Friday, January 30, 2009

How to Transform a Simple Corner Shower Enclosure Into a Mini-spa

Just when you thought that your corner shower enclosure is just another essential fixture in your bathroom, think again. You can actually transform it into a mini-spa. All you need to do is to equip it with different accessories. This way, you do not need to spend thousands of dollars every month for few hours of relaxation. You can do it at your own home, in your own bathroom, right inside the corner shower enclosure.

Make Sure You Can Have These

Try to prep up your corner shower enclosure with the following bathroom accessories:

1. Monochrome Towel Ring. You basically do not need to move closer to the door just to get your towel. You can simply buy a towel ring and place it near the corner shower enclosure, perhaps mounting it on the wall. A lot of them are extremely easy to install since they can either have tile rubber or have screws to go along with them. Chrome or stainless steel is also ideal, because of its constant exposure to water. You do not want it to corrode very quickly.

2. Ultimate Bathroom Set. If you want to minimize the costs of your bathroom accessory expenses, you can go for those sets that are being sold in home depots and in the World Wide Web. One of the best ones is the Ultimate Bath set, which can be composed of a bath caddy and reading rack. You can place the bath caddy inside the corner shower enclosure, while the reading rack can be put a little outside the enclosure.

3. Shower Chair. If you are thinking of spending countess hours inside the bathroom, you might as well have a seat, where you can really sit straight on your back and allow running water to massage your entire body. You can also use a shower chair when you want to convert your corner enclosure into a sauna. It normally prevents water vapor from escaping, so the steam will be more than enough to keep those toxins out your body. In the meantime, grab a magazine or a book from the rack.

4. Shower Radio. There are times when you want to share a shower with someone. However, it is not all the time that there is someone who can be there with you. At times when you needed your partner and she is not there, you can just turn on your shower radio. A number of them can contain both AM and FM signals. It can be directly mounted into the wall of your corner shower enclosure. Good music can also help you relax especially when you are treating yourself to a home spa.

5. Clog Protector. Whether you like it or not, you will have falling hair when you are going to be taking a bath, which can cause some clogging into the floors of your corner shower enclosure. A clog protector will be a good addition to your fixture then. It is commonly made of stainless steel, so it does not rust right away.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Top Home Remodeling Tips

1)Here's a home remodeling organization tip: If you are being your own General Contractor, keep an expandable folder (“redwell”) with individual folders inside for each trade. For example, I have an expandable folder for each house that I’m working on, and inside are manila folders labeled “Plumbing”, “Electricity”, "Tile", etc.



2)Local building codes require a certain number of electrical outlets in a room. However, some electricians will slap the receptacles into the walls in an unattractive configuration when you consider where the phone and cable jacks are going. Tell your electrician exactly where you want the outlets and jacks to be (and how high you want them as well). This is especially true if you have an idea where you want your furniture to go and you want to hide the outlets and jacks behind the furniture.



3)Here's one of my favorite home remodeling tips that's easy to forget: Be sure that your painter saves you some paint in the cans for touch-ups and duplication later.



4)Before the plumber (or any contractor, for that matter) digs into the ground, you need to call your local utility locator service to come out and mark the underground utilities. This will prevent your contractor from accidentally digging into and damaging the existing services. If you neglect to have the utilities marked, you could face very large repair bills that the utility companies will require you to pay.



5)One of the classic home remodeling tips is to maximize resale value by spending your money "where the water is". This means kitchens and bathrooms. Also, having a good trim carpenter install fine crown molding, etc. can really dress up your house.

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!