Do's and Don'ts of Home Remodeling

In the last six years of remodeling our now almost perfect and hard to leave house, we've learned some lessons that we'll be able to apply to our next bigger & better project.

Here's the short list.

Do:

• Use grout the color of dirt for tiles. It never looks dirty.
• Install recessed lighting on dimmer switches. Simple, modern, moody or bright, makes stuff look good.
  
• Invest in good lighting. Brings a space to life and makes it much more usable.
• Invest in attic insulation. Easy, cheap, saves energy right away.
• Invest in a new furnace. This isn't cheap. But our furnace was from the 1940s. We got a huge boost in monthly savings from the new furnace, and it will make a difference for resale.
• Invest in gutters and regrading. We completely dried out our occasionally wet basement.
• Design smart storage solutions. Ikea has great inexpensive systems for storing just about everything.
  

Don't

• Get a glass shower door in the bathroom. Looks nice, but gets dirty so fast.
• Fix up 1920s windows. We spent a lot of time painting the interior and exterior of our old 1920s windows, and they still look old, and waste a lot of energy.
• Buy an LG over the range microwave with a vent hood. The microwave works fine, but the fan is really loud and weak.
  

Viva la house projects!