Maybe it's because one of my clients is planning a big kitchen remodel. Maybe it's because I watch altogether way too much HGTV. Whatever the reason, I've been thinking about all the great options are available to you, if you're planning a Louisville home remodel. Great Ideas in Kitchen Appliances This attractive range vent rises with a touch of a button then recedes when you don't want it there. Some of newest ideas involve upgrading appliances to state-of-the-art versions of our daily kitchen workhorses. There are high-end ranges, refrigerators and more from companies like Jenn-A

Closets by Design is one of many home-focused businesses that are based in the newly, redesigned Westport Village. I had a chance to sit down and chat with Amelia Presler of Closets by Design to learn more about their products and how they might fit into today's Louisville home improvement environment. Question: Hi Amelia! Thanks for chatting with me today. To begin, tell me a little about your company. Answer: Well, Closets by Design offers national backing but our franchise is locally owned and our manufacturing facility is here so that we can offer the local support you need.

See how home improvement dollars are being spent on different parts of the home. (Click to enlarge.) The fine folks at Fixr have updated their Home Improvement graphic with new numbers. I believe it's interesting to see how the highs of 2007 have been dropping even as home sales have dropped at the same time. This says that most consumers aren't very optimistic about the direction of our economy. If you're a Louisville home owner, feel free to click on our Home Improvement category for all the posts related to improving your Louisville home.

This article was written by Jessica Schuler with J. Renee Designs with permission for LouisvilleHomesBlog.com to publish so that you can be better informed in all of your housing decisions here in Louisville, Kentucky. They are a full service Interior Design Firm that offers Interior Design, Re-Design, and Home Staging Services. There are many myths surrounding the interior design profession that we are always happy to debunk. One of those myths is that the average person cannot afford an interior designer. Here are the reasons why this isn't true and how a designer can actually save yo

James McNally is a Realtor, former home builder, member of the HBAL and founder of Serveloop.com—a wonderful Web site that features Louisville home improvement companies carefully screened for home owners in our city. His latest entrepreneurial business is SaveMyDeck. With Summer rapidly approaching, I thought some of our readers might want to take advantage of the services that this new home services company can provide. To that end, I sat down with its owner, James McNally, to chat. Question: Hello Mr. McNally, thanks for agreeing to this interview. What was your inspiration fo

The good folks over at Fixr are making some amazing infographics. Their last one, Your Guide to Roofing Materials, was very well received and I'm sure you'll appreciate this one as well. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) is huge today! With the housing market still working to bounce back, more Louisville home owners are spending money fixing up their existing homes delaying a move to a new home. This despite the fact that Louisville home inventory is now 9,200 properties! If you're a Louisville home owner, feel free to click on our Home Improvement category for all the posts related to improvin

Here at Louisville Homes Blog, we absolutely LOVE info-graphics. And Fixr (a great site to find qualified home contractors) has been making some good ones lately. Check out this one about the differences between roofing materials, their durability, color options and costs. Well done! Keep them coming. Roofing materials at a glance. (click to enlarge) .

One of my favorite posts of the year is the National Association of Realtors Remodeling Costs vs. Value report. Like last years post, this one will feature the top home improvement projects purely by the numbers. Unlike last week's Top 8 Home Upgrades According to Kiplinger, this comes straight from homeowner surveys. What's even better is that the data is broken down by region, so we're not getting a national average but instead, we receive numbers that better represent home improvement costs right here in Louisville, Kentucky. So let's get started! The top five, mid-range home impr

With many homeowners looking for the market to rebound before selling, home improvement is now a hot topic! I bet Lowes and Home Depot are enjoying significant growth these past three years. Let's put aside the discussion about the money you'd gain by buying a new house at this low point in the market and focus on which mid-range home improvement projects are going to give your Louisville home the best bang for your buck. According to Kiplinger, these are the top eight home improvement projects. Cabinet refacing is a great, cost-conscious option. 1. Reface Your Kitchen Cabinets

This article was written by Nicole Adams with permission for LouisvilleHomesBlog.com to publish so that you can be better informed in all of your housing decisions here in Louisville, Kentucky. Nicole writes for ConstructionManagementDegree.com about various real estate topics such as home improvement, home decoration, green homes, mortgages, and construction management education. Home improvement just sounds complicated. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a few handy tools that don’t kill your budget to improve your home improvement? Just whip out your iPhone and get going on that dry wall or

This Briar Hill home in Oldham County is Energy Star certified and it is currently for sale. I think it's safe to say that Green is the new Black and that's not likely to change. But many green products are very costly and their benefit to the environment is relatively small. So, how do we decide which ones make the most sense? Leigh A. Poltrock is an attorney in Pittsburgh who published a piece called Going Green Without Going Broke. It's directed at people thinking about incorporating green building practices and products into their new home. There's a myriad of government programs

Today, our Louisville weather brings us a crisp 20 degrees on our thermometers. That's chilly! Homeowners should (if they haven't already) give some thought to the heat that could be escaping their homes. Saving 15% on that new sweater for Aunt Sharon is great but if you're paying an extra 15% on your LG&E bill because of heat escaping through cracks in your house, it's all for naught. It seems many look to our government for guidance far too often as some are actually calling for a "cash for caulkers" program. From today's Wall St. Journal: Such unsexy-sounding home improvements can be

This article was written by Adrienne Carlson with permission for LouisvilleHomesBlog.com to publish so that you can be better informed in all of your housing decisions here in Louisville, Kentucky. Adrienne regularly writes on the topic of construction management degrees and welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: drienne.carlson83@yahoo.com. According to the FBI, a house, apartment, or condominium is burglarized once every 15 seconds. This results in thousands per hour and untold millions in stolen goods, not to mention the rise in insurance premiums. Don’t be part of

This article was written expressly for LouisvilleHomesBlog.com by Jay Welker with Allgeier Air so that you can be better informed in all of your housing decisions here in Louisville, Kentucky. The movement of homeowners to "go green" by utilizing geothermal heating and cooling is becoming ever more common. However, there is still a large part of the population who doesn’t even know where to begin when it comes to tackling the concept of geothermal. So let’s lay some ground work, peel back the layers of this 21st century question of “To go Geo or not to go Geo?” and see if it is rig

The Federal government is notorious for spending money it doesn't have. These housing rebates are just one of a hundred examples. The federal government will not distribute $296million in federal funds until after Nov. 30, leaving scant time for the state to print, distribute and begin processing rebate coupons. Instead, Kentucky is aiming for a springtime campaign to spread around its share of the money — estimated at $4million. Kentucky home owners can still upgrade their homes now, but won't see the money until Spring. Before you buy, check the list of criteria required to qualify

This article was written expressly for LouisvilleHomesBlog.com by Adrienne Carlson so that you can be better informed in all of your housing decisions here in Louisville, Kentucky. Adrienne regularly writes on the topic of construction management degrees and welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: drienne.carlson83@yahoo.com. You may have thousands of reasons for selling your home, but for the person buying it, there is only one reason to do so – because they like it. And it’s simple common sense to know that homes that look good that attract the most prospective buye

This article is part of a series devoted to giving pertinent, professional advice to Louisville's homebuyers and sellers. Find more great articles in our Top 10 category. Let's be honest. In this economy, money is tight. People are now being very creative in how to keep more money in their own pockets. Home improvement is one great way! Here at LouisvilleHomesBlog.com, we want to provide the very best in real estate information and advice so that you can make the decisions that best fit your situation. With that in mind, the National Association of Realtors publishes a Cost vs. Value Rep

Here's an example of what you don't want your gutters to look like. I like to publish home improvement and home maintenance tips every so often here at LouisvilleHomesBlog.com, mainly because sometimes we Realtors forget that buying the house is just the beginning. For the homeowners to keep their investments in tip-top shape, you need to be ever vigilant. So for autumn here in Louisville, I've put together some of the best home maintenance tips for all homeowners. Now's let's all get to work out there! Repair/Caulk Windows & Doors: More energy escapes a house through windows

Wood decks require you to stain them every few years to insure a longer life. Home improvements can cover anything from replacing a faucet to adding an addition onto your house. Given that it's the 4th of July, I thought I'd post how you can improve your outdoor experience by updating your deck. Just three steps... let's get started! 1. Wash the Deck It may sound like an unnecessary step but experts agree that washing the deck first make repairs easier, and more importantly, helps the staining process. Rent a power washer and have at it! Make sure to let the wood dry overnight befor

I posted Are Replacement Windows a Wise Home Improvement? last month with the chart you see below. Today I thought, why not include the whole story for you? So here is a link to the official 2008 Cost vs. Value Report: Still Many Happy Returns for Home Rehabs. If you want to know how different home improvement projects affect the value of your home, this stuff is information gold! Make sure you check out the whole article but I wanted to include here the National Association of Realtor's Top 10 Project Paybacks: 1. Upscale fiber cement siding (86.7%) 2. Midrange wood deck (81.8%) 3