Renewal Design Build

The prospect of purchasing a fixer-upper can seem like the greatest DIY project that anyone could ever take on. Besides being a bargain buy, it is also a wide-open opportunity to draft the home of your dreams. However, when proper planning is not in place, renovations often end in overextended budgets, frustration, disenchantment and even regret.

Being prepared for what a home renovation really entails is the key to avoiding those pitfalls — and bringing that property back to life. So, what can you (and should you) expect when embarking on taking your fixer-upper from drab to fab?

Get Ready for a Ride

When you buy a fixer upper, you make different types of investments. In addition to monetary commitments, you will also spend time and energy on the forthcoming project. Materials might not come in on time or bad weather may delay an installation. Prepare yourself that when opening up the walls of an older home you might find plumbing issues, old wiring, or mold.

Prepare for Replacements

Fixer-upper homes are properties that need a little TLC, if not a lot of it. You should be ready to repair or replace appliances and other mainstay fixtures, such as furnaces and water heaters. Right off the top, incorporate these reparative possibilities into your preliminary budget. Take care to inspect the home’s infrastructure by evaluating the property’s electrical wiring, plumbing and foundation. Depending on how extensive the repairs or replacements are means the difference between landing safely within your spending parameters — or way outside of your budgetary means.

Build a Team

Renovating is by no means a one-person project. You will need a team. This is the part where choosing the right design-build firm comes in handy. At Renewal Design-Build, it’s our job to take the pressure off of you – the homeowner – and spearhead your renovation from start to finish. From repairing the home’s foundation to hanging window treatments, you won’t have to worry about a single thing when you’re working with us. Sure, there are plenty of small projects around the house that are fitting for you to handle yourself. But when it comes to your entire home – when comfort and even resale value are at stake – you’ll want to enlist the help of professionals who know exactly what to do.

Contact us today by calling 404-378-6962. We’d love to discuss how our team can bring your fixer-upper back to life!

Reclaimed Heart Pine Flooring

Wood flooring is widely considered to be a timeless design choice regardless of what your preferred design style may be. If you are considering replacing the flooring of your home in Atlanta with wood, consider using reclaimed wood instead of newer wood products. Reclaimed wood is salvaged from previous projects, and it tends to have much more character than new wood.  In addition to character, reclaimed wood offers several benefits to a home design:

• Reclaimed wood is wonderful for the environment.
  The American Society of Interior Designers urges incorporating it into green design. It’s the most sustainable choice over petroleum-based materials like carpeting and vinyl. Rather than biodegrading in a landfill, it’s resurfaced and gets a second life as a beautiful wood floor.
• Reclaimed wood is frequently stronger and more durable than fresh wood. That’s because in comparison, old-growthtimber has had time to grow stronger and is therefore harder than first-generation, virgin flooring stock. It’s as much as forty points harder on the Janka scale, which measures how much force it takes to embed a steel ball into a wood sample.
• Reclaimed wood is beautiful and has unique properties. Sometimes it’s available in extra-long lengths or wide widths. It can be less expensive than virgin wood stock, and it often has special character and aging. After being refinished, some aged woods only require clear coating because the natural vintage tone of the wood is so appealing. And of course, it can be stained to any shade just like any other lumber.

Sixty percent or more remodelers and designers use wood flooring for kitchens and bathrooms, and reclaimed wood like oak and heart pine are durable enough for high traffic patterns. They can be sealed with polyester varnish, though bathrooms that have high humidity are better served with Tung oil, which is absorbed into the wood and maintains flexibility.

If you want to remodel your Atlanta home with reclaimed wood, Renewal Design-Build will be happy to help. Contact us for information or call us at 404-378-6962.

Renewal Design Build

Focal Points
Accent lighting can be used to draw attention to different objects around the home. For example, you can use track lighting in your walk-in closet to showcase different parts of your wardrobe. You can also use wall sconces or even recessed lights to draw attention to a sculpture, a painting on your wall or the fireplace in your living room.

Ambiance
Accent lighting can also be added with no other purpose but to add ambiance. For example, you can install accent lights underneath your kitchen cabinets to help increase your décor’s ambiance. Consider using recessed lighting around your living room to supplement or act as an alternative mood to your ambient lighting. Use different fixtures to add visual interest to architectural areas or smaller spaces, such as a breakfast nook or reading area.

Outdoors  
Accent lighting can be used outside of your home as well. You can light up a pathway by adding accent lighting to your sidewalks or you can hang lights from your roof overhang, or place them around your yard to highlight trees, bushes or flowers. Not only does adding accent lighting here make it easier to see where you are going, it also provides your home with added curb appeal.

For additional information about implementing accent lighting into your home renovation, feel free to contact Renewal Design Build.

Decorative shutters are made to simply bring attention to the windows and add a homey feel to the house’s facade. The material is typically lightweight but durable for easy installation and a long life outdoors.

Renewal Design Build

Functional shutters are a great way to not only beautify your residence but also provide an added layer of protection in the event of severe weather. Residential shutters have a long history of being used to control the interior temperature of a home and safeguarding the occupants and possessions within.

Functional exterior shutters can be closed over windows immediately, producing a physical layer of protection against harsh elements. Regions with high winds are especially fond of this form of shutters.

Being able to close outside shutters also provides a great way to lock up a home that is going to sit vacant. The use of shutters is often preferential to placing unsightly boards across windows for many homeowners.

Closing shutters over windows also delivers an obvious barrier to both light and outside temperatures. The way that shutters are created enables the resident to open the slats to control the flow of air without suffering the harsh, bright sunlight.  This can help regulate the temperature within your home during sunny summer days as well, potentially saving money on energy bills.

Shutters come in a variety of materials, including vinyl and wood. Vinyl is typically reserved for decorative pieces because of the large selection of colors that are available. Wood shutters are most commonly associated with the functional forms used by homeowners.

If you need to improve the curb appeal of your Atlanta home, contact Renewal Design-Build at 404-378-6962.

Renewal Design-Build

When we work with homeowners on green home renovations in Atlanta, one of our first suggestions is to replace old appliances with Energy Star Certified counterparts. Something as simple as replacing your old refrigerator with an Energy Star certified refrigerator can save as much as $1,100 over the refrigerator’s lifetime. This is just one of the wonders of a refrigerator that meets Energy Star certification requirements.

A Positive Return on Your Investment

While Energy Star certified refrigerators may cost more initially, you’re guaranteed to receive a return on your investment. Energy Star promises homeowners will recoup the extra money spent – and then some – within a reasonable amount of time through energy savings.

Out with the Old

Did you know 61% of Atlanta homes were built prior to 1960? Many homes have been passed down to newer generations with well-maintained infrastructures and appliances intact. However, appliances were considerably less energy efficient prior to the 1990′s. If you own a refrigerator that’s more than ten years old, you’re spending a minimum of $200 more on energy than you need to.

Reduce Energy Consumption

Energy Star certified refrigerators are guaranteed to use 15% less energy than models that aren’t certified. They use 20% less energy than standard refrigerator models that meet minimum government requirements for energy efficiency. That is a significant difference in energy usage and therefore energy costs.

To maximize energy savings and minimize your carbon footprint, consider the following:

• Read the EnergyGuide label carefully to compare energy use with other models.
• Top-mounted freezer models are 10%-25% more efficient than other models.
• The biggest savings are gained by refrigerators in the 16-20 cubic feet range, so don’t buy more fridge than you need.
• Ice makers and door dispensers use 14%-20% more energy.

Green home renovations are a great way to update your home and reduce your carbon footprint. Make an appointment for a Renewal System Solutions energy assessment to learn more ways your home will benefit from energy efficient modifications.

Renewal Design-Build

If you’re considering making a few improvements around your home, then consider the option of renovating your kitchen in order to provide you and your family with a breakfast nook. A breakfast nook is a fantastic addition to any kitchen that has the space available for it.

There are a number of reasons to consider putting a breakfast nook in your kitchen. It’s nice to have another option when it comes to dining that’s not as formal as the dining room. Many breakfast nooks will be built using banquette seating against the wall, complemented with a couple of additional chairs. One of the advantages of banquette seating in a breakfast nook is the fact that it will help save as much space as possible. You don’t necessarily need extra chairs if your family is small, which will keep the breakfast nook out of the way. This doesn’t mean you can’t style it to fit your home’s design. Choose the cushioning for the banquette seat, the table, the chairs and perhaps even a chandelier or a pendant light to fit your design.

The nook can serve as the social hub of the house offering a great place for casual dining, homework, or crafts.  A breakfast nook could be the perfect addition to your home’s kitchen. For more information about Atlanta home improvement, please visit us at Renewal Design-Build online.

Renewal Design-Build

It’s important to keep the entryway of your home clean and clutter-free, both for the safety of people entering the house and to give a good first impression to guests. However, entryways can often get very dirty, especially in winter and spring, when Atlanta is more prone to rain and pollen. If you are interested in keeping your home clean and your entryway inviting, then you should consider adding a mudroom to your home.

A mudroom is a space that acts as a barrier between the outdoors and the indoors. It’s easy to track in mud, dirt, and leaves, and a mudroom will help keep that mess from spreading to the rest of the home. The following are a few renovations that you can make to your entryway to turn it into a mudroom that will still leave a positive first impression on guests.

• Seating – Place comfortable seating in your mudroom, preferably something that has storage space beneath it so that it can serve more than one function. This will allow you and your guests to sit down and remove or put on shoes.

• Shoe Tray – Have a shoe tray near the doorway to keep any water and mud on your shoes from spreading throughout the mudroom.

• Umbrella Stand – This allows you easy access to an umbrella and gives you the chance to put it away without having to leave it open to dry out.

• Hooks – You can never have too many hooks in a mudroom. This makes it easy to hang up coats, backpacks and accessories immediately without having to rummage through the nearest closet.

If you want to renovate your entryway to serve as a mudroom, be sure to take a look at our portfolio. We at Renewal Design-Build would love to help improve your Atlanta home!

Renewal Design-Build

Among the more popular home upgrades today are those that enhance the convenience of daily life at home and those that improve conservation of energy and water. One small yet significant home upgrade that accomplishes both greater convenience and improved water conservation is the hands-free faucet.

You have likely encountered hands-free faucets in nicer public restrooms, where they are used to improve sanitation.  In your own home, a hands-free faucet can be installed in the bathroom or the kitchen as a convenient way to avoid turning on your faucet with soapy or grimy hands, creating a mess on your faucet’s lever or handles.  These faucets have many additional benefits that make them a good choice for your green home renovation:

• Hands-free faucets can help to significantly reduce the amount of water that you use in your home. The faucet automatically turns on when a user’s hands approach the sensing field. Once the hands are out of range, the faucet turns off the flow of water within seconds. The typical hands-free faucet uses approximately 30 percent less water than traditional faucets.
• Though hands-free faucets are relatively new to home use, they can accommodate just about any decor style, coming in a variety of designs and finishes.
• Many hands-free faucets offer a thermostatic valve, which helps control the temperature of the water being released from the faucet to prevent the potential for hot water scalding. For this reason, this intuitive technology is ideal for a home with young children or older adults. This feature also helps to reduce the amount of energy it takes to heat the water.

All and all, a hands-free faucet has a number of environmentally friendly advantages in addition to offering a sleek, intuitive design for your bathroom. To learn more about green home renovations in Atlanta, please contact us at Renewal Design- Build.

Renewal Design-Build

Renovating areas of your home, whether it be your kitchen, bathrooms, entryway or even building an addition to your home has several benefits, including increasing the enjoyment that you get out of your home and improving your home’s value. However, actually going through with a renovation can be a long and stressful process. This process can be made less complicated and less stressful by using a design-build team.

In more typical renovation projects, you will have to go through two separate parties: the designer and the contractor. The designer will help you make the plan for the renovation, and then you’ll hire a contractor to actually do the renovation. The problem is that the designer and contractor are not working directly together and rarely have an established system of communication. You’ll have to work as the go-between if there are problems, which can quickly become a stressful process. A design-build team doesn’t encounter this issue; in a design-build team, a designer and contractor work as one entity and under one contract.

There are a number of benefits to using a design-build team over the more typical renovation process, which is known as design-bid-build. There is much clearer communication between everyone involved, which means you don’t have to act as a go-between. Clearer communication leads to higher quality work, and, according to a study on commercial projects, costs are reduced by as much as 8 percent and the time it takes to complete the renovation is decreased by almost 33 percent. Working with one company helps streamline orders, budgeting and billing as well.

For more information about Atlanta design build, visit Renewal Design-Build online. We would be happy to work with you to make your renovation process run smoothly and quickly!

Renewal Design-Build

If you’re in the process of deciding which type of flooring to install in your Atlanta home, consider using carpet. Carpet has been a popular choice among homeowners for decades, and for good reason. Not only are there a huge variety of carpets to choose from, such as polyester, olefin, nylon, wool and more, but there are  several benefits gained by choosing carpeting over other flooring options such as tile or hardwood.

• Warmth – Although it may not often snow in the Atlanta area, it does get cold during the winters. Carpet acts as thermal resistance, helping retain warm air in the home, which can help you save on your heating bills.

• Style – Carpets are aesthetically pleasing and come in a huge variety of colors and styles. This means that no matter what your interior design is, you can find carpeting that will help complement it.

• Safety – Carpet acts as cushioning, making it more difficult to slip on surfaces that are wet. It also makes any falls that do happen less dangerous. This is a huge advantage if you have children in the home.

• Noise – Carpet helps to absorb sound. For example, if you are trying to sleep in your bedroom, you won’t hear someone walking past your room outside like you would if you had hardwood floors. Carpeting on the second floor will help absorb sounds from below as well, meaning that you won’t be disturbed by the noises from the TV if you go to bed earlier than other members of your household.

• Long Lasting – Carpet will last a long time as long as you clean it on a regular basis.  Vacuum it regularly and schedule the occasional professional cleaning in order to keep it in great condition for years.

Consider the benefits that using carpet for your home has over other flooring materials when planning your home renovations.  Contact Renewal Design-Build for more information about Atlanta home improvement.