You've probably never hung a door or shingled a roof. That’s why problems are scary. We share concepts, terminology so you can make smart decisions about your home ... with confidence!
How we live at home is changing. More people are working at home, there's home schooling and we’re integrating indoor & outdoor spaces as we spend more time at home. Get ideas for your home.
With Pinterest, Houzz and so many shows about home improvements, it's natural to have a wish list. We share our ideas, your homeowner stories and support you in achieving your dreams.
Your home is a huge investment when you buy it, plus monthly operating costs like utility bills. We help you spend less, get more value & build homeowner equity (like a savings account).
You want your home to be well-insulated to reduce the cost of heating and air conditioning. Equally important is the need for proper ventilation to ensure that moisture and heat can escape from your attic to avoid problems with mold and/or ice dams. Ridge vents (also called roof vent systems), working in combination with soffit vents, are the key home features that provide your attic with the ventilation you need. [Learn More…]
We all love watching birds and get excited when they visit us at home. One instance where homeowners would rather not have birds is when woodpeckers look for bugs in their fascia boards, leaving ugly holes in the wood. What I can't tell you is whether bird houses will prevent this damage (but I love them). When my handyman business repaired a fascia board (and barge boards on the gable ends), we always recommended replacing the wood with a composite.
So here are photos showing where a fascia board is found on a house. [Learn More…]
When picking a builder in Florida, I had the opportunity to ask the building supervisor questions. One of the most important questions was “… tell me the three best ways to make the house more energy efficient”. Based on this discussion, I agreed to pay a surcharge for a radiant barrier on the roof. While I understood the value of radiant barriers (read: Home Heating Concepts), I had no experience with radiant barriers. I was surprised then to learn [Learn More…]
When you're planning a new kitchen, you spend hours on the layout of the kitchen, the cabinet style and color, the counter tops and special features like a pull-out trash can. Yesterday we finalized my kitchen layout for my new house, yeah! So it was time to pick the cabinet hardware but that's not as easy as you think. [Go Explore…]
Home entertainment keeps the winter blues at bay. But there’s more to creating a great room than mounting a TV on the wall and adding a sofa or two. Take your cues from activities that your family enjoys. Whether it’s billiards or video games, your retreat from the world can become the most popular spot in the house! [Go Explore…]
Most homeowners only dream about their ideal kitchen. Rarely do we get to design our own kitchen unless we build a new house or remodel the kitchen. Having built a custom house and remodeled several kitchens over the years, I thought this would be easy but it's not. The kitchen cabinet plans for my new house are more challenging because there are so many gadgets for cabinets today. [Go Explore…]
Florida isn't a place I ever expected to live. But once my children put roots down there, you could say … my perspective changed. Over the last 10 years, I've watched the building of thousands of new homes around Orlando. Visits to model homes and open houses were made out of curiosity and/or photo taking for this blog. Now that I'm building a house, here's the timeline [Start Dreaming …]
You probably know where there's concrete in your house. Your foundation might be poured concrete or you house might sit on a concrete slab like my house being built in Florida (pictured above). What you're probably not as familiar with are the somewhat strange, thin metal bars that are buried in the concrete to make it stronger. The rebar above looks rather funny too [Start Dreaming …]
Block walls going up but lintels not installed yet …
The exterior walls of a house and some interior walls are known as load bearing walls. That's because they support the ceiling, the floors above and everything up to the roof of your home. Where there are doors and windows in these walls, lintels are the structural support beams that span the opening in a house built from concrete blocks. Lintels sit on top of the vertical supports on either side of the opening. [Start Dreaming …]
Do you know how often you write out your home address? Maybe you're smart and carry those cute little address stickers which save you time? What you probably don't understand is how your home address is being tracked and even sold by businesses across the US. Like many aspects of our lives, we take our home address for granted while understanding it's importance.
Even though I've moved 14 times since graduating from college, I never understood the problems [Save More…]
Completing a mortgage application is never easy, even if you've done it before! You'll have to submit lots of documents and waste hours finding the necessary documentation, scanning pages and pages so ultimately you can upload all these documents to the lender you've picked. You can fight the bureaucracy or recognize that reviewing your financial health has benefits too.
Ready to look at your financial health from the perspective of a lender? [Save More…]
When you buy a house, your lender asks for proof of insurance. They also require an appraisal that supports the purchase price, What has always surprised me is neither the lender or the insurance company require a home inspection or ask for the report. And I never understood why my State Farm agent would personally take photographs before issuing coverage.
So I was surprised when a reader told me her insurance company inspected her home years. She asked for help so here's what I've learned talking to my personal insurance agent plus research online [Save More…]
