How much will a kitchen remodeling job cost?

Will I be able to recoup my expenditures if I sell my house?

Can I change the layout of my kitchen?

The answers to these questions will help you to decide, first, if you should remodel your kitchen, and second, how you should remodel your kitchen. A kitchen design center will have experts on hand to answer any of your specific questions. It’s worth your time to consult a specialist early in the decision making process of remodeling your kitchen. But, here are some generic answers to the above questions.

The cost of a kitchen remodeling job can vary widely, depending on the extent of the remodel. For the average $250,000 American home a complete kitchen remodel will range from $20-30,000 for a complete remodel with all new appliances. You can easily spend over $100,000 if you let your kitchen remodel get out of hand, or if you desire a gourmet kitchen. You can reduce the cost of your kitchen remodeling job by doing some of the work yourself, but if you are spending this kind of money, you want the total product to look professional, and unless you are an expert, it is usually best left to the professionals.

The general consensus is that you will recoup around 90% of the money spent on a kitchen remodel. While this may be a significant factor if you are planning to sell your house in the near future, it should also factor any time you decide to remodel your kitchen. Kitchen remodeling will also give you a great return in the satisfaction and pleasure that you will get from living with a new kitchen. This should be the main factor in deciding on whether not to remodel your kitchen.

Any kitchen layout can be changed, the question is: How much will you spend to make the changes? You should consider changing the layout of your kitchen if your house is more than 20 to 30 years old because kitchen functions and prominence have changed over time; or if, after living in your house for a while, you find the layout needs to be improved.

This is were an expert kitchen designer can help you with your decisions. A good designer will walk you through the kitchen remodel process, take your ideas and give them shape, and present you options that you may have never considered. The designer can give you a 3 dimensional view of any design ideas, change the cabinets, countertops, and other details with the click of a button; helping you to visualize exactly what your new kitchen will look like. It is much easier to change any items in your kitchen in a computer than it is in your final kitchen.

A kitchen designer will be familiar with all the newest trends in kitchen designs, know the latest options in green materials, and be up to date with new products for the kitchen. Their knowledge will save you a lot of legwork or computer searching, if decide to remodel your kitchen. If you begin your kitchen remodeling project by consulting with a kitchen designer, I think you’ll be surprised with the insight they will give your whole kitchen project.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5066960

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A word of caution: I spent several hours researching kitchen remodeling cost and budgeting on the internet to gather data for this article. I ran into a couple websites that gave square footage pricing for kitchen remodeling. Although I commiserate with their attempt to find a simple method to figure out remodeling pricing, this type of advice is not based in reality. Remodeling jobs in general are so specific to the conditions of the building and tastes of the homeowner that no square footage pricing will ever be realistic. I also ran into many sites that did not give you any real information about establishing a budget but basically interpreted Hanley Wood’s Remodeling Cost vs. Value report which is published each year. You are much better off visiting the Cost vs. Value report online and evaluating the results for yourself.

Like anything else in this world a kitchen remodel is going to cost more than you thought it would and the sky is the limit on what it can cost depending on your tastes. There are multiple factors that go into determining a remodeling budget.

There are several places online you can go to help you establish a basic budget number to start with. My personal recommendation is Remodeling Magazine’s Cost vs. Value Report which is released by region and major city each year. The really nice thing about this report is that it gives a description of the “average” project so that you can gauge if your kitchen remodel is going to fall above or below the benchmark. I also find their average pricing to be an accurate reflection of the pricing for our company, so by recommending to clients before I even meet with them that they investigate this report they are more likely to establish a realistic budget we can work within to give them a fantastic kitchen.

Custom Hutch built with Semi-Custom Cabinets

While Remodeling Magazine’s report is very helpful, it is still a very one size fits all approach to establishing a budget. Keep reading if you’d like to try to hone your numbers a bit.

Get out a pad and paper and jot down a few notes about each factor as you go through this list:

Factor 1 Home Value- Consider not only what you think your home is worth, but also the value of similar homes in your neighborhood that already have updates. My favorite website to check home values is zillow.com, simply enter your address and you get an interactive map with home values and other information listed right on the map. Take note of which homes are of similar size to yours, have been purchased more recently, but have a higher value, then peek in their windows to see what the house looks like. Ok, seriously, I was only kidding. If you don’t know them perhaps it’s time to meet the neighbors and ask for a quick tour.

Factor 2 Wow! – This has everything to do with your goals and motivations. Write down each motivational factor which is important to you in a kitchen remodel. Here are some possible examples: Kitchen is falling apart. You love to cook and the layout doesn’t suit you. You love to entertain and want to open up the kitchen as a place to gather. You want a kitchen that wows your guests. You are getting ready to sell your home and the kitchen is a sticking point with buyers… Now that you have your list, evaluate which motivations are most important and relist them in motivational order. Imagining your budget starting in “the middle” take note of which factors might move the budget up or down…i.e. wanting to remodel to encourage a sale might move the budget down, remodeling to wow guest might max it out…etc.

Factor 3 Did someone say AGA? – List any “must haves” for a kitchen remodel to be worth it to you. Possible examples: granite counters, an island with an extra sink, a second dishwasher, a commercial quality gas range, etc.

Factor 4 Longevity- Determine to the best of your ability the length of time you plan on owning the home.

Factor 5 Size Matters- Determine what percentage of your home your kitchen encompasses. A sampling of over 100 modern home floorplans of 1000 to 3000 square foot homes revealed the average kitchen square footage to be 7% of the home’s square footage. If your kitchen is larger or smaller than this average you may need to increase or decrease your budget accordingly.

Factor 6 Layout- if you already know you’re going to want the sink moved, an island sink added, an interior wall moved and an exterior door added, then you need to add money to your budget well beyond what a basic facelift would cost.

Tricky layout: the decorative column conceals a sound wrapped drain pipe

Factor 7 Funding- Determine the maximum amount of money you could afford to spend. If you are financing your project you can calculate what a lender will likely lend you. Lenders want to see a debt to income ratio(DTI) of.36 or less. Your DTI is established by taking all your monthly debt obligations (credit card payments, auto loans, mortgage, etc.) and dividing by your monthly income. To determine your maximum safe monthly debt multiply.36 times your monthly income. Now subtract your existing monthly debt from this number and you have a monthly budget maximum. Here’s a link to a calculator that will do the math for you: mortgage calculator

Putting it All Together

The key to determining your budget is finding the percentage of your home’s value you should use as a budget guideline. While researching this article I ran across recommendations to use percentages ranging from 10% to 25% of home value. For a kitchen remodel of any substance that includes new flooring, appliances, cabinets, sink/faucet, lighting and bringing electric up to code I find anything less than 15% to be a very dubious number. I suppose on a million dollar house 10% would be a workable budget, but on a 200k house a 20k budget is marginal at best for a full blown kitchen remodel.

If resale value is important to you it is wise to keept the cost of your kitchen renovation project within 20% of the current value of your home. Staying within this range insures that a majority of the new kitchen’s cost is recouped in increased home value immediately, and the remaining cost should be recouped within 5 years as your home appreciates.

Ok, let’s run through an example. Keep in mind, there is no exact formula here. We are simply doing our best to be as informed as possible and make a wise decision about how much to spend on our kitchen remodel.

For our example let’s use my house. It’s a 50’s cape cod with a modest square footage of 1500.

Factor 1 value: Zillow gives me an estimated value of $167,500, however, I notice zillow hasn’t yet updated and accounted for the single family homes which were recently built in the field behind us with a starting price of $270k. Zillow also has our square footage listed at under 1200. Looks like the previous owner did a little remodeling without a permit. I’m going to base my budget on a price of 180k which is similar to other houses in the neighborhood that are the same size.

Factor 2 Goals: My wife and I love to entertain guests. To make a kitchen remodel worthwhile for us we need to lose an interior wall to open up the kitchen and dining nook to the living room. I’m going to add 1% to budget for this.

Factor 3 Must Haves: As a former chef two must haves for me are a new oven and a really nice propane range(no natural gas service here), preferably a commercial range modified for home use (real commercial ranges don’t have insulation around the oven, critical for home safety). I’m going to add another 1% to my budget to make sure there is enough money to get me my range and propane installation.

Factor 4 Longevity: We plan to stay in our house a minimum of 4 years. As a rule of thumb it takes 5 years for most remodeling to appreciate and recoup all of its cost. Since we will likely be here at least 5 years I’m not going to penalize the budget, but since there is a good chance we’ll move right around 5 years I’m not going to increase it like I would if we were staying much longer.

Factor 5 Size of Kitchen: Our kitchen is about 140SquareFeet(SF). That’s over 9% of the SF of the house, 2% above average. Obviously this kitchen is going to require some extra material and cabinets. I’m going to up the budget 1% for this, I hope it’s enough.

Factor 6 Layout: We are going to change the layout of our kitchen pretty extensively. We currently have a cooktop peninsula. The range is going to go on a differnet wall and the dishwasher will move to the peninsula, though we might ditch the peninsula, move the fridge and add an island instead. About the only thing that won’t move is the sink. I’m going to add another 1% to my budget, again hoping $1800 (1% of our 180k value) is enough to cover the electrical and plumbing changes.

For my base I’m going to use 20%. As I mentioned before, there are going to be people who will argue with me on that, but going lower often doesn’t leave you with workable budget numbers for full blown kitchen remodels. I’m adding 4% based on my factors listed above. I adjusted my zillow.com estimated home value to 180k based on the comparable square footage and value of other homes around me. This gives me a working budget of 24% x 180k= $43,200 When I compare this to the Cost Vs. Value report I see that in the Middle Atlantic Region a Major Kitchen Renovation is $59, 098. It looks like my budget could be bit low, especially since I really would like granite countertops and the Cost Vs. Value specs call for laminate tops. On the other hand my kitchen is significantly smaller than their 200SF benchmark, so I think I’ll go with my budget number and see what my contractor can do for me in that budget.

Please note that I ignored Factor 7 Available Funds. Obviously Factor 7 either makes or breaks budget numbers and there is no point in discussing it here.

Good luck with your kitchen remodeling project!

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Like the concept of crop-rotation in agriculture, even potted plants will need to be rotated. Knowing which plants to keep growing in summer can save you a lot of heartache from when a non-adapting plant dies of over-heating. Choose plants that are hardy by nature. Do your own research as opposed to relying on the version of your nursery keeper. Be sure to plant less number of flowering plants as compared to non-flowering plants, because flowering plants generally require more care.

Water Judiciously

It’s surprising to find how home gardeners get it wrong, Even though it is quite a no-brainer that plants need to be watered frequently and sensibly. Watering is inadequate, it’s very important to use the ideal way and just the perfect amount to administer it. In peak summer, constant monitoring is important, because most plants would have to be watered twice a day, once in the morning, and once in the evening. The need for watering in the evening may change based upon the hardiness of the plant although the morning water is an absolute necessity. But others do fine with a bit less some plants just appear to soak of the water you can give up. The trick is to monitor the top of the soil for cracks and dryness. Add as much water as is needed for the surface to be wet again if the soil is dry. If it is cracked, water a bit before the cracks started to appear since you need to have watered it. Together with the soil, it is crucial to sprinkle water on the leaves every other day or so, to make up for the whole loss of rainfall.

Fertilizers

Plants need regular help and the maximum are demanded by the summer season. It does not mean that you need to increase the frequency of supplementing fertilizers, it simply means that you will need to maintain your fertilizing routine . Unlike during the monsoon season, when plenty of rainfall ensures high frequency of fertilizers is not essential (although it doesn’t harm), during summer, all of your plants have to continue to for nourishment are the fertilizers.

Yes, they can feel it!

We here at Independent Painting, hope this helps.

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Re-use.

Re-cycle.

Re-purpose.

We’ve turned into a society in which we throw everything away after a single use. We have to be greener.

Start thinking like Fantastic Grandparents or your Grandparents who lived during the rationing of World War II and during the Depression. Everything was rare. Nothing was ever squandered and everything was valued.

Following are a few easy techniques you can use.

Choose texted or emailed receipts, not ones that are printed.

Pick buy choices or products without a lot of packaging. Nothing like getting some thing in that plastic that was tough surrounded than mandatory in a cardboard shipping box that was bigger. Especially in the event that you might find exactly the exact same thing at the neighborhood hardware shop and take it home on your pocket (or reusable tote you’ve got with you always… ). You have the idea.

There are alternatives to buying things online.

As opposed to pitching furniture donate or consign it. Check YouTube out and figure out how to alter things into something else. I found an adorable way to turn a chest of drawers into a bed!

Do Composting: It is simple (does not smell) and generates fertilizer. Composting may be performed in a bucket onto the apartment balcony or within a pit in the floor. Flip it and all you will need is to bring some dirt. (When it’smells’ like grime, the composting is complete and may be used to top dress present plants.) You’ll be amazed using a mulch pile for 2 reasons – 1). The extreme decrease in garbage heading into the landfill and two ). As it moves through the process into mulch the quantity decreases.

As opposed to throwing away shipping containers or boxes, utilize them other ways – a used Amazon box works well to arrange the restroom, kids’ toys, books, etc..

Speaking of other printed stuff and publications, subscribe to them on line.

Shop in Thrift and Consignment shops when possible. 1 person’s trash can be your own treasure.

For Green challenge yourself to throw away as little as possible!

This is why we believe in our Jacksonville fl Cabinet Painting Service. It’s the ultimate way to reuse and recycle.

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This may seem like unusual advice concerning design for new homes but there’s good explanation for this rationale. A large, open space without visualizing or seeing any furniture material within that space is quite simple to get a little carried away with while creating changes. Also, keep in mind that by using very daring or dramatic designer interior colors on the walls you may be shutting off your future choice color choices to those that will cover the vivid color therefore eliminating any chance of using neutral colors without major restructuring of wall surfaces.

Wallpaper is just another such option that you might reconsider while building inside design using. Removing and fixing the surface is often times quite a hassle that can be prevented by using other options for wall. A fantastic alternative for background that adds a great texture would be a technique such as faux finishing, sponging, or stenciling. These choices (and many more like them) offer you a variety of substitutes which are equally attractive and much easier to alter then more lasting solutions like wallpaper. Consider using a border to achieve the look you are going for instead of covering the whole wall if you have to have background in some of the rooms.

When painting walls, if you employ a few interior layout tips and tricks you will be pleasantly surprised in the overall effects when finish. For example, brighten up dark or small spots with wall colors that are light. Add character and direction to bigger areas with contrasting textures and colours, by setting them. Colour panels can provide a defining characteristic to a region on when you’re ready to accessorize that wall pieces can be showcased by you.

The next item on the schedule when will be dynamic positioning of your hanging accessories such as mirrors, pictures, and art, once the walls have been treated in your residence. Don’t over clutter walls. Make decisions by establishing points or presentation areas which will flatter the rest of your layout, and put things in areas.

Interior design for new houses can be a tricky process. There is a good possibility that the region pertained on your home will be smaller or slightly bigger then the distance on your home. It is why planning placement and motif of every space on your new home is so important to interior design of new homes. Be sure to measure widths of furniture and doorways prior to moving comes so as to prevent hassle while obtaining the furniture into your new living area. Take careful note of any moving activity that occurs into and about your new residence. Careless moving errors can disfigure flooring and walls and make flaws in your house before you have begun living there.

Placement of furniture in houses is one of the facets of unique interior design for new homes. The old doctrine of producing bigger spaces (this is seen especially in living areas and rec rooms) by lining the furniture along the walls is true occasionally although occasionally (again, particularly in recreational-type rooms), dividing the room into two distinct spaces by positioning furniture towards different focal points thereby adding space and versatility to the area in addition to enlarging it.

The significant thing of concern when designing or planning interior design for new homes is to construct an environment that caters to the individuals living there. Creating is the overall principle of house design that is new.

For more information contact Independent-Painting.com.

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Video is not the only source for information and ideas for interior design. Books are a terrific assistant to designers of almost any experience or background levels. The content found in books is substance then of a tv show. That is so because most books entail much more basic material and data then a normal television show can include in a brief segment of time. Books are on these topics and are generally edited before released to customers in any form so the content has been composed. This is the case times, but there are always exceptions to those rules.

If a book looks time consuming or too labour intensive, you could think about magazine articles . You also have the additional benefit of visual representations of design concepts that you can hold onto for an elongated period of time. Many design professionals take advantage of the advantage by putting them and amassing large amounts of those articles or graphics. This is a tremendous resource for locating a particular look or feel that a customer or individual might not be able to describe in industry provisions.

The terminology is although people that aren’t exposed to the jargon might not understand concepts or phrases. As an example, most individuals are generally aware of the terms’conventional’ or’contemporary’ design although they might have trouble explaining ones such as’Minimalist’ or”Americana’. There is no reason simply see that the learning process takes time and is as described, a process.

Read to compile layout code or a style of your own if you are comfortable with your level of creativity and operate within these guidelines and ideas for interior design applications. If you are a bit less comfortable with your sense of style and find it a lot easier to point to some conventional design category, gather all of the information possible related to this class and stick with the general guidelines presented in the information you’ve assembled.

The ideal method to assimilate information supplying you ideas for interior design is to take a small information from each of the aforementioned suggested resources and compile it into a creative archive of sorts that it is possible to get again at a later period so as to compare and contrast with your own ideas and vision.

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Insulation is a way of capturing dead air and causing it to slow down the flow of hot energy toward a cold distance. Personally, I would rather utilize blown cellulose insulation. In America, we important the value of insulating material, by giving it an R-factor. The R-factor of insulating material is a reference for the ability of the insulation to impede heat transfer and into the R stands for resistance factor. The R-factor is simply part of this story. Insulation may have a high R factor, however if air moves through it is almost useless. Among those things we do recently, in home construction, would be to use Tyvek, a slender, breathable plastic membrane that stops the wind.

In other states they talk about a U-factor. The U stands for usage factor. And this use factor is merely a combination of an R factor, and an ability to withstand air intrusion. As a result, the use factor is actually more useful than just the R element. As an example, a concrete wall, includes a low R factor and a top U factor if the logs are all made to fit tightly together. A concrete house has a minimal resistance factor, because concrete absorbs thermal energy easily. To correctly insulate a concrete wall, an individual ought to insulate the exterior of the wall. And that brings us mass.Windows really are a great energy waster. A thermopane window includes a resistance factor of about two or three including the airspace. The more windows a house has the more expensive it is to heat. Triple pane windows have a resistance factor of about five. A drapery completely covering a window will raise the immunity factor to approximately 20. Therefore drawn draperies will considerably boost the insulating ability of a home.

Thermal mass is simply the total amount of weight which reaches a particular temperature and wants to stay at that temperature. For example, I home with a brick floor, and lots of novels and heavy furniture, has a lots of thermal mass. After a house with lots of thermal mass reaches a comfortable temperature it has a tendency to stay that temperature for quite a while, even as soon as they heat or air-conditioning stops. Offices generally have high thermal mass. It requires a lot of power to change the temperature of nitric oxide. Thus, an individual should leave the thermostat at exactly the exact same temperature, not transfer it up and down. Turning down the thermostat at night and turning it back up during the day wastes energy.

For more information about your home, visit us at Independent-Painting.com.

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A Japanese study found that individuals prefer warm colours in the interiors of their houses, which had been mirrored by a research in England, although the English were a little more eclectic, preferring warm colours in their bedrooms and neutral colors in their living rooms. English rooms were somewhat more likely to be painted according to their purpose compared to Japanese rooms.

In the United States, a comprehensive study looked at office colors and discovered that office employees favored low intensity colors such as light blue, aqua, or off-white due to their cubicles. Another American study showed that employees were actually more effective when surrounded by light-colored walls.

Scientific research is one thing, and the outcomes of various global studies can be intriguing, although occasionally contradictory, particularly when it comes to color preferences among individuals of different cultures.

However, what does it all mean when it comes to picking colors for your home? After all is said and done, the bottom line really comes down to this: When choosing colours, the choice is fundamentally personal. Therefore don’t listen to”the pros” Trust your instincts and preferences, then surround yourself with the colours that make you feel the most happy and protected.

For more information visit our website Independent-Painting.com.

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• Environmental tobacco smoke and combustion sources (burning wood, kerosene and by automobiles)
• preservatives in some paints, cosmetics and coating
• finish used to coat paper products
• pressed wood products and furniture made with these pressed wood products
• certain insulation materials like urea-formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI) and fiberglass insulation
  durable press drapes, other textiles, and glues.

Wow! Looking at the list, there must be plenty of formaldehyde in our houses! The frightening part is formaldehyde can cause watery eyes, burning sensations in the eyes and throat, nausea, and difficulty in breathing when exposed at elevated levels. It has also been demonstrated to cause cancer in animals and may cause cancer in humans. Health effects include eye, nose, and throat irritation; wheezing and coughing; fatigue; skin rash; severe allergic reactions.

Since research shows that people spend approximately 90% of their time indoors, be sure to keep our homes well ventilated all of the time. Besides that, try placing the following plants in your home:-

– Chrysanthemum
– Dracaena
– Ivy
– Boston fern (Nephrolepsis Exaltata)
– Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpus Lutescens)
– Spider Plant (Chlorophytum Comosum)
– English Ivy (Hedera Helix)

Apparently, NASA in 1973 has made an experiment to find a solution to keep air quality within confined spaces and the results show that the above plants are able to remove pollutants from the air. Since different plants absorb different pollutants, it will be a good idea to mix at least two plants per 100 square feet of floor space. Needless to say, there are no injuries in getting more (not in bedroom, however, you will need the oxygen at night!) Provided that you know where to place them. If you need your cabinets refinished, call us today.

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If the kitchen is indeed a place you would decide to remodel, then perhaps the most ideal place to start is with the kitchen cabinets which you could quite easily define the whole look of your kitchen and make or break the the ideal look that you are looking for, especially if you are not particularly keen on new designs and styles that will be integrated or incorporated in the kitchen area.

In many cases it would not always be a necessity to replace the whole cabinet in order for you to be able to improve and upgrade it to what you would want it to be. If you perhaps try to do a refinish on the kitchen cabinets then you may even save quite a bit of money if you learn hot to paint these kitchen cabinets. Not all people are however familiar with painting kitchen cabinets, and if you do fall into this category then there are a few very simple ideas that you could consider to make sure that you will have a finished product that is quite sophisticated and classy, yet it will reflect your personality.

The Short Easy Steps

Most people think that learning to paint kitchen cabinets is ideally left to wood workers, and other craftsmen or professionals. This concept however, it wrong because it is actually one of the easiest remodeling jobs you can do on your own to create a great look for your kitchen. In addition, being able to learn to paint kitchen cabinets can save you quite a bit of money and time, and in some cases a great deal of money since you will know that you don;t always need to hire professionals to do all the work in remodeling.

When you begin to learn how to paint your kitchen cabinets, there are a few simple things you can start with such as using a screwdriver to remove the cabinet doors at the hinges and then finding a safe place for them to be stored. Storing them in a safe place will help you later on as you can quite easily find them whenever the time comes that you will need them. When that is done, you can then follow through with removing the metal fixtures that are on the doors be it door knobs, plates or any other accessories. The use of a sander may come in handy so ensure that these are available because you will need them when the time comes for you to remove the old paint of your kitchen cabinets.

After the woodwork has been completely sanded, you should not forget to tape the edges of the cabinet so that the new paint does not stick to the walls of your kitchen. Finally when it comes to completing you task of learning to paint your kitchen cabinets, ensure that you prime them and the cabinet doors with a good base coat in a slightly lighter shade from the final color that you intend to have if this is necessary, and lastly apply your final color as the concluding step in painting your kitchen cabinet.

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