This Static Spot is open for sponsor

Click Here to Sponsor MCT Eric Post in Full Page

Afrikaans Afrikaans Albanian Albanian Amharic Amharic Arabic Arabic Armenian Armenian Azerbaijani Azerbaijani Basque Basque Belarusian Belarusian Bengali Bengali Bosnian Bosnian Bulgarian Bulgarian Catalan Catalan Cebuano Cebuano Chichewa Chichewa Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional) Corsican Corsican Croatian Croatian Czech Czech Danish Danish Dutch Dutch English English Esperanto Esperanto Estonian Estonian Filipino Filipino Finnish Finnish French French Frisian Frisian Galician Galician Georgian Georgian German German Greek Greek Gujarati Gujarati Haitian Creole Haitian Creole Hausa Hausa Hawaiian Hawaiian Hebrew Hebrew Hindi Hindi Hmong Hmong Hungarian Hungarian Icelandic Icelandic Igbo Igbo Indonesian Indonesian Irish Irish Italian Italian Japanese Japanese Javanese Javanese Kannada Kannada Kazakh Kazakh Khmer Khmer Korean Korean Kurdish (Kurmanji) Kurdish (Kurmanji) Kyrgyz Kyrgyz Lao Lao Latin Latin Latvian Latvian Lithuanian Lithuanian Luxembourgish Luxembourgish Macedonian Macedonian Malagasy Malagasy Malay Malay Malayalam Malayalam Maltese Maltese Maori Maori Marathi Marathi Mongolian Mongolian Myanmar (Burmese) Myanmar (Burmese) Nepali Nepali Norwegian Norwegian Pashto Pashto Persian Persian Polish Polish Portuguese Portuguese Punjabi Punjabi Romanian Romanian Russian Russian Samoan Samoan Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic Serbian Serbian Sesotho Sesotho Shona Shona Sindhi Sindhi Sinhala Sinhala Slovak Slovak Slovenian Slovenian Somali Somali Spanish Spanish Sundanese Sundanese Swahili Swahili Swedish Swedish Tajik Tajik Tamil Tamil Telugu Telugu Thai Thai Turkish Turkish Ukrainian Ukrainian Urdu Urdu Uzbek Uzbek Vietnamese Vietnamese Welsh Welsh Xhosa Xhosa Yiddish Yiddish Yoruba Yoruba Zulu Zulu

 

 

Article Navigation

Back To Main Page

 

Click Here for more articles
Google
Where Are All the Good Contractors!!
by: Celise Bealer
Have you ever had a bad experience with a contractor (ex. painter, roofer, plumber, landscaper, carpenter etc.)? Did problems such as these occur: contractor showing up late or not at all; poor workmanship and work ethics; missed deadlines? Have you landed in court because of a bad contractor?

I can relate. Although finding a reliable and punctual contractor who takes pride in his or her work often seems impossible, contractors possessing these characteristics do exist. The key is knowing how and where to find them.

Here are a few easy ways (outside of using the yellow pages) to find contractors who will make you want to smile at the completion of the job, instead of cry:

·Ask family members, friends and associates for referrals of contractors who have worked for them. People close to you are usually more than happy to give you the name of someone who did excellent work for them.

·Visit your local home improvement center. Employees and customer service representatives (CSRs) may be able to refer quality contractors to you. Contractors patronize these centers regularly and sometimes leave business cards with the CSRs.

·Attend local home and garden shows. These shows are packed with home improvement professionals who are eager to explain and demonstrate the type of services they provide. Visit the various vendor tables/booths. Retrieve information provided by the professionals and use this opportunity to ask any questions you may have concerning your next project and your search for a contractor.

·If your city or town has a real estate association, attend one of the regular meetings. The real estate investors, agents, brokers and others who attend the meetings can refer you to quality contractors. Some contractors are members of real estate associations.

Remember, before hiring any contractor, do the following:

·Contact the Better Business Bureau to find out if the contractor is a member of the bureau. If so, obtain a copy of the bureau’s report. The report contains general information about the contractor and will inform you whether or not the contractor has a satisfactory record with the bureau. The report also contains information such as the number of complaints, if any, the contractor received within a determined period of time (usually 36 months).

·Ask the contractor to provide references and pictures (if applicable) of his or her completed work from previous jobs.

·Make sure the contractor is fully licensed and insured.

·Try to obtain a minimum of 3 price quotes for the job to be performed.

After you have selected a contractor for your project, be sure to PUT EVERYTHING IN WRITING! This can save you down the road in the event that something becomes a disputable issue in court. Your contract should include a detailed description of the work to be performed; materials that will be used; timeframes (dates) for the progression and completion of the project; a cost breakdown for the project and payment information. Penalty clauses should also be included for any breach of the contract by either party. The contract should be signed and dated.

By looking for contractors in the right places and doing a little research prior to hiring a contractor, you will greatly increase your chances of having a satisfying and relatively trouble free experience that will be a win/win for you and the contractor.


About the author:

Celise Bealer is an independent distributor for one of the fastest growing companies in history, Tahitian Noni International (TNI). TNI markets an awesome all natural health supplement called Tahitian Noni Juice that is fully documented and is helping people who suffer from ailments such as arthritis, diabetes, allergies, cancer, depression, high blood pressure and asthma just to name a few. Tahitian Noni Juice, along with information about TNI’s unprecedented home-based business opportunity can be found at http://www.tahitiannoni.com/cbealerCelise’s email address is cbealer@tahitiannoni.com


Circulated by Article Emporium

 


©2005 - All Rights Reserved

This Static Spot is open for sponsor

Home Improvement Information

Read Articles:


 Fix Minor Cracks Before They Require Costly Rep...

 What to Look for When Buying a Closet Organizer -

 A Guide to Antique Bird Cages -

 Start Your Next Home Improvement Project With T...

 Home Improvements That Increase Your Home’s Res...

 Making space at home

 1 in 4 homes in UK has one - The average costs ...

 Walk-in Closet Organizers -

 Kitchen and Bath Solutions

 A Nice Cozy Fireplace!

 Camps for Troubled Teens: Disciplines and Wild...

 A Look at Custom Shutters -

 Frightfully Fun Ideas for Halloween Decorating

 Granite Countertops: An Overview -

 The History of the Vacuum Cleaner: Perfection h...

 Choosing a Gas Fireplace to heat your home!

 How Stained Glass Can Add Elegance To Your Home

 Applications of 12 Volt Air Compressors -

 How to Replace a Circuit Breaker -

 Bathroom Interior Design

 The Benefits of Wood Closet Organizers -

 An In-Depth Review of Popular Air Purifiers -

 The Benefits of Bamboo Roman Shades -

 Adding A Floor Lamp to Your Home!

 The Benefits of Ceiling Fan Lights -

 Zebra Print Rug!

 A Look at Plantation Shutters -

 Custom Mini Blinds -

 The Basics of the Murphy Bed Plan -

 Should a HDMI DVD player be your next home thea...

More Article Pages 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

 

 Home Improvements – The Fun Stuff
 by: Raynor James

Planning home improvements necessarily involves addressing numerous practical matters. That doesn’t mean you should ignore the fun stuff!

The Fun Stuff

The first thing to plan for in home improvements is the practical stuff. The second thing you need to talk to family members about is the fun stuff.

Most people have colors they like and colors they don’t like. They have things that interest them and things that don’t. Get your family to talk to you about those things. Each person’s bedroom, or bedroom area, should reflect his or her taste and interests.

A boy who likes green, football, and backpacking can easily have a sage green (it “reads” as more neutral than many shades of green if re-sale of your home is a concern) room with cream woodwork, cream interior shutters, and cream ceiling. Framed football posters and wilderness scenes might be pleasant. Bedding with a rustic motif (rows of stylized pine trees?) from L.L. Bean or Plow and Hearth would work right in. Add a touch or two of a bright color like red or yellow.

Does he need a desk in his room? A chest of drawers? A bookcase? Would he enjoy having a bulletin board? Even if they’re small, most rooms need at least three lamps so that illumination is general and even. The shades are usually best in warm, neutral colors. (Light coming through green shades tends to make people look sick.) Lamp shades should be level and the seams should be toward the wall so they’re not visible. When the bottom edge of most lamp shades in a room are the same height from the floor, the room tends to look serene and cohesive.

Hanging pictures usually look best if the bottom edges of the frames are the same height from the floor and level with each other, too. There are exceptions to this and every generalization of course. A grouping of pictures can have the bottom tier follow the “rule” while all of the other pictures are higher. A picture over a fireplace often looks good higher than the other pictures in the room.

Pictures usually look best when they have a relationship to furniture or an architectural feature. Pictures centered over a chest, bed, bookcase, or fireplace are good examples. Pictures don’t tend to look good if they’re scattered willy-nilly around a room, or if they’re up near the ceiling (unless they’re part of a grouping), or if the height at which they’re hung varies wildly with no rhyme nor reason.

A girl who loves pink, the ballet, and swimming can have woodwork the same cream as her brother’s while her walls are a soft pink (a pink with a hint of yellow in it tends to go well with cream), and her art work reflects her interests. If she loves to read, make sure she has a good reading lamp near her bed, or near a comfortable chair, or both.

A cream colored dust ruffle with widely spaced pink stripes and a quilted plaid coverlet in pink, green, yellow, and blue on a cream background might look nice. Add cream fabric window shades with large pink polka dots and I’ll bet she’ll smile.

The bigger point is to simply have fun with some of your home improvements. There is no need to look exclusively at practical matters.


©2005 - All Rights Reserved

JV Blogs Visit free hit counter