Categories Bathroom

Home Remodeling for Generations of Safety in the Bathroom

Bathroom safety is a generational need. It’s obvious why household accidents frequently occur in the bathroom where we are most vulnerable. Water splashes out of the bathtub onto the floor, footprints of water track from the shower to the sink. Bathroom fixtures and floors are rock hard – a nightmare during a fall. Those who have to get dressed in the bathroom have to do balancing acts around solid fixtures and wet floors – likely while dancing to a favorite tune on plugged-in iPod speakers while waiting for electrical hair-styling accessories to heat up.

Slippery floors and solid fixtures affect all generations. Infants are held, washed and lifted with slippery hands begging for a third hand to grasp a nearby towel. Energetic children test their diving skills in a bathtub-turned-swimming pool. Sibling arguments over a bathroom sink or mirror can turn into push and shove matches over hard ceramic tiles and concrete floors. Tree-climbing school children and sports-active teenagers might have to deal with an injured arm or broken leg in their bathroom routines. Shower doors and entry doors open and close simultaneously as working adults rush to prepare for the outside world. And of course, as old age and arthritis sets in, it becomes more difficult to balance, bend and move.

The National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) has design recommendations for safety. If you are contemplating an add-on bathroom or a complete remodel, these recommendations can get you started in the right direction by helping you determine the minimum amount of space you will need. (Very useful if you’re eying that walk-in closet to see if you can transform it into an extra bathroom.)

Many of the NKBA’s recommendations suggest minimum measurements between fixtures. Start locating twenty-one inches on your tape measure. The NKBA recommends at least 21” of space in front of lavatories – 21” space in front of toilets, and 21” of space in front of the bathtub. They also suggest an entryway of 32” wide, and shower enclosures to measure at least 32” by 32” with a shower head at least 72” high.

Door placement is a serious remodeling consideration for any room – and shower doors are no exception. Make sure the shower door opens into a room, and not into the shower enclosure. If someone is hurt, you need to get them out fast without knocking them unconscious while you’re opening the door. Also make sure a shower door and entryway door aren’t going to collide. For added safety, especially if you have young boisterous children, make sure the shower door is made from safety glass. If you have an older home with original installations – it’s probably not safety glass.

The NKBA also suggests that showers have a bench or footrest installed. Not only does this provide support when shaving and washing the lower legs, but if someone starts to get dizzy or lightheaded it’s easy to sit down. There should always be slip-resistant flooring in the shower, bath and throughout the whole bathroom.

If you’re not doing a complete bathroom add-on or major remodeling project, an easy to to prevent accidents is to install a grab bar in the bathtub, shower, and by the toilet. To further prevent bathtub accidents, make sure that bathtubs are installed with faucets that are easy to access from outside the bathtub. To prevent scalding (if you can’t or are not willing to turn down your hot water tank temperature), install a shower head with a pressure-balancing temperature regulator that keeps the hot and cold water balanced.

Bathroom remodelers seeking counter space should consider NKBA’s recommendations of a 6” minimum between the edge of a toilet and side counter. And, although it’s obvious that toilet paper should be easy to reach – they do recommend the toilet paper holder to be 26” off the ground. They do not, however, have recommendations on whether the toilet paper should be unrolled from over the top of the roll or from underneath. That’s for you and your spouse to argue about.

Bathroom remodeling for safety is an investment that will last through generations. You might not be able to stop siblings from elbowing each other over the bathroom sink, but you can make sure you’ve done your best to protect them. Soak in some safety recommendations before you start soaking in your new tub, and plan on remodeling your bathroom with safety measures that can protect your family for generations.

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Categories Bathroom

It’s Not You – It’s Your Bathroom Medicine Cabinet

You might think that you’re bored looking at the same old face every day, but maybe you’re just bored with your bathroom medicine cabinet that harbors the mirror looking straight back at you. If you don’t have the time or money for a major bathroom overhaul, or aren’t in a position to start pulling sinks and toilets out of the way, take a small first step and replace your bathroom medicine cabinet.

No matter what bathroom you’re in, a medicine cabinet will not go unnoticed. Whether you like it or not, a bathroom medicine cabinet is a visual focal point of the bathroom. You might as well install a medicine cabinet that smiles back at you every morning. It’s a relatively easy job, even for the beginning home remodeler. However, if your current or new bathroom medicine cabinet includes wiring for lights, keep in mind that you will have to deal with the electrical requirements of the job.

Bathroom medicine cabinets are available to be surface attached or recessed into the bathroom wall. If you have a surface medicine cabinet, you can install a recessed one, and if you have a recessed medicine cabinet you can install a surface one. Installing a recessed bathroom medicine cabinet where you currently have a surface mounted cabinet will require a great deal more time and work – but installing a surface cabinet where you had a recessed cabinet is not as time-consuming. You’ll find an amazing array of designs available, so take some time to find something you want to wake up to every morning. If a unique design is imperative, simply buy a standard cabinet, then add your own lighting and frame to surround it.

If you’re taking on this home improvement project yourself, you’ll need a drill, a screwdriver, a level, a tape measure, and hammer. If your old or new medicine cabinet has lighting attached, remember that the first most important thing you need to do is to shut off the power from the service panel so you don’t get electrocuted before you get the chance to see your new bathroom medicine cabinet installed.

To take off your old medicine cabinet, disconnect the wires if there are any, then remove the screws that are holding the cabinet to the wall. You can then carefully pull the cabinet up and out from the wall. In many cases, a light fixture or wood frame may be attached separately from the cabinet structure.

Before you set your new medicine cabinet completely in place, place it in its new spot and make sure it’s level. (It’s a lot easier if someone can hold it for you.) Then look for the holes in the new cabinet where the screws will go. Make a mark on the wall through those holes onto the wall so you know where you will begin drilling.

If you’re surface mounting a cabinet, you’ll need wall anchors. Plastic anchors are not strong enough for larger cabinets installed on drywall. If your new medicine cabinet is recessed, it can be screwed directly into the wall. The types of screws and drill bits you use will also depend on the type of bathroom wall material you are working with. A masonry drill bit will be needed for tiled walls (and you’ll need a bit more arm strength).

If you’re installing a recessed cabinet, make sure the screws go into the wall studs or the cabinet will fall down the first time the mirror is slammed shut. (And maybe even before then.) For a surface cabinet, first install the anchors into the wall, then hold up the cabinet to its new position, and drive the screws through the back of the cabinet into the wall anchors – but don’t tighten them one by one. Start each one into the anchor, then after all of the screws are started into the anchors, drive each one in tight. Once the basic cabinet is installed, you can continue your project by hooking up your charming new lighting or adding a stunning frame around your new cabinet.

Seeing a new bathroom medicine cabinet installed can rejuvenate your mornings. If you can’t start a major home improvement project, start with installing a new bathroom medicine cabinet and greet yourself with a smile for a job well done.

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Categories Kitchen

Enlarge Your Kitchen by Remodeling with Kitchen Built-Ins

Kitchen walls are just waiting to be torn down. Behind the out-dated wallpaper, faded paint, and tiles that have lost their luster, are studs and empty spaces just waiting to be filled with fine wine, classic cookbooks and patterned pottery. Adding a small or spacious built-in for your kitchen is a stunning way to enlarge your kitchen and cooking area by using your already existing resources to house your years of kitchen collectibles and the comforts of family traditions.

A built-in pantry, once a standard in every home, will double your storage room. Although today’s busy fast-food and instant-dinner families may no longer need pantry-size shelving for canning fresh vegetables and fruits over the winter, the storage room surely comes in handy for storing dishes, plastic containers, cookbooks with permanent tomato stains, and little-used countertop appliances. If you are lacking a dining room, a built-in cabinet faced with glass doors can show off your collectible wares or irreplaceable porcelains and chinas.

On a smaller scale, a simple built-in such as a sliding spice-rack can add sought-after counter space. If you savor cupboard space more than counter space, consider bringing some of your kitchen cupboards down to touch the counter. You’ll create shelves where tile once interrupted the bottom cupboard from the countertop. If your kitchen is faced with more than enough cupboards, take a cupboard door off and put in a lattice configuration for bottles of red wine. If you entertain often, see if you have empty space between your fridge and counter for a pull-out wine rack for storing white wine close to the fridge. If your family is the scope of your entertaining days, open-faced built-in shelves can house phones, charger stations, mail, homework, crayons, trophies, newspapers, magazines, coupons and recipes, as well as a few oversized pots and pans.

Kitchen built-ins provide endless ideas for kitchen remodeling projects. If your kitchen is small and cluttered, or you just need a change; look at your walls, your cupboards and your empty spaces to envision the future. Your fantasy kitchen might be waiting for you just behind your kitchen walls.

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Categories Kitchen

Remodeling a Kitchen – part 2

A popular method of remodeling a kitchen today isn’t far too expensive. It often just means new curtains, a different coat of paint, and the newest appliances. Another popular feature of the kitchen in the 21st century is tiles for the floor, but a swing towards hardwood flooring is beginning to take place. When it comes to countertops and cabinets, there are also a few new trends. Cabinets are becoming more stylish, with a higher emphasis placed on designs and carving. When it comes to countertops, the general shift is towards granite. Again, both of these are expensive, so you must consider how much you need them. Also, color correlation is a huge thing nowadays. Snazzy new kitchens are often cool, versus the warm colored kitchens of the 60’s and 70’s. Shades of blue, purple, green and even white and black seem to be all the rage now a days.

When it comes to the layout of the kitchen, you must consider current trends. Right now, the kitchen is no longer the focus point, but more of the efficient cooking stations. Kitchens today are often attacked to a family room, and serve as a point of preparation. At times a small table might be included in the kitchen for morning meals or a quick snack, but more often than not more of the eating is shifting to the family room.

Kitchens nowadays must be efficient. With technology coming out at a rapid pace, a modern kitchen must work well. Things such as the oven, microwave, garbage dispenser, dishwasher, freezer, and water filter should all be available to be able to call a kitchen truly modern. Visit your local furniture and kitchen stores to see some more modern designs to get a better idea of what will be needed.

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Categories Kitchen

Remodeling a Kitchen – part 1

For thousands of years, for as long as humans existed themselves, our minds are all connected in one general, often forgotten goal: food. Every last human on earth can relate to every other human on earth that we all seek food, need food, and rely upon it. Spanning for hundreds of years, from the roman villas with their large circular family oriented kitchens, to the huge kitchens of the renaissance, constantly making meals for kings, the kitchen has also been held in high regard. And thus, through a primal love, the kitchen is one of the most important rooms in the house, and possibly the most important, connecting all different cultures of different ages. And for this reason, it is wise to have a great kitchen.

In the modern western worlds, kitchens have become more comfortable and useful with the introduction of new technology and ideas. Things such as the microwave, fridge, garbage disposal, dishwasher, and modern oven have revolutionized the kitchen in the last hundred years, and few seem to appreciate to just what extent the kitchen has changed, and is changing. Yet as we enter the new century, Kitchens are not only being held accountable to work effectively, but also look great. Often time, consciously or not, homebuyers and people in general keep the look and feel of a kitchen in high regard. And nowadays the true mark of a great house is a beautiful kitchen with quality equipment installed.

If you feel as if your kitchen is outdated, ugly, or simply depressing, it might be the right time to do a little remodeling job. Remodeling a kitchen wont only lift the value of your home, but also the spirits of your family. But when remodeling, you must take into consideration your budget and the usefulness. If you already have a beautiful kitchen, but are just itching for change, it might not be the best use of thousands of dollars to simply get a different layout installed. Make sure that if you’re remodeling, you’re also upgrading.

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Categories Kitchen

Designs and styles of the new sinks and faucets

When it comes to the sink and faucet, there is even more to consider. First of all, due to the rising amounts of drugs and pills being flushed down our sewage system nowadays, a water purification system is an absolute must. You don’t want your family, or you, drinking diluted amounts of morphine, accetocolyne and other nasty substances that do damage to your body. Until the public sector finds a way to purify tap water, it is up to private purifying systems to do the job.

When it comes to look, sinks and faucets should appear sleek. A variety of new designs and style are quickly replacing the well known modern sink. To truly get into detail of all the designs available would take pages, thus a simple look at your local department store can give you an idea. Don’t be afraid to get creative and bold. We are entering a new golden age of creative experimentation, so don’t be afraid to go against the norm. When Lady Gaga is one of your premier artists in the western world, don’t be afraid to get a funky looking sink and faucet. Also, make sure that the sink and faucet will fit in your kitchen, especially if it’s a shape other than square.

Another thing to consider when installing your faucets, is where they are made and from what material. With all the news nowadays about the dangers of lead, and china’s inefficient safety policies, it might be wiser to spend a few hundred dollars to go European and get a quality product you can trust. When it comes to installing the faucet itself, its best to get a professional to do it for you.

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Categories Basement

Turn your Basement in a European Wine Cellar

The dark seclusion of an unfinished basement is reminiscent of the underground caves of France and Italy. For centuries, European underground caves have cultivated the fine wines that satisfy even the most discriminating palette. The discriminating homeowner can take advantage of a basement’s natural starkness and remodel their basement to embrace a refined passion for wine. Turning a basement into a wine cellar will not only provide pleasure and sophistication to family meals and household entertaining, it will also improve the value of your home.

If the idea of turning your basement into a wine cellar sounds as tantalizing as the finest of red wines, start by looking at the temperature, humidity and stability of your basement before you begin your basement home improvement project. If you want your fine wine to remain a good wine, controlling basement temperature, humidity and stability will determine success.

Fifty-seven degrees is the ideal temperature for wine storage. Extreme fluctuating temperatures can turn a fine wine into a dine-and-dash wine. A humidity level that stabilizes between 65% and 70% will keep the corks from drying out. It’s also important to keep your basement wine cellar free from excessive heat and ultraviolet lights.

Keeping the basement free from vibrations is just as important. Wine aficionados know that even the quiet vibrations of a refrigerator’s cooling coils can affect the quality of wine. Although building a wine-rack under the basement stairs may seem to be the most convenient location, the vibrations that naturally occur from footsteps can affect the quality of wine.

Temperature, humidity and stability can all be controlled. If your basement currently looks more inviting to bats than people, a basement wine cellar is an exquisite, financially sound solution. Turn your discriminating tastes into a fine-wine home improvement project and you’ll see your fine wines and your home’s value improve with age.

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Categories Basement

Measure Your Moisture Before Your Basement Remodeling Project

You might be excited about your basement remodeling project, but don’t start bringing in the gypsum drywall and putting down the shag carpet until you survey the basement for moisture mayhem. Moisture problems can creep up slowly, and in many cases a small, unseen problem can escalate into an avalanche of moisture-related catastrophes. Water and moisture problems can add staggering expenses, or even halt the basement remodeling project.

To make sure you can avoid moisture mayhem, you can start with a simple home moisture test on your basement using just foil paper and tape. Simply cut square patches of aluminum foil and use tape to completely seal them onto various spaces of your basement walls and floors. Make sure you have a patch on each wall, upper and lower. Look for foundational cracks on the floor and walls, as these are likely spots for water. Leave the patches in place for at least a week. If you see moisture droplets under the foil paper after a week, moisture is seeping its way through your basement walls from the outside. If the moisture droplets are on top of the foil paper, it’s condensation – simply from warm air hitting a cold wall.

A faulty foundation or plumbing problems are likely the culprits for any water-related problem. Start investigating before you start remodeling. Brown stains on floor joists are signs of leaks. If you poke the stain with a screwdriver and it’s spongy, you have a leak. If it’s stained but not spongy, the stain could be from an old leak that has since been repaired. If you don’t find and correct the problem before remodeling, walls will crumble, mold will grow, allergies will be aggravated and shag carpets will turn into sponges. If your house isn’t yet in the Registry of Historical buildings, you’ll find that many moisture problems can be remedied with modern appliances and materials.

Test your moisture, find the cause, fix it, retest and remodel when all is well. It might take some time and even delay an exciting, eagerly anticipated basement remodeling project, but it will save you and your budget from moisture mayhem in the end.

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Categories Living-Room

Trim Your Room to Perfection with Plain Cove Molding

Cove molding isn’t a necessity of life, and many houses are built without the benefit of having cove, crown or cornice molding installed. But installing cove molding adds architectural interest, visual continuity, and improves your home’s insulation. Cove molding joins walls and ceilings with a clean, simple line, creating a seamless transition that works to define a room. Installing cove molding is a relatively simple home improvement project that can add to the beauty and value of your home.

Cove molding is a “Plain Jane” when compared to the ornate cornices and stylish crown moldings that are available in wood, plaster, vinyl and even foam. But when cove molding is installed to join walls to a ceiling, it smoothes out the harsh lines between wall and ceiling and lets the eye continue to move fluidly throughout the room bringing uninterrupted attention to the focal points of the room.

Smaller rooms require thinner trim, and you can tame down an over-sized room with wide, thick molding and prominent cornices. If you have an uneven ceiling, you can find foam replicas of cornices and molding that are adhered with a latex adhesive caulk or nailed down or plaster cornices that are adhered with gypsum adhesive.

Leveling and measuring to ensure exactness are the greatest challenges when installing cove molding. Measure the gaps between the wall and ceiling, and make sure you use a carpenter’s level. You will also want to locate the studs in the room before you start the job. Nailing the molding into the studs keeps the molding firmly attached. When you start installing the cove molding, start in one corner of the room and work your way towards the least noticeable part of the room.

For wood molding, attach it with 2” finish nails. To save yourself from trying to extract needle-thin finish nails, drive the nails in only partially before you countersink them. You should not only double-check your measurements with a level, but you should also get off your ladder or chair, and make sure that the trim is aligned straight. (It wouldn’t hurt to ask for a second opinion.) Once you are confident that the molding is level, countersink the finishing nails, and if you’d like, fill in the nail heads with matching putty. To keep the trim sealed tight, fill in any gaps above or below the lines with sandable and paintable silicone adhesive. You can smooth out the silicone with your fingertip.

Sometimes even the simplest home improvement can make a pronounced difference. If your room needs fluidity, subtle architectural interest, or a tad more insulation – installing cove molding could be the simple home improvement project needed to trim your room to perfection.

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Categories DIY Tips

Another issue for avoiding repairs

For example, at higher latitudes, even a clean rain gutter can suddenly build up an ice dam in winter, forcing melt water into unprotected roofing, resulting in leaks or even flooding inside walls or rooms. This can be prevented by installing moisture barrier beneath the roofing tiles. A wary home-owner should be alert to the conditions that can result in larger problems and take remedial action before damage or injury occurs. It may be easier to tack down a bit of worn carpet than repair a large patch damaged by prolonged misuse.

Another example is to seek out the source of unusual noises or smells when mechanical, electrical or plumbing systems are operating—sometimes they indicate incipient problems. One should avoid overloading or otherwise misusing systems, and a recurring overload may indicate time for an upgrade.

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