Of all of the things you may someday decide to do in your life, remodeling your home is likely to be one of the most important.  Residential remodeling is growing in popularity as more and more people are making the decision to keep their current homes in favor of trying to sell it and move.  It might be a buyer’s market right now, but the selling end is leaving a lot of people cold.  For this reason, among others, remodeling is the way to go for lots of homeowners.  You can’t just go to the local home improvement store, pick up some things, and get going.  It’s going to take a little more planning than that.

Residential Remodeling

Before you run to the yellow pages all excited to hire a contractor, you have to do some thinking first.  One of the first decisions to make is what, exactly; you want to change about your home.  Do you only want to redo the bathroom or did you have a few rooms in mind?  Maybe you feel ready to take on the whole house.  These are important questions to answer because you also have to decide how to pay for your residential remodeling projects.  Most financial experts are going to recommend that you save up the funds and eliminate high interest credit cards or lines of credit from the equation.

Next on your list to do is find the right contractor or company for you.  There is nothing wrong with hiring the local big contractor, but you might want to consider a few of the smaller operations.  They tend to cost less than the more established contractors and do an exceptional job because they are trying to get noticed favorably.  Regardless of which residential remodeling company you decide to go with, it’s vitally important that you carefully check them out with the BBB and double check their references.  You can never be too careful when it comes to your home and your money. 

For more information on residential remodeling

Kitchen remodeling can be such a difficult project for many homeowners, and any way you can decrease the stress and hassle associated with it is a good thing. 

There are so many places to turn to for advice and ideas about home and kitchen remodeling on the web.  Your needs will differ if you’re just on a fact finding mission or if you are seriously in need of a contractor to consult with, and there are sites around to help you with each of these situations and everything in between.  For hot topics and new ideas, as well as generally informative pieces we’ve run across blogs and pages that are especially helpful for homeowners embarking on kitchen projects and other kinds of remodeling work:

http://www.reliableremodeler.com/blog/

http://www.reliableremodeler.com/blog/index.php/2008/06/06/having-a-kitchen-crisis/

http://ideas.reliableremodeler.com/

Have suggestions for other great places to look? 

Leave us feedback, let us know what you think and watch for new links to great resources.

While the idea of framing a two story home on your own sounds like a great idea, in practice, it can be time consuming and quite challenging.  Not only do you have to create a plan for the actual framing you need to build, but then you need to build said framing and lift it into place.  This is certainly not a one person job, nor is it even a two person job.  You need more help than you have right now – which is why the professionals are your best bet when framing a two story home.

The reasons are clear for hiring a professional team for framing a two story home: the work is hard, the planning needs professional guidance and your home needs to be able to stand on its own for years to come.  You can’t simply build a home and hope for the best, you need to know that your home is safe enough for you and your family to live in.  That’s why there are professional contractor teams and architects to build your home.  And that’s also why there are specific codes and processes for building anything in your city.

Framing a Two Story Home

The first step in framing a two story home is sitting down with an architect or other planner to create a plan for what you need.  This will help you work out the ideas in your head as well as get the advice of a professional who can let you know when certain plans are not realistic.  You might also be able to do more with the space you have if you talk to a professional planner – sometimes you’re just not the best person to turn to when creating a plan.

Once you have a plan in hand for framing a two story home, you can begin to look for builders who can follow this plan and start turning your home dream into a reality.  You can find these professionals through your local builder’s association or online at job posting sites.  By taking the time to find someone who is not only experienced in handling this type of job, but who is also able to communicate with you, you will find your new home being built within months, not years.

Even if you only have a small project to be completed, your home improvement contractor search is an important task to undertake.  This is a person who will be making changes to your home that will either help or hurt your home.  And while they are being paid to do a good job, you also need to make sure they are capable of doing the job that you are paying them to do.  While they might tell you that they have the skills you need, it’s up to you to choose the one that’s right for your plans.

Before you even begin your home improvement contractor search, you need to be clear in your mind about what you want done in your home.  When you don’t have a clear idea as to the plans, you might not be able to hire a contractor with all the necessary skills.  But if you can give them a job responsibility list, you will be able to ask them ahead of time whether they feel they can complete the work.  This should be very detailed, even if you don’t know what the actual task name is – just write out a description of what you need done.

Home Improvement Contractor Search

The next thing you will want to do is to talk to the builder of your home to see which contractors they used during the building process.  It may be possible to get the same contractor for the work you need done, ensuring that you will have the same quality and maintain congruency in your home décor and style.  Contact the builder to see if this is possible.  Even if this doesn’t end your home improvement contractor search, you may be able to get recommendations from the previous contractor.

And finally, you need to be detailed in your home improvement contractor search.  By checking references as well as licenses, you will be able to tell if your chosen contractor is something that is actually legitimately able to do the work they say they can do.  In addition, you will find out if you need to continue your search to find someone more qualified.