Kitchen Remodeling

There are many things you can do to your kitchen when you are remodeling. You can do a little research and check out what matches your budget.
One of the first things you may choose to do when kitchen remodeling is to choose a fabulous kitchen backsplash. The backsplash will brighten up your kitchen and/or make it feel warm and cozy. You can choose to have tile as your kitchen backsplash. The tile may be put on traditionally or diagonally. You may choose to have the tile straight up and down and a few of the tiles diagonal. The choice is yours when you do kitchen remodeling. Hire a professional to lay the tile as you want it to look as beautiful as possible. If you do-it-yourself, you may end up cutting the tiles incorrectly and/or laying them wrong and not looking very nice.
Once the backsplash in your kitchen is completed you may want to have a professional install new countertops. There are so many ways you can make your kitchen look with the different styles of countertops. You may choose something contemporary such as granite. You may choose something a little country that looks like wood or is in fact butcher block. Butcher block is a great choice as you can easily cook on it. Don’t worry about chopping up vegetables and making dents in your countertop when you have butcher block. You can set your hot pans on butcher block as well. If the butcher block stains or gets any type of mark on it, it just adds to the look of this lovely style.
You may want to put a new stove in your kitchen when you are remodeling. You can add brick or another type of backsplash on the wall behind the stove. Add depth to your kitchen when you build a rounded arch in front of your stove. The background may be brick to give it an expensive feel with yet a warm and inviting feel to your kitchen.
Personalize your kitchen with a few decorative light switches. You can find these at any home remodeling store or most discount stores.
Along your wall you may want to add wainscoting. Have the top part of your wall paint or wallpaper and the bottom lower half wainscoting. Have a professional perform this kitchen remodeling task to ensure your satisfaction.
You may be able to add more kitchen cabinets to your kitchen. If you need more cabinet space, this is one thing to consult and hire a professional to do for you. Another kitchen remodeling idea is to have a pantry put in your kitchen. You can put all of your canned items, box items, blender, pans, etc., in your pantry. By having a pantry you will help keep your kitchen looking neat and organized.
If you are looking to remodel your kitchen you can have it all done correctly when you hire a professional that knows exactly what he or she is doing to improve your beloved kitchen space.…

Creative Kitchen Renovation Ideas

Cooking is an everyday job from which we have no recluse. And cooking food regularly in the same old kitchen becomes monotonous and boring. Reinventing your kitchen is a great way to get rid of the daily monotony of kitchen. With few simple kitchen renovation ideas you can give your cookhouse and cooking an entirely fresh mood. First of all the renovating idea should germinate in your mind. Perceive the kitchen the way you want it to be and then look into different home improvement magazine to take ideas from there as well. Depending on your kitchen style and the accessories you already have in your kitchen you can collect ideas for reinventing your kitchen.
For renovating your kitchen, first pick up things that you will no longer like to see in your kitchen and throw them out. Now look for the places to change. One of the simplest ways to change the existing look of the cookhouse is to paint the kitchen. There are ingenious color options available at budget friendly price. However, cookhouse is an area that requires lots of light so choose some subtler hue. As I said, any kitchen small or big requires light. So the best way to give a new look to the kitchen is modify the lighting of your kitchen. Emphasize on the ceiling of your kitchen so that the light spread evenly throughout your kitchen.
Another unique and cute cookhouse renovation idea is to decorate your kitchen with wallpapers. Wallpapers can convey different types of themes to your kitchen. If you have kids in your house you can choose wallpapers with cartoon characters or flowers. Similarly, if you are a nature lover you can choose natural designs of wallpaper. A very creative idea is to paste wallpaper at one side of the kitchen while paint the rest of your kitchen in different shade.…

Kitchen Or Bathroom Remodel – The Truth Not Seen on TV Shows and What to Expect From a Contractor

With all of the do-it-yourself shows on network television, most home owners fail to realize how many extras actually are required to complete a remodel. These shows which run for a 30 minute span of time can actually take well over a month or two depending upon the project undertaken. While edited television holds the viewer’s interest, it does a poor job of educating the home owner with the actual process of having a remodel. Patience and planning are the keys to an effective remodel. There is no general rule of thumb when it comes to how long a particular remodel will take. An example is some kitchen remodels can take as little as one week while others can take one month or more.
There are numerous factors to be considered. It all comes down to how well planned the design is, how the home owner makes themselves available for the contractor, what materials are to be used, where the source for the materials is located, and so on.
The first key ingredient to a successful remodel is patience. The home owner needs to understand and expect that the design stage can take several weeks alone. After sitting down with the builder or contractor to discuss what the home owner’s desires are, both the contractor and the home owner need to address potential challenges of the space to be remodeled. While the home owner will have many questions needing to be answered, the remodeling contractor should be asking a plethora of question of the owner. The more thorough this preliminary consulting is the more enjoyable the remodel will be and with fewer surprises.
Even with the most conscientious builder or remodeling contractor, occasional unforeseen snags can pop up from time to time. There are many reasons that this situation may occur. Older homes often can possess more hidden surprises than newer houses due to new building codes which were not the same as when the house was originally built. That is not to say that newer constructed homes are free of these types of situations. The solution for this scenario is to clarify the contractor’s experience.
Contractors always should have a portfolio of past projects to offer up to new clients. Many times a new design possibility may come to mind of the home owner from viewing examples of past work performed. Most remodeling contractors are more than happy and even excited to display their past accomplishments.
The home owner needs to patient once the planning and design stage has begun. It can take weeks upon weeks to decide on materials and acquire them for the job ahead. The one aspect of remodeling or even having a custom home built, which many clients fail to do, is consistently inspect the progression of work being performed and observe materials being used. The most contractors are competent and know exactly what they are doing, but an extra set of eyes will not hurt. Asking questions throughout the remodel will help to avoid any possible confusion with both parties and will yield result in a happier home owner when the job is completed.…

A Simple Do-It-Yourself Bathroom Remodel in 5 Easy Steps

Even for a Do-It-Yourself novice, these 5 easy steps to remodel your bathroom is easy for anyone to do without spending much more than a few hundred dollars and a Saturday afternoon. Remodeling your bathroom does not have to mean breaking things up, replacing all the big ticket items in your bathroom, or hiring a contractor do perform the work for you.

Plan a weekend and focus on these 5 easy steps to remodel your own bathroom and save money:

Lighting

Faucets

Cabinet Hardware

Mirror

Towel Bar and Toilet Paper Holder

Lighting:

Change your bathroom lighting – simply changing your bathroom lighting can give your bathroom a new look. Especially if your lighting isn’t bright enough to light up your bathroom, or your lighting looks outdated. Some really great looking lights can be purchased and quickly mounted in about an hours time. Remember to turn the electrical power off during any electrical work and follow the directions that come in the light packaging. I usually gauge how big a light I will need by looking at the total area needing the light. The larger the area, the more important it becomes to use a larger light.

Faucets:

Replace your bathroom faucet – with just a few tools such as a wrench, pliers, screwdriver, and plumbers putty, you can change your faucet in about an hour as well. Many times faucets begin to show signs of hardened water deposits or other discoloration. A new faucet can go a long way to making your bathroom sink look new. In some cases you may need to replace any water supply cut-off valves and drain lines that may have become worn or somewhat deteriorated.

Cabinet Hardware:

Your cabinet hardware is another easy way to upgrade the looks of your bathroom. This is certainly true if you purchased an existing home. Changing the cabinet hardware can easily give your cabinetry a facelift. Just be sure to find hardware with the same screw patterns as the old hardware to make the exchange very simple. You often can find new hardware for just a few dollars a piece, and when most bathrooms only use less than a dozen pieces of hardware, the cost is minimal and the improved looks can be substantial.

Mirrors:

Changing the mirror can also change the looks of your bathroom. If your bathroom has damaged mirrors, rusty frames, or just a bad mirror setup. Change the mirrors size or shape to give your bathroom a whole new look. Mirrors can be purchased in big box stores for a few dollars or you can have a glass installation company install a mirror for you. There are lots of choices such as plain flat glass, beveled glass, etched glass, colored glass, framed or unframed glass and much more to choose from.

Towel Bars and Toilet Paper Holders:

Finally, if you have towel bars or toilet paper holders that could use a facelift, consider changing them into something more modern or stylish. Each of these items have only a couple of set screws and a small handful of screws to remove. If you are placing a larger or smaller towel bar and need to cover the holes. I have taken a 51/2 inch wide board that is just about 3 inches longer than the towel bar to screw to the wall first, and then installed the towel bar over the board. Before installing this board I take the board to the cabinet shop to have the edges routered with a simple design. Looks great and provides a strong backing.

Just imagine a few dollars and a few hours and your bathroom looks better already. Without a doubt you can do these 5 easy to do steps to remodel your own bathroom all by yourself on a weekend and make a big difference.…

Great Kitchen Renovation on a Tight Budget

The very first component that most homeowners think about when planning for a kitchen renovation is the kitchen countertop. This is the heart of the kitchen. Without a great looking countertop, no kitchen is complete. I would suggest you take a look at concrete countertops. This is a new and emerging style of countertop. It is made of designer colored concrete and only second to granite in terms of toughness. It will give your kitchen a very unique and stylish theme.
The next most important thing is the kitchen cabinets. Make sure that the color and theme of your kitchen cabinets and your concrete counter top has a single theme. I would suggest buying prefabricated kitchen cabinets then hire a carpenter to alter it to match your kitchen theme because building a kitchen cabinet set from scratch is very costly and time consuming. This will only require us to spend for paint, cabinet handles and miscellaneous materials to match the cabinet with our theme.
Lastly, we need to select matching tiles to complete our great looking kitchen. For this purpose, it is better to use large sixty by sixty ceramic tiles for the floor and smaller ceramic tiles around the kitchen sink and countertop. This way, it would be easier to clean the larger tiles for any spills and stains in the future. Use small tiles sparingly and only in tight spaces around the countertop corners because they will be harder to clean than large tiles.
For the walls, I would suggest using a wallpaper instead of paint because oil evaporating from our cooking will stick to the walls and it will be next to impossible to remove them without damaging the wall surface. With a wall paper, you can just rip it off your wall and replace it anytime it becomes dirty.…

Modern Trends in Home Remodel and Renovation

It’s no secret that the current housing market will remain largely lethargic for an extended period of time. People will continue to refrain from making big ticket purchases, which especially holds true for real properties. This could spell unpleasant news for developers, but surprisingly, or may be not so surprisingly if you really think about it, it will also create ample opportunities for general contractors and renovators as homeowners will opt to expand or enhance the properties that they already own.

While property values stagnate along with the rest of the economy, people will move less often and will own their house for longer periods. They will also increasingly spend more time at home. So the big question is, why not make it a happier time then?!

As a general contractor in Orange County, CA, we’ve been noticing that many home owners now prefer to upgrade their homes and stay where they are. We are also noticing that the level of sophistication of today’s homeowner’s tastes began to show a dramatic change. Consumers started asking us for materials with more cosmetic appeal and extended longevity. They want to enjoy their homes now and also make sure that they put themselves ahead of the crowd when it is finally time to sell.

Here are some of the specifics of what we’ve observed so far:

Increased length of ownership due to stagnating property values

Homeowners opt for happier time now and also put themselves ahead of the crowd when it is time to sell

Small contractor bankruptcy is on the rise

Contractor landscape is changing to reflect the new market reality – a direct result of flight to quality by the homeowners

Fly-by-night contractors are still out there, so the homeowner needs to exercise extra caution before inviting a contractor into their home

Natural high quality materials and high-end “green” technology are gradually entering homes

High-end remodels and renovations when done right create instant and lasting equity…

Hiring A Home Remodeling Contractor

Finding a contractor is a headache in home repair, causing the most anxiety of all phases. In a contractor you are looking for someone trustworthy who puts effort in a good job and charges a decent price. Unfortunately, contractors cannot offer guarantees. However, do your homework and you can improve your odds, finding a winning home remodeling contractor can take a ton of weight of your shoulders and relieve you of that throbbing headache.
The Overseeing General Contractor
General contractors are the people hired to oversee your project, responsible for managing every aspect of the project. Purchasing material, hiring sub-contractors is all included in the expectations of a general contractor. Usually, a contract is signed between the contractor and the party needing work performed, in order to ensure payments only be made to him. At that point, the contractor is responsible for being sure the sub-contractors and suppliers get paid. The general contractor act as a general in the military would, you can go to them if you have any concerns.
How to Find a Reputable Remodeling Contractor
Common knowledge tells us to get at a minimum three bids on the project. Most people would say ask around at your local hardware shops like Lowe’s or Home Depot and consider the word-of-mouth candidates. Ask your friends and family, even neighbors about remodeling contractors they have used in the past. In this field it’s important to believe in your instincts, consider if the contractor respond back to you promptly did they show up early or on time to your appointment? In meeting with the contractor pay attention to see if they answer questions with elaboration ask for references, lay out the expectations of the job. After the meeting has concluded ask yourself if the communication between the potential client and contractor was where it needed to be? Most importantly, you need to be sure that you can be comfortable speaking directly to this person throughout the entire process of your project you will be communicating back and forth.
Bidding
When asking contractors to bid jobs make sure you provide an identical scope of work with your plans, also include a materials list. You want every contractor to receive identical plans, otherwise they will be bidding upon different basis then you will have inaccurate bids for comparison which probably wont work out well for you. The remodeling contractor should send you bids in writing that contain itemized labor charges and a list of material.
References
When your contractor submits their references, put forth effort in checking the credibility of the reference, call and find out if it is okay that you do a drive by to take a look at the work personally. Before signing the contract, it would be a good idea to check up on how this person conducts business. Run a background check, you probably don’t want a person who is a known burglar in your house. Confirm the contractors worker’s comp as well as the liability insurance, be absolutely positive that the contractor does not have multiple lawsuits against them.…