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TIPS & IDEAS
Read helpful tips & insightful ideas!
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Make a Plan
If you're thinking of renovating your home, start by talking with remodelers and lenders to figure out whether your ideas are financially feasible. How much will you pay out of pocket? How much will you need to borrow? You could pay with a credit card, but that's probably your most expensive option. Home-equity borrowing makes the most sense for larger projects. You can generally borrow up to 80% of the appraised value of your home (that amount includes all housing debt). Once you sign a contract, the remodeler will require a down payment, with additional payments due at specified intervals. Tip from Kiplinger.com
Designing Before Budgeting
You think you can afford that luxurious marble countertop — until you talk to the fabricator. It’s $2,000 over budget, and there’s no room to squeeze. If you’re already past the design phase, that’s a brutal discovery requiring a serious re-think — and extra time you don’t have at this stage of the game. “There are an infinite number of design possibilities, but as soon as you pick a budget, seven-eighths are gone,” says Charles Rinek, who owns a remodeling and custom construction firm in Palm Coast, Fla. “Concentrate on the eighth that is appropriate with your budget.” Know your budget. Then follow your dreams. Tip from HouseLogic.com
Doors Create the First Impression
The first impression of your house is your door. If you are unable to change the door completely and if your existing door is in a good condition then you should repaint your door. Your doors could also affect the lighting of your room, and you could benefit from this great technique interior designed Amy Lau uses, “When dealing with a dark room, whatever color is used on the walls, I paint the ceiling, trim, and doors the same color but 50 percent lighter. Too much of one shade can overpower a space.” So, when renovating on a budget if you are repainting your door try to use different shades according to the concentration of light in your house to optimize the lighting of your house the way you want to. Idea from Entrepreneur.com
How to Paint Wood Paneling
Take your home out of the 1970s by painting your wood paneling. Better Homes and Gardens contributing editor Danny Lipford shows you how. If you're tired of the wood paneling in your home, you might want to consider painting it. While painting paneling isn't hard to do, proper preparation is important to allow the paint to adhere well. Tip from BHG.com
Master Bath as a Grown-Up Getaway
A master bath should be a place to escape and unwind—especially when you've got two kids under age 4. Designer Alys Protzman and her husband had that in mind while redoing the upstairs of their 1880s North Carolina farmhouse. Tucked into their bedroom, which was across the hall from the kids' rooms, the old master bath had an awkward layout, no tub, and no actual door. So, working with architect Erik Van Mehlman, they decided to start fresh, bumping out the back of the house 15 feet to allow for a new master suite. Both children's rooms would be in the front of the house, and dressing closets would add a buffer zone between adult and kid spaces. Idea from ThisOldHouse.com
The Best Fixtures for Your Home
Choosing outlets and faucets might seem like a final touch, but as we discovered at Edgewood Hall, it’s never too early to have a game plan. The master bath was put two months behind schedule after we learned that tiling couldn’t start before the shower valve was in place — and ours was an eight-week special order. The lesson? Choose your fixtures early. A wiring crisis later put me in full breakdown mode. I’ll never forget walking into the house to find that the electrician had installed switch plates in some very puzzling places. Never assume that people know where you want things. The decisions you make in your electrical walk-through are critical! That leads me to the most important advice of all: You get what you pay for. Hiring a project manager for $150 an hour might seem extravagant, but you’ll save more money in the end — not to mention your sanity. Idea from HouseBeautiful.com