A Kitchen Glow-Up May be What You Need!

It’s hard to imagine how much new paint can change your kitchen cabinets . It’s even harder to imagine how it could be done while protecting your floors, walls and other rooms. I want to show you a job from start to finish in these photos from our painter, Jeremy, at Mustard Seed Painting.

The makeover this kitchen went through really makes it look brand new, but it really just comes down to painting and cabinet faces. Jeremy is an expert and you can see the steps he takes to protect your home in these photos. Everything is taped off safely and completely protected - that’s how a professional paints inside your home.

Before the cabinet faces are even back on, Jeremy’s work has already turned this into a bright, clean kitchen.

When you think of your kitchen, can you imagine what some new paint could do, maybe some new cabinet faces? If you’re happy with the floor plan, a facelift like this could be more affordable than you think.

Our Favorite Three Season Room

The warm weather last week had me thinking about three-season rooms. One of my favorites that we’ve made is this one! Believe it or not, this started as a deck. It was a very well built and supported deck, which allowed us to turn it into this great living space - for less cost than a true addition to the home. Better yet, it may not quite be a true three-season room as it has some heat running to it as well as the fireplace.

A Major Commercial Project in Lansing!

We’ve patched and painted this dome in a really cool, classic commercial property in Lansing! The building is old and the business wants to maintain its old school flavor while giving it a clean facelift. We brought in our dry wall experts to create rounded walls for this unique commercial construction job. I’ll make sure to post more photos of this property as the job unfolds!

Ice Dam Fixes

Ice dams are serious when it comes to your roof and the health of your home. This infographic from Owens Corning shows how they are created and how they can damage your home.

In this video, https://youtu.be/tHUNO24P5oo Jesce Howard shows how some local homes were effected by ice dams.

A commonly recommended, temporary fix for ice dams is to take the roof, but only if you can do so safely.

Another temporary fix is to fill a discarded panty-hose with calcium chloride ice melted (NEVER SALT YOUR ROOF!) and lay the hose over the dam and gutter as seen in the photo I posted.

Getting rid of ice dams for good is simple, in principle, but harder to perform DIY - keep your entire roof the same temperature as the eaves. You do that by increasing ventilation, adding insulation, and sealing off every possible air leak that might warm the underside of the roof.

By taking care of common trouble spots, listed here in order of priority (according to This Old House), you should enjoy dam-free winters and use less energy:

1. Ventilate Eaves And Ridge. A ridge vent paired with continuous soffit vents circulates cold air under the entire roof. Both ridge and soffit vents should have the same size openings and provide at least 1 square foot of opening for every 300 square feet of attic floor. Place baffles at the eaves to maintain a clear path for the airflow from the soffit vents.

2. Cap the Hatch. An unsealed attic hatch or whole-house fan is a massive opening for heat to escape. Cover them with weatherstripped caps made from foil-faced foam board held together with aluminum tape.

3. Exhaust to the Outside. Make sure that the ducts connected to the kitchen, bathroom, and dryer vents all lead outdoors through either the roof or walls, but never through the soffit.

Add Insulation. More insulation on the attic floor keeps the heat where it belongs. To find how much insulation your attic needs, check with your local building department.

4. Install Sealed Can Lights. Old-style recessed lights give off great plumes of heat and can’t be insulated without creating a fire hazard. Replace them with sealed “IC” fixtures, which can be covered with insulation.

5. Flash Around Chimneys. Bridge the gap between chimney and house framing with L-shaped steel flashing held in place with unbroken beads of a fire-stop sealant. Using canned spray foam or insulation isn’t fire safe.

6. Seal and Insulate Ducts. Spread fiber-reinforced mastic on the joints of HVAC ducts and exhaust ducts. Cover them entirely with R-5 or R-6 foil-faced fiberglass.

6. Caulk Penetrations. Seal around electrical cables and vent pipes with a fire-stop sealant. Also, look for any spots where light shines up from below or the insulation is stained black by the dirt from passing air.

Now you can see this could be a lot of work. I’d recommend hiring a professional to help you with this work.

A Great Built In Solution to an Old Fireplace

We just finished installing a great built-in entertainment nook. The space once belonged to a wood stove, but now it can serve as a great space for books, a TV or even gaming consoles (it has plugs and posts in the bottom). The great thing about built-ins like this is that they are inexpensive and can be installed very quickly.

Commercial Bathroom Complete

We’ve turned an otherwise uncomfortable commercial space into a clean, bright bathroom, while maintaining the same floor space through overhead storage. Coming up with creative solutions that allow simple quality-of-life improvements and business to flourish - that’s what small business leadership is all about!

A Garage in Need of Help

We have finished the roof of this garage restoration after it suffered a brutal fire. We worked with Servicemaster Absolute Home & Restoration Services to soda blast layers of soot from the brick walls in order to make the room safe again. They were blacked all the way to the ceiling when we first came to the home. Then replaced the roof and rafters. Now it’s time to put the siding on!

The Beginning of a Beautiful Basement

Today we are working on a finished basement complete with an Office, Bed Room , Playroom, and a Bathroom. Finishing your basement is one of the more affordable ways to add value to your home either in square footage, quality of life or as income property!

If anybody reading this has a finished basement, I’d love to hear what you’re using it for and how it’s added value to your life.

Commercial Bathroom - Clean and Neat

Today’s post is a quick commercial men’s room we added to the office. We wanted the room to have a clean and pleasant feel, but also have the feel of a trades-business! Commercial work is a lot of fun and gives us room to design with that you won’t find in a residential bathroom.

One thing that would fit into a half-bath in your home would be the walnut, floating vanity cabinet with solid surface top and under mount sink. That’s easy to build and would look great anywhere!

Custom Entertainment Center Built in!

Custom entertainment centers and other custom pieces like this can be done very well, relatively quickly. We already safely delivered the components to the home and installed them in the home. Now we just wait for the painter to come and we will finish it up!

A Staircase 20 Years in the Making Part 2

We finished a staircase right in the entryway of a beautiful home. When they had their home built years ago, they were able to get everything they wanted - except the stairs. Today, they have the stairs they have always wanted. Here is a review of our services from the customer:

“Until now, I never realized just how many times I walk past this area on a daily basis and how much better this improvement would make me feel about our home.”

“Your team implemented my vision of what our stairway and foyer could look like with precision and professionalism. My husband and I are extremely happy with our stairs and foyer now, feel like it brings our house up to date and in line with new builds of today, rather than welcoming guests and family with a very dated, very uninspired entry. I know that this was a challenging project and hope that you still enjoyed seeing it through. Until now, I never realized just how many times I walk past this area on a daily basis and how much better this improvement would make me feel about our home.

I need to also add that I could not be more pleased with Jeremy’s painting in, around, and through the existing birch tree mural! I cannot tell that he did what he did! You would think that the tree was painted AFTER and ON TOP of the current wall color and NOT 18 years before!

Additionally, you all were very gracious to me as I worked through some bouts of anxiety during the project. It has been a stressful time in our family, covid virus notwithstanding, and everyone’s kind consideration to me means so much. If I was terse or short with any of you, I am truly sorry. Although I was not too sure about it at first, I am very grateful for Tamara and her crew’s cleaning; it greatly relieved my anxiety and was very thoughtfully executed. She and her crew were careful with my prized possession, my grandmother’s sofa, and all the other items in our home in addition to honoring my need for naturally scented cleaning products.

You all work so very well as a team and as a family, something that is so old-fashioned that we are surprised and amazed when we see it. I hope to have a reason to work with you all again in the future and would be willing to recommend your various services to other clients.”

Sincerely,

Tara

Thank you, Tara, for allowing us to use your feedback. It means the world to us that you love our work - because it means you love YOUR HOME! We look forward to working with you again too!

Sometimes it's Better NOT to Remodel

Not all jobs are huge. In facts, sometimes it’s what you don’t do that matters the most. The sink in these photos belongs to a homeowner who had minor water damage. Her insurance covered her for nearly $30k in repairs, so she called a contractor, who seeing a potential paycheck and a vulnerable homeowner, offered to gut the ENTIRE kitchen for (surprise) all the available insurance money ... this makes me sad because it’s what gives contractors a bad name with some people. This isn’t how anybody should do business at all, let alone in your own neighborhood.

So, somebody gave me a call because they saw the proposed work and I took a look at the actual damage. I was able to return the kitchen to a clean, damage free zone for about $2k and while it isn’t as exciting as a photo of a total kitchen make-over, it makes me proud all the same.

No matter what you do, treat others well and it’ll come back to you.

A New Video - Staircase Remodel!

We just finished a full staircase in a beautiful home! We installed custom balusters and treads to give our customer the staircase they said they have wanted since the day they bought the home!

Check out the video for a look at the process and the final product. While your at it, take a look at some of the other videos by JesCe Howard - she’s made some excellent videos for us and is available to make videos that suit YOUR needs too.

A Bathroom "Glow-up" can change your mood!

The places we spend our first and last moments of the day can set our moods. Do you spend your early morning in a dingy, dark shower? Hit the same poorly lit, drab bathroom before heading to bed? Maybe it’s time to get some new flooring, tile and a coat of paint. It could improve your home and make your life a little happier!

The photos below aren’t of the same bathroom, but An example of how even a tiny, half bath can shine compared to a neglected half-bath. A small renovation goes a long way!

A Note on Flooring

We’ve installed Oak hardwood flooring into a massive home remodel we’ve been working on. Oak is a great material for flooring because it’s a hardy wood that you can refinish almost indefinitely.

When you choose to remodel your home or replace your flooring, your contractor should have a discussion with you about all of your options. A professional will know the options and help you pick what’s right for you and for your budget.

We Are NOT like a lot of Contractors

We removed a wall in a home this weekend to open up some space and we discovered the original floor wasn’t straight. You can see in the photos that there is a huge gap in the new boards we laid down.

A lot of contractors would fill this gap with wood putty - that would last long enough to get their final check from the customer. We cut two precise pieces and filled it with wood.

Shortcuts only cost customers more in the long run. We want to do things right and earn your trust.

A Staircase 20 years in the making

We are working on a staircase right now that the homeowner says they’ve been waiting 20 years for!

They built the home new 20 years ago and as the project wrapped up, the stairs had to be done quickly and not in a style they preferred.

They never liked the over-the-post look or the oak used. After a long wait, they have decided it was time to make it the way they’d always dreamed.

So we went in and removed the existing trim to start. We are replacing the Colonial over-the-post look with a more traditional Craftsman style with big box paneled newel posts, a unique handrail profile made of hickory, and solid hickory treads.

The design where the balusters come down and land on top of the tread with the skirt board running down the side wall of the stairway is called an “open ended” stairway. This is more difficult than a traditional stairway. This is because of the cutting involved. The short walls running down the sides as the skirt board have to be stair-step cut with compound miter cuts for the risers so that the riser boards meet the skirt with a flawless seam. This is a job for an expert finish carpenter, not your local handyman.

The newel, skirt boards, balusters, and risers will be sprayed white while the Hickory handrail and treads will be finished clear to preserve the natural beauty and character of the hickory.

Everything is ready for the painter at this point. When he’s done, we’ll come back to install the treads and then balusters and the transformation will be complete!

We’ll have updates before you know it!

A Tree Damaged Home Gets a New Lease on Life

In 2020, we were called out to help restore a home that was destroyed by tree damage. Servicemaster Absolute Home & Restoration Services responded immediately and we were called in to provide the repair work. This was a life-changing event for the homeowner and we are all very proud to help turn this disaster into a dream home for them.

I’d like to thank Jesce Howard for the video. If you’re looking for video work in the greater Lansing area, check out her YouTube.

Saving a fire damaged home - the beginning

People look forward to a new year for a number of reasons. This home was devastated by fire. The home was reduced to just the frame and even that wasn’t left untouched. In order for my crew to start we have to replace a burnt joist so the home doesn’t come down on us. All I can think is that at least it was just the home and everyone made it.

This is why we offer restoration services - our team wants to give homeowners in these situations something to look forward to. As time goes on, we will share posts of this home coming back to life!

Bathroom and Tilework that makes me smile

We recently finished a pair of bathroom remodels that included some beautiful tile work. The tiles in both showers as well as the floors were placed by our team.

Tile is easy to clean and looks great. When it’s paired with glass showers, a new tub and beautiful cabinets and counters - (we can do it all) - it becomes a place where you can take a vacation inside your own home.