Modern Home Decorating

Thinking of building a new home? Before you pick your Location, your Home Plan or your Home Builder, invest some time, to read about the 7 common mistakes when home building. Avoiding these mistakes can ensure that your home creates… The Wow Effect.

1. Finding a Home Builder with … Passion!

“Home Builders with Passion” – In every town, there are always a few Home Builders that are so passionate about their craft, that every home they build is a “Work of Art?. Their attention to detail, ensure that they will always be at the top of their industry.

When you first meet a “Home Builder with Passion”, you will notice their charm, and keen listening skills. They are very similar to a great doctor. Their focus will be entirely on listening to the patient, or you the homebuyer. They will have many questions, which will help them diagnose or determine your needs.

Once they understand your needs and desires… Hang On. They will begin a presentation of ideas and possibilities that will astound you. You are now sensing that they are more than just a Home Builder.

To find your “Home Builder with Passion”, begin by asking for referrals from friends, subcontractors, Interior Designers, and Architects. Also visit new real estate developments, looking for clues.

One of the “Secrets to Great Curb Appeal” in a new home, is the importance of “Staggered Visual Lines”. Square boxes are not visually interesting, without another visual dimension added to it. Our eyes and our emotion, love to focus on… curves, angles, depth, texture, and color tones.

When first meeting with the Home Builder, listen to their story. How are they different from the other Home Builders in the area? How do they capture trends in New Home Building Construction Ideas?

Important – do not make your decision on the lowest bid. Almost anyone can make various cuts to lower their final estimate.

Invest the time, to find your “Home Builder with Passion”. Their ability to balance your enthusiasm and the realities of building, are what make them so unusual.

2. Saving Money On Your Lot? … Maybe Not

If you are saving money on your lot today, you will have to pass this savings on tomorrow. The Number One Rule is … go heavy on your lot purchase. This is Critical!

Unfortunately, it is very rare that you will find a good deal. Great location comes at a price. Do not make your decision based on price alone. Look at the other homes that are in or will be built near your location. Are they in the same price range? What are the future and current traffic patterns? What direction does the lot face?

Note – Location truly is everything. This is one of those decisions in life, when you cannot make a mistake. Always, go heavy on your lot investment; you will never regret this decision.

3. Common Floor Plan? … Lost Opportunities

Creating drama is much easier when building a home from the ground up. Within your building plan, you must design and designate some areas of unique opportunities. This is where you will be able to create the drama in your home.

The additional investment for a Tray Ceiling, Niche, Barrel Ceiling, Dome Ceiling, Unique Drywall Spaces, Dramatic Dining Room, or Grand Columned Entry Way, are minimal for what they can add to the total market value of your home.

Bring your Interior Design team together when you are drafting your floor plan. Their experience from previous projects and gift for great design can offer you a collection of ideas to introduce in your home. This additional step can ensure that you do not miss out on the many creative opportunities in the designing stage.

4. Is Your Custom Floor Plan Marketable? … Review Your Plan With An Architect

Custom floor plans are the Pinnacle of Home Building, but make sure that your dream home is marketable in the future. We have all seen floor plans that were not as well thought out, as they should have been.

If the floor plan for your dream home is truly unique, I would encourage that you discuss your project with an Architect.

Architect’s have the vision to identify problem areas and discover new areas of opportunity in your home that you may not have considered.

Finally, someday, maybe sooner than you think, you will be selling your home. Could you sell your home tomorrow? What is it about your home that will generate Home Buyer’s knocking at your door? Take the additional step to share your home plan with an Architect.

5. Lost In My Design Layers … Share A Coffee, With An Interior Designer

Once you have agreed on your floor plan, and have drafted your unique spaces or opportunities for drama, the next step is … Interior Design.

Here you will coordinate all of the layers of your Interior Design Project. This can be overwhelming at times. All of these design elements must flow congruently to create a dramatic effect throughout your home.

I would strongly encourage you to discuss your project with an Interior Designer. They have a unique gift to visualize multiple layers of color, texture, and effect, which is difficult to do. Discuss their fees, which can vary from nothing, to an hourly fee.

6. Electrical Decisions … I Wish I Would Have

This has to be high on the list of regrets for many homeowners. It is so hard to visualize all of the areas where you will have future electrical needs. During the holidays it may be a receptacle on the stair landing, front porch, or separate breakers for outside lighting.

Important – go through the seasons, reviewing how all areas of your home will be used. Will a bedroom someday become a future office? Remember, lighting is so important when you are staging a room. Meet with a lighting specialist to discuss these many decisions.

If you invest the time, you will be well prepared, when you get the call to meet with your Electrical Contractor.

7. Budget Blues, Not Designating Funds For … “The Wow Effect”

Everything in the Home Building Construction process revolves around the target budget. But almost everyday, you will be confronted with new cost overrun decisions.

Keep in mind these words … Drama, Effect, and Staging. If you truly wish for your home to have ?The Wow Effect?, then you must designate a budget for it. Without designating funding, the opportunities that you have designed and drafted into your floor plan will not create the drama or effect.

Think back, we have all gone through the annual Home Builders Parade of Homes, and waited in line for the 1 or 2 homes, that truly understand “The Wow Factor”. It is hard to describe its effect. It will stop you in your tracks. You will stop and stare, trying to absorb what you are seeing. All senses are kicking in. Conversations can be heard around you.

Look at this room,… Wow, what is it?”

“I love the colors. What is the finish on the walls? It is almost translucent.?

Did you see the Barrel Ceiling finish, is that Italian Venetian Plaster?”

“Did you feel the Dining Room Walls? Cold like stone, but felt just like marble or granite… Wow!”

The Best Home Builders and Interior Designers will always include a room that will take your breath away. It is bold, but not brash. It can change your taste in an instant. The ?Wow Factor? has pushed you out of your comfort zone. Contact these professionals to discuss your project.

Finally, building “Your Dream Home” is an important goal for most families. But a word of caution, the Home Building process can be stressful. As a couple, I would strongly suggest that you discuss the following rule … “Preferably, over a Glass of Wine and some Great Italian Food.”

“The Marriage Saving, Home Building Rule”

“As a couple, if you cannot agree on a Home Building Decision, then wait on the decision. Sleep on it that night. The next day, begin to look for a better idea. You will not be as emotionally charged, and together, you will come up with a much better solution.

“When emotions are high and each side has dug in, you will be glad you have discussed this rule. This will give you a reason, to set aside a difficult Home Building decision, preventing it from becoming a much bigger issue than it really is. Trust me … It Works!

To ensure that your new dream home, has a minimal list of… “I wish I would have’s”, you must literally… “Live In Your Floor Plan”. Your opportunities for any change in design are… very brief. Lastly, the “New Home Building Process” is an incredible experience. Looking back, you will never forget the memories, the lessons, the laughs, and the new friendships you have made in this exciting chapter of your life.

Enjoy this … Fun Walk!

Mark Nordgren

Mark Nordgren
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/the-7-mistakes-in-home-building-674173.html

THEY’VE GOT TO VOTE FOR YOUR WEBSITE FOUR TIMES BEFORE THEY BOOK
And the odds are against each vote.

This piece has been written with the holiday home owners in Scotland in mind. But it can apply to any vacation rental owner, hotel owner, bed and breakfast owner, even caravan park and camp site owner.
You can see this and more features on the subject at www.holidayhomewebsupport.blogspot.com

Your site gets many hundreds of visitors, thousands, each year. The vast majority are not prospects, they just clicked on it out of passing interest, and a lot of the “visitors” are the search engines finding your site regularly each week.

We get probably about 3,000 genuine visitors to our site out of total 20,000 or more site visitors each year. So why don’t more of them book? Sometimes we are booked for the date they want, but most of them book with someone else. We lose their vote somewhere along the way. Yet we have one of the most successful vacation rental web sites in the country.

Every visitor is looking for something different.
We’ve just had a booking for two weeks for October. He found us through keying in “Kentallen” our local hamlet, into Google. Virtually no one searches for that term, but he did and he found us as the only self-caterer on page one. Why? Because he and his wife have just bought a house up the road and they want somewhere to stay while they move in.

Luck, sheer luck. We can’t base a marketing strategy on luck. But in a funny way each of our bookings are “lucky” in some way in that each guest is looking for something different from the next guest.

We’ve got to get them to vote for our site four times when they search. How, is the question.

The 1st vote is for the “description” of our site on page one of Google (or any other search engine but Google is overwhelmingly the most important). The “description” also carries our site name, our “url”
Our url is http://www.bayviewkentallen.co.uk and it is a poor one. If we were doing it all again we would have registered a better url name such as www.lochsidecottagescotland.com This might have helped us get up to page 1 or 2 of a bigger search term such as “Scotland”. The following is a new site and the url is a good one. http://www.loch-lomond-waterfront.co.uk. It registers the place which very high on search terms and offers a distinct benefit about the property – a waterfront location.

Tips

You’ve probably got your site set up already, but you may care to consider doing a new one for the long term. No reason why you can’t have two sites for the one property so long as they are different from each other. You may use a web designer or do it yourself, no matter, you need to know as much as he/she does. Web designers do not usually know much about marketing. Half of the problem is technical and the other half is your marketing approach.

1.Think hard about the Url you are going to use and relate it to the search terms people will use to find you. Don’t go for little search terms such as “Kentallen” but bigger ones such as “Scottishhighlands” More on this in a later piece.
2.Write and re-write your description of your site many times to make sure it fits the search terms they will use. The description goes into the html code used by the web designer, but the text should go also into the opening paragraph at the top of page one, because this is what Google uses. More about finding the best search terms in a later piece.
3.The search engines do not see your complete site, they see each page separately. So for the most critical pages in your site not all of them you need to get the right url, I mean the small extension at the end of the url which identifies each page and ends in .html such as www.yoursite.co.uk/tariffs.html You also need to get the right description for each separate page just as you do for the opening page.

This might win you the first vote. You have a fleeting instant to do this before they move on to another site or choose another search term. You need them to click on your site because it is high up on the pages they search and the description makes it look good.

Using a directory to list you.
If you are using a directory, such as Assc, then the same issue applies but in a slightly different form. You must, you absolutely must appeal to people with the finest looking photograph on the page they are looking at. This might mean not using a close up photo of your property, but rather to go for the surrounding scenery. We show our little bay. The property is there in the distance what they want from us is the beauty and the surroundings. They want a memorable holiday.

You might object to this and say they want to see your property, but what is the point of taking a moral stance if they are not going to click on your entry in the directory. You’ve lost them without even trying. Someone who does try hard to present their finest features will win them.

Now we have a click on our site and we are into the 2nd vote when they look at our opening page. They click on many different sites most of which at not at all suitable for their purpose. Now they decide either to move on in 5 seconds – or to examine our site a little further. Most move on. We can tell from our “bounce” stats on the web analyzer. (Analyzer explained later.). When they see our opening page they must be impressed straight away.

Questions:
·Does our opening page present visitors with an instant, wow! reaction? A picture of the property’s front door is not going to do it. I take it all back if you are offering them a castle or a mill, but for most of us the property itself, the building, is not what turns them on.
·Does the first page draw them into the site? Remember they are looking for a very memorable holiday, does your site tell them they are going to get this? This is where lovely design comes into play.

Our site visitors who stay with us for a bit longer are those who find the answers to their immediate questions within a couple of our site pages. Is the property available when they want it, how many will it sleep, does it accept dogs/smoking, does it look clean, is it in a nice situation, what about price?

They want fast answers to these questions. Later they’ll look again at the details, But for the moment we want to get on to their short list of properties. But they are more likely to stay on our site because they can see, for example, a wonderful view from the bedroom window which they will wake up to every morning. That’s the Wow! factor. See http://www.achnaskiacroft.co.uk/Acc.html
Grading is re-assuring to them but only half the properties in Scotland offer it. (Early results from a survey of Dmoz directory entries). It is not really powerful unless it is five star, although four stars get good bookings.

We’ve just had a honeymoon couple stay with us and they went diving in Oban harbour. That is our second pair of divers this year. The 3rd vote (5 minutes to make up their mind?) is more about “Is this area, this view, this situation going to give my family a holiday we’ll remember for a long time to come? We have this one big break a year, I’m determined that the whole family will love it” Does the area offer the kind of things my family is looking for? Is the property suitable for the family, is the kitchen equipment good, do the owners sound friendly and so on. Tricky this one, because each person is actually looking for something different to the next person and we have to meet everyone’s needs in our web site. At the end of this vote they might bookmark our site for their final short list and show it to someone else in the family perhaps. Relief.

At this stage they might e-mail us with an enquiry that’s one reason why I don’t like booking forms, I like the easy exchange offered by e-mails. I’d like to have them contact us before they’ve made up their mind.

Tips

·Have we got deep content in our web site, answering all their questions about the area? This is also important for the search engines. Does it cover every kind of guest interest adults, touring, small children, teenagers, special interests such as wild life, activities such as walking, cycling, fishing.
·Is every page well written, simple to read and contain its own wow! factor.
·Does the site sell the area, as much as the property. We are all competing with other areas of Scotland they could choose. Their alternative might be a short break in Spain – we’ve got to win them to us.

The final 4th vote is between their final short list of 3 or 4 properties. Notice it is still odds against us winning and this is an easy place to lose it with the small print or with poor photographs. How many enquiries do you get which do not turn into business? (Is the road outside the house safe for my children? Is there enough to do if it rains all the time? How far and how good is the local shop?)

For example, I’ve seen the most ghastly Terms of Business in s/catering web sites, written out as if the guests will be treated as potential scoundrels. There is absolutely no need for it, owners ought to relax and trust the guests. They can tie in Terms later in e-mails if they must. If we put them in the web site in a heavy-handed fashion, when people are comparing properties on their short list then we’ll lose the final vote. Pity.

Tips

·Take a lot of care with pages such as the booking form. I personally don’t use a booking form because as an internet user I absolutely hate and detest filling in forms. If I’m booking somewhere myself, I want to send sites an e-mail with the odd question and I want a reply quickly. If I don’t get a quick reply I move on fast. Not offering a booking form is what I call customer care. But then I haven’t got seven properties to fill.
·Get a friend to send your terms of business to half a dozen people who do not know you and ask them what they think of it and do they understand it, and does it put them off.
·Take care about putting unnecessary negatives and turn-offs prominently into your site, which you can reveal later, such as the need for a bond. In a nice way we do say “no smoking” and “no pets” up front because these are mandatory requirements for us but we also explain why, rather gently. Our terms of business are very gently expressed and are never needed.

The odds of winning each one of these four votes are against us. The odds of winning them all are very low indeed. That is why our site needs a huge number of visitors. We are each competing with Fife, Skye and the Highlands as well as with Southern Spain and other properties in our area.

There will be more detail on all of the topics later. The dark autumn nights are looming. Good time to review the web approach.

JW
You can see the way things have been sorted out if you look at the following site. I wish we had develop a better url site address.
www.bayviewkentallen.co.uk

John Winkler
http://www.articlesbase.com/hotels-articles/top-tips-on-web-site-design-for-holiday-home-owners-hotels-vacation-rentals-caravan-parks-self-caterers-and-bed-and-breakfast-web-site-owners-61822.html

What is it that makes a house a home? Do bricks and boards create a room that is comfortable and inviting? Is relaxation a result of finding the right paint color? Does that feeling of being safe and protected come from the choice of wall covering or is it a result of the finish hardware?

These questions seem frivolous on the surface, but after twenty-five years of helping people design, build and remodel their homes, I’ve become convinced that understanding the “emotional architecture” a client brings to a project is a critical part of designing a house that feels like a “home.”

In the architecture firm with which I am associated, we are trying to develop a technology that tailors our projects to the true natures of our clients, but it’s not easy.

The issue of “home” is a highly emotional one. Logic seldom comes into it. The fact is, when most people decided to remodel their home or build a new house…they lose their minds!

It’s true. Stable marriages topple like palm trees in the hurricane of home improvement. Pleasant, cooperative homemakers turn into Machiavellian harpies, combating husbands who vow to fight to the death on the ramparts of their own financial Alamos.

Practical, down-to-earth CPA’s suddenly realize they are the reincarnation of Frank Lloyd Wright. Customers lie about their budgets, trying to bargain with the designer as though they were buying their house from a Tijuana sombrero salesman.

Perfectly reasonable people, who would never dream of telling their doctor how to treat a disease or their lawyer how to draft their will, think nothing of telling a professional architect how to design their home. Worst of all, when people begin the process of designing a new home, they forget the basic laws of economics. I long ago discovered that when customers who were over budget came to my office to “trim the fat,” they were actually going to add a Jacuzzi, upgrade the ceramic tile, change the plastic laminate counter tops to granite, and then expect the price to drop.

It set me to wondering.

One day I experienced an epiphany. I was converting a group of historic buildings in Round Top into a country inn. The Queen and my kids were still in Houston. Every Monday morning I drove up to Round Top and then drove home to Houston every Friday night. In between, I slept on an air mattress on the second floor of an old pier and beam house, one of several we were restoring. Alone all week, I had plenty of time to think. In the evenings I would sit in an old rocking chair on the wood plank porch. I found myself inexplicably happy. Everything seemed right with the world as I rocked on that porch. I began to ask myself why…and before long I uncovered the source of my unexplained peace of mind.

I remembered a place from my childhood…, my great grandfather’s porch. I called him “Nandaddy.” I can still see him dressed in overalls, bending down to pick me up, a broad smile on his face. “Come hug my neck,” he would say. When I was a young child, I spent a lot of time on my great-grandfather’s porch. I cannot remember a time in my life when I felt more loved or appreciated. He and my great-grandmother lived in a pier and beam farmhouse in Milam County, Texas. It had a wood plank porch which wrapped around three sides.

Years later, the architectural features of a similar porch in Round Top brought back unconscious memories of that cherished time. I had discovered a key feature of my emotional architecture! Suddenly I understood why I kept returning to historic restoration work even though, truth be told, it was less profitable than my other building ventures. I realized then that we all view the world through a broad set of internal associations most, but not all, from our childhood. This internal landscape determines how we respond emotionally to the architecture in our surroundings.

Eight years later, I lived in another old farmhouse. I felt happy and very much at home. Built in the 1840′s, the restoration was never really complete. The downstairs was cold in the winter and the upstairs a hothouse in the summer. Bugs find it easy to get in and the AC finds it easy to get out. The old place required constant maintenance.

You would think these things would have been annoying, but I sat on my porch in the evenings and think about how lucky I am. You see, it wasn’t just an old German farmhouse to me. It was the place I raised my two youngest children. Those old walls held the accomplishment I felt at having been able to leave the big city and make a new home in the country. My best girl slept there in a bed I made with my own hands.

It was a place filled with memories of all the good times I’d had with the people I love. I came to realize that these emotional associations are the actual bricks and mortar of my experience of “home.”

It’s obvious if you think about it. A robin takes great care to build a nest and guards it jealously until her chicks have flown away. Then, that cherished nest is just another pile of sticks. We humans are not that much different.

A house is a material object. A “home” is of the heart.When people are looking for a new living space, they are really looking for how that new space “feels,” and how well it fits the day to day reality of their lives, and the values that are important to them.

With this key realization guiding the way, I began to seek a technology to uncover the features of my clients’ emotional architecture. It seemed to me, that if a designer could uncover the emotional associations of his client, he would discover powerful clues to a design that would create that illusive and individual experience we call “home.”

Now, years after I had that first realization, I am finally approaching my goal. The human mind is complex, and my skills and training are limited, but after years of research and working with clients, I have developed a systematic process that combined psychological testing and architectural programming in a way that actually identifies what specific features of a house inspire an individual or a family to “feel at home.”

But before I brag about my accomplishment, let’s consider a critical question. What exactly is the advantage of knowing for yourself what features of a building or a location will inspire you to feel at home?

In his book, The Timeless Way of Building, Christopher Alexander says “The specific patterns out of which a building or a town is made may be alive or dead. To the extent they are alive, they let our inner forces loose, and set us free; but when they are dead they keep us locked in inner conflict.”

Mr. Alexander’s theory says that architecture gains aliveness by reflecting the patterns of behavior of those who inhabit it. In other words, the day to day repetitive actions, events and activities of human beings, naturally organize space in a way that is healing and nurturing. When those patterns are ignored, he suggests, we have the type of architecture that now fills our cities…dead, mechanical boxes, impersonal and cold. If is possible, as Mr. Alexander believes, to bring humanity to architecture?then it seems to me that the unconscious world of emotion that lives within us must be a primary source for much of our design criteria.

In our firm, we make it clear to our clients that a successful design is the result of a good partnership between the designer and the client. My partner and I may know a lot more about architecture and construction than our customers, but our clients are the experts on their own values, tastes, lifestyle and budget. Time and again however, we find that clients approach us with a broad set of assumptions about cost and design, assumptions that are often poorly grounded in fact. These misconceptions tend to color their requests, often causing them to misrepresent their needs and desires.

In other words, people think they know what they want, but are often wrong about significant parts of it. Over time we have found it important to serve as a “devil’s advocate” and challenge our clients’ preconceived ideas if we were to truly discover their most basic priorities. It soon became obvious to us that if we were sincere about trying to get at these deeper issues within our customers, and not just impose our own design ideas on them, we would have to take them on a journey of discovery.

Each person has a unique relationship with the aesthetics of space and form based on a number of factors, most of which are unconscious and purely emotional. If these items can be identified, and included in their design, they feel psychologically more at home in their new space.

The reason we believe this is that modern neuroscience has effectively proven it to be true.

Here are some facts about how your brain works that illustrate what I am saying. Modern Neuropsychology suggests that less than five per cent of human actions are determined by planned, conscious thought.  The remaining 95% of human behavior is strongly impacted by emotion, feeling (sensory and somatic), and other unconscious influences.

Decisions about homes are particularly vulnerable to these types of “irrational” decisions as homes serve an ancient and instinctive role in human life, one that has substantial unconscious cultural and instinctive underpinnings.

In real practice, though consumers give lip service to rationality when changing their living space, their decisions are often highly influenced by factors that are beyond their conscious awareness. They are motivated by developmental or instinctive environmental cues in memory associated with past experiences. Those memories and instincts elicit neurotransmitter and/or hormone stimulated emotional response.

In other words, they make most of their decisions based largely on how they feel, while being reasonably certain they are making thoughtful, rational, conscious choices.

Evidence of this fact is that the home improvement industry in the U. S. is perennially the largest source of consumer complaints by industry sector. Many of those issues are issues that are caused by the fact that designers and contractors all misunderstand the true goals of their clients.

Real estate agents – despite their central role in the largest sector of the U. S. economy outside of government – are consistently rated amongst the “least trusted” professionals in the nation. According to a May 2006 Harris Poll survey, only 7% of those polled trust real estate agents completely, while 20% trust them not at all. Among 13 types of professionals, only stockbroker advice was trusted less than that of real estate agents. Why? Because agents and their customers ignore the deep emotional and subconscious goals that create the “buy decision.”

The custom home building and home improvement sectors are enormously fragmented and inefficient given the vast scope of their activities. Building a single home typically involves as many a twenty or more distinct installation and service businesses – all with separate management, employees, policies and procedures – involved directly in the manufacture on a single small building. Hundreds and even thousands of products are involved, most with an enormous overlap in their functions. No other industry of that stature has escaped what is typically an inevitable centralization of providers in the marketplace, despite the obvious economic advantages involved. Most consumers now assume there is no holistic way to approach altering their living space and for the most part, they are right.

On the home front, interpersonal issues between co-habitants during the planning and construction of home improvement projects are so common as to reach the threshold of legendary. Everyone on the street knows someone, or has heard of someone, who had a traumatic or at least highly-stressful experience with building or home improvement.

Couples are often unaware of the impact that architectural issues have on small incompatibilities in their relationship. I sometimes tell a story about a couple for whom I designed a project a while back. It was an addition that included a master suite. As I usually do when designing a master bath for a couple, I had drawn a vanity with “his and her” sinks. They liked the design but the wife assured me they did not need to go to the expense of having an extra sink installed in their bath. She said they were used to a single sink and that was all they would need. I played devil’s advocate and began to ask them about their habits in the mornings.

After a while, I discovered they had an argument almost every day while preparing for work. However – the wife explained – their conflict had nothing to do with the sink. It was her husband’s fault. He always left his whiskers in the basin when he shaved! Neither of them had been able to see that it is much easier to add a sink to a bath than to change the habits of a spouse! That may seem obvious, but I have found that such oversights are common.

Almost all of us find it hard to separate the forest from the trees when it comes to our immediate surroundings. In this same vein, I had a customer who refused to design in appropriate storage because his wife would “stack things everywhere anyway.” That’s what’s called a “self-fulfilling prophecy. All of this tumult, inefficiency and disorganization is caused in large part by a misunderstanding about the true nature of a home. A home is not a building. It is a suite of emotional experiences. The old saying “a house does not make a home” illustrates this fact.

Intuitively, people are aware of this reality, but in general business practice, this fact is largely ignored. For years we offered the methods we learned in our firm to solve this problem in a workshop we call Truehome, but now we have created an automated web-based software product. My partner and I were on the brink on offering consumers and professionals the fruits of almost a decade of work. We are now able to predict for each individual and family, what features in the architecture, location and style of a house will actually produce for them the emotional experience of home.

That experience is close to the heart, inextricably intertwined with safety and comfort and family. Complicated emotions come into play when the issue of home is on the table. Decisions about the design and cost of our homes are often the single most significant financial choices of our lives.

The pressure is on when you take on a major project. The emotional fire is hot. Building and remodeling our homes can lead to considerable stress. But the story can have a happy ending. Sometimes dreams do come true…and dream homes. In our hearts is a special place. Surrounded by the memories, special attachments and fond impressions that create our emotional architecture…is a warm and comfortable sanctuary just waiting to be discovered.

It’s called “home.”

Christopher K. Travis
http://www.articlesbase.com/psychology-articles/emotional-architecture-your-home-is-in-your-head-682705.html

If one goes to a trip inside a house, the first thing that he will see is the floor. Once he takes his first step, he looks at the floor and nothing more. The difference is, if the flooring is not impressive, then the visitor will never notice it, but if the floor is filled with a wonderful array of tile designs, it’s going to leave a good impression on the mind of the visitor.

If he goes to the kitchen, the presence of good tiles will also be the first thing that he will notice. It’s not the pans nor the oven, nor the refrigerator, it’s the counter-top. If he goes to the bathroom to relieve himself, we’re pretty sure that he will definitely notice the tiles, if there are any.

Tiles are wonderful house ornaments which exist for the function of accentuating the beauty of one’s home. Tiles also have a purpose, and they are chosen according to where they are going to be put and how they are going to be used.

Types of Tiles

There are thousands of different types and styles of tiles. This is because tiles are used practically everywhere, not only in the house but in other structures as well. There are the common stock tiles which one can find in any common folk’s kitchen or bathroom. There are the higher-end ceramic tiles which are used in a more decorative fashion. There are also the stone tiles which come in different materials such as granite, marble or slate. Some tiles are mass produced and some are hand-made. The hand-painted tiles are usually the most expensive ones because they are made with a specific design which caters to a specific type of consumer.

Natural tiles (which are made from either stone or ceramic) will project a certain level of exquisiteness. These tiles are usually priced more expensively. They are very resilient and durable. The downside is that everything that falls into the tiles will certainly break most of the times because of the structural soundness of these tiles. They also keep the coldness of the environment which can be a downside in cold areas.

Different tiles are installed in different places according to their resilience, beauty and durability. There are tiles which are more suitable for flooring, there are those which are suitable for kitchen tops and those which are more suitable for the bathrooms. Diversity and combination are key things toward putting up a great tile design.

Installing Tiles

When installing tiles, it’s important to take note of the kind of tile you are using and the location where it is going to be put. Different materials entail different procedures and tools for installation. Often times, the specific instructions are given by the manufacturer, but to be sure, always ask the sales person regarding the specifics of the installation procedures.

There are several tools that one needs to have to be able to properly and cleanly install tiles. For the more advanced tile enthusiasts, having tile nippers, tile cutters and trowels would be good. Remember that installing tiles in flat surfaces is the key, however, curved surfaces can also be covered with tiles if needed. Remember that when purchasing tiles, always get some extra tiles because accidents will happen and some of the tiles will get broken. The law of averages also applies to tile installation.

Designing through Tiles

If you are thinking about installing tiles in a certain area of your house, a good practice is to make an illustration of the area. The dimensions of the area in the illustration should be proportional to the dimensions of the area. The area should be divided into the dimensions that would be proportionate to the tiles that you are going to use. This way, you can clearly see how each tile would fit into the specified area and you can estimate how many tiles you are going to buy. Don’t forget to include the buffer tiles in case some of them break.

Also make sure that the color of the tiles that you are going to use would match that of the rest of the area. The tiles need not to be of one-color only. One can mix and match as long as he knows that the colors will match.

Tiles greatly accentuate the beauty of one’s home. Whether they are placed in the floor, in the kitchen or elsewhere, proper preparation and installation of these tiles will definitely mark up the value of one’s home.

Lee Dobbins
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/floor-tile-design-for-better-home-decor-53014.html

One of the most watched segments in the woodworking industry is architectural woodworking. For the past few years, it has fast created its own market, usually composed of homes and high-end facilities like hotels.

But you may ask, “What created the need for architectural woodworking?” Well, it seems that this kind of artwork has been a symbol of long-lasting impression to the kind of commitment the owner has for quality. Every architectural woodwork plan has become an enduring element of elegance, beauty, and timelessness. Therefore, you can conclude that only the best kinds of materials are used, designs are well thought of, and only the best architectural company or person was hired to do this complex task.

This article focuses on the different architectural woodworking plans you can do for your home. There are many styles to choose from, and you can freely decide which bests suits your needs and can bring out the uniqueness and overall feel of your house.

Georgian homes are stately looking. It is reminiscent of the period of classical revival in England, which happened before the onset of the American Revolution. These types are usually are made of brick. In the colonies, there is a shortage of such material, and so most Georgian homes are built of wood. A more common feature includes two-story English-style freestanding columns that serve as support for a triangular pediment. In America, these pillars, often are referred to as pilasters, and are connected to the building. In order to maintain its classicism, you may need to conduct periodic maintenance and repair. The first area you need to check is the pediment. Make sure that all the three sides of the triangle are not exhibiting any signs of deterioration such as rotting. If bird nests are present, it is ideal that you remove them as birdlime will speed up wood rot.

Most mansions built today are influenced by Greek architecture. Unlike the courthouses constructed in 1800s, where columns are made of bricks, these houses have wooden pillars. The good thing about this is you can create your own column designs to add a more grandiose look. However, since they are seldom solid, they easily deteriorate. Should you encounter this problem, the best solution is to replace them or apply some preservation methods.

If you feel like living in a sort-of castle, perhaps you can consider building your own Tudor home. The towers and parapets that are the roof, and their huge timber beams that cross some broad regions of brick stimulate the idea of a fairy tale. They are usually added, however, not as a support structure but as exterior design.

Caroline Miller
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/when-architecture-and-design-make-your-dream-home-61879.html

If you are like most home-owners, you want your d

George M. Davidsberg
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/using-drapes-in-the-interior-design-of-your-home-82775.html

I played the Sims for years…only to creates houses on it. I’m looking for a free online home design tool. I found some that come close, but aren’t what I’m looking for. I want one that will create a roof for me, let me design the interior, exterior…etc. Not just blue prints and layout software.

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