention to just what and how we store those items. Quite often when I look in the kitchen sink… Read More »
Gutters and Downspouts
Avoid water damage With winter officially being here, I thought I’d take a moment to encourage checking the gutters and downspouts operation on your home. Now that the leaves are just about done falling out of the trees for season, it would be a good time to clean the your gutters and downspouts. If your… Read More »
Sticky Doors
This tip has to do with doors that stick to the door frames when being opened and closed. More often than not it’s the top corner of the door that starts rubbing on the door jamb in the closed position. Homes of course do settle and move over time. Sometimes this leads to a door… Read More »
Toilet Wax Seal
Toilet maintenance So, last week I was doing some repair work on a home to take care of issues found during a structural pest inspection. All in all for it’s age this home was in good condition. However the inspector did find a problem during the crawl space inspection that otherwise was going unseen from… Read More »