The advantages of hiring a professional designer in the Twin Cities.

The advantages of hiring a professional designer.

By Jessica Ackerman

Hire a professional designer

Although many people think they could never afford the services of a professional interior designer, this is not always the case. In fact, the guidance provided by a professional can often save you money, since you won’t end up wasting money on design mistakes. A professional designer can assess your interior space and help you find ways to maximize its usefulness and appearance. Once properly designed by a professional, you’ll be able to build upon the framework of good design, making future decorating mistakes much less likely.

Scheduling a Consultation

Most interior designers will provide reasonably priced consultations. Even if you have to spend a hundred dollars or more, it can be worthwhile to hear what a professional designer has to say about your home. If you’ve always wondered how much it would cost to give a room a makeover, this is your chance to find out. A professional designer has the experience and expertise to quote costs, suggest design alternatives, and give you ideas that you would probably never think of on your own. A couple of hours of consultation time with an interior designer could be the best home design money you’ve ever spent. You could find that the project you’ve always dreamed of is actually more affordable than you thought.

Professional Designers for New Homes

If you are in the beginning phases of building a new home, you should get a professional designer involved in the process as soon as possible. Homebuilders are good at what they do, but a designer can work with the architect or builder to create a more beautiful finished product. By getting involved early in the process, costly building mistakes can be avoided. After all, it is always more expensive to change something after the fact than to simply build it correctly from the start. A designer can also help you communicate effectively with your builder to achieve the desired results. You can even start working with a designer before you start to build, since they can provide a lot of good input during the planning phase, possibly saving you even more money.

Designer or Decorator: What is the Difference?

professional design
People often confuse the roles of an interior designer and an interior decorator. As a general rule, a designer has the training and degree required to look at the bigger picture within a home. They can be quite skilled at assessing the overall layout of the home, and can suggest ways to make the entire living space work together more efficiently. Designers often incorporate decorating elements, but their expertise is not limited to just decorating tips. A interior decorator can be very helpful for choosing furniture, wallpaper or even paint colors for a room. But a designer can help you take everything into consideration, such as making the flooring and wall color in one room transition nicely into the rest of the home. The cost of hiring an interior designer is generally more than a decorator, but the results can definitely be worth it.

Jessica Ackerman of WallDecorandHomeAccents.com, is an interior designer who illustrates how simple it can be to use tree wall art hanging and outdoor metal wall art.

Posted in General Remodel | 1 Comment

RTA cabinets? Ready to assemble.

New Kitchen?

Benefits of RTA Cabinets

RTA (ready-to-assemble) cabinets are becoming increasingly popular. Now why would someone opt
to purchase unassembled cabinets instead of assembled that are ready to be installed? The answer
is simple, $$$. Although it initially may sound scary to have to assemble cabinets on your own, it is a
relatively simple and quick job. The cabinets are predrilled and notched for hinges, shelves, sides etc.
The drawers as well are already assembled thereby simplifying the process. If you are handy and can put
them together on your own it is an easy way to save money.

It used to be that if you wanted solid wood, durable and decorative cabinetry your only option was to
get custom cabinets. All of those that could not afford the insanely high price were forced to go with
cheap particleboard cabinet that started sagging and swelling after a short time. In recent years many
cabinet manufacturers have been producing magnificent lines of all-wood RTA cabinets with quality
workmanship thereby drastically reducing the pricing to almost half from a comparable custom designed
kitchen. Too good to be true? Yep but the best part is that it is true!

There is now a large variety of stocked RTA cabinetry that is solid wood and plywood construction.
Furthermore, many custom-style pieces have been added to match these lines in order to give the
kitchen a custom look. Decorative end panels, wine racks, plate racks and corbels that used to be
reserved for custom kitchens are now some of the many upgrades available with RTA cabinet lines.
There are also many storage options available to suit all needs such as soap tip-outs, trash pull-
outs, roll-out trays and drawer bases. They are all offered to keep the kitchen clean and organized.

Another benefit to purchasing RTA cabinets is their quick turnaround time. Custom cabinets typically
take 10-16 weeks for delivery as opposed to RTA cabinets which carry a 2 week lead time. Can’t beat
that! Check out RTA cabinets at instockkitchens.com

Posted in Kitchen | 1 Comment

3 remodeling bits of advice

3 things to remember when you are planning to remodel.

1. Understanding

Whoever you choose to work with make sure you know they understand you, understand your wants and needs and, make sure you understand them. If you just agree to something because you kinda think you understood you may experience a disappointment. Most contractors will welcome the fact you are interested in the details.

2. Preparation

Don’t wait until the day before the workers show up to put away and protect your belongings. Contractors are there to work, not to walk gingerly around personal items the homeowner left in the traffic areas. Have some quick and easy backup food items in case your inconvenienced by work in progress and have a local restaurant or coffee shop you can get away to. Things like parking, toilet facilities, material storage, work hours are as important as quality of materials or scheduling.

3. Expectations

Have realistic expectations, if the job will realistically take 45 days, it will take 45 days. If you add another door or window or ask for a wall to be removed, its now 45 days plus the time for the new work. Know that an inspection might be held up or a product was damaged in delivery. Good contractors like good Realtors work with what they have, at the first sign of a problem the best professionals take charge and start fixing things right away. Your expectations should allow for possible challenges.

In all

Remodeling seldom follows a perfect set of events, its not much different than having a loan held up for a last minute paperwork request. If you can allow yourself to understand that, when all is said and done it has been worth it.

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How to make remodeling hassle free

Clean and stylish shower.

The common mistake that many homeowners make is that they think that their homes do not need any remodeling or maintenance ever. This leads to a lot of problems that start off as minor issues going unnoticed. When these issues balloon up in to something major, you will have to rush for assistance and go in for major repairs and remodeling works to get your house back into shape. You utilize the kitchen and the bathroom quite often in the house. So, it is natural that these are the rooms that require the most maintenance to keep them looking good.

Every remodeling plan has to start with the homeowner getting a few basics right. To begin with, the homeowner has to fix the results that he or she expects from the room or area in the house that is being remodeled. This is important for two reasons. The first reason is that a detailed expectation plan will help you get a better estimate of the works from the contractor and the second reason is that a plan would help you to manage your expectations form the job and you would feel satisfied that you have done justice to the efforts that you have taken.

The next step is to find a contractor who is competent enough to complete the kitchen remodeling job for you. It is better to seek the contact information and credentials of an agency that specializes in remodeled kitchens. A general handyman would be good enough for minor repairs, but extensive reworking requires the expertise of a specialist agency if you would like the job to be thorough and professional. The agency that you select has to install the equipment in the kitchen along with all the plumbing and electrical work that is required to make the kitchen fully functional again.

Once you have selected the contractor, you can ask their personnel to give you some free remodeling tips so that you can choose what is to be done during the remodel. Some of the tips that the kitchen renovation expert can give you relate to the efficient utilization of storage space in the kitchen.

The concept of a modular kitchen that is popular today has meant that there are a lot of innovations in the creation of extra storage spaces in the kitchen. You can read some home improvement articles in the magazines or websites that inform you on the latest advances in the field of home remodeling. It is better to do all the planning before you start the actual works as it will be easier for the personnel completing the job and will help you avoid time and cost overruns.

If you are finding it difficult to identify the important components of a remodel job, you can get more information by perusing a remodeling ecourse. This course is available in the resource pages of many of the top contractor websites. Once you have completed the course you will be more confident about your objectives for the remodel job.

Tony James is author of this article on Remodeling.
Find more information about Contractor here.

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Silvertree Construction is an EPA Certified Lead Renovator

We got our certification in the mail so were good to go on April 22, 2010.
What is this good for?

Silvertree means Lead Safe for your home. Certification # NAT-21488-0

Silvertree means Lead Safe for your home. Certification # NAT-21488-0

The new EPA Lead Rule starting April 22, 2010, just go to the EPA site and read about it.

Our certification number can be found on the EPA site.

EPA firm search

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203k loan consultant for Minneapolis, St Paul and Twin Cities suburbs.

For the need of a 203k loan consultant, Paul Lesieur of Silvertree Construction met the requirements and is an approved loan consultant. Over 30 years of remodeling as a carpenter and estimator give Paul the experience to do timely and accurate work write ups.

Visit www.203kloanmn.com and contact Paul for your 203k needs.

Also we have contractors that have experience in the 203k loan process.

Feasibility studies, work write ups and 100% of the paperwork you need will be delivered for your 203k loan process.

Posted in Twin City Home Improvement Pros. | 1 Comment