Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Home Remodeling and Improvement Advice, Contractors Review and DIY Tips

Remodeling Your Home
Remodeling a home can be as simple as changing your interior decorating scheme, or as complex as a major construction job. It can revolve around the ideas and tastes of just the homeowner and his or her spouse, or require the talents and skills of professional architects, designers and contractors. It can be a quick and painless process, or it can involve weeks or months of living in a virtual construction site – it all depends on the planning you do in advance. Planning:Key to a Successful RenovationFor simple remodeling jobs, like, for example, changing the color schemes in a room or a group of rooms, planning might be a simple task. Put together a simple list of needed supplies, block out the time, and visit the local home center for paint color charts and suggestions. Most homeowners can figure out what’s needed: paint, brushes, rollers, a tarp to protect against spills – and even one of those cute little paper hats to keep you from inadvertently changing the color of your hair. This can be a do-it-yourself project, or you might be more comfortable hiring a handyman to do all the prep work, painting and cleanup. Either way, planning for this job is relatively simple, and the successful execution of a project like this is one most homeowners can handle.
The Bigger the Job, the Tougher the Choices
Other home remodeling jobs might be a bit more involved. Perhaps you want to change the entire look of a room by changing not just the color of the walls, but also the drapes, furniture, lamps and floors. This type of job requires more input from more people, and more visits to more stores. It still may be a do-it-yourself job, but you can see that as additional elements start to become involved, additional planning and coordination become necessary for the successful completion of the job. The more decisions that are required, the more complicated things become. Do you want hardwood floors and area rugs, or wall-to-wall carpeting? Do you want painted walls, or an exotic wall covering? Should you treat your windows with drapes or blinds? What color? Which texture? Decisions, decisions, decisions!
Hiring a Pro - Expensive But Worth It
Larger remodeling jobs, such as building an addition to your house, are major projects that require professionals of many stripes, and may include architects, engineers, licensed contractors and applications to the local government for construction permits. Such jobs can be difficult to coordinate and plan, and these are obviously not only more expensive remodeling jobs, but also ones in which costs can become unpredictable. Such home remodeling jobs require meticulous planning, but even then, with so many different tradesmen and professionals involved, lack of coordination can lead to a nightmare of cost overruns and jobs that might take days, weeks, or even months longer than anticipated.
What We Can Offer You
This site exists to give you a brief, but comprehensive, overview into the world of remodeling. Some of the advice we will offer may be obvious; many things you might already be aware of. That’s okay, because if you gain even a single piece of information that you didn’t have before, you’ll leave here just a little bit smarter – and hey, it didn’t cost you a dime. Heck, we may even save you one. We’ll take you through all aspects of the remodeling process – from the big stuff, like room additions, through the small stuff, like picking out a bathroom sink. We’re not going to overload you with lots of complicated do-it-yourself tips, but we will try to point out the who, what, when, where and why of home remodeling. Our site is loaded with links to pages that are packed with information on all aspects of home remodeling, so we invite you to relax, educate yourself and most of all - enjoy!

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