Category: Room Additions

Room Additions

Get The Best Bang For Your Buck With These Top Furniture Tips

Laura

Buy sitting down and taking in this material, it will open up many avenues for you. Even a few tips here and there can have a major impact on your life. That’s why in furniture shopping, as in all other topics, research is of paramount importance. The following article will teach you all you need to know about buying furniture.

Check the bottom of any furniture you buy. Sometimes, the furniture appears to exhibit quality and a great condition, but often this isn’t the case. A lot of old pieces of furniture have rust or dry rot on them.

When buying furniture for outdoor spaces, look for quality construction. Check out each individual weld to make certain that no weak ones are present. If you notice any welds that seem weak, do not purchase the outdoor furniture. Keep looking for outdoor furniture that will last.

Before you buy furniture, consider your color options carefully. If you go with bold shades, you may struggle to match your future decor. You can choose bold colors for smaller pieces, but stick to neutral, easily matched colors for larger items of furniture.

Multi-use furniture is great for the office. Armoires can hide your electronics and files. Just close it up and your office looks organized again.

Make sure the furniture works before purchasing it. This is often overlooked by shoppers, which leads to disappointment at home when it is malfunctioning. Furniture returns or replacements can be difficult to arrange and may carry additional charges.

The next time you’re shopping for furniture, try searching the clearance section in your local large chain retailers. A lot of retailers keep big portions of space available for showing overstock and clearance items. When you look at these areas, the high-quality items that have been left over are available at a small fraction of the original cost.

Pick well-built furniture when you are shopping for new pieces. Dressers and nightstands should be made from solid wood instead of pressed wood. Inspect pieces for plywood backs. Really take your time inspecting the furniture to ensure it is exactly what you want and well built.

You need to know the legitimacy of a company if making a furniture purchase online. Look at the BBB for answers to any concerns you might have about a particular company. Also, don’t neglect taxes, shipping and handling when factoring together the final total price.

Always check online to begin your furniture shopping. While this is not the traditional way to shop for such a large item, many online vendors offer better pricing than the stores do. You may be able to get free delivery, too. Shopping online may save you a great deal of money.

Spend a little more for better quality is never a mistake. Budget is always important, but so is quality. Low priced furniture may seem like a good buy, but they are often made very cheaply. Realistically evaluate how much you can spend, and don’t skimp on your furniture.

Having read …

Room Additions

Helping Your Kitchen Designer Figure the Best Plan For You

Laura

The first step to finding someone to help you with a great kitchen design in Toronto is to figure out your style and budget. The next step is to find a kitchen designer who will work with you to reconcile these two important aspects of your build or remodel. You need to find someone who knows how to tweak a design to fit your specific needs and preferences, and not just someone who will have to choose a design from a showroom.
When you first see a model kitchen that looks bright and immaculate, and is staged to seem homey and lived-in, it can really draw you in. But you need to keep in mind that this exact model may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. You may be attracted to certain qualities of the kitchen, but it might not suit your functional needs. You need to take into consideration how much counter space and the number of cabinets you will need. There are other such things to decide on, such as types of appliances and task lighting.
An important question to ask yourself is this: how much will you be using your kitchen? If you are an avid cook and entertainer, you will need more preparation and storage space, and you’ll probably want state of the art appliances.
A great way to figure out all of these aspects is to stand in the middle of your kitchen with a notepad and pen in hand and take inventory of what you have right now. What do you love about your current kitchen? What do you hate about it? What are the biggest must haves when you think about your dream kitchen? What are the things you would like to have, but are negotiable?
Include in your list the types of activities your kitchen serves. Is it a gathering place for friends and family? Should it be child safe? Maybe you are a professional chef and would like to have state of the art accommodations at home as well as work.
Having a list like this to present to your designer will be a huge help to them in assisting you in finding the design and materials that will best suit your needs and wants. This will clue them in to what is most important to you and your lifestyle. Being on the same page as your designer when it comes to these details will save a lot of time in asking questions and making decisions.…

Room Additions

Easy Small Kitchen Renovation

Laura

If we compare home with plants than the kitchen is the leaf of the plants and if the leaf is not in an appropriate form then the plants will definitely expire soon. So while we plan for renovation of our home, we should think first about the renovation of the kitchen. Now let’s discuss about a small kitchen renovation. It’s easy but there are some important points those we have to always keep in mind while we going to do so.
The very first point of a small kitchen renovation is to plan a design in your mind and then draw it on paper. It means that you have to think at first what kind of kitchen you want to see after the renovation. So the planning is very important thing before doing anything.
The second part is cleaning and removing. Normally clean the kitchen if it is too dirty to work and then remove all the old and unnecessary elements of the kitchen. Then send those for repairing or purchase new essentials if possible as because it looks better.
The floor of the kitchen is a very important part of this renovation. It should be well decorated by using nice looking marvels or tiles which should be matched with your kitchen infrastructure and design.
The fourth step is to use the oil protected primer and paint for your kitchen as because it prevents the walls and the roof of the kitchen from the oil which is created in the kitchen during cooking. So, it should be of good quality and attractive.
Now the fifth and final step of a small kitchen renovation is to arrange the requirements of a good kitchen like a chimney, laminated cabinets, well-designed storage areas, nice looking containers, ingredients, and so on and those should have a good quality also etc. But one thing must be bear in mind that everything ought to be in its proper position.
So, in this way you can renovate your small kitchen into a well decorated and appealing family kitchen easily.…

Room Additions

What You Need To Know About Selecting The Right Moisture Absorbent

Laura

While water is very important to us, there are many situations where we simply do not want to see anymore of it. Even though our bodies are composed mostly of water, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Water can be significant problem for us if we are not careful and we should always make sure that we have the right number of moisture absorbent products around for different circumstances.
One of the best moisture absorbent materials anywhere is calcium chloride. It’s often found as an ingredient in the composite that they spray onto snow and ice with rock salt. You will also find it in medication bottles and other places as an ingredient, where unwanted moisture must be eliminated.
Calcium chloride can be good at getting rid of moisture from the air, cutting down on humidity and discouraging the formation of mold and mildew. Sometimes we need something with a little bit more ability to help us get rid of the physical presence of water. For example, we might find water leaking and seeping through the walls or floor of our basement. This we must stop at all counts.
If leaking floors and walls are not bad enough, from time to time bad weather can cause rain water or surface water to leak beneath doors. Sometimes there is not much we can do about extreme weather events other than to react and this is where we should have a moisture absorber product that is purpose made to come to our defense.
No amount of calcium chloride is going to be able to absorb the amount of water that could come into our homes during heavy weather events. This is when you need something stronger like polypropylene. If you include this super absorbent within a flexible and durable material, you have what is known in the south of the country as a hurricane sock.
You can defend yourself against extreme events with a hurricane sock and also guard against a one-off or accidental occurrence. What if your water heater springs a leak suddenly and you have to wait for a plumber to get there? In this case you need to absorb the moisture in a hurry and a typical hurricane sock made of polypropylene can take up to a gallon of water at any one time.
You might have a leak from a pipe or a water heater and don’t want to spend time mopping up with a bucket while you could be summoning somebody to help you. This is when the hurricane sock could be left in place as you head for the phone and call that emergency number.
Remember that different products are suitable for different situations. In certain instances you might turn to calcium chloride to deal with moisture, but for major leaks and accidents and weather events, polypropylene is the product of choice for your moisture absorber.…

Room Additions

The Four Greatest Myths About Eco-Friendly Timber and Bamboo Flooring!

Laura

Myth 1
“All timber is environmentally friendly”
Not true! Tradition hardwood flooring taken from oak, bluegum, brushbox and other varieties, takes between 40 to 80 years to reach harvest maturity yet most will happily live-on for hundreds of years. Because these trees take so long to grow, animals, insects and plant life all have plenty of time to use the trees for homes and shelter and become well established. This means that harvesting of these trees is very destructive to the established life in, on and around the trees.
This destruction is also a lot worse than it could be due to traditional timber being from such large and heavy trees. This means that powerful, heavy and polluting machinery and equipment are needed to harvest the trees, compounding the damage and destruction.
Myth 2
“Bamboo is not as eco-friendly as traditional hardwood timber”
Again not true! Bamboo timber (technically from the grass family), is often described as an inferior flooring product by those who don’t understand it yet it has all the properties of hardwood and takes just five years to reach harvest maturity. It is also more than double the hardness of most hardwood timbers. Due to its light weight and prolific growth it is easily harvested with far less damage done to the ecosystem and environment.
It also doesn’t require re-planting as bamboo shoots will happily sprout again, fully replacing the harvest. This means that bamboo produces about 25 times more wood per acre per year than hardwood forests and it absorbs up to four times the amount of carbon as hardwood timber (Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting).
Myth 3
“If timber or bamboo is certified as eco-friendly then it must be”
Not true! Because of the lack of enforced and other standards in many large timber and bamboo producing nations, this means that quality systems are not in place to ensure that only the best or most “eco-friendly” products are shipped. Much of the time it’s nearly impossible to assess just how eco-friendly timber and bamboo flooring is without the company selling the product clearly spelling-out the international standards their products comply with.
Myth 4
Environmentally friendly finishes are much better than traditional finishes
Not true! Many of the “environmentally friendly” finishes used on timber products such as stains and oils are great for their small environmental benefits but often are not practical when used on timber and bamboo floors. This is particularly true when they are used in high-traffic areas where they won’t tend to last more than two years. This means that they will need to be reapplied multiple times which just isn’t practical in most homes when you have to shift all your furniture out of each room that’s being treated. They are also quite a bit more expensive, costing between 30 and 40% more on average over standard finishes, so it’s another catch that you need to be aware of.…

Room Additions

Working With Kitchen Contractors

Laura

If you are going to remodel your kitchen and you are not a do-it-yourself type of person, you will probably want to hire professional kitchen contractors who will be able to take care of all of the work for you. Before you hire a contractor though, you will need to do some preliminary work.
The first thing that you will want to do is decide on the style of kitchen that you want. If you are doing a full remodel and have no idea where you should begin, you can always hire a kitchen designer who will be able to help. Write down all of the things that you want to change in your kitchen and come up with an overall idea of how you want the kitchen to look. Take your ideas, listen to what the designer has to say, and then come up with a solid plan for the kitchen. If you have no ideas of your own, see what the designer has to offer.
Once you have your plan for the kitchen, you will be able to hire the kitchen contractors you need to finish the job. You can interview different contractors and get estimates from them. Ask them any questions that you might have, such as how long the remodel should take, if they have experience with the types of flooring, counters, cabinets, and fixtures that you want, and anything else that comes to mind. Choose the contractor with whom you feel the most comfortable and offers the most experience. You want to have a good working relationship with the contractor.
Before the kitchen contractors come to start work, you will want to prepare your home. It is a good idea to lay down a pathway on which they can walk without getting the rest of the house dirty. You can use plastic, although cheap strips of carpet are a better idea because there is less of a chance that someone could slip and fall. This protects the flooring underneath as well.
Because remodeling can cause dust, you might want to have covers for any furniture that might be nearby. Move any breakables out of their path. In general, you want to make it as easy as possible for the workers to be able to do their job without worrying about damaging your home.
Remodeling a kitchen can take some time as well as effort, but if you plan early and choose a great contractor, it isn’t that hard!…

Room Additions

Tile and Stone Flooring

Laura

Tile and stone flooring ranks among the most durable of options that when installed properly can withstand the lifetime of your home and even more. Other than the inherent strength, these offer almost everything that you will ever need for a flooring that is both functional and stylish. Though these choices make up for great investments, there are still essential things about tile and stone flooring you need to know for you and your New York home to fully avail of all the possible benefits. Read on to find out and make the selection easier with information ideal whether you are in Long Island, Staten Island, Queens, Manhattan or Brooklyn.
Tile and stone flooring are basically different materials but somehow meet somewhere. Tiles are hard-wearing floor option of fired clay that comes glazed or unglazed and in a very wide range of sizes, colors, and patterns that make up for unlimited designs. Stone on the other hand is a natural material that owes its exquisite beauty and strength to time and all earthly elements. Some of the most common stone floor materials include granite, limestone, travertine, marble, slate, sandstone and limestone. Stone can also come in the form of tiles-composed of genuine aggregate attached to polymer binder, which can be a relatively cheaper alternate for pure slabs.
Stone flooring can be classified among the high-end choices but nevertheless boosts home value considerably. Though pricey, it can prove to be a great investment so ensure proper installation and hire qualified contractors to handle the job efficiently for you. Tiles offer a very varied price range with costs depending on size, material, and how they are manufactured. Ranking first among the most expensive when it comes to both labor cost and the material itself is stone tiles. Custom-made art tiles are priced around $25 or more depending on the intricacy of the designs. The cost for ceramic tiles stretch between $5 to $20 per square foot with contractor service not yet included. The cheapest you can get is opting for vinyl.
When considering your tile and stone flooring options, it is important to assess the needs and functions of the room where it will be laid out. Each choice has its own sets of advantages and disadvantages. Generally, these floor alternatives are hard with the exception of vinyl tiles that offer resilience. Though most popular when it comes to bathrooms and kitchens, they can also serve living and bedroom areas sufficiently. Certain types like unglazed tiles and marble floors can easily be stained. And the list of the pros and cons goes on, so take time and weigh things carefully to land with the best fitting choice. Other than being practical when it comes to cost and functionalities, your choice will also be a matter of personal taste.
Another very important factor to consider when selecting through your tile and stone flooring options is the long term benefits. If you plan on selling the house in months time, having stones for your …

Room Additions

Tips For Avoiding An Unpleasant Home Improvement Project

Laura

Your home requires repair work, but you are unaware of how to start. Is this you? Many people avoid starting improvements to their home as they are unsure where to begin. Hopefully you can use this article to get your home to where it needs to be.

If you plan to purchase a home, be sure to get a professional inspection. By doing this, you will know exactly what needs to be replaced or fixed. A third party who is objective provides a great way to keep relations between the invested parties civil, too.

Your kitchen remodeling budget can be reduced greatly if you opt to refinish cabinets in lieu of replacing them. A fresh stain or coat of paint, combined with a new style of hardware, can change the overall look and feel of the entire kitchen. It can give your kitchen a more modern appearance for a reasonable price.

Changing your air filters is very important. It is healthier for breathing inside the house, but it also conserves your air conditioner and heating units. Most of the time these units have issues because the filters need to be replaced.

Sometimes a small room can seem very gloomy, but it doesn’t need to be that way. Let the sun shine in! Clean your windows, and open your blinds. You’ll be shocked at how much more spacious the room appears. Keep rooms free of clutter, and choose lighter, pastel colors for your walls. Your room will feel much less crammed as a result.

If your door hinges continue to squeak after you have tried every solution in existence, you may have to simply replace them. Your local hardware store will carry what you need. Remove the current hinge and replace it with the new one that you purchased. Then, get the hinge parts aligned and put the pins back into place.

Exercise your creativity and come up with a complete home improvement plan before you start any actual work. Getting the preparation out of the way will allow you to place your focus on the work in progress when the time comes. Inspiration can come from anywhere: home improvement shows on TV, magazines, or even features that you notice in your friends’ houses.

Check someone’s references if you’re thinking about hiring them for your remodeling gig. Just imagine you’re hiring someone to work for your company. Call the references and inquire about the contractor and his work.

If you want to install a new screen for your window but are unable to find one the right size, it is simple to make one yourself. You can cut a frame kit to any size of window. After that, it is a simple matter of screen attachment with cording and a cheap tool. Although some windows may use special screens, they can still use an external screen thanks to adapters.

In short, anyone can make home improvements. You just need to educate yourself if you don’t already have experience in something. You’ve …

Room Additions

Helpful Hints For Your Home Improvment Projects

Laura

There are many reasons to work on updating and renovating your home. When you are first contemplating making improvements, however, it is easy to get overwhelmed. There are many things you can do with your current level of skills to improve the value of your home or simply make it more pleasant.

Plain lampshades can make your whole room look boring. Brighten up the room by making your own personal designs on your lamp shades and adding a bit of color. Spicing up your lamp shades will make a surprising difference in the personality of a room.

Purchasing a smaller microwave, or a microwave that you can install over the stove, is a great space-saving tip to use in a smaller kitchen. You can find these type of microwave ovens in a variety of prices. Many of them have special features like convection cooking. However, these units often only provide a recirculating filter, so if you are a cook who needs a good ventilation system, you may need to look elsewhere.

Stay away from busy fabrics when picking out furniture. If you choose a love seat with an elaborate floral print pattern, you just decided on your home decor in advance. Buy your furniture in solid tones such as green, brown, blue, black or beige and use your accessories to benefit your furniture. Pattern can be introduced through pillows, throws and other items.

To help you identify the contents of containers, hot glue a sample of the enclosed items to the containers. It will make finding what you are looking for much easier. When you’re rummaging through all your containers in search of the perfect part, it’s easy to get written labels confused.

Stop bugs from entering your home by sealing cracks. Add sealants or caulk around windows, doors and baseboards. Caulking these areas helps to keep cool air and heat from getting out.

Ask for references before hiring anyone to make home improvements. Consider this process as a business hiring an employee. You want to investigate background, and also ensure that others have been happy with the work they do.

Replacing the roof on a home is one of the largest expenses a homeowner will face. Talk to at least three different roofers to secure estimates — and call their references. There are a lot of choices available for roofing, from metal to lightweight tile, although there are still the traditional choices like composite shingles and wood shake. A good contractor can help give you options.

Houses that have an inviting view often sell for more than comparable house without such a view. You may have to invest some additional money, but you should look at it as an investment that you can reap the benefits of while you live there. Those looking to buy your home may not see this as a nice view.

The idea of home renovation and improvement doesn’t have to leave you feeling overwhelmed. Applying these tips should help you design a better home …

Room Additions

Practical Advice For Your Home Improvement Projects

Laura

Home improvement is an essential part of maintaining your home, but understanding it and buying what you need for a job can be tricky. There are many regulations, design elements and tools that you must learn about and choose from. These tips can get you started in the right direction to becoming a do it yourself expert.

As you plan a home renovation, think about the difference in value between something you personally like and something that will appeal to potential future buyers. The more personal your renovations, the less likely you will have buyers that wish to purchase it for the price of your work.

When improving your house, take the neighborhood’s character into consideration. A Victorian house on a block that is otherwise full of saltbox cottages will stick out in a bad way. If you plan for changes that will blend well with the other homes in the area, it will make the home easier to sell in the future.

You should think about solar panels as far as projects for your home. The initial outlay can be a little expensive, but over the long term this could be a very worthwhile investment. This reduces your utility bills thanks to stored energy. That’s why this natural solution is an excellent way to meet your home’s power needs.

You use the areas between ceiling rafters and floor joists to store building materials. Long or large pieces of material or molding like two-by-fours can placed somewhere inconspicuous with little effort. Simply nail a couple of furring strips across two of your exposed floor joists or rafters and slip in the material to be stored.

When a lock needs replacing, you can replace the full assembly or only the cylinder. The part that does the locking is the cylinder. When you lose a key, a cylinder replacement is a great way to re-key the lock. If you want to boost security, replace the whole lock.

It is important that your bathroom has proper ventilation. Mold will easily grow in the bathroom because there is a lot of humidity there. Simply repainting over the walls doesn’t destroy the mold. You need to take precautionary measures to stop it from ever growing. Put in a fan and clear the air for good.

When you want to replace your flooring, remember that it’s very expensive to replace the entire floor throughout the home. For certain areas of your home, you may be able to find concrete under the existing flooring. With some stain or some paint, you have a very attractive finish for little money. The stain makes the concrete have a new industrial look that can match any decor.

As you read, home improvement is incredibly important to the current and future maintenance of your home, and so is understanding all the different jobs. Having the proper knowledge will assist you as you work on your residence. Taking heed of the advice you have seen here is a good place to begin.…