Category — Renovate

There is a battle raging between preservationists and vinyl siding manufacturers. The preservationists, those who are determined to keep up the integrity of historic homes, point out that vinyl siding looks as natural in a historic district as a neon sign would look on a mom-and-pop corner grocery store. In response, vinyl siding manufacturers point to new products that were created to mimic the look of clapboard and other traditional materials so precisely that it is difficult to tell the vinyl from the real thing.

Which camp is right? They both have valid points. The bottom line comes down to neighborhood requirements or restrictions, personal taste and in some cases, budget constraints. Here’s what you need to know to make an informed decision.

The cons of vinyl siding

Let’s start with the preservationists’ side of the picket fence. Just as there are downsides to almost everything, so is the case with vinyl siding. The following points might cause some concern for homeowners:

1. Vinyl siding is not historically accurate. Vinyl siding is popular today, but it wasn’t around when most historic homes were built. No matter how good the vinyl looks, it is only a mimicry of originals, and that isn’t enough for some homeowners.
2. There are questions about vinyl siding safety. Vinyl siding is made of a plastic resin that is suspected of being carcinogenic. The production of vinyl siding is a concern for many communities.
3. Vinyl siding can fade over time. The colors of vinyl siding have long been a bone of contention among preservationists because they don’t accurately portray historical colors. In addition, the colors can fade over time, making it even more obvious that a home is covered in vinyl.

The pros of vinyl siding

But before we get mired down in the downside, let’s look at the advantages vinyl siding brings to old-house homeowners and historic neighborhoods:

1. New product lines look like the real thing. Vinyl siding colors are now available in a wide range of colors that are historically accurate. Carefully replicated wood grain is also a nice feature.
2. Minor architectural details are now available. In the past, the minor details that made a house unique were covered over with vinyl siding. Today, vinyl siding can replicate even the smallest details for a more accurate look.
3. Vinyl significantly reduces maintenance. Homeowners who are accustomed to painting that old clapboard every few years can appreciate the draw of a product that requires no painting at all.

Vinyl siding products that work for historic homes

Vinyl siding manufacturers have heard the concerns of historic homeowners and are constantly working toward making their period-relevant products even better. A few companies have led the surge into vinyl siding lines that are historically accurate. Certain Teed has seen its products used in many historical districts, with the approval of historic commissions. Crane and Revere are also two good names to turn to when looking for siding that makes your historic home look just as it should.

One of the biggest debates surrounding historical homes is the question of using modern materials to recreate a look that was first put in place well over a century ago. Can modern materials really make the grade? Is searching for the best reclaimed woods, old windows and other original features the best way to go?

Many owners of older homes will point out the difference in cost. Original features can be hard to find, and that makes them rather expensive. Modern materials can be much cheaper. New technologies can make those new materials look very much like the real thing, especially in the case of vinyl siding or replacement windows.

But don’t make a purchase based solely on looks. Take these points about replacement windows:

1. New windows can provide a serious increase in comfort and a significant reduction in your utility bills. Those original windows are lovely, but they are usually single-pane, which doesn’t provide much in the way of energy-efficiency. Replacement windows are double-pane or triple-pane, with modern technologies that make them a superior choice for comfort and savings.
2. New windows can very closely replicate the older ones. Well-known companies like Marvin offer windows that are specifically designed for historic homes, and some smaller companies specialize in creating windows that look as though they have been around for centuries. You can even get these windows in single-pane if you are looking to truly replicate the originals.
3. New windows actually work. Anyone who has ever been in an old house for an extended period of time knows the pitfalls of old window systems. Pulleys, cranks and springs can rust and fall out of service over time, making a window difficult or impossible to open. In some cases there are provisions to keep a window open–how many times have you seen an old window propped open with a stick? New windows can slide open and closed with ease and stay open exactly how you like them. That comes in especially handy in a home that was built before air conditioning became the rage.
4. Custom jobs can give you the best of both worlds. So you want a window that actually works, but it breaks your heart to sacrifice the delicate, bubbled panes or that original stained glass that has been there as long as the house has? You can have both. Custom replacement windows can be created that incorporate those old panes of glass into a new window that preserves the character of the real thing but offers the relief of a simple window that does exactly what you want it to do. However, keep in mind that custom jobs mean the window replacement cost goes up.

A few decades ago, replacement windows looked very out of place on historic homes. Today, they are not only acceptable, but often the material of choice for those who want the old-fashioned look but the modern convenience.

If you’ve been looking at beds for sale recently and you’re struggling to decide what you want around your home, you might want to consider a mixture of different styles.

People who often have guests staying round at theirs following a night of entertaining would probably be best off having some sofa beds in their living room. This is a great idea if you find you don’t have enough space around your home. If you’ve got a sofa bed in your lounge, your guests can stay there, which means you’re free to make your spare room into a study, nursery or whatever else takes your fancy. If you’ve got a small living room, sofa beds are a fantastic solution to the problem, as you don’t need to worry about fitting a blow-up bed into the area whenever someone spends the night. Instead, you’ll be able to turn your comfortable sofa into a bed for the night, without it impinging too much on the space.

You need to try out sofa beds before you buy them – it’s no use finding the perfect design to complement your home and finding out it’s not comfortable to sit on, or, worse still, sleep on. No one’s going to be too grateful if you didn’t give up your own bed for your guests and they end up having an awful night’s sleep on your new sofa bed, so try it out first. It’s also best to find something which is easy to turn into a bed. If it’s tricky to do, you might end up trapping your fingers, which isn’t the best experience to have! See if you can find out how the mechanisms work on your sofa bed before you get it home, so you won’t have any nasty surprises.

You’re bound to find sofa beds are an extremely addition to any home, particularly if you often have people come to stay.

Living next to Lake Tahoe in California, I’ve noticed that homeowners most typically choose a house siding made of wood to better blend in with the natural beauty of the region. Wood house siding is my personal favorite wall cladding. Homes with stucco siding fit in at pristine alpine areas such as Lake Tahoe or Aspen about as well as the people who wore those outrageous neon ski suits that were popular in the 1980s.

However, as many homeowners who live in snowy areas can attest, the winters that make the Lake Tahoe area famous for its world-class skiing–and the ensuing warm-weather summers–can be hellish on siding and siding finishes. By following a few tips during installation of the siding and ensuing maintenance, homeowners can get better wear out of their wood siding.

Many people choose cedar lap siding because of its looks and durability. Regardless of what type of wood siding homeowners choose, one of the best ways they can ensure that it lasts–and repels water–is to primer the backs and edges of the siding. The primer prevents water from entering the boards, and it also protects the water barrier behind the house siding from becoming wet.

Siding experts also suggest using regular tar paper for a moisture barrier rather than Tyvek due to the tannins in wood siding, which can break down the integrity of other types of housewrap. Tar paper is about as easy to hang as other types of moisture barriers, and it has an incredibly long life–I have stripped many roofs that were baked by intense summer sun for more than 50 years, and the tar paper was still intact and functional.

Another thing that is crucial for house siding in snowy regions is to choose a high grade of wood siding with few knots since the siding is going to expand and shrink much more than in areas with milder weather. Higher-quality siding can reduce troublesome problems such as splitting or cracking that can appear in knotty siding.

Lastly, be sure to refinish the siding often in mountainous areas. If your siding is bare and looks like it needs another coat of stain, don’t put it off. Severe storms can hit anytime in mountainous regions, so don’t get caught bare-sided. Proper maintenance of siding helps stretch its life and keeps it looking good over time.

Bedrooms for boys can often be quite boring as once they get too old for trains, trucks and dinosaurs then the temptation to paint everything blue is often too much to resist. Unless that is they are into football that is, and then a whole world of decorating amusement opens up…

My son has had no option since the day he was born other than to support Manchester United. It is a family tradition from which the male line has no escape, and definitely no choice. I had always been aware of the obsession but the depth of feeling didn’t really hit home until he was born and I received gifts of bibs, baby grows and hats all bearing the club emblem and marking him immediately a fan-in-the-making.

Nowadays he has passed his infant initiation and there is no going back – he loves the club, the players, the ground and everything about it really. In decorating his room I had endless options of items to choose from with the club colours and designs all over them. I could have filled several beds with soft toys wearing miniature kits and you can even buy football shaped lights.

Fabrics such as towels, curtains and duvet covers are all readily available too – even in double sizes to fit the largest divan beds. I found a green rug marked out to look like a pitch, a football shaped clock and even an alarm which plays club songs! It has actually been rather fun and the result, though very much red all over, has delighted my son – and of course his equally obsessed father. I can tell he is angling for the theme to spill over into our room however I have drawn a line firmly in the doorway and he has no chance of crossing it with so much as a red sock. Hopefully I can keep up my resolve…. wish me luck!

The home office is quickly becoming one of those indispensable rooms that busy families simply cannot live without. However, designing a home office that is efficient, spacious and attractive can sometimes pose a bit of a challenge. Understanding how your family intends to use the room is one of the most important factors to take into consideration when designing an efficient home office. If a home office addition or renovation is on your home improvement “to-do” list, here are some tips that can help.

Understand Your Family’s Needs

In order to be a useful work area, your home office needs to be designed to meet your family’s specific needs. Although you might love the look of the sleek, minimalist-styled offices you see in home design magazines, busy families usually need more versatile options. The first step is deciding who will be using the office, and what their needs are. For example, if you plan on sharing the home office with your child, it will be necessary to make sure that both of you can work in the office at the same time. This might mean that you’ll need more than one desk, as well as more than one computer in the office.

Once you understand how the office will be used, you’ll be in a better position to plan the room layout. Keeping the room as open and spacious as possible will make the room more efficient as well as more pleasant to work in. In most cases, arranging the furniture pieces along the walls will allow you to make the best use of the space. However, if you are lucky enough to have a large home office, an island in the center of the room could provide you with a handy shared work area. This could be an especially good strategy to use if there will be multiple people working in the office at the same time who need to share a single resource, such as a printer.

Technology Needs

In today’s technology-driven society, most home offices need a variety of technical devices. Computers, printers, scanners, and other personal electronics are almost always integral components of the home office. Depending on your needs and personal preferences, you might also want to listen to music or watch television in your home office while you work. Before you start adding electronic equipment, make sure that your electrical outlets are up to the task. Although power strips can be quite handy, you should take care to never overload a single outlet with too many electronic devices. It’s also important to make sure that electric cords are safely constrained so that nobody trips over them.

Home Office Decor

Although functional items are probably your biggest concern when designing a home office, you’ll also want to pay attention to the room’s decor. Since you’ll probably be spending a considerable amount of time in your office, it’s important to make sure it is an attractive and pleasant place in which to work. Wall art pieces can be especially useful in office environments, since they don’t take up valuable work area space. It’s also nice to include at least one plant in the room to add a touch of life.

Metal-Wall-Art.com senior staff writer, Alyssa Davis, specializes in designing with outdoor Western metal art and tropical metal wall art.

Dealing with a small bathroom is a problem shared by many homeowners. Although we might dream about knocking down walls and making the bathroom larger, in most cases we’re pretty much stuck with the original small size. However, with a bit of creativity and some good decorating ideas, it’s possible to take full advantage of every inch of space in a small bathroom. Here are some tips you can use to make the most of your small space.
Maximize Storage Space

Storage always seems to be an issue when it comes to small bathrooms. Since floor space is usually at a premium in small bathrooms, it’s best to look up when it comes to finding more storage space. Wall shelves and cabinets can be especially handy, since they make it easy to keep items within easy reach without taking up floor space. Recessed shelves and cabinets also work exceptionally well in small bathrooms, allowing you to take advantage of the space between the studs inside of the walls. Although the idea of cutting openings in your bathroom walls might sound a bit daunting, adding recessed cabinets and shelving is not really as difficult as it might sound.

It’s also important to take advantage of any wasted wall space that exists over your bathroom fixtures. Unless you are planning to move your sink, toilet, bathtub or shower as part of a remodeling plan, you can count on these areas to remain basically static. As such, try to find ways to put the wall space above and around them to good use. A cabinet and shelving unit designed to fit over the top of the toilet tank can work well. Hang a shower supply caddy over the showerhead, and a few cute wall baskets over the tub. You might be surprised how much additional storage space you can find by simply using a bit of creativity

Maximize Light

Although it’s strictly an optical illusion, light colors do tend to make small spaces look more spacious, open and inviting. When decorating a small bathroom, try to find ways to add more light to the space. If your bathroom has a window, choose light-colored window treatments so that you can let in as much light as possible. Mini-blinds combined with window toppers or curtains can also be a good choice, since it’s easy to adjust them for full light or complete privacy.

Light neutral shades can help make your small bathroom look larger than it really is. You can also use different shades of the same light color to make the room seem wider and taller. White ceilings can also help make the room seem taller, as well as making the entire space seem brighter and more inviting.

Maximize Countertop Space

Countertop space is usually another precious commodity in small bathrooms. In order prevent a cluttered look and feel, it’s important to keep countertops organized and highly efficient. Instead of placing a lot of small items on the countertop, group them together in handy baskets or decorative boxes. Not only will this keep the area looking more organized, but you’ll also find it a lot easier to clean the countertop. Providing each family member with a small basket or box in which they can store their personal care products can be a great way of staying organized. If you can find a way to hang these baskets on the wall instead of sitting them on the countertop, you’ll save even more space.

Alyssa Davis writes and designs for Metal-Wall-Art.com and she is happy to share many ideas on creating stylish interiors with large outdoor metal wall art and nautical wall decor.

If the number of children living in your home outnumbers the number of bedrooms you have available, it’s almost inevitable that your children are going to have to share a bedroom. Although sharing a bedroom does have its challenges, there are definitely ways that you can make a single space work for more than one child. Here are some tips that you can use to make one bedroom do double-duty for two or more children.

Floor Plans that Work

Designing a floor plan that works is often one of the biggest challenges when designing a bedroom for more than one child. It can be helpful to divide the room into separate areas, giving each child their own personal space. If the room is to be shared by two children, dividing the room horizontally or diagonally can often work well. If the room has more than one window, make sure to divide the room so that each child has his or her own window. Then, let each child choose his or her own window treatment. This can be a great way of encouraging personal expression. If the room only has one window, choose a neutral style of window treatment.

The placement of the beds within the room is an important part of the overall floor plan. If you have divided the room horizontally, placing the beds along opposite walls can work well. If you’ve divided the room diagonally, try placing the beds against adjacent walls. Maximize the space by placing a square table in the corner at the head of both beds, so that it can serve as a nightstand for both children. In rooms that are shared by more than two children, bunk beds can be quite handy.

Closet space can sometimes be a problem when sharing a bedroom. It can sometimes be helpful to remove the door, since this will make accessing the closet easier. However, there’s also a lot to be said for maximizing the storage space by hanging a closet organizer on the backside of the door. In fact, you could hang a pocket-style organizer on the front of the door as well, providing your children with even more storage space.

If an older child suddenly has to share their bedroom space with a younger sibling, it can be helpful to make sure they have just a bit more space. Sometimes just giving the older child an extra dresser or a bit more space in the shared closet can help ease the transition from having his or her own room to having to share space with a sibling.

Decorating a Shared Bedroom

Whenever possible, let your children make the decorating decisions in a shared bedroom. Each child should be able to choose their own style of bedding, even if the two patterns don’t actually blend well together. If the children are a bit older, they might be able to work out a compromise and choose coordinating bedding, but don’t push the issue.

Even if the room is small, try to find a way to provide each child with his or her own personal work area. A desk or worktable can be quite important to a child, giving him or her a place to do homework, play, or work on hobbies and crafts.

Creating a shared space within the room where the children can play together without being on each other’s “turf” is also a great idea. The center of the room or one of the corners can work well when designating shared areas.

Home design expert, Alyssa Davis of Metal-Wall-Art.com, is particularly skilled in designing with tropical wall art and outdoor metal wall hanging.

My garages days are numbered. No, I am not knocking it down – I am turning into a den for the kids and somewhere for their friends to crash, as they do quite often at the weekends – without any warning I might add. This drastic turn of events has come about in order for my husband and I to re-claim our living room: I have come downstairs on a Saturday morning once too often to a snoring teenager on the sofa, and have had to endure far too many PS2 marathon championships on my TV. Enough is enough!

So, we are moving all our stored boxes into the garden shed and the loft – via a large skip to whittle down the quantity – and then getting started on the conversion. Light is the main thing, so the up-and-over garage door is coming out to be replaced entirely by glass panels including sliding patio doors out onto the driveway. We are whitewashing everywhere and laying wood laminate flooring, fitting a mini kitchen area with sink, microwave and fridge and that is pretty much it! Throw in a couple of sofa beds and an enormous flat screen television and the rest of the décor is up to the kids.

The result will be so appealing to the little darlings that I doubt we will ever see them upstairs again! The single beds in their rooms will start to collect dust and the living room will once again become an adult-only sanctuary: bliss. I just can’t wait for it all to happen now, and neither can everyone else. There is non-stop talk of pictures for walls, dart boards and even soft furnishings – much to my amusement. I have also heard lengthy technical discussions about how to wire together all the required electronic entertainment equipment, completely beyond me I must say! I haven’t seen the kids so excited for ages – I just wish we’d done it sooner.

So you’ve got windows that are drafty, cranky when you try to open them, and maybe even plastered with layers of paint that make it impossible to open them in the first place. Maybe you’ve got old casement windows that moan and groan when you try to crank them open, or single pane windows that rattle in their frames every time the wind blows. Sounds like replacement window time is dawning.

Window replacement costs can be–well, let’s just call them interesting. Why? Because they are all over the map. Figuring out what replacement windows cost requires multiple measurements, serious research into materials, a wide variety of choices in window styles, and even more attention paid to the energy-efficiency of those windows. It’s enough to make a homeowner cry uncle before the first pane is installed!

What Do Replacement Windows Cost?

Here are the basics of what you can expect when you go shopping for replacement windows. Keep in mind that when it comes to costs, your mileage may vary, so we’re giving you a range to work with.

If your window frames are intact and the windows you are installing are the same size as the old ones, you can expect to pay an average of $300-$700 per window. However, bells and whistles can drive the cost up to $1,000 per window, sometimes more. In a home with ten windows, you are looking at $3,000 on the low end, and at least $10,000 on the high end.

Expect to pay more for more glass. That means double-pane windows are more expensive than single pane, and triple-pane are more expensive than double-pane. Though you reap the benefits in energy efficiency over the years, the initial cost can be higher.

If you have a damaged window frame or if you are choosing windows that require a larger opening than what you currently have, that’s called new construction–and that’s expensive. Depending upon the window types, the size of the window and the complexity of the project, your costs per window could double.

Window replacement with single pane windows can hold your project to a lower bottom-line budget, The replacement windows cost can go up with high-end products, so if you choose to drop that kind of cash, make sure you are getting a good return on investment in energy efficiency and longevity.