Why remodel? I used to think the answer was as much resale value as anything else. I’m older and wiser now and that’s a good thing because resale value is, at least for now, not the best reason to remodel.

So why? Of course we both know that there are lots and lots and lots of reasons, but they all boil down to the same thing. A better life.

How can remodeling equal a better life?

1. Pride in having a beautiful home.
2. Knowledge that we’re helping our planet by building green.
3. A sense of accomplishment in doing more with less.
4. Good “vibes” or Feng-Shui that comes from holistic design.
5. Improved productivity through well organized spaces.
6. Inspiration and creativity through the use of color and style.
7. Reduced expenses by making homes more efficient.
8. Better health by making homes safer.
9. Better communities through neighbors helping neighbors.
10. More family involvement by creating shared spaces.
11. Increased togetherness by building workspaces at home.
12. Better meals come from awesome kitchens!
13. It’s more fun to brush your teeth in a killer bathroom!
14. All views are better through a beautiful window!
15. And everybody loves to come home to an incredible front door!

I think that’s it. But maybe you can think of another way. If so, I would love to hear it because these fifteen ideas and any more that you want to add are what I wanted to write about when I started this blog almost two years ago. It’s good to be reminded.

How can remodeling equal a better life for you?

One thing about babies, of any species, is that they sure know how to sleep. And they aren’t really selective about where either.

I, on the other hand am more selective! For me to truly sleep like a baby I’ve got a whole checklist!

• Quiet, but with a little bit of static background noise (to mask sounds from the dog, the street, etc.)
• Dark. One thing I love about hotels is those black-out curtains they have.
• Air movement. For some reason, the air (which I prefer cool) has to be in motion.
• A really beat-up old pillow that I can roll-up into something akin to a store-bought fire log.
• And finally, a nice mattress. Currently we have a King size, but size isn’t the most important thing.

Of course none of that even brings into play the DECOR of the room, which is what I’ve been contemplating for the last couple of days. I’ve been working on a post about bedroom decor and looking at all sorts of high-falutin ideas.

But when I woke up this morning (now I have the Sopranos theme song in my head) I thought to myself, a great mattress is the most important part of a bedroom. All the other stuff can take a number and get in-line behind the bed itself. A good night’s sleep is invaluable!

I’ve heard that a pocket spring mattress from Silentnight is a good one, but there are tons of great choices. The point is that I’d forego a nice floor covering, use cheap sheets, and hang towels over the windows if that’s what it took to afford a great mattress!

Maybe I’m still basking in the afterglow of a great nights sleep. But I just felt like sharing my priorities with you this morning. I know how deeply you care.

After some coffee, I’ll get back to writing about good design and remodeling ideas like I’m supposed to!

My wife and sons must have inherited my fondness for small spaces. Or, maybe traveling the country in a motorhome taught us all to love the comfort of close quarters together. Or could it have been the move from 3000sf down to 1000sf that did it?

Whatever the reason, for us, small houses are better.

It hasn’t always been this way. I built an addition on our home in Tampa that was just about the same size as our home in Punta Gorda. I added a master suite. A big one. Obviously at the time, I thought bigger was better. No longer.

Smaller is better. For me, the real kicker is the family togetherness, and the cozy feeling of our home. Weird as it may make me, I really like to keep my crew close.

Right now, I’m writing this post at the kitchen table (not small, huge, seats 12, made by yours truly), and my bride is as close to me as if we were sitting at a tiny table in Starbucks. I barely have to move my arm to touch her.

My sons are less than 20 feet away, one in the living room playing a game ( I just heard a slight cough from him… he’s getting over a cold). My older son is in the bedroom he shares with his brother playing his guitar. It sounds great and it’s like live entertainment. If I want to add a word of applause, I don’t even have to raise my voice.

Small houses are better.

But, hey, that thouchy-feely stuff aside, smaller houses are also better for the world. I’m not going total tree-hugger on you, I mean I do love to make stuff from wood, but look at the common sense of it:

• Less land
• Less material (less manufacturing)

A huge house with nothing but energy star and green everything isn’t going to hold a candle in “overall impact” comparisons to my little house. And that’s just in the construction and manufacturing process.

What about the ongoing impact?

Our electric bill in the little house is about half of what it was in the bigger house. Half. Same four people, same clothes washed and dried, same temperature in summer and winter, just less space which means less air-conditioning, fewer light fixtures, less wasted energy.

It’s not all roses

There are some problems. The boys don’t love sharing a bedroom. Storage is a serious issue. We don’t have room for much more stuff in this house for sure.

But do we need more stuff?

Overall, I’m a fan of small houses. I wonder if people will ever consider taking part of a house down? Can you imagine that? Tear part of it off and haul it away to make the house smaller! That seems crazy! But I bet it happens.

What about you? Small house? Big house? What’s perfect for you?

I read this quote and it made me chuckle…

Home is where you hang your head.  – Groucho Marx

Isn’t that the truth!  But thankfully not all of the truth.  For certain, if I’m feeling a bit less than my ideal “strong and sure” self, I can show it at home.  But, on the flip-side, when things are great and life is a grand joy, I want nothing more than to share it with my little crew, at home.

Home is a great place to be, and the souls within make it so, not the wall color, or the beadboard, or the really amazing Tiki Bar.  So when you remodel, be nice to each other!

When I was a young’un I used to listen to motivational speakers whenever I got the chance. One of my favorites was Zig Ziglar. Thinking back, I wonder why I don’t listen to that as much now. It was very helpful!

One of the many bits of advice I took from those, uh…tapes, was that it’s almost impossible to make a good decision when you have a bad attitude. The suggestion was that we make better decisions when we have a positive outlook on the future. I’ve learned that this involves much more than attitude. It can relate also to energy level, finances, and myriad other factors.

But the point remains that we don’t make the greatest decisions if we’re suffering from “stinkin’ thinkin’”. It’s true.

As a remodeling contractor I saw examples of this many times in the decisions my clients made. They would get downright tired of the process. They would reach points where they would give just about anything to just avoid having work going on for one more day! I’ve seen my share of meltdowns!

I see the same thing in life unrelated to remodeling. I was working on a project today that required doing the same thing, over and over and over again. The successful outcome of what I was doing depended on me doing the job right every time, yet I was tempted to cut corners. I just wanted to finish!

But if I had cut corners, would I have finished faster? Of course not, in fact I would have made my job much harder because I would have to fix my mistakes later.

The same thing applies to your remodeling projects around the house. You may reach a point where you know that what you want is that awesome new wallpaper you saw (wallpaper is on the way back) but it is just so much faster to simply paint the wall. Don’t give-in to that temptation!

Plan the work you want to do ahead of time and stick to it! If you have to break it up into multiple smaller projects, so be it. But don’t compromise on your plan. The goals you’re trying to accomplish by remodeling in the first place won’t be fully met if you cut corners!

Just take a breath, maybe take a walk, or even take a vacation… but stick to that plan!

I remember as a kid hearing that story about the tortoise and the hare. I never liked that story at all because I always wanted to be the Hare. I still distinctly remember that story upsetting me, even at ten years old.

I wanted to be the Hare. I wanted to be fast! And I wanted to be the winner! So that story just seemed stupid to me, and I bet I wasn’t alone.

But I’m starting to wonder. Maybe there is something to it all….

One thing I know for sure is that the “slow and steady” theory applies to remodeling without a doubt. That’s especially true if you’re doing the work yourself. But it applies to those jobs done by professionals as well.

The most common complaint I used to hear was “why does this take so long?” and that was with ME…the Hare…as the contractor. These folks would have had a conniption fit if they hired Mr. Tortoise.

What’s the hurry?

Don’t rob yourself of the enjoyment of your project by constantly being dissatisfied because you’re in a hurry. It won’t ever be fast enough! Fast enough would be “snap, it’s done.” But that just ain’t gonna happen!

My advice is to love every minute of it! If the contractor you hire is the guy who’s truck breaks down every day for a week, don’t worry about it. Not only will you have extra time to decide what paint color you really want to use, but you’ll have a funny story to tell when everyone starts exchanging contractor stories. You wouldn’t want to miss out on that would you?

Take the time to explain the process to the kids. Let them get engaged in the work, talk to the workers, and learn about what’s happening. This may sound really, super, WAY, crazy…but enjoy the smell of the sawdust.

(I know I’m a nutcase, because that actually brought tears to my eyes!)

For The DIY Crew

If you’re doing the work yourself this is even more true. Remodeling your home can be torture, or it can be pure bliss. I say the biggest tilting point between the two is simple..TIME.

Four good reasons to take it slow:

1. It’s cheaper – money is the other misery generator for DIY’ers. But if you’re going slow, then you ‘ve got plenty of time to save-up and time to look for deals. I bought all the wood I needed to build a garden structure at our house (it was a hen house, but it wasn’t an average hen house) for less than $100.00… it would have cost ten times that if I had bought it on-demand. Deals like that can be found if you’re patient.
2. It’s more fun – If you’re willing to only get one-fourth of the work done in a day that a “pro” might do, then you can take some time to enjoy it. Put on some good music, grab a cold drink, throw nails at your kids. You know, play!
3. You can do a better job – I used to work with a carpenter that I wish I could talk to today. I wonder where he is. He wasn’t fast at all, but man was he good! Every single thing he did came out right and he really enjoyed the work too! (as long as my youthful push for better profits didn’t drive him nuts) By taking his time, he did an excellent job.
4. You can learn and teach at the same time – One of the things I hope it’s not too late to do is to spend more time building things with my sons. I’ve been busy working, and when not working, traveling. But we’re getting tired of all the travel and we have a whole house to remodel completely. I want to use that process to teach them my skills. You can’t do that if the goal is to hurry-up and finish.

So I think I’m going to slow down. (or at least try) Maybe I’ll even go slow enough to take some pictures of my own work to show you. Or make a video… can you hear the voice of Ed McMahon? Heeeeeeeeeerrre’s ReeeeeeModeling Guy!

Or not.

Hopefully you haven’t slowed down so much you’re sleeping now!

Now hurry-up and leave a comment!

My family of four lives in 1000 square feet, and we love it! I’m really not kidding you, we totally love it! Even our boys love it, and they have to share a room! I bet that’s hard to imagine for many people. It would have been hard for me to imagine not long ago.

We moved from a much larger house, almost three times the size! And the property the other house was on would have held about ten of the lots our house sits on now. The change is really dramatic. But, again, we love it!

I was thinking about why we love it so much. I’ll tell you!

In no particular order…

1. Togetherness – Living in close quarters forces close contact. We’re together whether we like it or not. Which builds….
2. Relationships – The fact that we’re always together is like the full immersion method of learning a foreign language; we’ll build relationships like it or not, good thing we like it!
3. Parenting – Not only can we see the kids all the time, but we can hear them too. Even if they wisper a cross word at one another, I know it. Sometimes it’s the quiet itself that gives them away!
4. Homeschooling – We love homeschooling and being so close makes it even better than before! It’s just so much easier to mix in an impromptu lesson on whatever into the day when you’re only ten feet away. And it’s easier for the kids to ask a question when they can just look up from the book and ask.
5. Helpfulness – I feel good about the fact that I know right away if anyone in the house is struggling with something. Maybe a light-bulb is hard to reach, or the groceries are coming in, or the dog puked on the floor! I’m lucky enough to be able to help with that!
6. Outdoor Living – The deck at our house is bigger than the house! Having a tiny house causes us to live outside much more, even though our other house was in a park-like waterfront setting. We know the instant the weather is good and we’re there! Love this.
7. Less Stuff! – We were forced to reduce, cut back, thin, and thin some more and we still have more to get rid of (in storage). When you live in a small house, you only hold on to those things that truly warm your heart, make you smile, or are totally useful.
8. Easy to Clean! – We can clean this house in a fraction of the time the larger house took. Since we use every area every day, most of it stays pretty clean, so when it’s time for a “spring cleaning” it’s only a few hours work (if we all pitch in).
9. Easy to makeover! – Everything is smaller so when it’s time to remodel, which will happen frequently once we’re totally settled, the jobs are more bite-sized. This is good if you’re both a chronic remodeler and always in a hurry to finish the job!
10. No Less Wasted Space!- I wasn’t really aware of how much waste our life included in the bigger house. We don’t do that now. There isn’t anywhere near as much wasted space here, though amazingly there still is some!
11. Lower Expenses! – This is huge! Our electric bill is less than 1/3 what the other house bill was. Taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance…it’s all lower. Given the current state of things, this is a huge blessing!
12. Ultimate Green Home – I didn’t build this house so I don’t know what insulation is in the walls. I can tell you that it isn’t well insulated. There are no special features on the water heater or the air-conditioner. But this house has much less impact on the environment than a tricked out green house twice the size. Go figure.
13. It Inspires Creativitiy – Take my home office for example. It stinks right now. Lame-O beyond belief! When I deal with this, which will be pretty soon, I’m going to have to be very inventive. That’s a really good thing for me. Make your brain work, and it will!
14. Keeps the pride in check – I know from experience that living in a fancy house and all the trappings of a fancy life can create a false sense of pride. When you’re as amazing as I am, that can be dangerous. The tiny house helps with that… a little.
15. It’s Cheaper to Remodel – My house is smaller than many of the room additions I’ve added to other homes! There is less of everything from flooring, to windows and doors, to light fixtures. It really adds up!
16. It’s just comfortable! – If you’ve ever had a dog, you know that they love little cave like houses to go in. They like the close surrounds. It’s cozy, comfortable, safe, and reassuring. Same thing with people.
17. You get more organized – just out of necessity you start to do a better job of having a place for everything and everything in it’s place. As much as I dislike the idea of being organized, I know that it works wonders and makes life better.
18. Costs less to furnish – Much like the cost to remodel, and the cost to heat and cool, the cost to furnish a little house is simply less. You can only fit so much stuff in here! If you can afford it, this also means that you can furnish with nicer furnishings because you need fewer pieces.
19. It’s just simpler – In general, life is simpler in a smaller house. This is just an overall feel, a way of living. It’s a really good thing.
20. Less Stress – All of the above add-up to less stress. Life is more enjoyable with less to worry about, lower expenses, and better relationships. While it may not be a cure-all, I say that a small house is a huge step in the right direction if you want less stress!

Maybe this explains why I love remodeling so much! I just love the idea of finding the good in something that other people look at and say is bad. People for years have said that a big house was good. I made my living making them bigger still!

The obvious thought is that if a big house is good, that a small house is bad. I disagree! I think a small house is great.

But what I really love is the idea of taking whatever you have, large or small, and making the most of it! And that’s what remodeling means to me. It’s the work and creativity we put forth to make the most of what we already have! I love that!

Remodel On!

I’ve never been too interested in my hair. At least not as much as some guys I know. I keep what hair I haven’t sacrificed to the construction business cut short.

So I’m immune to the dreaded Bad Hair Day. But it turns out you can’t get around these things quite so easily. Things just go wrong, good hair or no.

Take my day for example. It’s a Bad Chair Day, which is just as bad, and could have been worse. You’d be hard pressed to imagine the contorted position from which I write, I’m in a three legged chair, if that tells you anything. I bet you can, however, grasp the resigned attitude that would possess a man to write in a chair which has just so violently and unexpectedly failed him.

It’s been a writers block kind of day, another wicked scourge to which I thought I was immune. I’ve just not been able to get in the groove. Every time I start to make some headway, I hit a wall. So I figured I just needed a change of scenery, that’s all. A new venue would fix the problem for sure. So grabbed the laptop and headed outside.

I have choices outside. From my twisted perch I can see twelve solid chairs and stools. A dozen good places to sit. I picked lucky number thirteen and sat down. I’m still shocked at the coincidence that happened then. Right as I sat in the chair…at the extact moment in which I transferred my considerable body weight to the chair… one of the legs gave out. Bad timing.

So in a moment my loving family will be sad to have missed, I dropped back in a slow motion descent the 18 – 20″ (a good height for seats) to the ground. I’m not sure what happened next. I swear I would have taken the hit for the MacBook. I can’t imagine that my instincts would have had me drop it in order to avail myself of my arms and hands to break the fall, but people do funny things. Somehow the computer ended up on the ground. But it works! Whew!

Lucky for me, an extremely well constructed low rail was behind the chair. It was built solidly by a “wood magician” and the striking blow of the chair and myself budged it not.

So here I sit. I reached over and grabbed the computer from the now much closer ground, resigned myself to that just being the way of things today and proceeded to write my post.

That’s Why Blogs Are The Future

This experience clearly illustrates why blogs are the wave of the future. It’s obvious, just think about it.

How many people at the big Home Improvement networks are you going to get to know like this? Who do you know at the big national magazine that is going to be willing to share the truth about a bad chair day with you?

I’m serious.

Blogs offer everyone the opportunity to find information from, and form relationships with, people that they actually know well enough to like. In a virtual kind of way, I can be your “friend who is a contractor”. That is something really new and incredibly useful!

I actually feel like I know the authors of the blogs I read frequently. Even the more serious ones who rarely “let their hair down” show enough of themselves through writing on a regular basis that I can develop, over time, a deeper level of understanding of the information given because I know the source.

I encourage you to interact on this blog. I love going to your blogs and looking at the pictures of your work and giving my two cents or words of encouragement. I welcome questions and I try to get to all of them…If I missed yours, please ask me again, I didn’t neglect to answer you on purpose, I just haven’t mastered my system yet!

I can always be reached by email at tim@remodelingguy.net

Well, If I stay in this crazy pose much longer I think I’ll need a Chiropractor. I wonder if there is a Chiropractor blog? Bummer about my chair. I liked this one, that’s why I picked it!

So, friend, how is/was your day?

No Pressure.

Maybe if my parents had given me a dresser like this one, things would have turned out differently!

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill

When we talk about design and remodeling, about making things feel better, prettier, more comforting, are we just trying to please ourselves? Is there any real good in it?

Personally, I believe that “remodeling” can change the world. Does that sound crazy to you? I don’t think it is.

Environment Affects Attitude

It’s no secret that color affects mood. We all know the difference that something as simple as cleaning our desk makes. Everyone knows that being in a well designed (either by us or by God) space makes us feel alive and inspired.

So doesn’t it stand to reason that the little changes in our homes will affect our attitude? Is it so much of a stretch to think that this attitude shift could change our world a little? What if we all did it?

Maybe the bailout should be free paint and brushes for everyone to repaint the house!

Just a thought. (and a reminder to me that I need to paint my house!)