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3 mins read
Custom Homes – Storage Space Can Make Or Break a New Home Design Or Home Addition
Where are we going to put everything? That’s a common question when looking at buying a new home that doesn’t have adequate storage or space. People love their stuff but hate clutter. It’s a problem that is best solved at the design stage.
As the population ages and home sizes trend smaller, storage space becomes infinitely more important when designing a new home or home addition. Even if you don’t see the need personally, it’s best to keep your home’s resale value in mind.
People love to save! And over time, people’s stuff accumulates and they grow more attached. They won’t buy a home without the storage space they need.
Give a Clear Message to Your Designer or Architect
Over the years of working with people as they get their new home or home addition concept out of their minds and onto paper, I’ve learned that it’s often difficult to convey their real needs to an architect. Their desire for space and tidiness gets trumped by the “glitter” of more visible and tangible aspects of a home’s design.
You must get specific about what you want. Don’t leave storage space up to the designer without making it very clear what you want and why. Then let your designer use her creativity to bring it about.
Specific Storage Considerations
I hope you’re convinced about the value of creating ample storage! Here are several ways to solve storage problems in your home’s design.
CLOSETS:
Both the size and number of closets are critical. Walk in closets where possible are best. Hallway closets are always desirable. Consider interior closet designs as well that really maximize the storage and use capabilities of the closets.
KITCHEN PANTRY:
The size isn’t as important as the value of having one. But the smaller the pantry, the greater the need for excellent design of the space. Separate rooms are desirable but cabinet pantries can also work.
LAUNDRY ROOM:
The laundry is not often considered as storage space but usually ends up as a storage room! For this reason, designing the laundry with storage in mind is wise.
GARAGE:
Cars, boats, RVs, and other recreational vehicles can really clutter up your property without providing for their storage. Great design can make these “toys” almost disappear. Also, with forethought, you can design in extra storage for other items at the same time.
ATTIC & BASEMENT:
Many newer homes and certain markets do not have basements and attics. If you’re designing a new home or addition, look for ways to utilize these as they can be very valuable for storage. And be sure to design in easy access to them.
Convenience and Resale Value
Keeping storage space high on your priority list will keep a great home design from going sour on you. If left to an afterthought, it’ll become all you think about later on. Don’t let that happen to you!…
3 mins read
What Flooring Will Suit Me Best For My Bathroom?
Changing the bathroom flooring is a great way to give your bathroom a new look. Bathroom flooring can give your bathroom a sense of style and a sense of comfort. There’s something about the look of new floors that can change the entire feeling of a bathroom.
There are many types of flooring that are available to consumers, but thinking of you and your family’s needs you have to choose what flooring is right for you. Think about your style, do you like bright colours or earth tones? Figure out if you are a flower lover, marble design lover or do you just like straight coloured flooring? Whatever your taste make sure that you are happy with the flooring that you choose. Since there are so many flooring options around here is a list of some popular flooring that other homeowners are talking about.
Hardwood floors have become a well known favourite for bathrooms. Most people think they are only for hallways, living rooms and dining rooms but that is false many consumers are becoming hip to hardwood bathroom floors. This type of flooring looks beautiful and is solid. Just make sure that you install it or have it installed properly with no cracks or small crevices because moisture can damage it. Most people use this type of flooring in a half bathroom.
Laminate flooring is a popular choice for bathroom flooring. This flooring comes in 5 types oak, pine, stone, travertine and slate. These types then come in different colours which opens up the range immensely. Laminate flooring is also probably the easiest flooring to clean. With laminate remember that it also has a wood base so take the same precaution as you would with hardwood floors and make sure that it is installed properly. Stone flooring can be a great flooring choice, however make sure that your finances are up to fit the style because this flooring is very expensive.
Stone flooring provides options such as marble, granite and limestone, it’s not easily damaged and it’s easy to clean. Most consumers love it because it lasts well beyond its years. Just make sure to wear socks or slippers when entering your bathroom because this flooring can be cold. Not to mention ensuring that the floor that you are putting it on is capable of withstanding the weight.
Ceramic tile flooring is the most popular choice for consumers by far in today’s market. This flooring looks great, feels great, is inexpensive to the wallet and is waterproof. Don’t forget the easy cleaning that comes with it as well. You can’t go wrong with this flooring and it’s easy to install.
That’s four extremely popular choices for your flooring. Some expensive and some much more affordable. Whatever your choice is all of them will transform your bathroom completely.…
1 min read
Choose Cork Flooring
When choosing flooring options, many people only know about wood, tile and carpet. Very few have ever considered let alone heard of cork flooring. Cork flooring is a growing trend amongst eco-friendly families and home builders alike. Houses that are aiming to Go Green are not only enjoying the beautiful natural color of cork, but the cushy, low impact that it provides.
If you are considering going green and choosing cork here are some things for you to consider:
Comfort – Cork flooring is often found in children’s playrooms, as a strong yet safe way to protect children even when they run, jump, and even come crashing down. This flooring is a natural shock absorber. Unlike hard wood and ceramic flooring, cork will absorb the impact of every step making it perfect for athletes and children alike.
Durability – If properly cared for cork will easily outlast you. Cork is a resilient material that unlike wood is not prone to scratching or chipping, making this a good choice for any busy family.
Health – If you suffer from allergies, this type of flooring may be just what you’ve been looking for. Cork will not allow mildew and mold to fester, nor does it attract dust or pollen. Cork floors are hypoallergenic and resist static electricity.
Variety – Generally less expensive than any other floor option on the market, flooring is available in virtually any color. Cork can also be purchased in planks like hardwood, or vinyl covered tiles for easier clean up.
Efficiency – Cork flooring is an excellent insulator. Keeping the warm or the cold in your home where it belong. When looking to create an environmentally friendly, energy efficient flooring option, cork is definitely the right choice for you and your family.…
3 mins read
Hey Home Improvement Fans! Make Your Home Improvement Projects Easier With These Solutions!
Smart homeowners are always looking to improve their home. Sometimes the wish list can be a mile long, but the pocket book can be a dollar short. So, just how does one achieve the goal of updating their home on a budget? Listen to the experts and you’ll be surprised to learn that home improvements don’t have to cost a fortune. Let’s take a look at a few tips for improving your home on a budget.
Install ceiling fans to disperse heat and cooling better throughout your home. During the mild seasons, ceiling fans can provide all the cooling you need. Throughout the colder winter months, your ceiling fans can spread out the warm air from your heating system faster, cutting down on expensive heating costs.
If you are looking to add some value to a property you are planning on selling, you should think about remodeling your kitchen. The kitchen is the family center. It is the single most critical factor in influencing buyers. If you recreate the kitchen in a home, the value of the home that you are trying to sell instantly increases.
Painting the interior walls of your home can be a great way to freshen up your decor. Painting is inexpensive and allows for much creativity, based on your color choices. It’s also easy to change, should you decide to go in a different direction. To add a quick and effective punch to any room just grab a can of paint and go!
Many people may see dark paneling in their rooms as a curse. However, it can be really simple to spice up your panels to make them suitable and stylish. Lightly sand your panels and paint over it with a primer. Then just apply a coat of paint in the color of your choice. This will give new life to your room as well as your dark paneling.
A real estate slump is the perfect time for homeowners to invest in renovations and additions. Homeowners can save a great deal on large projects during a slump, because contractors and other building professionals are hungry for work. Home improvements do not expire. But, renovations made in a slump will become more valuable when the housing market rebounds.
Before investing in plants for the inside of your home, take a few minutes to do your homework. Many popular houseplants are actually toxic to animals and people. Rather than selecting a plant solely on the basis of its appearance, consider whether or not young children or pets will be within reach of the plants’ leaves or flowers.
If you are looking to add some value to your home, you can create a new looking kitchen by resurfacing your cabinets. By simply sanding down the old cabinets in your home and staining them with a fresh new finish, you can increase the value of your home fairly dramatically.
Improving your home is important and even on a tight budget it can be done. In this article we …
3 mins read
The Joys of Hot Running Water
Remember the days when the idea of having running water meant one’s younger brother dashing out the door to fetch a bucket of water from the nearby spring? Probably not, but that’s not a bad thing. Oh, and if you weren’t on the water detail, then you were the one on ash duty or coal patrol which helped to stoke the fire to keep the home fires burning. And that was just the fire to heat up the hot water reservoir, which was attached to the stove, to experience that glorious sensation of a hot water bath.
It was usually a once a week experience on Saturdays and the waiting in line for one’s turn was no popcorn at the Nickelodeon thrill. It involved more than the discomfort of the cold. It involved patience, stamina, and back-breaking labor. Then, only the more modern families had the convenience of a hot water reservoir, for it was actually considered a luxury.
Water was heated by the means of the flue, from the stove’s smoke stack, passing through the hot water reservoir. The hot water was then drawn off from a faucet attached to the reservoir. Well, you get the picture. The other way to create hot water was through Grandma’s copper pot.
Grandma would be standing in front of her stove in the kitchen tending to her huge, copper pot. This 25 gallon boiler, when doing its job, became the most welcome visitor on those cold, winter nights. What with all that running, stoking and carting of the coals Grandma’s boiler would yield a fine pot of hot water. The ritual of the Saturday Night bath was born out of the necessity for cleanliness in times when hot running water was not readily available at the kitchen sink.
It had come to be expected that all would take a bath whether one needed it or not. It was most always in the kitchen close to the warmth of the coal fired cook stove. Would it have made sense to have it anywhere else? The kitchen in effect became the bathroom. Certainly a forerunner of what one has today.
But now back to the actual bath. If one was lucky he got to be the first one in, or maybe not so lucky, as he was then responsible for carrying in that old washtub that served as the receptacle for the bath. They used the term receptacle because it sure wasn’t big, let alone comfortable. The youngsters would be the first in the water.
It was not changed for each person, rather additional hot water was added until everyone had their turn. Of course, the biggest challenge was keeping the few inches of water in that tub hot. The first bathers would be the ones with the cleanest bodies. It only made sense that the last person in was the dirtiest, after all who would want to follow that episode?
Is it any wonder that those of us living in today’s modern times, …
2 mins read
Septic Tanks – Ensuring Water Quality
Understanding septic systems capabilities and limits is needed to ensure water quality. A septic system is a type of On-Site Sewage Facility and is a self-contained, underground waste-water treatment system. By using natural processes to treat the waste-water on-site, septic systems do not require the installation of miles of sewer lines, making them less disruptive to the environment. A septic system consists of a septic tank, a distribution system and a soil absorption system, also called a drain field. The septic tank is a watertight box, sometimes made out of concrete or fiberglass, with an inlet and outlet pipe. The septic tank treats the waste-water naturally by holding it in the tank long enough for solids and liquids to separate. The waste-water forms three layers inside the tank. Solids lighter than water float to the top forming a layer of scum.
Solids heavier than water settle at the bottom of the tank forming a layer of sludge. This leaves a middle layer of partially clarified waste-water. The layers of sludge and scum remain in the septic tank where bacteria found naturally in the waste-water work to break the solids down. The sludge and scum that cannot be broken down are retained in the tank until the tank is pumped. The layer of liquid flows from the septic tank to the drain field. A drain a series of trenches lined with gravel or sand and below the ground. The drain field treats the waste-water by allowing it to slowly trickle from the pipes out into the gravel and down through the soil. The remaining impurities are trapped and disposed of in the soil. The excess water is eliminated through percolation into the soil, and eventually returning to the ground water, through evaporation, and by uptake through plants and transpiration.
The Center for Watershed Protection notes that septic systems can be effective methods of water treatment, however failures are common in many areas. Even properly functioning septic systems can leak and are not designed to effectively deal with most of the phosphorus and nitrogen load found in the water it treats. Pathogenic fecal bacteria are also a concern. The primary concern for a municipality is proper maintenance of septic systems, and in some cases the total load of partially treated pollutants that can impact local drinking water and wildlife. A solid understanding of septic systems capabilities and limits, and a good government plan is needed to ensure water quality.…
2 mins read
Find Out What Your Clients Really Think About You
Right now, you’re thinking this might be a case of “be careful what you wish for.” Absolutely not-there’s nothing to fear. You need to know definitively what your clients think, and creating an annual survey is an important marketing step, especially prior to any strategic planning.
Today, with the high utilization of all forms of electronic media-much of it never even opened-it can be more difficult to know in what areas you are doing well and what areas need improvement. A survey offers you a snapshot in time that, given a good response rate, presents you with a portrait of your entire database. It’s also a great communication tool, offering one more thoughtful contact with your clients.
Doing a short survey of your current clients is quick and easy. There are free survey tools, such as Survey Monkey, Poll Daddy, and others, that help you develop your survey and then provide you with a link to include in your cover e-mail. Using a tool like this keeps clients’ responses anonymous, which is very important in order to achieve objective, useful information.
Survey etiquette dictates that you make the survey and the cover e-mail short. If you do this, you will have a higher response rate and better data returned to you.
But, before you begin writing the actual questions, determine the theme of the survey or what you would like to learn from your clients. It can be as simple as questions pertaining to obtaining repeat business from them in the future or recommending you to their family and friends. You may think you know the answer to these questions, but, more than likely, you will find some surprises and insightful responses.
You can also use your survey results to improve your brand and client interactions. Incorporating the great testimonials that come out of it and any satisfaction numbers in your marketing efforts will make your brand messaging even more powerful. For example, if close to 100% of your clients responded they would use you again and recommend you to others, you can use that to enhance your advertising message.
For some final survey etiquette, create a quick, easy-to-understand survey that takes no more than a couple of minutes to fill out. Leave space for testimonials and suggestions. Communicate a clear deadline date of when the survey will close and, if you can, offer some small incentive to complete it.…
2 mins read
Tarion New Home Warranty – Do I Need an Inspection?
Every new home in Ontario is protected by a mandatory Warranty that is provided by the Builder and guaranteed by the Tarion Home Warranty Programme. The Warranty covers deposit insurance, protection against defects in work and materials, unauthorized substitutions, delayed closings or delayed occupancy. The most common claims relate to defects in work and materials, which require homeowners to submit a list of deficiencies at 30 day and one-year deadlines.
While Builders provide a pre-delivery inspection (PDI) for buyers just before closing, these are more related to cosmetic issues such as whether the chosen flooring, cabinets, countertops, etc. are installed. Although the PDI serves a purpose it really does not cover all the systems of the house.
While a typical PDI is basically a walk through inspection and generally takes about one hour, an independent thorough inspection should take about three hours and should include such items as foundation, roofing, grading, structure, insulation, plumbing, heating and ventilation.
While most people think that buying a new house will mean everything will be perfect, it’s not uncommon to find missing insulation in the attic, poor ventilation systems or even structural issues. An example of this may be something as simple as a bathroom fan venting into the attic. This can cause serious damage when moist air meets the cold attic. If caught quickly little damage will result but a year down the road, mould, mildew and even rot may be visible on the attic sheathing and rafters.
Although buyers may believe that the Builder and the City Inspectors will have thoroughly inspected everything, this is rarely the case. The problem generally stems from the fact that there are many tradesmen following each other during construction, each with a very tight schedule. On a large site with multiple trades and many house designs in different stages of construction it’s not unusual for some things to get moved or damaged or just plain forgotten.
The average home owner can not be expected to be familiar with the complex systems of a home.
A professional Home Inspection by a Registered Home Inspector (RHI) is your best defence when it comes to protecting your investment and receiving the full benefit of the New Home Warranty program.
When choosing an inspector, those with RHI designation have extensive training and are required to conform to a strict Code of Ethics and the Standards of Practice as set out by the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors.…
2 mins read
Proper Septic Tank Emptying
Regular maintenance is a fundamental necessity for any septic tank. Even the best constructed tanks need to be inspected and repaired regularly to keep them functioning efficiently, or to keep them functioning at all. Part of the maintenance that they require is regular emptying of all the contents that they have collected since the last pumping. Primarily that consists of the sludge that settles to the bottom of the tank and the any non-biodegradable items that have found their way in there.
Solid Sludge in the Septic Tank
Too much sludge in a tank means not only that there will be less space for the incoming waste, effectively reducing the capacity of the tank, but also that the incoming waste will not have enough time to be decomposed, before more incoming water pushes the solids into the pipes. And here the solids may even clog the pipes, which will completely grind the septic system to a halt – definitely not a scenario any homeowner would want to see.
The more the sludge a septic system contains, more of these solids will escape from the tank into the Soil Absorption System (SAS). In case the SAS is clogged by this excessive sludge, the unsanitary liquids will bubble to the surface and damage the surrounding soil and environment. This will inevitably lead to septic tank failure – also not a good scenario.
Emptying the Septic Tank
Removing the sludge then becomes important to stop the solids from escaping from the septic tank into the drain field. Depending on the size of the tank, the type of construction, and the use to which it is put, different tanks require different frequency of pumping. For houses that do not have their own garbage disposal system, experts advise that pumping should be done every 1 to 3 years. For the houses that have their own garbage disposal systems, the pumping should be done every year.
By judging the past instances when pumping was carried out, focusing on whether there was enough sludge when the pumping was scheduled, or whether the pumping was done prematurely, you will have a better idea of when your tank will need to be pumped again.
Hiring the Pumper
Professional pumpers have a license from the local Health Board and these are the ones you should be hiring. After pumping they will write up a receipt describing the pumping done, including the number of gallons of sludge removed, the time taken, etc. You should keep this receipt in your records for future reference.…
2 mins read
Home Warranty Programs – Home Appliance Insurance That Meets Your Needs
When looking for a good home warranty program, which benefits and details are important to you? One of the first things that many people think about is how much the premium will be. Although this is very important, you should be careful to make sure that you are considering all of your options. I have held home appliance insurance for many years now and hopefully I will be able to give you a few pointers on choosing the best one for you.
The first thing that you should consider is how much coverage you need. The basic question that you need to ask yourself is how much risk you are willing to take. If you have a brand new home, you are probably willing to take a lot more risk than someone living in a 25 year old house with an aging heat pump or furnace. The level risk that you feel comfortable with is the basis for deciding on any insurance policy.
For example, if you feel comfortable with fixing small things around the house like leaky faucets or even a broken garbage disposal, then you would probably feel okay with having a policy that does not include small appliances and the like. But many homeowners want the peace of mind knowing that they don’t have to worry about how and when their appliances will get repaired if they have a breakdown.
Another thing to consider is the cost of a repair of a particular appliance. Many of the insurance policies will cover small things like microwaves. If you have a small stand alone microwave, then the replacement cost will be very minimal these days. But on the other hand if you have a built in microwave that functions as a ventilation hood and lighting for your cook top, then the replacement costs could be substantial.
Believe it or not, there are so many appliances and systems in your home that you can repair or replace yourself with very little know how. If I have a problem with something, I always Google it to see if I can fix it myself. Many of the mega home improvement warehouses are also a wealth of knowledge for the do it yourself repair person.
Here is the main reason why people feel that they need to buy a home warranty; the fear of having to replace or repair their HVAC system. Replacement of your heat pump or air conditioner could cost several thousand dollars. The risk of having this type of failure is more than people want to deal with. That is where these types of home warranty programs offer peace of mind and will serve you well.…