Home Improvement and Remodeling

Tierney McAfee is a freelance writer and Country Living and The Pioneer Woman contributor who covers entertainment, holiday & entertaining, food & drinks, design ideas, DIY, and more. Well, if you need a little extra motivation to take that first step, look no further than the best home improvement shows on TV. The friendly hosts and genius tips will inspire you to finally tackle that DIY project you’ve been daydreaming about for months. He started building a fence but put the project on hold when he found it impossible to source new fence posts. Stacked neatly in his backyard is a minivan-size pile of gray lumber, all stuff Buhr salvaged from dumpsters and a fence demolition project. The river rock she wanted in order to help set an aquatic theme was nowhere to be found this spring, so Camille had to use 53 bags of pea gravel as a substitute.

  • Lump sum – This is a one-time, closed-end loan that usually has a fixed interest rate.
  • Home improvement is much easier when you are well-informed.
  • DTI is calculated by combining all your recurring monthly debt and dividing it by your gross monthly income.
  • If you are a listener or a viewer over this amazing internet thing, Your feedback is what keeps us going.
  • Aggregators are companies that bundle home improvement service offers and act as intermediary agency between service providers and customers.

We are always adding new articles and videos, so be sure to add us on your favorites and keep checking back to see what’s new. We are also on facebook if you want to check out our fan page. Home improvement was popularized on television in 1979 with the premiere of This Old House starring Bob Vila on PBS. American cable channel HGTV features many do-it-yourself shows, as does sister channel DIY Network.Danny Lipford hosts and produces the nationally syndicated Today’s Homeowner with Danny Lipford. Tom Kraeutler and Leslie Segrete co-host the nationally syndicated The Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show.

However, to remove a wall safely, it needs to be non-load-bearing, meaning a wall that isn’t integral to the structure of your home. Laminate flooring comes in a variety of shades, and costs between $3 – $8 per square foot. You can pay, on average, $2,352 for a professional installation, or measure precisely and DIY it on your own. Instead, for the interior walls of your small home, opt for cool colors that give rooms an open and airy look.

Miss the studs and you’ll be pulling out more than the bars when you put your weight on them. Stainless steel, stamped tin, wrought-iron grillwork, glass, and wood painted to match your flooring or countertops are all possibilities. “The process is simple,” says Mike McAllister, owner of Riverside Kitchen Center in Mount Vernon, Washington. “Remove the small flange that holds the existing insert, then replace the insert with your material and add wood or metal stops to keep it in place.” Spice up your cabinets and drawers by replacing factory-issue handles and pulls with designs that reflect your personal taste. These days there is cabinet hardware available for every kitchen style.

Add Storage to Your Entry

The categories of home improvement surging the most, though, have to do with work outside the home — just outside of it, that is, primarily in the backyard. There has been an almost threefold increase in building decks, and the number of people putting up fences is up sharply as well, according to Anderson. “As soon as COVID hit, we needed someplace the kids could play,” Buhr says, noting that neighborhood parks were closed. “So we put a playhouse down first and then found the kids liked it so much that we went ahead and built a living room. And then my wife needed the space to work.” Why Home Improvement Has Surged And How It’s Changing America The pandemic has sparked a sustained, unprecedented tidal wave of home and backyard projects.

Refinancing For Home Improvements: A Guide

The rain gutters on your house are more than just convenient. They’re essential for keeping your home’s foundation free from excess water stress. Your foundation already has a big job to do holding up the house. The quantity of water in a small rainfall event is surprisingly massive.

The HGTV show’s popularity allowed Chip and Joanna to launch a home decor and media empire, including the upcoming Magnolia Network, which will be home to a reboot of the “Fixer Upper” series. Another of Canada’s preeminent designers, Candice Olson hosted HGTV’s “Divine Designs” for all of its 16 seasons. Rather than flipping an entire house, Olson focuses on renovating and refurbishing single rooms and bringing the owners’ visions for interior decor to life. Since the show’s cancellation, Olson has devoted much of her energy to writing and publishing design books aimed at folks who want a little bit of her sparkle in their own homes.

Home improvement industry

When it comes to transforming fixer uppers into forever homes, few are as skilled and savvy as twins Drew and Jonathan Scott. The Property Brothers are on a mission to help couples find, buy, and transform houses into the homes of their dreams—and they do it all on a strict timeline and budget. The reclaimed yard provides a nice place to relax in a controlled outdoor environment, another factor driving the pandemic building boom. And a lot of the work going on in backyards slips under the radar of people like Anderson. Astoria Camille, for instance, is working on a scrappy project behind her mother’s home in Kansas City’s Troostwood neighborhood.

It seems like a small detail, and it is, but it’s also an important one. This happens as kids break dishes and you pick up new ones, slowly leaving you with a strange melange of plates, bowls and such. Having these mismatched dish sets around was a key step in making the Taylor house feel like a home. There are a lot of objects around the Taylor home that scream Tim “The Toolman” Taylor but only a few touches that appear to be Jill’s. One of the most obvious Jill related objects is her Michigan Opera mug. Given the amount of sports memorabilia and model cars around the house, it’s important for Jill to assert her presence, too.

Transform the mood of the kitchen with a bold new backsplash in ceramic or glass tile. Just make sure the wall is sound before you start the installation. Choosing one color and clean-lined tile for the backsplash in a small kitchen keeps the look uncluttered and roomy.