Perhaps an expansion to a defined living space would solve a changing living situation. How can this be accomplished without aaltering your home's basic footprint? How can you go about this without a costly addition? Maybe it's time to look under the hood, so to speak, for a solution that is right under your existing homes roof line.
How about pushing an existing room's perimeter out into your existing unused attic space utilizing an attic remodel? You can push out a small child's bedroom wall to create a play or activity room. Storage needs can be met by taking in part of the attic to create a closet or other additional storage area. Entertainment areas can be created without taking square footage out of the living space once the equipment is installed beyond the existing inner wall line into the attic space.
How you accomplish adding this additional square footage can be quite easy if you obtain the advice of a qualified building professional. Any reputable residential building contractor can give you direction for such a task so that your roof's structural integrity is not put in jeopardy. You must not under any circumstance interrupt the structural balance of your roof. Not only could you cause a structural failure of the roof itself but other areas of your home could be affected by this interruption in stability.
Structurally you may need to add headers or beams or just maybe a few additional purlin braces can be added to carry the new roof load. If headroom is a problem a dormer addition changing the existing roof line can be constructed. You can cover this new dormer area with either a shed or gable type roof which will be dictated by the elevation of your home so that it blends and matches. By all means, if you don't know if what you're about to do is structurally sound in judgement and support don't be afraid to ask a professional.
A Newborn's Nursery Taken From The Adjacent Unused Attic Space
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Whether you have replaced your old cabinets with a set of new fine cabinetry or just need an updated work surface atop your existing setup there are a few choices that need to be considered before making your final decision. Plastic laminates, solid surface material, granite, quartz, and concrete are the most popular choices today when considering new or replacement countertops for a fine kitchen upgrade. Each surface has it's own set of pros and cons to take under advisement before a conclusion is reached so that it blends with your lifestyle. Remember that any samples of materials that you see are only small representations of any larger piece when choosing products. Furthermore hotpads and cutting boards should always be used no matter which top you choose.
Nonporous plastic laminates have been around for many years which is a testament to their durability. We've come a long way since the days of harvest gold and avocado green but some of this original material still exists in kitchens today. We now have different grades of laminate and the HD grade offers interesting designs and textures that help to hide scratches. Heat should never be introduced and the use of hot pads is a necessity. Seams are also a consideration when choosing laminates because they are still visible even when using today's matching seam fill products. Color caulks offered by the laminate manufactures matching their laminate colors are used where the top meets the splash for flexibility. Drop in sinks are preferable when using plastic laminate but now there are some undermount units available. There are also many edge profiles produced today to enhance the look of your new laminate surface. Never use abrasive cleaners on any plastic laminate surfaces because they dull the existing finish.
Solid surface materials like Corian are also composed of nonporous plastic where the color is continuous throughout it's thickness. This material will stain and scratch but due to their makeup the solid surface tops can be reworked by professionally buffing the the affected areas. Remember that the darker the product the more evident the scratches. These tops do appear seamless and are more bacteriostatic than stone. The pricing varies for groups A-E with the solid color A group being the least expensive. The higher priced groups give you many more color choices and variations. A matte finish with a low sheen verses the higher glossed finishes found on granite is typical. There are no limits for the edge profiles and different colors can also be used as an accent. (see photo below)
Granites are a natural stone coming right out of the mountain so no two slabs are exactly alike. Many natural colors are available and ususally lighter tops are preferred over darker stained cabinetry. The stones are cut and polished to a high gloss finish but this can be altered to produce a more dull surface by a process known as honing. There are different edge treatments available limited only by the fabricator. Seams are visible and accepted and only avoided by using larger pieces to limit the number of joints. One downfall of granite is it's porosity. Granite tops require maintenance and must be sealed frequently. The duration between coats is directly proportional to the amount of use your top gets. A good rule of thumb is to see if water still beads up when you place on the surface. If not, reseal.
Quartz is a man made product consisting of 93% stone pieces held together by resin and dyes. It is the newest material available today having bacteriostic qualities and it is technically maintenance free due to it's nonporous surface. In its beginning this product contained small pieces of stone but now larger pieces are being used to create more interesting patterns. The overall look is a more uniform pattern than that of granite. It is the most scratch resistant choice out there but things do happen. The joints are not seen. Like granite there are no limits to the sinks that can be used.
Concrete tops are poured in a mold outlining the face and edge profile. The varying colors of the substrate are accomplished by adjusting the variables within the mix like cement colors, the type of sand(s), or by the add mixes used during the mixing process. Many factors can produce shade, hue, and tone contrasts like acid etching stains used on the surface once it has been poured and set. More creative and interesting contrasts can be acheived by using additives in the mix like stainless steel filings, glow in the dark materials, or colored glass chips. Once the slab is polished it must be sealed at the rate needed per use. This process lends itself to a patina with age.
A Solid Surface Example with an Accented Edge
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Driving down a long straight road can be boring and not very stimulating especially if you take away the surrounding environment. This point of view is also true for a dull standard 30 or 42 inch high straight line set of wall cabinets having the same depth no matter how interesting the rest of the kitchen may be. If you line up a set of boxes it always looks like a lined up set of boxes. Why not break things up and make those fine new replacement cabinets more interesting by varying both their height and depth along the same cabinet line?
Height variations can defeat the dull repetitious look and provide a place for indirect accent up lighting. The different heights can give you more work room where needed above the cabinet top surface or create a space to display some of your most prized kitchen accents. Why not come directly above or on the cabinet top and start a special set of utensil drawers where their contents can always be seen easily? You can also mix in open shelving to display decorative articles changing the overall elevation. Inserting fancy colored or clear multitextured glass into some doors can protect the cabinet contents but produce a more open look.
Wall cabinet depth variations beyond the standard twelve inches allows for special storage needs for items like 13 inch dinner plates or larger baking dishes to name a few. The standard short cabinet above the refrigerator can be expanded to an 18 inch depth making it useful for larger objects and easier to reach.
Base cabinets can also vary in height to make appliances more accessible. Set your dishwasher up on a raised platform to facilitate looking into and not down onto your dishes thus saving your back. Additionally base cabinets are typically 36 inches high but some people are more comfortable with a height of 34 inches which also works well with standard height appliances. Be creative and make your new fine cabinetry custom for you the consumer.
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The focal point of the master bath suite has shifted in recent years from the whirlpool bath to the totally tricked out custom walk in shower. Bubble tubs have gotten a bad reputation for their lack of sanitization associated with their link with long term lower back and kidney damage.
All new construction or any bath transformation should involve multiple shower head combinations in multiple locations to fit anyone's desires. Rain heads coming out of the ceiling, body heads coming out of the walls in many locations, or hand held units attached to the shower walls can make things very interesting. These combinations of heads and locations can be used to create rain effects, provide relief for muscle aches through body massages, or simply provide pin point convenience with hand held variable heads. The possibilities are endless as you dial in your bathing environment. Steam generators are also being considered as an investment in today's fine bathrooom designs. The steam heads can make the difference after a tough day when you're looking for that more therapeutic spa experience. This has certainly led the way to the thermostatic shower valve with plumbed-in hand held shower that is being used specifically in homes today where the owner is planning to retire.
Dry saunas should also be a consideration to be incorporated into any custom bath suite. The cleansing environment accented with eucalyptus cuttings helps to dry out the sinuses and also adds it's part to the body's total muscle relaxation. There is probably no better way to completely warm up after coming in from a cold wet winter day. Always remember to install a floor drain for the days when the sauna must be scrubbed.
A Completely Natural Dry Sauna
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Many options are available when selecting what type of commercial office glass wall system best fits your needs. Each situation will vary in the amount of total allowable visibility as seen from any adjacent part of the common area. Commercial window walls can create an invasion of privacy within an office if a proposed design is not totally taylored and understood. A newly highlighed room's function and privacy can be maintained simply by varying the amount of glass used, it's degree of transparency, and the locations of the glass panels within the office walls. The end use of the new office must be taken into account before adding any type of glass wall system.
Systems can be as simple as the use of a sidelight next to the office entry door used to verify if a meeting is in progress or utilizing a full height glass wall offering total visibility. Modesty concerns can be accomplished by incorporating half glass walls that still maintain the open feeling. Translucent applications such as etching or films applied directly to the glass can retain the security of total privacy however still providing a feeling of open confinement.
Clear glass panels can be totally divided using wood or metal framing components or each of the glass panels can be chemically attached for a free flowing look. Glass blocks can also be used as a means to provide privacy given their translucent characteristic and they can be installed in interesting patterns. Just be sure your design fits the need because glass walls are much more expensive than their drywall counterparts.
A Typical Half Glass Wall Used In A Commercial Office Finish
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All fine bathroom makeovers must stand out even to their owners after the job is complete and all the workers have gone away. The use of granite, marble, onyx, limestone, or glass tiles during a bathroom upgrade can only be further enhanced when any design utilizing glass blocks is intoduced into the mix. The owner's eyes will see the intense natural sparkle provided by the glass block's ability to diffuse natural light that will brighten any setting and create a feeling of openess. Glass blocks can be inserted into an interior shower wall's opening providing light from a nearby outside window or on the exterior wall itself creating a waterproof window with both privacy and insulating capabilities. The blocks also make a great toilet partition when you don't want the confinement of an additional toilet room. Here they can be stair stepped toward the top to the wall's highest point and their raw ends covered in cuts from your field tiles or by using special glass tiles that are available. If you are lucky enough to be able to borrow natural light from an outside source like a light shaft or hallway you can create a brilliant room having no windows visible from the outside.
Using glass blocks to define your shower's wet area isolates it from the rest of the bathroom. The blocks can begin at any height above a lower knee wall that has been dressed with your bathroom's field tiles. The shower walls can either be straight, angled, or curved and can also gradually reduce in height via a stair step design once the wet area has been contained. These stair stepped blocks can then be covered as mentioned above. The raw edges at the top of your wall away from direct view can simply be covered in glass block mortar and molded into any edge profile or a bullnose fashion detail.
Your glass block design may be limited by the size of the blocks that you choose. Curved or radius walls are tough to do with any block wider than three inches. The raw stair step ends for tapering as mentioned above can be replaced with a special block having a bullnose finished edge. Angled walls can be accomplished by using special blocks that form a ninety or forty five degree corner. As far as patterns go you can mix three, four, or six inch widths with twelve inch blocks or you can use four and eight inch width blocks together. Just don't forget about the imported colored varieties or the antiques that are available on the market today.
Good Luck!
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Kitchen remodeling has become quite expensive over the years and sometimes people simply run out money at the end of a large project. The unforseeables like faulty wiring or plumbing may have absorbed more of the alloted funds than were budgeted and you must make changes in your allowances in order to finish the job. The quality of desirability of fine kitchen cabinetry for that look of a custom job may have to be realized at a later date. Ready made cabinets that you purchase and install yourself can sometimes keep you within a budget and promote the project's completion.
The mere composition of any new set of cabinets can make their installation a frustating experience or aid in the process. Harder woods like oak, maple, pecan, or hickory can be tougher to deal with because of their hardness. Drilling holes, cutting, or fitting to a tight tolerence will proove to be a harder task to accomplish when you aren't working on softer woods like pine, cherry, or poplar. Fastening can also be a problem while using the harder woods when installing the crown molds at the ceiling or the scotia moldings in the inside corners where the cabinets meet the wall.
Once you get your new cabinets home open up the boxes and let them stand in the room where they will be installed for some four to six hours. This will acclimate the cabinets to your building's temperature and humidity and help prevent the wood from moving once the cabinets are installed. Don't be surprised if you still have to make some slight adjestments to your new cabinets once they take on their new environment. Be sure that you go into a stud when screwing on the carcasses through their nailers. This will insure that your new cabinets will stay hung in place and prevent future injuries from a falling wall cabinet.
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Green building is all about using fewer natural resources and less energy while making buying decisions that are better for our health and the planet. You should now consider restoring rather than replacing your kitchen cabinetry because green kitchen cabinets are your old kitchen cabinets. This is one of our options since green doesn't always mean buying new stuff. Another way to look at the big picture is the idea of becomming greener through reusing and restoring what we already have.
Restoring your existing cabinets causes fewer environmental problems rather than buying new no matter what new environmentally friendly materials you've chosen to construct your new cabinets. There will be less to haul away to the landfill from a total tear out and fewer raw materials to mine and harvest. The best part of this scenario is that refurbishing your existing cabinets is and should be cheaper than replacement. Be advised that it is fruitless trying to salvage cabinets with structural problems or those that are poorly constructed using cheap materials.
Your "new to you" fine kitchen cabinetry can be accomplished by either a simple paint job or refacing your old kitchen cabinets for staining. The cheapest solution is repainting with a low VOC paint and this task can additionally be accomplished by the owner. This application can be kicked up a notch by replacing the hardware that was stripped prior to painting. Refacing the cabinets with either veneer or 1/4" plywood will give you that natural look and uses fewer natural resources than buying new ones. This will totally revive the cabinet carcass boxes. You can further push the beauty meter by installing new doors and drawer fronts of a matching wood species. Installing the new pulls and hinges will give the appearance that the old cabinets were totally replaced.
Whether you paint or resurface the old existing cabinets the installation of new countertops will enhance your kitchen upgrade and improve both the look and functionality of your "new" greener workspace.
A Typical Used Kitchen That Has Possibilities
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Once you have decided to commit to that kitchen transformation you need to determine if it will consist of a complete overhaul or just making a few needed updates. You can rest assured that with the right choices you can get an eighty to one hundred percent return on your investment. This means that you can basically increase your home's value by the amount of money you spend on the kitchen upgrade as long as you've made the right design choices.
First of all consider the layout of your cooking zone around your stove. Include your microwave and toaster into this area. Think about the proximity of your spices and the cabinets that will contain your pots and pans. These items should remain close to the cooking zone so that you don't waste time wandering around looking for things. And don't forget that gadget drawer(s)!
The most important aspect of your kitchen is it's organization. Implement some major organizational design ideas within your new kitchen. You should never interrupt your work triangle formed by the stove, refrigerator, and sink with a lot of foot traffic. Ideally the total footage for the triangle has always been fifteen feet of travel distance but this is harder to accomplish in the larger luxury type kitchens. Pantries can really increase the triangle's distance if they are located too far away.
You must also make some energy minded choices for efficiency by choosing the correct lighting and lighting systems and by installing energy star appliances. One of the greener approaches to a kitchen upgrade is to consider restoring instead of replacing your cabinets. This can be accomplished by either painting or refacing your existing cabinets.
Being sure that your new kitchen is easy to clean is also an important consideration when making design decisions. Choose worktops made of easily cleaned materials that will compliment your lifestyle. Keep all those colors sparkling and bright to prevent light from being absorbed between the worktop and back splash.
Designing your new kitchen can be a bit overwhelming at times because there are so many things to be considered. Do your research and make a list of your needs and prioritize those needs. Take your time considering every aspect because it's much easier to erase a line on the design paper before it's actually built.
A Modern Upgraded Kitchen
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Using larger commercial cabinetry designs can compensate for the lack of separate office space if the occupants sharing the new facility participate in only one group or a single activity. The larger pieces can be located within a crowded common room or set aside to stand alone. They have the capability of bringing a like group together only to accomplish a given task.
Fine cabinetry incorporating multiple work stations can be used as a greeting place to begin business with your customers or as a place to conclude business. Multiple work stations are great in teaching facilities requiring access to an individual computer setup. They can be seen in bank teller desks, sales towers (see attached photo), or the main desk in a fine hotel or airport. Use them to accomplish different activities within a given space as in a guard or security area (see attached photo) of a facility. Each is totally efficient when used for a single duty.
Multiple Computer Work Stations
Commercial fine cabinetry can support undermounted monitors providing for the full desk top area, pull out keyboard trays which also conserve space, or CPU mounts that conceal and keep the machines out of the way or taking up space within a given cabinet. These customized cabinets can give your business a sleek, efficient, and organized appearance and assist in keeping clutter out of the public eye. Many configurations are possible to house the work stations in any required number. Just remember that careful thought for function is required prior to settling on a design and don't forget to make your facility ADA accessible if the general public will be served.
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