Garage doors add a beautiful design element to your home’s exterior as well as provide a safe, secure and easy access to your garage. Today’s garage doors come in a variety of types and styles, and are available in different materials, depending on your needs and tastes.
You will hear the term custom home used a lot but what does it really mean? Let’s look at some different terms that might be used as you investigate building your dream home.
A construction loan is one of the very first steps in the home building or remodeling process. This allows you to know the scope of the project you qualify for. But where do you start? You have probably applied for home loans in the past but will it be the same for a construction loan? A construction loan is somewhat different than any mortgage you may have applied for in the past, and, depending upon your needs, there are several types of loans available.
Whether you are remodeling or building a new home, the topic of change orders will always come up.
An alternative building system to a conventional stick built home is called SIPs. SIPs is an acronym for Structurally Insulated Panels. SIPs are made up of rigid form core insulation, laminated between two (2) layers of wood sheathing called OSB (Oriented Strand Board).
Skylights let natural light stream into your home, bringing warmth and a feeling of spaciousness. When properly selected and used, they can reduce your need for electric lighting and minimize your heating and cooling costs.
Sunrooms are a wonderful addition to your home. They bring the beauty of nature and sunlight into your home while keeping out the cold, and the heat and bugs. The reasons vary for either adding a sunroom to your existing home, or to including it in the plans for the construction of your new dream home.
The place where you take your daily shower is probably not something your think about a lot. As long as there is enough hot water and the shower stall is clean, your daily needs are met. But, when you contemplate remodeling that bathroom or building your dream home and need to plan for its bathrooms, there are a lot of choices from which to select.
Wikipedia defines a plumbing fixture as “a device which is part of a system to deliver and drain away water, but which is also configured to enable a particular use.” This broad definition includes sinks, lavatories, toilets, showers, tubs, faucets and water heaters.
Sinks can be found in many different rooms in your home – the bathroom, the kitchen, maybe even a bar sink in your den or family room. Because bathroom and kitchen sinks are the most common, they will be our focus.
With the broad range of bathroom faucets available toady, you can easily find a unique and stylish model that is also practical for your family’s daily use. When looking for a faucet for your bathroom, you will need to consider how it will be mounted, what finish will complement your bathroom’s design and the number of handles that best meet your needs.
There are three (3) main types of foundations for homes and they are concrete slabs, crawl spaces and basements.
According to Wikipedia: “Green Building is the practice of increasing the efficiency of buildings and their use of energy, water and materials, and reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance and removal – the complete building life cycle.”
Water heating represents between 14% and 25% of the energy used in your home. Selecting the right hot water heater impacts not only the comfort of your family but your energy usage for years to come.
Heating and cooling your home represents almost one half of the money you will spend on energy every year. If your home is poorly insulated, those costs can be even greater. The amount of insulation as well as its effectiveness is “key” to your energy usage.
