Define Exactly What You’re After

A whole house remodel is a serious investment of both time and money. This is why it’s important to only undertake a home remodel once you’re sure of exactly what you want from your home design. Take the time to do the following before you get started:

List your goals. Besides aesthetics, how do you want your home to function or feel? What is your home not doing for you, and how will you remedy that? Do parts of your home feel too cramped or could be more ideal for entertaining guests? Summarize your objectives for each area of your home that you plan to include in your home remodel into a sentence or two.

Take an inventory. Go through your home in its entirety, and note all the general aspects of the different areas of your home that you do and don’t like. From here, you may be able to start prioritizing the various changes you’d like to make to your home design. This needn’t be all-encompassing, but it will be extremely helpful when it comes time to tell a professional designer exactly what you want from your home.

Catalogue Your Ideas. Keep a three-ring binder of all the ideas you have for your home. This can include notes as ideas come to you, or pages from home remodel magazines with colors or architecture that you would like to incorporate into your home’s design.

Depending on your budget, your remodeling contractor can be limited to certain aspects of your home improvement project or you can choose to have him take over the coordination and supervision of the entire project for you.  You also have the option to choose separate contractors yourself for the various aspects of your remodelling by hiring separate contractors for design, dismantling or demolition, construction, painting, and interior design.  You have to, however, be ready to spend time energy on this kind of arrangement as this route would take a whole lot of your organizing, coordinating, and supervising prowess to make sure that all your contractors are in sync in terms of overall design goals and work schedule.  Hiring an entire team of contractors with a single point-person who will be accountable for the work in progress would be a more practical, albeit more expensive, option for you.  Making sure that you get connected with the right contractor whose professionals hold the appropriate licenses and have the expertise in their own fields would be your first hurdle.

Knowing exactly what you want to happen in your remodelling project is necessary if you want to avoid the frustration both on your part and on the part of your contractor when you decide to change your design choices in the middle of the project.  It would be best to be clear about your remodelling goals as well as particular design and style elements that you would consider to be non-negotiables at the onset of your contract.  Minor details like fixtures and accessories would be easy enough to decide on as you go along for as long as your contractor has not yet bought the necessary supplies.  Although it is understandable that cost estimates initially presented to you by your contractor are subject to changes depending on fluctuations in market prices, it would be a good idea to make your financial limitations clear to your New Jersey remodeling contractor and have an agreement as to the kind of compromises that you would be willing to make in terms of budgetary adjustments – set a limit as to the maximum you would be willing to spend on your remodelling project and decide which design elements you are willing to adjust to keep within your budget.

Two features to keep in mind are the size and style of fan that will be right for your room. Fans are sized based on the length of the blades or paddles. The paddle length typically runs between 29 and 54 inches for residential ceiling fans. The length you buy should be based on the size of the room. The length of the paddles will have an effect on the revolutions per minute. The shorter blades will have to rotate at a faster RPM to get the same effect as a fan with 52 inch paddles. A fan with long paddles uses less energy to cool the air than a fan with shorter paddles.

Other options to consider are light kits. Is the room where the fan is to be installed in need of additional lighting? Is the wiring already in place to add a light to the ceiling fan? If you don’t see a need or necessity for buying a light kit with your fan then I would omit it. If your circumstances change, adding a light kit is easy enough to do after the fan is installed.

There are three ways to control your fan. If you don’t have a wall mounted switch currently in place, you may want to keep installation simple and just use the pull chain. All fans come with an operational pull chain which hangs from the middle of the fan encasement. Pulling on the chain repeatedly allows you to choose from low, medium, and high settings as well as turning the fan on and off. Another option is the remote control feature. Certain models are sold with a remote control which will come in handy for some situations. When mobility is a problem for a person, a remote control would be extremely helpful

One of the most obvious aspects of a home that the owner or a visitor will first see is the color that the home is painted in. The colors will also include the color of the furniture and home accessories.

To be correct about the color, you just need to find the right combination or scheme to come up with your desired room size, mood, and temperature. You might have known by now that color can resize a room. Large rooms can be made a little smaller and small rooms can look spacious. Of course, this will only be on the illusion that it gives but it surely will matter.

The mood depends on whether the color that you used was lively or not. Dull colors would create a regular looking room, or even one that is boring. Bright colors may come as a lively looking room for most.

Lastly for color, the room temperature will depend on whether the color used was “warm” or cool. Examples of warm colors are reds, oranges, and yellows. Cool colors can be blues and greens.

Aside from the color of the room or the house, you also give importance to lines and the direction that they seem to give. You can use a combination of straight lines, curved lines and a few more. Or, you may just stick to one type and design your room with that in mind.

Space is another important aspect of home design. As has been discussed, the colors of the room can help determine the resulting size of a room. Aside from color, the type of furniture to use should be taken into account. Big furniture may only look well with a spacious room while smaller furniture items may also look better in a smaller room. This also avoids crowding a small room and leaving out too much space in a big room.

You may also add features like using repetition in your designs as this can be interesting to look at. You may also paint the room using gradients as they give a subtler transition between the colors. Contrast can help give or reduce emphasis in a certain item.

In all of these it is important that you take into account how all of the designs manage to go with the whole look. The room should be well balanced. The furniture, the accessories, and the structure of the house itself need to be complementary to each other.

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A licensed professional contractor can help you assess your energy efficiency needs and provide remodeling projects that will improves your homes energy efficiency.Before remodeling a home, especially an older one, an energy assessment (home energy audit) should be performed by an experienced, licensed contractor. A home energy audit determines how much energy your home is currently consuming and recommends energy efficiency improvements.

When remodeling a home, those projects that improve energy-efficiency should be considered high priority.  Over the long-term, these improvements not only pay for themselves with reduced utility bills, but they make the house more comfortable and healthier to live in.  Most notably, projects that deal with energy efficiency also impact indoor air quality.  Indoor air quality can’t be taken for granted and can have a major impact on a family’s health.  For example, hidden mold spores in the home can trigger a variety of illnesses from asthma to a host of mycotoxin-related illnesses.

Before remodeling a home, especially an older one, an energy assessment (home energy audit) should be performed by an experienced, licensed contractor.  A home energy audit determines how much energy your home is currently consuming and recommends energy efficiency improvements.

While there are a variety of projects that improve energy efficiency, none are more important than the interrelated elements of air sealing, insulation, moisture control and ventilation. Although not as noticeable as many other remodeling projects, at the end of the day, the proper balance of these elements is what really counts. A home with good air quality and efficient temperature regulation is a home that is comfortable and healthy to live in. Always make sure to use a licensed and insured home remodeling contractor.

Air Sealing

Air sealing is one of the most significant energy efficiency improvements you can make. When air sealing an existing home, you must detect air leaks as well as assess ventilation needs for indoor air quality. A good professional contractor looks at airflow not as an uncontrolled phenomenon to be avoided, but at a critical and essential function to be managed. The objective in proper air sealing is to improve comfort, reduce heating bills, and most importantly, make the indoor air healthier and safer. The traditional air sealing techniques of weather stripping and caulking is used much less extensively today as contractors become more skilled in finding better options. More air can be stopped elsewhere for less money and air moving through doors and windows is less harmful that air traveling through cavities depositing condensation. The best opportunities for reducing air leakage are at the top and bottom of the house.

Insulation

Once your home is properly sealed, the next improvement to reduce your energy bills is by adding more insulation. A qualified home energy auditor will include an insulation check as a routine part of a whole-house energy assessment to find out where your home is, isn’t and should be insulated, the type of insulation, its R-value (the insulation’s resistance to heat flow) and depth of existing insulation. To improve the thermal resistance of exterior walls, there are variety of insulation materials including blanket insulation such as rolls or batts which are pre-cut insulation panels, foam board or rigid foam, and loose fill or sprayed insulation. Your contractor can help you decide those insulation materials that would work best for your home.

Moisture and Ventilation Control

The best strategy for moisture control depends on your climate and how your home is constructed. Here, in New Jersey with high relative humidity, moisture control is a serious issue. High humidity levels can lead to mold growth and structural damage to your home. Proper ventilation, the exchange of indoor air with outdoor air, is an integral component of a moisture control strategy. Proper ventilation reduces indoor pollutants, moisture, and odors. Excess moisture and inadequate ventilation can create a health hazard for your family. These factors can cause toxins, pollutants and gages to accumulate and nurture mold and dust mites making you and your family sick. There are now mechanical ventilation systems that measure the moisture content of outdoor and crawlspace air and only provides ventilation when the outdoor air is drier than crawlspace air.

HVAC Sizing

Older space conditioning systems are often unreliable and much less efficient that a modern system. When it’s time for a new replacement, choosing the correct size is critical to getting the best efficiency, comfort, and lowest maintenance and operating costs. Some national surveys have determined that well over half of all HVAC installations are not sized correctly. Most commonly, oversized equipment is installed.

Oversized equipment forces the system to operate inefficiently. It breaks down more often and costs more to operate not to mention the new system costing more to begin with. Oversized heating equipment often creates uncomfortable and large temperature swings in the house while oversized air conditioners do not run long enough to dehumidify the air resulting in that “clammy” feeling and unhealthy mold growth in many air conditioned houses.

High-efficiency Toilets

Designed for water conservation, HE toilets use an average of 20% less water per flush than the industry standard of 1.6 gallons saving close to 9000 gallons of water annually for a family of four

Energy-Efficient Windows, Doors, and Skylights

Installing energy-efficient windows, door and highlights can go a long way toward lowering a home’s heating, cooling, and lighting costs. Window technology has evolved over the years. Your home remodeling contractor can determine the best windows for energy efficiency based on your home’s design such as window orientation.

Solar Hot Water

Solar water heating systems generate hot water for your home with free solar fuel. Solar water heaters can be active or passive. Active systems have pumps and controls. The two types of active heating systems are direct circulation systems used in moderate climates and indirect circulation systems for harsher climates. Indirect systems circulate a non-freezing heat-transfer fluid through the collectors and a heat exchanger. Heat exchanges transfer solar energy absorbed in the solar collectors to the liquid or air used to heat water or a space. The two basic passive systems are integral collector-storage passive systems and thermosyhon systems. Passive systems are typically less expensive, but not as efficient. Solar water heating systems include storage tanks and solar collectors. There are three types of residential solar collectors: flat-plate collectors. Integral collector-storage (ICS) or batch systems, and evacuated-tube solar collectors, Solar systems generally have back-up water heating for cloudy days and times of increased demand.

Recycled/Renewable Flooring

Eco-friendly flooring that lead the market are recycled flooring from old structures. Old wood can be given new life as recycled wood flooring made from salvaged boards or trees that have been re-milled. Since this wood came from old growth forests, it is often harder, denser, and more attractive in appearance than new wood growth. Specialty recyclers glean reusable hardwoods such as chestnut, hickory, cherry, and oak from old houses and other structures slated for demolition. Another attractive alternative is renewable flooring from fast-growing trees such as bamboo.

Tubular Skylights

Many homeowners enjoy the natural lighting that skylights provide. However, skylights often do not distribute light evenly, are a significant source of energy loss, and can cause UV damage to carpets and furniture. Tubular skylights use the sun for lighting interiors without the drawbacks associated with conventional skylights. They are generally easier to install than typical skylights and, from the home’s interior, resemble conventional lighting fixtures.