Below are the 6 most recent journal entries recorded in HomeAdvice's InsaneJournal:

Monday, June 18th, 2012
11:22 am	Bathroom Remodeling A bathroom is probably the most important room of a house, especially when it comes to the resale value of a home. Remodeled bathrooms affect the price of a home so much that an average bathroom remodel will yield a 75 percent return on the remodel investment. Remodeling contractors offer services in bathroom remodeling and will get necessary permits and draw up plans for a remodel. Whether considering a complete remodel or addition of a whole new bathroom, there are many factors involved with a bathroom remodel. One aspect of bathroom remodeling is choosing a vanity. Vanities are the fixtures that have a sink fixed into a countertop that sits on top of cabinets. Vanities can set the theme of a bathroom or match the existing design of a bathroom. They can also transform the use of space within a bathroom by creating more space with the cabinets. The cabinets in a vanity provide storage space to prevent a bathroom from becoming cluttered. The cabinets of a vanity can be built from many types of materials, making them customizable right down to the hardware and handles. Bathroom cabinets can be any color or style and can have more cabinets added on for more storage. Remodeling contractors can help choose and install bathroom vanities that work best with the space and allotted budget. Another major aspect of bathroom remodeling is shower and tub remodeling and installation. Shower and tub installation is best handled by professional contractors because of the building codes and permits involved. Contracting companies can custom build showers and typically draw up shower plans to match the opinions and desires of the client. Shower areas can be showers only or be enclosed within a tub. Tub enclosures come in many styles and colors and do not necessarily have to include shower heads or full standing showers. Whether a bathroom is remodeled to have a shower, bath, or a shower within a bath depends on the client's preference. Sometimes a home can benefit from the addition of a whole new bathroom. Adding a bathroom to a home is a major project which is why this job is also best handled by a remodeling contractor. Contractors draw up blueprints for a new bathroom based on the requests of the client. Once the plans are drawn up, the contractor will obtain the building permits and complete the project. A good contractor also follows up all projects, additions and remodels, with final inspections to make sure the remodel is up to code. Talk to a remodeling contractor about remodeling your bathroom. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
8:23 am	Choosing the Best Colors for Your Room Colors play an important part in your Home Decor process. Colors are what give life and personality to your room. Here are some quickies to keep in mind when deciding over colors. 1. If you are using many colors in one single room, make sure you use a color at least three times in the same room. You could use shades and tints of that color. For eg. your curtains, pillows and tablecloth can be of the same color. This gives a look of harmony and help avoid the 'too much' and 'confused' look. 2. For filling space, use warm colors like reds, yellows and oranges. They tend to grab the eye and fill the space and are soothing and warm. 3. For giving an illusion of more and open space, use cool colors like blues, greens and violets. 4. For a serene and comforting look, use pale pinks. The closer pink gets to red, the more energetic it becomes. 5. Use vertical stripes on walls and curtains for an illusion of height. 6. Light colored walls and ceilings make the room look larger and more spacious. 7. Try to avoid contradicting colors and themes. If you want your room to look larger and need to use cool colors to achieve it, choose a theme which goes with cool colors. 8. If same-colored sofa, carpet and other upholstery give a monotonous look, use colorful cushions and wall-hangings to break the monotony. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
3:01 am	Advice on the Best Design Elements A well-decorated room can still lack personality. To give your room a personality, choose from among these basic design elements, modify them to suit your tastes and implement them in a way which is just right for you. 1. A Theme - A 'themed' room says something about you, the person who has done it, your family or the place where you live. A theme will also provide you a place to showcase your collections, prized possessions, arts and crafts. There are endless possibilities for using themes, but once you decide upon one, it will give you focus, as it will eliminate many things which don't fit into it. This results in great ease in shopping, planning, implementing etc. Some best decorated rooms have had themes like Water, Nature, Eighteenth Century England, Contemporary, Ethnic, Pastels etc. 2. Artifacts - A piece of artistic value will always give your room that special touch you have always wanted. It can add texture and depth to a room. Depending upon your theme, the artifact may be an an antique chair, a painted bookshelf, an original painting or even an original watercolor by your local artist. 3. Collections - It is the most effective way to display your collections in a special arrangement. Whether you collect shells, dolls or trinkets, arrange them tastefully instead of just lining things up in a row. Lining things looks even worse when objects are small in size. Instead, group them together to project variety within your collections. Lovely trays, glass cupboards, corner shelves etc. are some ideas for displaying your collections. 4. Color - Color does not get limited to painting the walls of your room. Use colors that make you feel good about them in fabrics, linen, pillows, shelves, curtains etc. Blend colors to suit your style. Add fabrics to liven up your room with a print that contains the color of your upholstery. To maintain harmony in colors, use the same accent at least THRICE around the same room. For eg. pillows, tablecloths and curtains could have similar accents. For more on using colors, read my article 'Using Colors in Your Room'. Use of the above elements will still leave everything to your own imagination and creativity. These will only help you in drawing out a plan for your Home-Decorating exercise. The details of the plan are still left to you to fill up. Happy Decorating! (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 5th, 2012
8:22 am	Creating Your Perfect Home Closet When the wife comes to you one fine day and says, "dear, I think we need a new closet for the bedroom", the heart surges in joy. Immediate thoughts of grabbing the coat and rushing off on a mission to the nearest DIY center enters the mind before realization dawns that first must come a shower and then work. Thursday today, Saturday would be best! A whole day of fun and joy to look forwards to! "Yes dear", you say casually, "I will get the car out on Saturday and look for something nice". What a shame it was not Saturday when she had told you this. That would have meant immediate action. But this way you have two whole days to plan and work on OPERATION CLOSET. Two days to think about where to search for the perfect piece in all of the hundreds of shops surrounding your town. Two whole days to dream about buying this closet, taking it back home and assembling it and afterwards proudly displaying the finished product to a proud and satisfied Wife. Saturday seems ever so far away. Sleep becomes impossible as the day draws near and the happy thoughts of OPERATION CLOSET, the fun and the happiness that goes with building ones own furniture is soon to become reality. Ah, come on and hurry up Saturday! Eventually the day arrives and out of bed you jump, eager to be on the road and out on the Search. Eager to return with your purchase and to be deeply involved in its construction, eager to be surrounded by the endless panels and screws and eager to see a creation come to life. Yep, it is Saturday and "happy" day. The Wife's attempt to ruin all by suggesting that you buy an already assembled closet and using a past occasion as reason for this (when you had assembled the Kitchen Dining Table and stuck a screwdriver through your foot) are ignored and you stick by your guns. A DIY closet must be purchased as a DIY closet can fit in the car and is cheaper; a pre-assembled closet would cost more and have to be brought back home by a delivery company. "NO, DIY it will be", you say with authority and stamp out the house on the start of your mission before the wife can lay other obstacles in your path. As you get into the car the Wife shouts after you, "I'll be out all day, try and get it all finished before my parents come this evening will you"? Freedom and on the road at last. After much searching around the various shops and comparing prices you soon have the perfect unit balanced across the back of the car and are winging your way back home. Part one complete. Part two coming up. Back at the house you gleefully bring the whole box of panels and associated bits into the bedroom, having previously made a space for it and removed the old closet out of harms way. So you have space and the various sections to be made into something usable. All that is required now are some tools and a cup of coffee. Downstairs for the toolbox, into the kitchen for the hot cup of coffee and back upstairs it is. NB: Must clean up the coffee spill on the stair carpet before the family return. Okay, everything is in order, coffee at hand and you are all alone to enjoy life at its best. First of all you sit there just soaking up the atmosphere and considering changing jobs to that of a Test Engineer at a furniture factory, then you make your first move of laying out the essential tools in a neat row along the floor by the door. A screwdriver, a sharp knife, a hammer, a tape measure and another screwdriver all placed neatly and ready for use. Next you use the sharp knife to open up the box and smile at the sight of all that wood! Laying out the panels in order you slowly empty the box until nothing is left, sitting back and grinning from ear to ear at the sight around you, now that phase two has been completed. But wait! Something is missing! You search around desperately for the assembly diagram, the one that should have been stuck inside the box, under the wood or in the bag of hinges and screws. It must be somewhere and you search again, looking in the car, under the wood, in the box and in the kitchen - anywhere that it might be. Calm down, you tell yourself, phone the company ask them if they have a new one or spare one or maybe it fell out at the shop. After a few phone calls' you sit back in total despair. The lady at the shop had kindly said "have you looked in the box"? And the lady at the factory condescendingly said, "oh no, we don't include diagrams with our latest range". NO DIAGRAM? What do you mean NO DIAGRAM? All is not that bad. Gaining second wind and laughing at yourself for the panic you go back upstairs convincing yourself that it can not be that difficult. A couple of shelves, a back and a front and some sides' that is all there is to building this up. What could be easier than that? You are now convinced that all will be easy and back to work you go with gusto and renewed energy! All you have to do is to arrange the separate pieces into order of place and work from there. Find the back, the bottom and two sides and then screw them together. After that, well, just fit the doors and "bobs your uncle". Seven hours it takes you. Seven hours of head scratching, sweating nervousness that the wife should return early and of seriously considering running out and buying a pre-assembled unit. Seven hours of puzzlement about why no panels are of the same size, why the floor is three inches shorter than the top and why there are not enough screws for the job. Seven hours of panic and heartburn as you precariously balance on one foot, holding one side up with your elbow and attempting to get a screw into place with your mouth. Seven hours of trying to figure out how you managed to get the door handles inside instead of out and why you had to open the left door before the right door would open. The first hour of all of this was spent trying to work out which piece was the floor. Deciding that it was the oblong section that had screw holes in it you had suitably attached it to what you thought was the right side. Whilst trying to balance on the washing basket and fix what you thought was the top onto what you thought was the side, you fell off seriously damaging your ankle and cutting your finger on the knife that had been lying beside the door. It was whilst looking upwards and deciding whether to nurse your ankle or suck on your bleeding finger that you noticed that the top was not the top after all. And that the bottom was actually an internal shelf and that the side that you had made so many holes in was after all, the door. It was after seven hours that you managed to assemble a closet into some sort of order. One door did have a few extra holes in it and the other door did have a rather large coffee stain in the middle but it was together. Oh, and the back did look a mess as in a temper you had accidentally punched a hole through the thin plywood and nailed it crooked to the closet frame. The door handles that you had broken whilst removing them from the inside of the doors to the outside looked okay once taped together and the mirror that you had cracked was not needed anyway - that you had removed outside to the garage never to be talked about again. Tools away, cup back in the sink, plaster on the finger and a soaking hot bath later and you are sitting comfortably with a newspaper in front of the television. Secretly swearing to yourself that you would never ever do such a thing again. Pre-assembled furniture all the way from now on you say to yourself. The wife on her return complains about the coffee stain on the stairs, makes some comment about the closet looking like a twenty year-old disaster and then goes to make dinner. Operation Closet complete and behind you! SIX MONTHS LATER One fine day, there you are eating your cereal in the morning and the wife comes along and says, "we need a new dresser in the spare room". Your heart jumps and without falter you say "yes dear, I will get the car out on Saturday and look for something nice". (Comment on this)
Friday, December 30th, 2011
10:27 am	Getting More Space Out of Your Home Have you been wondering how to free up space in your home? Do you live in a dorm or an efficiency where every inch of space counts? Maybe you're tired of trying to come up with ideas on how to reduce the clutter? Or don't know where to start? If you don't know where to start and feel like you're backed into a corner then maybe this is your solution to the problem. Let me introduce you to the top-to-bottom-strategy. It is a procedure that can be of great service to you if you are starting out and you are about to move into your own home. Or if you already own a house full of furniture and are willing to sell or donate what you no longer want in order to purchase a better version. It will work in many situations from great to small. The greater your willingness to get rid of the old and bring in the new, the bigger space difference there will be in your home. You may not want to exchange out many items in your home but decide on a few select items that will make a big difference once you've gotten rid of them. The most beneficial part of the top-to-bottom-strategy is that it can be customized to your preference. That's what makes it very opportunistic--it can be adjusted according to your desires. The top-to-bottom-strategy is a simple three step procedure that will help you reevaluate your thought process. This strategy deals with three levels. And each level can be used to help you better furnish your home by weighing any item you want or own against the top-to-bottom-strategy. The 3 Levels Level 3: Ceiling Level 2: Wall Level 1: Floor You'll notice with each level you move from top to bottom. Also notice that each level moves from ONLY taking up air space to taking up walking space. Items that DO NOT affect your walking zone are considered to be items that take up air space. The further up your item is positioned the freer your walking zone. And the more space you have in your home. The highest level that you can go is Level 3. In which an item you purchase is mounted from your ceiling. You may have, in the past, considered furnishing your home using these three levels, but only under certain conditions. For example, you may have first wanted a floor lamp but instead decided to get a sconce installed on your wall or a chandelier mounted from the ceiling rather than your first initial idea. That is a situation in which all three levels are used accidentally. But normally, you are likely to find that you have constantly left out Level 2 and Level 3 when you consider furnishing your home with a new item. The reason for this is easy to understand--you normally see what you want and then you buy it. And when you've done this there has been very little organization in furnishing your home. Except with the thought of whether you have enough floor space for the item in consideration. Before today, when you've considered purchasing an item you haven't really considered the three levels in combination with the item that you want. You were never taught, and never thought, much about the three levels because history never offered such circumstances until recently. Manufacturers today are creating products with the less-is-more idea in mind. Home furnishings are far lighter and far more space conserving now than they ever have been. So this strategy was never needed in the past since our predecessors had an entirely different way of life. Less busy. Less complicated in specific areas, and so on. But that is clearly not the case today. When you recognize that you want something from this day forward you can easily offer your home the best space possible by considering whether you can furnish your home with an item on Level 3 first. And if it is not possible on that level, drop down a level until it is possible to furnish your home on that specific level. Take for example, a television. Level 1: Floor You know your home can easily be furnished with a television using Level 1. And your most space conservative item to mount a television on is a pedestal tv stand, or a tv pole that extends from the floor to the ceiling. When you use Level 1 you want to be certain to brainstorm for the most space conserving way to use your floor space. You'll want to find the smallest, yet most reliable item that you can find that will do the job. And when you are able to find this type of item, it is so good at space conserving that Level 1 almost gives you the same advantages that Level 2 does. For example, if you were to use a tv pole to put your tv on. The pole itself takes up so little floor space and mounts the tv in midair that it's similar to furnishing your home with a tv using Level 2. Level 1 will always take up floor space and interfere with your walking zone. The best you can do with Level 1 is get an item that uses as little floor space as possible and interferes with your walking zone as little as possible. Level 2: Wall These days with lcds and plasma tvs, you even know that your home can be furnished with the television using Level 2. And your most space conservative item to mount your television on is a tv wall mount. But not only can lcds and plasmas be mounted on the wall, your average television can be too. There are dozens of wall mounts out there that mount regular tvs. But tv wall mounts may be something that has never surfaced to your mind. And this is a good example of when Level 2 is often left out of the picture. Level 2 will not take up floor space but it will interfere with your walking zone the majority of the time. The higher an item is positioned on your wall the less it will interfere with your walking zone. If it is positioned very high on your wall it will have the same exact advantages as Level 3. It will only take up air space and offer no space interference. Level 3: Ceiling Same goes with tvs and Level 3. There are dozens of ceiling mounts out there that your tvs can be mounted on. But ceiling wall mounts don't arise to the surface of many minds. And this also makes a good example of how Level 3 is often left out of the picture when furnishing your home. Level 3 will not take up floor space or interfere with your walking zone (assuming you are not so tall that you actually reach your ceiling). Level three only takes up air space. It offers the most advantages. There are dozens and dozens of items out there that you may not even know exists that you can furnish your home with. That are considered much lighter and more suitable alternatives than what you have in your home right now. Consider an aquarium and the three levels. Did you know that wall aquariums existed? Not the type that you put inside of a wall, but the type of aquarium in which you can hang on your wall like a picture? They are often referred to as Living Pictures. Living Pictures could be saving you space in your home right now if you knew about them. If you own an aquarium that's taking up a large amount of floor space you could easily incorporate Level 2 in your home to give yourself more room. Not to mention you have more of an advantage by being able to place your Living Picture just about anywhere in your home. Knowing about the top-to-bottom-strategy is offering yourself more freedom. And more knowledge. And knowledge is power. One of the best ways that you can find out about these items is by using the top-to-bottom-strategy in combination with surfing the net and researching each item that you're interested in. Always remember to research what you want (using the top-to- bottom-strategy) before you go out and buy what you see. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
4:45 am	Interior Style Change Ups The style of your interior depends for a great part on the decoration on the walls. Using the right picture on the right place can make your room look bigger. I experienced this for myself when I came in this business. I do sell reproduction paintings, you know. Actually, I came in the reproduction painting business because I was amazed about what one painting can do to your living room. Let me explain. I had an old painting on my wall that looked very nice. But, there was something missing. I decided that I had to replace it. I always wanted a Van Gogh, but I knew I would never be able to buy one. After a few months I discovered that there was a business that did just what I was looking for. I bought a reproduction painting from them, and this is the way my own business started. I was overwhelmed by the artistic talent of the reproductionist who captured the realistic impressionism of Van Gogh. So I decided to work together with these guys. I figured out they use the same techniques the old masters used. With several painters who are specialized in one artist, and only reproduce work of that artist. There are specialists of Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Gauguin and a lot more impressionists. Since I started this business I feel like helping other people realize there dream. They are affordable for everyone. You can already buy a "real" Van Gogh for as less as 120 USD. This is not too much for a beautiful lasting post-impressionistic piece of artwork (Comment on this)