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Looking to give you home more of a Fall Touch?

The post Welcome to Walton Home Solutions first appeared on Walton Home Solutions.

Holiday Cooking Catastrophe

Cooking for a large group of people in a cramped kitchen isn’t very fun. There’s nothing special about frantically trying to prepare food in time, only to find that you don’t have enough counter space to slice vegetables for a salad after placing a hot, freshly baked casserole on your chopping board so it can cool.

And then the only thing worse than not having enough counter space to juggle all the dishes you’re preparing, is not having space to store your utensils. As if it isn’t bad enough that both your oven and refrigerator are already filled chock-and-block, you don’t even know where to find a spatula when you need one!

This scenario is frustrating to say the least, and it’s enough to put off even the most enthusiastic amateur cook from preparing home cooked meals. Which is a pity, because home cooked meals are much healthier than takeaways. Ideally your kitchen should be a place where you’d gladly cook meals throughout the year, not just over the festive season. But preparing meals in a small kitchen that’s poorly organized takes longer. Constantly having to search drawers for utensils – or clear spaces after every activity before starting on the next – is time-consuming.

Remodeling Your Kitchen

No matter how tired you are of your kitchen, renovations shouldn’t be taken lightly. There’s no sense in hurrying through the planning phase. Neglecting to consider your primary needs will result in unnecessary splurging in less important areas, while nagging issues are left unresolved.Your kitchen renovations should be done with your needs in mind. Don’t ask someone else for advice about what to do in your kitchen before you don’t know what problems you’re trying to solve. Professional advice regarding what options you have can help, but only once you know what problems you want to address.

Small Kitchen Tips

Dealing with a small kitchen is tricky. If your kitchen is small, renovations can do wonders to open up the space to feel more roomy. You’ll find that creating enough counter and storage space will be problematic. The issue is that you can’t simply have more cabinets and counter tops installed – there isn’t any space for that. There are a few things you can do to turn your cramped little kitchen into space that works for you.

Custom Shelving

Custom shelving can help you use vertical space more efficiently. Because your kitchen won’t have much space to walk around, you should try to use more wall space and keep the floor open so you can move about in your kitchen while cooking.

Hooks Above Your Stove

Instead of drawers and cabinets, use hooks for your favorite utensils and pans. Installing a corbel with hooks above your stove is a great way to use a space that would normally go wasted. This way you’ll be saving valuable drawer space and your favorite things will always be where you can easily find them.

Install Pantry Drawers Instead of Shelves

If your kitchen is small, chances are you don’t have a proper pantry. Even after renovating your kitchen, your pantry won’t be big. Avoid shelves, as they waste vertical space. The problem with shelves is that you have to allow extra height so you can reach things at the back of the pantry. Drawers solve this problem by pulling out so you don’t have to add extra height on top of what your supplies will take up.

Move Your Stuff Elsewhere

Deciding how you’ll create more storage space in your renovated kitchen is important. But before planning your storage space, you should know what you want to store in your kitchen. Take a moment to consider how you can reduce the amount of storage space you’ll need.

Moving things you don’t use often to other rooms is a great option if you have more space elsewhere in your home. Your fancy dinner set and wine collection, for instance, could be stored somewhere in the dining room without seeming completely out of place.

Don’t Buy Plastic

Plastic containers are handy, but they can take over your kitchen. The problem with things made from plastic is that it’s easy to think that you’ll always have space for more – after all, they’re easier to store than glassware. But this way of thinking will lead you to buy more plastic than you have space for. To solve this problem you should ideally use glassware instead of plastic wherever possible.

When it comes to plastic, make a list of the bare essentials you need, like lunch boxes (and perhaps a few cups and bowls if you have small children). As with glassware, you should strictly limit the amount of plastic things you buy. If you only need six plastic cups, don’t ever buy more.

With proper planning, your renovated kitchen can be a fun place to cook, not only over the holidays, but all throughout the year. If you’ve never cooked much before, your new kitchen might even inspire you to take up some lessons and learn to cook impressive meals your friends will love. Cooking with your family in a beautiful, space-efficient kitchen can also be a great time to spend quality time together. Once your kitchen is a pleasure to be in, you’ll soon discover why kitchens are considered the heart of every home!

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Thinking about remodeling your home?

The post Home Renovations for the Holidays first appeared on Walton Home Solutions.

The normal cost of a midrange bathroom renovation — supplanting every one of the fixtures, the tile, the vanity and the latrine — is currently nearly $19,000, which tracks the cost of home change extends yearly. Also, that is the across the nation normal.

In case you’re arranging a top of the line rebuild that includes moving fixtures and introducing civilities like warmed floors, it will cost you more than $60,000 on average.

Constrain the Use of Tile

Since tile can be costly — and work much more, consider just utilizing it as a part of the shower, where you can lay a basic metro tile in an amazed pattern up to the roof.

Furthermore, rather than edging it with a boarder tile, substitute cleaned aluminum trim to stow away unglazed tile edges. It begins at about $8 for an eight-foot-long metal strip, and offers a perfect, ageless look.

Search for Leftovers

Try not to pay for a whole chunk of granite when all you need is a little piece to cover the highest point of a vanity. Granite fabricators regularly offer remainders.

The same goes for tile: You can search for closeouts at where overloaded and stopped lines are sold for as much as 80 percent off. It pays to get some information about closeouts at any redesigning store you happen to visit. Try not to be bashful, in the event that you see a showroom changing shows, keep running in! They will be upbeat to offer show models at lower costs — everything from vanities to toilet bowls.

What’s more, bear in mind about Craigslist, where contractors and do-it-yourselfers frequently offer overflow. One late posting offered 84 Bianco Carrara marble tram tiles for $50 with the accompanying message: “Unintentionally bought what we required in sq. ft. rather than straight ft. … uh oh! Offering what we didn’t require at a discounted price.”

Lose the Medicine Cabinet

Go for, at whatever point conceivable, an embellishing mirror rather than a pharmaceutical bureau. A mirrior adds style to the space and opens up a wide decision of value choices. You can likewise go as large as the room will bolster, so the space winds up looking greater and more fantastic.

Conceder the Cost of Labor

The vast majority consider saving money on material, however they overlook that work can represent as much as 40 percent of the general spending plan. Keeping the bathroom format the same, so you don’t need to move the pipes, and picking items that don’t require a tremendous measure of establishment work are a portion of the most ideal approaches to minimize expenses.

Keep away from Builder Grade Fixtures

“Builder grade” and “contractor grade” are advertising terms for the most fundamental fixtures in a product offering. Also, for this situation, you get what you pay for: They have a tendency to be made of less solid parts and can scratch and wear all the more rapidly. Putting resources into a higher-review fixture may cost more in advance, yet it could spare you cash in the long haul. You may not see the words “builder review” on the crate, yet sales representatives will tell you, as a state of correlation. Another piece of information: The higher end has a tendency to be heavier and feel strong.

Keep It Simple

The quantity of handles required to work the temperature and stream of the water in your shower and tub may not be high on your rundown of renovation needs, yet every one of those parts include. “More valves equivalent higher expenses. A weight adjust valve with a solitary handle to control both the water temperature and stream is frequently less expensive than a thermostatic valve with at least two handles. Every valve must be independently introduced, and plumbing channels need to meet those valves, which includes work costs. That is the reason less is better.

With regards to completions, standard cleaned chrome is regularly less costly than different alternatives.

What’s more, on the off chance that you have your heart set on a costly material like marble, consider utilizing it as a highlight instead of covering the whole bathroom in it.

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What should you do before you start a bathroom renovation

The post Bathroom Renovation Tips first appeared on Walton Home Solutions.

1. Financial plan

On the off chance that you don’t know as of now you ought to work up a thought of the amount you need to spend on your bathroom renovation. Setting a spending limit will help direct you as you settle on choices about what to incorporate into the remodel. Once you’ve made sense of what you can spend and subtracted the sum allotted to work, you’ll have a clearer feeling of what you can spend on tile, installations, and additional items.

2. Time

Many individuals expect that in the event that they are remodeling a little bathroom it will just take a couple of days, or at any rate, it will require a great deal less investment than a bigger one. This is not really the situation. Contingent upon what number of things you are changing in the bathroom your bathroom your contractor will have to go through all the same steps as a larger bathroom. However, planning refers not only to defining the duration of the renovation works but also certain intermediate steps such as ordering and purchasing tiles, fixtures, custom-built vanity, or cabinets to make sure they can be delivered when your contractor needs them. Planning time is also crucial for those with only one bathroom in their house as they will have to make arrangements where to take a shower and use the toilet while the bathroom is taken apart.

3. Work Sequencing

With regards to bathroom renovation by finishing the task in a particular succession you can spare yourself from a considerable measure of tidy up time and mix-ups. Whether you are annihilating sheetrock or basically repainting, you generally need to begin at the highest point of the room. Remodel your roof to start with, dividers second, and floors third so you can avert harm to your new parts.

4. Unforeseen Issues

In the event that you are doing a noteworthy upgrade to your bathroom consider doing a “full gut”. At the point when done by an expert with aptitude you wind up with a zero issues bathroom that will work impeccably and increase the value of your home for a long time to come. Contingent upon the age of your home and how well it was assembled the greatest concealed issue you may experience is water harm, so search for basic insufficiencies in the floor confining, not legitimately vented pipes, old consumed plumbing, non-waterproof tile shower/tub encompasses, and so on.

5. Configuration style and usefulness

At the point when first beginning, start by pondering the style you need for your bathroom. There are many components to consider like paint shading, tile decisions, vanities, showers, tubs, fixtures, and so forth. It can get overpowering rapidly so begin with some exploration. You can begin to sort out components that you like into what will end up being the last outline of the bathroom or you may pick a plan thing you need to include in the bathroom and afterward work whatever is left of the bathroom plan around it.

Configuration ought to work as one with usefulness so consider who will utilize the bathroom and how, consider an inevitable resale of the house and furthermore pause for a minute to think how the bathroom configuration will fit in with whatever remains of the house.

6. Measurements

There are 3 major limitations which really make size matter in bathroom renovation: the overall size of the bathroom (usually the smallest room in the house), the location of existing plumbing pipes and electrical wiring and the typical standard dimensions of bathroom fixtures. Therefore make sure you have the correct measurements and specifications when you go to the store. More frustrating than trying to shop without measurements is to end up purchasing stuff that doesn’t fit.

7. Contractors

Enlisting a contractor for a possibly DIY work? Indeed, yes, that is a keen thing to do given the complexity of the project and troublesome operations included (electrical, tiling, plumbing, and so forth.). Therefore do not overlook the advantages of hiring a contractor and save yourself a load of misery and time.

8. Plumbing installations and elements

No renovation is finished without remodeling or repairing installations and components, which could make a different list themselves: shower, bath, can, bidet, sink, spigots and shower heads. You ought to likewise upgrade or repair your mirrors and shower entryways. You can likewise change the look of your bathroom effectively by changing out entryway handles, drawer pulls and the equipment for your shower entryways. If you have the budget a new set of shower doors can completely change the look of your room.

9. Cupboards, stockpiling, and racking

Arranging cupboards, racking and putting away arrangements is a dubious issue much of the time. In little, unpredictably formed rooms like the bathroom, it is significantly more so. They should be useful and accommodate all your stuff while keeping everything effortlessly reachable, they should fit into the accessible space and take advantage of it and on top of everything, they have to look classy.

10. Walls and flooring

Practically any material can be utilized to surface walls and floors in the bathroom insofar as it’s waterproof, either naturally or by method for an impenetrable finish. Contingent upon your financial plan and style, ceramic, marble, and rock tiles make good looking and very tough flooring and wall surfaces for showers. For flooring extra choices may incorporate concrete (painted or recolored), sheet vinyl or vinyl tiles which are reasonable and look superior to anything used to. Whatever your decision, dependably mind other key criteria for picking your bathroom flooring: toughness and slip-resistance.

11. Lighting

A bathroom can be rendered unrealistic or out and out perilous without satisfactory lighting so get ready for configuration lighting that is practical and furthermore makes atmosphere. Get ready for amplifying regular light to start with, while artificial light it is advisable you ought to have at least 4 watts of radiant lighting per square foot.

12. Accessories

Although apparently insignificant in the bigger picture of the overall project, no remodel is complete without new accessories. And surprisingly enough, the small stuff like new towels, wash clothes, soap dishes, mirrors, towel racks, bath mats do add up to the final bill. If you are on a budget, new hand towels will be better than nothing.

13. Ventilation

Ventilation is essential in a wet room like the bathroom. It is additionally a dubious errand which needs great arranging: picking the correct fan, the correct position for its establishment and managing the electrical wiring. Poor ventilation can leave your bathroom sodden, rotten and can even harm your wellbeing. A well-ventilated bathroom, however, isn’t just a healthy bathroom. Continual airflow can also prevent both the decay of any wooden trim or fixtures and the saturation of building insulation.

14. Making strides toward environmental friendliness

Regardless of the possibility that you couldn’t care less about becoming environmentally friendly one way or the other, the market is inclining toward this so it’s something to consider. What’s more, there are many spending neighborly alternatives for adding a green touch to your bathroom: a low stream latrine that utilizations less water and spares you cash in water charges; low-VOC or no-VOC paints; vanities produced using economically gathered wood; reused glass tile surface ledges, and so on.

15. Final Clean

The last clean ought to incorporate an intensive cleaning of all cabinetry, all around, ventilation work, dividers, floor, windows, and light installations. Albeit frequently neglect in the arranging stage, on account of a noteworthy renovation you might need to consider getting a cleaning administration which implies extra costs that affect your financial plan. On the off chance that you grope to doing it without anyone else’s help, you may need to add a day or two to your underlying planning.

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Get more bathroom renovation tips.

The post Agenda Before Starting Your Bathroom Renovation first appeared on Walton Home Solutions.

Does Your Bathroom Look Presentable?

The bathroom is a sore spot for many homeowners. You want your bathroom to look and feel clean. After all, it’s the place your guests will go to take care of their personal hygiene. Unfortunately many bathrooms just look dirty. They could stand empty and never get used and they’d still look like they aren’t clean.

Discolored grouting, old tiles, an unappealing color palette and mold growing in certain areas can all cause your bathroom to look dirty even when it’s clean. Imagine a bathroom with simple white tiles with brownish or yellowish grout. It’s pretty obvious that no amount of cleaning will make it look good. The same goes for bathrooms with cracked tiles, or ones that look old and outdated. No matter how clean the bathroom is, it still wouldn’t be a nice space to be in.

Taking a bath or shower should be a relaxing, enjoyable part of your day. It should give you time to unwind a little, So while you might be concerned about whether or not your guests will like your bathroom, the fact that you don’t like your own bathroom is just as bad. Unlike your guests, you won’t go home after the holidays. You already are home. But does your home feel welcoming?

If not, maybe it’s time for you to do something about it. Remodeling your bathroom would help you feel at ease when your guests arrive, but it’s also the perfect gift to give yourself and your family this holiday.

Bathroom Remodeling Tips

Unlike you might have imagined, having your bathroom remodeled isn’t a process that begins and ends with noisy work in your house. Actually, that’s almost the last step. Before you can call someone to help you remodel your bathroom, you need to get creative about envisioning what the space could become.

Step #1: Decide What Isn’t Working

Do you hate the hideous tiles, or are the ugly taps what really get to you? Do you find that you have too little space to store things, or that you’ve got too many cabinets and too little floorspace? Is your bathroom is too dark? Or is the color palette not complementing the natural light you get in the space? Is there mold growing anywhere, or a wall that’s always wet because it absorbs moisture?

These are some questions you need to ask yourself if you want to remodel your bathroom. Before you can start having fun dreaming about the wonderful things you could do, you should do some stocktaking so you know exactly what you’re working with. Take some measurements and realistically ask yourself what you expect from the space – doesn’t matter if it’s more towel rings, light around the mirror or a bigger medicine cabinet.

Once you know what you want to improve, you should get an idea of what’s bothering you the most so that you can prioritize things that you’d rather change if your budget doesn’t allow you to do everything you wanted.

Step #2: Find Decor Inspiration

After the initial step you should know what you really want to change. Based on what you want to change and what you can afford, you should go on to calculate a realistic budget that’s based on research about the cost of building materials and remodeling services. For building materials, you just include anything you want to change, like a new tub, tiles or taps.

The fun starts once your budget is set up. Now you can do Internet searches and find inspiration on sites like Pinterest for your decor overhaul. You can target your pain areas when looking for new, cost effective ideas on how to solve your problems. This is also a great time to look at pictures of bathrooms with different color palates and décor elements so you can get a feel for what looks nicest to you. Depending on what you want, you could adjust your budget in this step, either cutting back on it or adding a little extra (but not too much extra).

Step #3: Talk to A Contractor

Once you know what you want, it’s time to find a trustworthy contractor to do the remodeling work. While you might want to rush out and buy new tiles, towels and other things, it’s best to get professional advice before going further.

A good contractor will be able to make recommendations of what you can do in your bathroom for the best results. Although it’s important to stay true to your vision of what you wanted, you probably don’t know the ins and outs of building and remodeling work, which might mean that some of your ideas simply won’t be doable. At the same time, a professional who does remodeling for a living will know exactly what you need to buy and how much, so you don’t end up buying a bunch of things that never get used. Professional advice can save you lots of time and money and a good contractor can might suggest ideas you never would’ve thought of yourself.

Once you’ve talked to a contractor and bought supplies for the bathroom remodeling work, you’re almost there. Now it will just be a matter of time before you get to enjoy your dream bathroom!

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Ever wonder what the top home renovations are?

The post Home for the Holidays first appeared on Walton Home Solutions.

Every contractor knows spring and summer are the busiest times of the year, but to balance their work load, keep crews active, and to even out cash flow, many smart contractors take actions to sell and complete work in the months of December, January and February. In addition, many homeowners realize the advantages of winter remodeling and these families are looking to close these deals now – don’t leave them to your competitors.

Read More Here

The post Overcoming the Challenges of Winter Remodeling Projects first appeared on Walton Home Solutions.

When Jane Herro, 30, a jewelry designer and a saleswoman at Realty Collective, first saw her one-bedroom apartment in Red Hook, Brooklyn, she was most excited by the small coat closet behind a curtain next to the front door. It looked just big enough for her jeweler’s bench.

The Closet as Workspace, Bedroom or Bar first appeared on Walton Home Solutions.

Redesigning will never get less expensive than it is now. If you’re a glass-half-empty sort of individual, that news may bum you out. In any case, we interpret it as meaning 2017 is the most cost-productive time to redesign. Do it soon—here’s the reason.

Reason No. 1: Consumer certainty is progressing

As employment development increments and wages enhance, individuals by and large like the economy and their future. That makes them additionally like putting resources into home upgrades. Redesigning choices are made by families based upon their purchaser certainty.
Also, that certainty, for the time being, is expanding. In December 2016, the Consumer Confidence Index posted another gain and achieved 113.7— a virtually giddy number compared to when the index tanked to its all-time low of 37.7 in January 2009, the height of the Great Recession.

Reason No. 2: Contractor and development laborer accessibility is diminishing

Presently we know 2017 is turning out to be a busier year for contractors. That is uplifting news for the economy! In any case, the terrible news is this: The busier those construction workers get, the more you may need to hold up to start a rebuilding venture.
What’s more, there’s a one-two punch: There’s likewise a national lack of development specialists—and these laborers are not getting any more youthful.

So in case you want to crush in a home rebuild or remodel, it’s ideal to do it now, before you’re consigned to the back of a long line.

Reason No. 3: Financing is still reasonable

Although a few people may sit on heaps of money they can use for a redesign (we’re not envious or anything), many depend on financing—regularly by getting against the value in their homes. What’s more, nowadays, it’s an awesome time to take out a home value advance or credit extension since home costs are rising and advance rates are still low.

But loan rates are certainly on the rise. At the end of November the interest on home equity loans stood at 4.82%. By the end of December, the rate was 4.97%. And in mid-January of this year, we’re looking at an interest rate of 5.21%.

Still, keep this mind: Even though borrowing costs are rising, so are home values. Lower inventory and mounting demand have bolstered home prices. The median existing-home price in November 2016 was $234,900, up 6.8% from November 2015, according to NAR research.

As the value of your home increases, so does your equity. And it’s primarily the equity in your home—the difference between the fair market value of your home and what you owe—that supports a loan you can use to add that bathroom or replace the roof.

Reason No. 4: Material expenses will go up

Regardless of how low U.S. inflation may be, costs for building materials made far and wide dependably appear to go up. Despite the fact that inflation might be low here, it could ascend in Italy, where the restroom tile you cherish is fabricated. Or, on the other hand tariff pressures might make that chunk of rock from Brazil more costly.

The result is that building costs, labor, and insurance, always rise—perhaps not quickly, but inevitably. And wouldn’t you rather remodel when it’s cheaper?

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Ever wonder what the top home renovations are?

The post Solid Reasons to Remodel Your Home in 2017 first appeared on Walton Home Solutions.