Second only to kitchens, bathrooms are the next most popular rooms on a homeowner’s remodeling wish list. Although they are the smallest room in the house, bath makeovers can provide an excellent return on investment when you sell. Many studies agree that the return on investment is around 80%. There are many ways to remodel…

  Details add a sense of personal style to your bathroom; select items that stand out and make a statement! Light fixtures, mirrors, pulls & knobs, robe hooks, faucets and towel racks are not just practical necessities, but opportunities to pull your bath’s style together and impress visitors. This photo shows a Bellingham remodel; note…

Meals get made much faster when you can quickly find the ingredients you need. A well designed pantry storage puts all your kitchen supplies in instant view. It is much easier to have almost all your food options in one place instead of going through lots of cabinets to see if you have this or…

Tile in kitchens is used primarily for flooring and for a countertop backsplash. The purpose of said backsplash is more than just functional. Sure, it will protect the wall and provide an easy-to-clean surface that is subject to splatters, but they can be so much more. With materials like hand painted tiles, speckled stones, opalescent…

How do you use your kitchen? Think about that and then decide where task lighting should be. When designing lighting for cooking, be sure to have adequate brightness as well as a good distribution of light around the kitchen and in specific work areas. Ceiling lights can provide the brightest overall lighting, but you will…

You might think this is a simple selection; one basin or two? But oh, no, this is a far more complex decision than that! Issues involve: Material selection Drop-in or undermount Farmhouse style or apron front sinks Number of basins Number of holes Dimensions Material: Enameled cast iron or steel sinks come in a wide…

If your kitchen is small, designing the best layout to maximize your small kitchen makeovers can be a challenge. Knocking out a wall is not always do-able in a smaller or older home. If your yard space or budget is tight, adding on may not be an option either. A professional kitchen contractor can help…

If you have an older home, your toilets may be the old 3.5 gallon per flush (gpf) type. These waste a lot of water, and cost you on your water/sewer bill. Think about how many times a day they are used. Not only will a new toilet look great, but modern ones use much less…

Budget and lot sizes may keep you from adding square footage onto your home, but that doesn’t mean you can’t improve the way you use your home. Many homes have basements that are notoriously under-used. They may be unfinished, or they may serve as an unofficial storage room cluttered with items you rarely use. They…

Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies published a report this month titled “Housing America’s older adults – meeting the needs of an aging population”.  It is interesting from several viewpoints; one, confirming that in the next 15 years, 1 in 5 Americans will be age 65 or older, and second, “What does this matter to me?”…

If your home is not up to what it could be, and you shudder at the idea of having workers sawing, painting and nailing for months at a time, consider remodeling on an incremental basis. It’s not only easier on your home life, but easier on your wallet as well, as you spread the costs…

When it comes to remodeling, you really don’t want to be doing it during the holidays. Since it takes a lot of planning ordering of materials, getting started well ahead of vacations and family gatherings is a sound policy. There are many styles and trends in kitchen design, but it is important to think about…

In recent years households have been moving toward more flexible uses of space. This includes an open space layout, often with informal family space integrated into kitchen space. Informality in home layouts also has become more popular. Not insignificantly, the trend toward opening up the interior of the home with fewer walls dividing spaces, tends…

Basements can be dark, unpleasant spaces, but a thoughtful remodel can create an attractive space for both recreational activities and storage. Who couldn’t use more storage? Speaking of great ideas like organized storage (where you can actually find what you’re looking for), what about adding either a full bath or a powder room in the…

Upgrading your kitchen is one of the most noticeable – and enjoyable – changes you can make to your home. To start, do your research! A kitchen has many features and functions, and there are thousands of options. You can easily become overwhelmed with the vast array of choices, so do not rush into any…

If you have ever wanted more than a BBQ on the deck, consider having an outdoor kitchen built. Today’s outdoor kitchens are increasingly a mirror of their indoor counterparts, with a variety of amenities that were unheard of just a few years ago. Eliminate the need to go back and forth from the house to…

Countertops wear out, as they are heavily used, and don’t get me started on what teen-agers with kitchen knives and block of cheese will do to the countertop. Cutting boards? Who needs those? So you could probably use a new countertop. Price varies tremendously, depending on the material chosen. Countertop materials are chosen not only…

Do you love to soak in the bathtub? Many people are so busy they are all about the shower; even a spa-like steam shower probably does not take us as much time a relaxing soak in the tub, ergo, many are opting for the shower. However, maybe there are really only two kinds of people…

A beautiful tiled shower tends to be a centerpiece of a bathroom. While a tub is often still included, an eye-catching shower will become the focal point and often sets the tone of your design. The right shower can turn your bathroom into a home spa, a sleek modern design statement, or a classic traditional…

Everyone can use more space. Just look at garages with doors open, as you drive down a residential street this summer. It’s not just the concept of better storage; a house can feel too small, just because most of your possessions are out in the middle of the room, on countertops, or shoved up against…

This is one of the goals for most of us when considering our ideal kitchen. Who wants to spend half their time in the kitchen cleaning? So, let us consider what would make a kitchen easy to maintain. Flooring: Vinyl (also called resilient flooring) feels more comfortable if you must spend a lot of time…

Think about your bathroom and how you use it? Don’t get weird now, the questions are: Do you mostly take quick showers and run off to work? Or do you like to have long soaks in your oversize tub with candles and maybe a glass of wine? If the bathroom is a place where you…

Topping the annual ROI list in 2014 has been, surprisingly, a new steel front door; up to as much as 96.6 percent return on investment when the home is sold. A less expensive option if your front door doesn’t need replacing, is a quick paint job, which will make the entryway – the first thing…

Universal Design (UD) is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. You might think of it as Better Living Design. It does not mean every home should have a wheelchair ramp. It does mean that a home…

When people say that the devil is in the details, they mean that small things in plans and schemes that are sometimes overlooked can cause serious problems later on. There is no place where this is more evident than in home remodeling; after all, it is impossible to see what is behind a cabinet or…