Do you know how many decisions are required to outfit a new bathroom? There are literally 100s of decisions to be made. Having completed more than 10 bathroom remodels, I know the decision making can get overwhelming. After dealing with custom cabinets for 2 bathrooms, I once jumped at the chance to buy a discontinued vanity/cabinet combination to save myself lots of decisions.

When I learned about bathsimple.com, a website that simplifies the process of picking out the majority of your bathroom purchases, I had to check out their website and you should too! READ MORE

Do you have a furnace or a boiler? Sounds like a simple question and it is, yet I was stumped when someone started describing a problem where there hot water heater was leaking and everyone was telling them they had to replace the furnace, or is it a boiler. Some quick research provided a simple answer:

• Boilers heat water that circulates through the home and gives off heat … known as forced hot water heating.
• Furnaces heat air that is distributed throughout the house … called a forced hot air heating system. READ MORE

More homeowners are considering remodeling as an alternative to selling their home and moving. Remodeling isn’t new. Early settlers added extra rooms onto their homes, to accommodate a new generation. Look anywhere in New England and you will see houses that have changed over time to reflect the evolving lives of their owners.

A commitment to schools, neighborhood, community and location are some of the reasons that homeowners decide to expand, reconfigure and rethink their existing homes to fit changing needs and desires. Today, remodeling or renovating your current home enables you to avoid today’s uncertain housing market while gaining the efficiency, space and comfort you need from your living space. READ MORE

Working with your building contractor can be challenging because construction concepts and terminology aren’t part of our everyday language. Like being in a different country, it’s similar to your friends talking about their work and using terminology that means nothing to you. When home owners talk to contractors they face the same challenge.

New terminology, different backgrounds and having contractors work in your home can be stressful. That’s why many people delay necessary repairs to their home or put off building that special room they’ve dreamed of for years. By spending time learning about your home, basic concepts and terminology related to your project at HomeTips4Women.com, you can reduce stress and have positive communication with your home pros. READ MORE

Have you dreamed about remodeling your home for years? Do you want to get started, but are uncertain how to start the process? The first step, planning your project is critical. This is where you have to prioritize your dreams and make tough decisions as few homeowners have an unlimited budget. You can find experienced architects or home designers who will work with you to match your goals to your budget. READ MORE

Christmas is my favorite holiday. It’s a busy, chaotic time of year but you get to enjoy lots of fun activities with friends and family, things that you rarely do the rest of the year. My family teases me because I love playing Christmas music for months. Everyone has their personal favorites and they change over time, i.e. my boys always hung the outdoor lights but they’ve grown up and now we visit them for the holidays.

It’s easy to get distracted during the holiday season. You know you want to decorate the house and you know when you’re done because you can see the results. This checklist helps you keep track of special holiday activities that aren’t part of your day-to-day routine. The focus of this checklist is home safety — keeping you, your family and guests safe during the holiday season.

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Do you have a home maintenance strategy? We haven’t found a widely accepted home owner’s manual, so unless you inherited a strategy from relatives or a neighbor you respect, chances are you don’t have a strategy for ongoing home maintenance.

Along with a strategy, you need a budget for non-operating home expenses. Spending more time on inexpensive maintenance tasks, will let you save money to replace key home systems like a new furnace or roof. With consistent home maintenance, you can extend the life of these systems and allocate more of your home budget to updating your home like a bathroom remodel or granite counter tops in the kitchen. Makes sense, right? READ MORE

Houses need ongoing maintenance like a car. Car owners know they need to take their car in for oil changes, which include a new oil filter. Your furnace also needs it’s filter changed periodically to insure your heating system works efficiently.

There are 100s of home repair books to pick from but few focus on preventive maintenance, with the key word being “preventive”. When you don’t perform routine maintenance around your home, damage will occur. Once this happens you have to make repairs, and if the damage is extensive it can mean replacing a window, a door or hot water heater. Unfortunately most homeowners don’t realize that routine maintenance helps your home function more efficiently and reduces repair costs. READ MORE

Decorating is much more than picking colors and finding bathroom fixtures that work together. Decorating is about making all the pieces come together to create a coordinated look and feel, a place where you feel warm and cozy. When I teamed up with an interior decorator to remodel two bathrooms in 90 days, I never realized how much I would learn.

My role was overall project manager and I focused on getting materials to the job site to keep everyone on schedule. Where I worried about the alignment of the plumbing for the new vanity, our decorator focused on the best hardware to dress up the vanity and overall bathroom. Here’s my first tip for you – take photos of different sections of a room you’re decorating. You’ll be able to focus on the details better. READ MORE

Bathrooms are the smallest rooms in a house yet they’re one of the most complex rooms to design, build and decorate. What makes a bathroom so complicated? Bathrooms have more fixtures per square foot than other rooms in the house although we often think a bathroom is a vanity with sink, toilet and bathtub or shower.

In fact we didn’t consider how many fixtures this small bathroom had when the owner said they wanted to go with bronze hardware which costs about fifty percent more chrome hardware. Want to learn how many different products you have to buy for a small bathroom? READ MORE