Livingston Reporting - page 346

There are many reasons why people add on to their homes. The biggest benefit to a home addition is obviously the extra space it gives you. Many people forget though that home addition raise the worth of your home as a whole and that builds equity to your home. These are all important matters to take in to account when researching home addition costs. Deciding if a home addition is affordable is often not just adding up the numbers of how much materials cost it is looking at the whole picture to determine if it is right for you.

One thing many people forget to take into account before building a home addition is over valuing their home for the area that is resides. An example of this is found when adding an upper level to a subdivision full of ranch homes or making a two car garage attached to your home when all the homes around you have one detached garage. In these cases you will want to think long and hard about the home addition and decide if you are going to use it enough to make the value up. There is a chance that you will not be able to recoup the home addition costs with the resale value of your house. It is up to you to do a cost verse value analysis.

When you do decide that you are going to forge ahead with a renovation or home addition project there are many different things to think about. One major one is if you are going to do the work yourself or are you going to hire the work out to a contractor. Of course you can mix the two if you are feeling competent about doing the home addition but not so much about the electrical or plumbing those are areas you would then hire out.

Several areas in home additions that I would not tackle on my own include drywall and skylights. I know drywall looks so easy. It is so much more than putting the drywall up, taping it and then applying the “mud”. You need to be able to smooth it out and sand it so that it appears seamless. This is a process that takes skill and time to acquire. It also takes a drywall contractor a day to whip out a project I would still be doing weeks later. I would also not attempt a skylight. There is no way that I am cutting a hole in my roof no matter how simple the directions make it look. It just seems wiser to hire a roofer who has knowledge of how the pieces need to fit together to prevent expensive leaks later on down the road.

Home additions and renovations need to be thoroughly researched before any projects have been started or before money has exchanged hands. Often these projects are costly in time and money so you want to make sure you are thoroughly informed about the project from start to finish. Don’t forget about keeping all the details in the middle accounted for. That is when the money and time seems to add up. Make sure you have also spoke with a realtor to determine if what you have proposed is going to increase the value of your home and by how much to get a true determination on if you are doing a home addition solely for your own use and enjoyment and not for a true increase in value.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I recently asked my eight year old son. He replied an athlete, specifically a world cup soccer player. We all know that chances of him living this dream are few and far between but hey if that is his aspiration right now I am excited for him. I on the other hand was hoping he said a contractor/builder. My home is in need of some improving so as I see it this would be a win-win situation. He could own a large construction company that would service the needs of moms and dads all over Michigan that just did not have time to do the work themselves.

As a general contractor you are in charge of the organization of all the parties involved in a home renovation project. You not only oversee the individuals working for you but also the product vendors and trade contractors. It is important that you keep open communication with the owner of the home because they are the ones who satisfaction is ultimately needed for the project to be wrapped up and paid for.

It is always important for a contractor to visit the location that needs work done before any project is agreed upon or begun. This allows a decision to be made about the costs associated with the job for the contractor to work out an estimate/quote to be reviewed by the home owner. Not only must the labor being included in the quote but also material estimates and equipment costs. When an estimate has been accepted it is general practice that the contractor and homeowner will meet to go over all documents for the project. A budget will be formulated, the particular conditions for the job will be laid out and any designs will be approved by an architect.

Many times in construction projects it is up to the contractor to pull building permits and to know specific requirements for the county that the work is being done in. It is important as a contractor to maintain a list of specialized subcontractors on file that you have worked with in the past and have been satisfied with their work. Many times you will need to call upon these people as the project moves on. Examples of this may be plumbers, electricians or even landscapers.

It is required that any contractor working in a state be a licensed contractor. Many contractors are also business owners. They may have several projects going on at one time. It is important that they have brought together people on site that are trustworthy and work well together.

The advantages of working for yourself as a contractor are very similar to being your own boss in any industry. You are not obligated to work with any client that you choose not to. You can also choose a variety of different jobs so that you don’t get burned out say with only building home additions. Also, you can evaluate the length of projects and work them around any special scheduling needs. For instance, weather conditions might play a factor depending on where you are licensed. Michigan has a few months where it is possible to work but the conditions will not make it pleasant to be outside.

The disadvantages are vast of being a contractor and owner of a company. For Instance, you are in charge of all of the employees that work for you. That includes their salary, health benefits and insurance. You don’t get paid time off. Actually time off is not really associated with being the owner. You are always on call and responsible for the business functioning. Yes, you hire people who you can trust to help make those decisions when you are not available but it still always falls back to you in the end. The biggest disadvantage is that you still have to pay employees and subcontractors even if the renovator is slow at paying their bill. Of course this can be a mute point if you make sure to have paid points throughout a project. However, in the end as the owner and contractor you are responsible for the completed project and all those involved in it.

None of us really figured out what we wanted to do in life until we were much older and had tried our hands at a few professions. I know that soon my son will stop wanting to be a professional soccer player and move on to something else. I know he will find something he truly loves doing and that he is good at. For my sake I sure hope he ventures into contracting even if for a moment. (Hopefully long enough to add a reading room, a new kitchen and a bathroom spa retreat!)

Picking out flooring for your home is always a bit tricky. There are so many different factors to take into consideration when looking into what is right for your home. It is also important to realize that each room needs to be considered separately when making flooring decisions. It is important that each factor be taken into consideration and ranked by importance then a determination can be made on what flooring is right for your home.

For instance, if you’re budget is the most important consideration than hardwood throughout your home is obviously not really a viable option. The same is true for safety. If you need assistance from a walker to move about your home it is not wise to think about flooring option have a large gradation between them. An example of this is linoleum to shag carpet the threshold would create a sizable difference making it hard to maneuver a walker. It is best if you have special issues to take them into consideration BEFORE the new flooring is in place.

Another thing I like to remind people is to gauge the amount of traffic that will be on any given floor. Bathroom floors and kitchen floors remain the most highly used areas within households. It is important to use materials that can withstand the wear and tear of your household traffic while maintaining the original look and feel. Laminate squares might be okay for a house without a lot of traffic but in a house that maintains a constant flow they the squares will begin to separate overtime.

Special conditions may also exist in certain rooms. For Instance, it is important that kitchen and bathroom flooring are moisture resistant. Getting out of the tub onto a carpeted floor is going to create mold and mildew underneath the carpet surface sooner rather than later. My parents have always had a carpeted kitchen and dining room. It is always in need of a cleaning especially with six grandkids and a grandmother that loves to make cookies with sprinkles.

It is important that the flooring type fit all of the conditions the room and home owners present. Remember that just because one floor works in a certain room for one homeowner it might not be the right product for you. Different households create different situations. It is important to look into your needs before spending money on flooring.

Flooring options are so wide and very in material, style, color, durability and cost. Determining the needs of your family before you install flooring materials will help save you money in the long run. Really looking at your needs might make you realize that it is worthwhile to save up for a more durable, but more expensive option like hardwood. Or it might make you realize that you really need to create unity throughout your home and are ready to do that using a different variety of materials within the same color family. Flooring is one area that can really make or break a home’s feel so make sure you choose something that is consistent with your homes look and feel.