Skills to Help You Rehab a Home

by Erin Cureton

Drywall/ Plaster Repair In Lakewood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, where I do most of my rehabilitation work, cracks and holes in the plaster are common. You will experience similar issues in Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh or any other industrial city throughout the east or Midwest. Holes in plaster are often the result of water infiltration, the result of vandalism, but could be the sign of more serious foundation issues. Once the root cause is fixed, patch the area with inch drywall. Secure the drywall to the hole with at least 2 drywall screws. Insert your rotozip near the edge of your hole and cut the drywall by pressing the rotozip blade against the remaining plaster. Once your piece is cut, secure it with multiple drywall screws, mud the gaps, tape, re-mud then sand to a smooth finish.



Basic Water Pipe Repair Usually the hardest part of water pipe repair is finding the leak. You do this by turning on the water, listening for falling water, then visually inspecting where the water is coming from. Once you find the leak, cut out the old section of pipe and cut a section of new pipe to replace it. It is very important to dry the ends of the pipe and rough up the end of the old and new sections of pipe with your sandpaper. Apply flux to each section of pipe and to a coupler that will be used to join the pieces. Put the new section in place. Heat the coupler with your butane torch and apply solder around the edges of the coupler. Once it is sealed all the way around, allow the solder to dry and move on to the next leak.



Drain Repair Clogged drains are very common. A snake should be a staple in your tool box. Drains work by using the force of gravity to expel wastewater down and out of the house. Improperly working drains can be the result of improper pitch in the drain line or a clog. If a clog is found in the drain line, such as hair or grease, remove the drain, remove the clog, replace the drain and test.



Replacing Light Fixtures When I am working on electrical fixtures, I like to turn off all power to the house. If this is not feasible or if other people need power to perform other work, I just turn off the circuits one by one as needed. Be sure to check the wires with a voltage meter to insure the power is off. Remove the old fixture by unscrewing the wire nuts or by cutting the wires. Strip off a section of the wire casing and attach you new fixture with wire nuts. Be sure to tape off any exposed wire with electrical tape. Since each fixture will come with its own set of instructions, be sure to read those instructions thoroughly to insure proper installation. Electricity can cause severe injury if you do not follow instruction implicitly.



Window Installation Carefully remove the old window. Be sure not to damage the old wood frame and the window sill. Once the window is removed place wood shims on the exterior of the sill and level the shims. Secure the shims. Place the new window in the opening. Place more wood shims along the sides at the top, middle and the bottom. Once the sides are secure, make sure you can easily open and close the window. Fill the gaps around the window with expanding foam insulation or fiberglass insulation.



Refinishing Wood Floors First remove the old carpet. Then remove all of the tack strips, staples, nails and quarter round molding. Once the floor is clean, run your drum sander with the grain of the wood. It is very important that you keep the drum sander moving at all times though. If you leave it sit it will quickly eat into the floor, leaving the finished floor wavy looking. Start with 36-grit sandpaper, then 80-grit, and then 100-grit. Once the main body of the floor is sanded, do the edges with an edge sander using the same grits of sandpaper that you used on the main floor. When all the sanding is complete, sweep the floor, and then vacuum the floor. Apply your choice of stain or apply polyurethane directly to the wood. Finish with 2-3 coats of polyurethane. Replace the trim molding along the floor.



Laying Tile The key to a good tile project is a good foundation. Whether you are tiling a wall or floor, the foundation must be plumb or level and the surface must be flat. Start by removing the old coverings whenever possible. Once the old covering has been removed put down a cement backerboard over the entire area to be tiled. Be sure to secure the backerboard with screws designed for this application. Fill in the joints of the backerboard with mortar. Begin tile installation by troweling on a thin application of mastic over a three to four foot area. Set the tile in place and push gently to secure the position. Place a spacer next to the tile and position the next piece. Continue in this fashion until the tiles are all in place. Allow the mastic to dry for 24-hours before grouting. If you are laying a natural stone tile (travertine, slate, marble) be sure to seal the tile prior to grouting. If you don't, the tile will appear hazy. Remove all tile spacers. Mix the grout
and push the grout into the seams using a rubber float. Immediately wipe up excess grout with a damp sponge. After an hour or so, wipe down the tile with a paper towel or piece of cheesecloth to get rid of the haze on the surface.



Texturing a Ceiling Texturing a ceiling is one of the simplest jobs you will do on a home, yet it gives the room a finished look. Dip a texturing brush with a long (4 foot) handle into a bucket of top-coating mud. Push the brush into the ceiling in a random pattern. After it dries finish by painting with a white ceiling paint. (Note: This project can be messy. Either do it before you put your floors in or cover them completely. )



Painting a Room Two tools that will make painting a room faster, easier and produce a better result are an orbital sander and a power sprayer. Use the orbital sander to smooth out any surface imperfections. Once the walls are smooth, start spraying. First, spray the walls, and ceilings with a coat of latex based primer. Next spray your ceiling with a white ceiling paint. Then spray your walls with a flat paint. Flat paint is the best choice for hiding small imperfection in your walls surface. Be sure to follow the sprayer with a roller to produce the best results. For a great finished look, be sure to apply a fresh coat of white semi-gloss paint to all trim.



Landscaping The exterior is the first impression people will get of your house. Take time to remove all the overgrown 1950's era plants and replace them with smaller more modern looking plants. After removing the old shrubs, cultivate the bed and mix in organic materials like manure, compost or peat moss. The exterior is the first impression people will get of your house. Most of the time, I remove all the overgrown 1950's era plants and replace them. If there are any good plants in the landscape, I try to remove them in a way that they can be re-used in the landscape. If they are too large to remove, prune them to improve their appearance. After removing the old shrubs, cultivate the bed and mix in organic materials like manure, compost or peat moss. Arrange your new plants on top of the beds. Once you are happy with the arrangement, remove any burlap or plastic and plant them. Be sure not to bury the root balls of shrubs. You want to plant the shrub with just a little
of the ball showing above the ground

About the Author:

Erin Cureton is the lead partner of Cureton Property Alliance. His linked in page is Erin Cureton. Erin Cureton

Making Your Tiny Place Look Big

by Dirk Williams

There are a lot of people that live in a small home or even have a decent sized home but small rooms with small space and sometimes it is very difficult to decorate a small room without making it look even smaller than it really is. It does not have to be too difficult and this article is going to focus on some tips and tricks on how to make your small room look big.



If you happen to be living in an apartment, this article will be especially useful to you because we all know that apartments are naturally small. Having a small place is most often practical for a good majority of people as well as easier on the budget.



In choosing to live in a smaller space, we often have to make sacrifices of furniture and personal items as well as learn how to compromise in our decorating styles. We also have to learn how to be well organized throughout the home and make adjustments that most people who live in bigger homes do not have to make.



If you are going for a very homey type, cozy look you want to keep in mind that you need to stick to pieces that offer a warm, dark tone with very dramatic type lighting so that it feels comfortable yet very open.



The first thing you want to focus on is clearing out the clutter of the room. Before you think to yourself that your room has no clutter, think again. Even though almost every item in that room might mean something to you personally, that does not mean it belongs there or in your home anywhere. Additionally, having a room full of clutter will definitely make you feel cramped as well as people who come over to visit, which can often turn visitors away. It is not necessarily meant that you have to throw things away, but you do need to take stock of what you have in that room it just means that some items might be better fit in another room. Take any collections you have and organize them in a curio cabinet or a wall cabinet instead of having those things sitting everywhere. The clearer your space looks the more you will feel as though the room is open.



Try not to let any furniture obstruct the entry into a room, this will definitely make the room smaller for maneuvering and it will make the room feel more cramped so arrange the furniture in a way that will allow plenty of clearance for people to move around the seating area or tables. Usually, placing the seating against the walls is the best way to clear walk paths and floor space.



Finally, using lighting is very important to making any room feel bigger than it really is. Natural light is one of the best ways to make this happen but if you are dealing with a room that either has a small window or no window at all, you can still create this feeling by using very bright lighting or track lighting and if the window is a small one in the room, just make sure the draperies are light in color and not made of heavy material.



You can make that small room feel very comfortable and a place that people will want to congregate to often all it takes is a little re-organization and some subtle changes to the direction in which the lighting is filtered and the furniture is placed for optimum floor space.

About the Author:

If you are looking for new ways to decorate your home. Check out Birdhouses and more at this website. They have a fantastic selection of home decor.