Spring 2006 Newsletter
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Making Your Hardwood Flooring Last
The secret to a beautiful hardwood floor starts at the installation. Selecting pre-finished hardwood flooring is an easy way to get a jump start on your remodeling project. There are countless manufacturers of hardwood flooring providing premium products (and sometimes, less than quality products). Make sure that the product that you choose has a good warranty. In addition to selecting a good flooring product, you will need to maintain the finish of your floor. Usually, when a hardwood floor begins to lose its luster, it takes a great deal of time to bring the shine back. With regular cleaning and an occasional polish, you can prevent your floor from losing its luster. Most manufacturers and suppliers of hardwood flooring provide cleaning and maintenance instructions for their particular finish and wood species. It is always good to keep in mind that most warranties only provide complete protection if you use the recommended product. Usually, this product is available only through the manufacturer or your supplier. As a general rule, these products cost slightly more than most third-party cleaning chemicals and polishes available at retail stores and home centers, but the cost should not keep you from purchasing the one designed for your floor. After all, a good deal of the purchase price of any hardwood floor is absorbed by the cost of the warranty. Since you are paying for it anyway, why not maintain it?
Replacement Windows That Shine
Most kitchen or bathroom remodeling projects involve replacing a window or two. Often there are two primary reasons for this: energy efficiency and allowing more light into the room. Select replacement windows that open the room, avoiding those less expensive replacement windows that utilize thick framing or large, expansive trim designs and sill caps (this is usually to address certain quality problems with the product). Quality replacement windows will add value to your home and enhance your bathroom or kitchen remodeling project.
Kitchens Carved in Granite
For a long time, man has been carving stone into many shapes, styles, and configurations. With advancing in mining technologies and fabrication techniques, granite countertops have become more affordable than ever. These countertops help to bring your kitchen or bathroom remodeling project “down to earth” by bringing beautiful stone to the top of your cabinets and vanities. Design trends have been utilizing natural materials for over a decade. Granite countertops are available in a dizzying array of colors, patterns, and styles. Choosing the right countertop for your kitchen or bathroom is not an easy choice. Visit your local cabinet professional to see available styles and colors. Nature isn’t perfect. Since this is a natural product, keep in mind that the exact color, veining consistency, and depth of a countertop will usually not match the sample that you used to select it. Whenever possible, select your countertop by slab. Many professional granite countertop fabricators have a “slab yard” that you can visit in order to select the countertop that is right for your kitchen.
Specialized Cabinet Storage: Accessorize Your Kitchen
Need just a little more space in your kitchen cabinets? Have you ever wondered why that drawer is so big or another so small? Chances are, you’ve visited the kitchen accessory aisle of your local home center or retailer once or twice searching for the perfect item that can transform that drab, open space in your kitchen cabinets into a customized storage area. If you are beginning a kitchen remodeling project and are looking to incorporate some of your storage ideas, visit your local cabinet professional and ask to see some of the specialized storage options available for your cabinets. Make a list of the items that you are looking to store in your cabinets and remember to make room for future needs.
Copper Sinks add Classical Style to Your Kitchen or Bath
In early years, copper was used for almost everything in the home. Drains, supply lines, gutters, flashing, faucets, and sinks all benefited from copper’s long-lasting ability. As copper costs rose, alternatives to many of the larger consumptions of copper were greatly reduced. With new technologies that have recently been developed, copper has seen a rise in popularity. Design wise, copper is flashy, elegant, and very durable if maintained properly. The color tones in both the copper and hammered copper varieties match many of the new finishes and kitchen styles that are being installed in today’s kitchens.
Pot Fillers in the Kitchen
In years past, a pot filler was a common kitchen item. Granted, the plumbing was very basic, a simple pipe with a valve would suffice for the home owner’s kitchen. These devices were used to fill large cooking pots in the kitchen. Located over or near the stove, these swing-arm types of faucets swing into action whenever a cook needed to fill a pot. This prevents the cook from filling a large, awkward pot in an often under-sized sink and then carrying the heavy pot to the stove. While these pot fillers were very useful, they were nothing short of un-dramatic. As kitchen cabinet designs began to take more elegant and complicated forms and kitchens changed from a room for working to a room for entertaining, the pot filler began to be removed from the wall. Now kitchen faucets have been designed with pull-out features and high arc spouts to accommodate the needs of today’s cooks. These faucets allow the user to fill large pot without having to twist and wrench the pot underneath the spout to completely fill up their container. Even though many of today’s new kitchen faucets have been designed to accommodate the need to fill larger and larger containers, the user still has to carry the pot to the stove. If you are tired of carrying a heavy pot of water to the stove or are looking for a more convenient method of filling large containers where you use them, look no further than a pot filler. Today’s pot fillers are crafted in every design series and are available in most of the finishes used today. These kitchen faucets are designed to mount on the wall, usually off-set from the cook top, range, or stove. Some plumbing is involved in order to install a pot filler. Contact a professional for an estimate regarding labor costs. Depending on the placement of your faucet, plumbing costs could be a factor in your decision to install a pot filler in your kitchen. Usually, you can order or see different styles of pot fillers at your local home centers, but be prepared. Most home center employees do not follow trends in kitchen and bathroom designs and have very limited information regarding a purchase such as this. Seek the assistance of a professional remodeling company or visit a kitchen and bath showroom for this type of purchase. If you decide to install a pot filler in your kitchen and get with this very useful trend, do your homework. Many pot fillers can be purchased in the $150.00 to $200.00 range. Avoid purchasing a pot filler that is too inexpensive or manufactured by a company with an unknown reputation. There are several joints and fittings to this type of faucet that need to function properly.
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