Why Do Home Improvements?

If the affects of mother nature alone aren't sufficient to make the need for home improvements obvious then consider the adage "Keeping up with the Jone's". Now I'm not suggesting that we are a materialistic society but the thought has crossed my mind more than once. Since the days of the Fuller Brush Man in my youth people have always been coming up with gadgets or telling me this or that product is something I NEEDED to make my life easier. We are inundated by advertisers today that persuade us to spend, spend, and spend. Do we all need granite counter tops, whirlpool tubs, plasma TV's, central air conditioning, travertine tile floors and stainless steel appliances? The answer is obviously , NO! BUT "they" would have us think otherwise. Who are "they" anyway? The trend setters in home improvement are, in my opinion, those who develop the products and then pitch those products to the designers of todays home builders nationwide. The trade shows are the proving grounds for the newly developed products. If they can catch the eye of enough of the designers and convince them that their product should be considered in their designs and those designers find them appealing you have the beginning of a possible trend which trickles down to you and I. My being right or wrong on this issue is not the point. What is obvious to us all is that the avacado green and harvest gold appliances of the 60's has been supplanted by the sleek industrial/commercial look of stainless steel . The proliferation of home improvement shows on cable and satellite television has us all dreaming of those high end commercial grade kitchen appliances, granite countertops and travertine floors. Can we go any further? Jetson's here we come!

I for one have enjoyed 30 years in the remodeling and home improvement industry and I must admit that it is precisely due to the ever changing styles that my interest and love for the work has continued. If these trends did not occur I'd probably be out of a job or at the very least I'd be sick at looking at harvest gold and avocado green appliances. Fortunately, not everyone gets sucked into having what everbody else has but realistically things do wear out and upgrades and modern improvements of home products necessitate change. We realize that trends are cyclical as well. I have installed a lot of sea foam green tile in recent years and that wasn't even in fashion when I started in this business. But instead of being ceramic based it is now glass! What goes around comes around they say. I believe that to a point.

Home improvements are a necessary part of home ownership because of the trend factor. Buyers are always wanting what is currently in vogue. Again, this is driven by model home designs, home improvement shows, in our local communities and the already mentioned TV shows. If you are thinking of selling your home one of the first critics you experience is your agent telling you what your home should be marketed for, based on its current condition. The more in line you are with home improvement trends, the more your agent will assess its value and conversely, the more outdated it appears to be, compared to the trends of the day, the less they will say it is worth. Because they know that who ever buys your home is going to be looking for those stainless steel appliances and granite counters. Oh, and did I mention the vaulted or 9 or 10 ft ceilings?

Their is nothing wrong with making home improvements. I encourage it. It is what I do. I might add, I am quite good at it if I do say so myself. Whether you take on projects yourself to save money or because you are "handy" and enjoy working with your hands when not stareing at a computer screen ,then I say go for it! Our homes are lived in and that implies wear and tear. There is nothing wrong with replacing worn out vinyl with travertine or cracked 6 x 6 ceramic tile with solid surface countertops. I find many of my customers today are wanting to compromise in their home improvement projects. Due to the cost of resale homes and new homes, if the upgrades are not already installed it can be quite costly to bring an older home in line with current trends. Home improvements are therefore done on a priority basis or what will bring the biggest return on the money expended. Instead of new cabinets, clients will "reface" existing surfaces to save, but this will allow them to have the budget for the granite tops they desire. There are a lot of trade offs you can make without breaking the bank. A good designer can offer many alternatives. A lot of information can be gleened from the internet as you are hopefully experiencing on this site.

We do home improvements to hopefully add value to our homes, if and when we sell, to maintain our investment, and I believe, most importantly, to improve the quality of our lives and to make our home a place we love to come home to and be with our families. May your home improvements be enjoyable!

What Elements Affect Home Improvements?

Why do home improvements? A simple question with many answers. So lets consider a few of them.

• Everything man made has a "useful life". Just how long that life is will be determined not only by the composition of its materials but to what exposure those materials are subjected. A car stored in a garage is able to keep that new car shine a lot longer than the one which is parked on the street. My dad came from Michigan and my wife from Minnesota, they say a car without rust doesn't exist more than a single winter. A homes worst enemy is moisture whether inside or out, second on the list in my opinion is the sun and I believe temperature fluctuations is the third worst offender, which is obviously related closely to the the amount of sun or lack there of.
  We can't do much to control the weather but we are certainly capable of applying proven practices to minimize its affect upon our homes. One of the easiest home improvement projects to consider would be drainage control. Maintaining or controlling "sheet flow" of ground water after a heavy rain is critical to the longevity and comfort of your home and all you may need is a shovel to save you thousands of dollars. The optimum word here is "grade". That is the lay of the land so to speak. Consider your home to be the top of the hill or the highest point if it is built on any kind of slope. Your objective is to keep the water flowing away from or around your home at all cost to effectively reduce the chance of water infiltration. When a home is first built inspections are made by local officials who inspect for a proper perimeter grade of your home. At the time of a building final it is rare to have the landscaping completed and this is where the problems can often begin. You have a brand new beautiful home and then you hire a landscaper to install your lawn, driveway, walkways, planter boxes, sand box, patio etc. all the things that make a house a home and the very next winter or spring as the rains begin to fall you come to find puddles or pools of standing water in planting beds between the house and the walkway or water running toward the house as opposed to away from it. By this time the inspectors are long gone and the builder or landscaper are no where to be found. If left to its own the water will do one of two things either evaporate in due time and or find a way to get in or under your house. If it evaporates it's not a problem other than perhaps providing a breeding place for mosquitoes but if it goes under there are many possible problems that can arise not the least of which would be settling of the foundation and all the ramifications attached to the things that sit on top of that portion of your foundation. Despite what you may think concrete is porous and depending on the integrity of the concrete placement at the time your home was built "hairline cracks" are pathways to your homes interior. It won't take but a season or two until you discover that the water has found these points of infiltration and the "fun" begins. So what can you do as a new home owner of a new or existing home? Take a good look at the grade around the home. You should have a minimum of 6 inches of concrete showing between the grade and the finish siding materials what ever the material. The only possible exception would be a masonry clad exterior such as a brick veneer but even then the level of the soil should never be above the weep holes on the exterior veneer; to do so is inviting trouble. Avoid planting vegetation which requires high water demands or has invasive root systems close to the house. The grade should slope away from the house to some degree and that degree will be determined by the nature of the soil itself. A majority of the homes in California are built with eaves but this has nothing to do with the slope of the land so don't think that because the eaves extend beyond the foundation you have nothing to worry about. It's the lay of the land that counts. Walk your perimeter and make that first home improvement project pay for itself in sweat equity by sloping the land away from the house. If it is an older home that has had years of vegetation and additives added to the grade this may be a big job but well worth the effort.
• I have to admit I love the sun. My mother would scrub the back of my neck when I was a child thinking I was dirty until she realized that I was just a "browner" that is, I tanned quickly. The sun can wreck havoc on a home; at the very least it minimizes that "useful life" of the materials it falls upon. Roofing shingles, paint, caulking, windows, doors, siding, trim even the fasteners used to hold them all together are all affected by the sun. Look at the fine print on any of the product labels mentioned and they will tell you the length the product is expected to last all because of the aging affects of the sun and water exposure to which they are subject. The rule here is to use the best products you can afford when doing home improvements. If you are buying a home being sold by a "flipper" you can be sure he is thinking just the opposite unless of course he has factored the higher cost of the materials and has actually used those upgrades in the restoration of the home you are thinking to buy. If he offers a home warranty chances are they have not cut too many corners.
• Never having lived in the midwest but having a parent and spouse that did, I can't imagine the extremes they experienced in temperature. When my wife was in high school and the weather hit 30 degrees the kids would come to school in T-shirts and blue jeans thinking it was a heat wave after the subzero days of winter they had to endure. I guess it's all relative. But temperature extremes can be harmful to the home no matter where you live. To much heat will dry your roofing materials out long before the package label says it will last. Paints will crack and blister, wood will check and crack. The point here is you want to watch for signs of product failure. It's important to walk your roof or have it inspected regularly. A nail that pops through the shingles due to temperature extremes will provide a point of entry for the rains. A failed paint will allow water to enter and affect the materials to which it is applied be it wood, plastic or metal. Caulking that seals joints around windows and doors can permit water infiltration and subsequent water damage or dry rot conditions. Bottom line here is to make regular visual inspections of all exterior surfaces and effect the repairs that will prevent the possible damages and maintain the value of your investment.

There are many other subjective factors that influence our decision to do home improvements but the exposure of our homes to the elements is primordial. The last I heard was they have not invented an economical house garage yet!

DIY or HIRE

You have made the decision to perform a home improvement project. You now have two options: doing it yourself (DIY) or hiring the work out ( friend, handyman, tradesman, or licensed full time contractor specializing in residential home improvements).

Let's say for the sake of argument you want to do the home improvement project yourself a DIY. Here are the things to consider as a DIY home improvement specisalist:

• What will be my project?
• What is my budget?
• Do I have the skills to be successful or the patience to learn them befor I start?
• Do I have the tools to do the home improvement or know where I can rent/borrow them?
• How long do I anticipate this project to take?
• Do I have the time to complete my home improvement without delays?
• Do I need plans?
• Do I need a permit?
• Where can I get my materials?
• Do I need to order materials ahead of time so that they are available when I am ready to start?

If you feel you have a handle on all of these questions then you are ready to be a DIY home improvement specialist! If you have reservations about your skill level start with small projects where material costs are minimal and errors won't require you to call in an "expert" to fix your mistakes. Here are a few examples that you might conisder as a first time DIY home improvement project:

• Painting walls- start with interior and when you are confident move outside, exterior work uses different paints, more preparation, heavier tools, irregular surfaces, environmental conditions etc.
• Window treatments- curtains, blinds, pre made valance, off the shelf type things that only require a screw driver, tape measure and a level. Adds hominess, sophistication, and warmth to your environment.
• Shelving (pre manufactured)- great for extra storage, display or to add aesthetic appeal to a blank wall. Here's where you may start acquiring tools i.e. stud finder, cordless drill etc.
• Closet organizer system- who really doesn't like to know where they put things? Your spouse will appreciate being able to share the space with the added room you will generate. It's a great selling feature in any home.
• Wallpaper- here is where the line begins to be fuzzy with respect to DIY home improvemant projects because hanging "paper" is not what it was when I was growing up. If you read the instructions and use the specified adhesives, if not prepasted, you'll be fine. Remember this: If you are doing this for resale think twice, chances are your tastes won't match your buyer's... stick with paint. If you are doing this to dress up a nursery or child's room go for it. Chances are your kids will participate in picking it out and it will be what they like (themeatic) and as they grow older, and assuming you are going to stay in the same home for awhile, you will replace it for something more age appropriate; another project for another day.
• Cabinet hardware- specifically knobs and pulls. It's amazing how this simple feature change can add contemporary styling and upgrading to the look of your kitchen even though the cabinetry stays the same. Big bang for the buck and the only tool needed may be just a screw driver depending on your selection.

On the other hand if you have the funds but are short on time but have the vision and can relate that idea to another, hiring your home improvement project to a qualified individual is a viable option. Here is the one adage you should keep in mind which is almost universal in life but especially in construction and that is "You get what you pay for". I listed a few of the people you can choose from above. Here are the pros and cons:

Pros/Cons

• Friend: Fairly cheap or works for beer money but can ruin a friendship real fast.
• Handyman: Higher skill levels & less expensive but not licensed or insured typically.
• Tradesman: Highly skilled if journeyman but one dimensional; no license/insurance.
• Remodeling Contractor: Multiskilled, licensed/insured but comes with a higher cost as you should expect. This guy has paid the price but always ask for references and verify his license status.

I am biased of course but I believe that if you are a patient person with an eye for quality you can accomplish almost anything in home improvements. The bigger jobs may require a professional but do some investigation. Read "how to" articles on the web, books at any home improvement center, or library. If you start with the smaller projects your skills will improve and each succeeding home improvement will not only improve your home but your skill level as well. First we crawl then we stand and before long we are running marathons! You can do this stuff! I am living proof.

WELCOME!

Home improvement comes hand in hand with the American and world wide dream of owning your own home. Depending on your budget, skill level, time available and help there is something that you can do to improve the dream you have obtained. A homes value in terms of dollars and cents is all relative. Bottom line, your house if only worth what someone will offer, when it comes time to sell. If you are a "flipper" this home improvement blog will have a totally different meaning for you as opposed to the first time home buyer who has scraped and borrowed to make their dream come true. There are home improvements that make even the most humble of homes appear to be worth more than their neighbor's simply because of the care you provide. Drive down any street in your community and you can see what I mean. The proof is everywhere you look. Who doesn't cringe when they see a car up on jack stands, an oil stained driveway and an uncut lawn in their neighbor's yard. What is most important is the quality of your life while you are in your home and adding creature comforts or aesthetic improvements is what home ownership is all about and in the process we just might walk away from this dream to an even bigger dream because of the efforts we have put into making our dream come true. Let's just hope the neighbor has cleaned up his/her act before you decide to sell! But this is not a social commentary, I hope to provide you with the motivation, knowledge, and resources to accomplish the home improvements you wish to perform. After all isn't that how you stumbled on to this site? Home improvement projects can be financially rewarding, provide family fun, strengthen and sometimes weaken relationships but most importantly they reflect who we are. So, if you have made the decision to test your home improvement skills or develop some, consider this site as your helping hand; the shoulder to cry on (believe me there will be moments when you will ask yourself , "Why did I do this?"), and that pat on the back for a job well done!