Calfinder Remodeling Blog

Where to Find High End Art Prints? Art.com!

Euphrasia — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:38:54 +0000

Art.com says they have the best wall decor to complete your space and achieve your design vision, and that certainly appears to be the case. I’m delighted to have discovered this resource, and sharing it with you completes the fun.

They offer a rich and diverse group of collections from both famous and emerging artists, and you’ll find high-quality prints of the works of classic masters, contemporary originals, and children’s art — just to name a few categories.

This English classic, The Apple Gatherers, by Frederick Morgan, is so summery! It’s available as a Giclee print. The Giclee printing process delivers a fine stream of ink resulting in vivid, pure color and exceptional detail. This print is produced on acid-free, watercolor textured paper.

Here’s an aspect of Art.com’s offerings really rang my bell: They have a team of professionals who specialize in anticipating trends, knowing the current — and next — season’s color palettes, and what the latest decorating trends are, too. (more…)

Your Digital TV Switch

Dan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:41:46 +0000

Photo credit: striatic

As of June 12th all analog broadcasts from television have been eliminated. This long awaited switch came after about two years of planning, debating, and educating the public. Yet even after that much time many of the results and implications of the DTV switch are unclear.

What this change really amounts to is a sort of concrete, all inclusive transformation to the new digital age; a societal switch in which our most basic information and entertainment infrastructure officially joins the internet, mobile electronics, and the entire new wave of technology.

The main reasons for the switch are practical, with benefits for both consumers and government. Digital signals are much more efficient than analog ones. They provide clearer pictures while taking up less space. That is, a broadcaster can fit several digital channels in the space required to send just one analog channel. That opens up airwaves for governments to use for emergency services as well as commercial communication services.

What It Means For You

The time of the rabbit-eared antenna is gone. In many cases so will be the channel numbers for your local television stations. Rather than UHF numbers like 12, 24, even 47 — just for the three channels you get with an old antenna — you’ll find digital numerics reading 5.1, 7.2, etc. You might find the same station broadcast over two or more channels. Typically at least one of these is high-definition (HD).

If you haven’t already, you will need to pick up a digital converter box (or new TV) from a local retailer. Best Buy, Target, other department stores and online sites like Amazon.com all carry them. The federal government has also been offering coupons to put toward purchasing a digital converter, find out more at www.dtv2009.gov. Boxes range in price from $40 to over $100 depending on its features. (more…)

Let There Be Light

Euphrasia — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:06:51 +0000

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder — and how the eye beholds is largely a function of lighting. Almost any subject can be made to appear more beautiful if it is lit effectively.
A home, a dining table, a painting, a nighttime patio setting, or a child’s homework desk — consider these examples, and it’s instantly obvious that how each one is illuminated will make a huge difference in the overall ambience and utility of each one.

Residential electrical contractors can support your lighting creations with efficient placement of power outlets. This is just one of many important considerations that a skilled electrical contractor will take into account when you’re improving your home.

Take a look at how some of CalFinder’s electrical contractors incorporate light into their projects:

Handyman Connection specializes in electrical work as well as bathroom remodeling. This bathroom remodel shows effective use of natural light in conjunction with natural tile and glass blocks. (more…)

8 Weird Remodeling Stories

Renee — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:57:43 +0000

In their endless tours through many a home, where most of us “let it all hang out,” contractors get a glimpse of every kind of personality out there, some of them more unusual than others. I get the privilege of talking to contractors every day, and the following are just 8 of their stories. Not necessarily “remodeling nightmares” – more like brief episodes from the Twilight Zone, only in this case, reality is stranger than fiction.

The Bed-Watchers. They come in every shape and size, but they’ve all got a couple of things in common: they live in their pajamas and they are attached to their beds for no particular reason. One contractor was installing new windows in a bedroom and the lady of the house never left the room all day, let alone the safety of the bedcovers. She didn’t do anything, actually (not even sleep), except watch the work for hours on end and get up to go to the bathroom. Another contractor was working on a master bath while the homeowners watched TV in matching bathrobes, bringing every meal to bed for the duration of the job, caring not for noise nor company. (more…)

Lovin’ Laundry Lines

Jennifer — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:24:15 +0000

My family knows that nine times out of 10 when they see me whiz by on the stairs I’m on my way to wash, dry, or fold a load of laundry - sometimes all three. It’s the never-ending, always thankless chore, especially for parents.

Little by little, I’ve been setting my dryer to fewer minutes per load or reducing the temperature to save energy, but the fact is that I could probably do without the dryer completely if I just had a clothesline outside. To be fair, I actually DO have a clothesline, but it’s neatly coiled in its packaging, having never been opened since my husband bought it for me a year ago. Guess he thought I’d be so thrilled to have it that I would figure out how (and where) to install it. He thought wrong.

I guess my holdback is that I don’t really want a big line permanently strung from one point in my yard to another out in plain sight and putting it between two trees in the wooded part of our property kind of defeats the purpose of hanging your clothes in the sun.

A little research, though, and there are some great ideas floating around out there for putting up laundry lines in a more creative way.

One woman figured out that the baby gate she no longer needed but never parted with made an excellent hanging rack. She secured it to the roof over her deck with a couple of bungee cords so that it hung flat overhead. When she has a load of laundry to dry, she puts the items on hangers and hooks the hangers onto the grid of the gate. What I love about this is that when there’s no laundry on the line, you can easily take the entire system down in seconds flat.

Another clever mom used the support beams holding up her deck to hold up her laundry line. She screwed some cleats into the beams and tied the lines to them and now hangs her laundry on the lines hanging under her deck. Luckily her deck is high enough off the ground that the underside still gets plenty of sun during the day. (more…)

TRULY, MADLY, CHEAPLY - Good Deals on Bad Buys

Jennifer — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:40:43 +0000

Photo credit: timparkinson

Truly, I am a sucker for a good deal. What I’m beginning to realize (in my wizened not-so-old age) is that sometimes a good deal can still be a bad buy. Not everything that you can get a bargain on is a smart choice for your home.

For instance, we have one of those nifty As-Seen-On-TV stores in our shopping mall. Since I NEVER order anything over the phone as a rule, I love this place because I can see all that glitzy stuff from TV in real life before I commit to it. Last year I bought that automated doggie toenail trimmer thingy for my mother-in-law because her dog has trouble walking if her toenails get too long yet she won’t let my mother-in-law use a regular trimmer. Long story short - not a bargain: it’s too big for such a small dog and it never gets used.

Here are 10 other inexpensive things you should avoid purchasing for your home:

Kitchen cooking utensils made from plastic. They’re temptingly cheap, shiny, and colorful, but they inevitably break under pressure. I’ve lost brand new cheese graters, can openers, spatulas, and garlic presses that just couldn’t take the beating that comes with my culinary skills. Metal and silicone may cost a little more, but are well worth the investment.

Used electronics. Unless the previous owner can set it up, turn it on, and show you every single feature is in working order you, just never know what you’re going to get. Even if you find a bargain at a reputable second-hand store and a salesperson can show you that it gets power, you may still come home to find out the item has other problems that just weren’t evident upon first glance. Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman
Cheap dishes. Most plates, bowls, and coffee cups that you can find a great deal on are not microwaveable. The contain clay or lead that allow the dish to get extremely hot in the microwave, causing you to burn your hand when you go to retrieve it. And of course, the lead can be a health hazard as well. (more…)

The $5K, Chic-yet-Frugal Kitchen Remodel

Jennifer — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:31:16 +0000

As a mother, I can tell you, most of my time is spent in the kitchen — especially on weekends and holidays. When we built our home I had one rule for the kitchen — I get the final say on EVERYTHING. Our kitchen was not cheap, but there are ways to remodel a kitchen with a tight budget, especially if you’re handy enough to be able to do some of the work yourself.

Photo Credit: iLoveButter

So, let’s break this down, one step at a time, and I’ll show you how you can transform a 10’x 10’ kitchen with $5,000 and come out with something beautiful, functional, and easy to spend time in.

Step 1: Make a To-Scale Drawing

Whenever I plan to remodel any room, I get out a sheet of graph paper and a pencil and make a to-scale drawing. In this drawing I will outline a square 10 blocks long by 10 blocks wide. Immediately I know that the flooring we look for will need to be 10’x10,’ or 100 square feet.

Photo Credit: BetterthanEveryone

Step 2: Measurements and a Shopping List (more…)

Electronic Sensors Make Energy Sense

Dan — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:47:50 +0000

These are the days of hi-tech everything, from solar-powered satellites to your kitchen faucet. These are also the days of high energy demand and costs, and an age when it has become palpably clear how our energy usage affects our local, national, and global climate. In response there has been a movement among manufacturers to combine hi-tech with eco-friendly, and a big part of that movement is electronic sensors.

Nowadays your fixtures and appliances are smart enough to control themselves. Your house lights are able to recognize when you’re home. And your sprinkler system can learn exactly when to kick on the water. Electronic sensors are not only controlling the action and efficiency of many of our home systems, they are also making our busy lives a little easier and keeping our wallets a little heavier.

Following are some of the home systems, from lighting to landscaping, that can benefit from the addition of an electronic sensor:

Photo credit: takomabibelot

Lighting.

Home occupancy sensors can save you the trouble of fumbling around in the dark for a light switch as well as save the valuable energy and money involved in leaving a light on when you leave the home. This goes for motion sensor lights on the front porch as well as interior lights in the entryway. Especially popular in bathrooms, electronic motion sensors can be programmed to turn on when they detect movement and turn off after a set time in which no motion is detected.

Photo credit: doortoriver

Heaters.

Electronic thermostats are really catching on, in part because heating and cooling are the number one sappers of energy in the modern home. Electronic or digital thermostats can be programmed to turn off when you are not home (say, 9-5) and can have the home back to a comfortable level upon your arrival. Meanwhile you live with the comfort that your air conditioning wasn’t on the whole time you were at work. Most models allow you to set daily and seasonal changes in the system, as well as vacations and other getaways. Programmable thermostats are regarded as one of the best ways to conserve energy in the home; to the point that some utilities are even paying or offering rebates for their installation.

Sprinklers.

It happens all the time, a home’s sprinkler system (even one on a timer) will kick on in the middle of a thunderstorm, wasting energy and water. We just can’t be home all the time to manually control our irrigation systems and maximize water and energy efficiency. Electronic sprinkler sensors can detect changes in humidity, sunlight, and rainfall to shut off or turn on whenever necessary. Photo credit: drcorneilus (more…)

In the Spotlight: Sunroom Contractors

Dan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:25:43 +0000

Spring is going on summer, and there’s no better time to make a summer outdoors considerably more comfortable with a new sunroom. This will be a big summer for home upgrades, with inhibitive home selling markets and low remodeling prices. And sunrooms are a great way to go. They are a relatively inexpensive home addition that will vastly increase your home’s comfort level. It is also an improvement for which the benefits can be felt immediately.

There are a surprisingly wide range of sunroom designs from which to choose. That includes wood, vinyl, or aluminum structures, as well as three- or four-season sunrooms. And these are just some basic starting points. CalFinder certifies a number of sunroom contractors, all more than qualified to help you design and build a sunroom that will fit perfectly your home, location, and lifestyle. Below are a few examples.

Tooms Construction

Based in Baltimore, Michigan, Tooms Construction can handle all aspects of home remodeling, including sunrooms. Ask them about a four-season sunroom, perfect for Michigan with its beautiful but cold winters.

Energy Star Home Improvement

Energy Star Home Improvement, another Michigan-based firm (Grand Rapids) is proud of its one-on-one service and combines a sales and installation background, which allows for invaluable expertise in all aspects of customer satisfaction. They help Michigan homeowners maximize their home’s energy efficiency — a factor that is never more vital than in a new sunroom. (more…)

Inspiration from the Japanese Tea Room

Jennifer — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:31:49 +0000

Photo credit: cavecouple

I have always admired and appreciated the styles of the Far East. Room designs are always simple and elegant with clean, crisp lines, never any clutter in sight – they just whisper calm, peace, relaxation.

The Japanese tea room is a good example of what I’m talking about. Tea rooms were originally teahouses, dating back to the 1400 and 1500s. When an interest in tea rose in Japan, the people started building tea rooms as separate structures from their homes. The structures were bamboo and wood huts with thatched roofs built in garden settings. The teahouses and the tea ceremonies witnessed there were designed to give people a respite from the material world and earthly concerns. For that reason, the interiors are decorated as simply as possible with little show of material wealth or status, no bright colors or distracting items. The rooms were, and continue to be, light, simple, and airy with views of nothing but serenity and the surrounding gardens.

The Japanese tea room is more than just a place for drinking tea. While it may have started as a place to entertain guests, drink tea, and escape the binds of social class in ancient Japan, today it also serves as a sanctuary. It’s a calm, peaceful place where you can escape the pressures of today’s issues, meditate, practice yoga, be alone with your thoughts, or draw artistic inspiration.
Photo credit: Japan Green Tea (more…)