House Remodeling Tips

Planning Steps before Renovation

Simon — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:00:17 +0000

1. Money – How much are you willing to spend on kitchen renovation. Money is important and so is our budget. Know the limits of your budget and how much you are willing to spend for your dream kitchen renovation project, for a better estimation of renovation plans and materials that would best suit your budget.

2. Time – How much time are you willing to spend on the project will you still be able to go about on your work and other personal stuff. Create an attainable schedule which comfortable and beneficial to you and your project.

3. Design – Do a research on designs and layout that you would like to incorporate on your kitchen renovation project and work out a plan

4. Consultation – Consult a Interior Designer to work out you ideas and design including the time and budget of the project.

Remodeling your apartment

editor — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:47:57 +0000

Apartment living can pose many challenges to the occupants. For one thing, you have no other choice but to live with whatever fixtures you find in your rented place. You have very limited space and you have to make do with whatever room your home can offer you.

So now, you are thinking of remodeling your apartment. Since you are just renting the area, you cannot really remodel it all the way because it is not your own. Therefore you can only execute a little modification here and there. And because of this limitation, you may as well concentrate on the furnishings, the lighting and other accessories to give your home a little touch of change. You can highlight a room, for example, by means of a special lighting system that can give the whole area a touch of elegance. Changing your furniture too, is a good way of splashing up your room with new colors.

Napkin Art

Simon — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:00:37 +0000

Fancying for some pieces of fabulous artwork but don’t have the money to buy it just yet? Check your linen drawers. You might just find something there.
Materials:

18” x 18” (or larger) cloth table napkin/s
14” x 14” wood frame (used for canvas paintings)
Large wire stapler

How to make it:

Make sure that linen napkin is free of wrinkles and creases. Iron out first if possible.
Position the napkin with the wrong side up on a flat surface.
Place the wood frame on top, right at the center of the napkin.
Fold one corner up into a “hospital corner” (one end tucked in to create a 45-degree fold); staple fold onto the frame to secure.
Repeat the same procedure on the opposite diagonal side. Make sure that napkin is tightly stretched.
Repeat procedure for the remaining sides.
Secure the fabric wrapped on all four sides of the frame by stapling it (again, make sure the napkin is properly stretched!).

Tip:
You can also do this to other fabrics that you find lying idly around your house. Make sure to cut them into sizes that will fit standard wood frames.

(Taken from Real Living magazine, Volume 5, Number 6)

Its all about research

editor — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:34:28 +0000

Decorating one’s home is an exciting prospect. We all know that the interiors of our house are extensions of our personalities, so it only makes sense to invest a lot in it. Research is a prime factor for a good home interior. We can buy clothes at whim but unfortunately so, we cannot do the same with our house motif, imagine renovating the looks of your place and not being satisfied in the end, that would indeed be a waste of time, energy and money! We recommend you browse magazines to enhance your idea of what your house should look like. Cut out pictures and make a collage, it is important to have a concrete pattern of what it is you want.

Skylight express

Yra — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:20:22 +0000

Skylights are a beautiful way to bring in natural light and fresh air into a room. They can be ventilated and can be opened, or fixed and always closed. How many you need depends on the climate in your area. Skylights can pose design, security and energy challenges, so you should plan ahead. Positioning can be tricky. Problems such as leakage if the joints are not tightly sealed, breakage and losing solar gain in winter can cause you to spend more on replacement and heating and cooling. In some cases, tubular skylights, which are narrow and use a mirror , may be more practical. Choose solar heat control glazing instead of plastic glazing and single-pane glass, as heat-absorption tints, low-emissivity coatings and insulating glazing conserve energy.

Image from www.veluxusa.com

Put some life into it

editor — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:37:44 +0000

Plants can breath life to any dead zone, and the latter is exactly what your house would be if it’s too urbanized. Besides, real plants look more beautiful and are generally less expensive than fake ones. Have a flower vase, flowers uplift our spirits and it’s not particularly pricey. If you can afford to pay for a spa, a salon or a massage, you can afford to make your home more organic. Oh and do give yourself the leisure of caring for your greens yourself, you’d find that they happen to be living creatures too, capable of love even, in fact, they are known to neutralize negativity in their area.

Reuse plastic

editor — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:38:44 +0000

C’mon! Let’s help save the environment so that we can have global heat reduction. You can do this by putting those original ideas to great use by making mats, rugs and other home decorations with the use of plastic. You can surf the net for easy to follow step by step procedures. You’d be surprised how good it would turn out to be, it won’t look cheap at all. The best part of doing this is that you get to inspire other people to contribute to society’s waste management. At the same, be sure to invest in green technology, just make sure that you get the genuine ones as there have been a lot of fake ones in the market recently.

Consult expert opinion

editor — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:39:43 +0000

Because whether you like it or not, it pays to ask before you start moving or worse, breaking things. Best to invite an interior decorator and a carpenter to asses your home, they will give you sound advice with regards to the technicalities of your place. These people will also be able to give you insights with regards to the products to purchase best according to the style you intend to pull off. But don’t deviate from what you really want just because they don’t agree, it’s your house after all. Better to regret doing what you wanted than live off on somebody else’s preference.

Earthen Structures Making a Comeback

Simon — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:49:44 +0000

Though considered a novelty and as application of knowledge from days gone by, earthen structures designed with all modern amenities but using straw and earth for their walls are proving to be some of the best and cheapest building materials in rural areas where natural climate control is desired. many studies of these structures have shown that when they are improved on ever so slightly with modern materials, they have longevity that rivals if not far exceeds modern building materials that needs a lot of maintenance and care. There is however one downside, you’d have to consider living with earth colored walls, void of the rich colors of modern homes hence they lose their environmentally friendly and natural insulating capabilities. A true departure from the traditional home coated and sprayed with paint all over, replaced with good and all-natural dirt.

Insulating The Home – Saving Big on Electricity

Simon — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:33:23 +0000

Insulation unbeknownst to most needs some maintenance for them to maintain effectiveness in terms of keeping us insulated from the extremes of weather. From heating in the winter months to cooling in the summer, insulation is part of an effective energy saving strategy that if used in conjunction with native flora and fauna can indeed become a good climate control measure in and around the home. Plants indoors also helps with maintaining proper moisture and oxygen levels, plants being good filters of contaminants in the air and readily absorbs carbon dioxide we exhale is a wonderful way to help the world as it copes with global warming through natural methods, augmented by insulation in the home for better climate control measures that really count.