Installing Custom Kitchen Cabinets Is an Art

The biggest expense you are going to face in the renovation of the kitchen is replacing your cabinets. It is not unusual at all to spend $10-20,000 on custom cabinets for a remodeling project and you want to protect your investment by making sure that the cabinets are installed properly. Most of the top end manufacturers will not even let you install them yourself, even if you wanted to. To qualify for the guarantee that comes with the cabinets they must be professionally installed.
Since you are spending so much on the cabinets to begin with, now is not the time to scrimp and try and save a buck. The good news is that whatever you spend now rebuilding the kitchen you will be paid back when you go to sell the home. Research shows that nearly 100% of the cost of a kitchen remodel can be recovered because it increases the value of your home. You are even more likely to increase the property value when you choose high end materials like custom cabinetry.
Since custom cabinets are being built specifically for your kitchen, it is going to be a very tight fit and that is why professional installation is so important. There are also considerations for working around the plumbing going to the sink and the vents for the stove. The process is not as simple as finding the studs in the wall and hanging up a couple of cabinets like you do to get extra storage space in the garage. The actual frames for the cabinets have to assembled in your home and then the doors and drawers are added later.
Custom cabinets will create an ultra modern look that is very trendy. The current style is for flat fronts with very little ornamentation. Sleek is the in term and that is the look that your installer will be going for. They can also be very creative in coming up with unique ways to utilize the space you have in your kitchen in the most efficient manner. A large food pantry is a nice addition with slide out shelves. They can also build special plate racks into the design or an under the counter wine rack.
Another classy addition that a skilled carpenter can add is crown molding which will finish off the cabinets in style. Moldings that run across the top of the cabinets are very popular and create a nice space for plants or vases. They can also use the molding to frame a kitchen window or door to match the wooden cabinets. There also creative ways which installers are building a casing for refrigerators and stoves which makes them look like they are part of the cabinets. Since the cabinets are being custom made just for your space there should be no gaps or openings. Want a wide screen television in the kitchen? Ask the cabinet maker to design a stowaway cabinet for it so it can be hidden away while entertaining.…

Luxury Kitchen Renovation

Budget is the number one concern of people, who needs to go through kitchen renovation, surviving a kitchen renovation, is not that easy. But it can be bearable if you plan ahead of time with regards to financial aspect of this situation. There are ways you can do to stay away from stress while you are spending for your home renovation kitchen. With these simple steps you will be able to go through everything you need in no sweat:
1. You need to start by simply estimating the cost of a luxury kitchen design. You need to come up with a renovation budget so you won’t be shocked when the paying time comes. This is also the right time to decide on luxury kitchen ideas. You need to decide on paint colour, appliances, lightning and others. This will make things easier for your contractor when they start the renovation.
2. Work hand in hand with your contractor so you can be sure your luxury kitchen ideas will be met. You also need to discuss with them the timeline of the renovation. You need to do this so you will approximately know how much money you will pay them for the task. You need to take into account some unforeseen issue that may arise, add a cushion to your timeline to prevent it.
3. Instruct your contractor of things they need to do to prevent spreading of dusts and debris from spreading all over your house. This can be easily done by sealing the area where they will work on.
4. Temporarily, you can make an improvised kitchen near your bathroom or anywhere where there is a sink. You need it the most in washing plates and food. You can also ask the contractor to help you in moving your ice box in a safer area.
5. You can buy disposable plates, spoons and forks, paper towels and other things you’ll need to lessen washing dirty kitchen utensils. This will help you minimize the agony you need to face while the renovation is going on.
6. If your kitchen renovation will also last for a week. You can take your kids to a nearby relative or friend’s house to spend the day while your luxury kitchen design is going on. This will help them feel relieved of the stressful construction going on at your house.
Starting a home renovation for your kitchen is not that easy. There are lots of things to consider. You need to make a research first so you will be able to come up with a good budget that won’t sacrifice your idea of a perfect kitchen. Deciding on how much you can spend is very important. You also need to decide what to start first and what can be done next time will be very helpful to you. This will make your budget worthy in the long run. Some people prefer to do it themselves to save money. This can also be possible but it’s hard to do it perfectly especially if you are not really familiar with certain things about home renovations.…

Custom Kitchen Cabinets – Choosing the Right Wood

As you are looking for custom kitchen cabinets, you’ll quickly find that it’s not as easy to choose as you may think. There are different types of woods to choose from, and you will need to carefully consider the pros and cons of different types of wood before making your decision.
When you are choosing those cabinets, durability, how they accept stain, and cost can be important. You need to consider cost, but remember durability is going to be even more important. The right choice of wood is essential because you need wood that is going to hold up in a kitchen, and not all types of wood do well as kitchen cabinets.
Some of the best options in wood choice for the kitchen cabinets include pine, cherry, maple, and oak. All of these wood types are great for the kitchen, but which one will work best for your kitchen? Which type of wood will fit your budget or which will meet your style requirements for your kitchen renovation? Here is a closer look at these wood options you can consider when you pick out those cabinets.
One of the options you have for those wood kitchen cabinets is pine. This wood is soft and can be found all over the world. Within the U.S. it is Easter White Pine that is usually found and this is often used to make cabinets. This wood is a bit yellowish in color and it has brown knots in it that look very beautiful. Because of the grain of the wood, it is a great candidate for staining and many people choose this option for their kitchens.
Another popular wood choice for kitchen cabinets happens to be cherry word. Cherry can be a light reddish brown or it can be a deeper red color as well. This is one of the more high end options and it definitely a bit more expensive than some of the other wood options that you can choose from. The great thing is that it is extremely beautiful in cabinets. Sure, it will cost you to go with cherry, but the beauty of your cabinets is well worth the money that you put into them.
You will also find that both maple wood and oak wood are popular cabinet wood choices. They are hardwoods that hold up very well in the kitchen, which is why they are so often used. Maple has a light color and the grain is very even. The oak is usually golden to reddish, depending on the oak, and it has an open grain. Both of these options do very well with stain and they are durable, which is important when you are choosing the cabinets for your kitchen.…

Dare to Repair: Can You Handle Your Water Leak Repairs After Reading This?

Want to learn how to handle water leak repairs without calling a plumbing service, or just want to put your new Apollo Precision Tools to good use for small home repairs needed around the house when your husband handyman isn’t around? If you’re interested in putting your ladies’ tool set to good use, then pick up a copy of Dare to Repair : A Do-it-Herself Guide to Fixing (Almost) Anything in the Home.

Written by two CIA wives who’ve had to make do and learn household repairs while their husbands were away on business, this book is an excellent reference to handling small home projects by yourself or with a homegirl.

Give Me the Specs: How is Dare to Repair Organized?

Dare to Repair is approximately 246 pages of content (the index starts on page 247) broken down into several chapters, as follows: Plumbing, Electricity, Major Appliances, Windows, Walls and Doors and Home Safety. Each chapter discusses the most common home repairs you may need to handle in your home, or learn about through a friend’s experience in their own residence.

Repair Name: Each repair is a subsection within the chapters, sans fancy names that confuse you. In other words, you know what the name of the project is or aims to accomplish, because it is clearly labeled at the top of the page on which the project begins.

General Introduction & Story: Small paragraphs about the authors’ experiences with the home project help ease you into getting the gist of what the project will entail.

Introductory Information: Articulate information about the repair and how it will help improve the quality of life (comfort level) of your home are provided as you transition into getting down to the nitty gritty of getting the job done accurately.

Directions & Illustrations: The directions are written in second-person format with basic illustrations to assist you in identifying key tasks. The narrative guides you through each step so that you don’t get lost, and the pictures include captions that allow you to understand the step(s) it references.

Tools Needed: Usually on the second page under the directions, you’ll see a small, approximately inch-long section that’s sectioned off. This section of the tutorial tells you what tools you’ll need – and includes a nifty illustration of the tool as well.

Sidebar Tips: Several tutorials have sidebars which provide an extra helpful tip that can help you get the job done more efficiently.A�

Who Should Dare to Repair?

Dare to Repair is a great book for any woman equipped with the right combination of spunk, guts and wit to take on almost anything that needs to be fixed in her home. This book makes a great gift and cute pick-me-up for the independent lady in your life.…

Laminate Kitchen Cabinet Refacing

Lots of people don’t want to deal with the hassle of remodeling their kitchen. They don’t like the way it look but they’re not willing to put in the time, effort, and money it takes to redo the most popular room in the house. But it doesn’t have to create problems in the most trafficked room in the home and it definitely doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. It’s possible that your kitchen just may need some new cabinets. This doesn’t mean you necessarily have to fork out thousands of dollars by tearing out all the old cabinets and putting in new ones. You could just look into some cabinet refacing to find the look and change the feel of your kitchen. A great way to do this without hurting the pocket book too much is using laminate surface for your cabinets.
If your cabinets and shelves are in good condition then you don’t need to worry about tearing them out, purchasing new cabinets, and having them installed as well. When you tear them out it also adds an extra burden on preparing food in your kitchen and puts you out of a kitchen for a certain amount of time. That’s why a lot of people find that their shelves and drawers are in good condition so refacing the cabinet faces, drawer fronts, and cabinet hardware may be the only things that you need replaced. There are a variety of options to do this with but the least expensive and may be the most durable is laminate.
Since the cabinets will not be torn out you will not lose any down time in your kitchen. You just need to choose the type of laminate cover you want on the outside of your cabinets and drawers and then also choose the hardware to go with. The handles and knobs can also make the difference in the look of your kitchen. If you are happy with the layout with of your cabinets you can add little things to make them more efficient by adding cookie sheet dividers or silverware separators in your drawers.
Laminate covers are much less expensive than solid wood or stainless steel cabinets. This will help in your overall costs of remodeling your kitchen. Your cabinet refacing project can be affordable but still allow you to change your kitchen enough through using the laminate surface for all your drawers and cabinet needs.…

The Best Seasons For Home Improvement

The ideal seasons for a home improvement phase are during the spring and summer seasons. Make home summer changes and you’ll find that extra help is always just a stone’s throw away. The summer season is a very good time to move from one house to another house, one city to another city, or even from one state to another state. There are many summer deals and summer bargains during this season which involve your home summer changes like truck rentals, moving van rentals, storage house rentals, warehouse, rentals, and shopping deals. These kinds of bargains and deals are also available during spring season.
There are 5 stages for every home improvement project that you may go through when you are moving houses, changing cities, or changing states. These stages are as follows: concept, planning, implementation, assessment, and evaluation. Though, if you are going to make changes and alterations for your house: these 5 stages are also relevant to your objectives. For changes to be made in the interior make of your house, the first home alteration stage refers to the idea or concept behind the changes which you want to make. There are two kinds of remodeling concepts. The first kind is known as interior concepts while the second type of concept for home remodeling is known as exterior concepts. The concept distinction is quite simple to figure out. Interior concepts refer to the rooms of your house and the exterior refers to the entire surface structure of your house. When you have decided on a type of home remodeling concept, the planning stage involves activities where you can choose the materials you need, choose where to purchase these materials, and plan your expenditures around your financial budget. The expenditure phase includes home remodeling activities which involve the actual purchase of home development materials and the actual use of these materials for your house remodeling activities. The phase of assessment that follows implementation gives room for you to make additional adjustments in your house. Finally, your remodeling evaluation will come from your own feelings and from the opinions of your house guests regarding your remodeling work.
In the same way that home moving is ideally conducted during the seasons of spring and the seasons of summer, house remodeling projects are best implemented during the same aforementioned seasons. These seasons give you the best bargains and discounts on the materials that you need to purchase. You also get similar deals and discounts for the various types of home items which you might need. One of the most important remodeling stages is the planning stage, since this is the stage is where you decide on a purchasing budget for your house remodeling project. The success of your project centers on your plan for home improvement in either the interior or the exterior parts of your house. This will depend on your ability to work with your financial budget and not against it. So make sure that you keep a close watch on everything.…

Questions to Help Hire the Right Bathroom Remodeler

The bathroom has finally grated on your last nerve. The 80’s brown and orange has got to go. If you have reached a similar point, it can be very intimidating to decide on a bathroom remodel contractor. The last thing you want to do is discover that you have hired a sub-par professional. Not hiring a quality contractor can lead to the job costing more than estimated, missed job completion deadlines and much frustration.
To avoid this, be sure to interview several contractors. This will allow you to get a good feel for what is standard in the industry in your area and to become comfortable with the person you decide to hire.
Here are several questions you might want to ask during the interview process.
1) “How long have you been remodeling bathrooms?” This question is similar to “How long have you been in business?” but gets at the heart of the experience a particular contractor might have. He or she may have recently started a new business but has years of experience in the industry. Just because the business is new does not indicate that the job will be done poorly. However, it is probably best to ask both questions and steer clear of new businesses if you can. They may be good at the work but business issues can distract and cause delays.
2) “Are you insured?” This is a big one. If something goes wrong with your job you want to be sure that you can recoup losses and you are protected.
3) “Do you pull the appropriate permits and is this cost covered in the estimate?” You want to make absolutely sure you have proper permitting for your job. Not having permits can cause you to run afoul of government agencies and cause headaches. Making sure the costs are in the bid ensures you don’t receive add on “surprises” at job completion.
4) “Do you provide references?” This is a great way to help select an bathroom remodel contractor. By talking to previous customers, you can get a feel for the kind of work the contractor does and how he or she conducts himself during the job. You can find out if the workers were rude, cleaned up the job site poorly, played loud music, etc. These might not impact the quality of the job but they can be very frustrating and are good to know up front. Ask for several references from recent jobs.
These are just a few questions to ask. In the end, however, listen to your intuition and make sure you are 100% comfortable with the company you hire. Ask lots of questions and wait a day or two before signing a contract to give you time to reflect.
If you follow these guidelines you will much more likely to hire the right contractor for your bathroom remodel. Happy remodeling!…