Remodeling 101

Thanksgiving Decorating Link Round-Up

November 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Better Homes and Gardens – Tips on everything from candle displays to elegant centerpieces.

Angela Todd Designs – Local interior designer who will come in and do the decorating for you.

HGTV.com – Holiday decorating and entertaining ideas from Hollywood stars, department store holiday window archives and instruction on how to make candle holders out of ice.

Kimberlee Jaynes Interior Design – Holiday tables with a twist.

Disney Family Fun – Kid friendly holiday crafts and decorations.

MarthaStewart.com – Recipies, decorating and more in the usual Martha fashion.

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Remodeling Activity Boosts Local Economies

November 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Tell your husband “I’m not just trying to get rid of this 1950-era pink bathroom, I am helping the local economy!”…

Remodeling activity boost local economies and NAHB has the numbers to prove it. NAHB Senior Economist Elliot Eisenberg says on average, every $100 million spent on addition and alteration projects creates 690 full-time jobs (480 construction jobs, 110 wholesale and retail trade jobs and 70 jobs in business and professional services) and generates $36.7 million in local income and $3.2 million in local taxes. The “ripple effect” of all this economic activity adds even more to the positive impact. Remember, the ripple occurs because the local economy has increased by almost $40 million in taxes and local income ($36.7 million in local income and $3.2 million in local taxes) because of the additions and alterations that were performed. Once earned, this nearly $40 million gets spent, much of it in the local economy. And, in the process, this creates another 320 jobs — 70 in the wholesale and retail trade; 60 in local government; 30 in restaurants, bars and other eating establishments; 30 in healthcare, education and social services; and many other jobs in other sectors — not to mention $1.7 million more in taxes and another $17.5 million of local income.

Combined, the direct and ripple phases from that amount of additions and alterations would result in 1,010 jobs, $4.9 million in local taxes and $54.2 million in local income. Another way of putting it, says Elliot, is that every 10 jobs created doing building additions and alteration work leads to almost five more jobs through the ripple phase, and every $10 of tax revenue that’s initially generated creates another $5.40 due to ripple effects. Elliot also points out that, while additions and alterations always result in a temporary boost to the local economy, a permanent boost is also likely. That’s because, when additions and alterations result in a permanent addition to a structure, its taxable value rises and the flow of property taxes to all local governments improves.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Professional Advice · Remodeling 101...Learn About Remodeling

Energy Tax Credits

November 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment

This is the easiest to understand explination of all the tax credits I have seen. Click on the picture below for the full size version. Then roll over this interactive poster to see the requirements and deadlines for remodeling-related energy improvements and equipment. The information comes from Remodeling magazine’s coverage of the stimulus package. 

Stimulus_flash_final

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Find a Local Remodeler

November 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Craftsman Design & Renovation
www.craftsmandesign.com

Irving Development Co.
www.irvingdevelopment.com

Progressive Builders Northwest
www.pbnw.net

Steven Heiteen Construction
www.portlandremodel.com

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Craftsman Design Wins National Design Honors

October 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Craftsman Design After (1)

Congratulations to Craftsman Design and Renovation winner of the Historic Renovation category of the Master Design Awards, a national competition for design excellence in residential remodeling.

Craftsman Design and Renovation’s restoration of an airplane bungalow stood out among contestants for the prestigious Master Design Awards, sponsored by Qualified Remodeler magazine.

“We’re honored to be recognized for our area of expertise and to help spotlight Portland as being in the vanguard of historic architectural preservation,” said company owner and senior designer Wade Freitag.  “This city is fortunate to have not only old housing stock, but homeowners and citizens who appreciate how these buildings enhance our daily lives.”

Freitag founded Craftsman Design in 1995 and has served on the board of the Architectural Heritage Center in Portland.  His work has appeared in Along Bungalow Lines and Beyond the Bungalow.

See more pictures from this remodel by clicking here.  See Oregonian article about another remodel by Craftsman Design and Renovation by clicking here.

For information: www.craftsmandesign.com or Phone: 503-239-6200.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Bathroom Remodel · Before and After · Kitchen Remodel

An efficient floor plan puts an old kitchen in working order

October 23, 2009 · 1 Comment

By Bridget Otto, The Oregonian
Photo by Thomas Boyd, The Oregonian

Photo by Thomas Boyd, The Oregonian

Ellen and Craig Nichols lived in their Southwest Portland home for just about one year before throwing in the towel.

The kitchen towel.

The awkwardly designed kitchen in their 1928 house was just not going to work for the two avid cooks with busy lives and five adult children who crowd that kitchen during holiday and family dinners.

Ellen craved improved functionality, increased storage and perhaps a way that she and Craig could both be cooking without hip-checking each other out of the way at the sink.

She wanted to do away with clutter and with counters clotted with appliances and utensils.

The Nicholses enlisted the expertise of kitchen designer Robin Fisher, who saw some immediate issues.

The somewhat over-engineered kitchen’s cabinetry and countertops were angled in a failed attempt at using space efficiently. Although Robin loved the mahogany-clad custom cabinets, this layout, she says, really sucked up space.

Pretty or not, Ellen says, there was exactly one cabinet that could hold a dinner plate, some of the hinges were broken and the overhead cabinets proved unreachable without a step stool.

Add to that the narrow floor plan, four doorways into the room, a chimney running up one wall, no desire to move walls and the age of the Council Crest house, and Robin’s challenges were clear.

Photo by Thomas Boyd, The Oregonian

Photo by Thomas Boyd, The Oregonian

After playing around with various options, Robin zeroed in on the wall that held the refrigerator, chimney and an awkward wrapped counter attached to another angled counter — all with upper cabinets attached.

While there was actually quite a bit of space there, it was just not used correctly.

“One thing that really made it all start happening was when Robin came up with the idea of pulling the whole wall forward, instead of wrapping around the chimney,” Ellen says of the newly configured beverage/baking area that contains a second sink, a convection oven, appliance garage and storage galore.

Instead of being stymied by the odd corner ruled by an old 2-by-2-foot chimney (it now holds ductwork) and a refrigerator pushed back into the far corner, Robin repositioned the back wall in front of the chimney, hiding it and creating a long, straight run for counters and cabinets.

That left enough space for traffic in front of the cabinets, plus empty space behind the new wall along either side of the chimney, which became a bookcase on one side and an unseen laundry chute from upstairs to the basement on the other.

“There’s so much stuff going on behind here,” Robin says, her hand on the drywall that hides the chimney. “It really is a trompe l’oeil.”

The change, however, meant finding a new home for the refrigerator, which had been too far from the sink and stove to begin with. Slapping it on the wall across from the sink, which was being moved over to create more counter space, left it hanging out by itself. Robin decided a cabinet could cozy up to the refrigerator and anchor the corner. She designed the cabinet with glass doors and turned it to face the dining room doorway to show off Ellen’s colorful dinnerware.

Robin and Ellen pretty much credit each other for the project’s success. But Robin says Ellen’s openness to changes and willingness to listen turned problems into solutions and made the project one of her favorite in the 24 years she’s been a designer.

For instance, the first exhaust hood over the Wolf range did not work out well — and that’s putting it mildly.

When the carpenters put in the square hood clad to match the cabinetry, Ellen thought it was ugly. The carpenters readily agreed and suggested calling Robin.

When Robin walked in and saw what she called a “perfect toy box turned upside down,” she described its look using more pungent adjectives.

“It was horrible,” she says, laughing.

But that mistake led to a gorgeous change: a sleek, copper hood, which led to bringing other copper elements into play.

“Not all clients can handle these evolutions,” Robin says. “But that made it fun. We were able to say, ‘Well, that just didn’t work. Let’s change it.’ This project ended up becoming better for the mistakes.”

“It did,” Ellen agrees.

The warm, sienna-colored walls, mahogany trim matched to the home’s original woodwork, and the brown-and-beige checkerboard Marmoleum flooring keep the updated kitchen in check with the age of the house while adding a layer of beauty that Ellen didn’t expect. She says she wasn’t remodeling just to make the room look pretty; she was doing it for functionality.

But she remembers feeling surprised when all was said and done. “Wow,” she thought, “it’s stunning, too.”

→ 1 CommentCategories: Before and After · Kitchen Remodel

Construction salvage and recycling toolkit

October 23, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Produced by Metro, the Construction Salvage and Recycling Tool Kit has two free publiction to connect consumers and builders to local recyclers or salvage options for building materials and scraps.  These publications offer go-to lists of more than 100 metropolitan area recycling sites and local how-to blueprints for LEED salvage and recycling points. Visit www.oregonmetro.gov to download them online.Findarecycler

You can use this guide to find a recycler for your construction debris near your job site. Available as a PDF or a searchable online tool, the directory displays recycling facility locations, descriptions of accepted materials, helpful maps and listings of deconstruction and salvage contractors and construction debris recycling facilities in the Portland metropolitan area.

 

Findarecycler2

Metro created this publication to help the metro area building industry become more efficient in their use of resources. There is a specific focus on commercial building materials because they represent the biggest opportunity and the biggest challenge in taking them from disposal as garbage into salvage and reuse programs.

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The Latest in Custom Electronics for Your Home

October 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment

In the world of custom home entertainment, autumn officially arrives after the closing of the CEDIA Expo in early September.  The Custom Electronics Design and Integration Association (CEDIA) Expo is the place where electronics manufacturers that specialize in designing products that are integrated into the home all gather to show off their latest and coolest inventions. 

Truly Invisible In-Wall Speakers – Triad Loudspeakers has recently announced an in-wall speaker solution that is truly invisible- no trim ring, no grill, no evidence besides the sound that there are speakers in the room. The speakers are designed with a revolutionary vibrating soundboard that gets taped, mudded, textured, and painted just like sheetrock.  In addition to that, the sound generated by these speakers is much less directional than traditional speakers, so placement in the room is very flexible.

Reliable Wireless Lighting Control – Lutron has released their RadioRa2 radio-frequency lighting control system. This system allows its user to have all of the benefits of a lighting control system, at a much lower cost than retrofitting a traditional wired lighting-control system.  Having the ability to create a range of light levels throughout your home adds convenience, creates ambience, brings a “wow” factor, and saves energy.  The system is easily expandable, so you can do as many or as few rooms as you want.

Entry-level Home Automation – Prodigy, by Crestron, offers simplified control of entertainment, lighting, and thermostats at prices much lower than previously available.  The Prodigy system is built on a flexible, scalable platform- it can start as basic as a single easy-to-use remote control and expand to include up to 18 wireless light switches/dimmers, up to 12 zones of music, and up to three wireless thermostats.  Music systems can be controlled by your choice of basic keypads, touch-screen controllers with metadata feedback, or two-way wireless remote controls with metadata feedback.   With Prodigy, the entry point for home automation has gotten dramatically lower.

World’s First Remote with Haptic Feedback – Universal Remote Control showed off a revolutionary new remote control, the MX-5000.  The MX-5000 features built-in wi/fi communications, which allow the remote to display metadata information from the PSX-2 iPod dock, and real-time news, sports, weather, and stock information.  It also has narrow-band radio frequency communication, so adding lighting control is as simple as switching out an existing switch or dimmer for a Universal Remote Control radio-frequency dimmer or switch. A hybrid touch screen/standard remote control, the MX-5000 is the first remote control to deliver Haptic feedback- a vibration that confirms button presses.  It is obvious that they put a good amount of work into the ergonomics of the remote as well, as it feels great in your hand and is very simple to use.

Entry-level Home Automation – Prodigy, by Crestron, offers simplified control of entertainment, lighting, and thermostats at prices much lower than previously available.  The Prodigy system is built on a flexible, scalable platform- it can start as basic as a single easy-to-use remote control and expand to include up to 18 wireless light switches/dimmers, up to 12 zones of music, and up to three wireless thermostats.  Music systems can be controlled by your choice of basic keypads, touch-screen controllers with metadata feedback, or two-way wireless remote controls with metadata feedback.   With Prodigy, the entry point for home automation has gotten dramatically lower.

World’s First Remote with Haptic Feedback – Universal Remote Control showed off a revolutionary new remote control, the MX-5000.  The MX-5000 features built-in wi/fi communications, which allow the remote to display metadata information from the PSX-2 iPod dock, and real-time news, sports, weather, and stock information.  It also has narrow-band radio frequency communication, so adding lighting control is as simple as switching out an existing switch or dimmer for a Universal Remote Control radio-frequency dimmer or switch. A hybrid touch screen/standard remote control, the MX-5000 is the first remote control to deliver Haptic feedback- a vibration that confirms button presses.  It is obvious that they put a good amount of work into the ergonomics of the remote as well, as it feels great in your hand and is very simple to use.

Home Theater Projectors Shine  -  JVC, as has been the case the last few years, showed a series of new models that continued to improve on their existing product.   The most significant upgrade in this year’s models is the addition of 120hz Clear Motion Drive processing, which reduces motion blurring in fast-action scenes and delivers a much smoother image.  The HD-950 and HD-990 models feature THX Video Certification, which means they deliver incredibly accurate color.

For more information about any of these products visit www.goroomservice.com.

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Bite-Size Remodeling

October 16, 2009 · 1 Comment

In this economy many homeowners today are scaling back on home improvements. Homeowners who might have gutted a kitchen or bath a few years ago are scaling back – keeping the big-ticket items that are in good condition and making small changes.

A couple of common changes include:

  • Upgrading recessed lights to pendants or small chandeliers
  • Updating plumbing fixtures to stainless steel, brushed nickel or rubbed bronze finishes
  • Installing a new backsplash or cabinet hardware
  • Removing soffits in the kitchen
  • Replacing bathroom mirrors

→ 1 CommentCategories: Bathroom Remodel · Kitchen Remodel

Interior Color and Trend Predictions for 2011

October 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment

From the Oregonian, by Bridgett A. Otto

Michelle Lamb, popular trend forecaster in the design and retail world and editorial director of The Trend Curve, sent this information about color trends for 2011. Yes, I know 2010 hasn’t even breached the horizon. Nonetheless, here’s Lamb’s look ahead.

Here are some highlights:

  • Neon could not be newer! So don’t forget to include it in everything from the brightest yellow to purplish blue.
  • Don’t be shy with corals — they’ll be taking reds and pinks to all-new levels.

To think forward, go back. These rich time periods will be informing trends, as well as new colors:

  • Tudor (through Elizabethan) England will bring back voluminous velvets, tapestry accents and tear-drop pearls.
  • The 1940s will again inspire features in light maple, pecan and walnut, as well as seersucker, jersey and cable knits.
  • Mayan, Incan and Hopi tribal influences will give us geometric florals, trapezoids and primitive portrayals of the sun.

Lamb is co-founder and chairman of Minneapolis-based Marketing Directions Inc. Established in 1987, Marketing Directions specializes in home furnishings color and trend forecasting, working extensively with clients to provide individual direction and color specification.

Marketing Directions publishes The Trend Curve, which forecasts trends in color, pattern and design for manufacturers, interior designers and retailers.

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