Read This before You Finish Your Basement

Right now, it might be filled with discarded boxes, old clothes, and other family items you probably don’t need. However, it doesn’t change the fact that the room below your feet bears the greatest potential in your home. With insightful renovation ideas, it is possible to make the most out of this room. For less than what you would have spent on a home addition, you can create an extra living space out of the crammed basement. To be able to turn this underutilized spaced into a favorite spot within your home, you will need to adopt certain insightful ideas.

Basement Remodeling

Unraveling the mystery

If you were to turn around an idle basement space into something useful, where would you begin? First, you will need to figure out what you need the basement for. Do you want an extra bedroom for your teenager son? Do you feel it can make a more spacious family room? Are you in need of a sleek home office away from the crowd? It all depends on what you want. Ideally, the basement can be turned into almost. All you need to do is to mention and then let the design experts figure out how it will work. At EA Home Design, we can turn this unfinished space into virtually anything. Our extensive experience working on similar projects speak for itself.

DIY Inspection Services

With a particular objective in mind, you can start preparing the room.

·         For a start, you need to carry out a moisture test. The results will determine whether you need dehumidification services or not. Simply tape a plastic sheet to the floor and leave it for two weeks. If there are droplets on top of it, there will be a need for such dehumidification.

·        Check for the possibilities of rot or insect damage in various places including the floor joists, sill plates, and windows with wood frames. If any, you will need to inflate your budget to accommodate necessary repair services.

·         Are there minor leaks? You might need to call the services of a professional. A simple fix may be what’s requiring to solve the menace. You can start by installing diverters that will drive gutter water away from the foundation. In addition, you can seal tiny pipes crack using concrete patching products.

Involving professionals

The best basement remodeling projects must be spearheaded by qualified and highly experienced professionals. It is advisable to get in touch with your designer and talk to him about your plans. In the first meeting, you need to highlight most of your findings. Even more, you should explain how you would like the new living space to look like upon completion. At EA Home Design, we take a special interest in our clients’ needs. We will pen them down and ensure there is a symmetrical reflection in the final model. It is advisable to work closely with the experts to ensure the walls and pipes are properly insulated. By taking into consideration the highlighted tips, you will find it easy turning your basement into any additional space you have always dreamt of!

4 Questions to Consider Before Adding Onto Your Home

Do you feel the space is getting a bit too small for the entire family? With time, our homes become smaller as the size of the family increases. Maybe your teenage daughters feel each one should have a separate bedroom. Probably, you have decided to accommodate an aging parent or grandparent. In such cases, most homeowners are faced with the dilemma of moving to a more spacious house or calling for home addition plans. The latter is preferable because you get to retain your precious home. Before considering a home addition, you need to consider certain critical aspects, if you are to avoid messing up.

Home Addition

Who’s fit for the job?
The success of any home improvement project largely depends on the contractor or renovation company. The last thing you would probably want to do is to make a mistake when choosing whom to hire. You need to build something that feels like part of your house and not just a patch up. Every home addition project should be able to add value to your home. That will only be possible if you let the right people handle the task. It is advisable to consider the profiles of at least three different remodeling companies, thoroughly asses them before settling on the ideal services providers. If you are lucky enough to get word of mouth referral, make such considerations.

What’s your budget?
Home addition can turn out to be a costly project, especially if it involves complex architectural designs. Depending on your location and the type of home addition, the home addition costs can vary. A bathroom or bedroom addition project can cost as little as $20,000 or less. In the case of major additions like the family room and master bedrooms, you can spend up to $100,000. The idea is having a guided budget. You should also be keen enough to prepare for any unexpected spending. Keep 15% cushion of the total remodeling cost to avoid any setbacks.

What are your options?
Before finally deciding on the specific design or budget, you need to find out if there are any alternatives. What if it is possible bringing the overall costs down by simply adopting another model? With suggestions and tips from professionals, you can save so much money. Sometimes, you just need to add a separate room instead of integrating the addition into the existing home model. Even more, you can decide to renovate the basement instead of adding a family game room. Always ensure the option you settle on is the best you can have.

What are the possible inconveniences?
Home addition can be an involving and lengthy project, going for even weeks at times. Don’t expect it to be smooth. If you are expanding your bedroom for instance, what alternative accommodation plans do you have? How will you handle the noise associated with the remodeling plan? The idea is having in in mind all the probable inconveniences and planning for contingencies where necessary.
Critical consideration of these questions will ensure a smooth transitional process as you create more living space within your home.

Turning your Washroom into a Bathing Sanctuary

Giving your bathroom a new look involves more than you can possible imagine. You might have sat down and considered renovating your bathroom at one point. However, you have never sat down to figure out what it takes to remodel the tiny showering space next to your master bedroom into a bathing sanctuary. It might sound complicated, but that doesn’t have to scare you. Every home remodeling journey starts with a step; that of identifying what you want and what’s most important to you.

Bathroom Renovation

Go for Precision
Elegance, beauty, perfection, and other commonly used words are relative when it comes to describing the ideal of kind of bathroom you would like to have. What one designer considers elegant might not necessarily appear appealing to you. That is why going for precision is a critical component of achieving what you want in home remodeling. What kinds of bathtubs are preferable to you? Would you like sliding shower doors or the ordinary bathroom doors? Are the presence of soundproof board and walls fair enough for your bathroom? Some wouldn’t prefer their bathing rooms exhibiting complete tile works. At the end of the day, what matters is what you feel is right. Be precise and go ahead to define what seems ideal for you.

Consider the available Space
From medicine chests to unusually shaped baths, you might change redesigning your bathroom might require a lot more than what most bathrooms exhibit. That would mean more space to accommodate your needs. What happens in cases where space is limited? That is where EA Home Design experts come in. Working closely with our design experts will ensure you transform your bathroom the easier way without worrying so much about space. Where necessary compromises can always be made. With proper designs and accurate guidelines from our experienced experts, we will help you maximize the space available for bathroom design.

Beyond the Ordinary
If it’s going to be ordinary and plain, then it might not be worth it in the first place. At EA Home Design, we believe that every bathroom design project possesses its own uniqueness. Consequently, the same should be reflected in the final work. Bathroom remodeling should be aesthetically rewarding, as much as possible. Replicating an existing model may be ideal for you but going out of your way to embrace customization is even more appealing. To end up with the ideal customized bathroom, having an idea of the best materials might be necessary. However, that doesn’t have to pain you provided you have in place a dedicated team of experienced professionals.

Nevertheless, we must admit the fact that not every person you involve is going to get you the desired results. Some might end up spoiling the show. Nothing inspires our professional designers than a genuine smile of a satisfied customer. As such, you can trust our professional teams to go extra miles in helping you realize your dreams. The entire process of transforming your washroom into an oasis of glamour starts with the selection of the right team, remember?

Key Lessons to Take Home from Waypoint Living Spaces Award-Winning Kitchen Designers

In a recent home remodeling competition organised by Waypoint Living Spaces, EA Home Design emerged the best overall in the kitchen-remodeling category. In a contest that was full of several potential winners, bagging the trophy could only mean one thing; EA Home Design has raised the bar for kitchen design standards and taken the race a notch higher. The design was sleek and the presentation absolutely exceptional. For homeowners who are planning to revamp the look of their kitchens, there is so much to take home from the award winning design inspirations. At EA Home Design, we understand that you do not have to wait for an all-out kitchen remodel in order to give this special space a deserving look. Multiple upgrade options are available to give your kitchen a revamped look.

Best Waypoint Kitchen 2016

Paint Retouch 
You might have as well figured it out. Nothing gives your kitchen a renewed look than a paint retouch. Make your kitchen more dynamic by adding a coat of bright colors. Where possible, blend the shades in line with the kitchen appliances. Brighter colors give the illusion of spacious kitchen; you will need that for your smaller kitchen. Paint the cabinets, the walls, and other surfaces being careful enough to blend the colors in a soothing way.

Update the Countertops
You do not need state of the art countertops to give your kitchen an appealing look. At EA Home Design, we use to believe in simplicity. Take, for instance, a new laminate countertop. It doesn’t cost fortunes but will guarantee your kitchen a killer look. That might as well explain why we won the just concluded fall 2016 Waypoint Living Spaces Showcase Your Space remodel Contest. We were the proud winners of the Best Kitchen Designs category. For those who might not have not an idea, simple countertops worked the trick!

Winner Best Kitchen Design

Add Backsplash
You can take your creativity a notch higher by adding a ceramic tile backsplash. Make it more glamorous by opting for a decorative tile to match. A well-fitted backsplash adds a wavering glamour to your home.

Replace the Faucets
The faucet is an integral part of the kitchen. In our winning design, we featured shiny faucets which adding pull-out features to the kitchen. The results were tremendous. You shouldn’t expect anything different when you update your old faucets and have the replaced with a glowing pair or two.

It’s all on the Floor
You might not have figured out the role played by the flooring in revamping the look of the kitchen. The flooring option you go for will make or break your remodeling efforts. When it comes to kitchen flooring, there is much more than just decency. You aren’t going to make a choice simply because it’s cool. You need colors that blend well with the kitchen cabinet and even the walls. Even more, your floor should be easy to clean. We didn’t have to make it complicated in our winning design. A complimentary floor that grants the kitchen a natural look is all we went for. With the assistance of our highly trained expert, we can achieve the same or even more in your home. Just get in touch with us; we will have you covered.

Exciting Kitchen Remodeling Ideas to Improve Your Home’s Value

Injecting new life to your kitchen can be an exciting experience to a homeowner. For someone who is prepared for it, nothing can be more thrilling than giving your cooking space a new look. Worth noting, remodeling this space requires more than desire and passion. It is something to plan and budget for. All these will depend on the kitchen remodeling ideas you embrace. For someone who remodeling for the first time, you can get started by considering the ideas below.

Kitchen Cabinet Design

Redesign the Cabinet
There are multiple options to start from when it comes to kitchen remodeling, the cabinet being a favorite pick. As many home remodeling experts will admit, the cabinet is the heart and soul of every kitchen. If you are to give your kitchen a revamped look, then you must work on the cabinets. A touch of elegance on the cabinet sets the tone for the kitchen. Enlighten the moods in your kitchen by opting for modern design cabinets. Even more, you can make it easy designing displaying your kitchen collections through free-end cabinets. If you are tight on budget, you can simply repaint the cabinets with light and neutral color like beige, light blue or even white. You should be keen enough to get rid of the dirt and grease on cabinet surfaces before painting them.

Consider Updating the Flooring
Most homeowners concentrate on the boilers and other aspects of the kitchen at the expense of the floor. If your kitchen displays dull wooden flooring, you can revamp the look by opting for bright and glaring tile flooring. With so many flooring options to go for, there can be shortage of ideal flooring for your kitchen. For one, you can decide to go for the heated floor. One might be tempted to believe this is a luxury, but those living in extremely cold areas know better. The heated floor also helps prevent underground pipes from freezing in extreme weathers. With the help of EA Home Design experts, it will be possible installing mesh heating system below the floor.

Extend provision for Natural Light
Dimly lit kitchens aren’t good for cooking. Even more, one ends up raising the electricity bills unnecessarily. Have you stopped to think that a simple step such as replacing your small windows with larger ones can save you the trouble? Even more, you can decide to slow on the idea of having kitchen doors. Unlike the bathroom and bedroom, it is not necessary having doors in the kitchen. This gives more provision for natural. If possible, you can consider skylight in the kitchen area; in case the place is accessible to roofs.

Kitchen Island
Kitchen Island is a good provision for additional storage space. It is the perfect addition to go for when you need extra countertop space and sinks in your kitchen. With the help of EA Home Design experts, you can have the project undertaken in a couple of days. Just inform our team, and we will be on it!