20 Great Home Improvement Tips

For Saving Time, Money & Frustration

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Renovating and maintaining your home can be quite a challenge, especially if you’re not a professional contractor or only own a few basic tools. To help homeowners like you get the most out of their home improvement projects and make their homes better, I’ve compiled a list of 20 helpful tips. Keep them handy and refer to them when needed.

1. Insulate the rest of your home. Wherever possible, add more insulation to your home. If you're already taking flooring or ceilings out, take the opportunity to add some extra padding. Floors make it possible for 15 percent of your heating or cooling to escape, while walls can lose around 35%.

2. Find hidden space inside your bathroom. Since this is a space that can always

use more floor space and more storage, find both of them by using the space between your wall studs. Recess a tall storage cabinet into the wall so that you'll save floor space and yet still benefit from lots of vertical storage. For best results make the depth a minimum of 3 inches and ensure that the cabinet door will be flush with the wall. And if you’d like some buying advice about various bathtubs and showers, such as free standing bathtubs or showers for disabled persons, visit Bathtubs For Sale at http://bathtubsforsale.org.

3. Buy a butcher block countertop made of maple to save money.

Butcher block countertops offer a warmth and jaw-dropping elegance that even some of the best stone countertops can't match. In addition, they are very durable. But if you love the idea of installing a butcher block countertop and your budget is a little tight, then go with the maple wood version. You'll find that it'll cost $40-$60 per square foot, as opposed to the cherry or mahogany wood versions that can cost nearly double.

4. Use chalk or pencil lines to create your tile design before you decide to lay it.

By marking the wall with guidelines to show you where your tiles will be laid, you can both make sure that you will like the pattern you've chosen for the space, and you can take care of spacing problems in advance, instead of being forced to place tile slivers where you don't want them.

5. Let your contractors know ahead of time if you don't want smokers inside

your home. If you don't, you run the potential risk of having smokers smoking cigarettes and adding smoke stains and odors to your house. You'll need to spend money on washing the walls, floors, carpets, drapes, and soft surfaces to prevent your house from smelling like a pub.

6. Soak painting tools in fabric softener to get rid of latex paint. After you've

completed your latex painting job, you can save all of your painting tools like brushes and rollers by soaking them in a combination of water and fabric softener for ten minutes. After that time, swish them around, rinse them off, and wipe off the excess moisture to air dry them. This means that you can use them all again for your next project, saving you money.

7. Give some thought to countertop surfaces and backsplashes that are eco-friendly. Many people are now choosing bamboo for this reason, but others are realizing that Formica, Corian, and other types of solid surfacing and laminate can also be eco-friendly alternatives, as long as you select the right ones. Other choices can also include recycled glass and bamboo butcher block countertops.

8. Treat your garbage disposal only to food it likes. To make sure that your

garbage disposal has the longest life and doesn't require regular repairs, only provide foods that are easy to grind. Avoid tossing stringy, hard-to-grind, or stringy items that will only cause it to clog or jam. This includes chicken skin, banana peels, celery and carrot sticks, parsnips, orange peels, most gourds (such as pumpkin or squash) and other similar items. You'll save time, money, and frustration this way. Don't forget to run water for several seconds into the disposal after it's done, to flush the pipes.

9. Make only cosmetic changes on areas that are still in good condition. If your

doors, windows, railings, etc., are in good condition, you will spend merely a tiny proportion of the money by simply repainting them or making other cosmetic changes (such as the door hardware) that you would have spent if you replaced them entirely.

10. Hire an energy auditor. There are qualified companies that will provide you

with a complete scan of your house and can help you to make the right eco-friendly options to make sure that your home is as energy efficient as it could possibly be. From insulation to the type of windows, flooring, furnace, and ac you have, the auditor may have many tips to assist you. This is a superb way to add ideas to the planning for your eco-friendly renovation.

11. Use your home as a design guide. Whether you're coming up with the style for

your dream kitchen or your perfect bathroom spa, don't forget to think about the house as a whole prior to choosing your style. If you have a Victorian-style house, a contemporary bathroom might look jarring. Similarly, if you live in a modern art deco home, a country style kitchen may never look right. Make sure that your renovation suits the character of the building so that it won't make the rest of the home look off, dated, or mismatched, leading you to have to change it sooner.

12. Use steel doors for the basement rooms. Though you might already have a steel

door leading to your garage (as per building codes) or as your exterior door for security, they're also very practical for separating basement rooms. This is because they won't warp due to moisture level changes, they provide better insulation to control heat loss, they stop drafts, and they are fireproof. Though they may be slightly more expensive, they can prevent problems in all of those areas. And visit this link if you’d like some basement decorating ideas.

13. Renovate instead of tearing down the structure and beginning again. When you're debating whether it would be better to just raze the place and start over, or to renovate certain areas, the green choice is to renovate, as there will be far fewer wasted materials, less power required, and less fossil fuels needed to run the large equipment.

14. Buy the right backing for basement flooring. Though it is possible to lay some

kinds of floor - like ceramic tile - right on base cement, it is not recommended that laminate, carpeting or hardwood be put in right onto the cement surface. Instead, increase the life of your flooring and improve your basement insulation by installing an OSB (Oriented Stran Board) sheet subfloor that has a foam backing.

15. Wear a respirator or a mask. They may be uncomfortable, but HEPA

respirators can help to save you from sucking in dust that may contain a variety of different kinds of chemicals, asbestos, paint flecks, lead-based paint, drywall dust containing gypsum, and other materials that can cause you to get sick, or - at a bare minimum - provide you with a sore throat and cough.

16. Research prices for appliances. Wait for sales, shop clearance sections, and

look for discontinued products for significant savings. If you want home appliances that work very nicely but that are "slightly irregular", then you can choose items that have an open box label or a small scratch and you will often save 40 to 60 percent. These items may have a very small mark, but their guarantee will still be intact. You can also get great deals on other areas of your kitchen, including kitchen island designs and butcher block countertops.

17. Decide on the opening direction of the door. Once you've installed your door

jamb, make sure that you cut out notches on the correct side of the wall so that the door opens how you want it to. This may not seem like it is all that important, but when your door opens in the wrong direction, you'll realize the importance of this time and effort saving step.

18. Purchase the correct fasteners to build your deck. Check your local building

codes to find out if there is a specific type of galvanized or metal screw required for use with pressure treated wood. Some metals cause wood to corrode so that the joints of the structure will weaken in time. By using the correct fasteners, you'll avoid unnecessarily wasting your time and money.

19. Choose carpet designs geared to the room. The color and pattern of the carpet

can make a significant difference in the way a space looks. In rooms which are highly used, choose a pattern which will disguise stains. Patterns can also bring intimacy to a larger room. Consider stripes for little rooms to make them appear longer or wider. This will save money on more extensive renovations or decorating.

20. Have a focal point. Whether for interior decorating or creating the layout for landscape design, the area should have a focal point. This can be a fireplace, an oddly shaped tree, or perhaps a distinctive piece of furniture. Decide on your focal point and build the remainder of the space around it. This will give a look of cohesion and will make sure that everything is tied together. Visit this link for some great living room decorating ideas.

Additional Recommended Resources - Interior Painting Ideas - Kitchen Paint Ideas - Paint Color For Bedrooms - Kitchen Islands For Sale - Custom Kitchen Islands

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For information, news, and advice about kitchen islands, carts, cabinets, countertops and more, visit our consumer guide at… http://kitchenislandsforsale.org/