| Care & Maintenance (4)

The Renovate, Repair and Painting Rule will affect you when you go to paint, repair or remodel your pre-1978 home — unless you do the work yourself. The rule states that contractors working on such homes must:

I recently had coffee with Bill Moss, Firm Foundation Home Inspection, LLC (616-260-0779, ffhomeinspection.com). An interesting part of our conversation was about common problems he sees in homes every day.

Last week I was in a safety seminar that our staff attends annually and as we were moving through slides I grabbed my smart phone and posted these 10 Safety Tips on the Thompson Trio Facebook page. I have not posted the catastrophic photos that illustrate the importance of these tips as a courtesy. Here they are for the benefit that heightened awareness will bring you.

Twice per year I surround myself with a small group of individuals that represent the best and brightest of the national remodeling industry. We submit ourselves to a process of peer review, an exacting yet loving business community where we trust each other enough to help us become better people who happen to be professional remodelers. This act has enabled me to grow in large (easy to quantify) and more subtle ways. The bottom line, because of these people pouring into my life, I become more helpful to my clients. It is the process of perfecting my craft.

Last week on the Home Improvement Show, Pat, Sandie and I did a segment on 10 Common Plumbing Tips and we rated them based on how practical, beneficial, and probable people are to actually benefit from these tips. Here is my list of the 5 essential tips, nothing more:

1. Change your air filter monthly in peak heating & cooling seasons. Restricted air flow is the #1 cause of HVAC service calls.

1. Turn off the power at the electrical panel or remove the "key" fuse on the gray box outside.

The biggest cost drivers in a kitchen remodel are 1) New cabinetry, 2) Relocating fixtures and appliances, and 3) New countertops in that order.

In the last month I have spoken with a handful of clients about ice dams and it felt like every other call to the Home Improvement Show on Newsradio WOOD 1300 has been on the same subject. West MI Morning News even had me on last week for an interview regarding Ice Dams. Click here to listen to the podcast of that interview. In brief written-form here are the essentials you need to know about Ice Dams:

Today I was on the phone with a client who at one time felt trapped in her home. When they bought it, they loved that they were on the river and that the kitchen was larger than the one in their previous home. They love fell apart on the day they moved in as rain was dripping in the house in multiple places and kept dwindling as the years passed. After their flat roof leaked for the 3rd time, they had had enough. He declared, "It is time to get a real roof on this house." We created a beautiful octagonal roof where the flat roof once was, along with an addition that housed a new kitchen that was better suited to their lifestyle. We solved the major problems with the home and transformed the old into a house built for entertaining and enjoying the water. Her advice to you all reading this, "I wish we had thought to rent a storage facility or POD instead of stacking up a ll our future during the project," and, "It takes time in a home to figure out what you like and dislike, but with mortgage rates being what they are, this is a great time to fix the problems in your home. Our first mortgage on this house was 16%."