Installing a new insulated garage door is a simple home improvement project that has many benefits. This simple change adds desirable curb appeal and increases the value of your Dallas home. The best part is, it also saves energy and tax credits are given to homeowners who install approved garage doors. 

There is a list of manufactures of approved insulated garage doors that make homeowners eligible for a federal tax credit, which is more valuable than a tax deduction. Homeowners who purchase and install one of the garage doors on their Dallas home in 2009 or 2010 could receive up to a $1,500 federal tax credit. However, this is not a new idea. The legislation to award homeowners for installing specific garage doors was originally passed in 2008. Then, the maximum amount possible for homeowners to receive from the tax credit was $500 or 10 percent of the product’s cost. The new federal stimulus plan put in to action in February 2009 made installing a new garage door even more worth while. The new legislation promises triple the amount the original legislation offered. The maximum federal tax credit is now 30 percent of the product’s cost, or up to a maximum of $1,500. 

Another way installing an insulated garage door can help pay for itself is through energy savings. More than often people find that rooms next to or above the garage are the coldest rooms of the house in the winter and the hottest in the summer. This is because old garage doors that are not insulated allow brisk winter and scorching summer air to flow in to the house. The inefficient garage doors can also allow heated and air conditioned air to escape, like money flying out a window. Installing a new qualified, insulated garage door will help reduce energy bills year round and make your Dallas home more comfortable. 

The new and improved garage doors are more attractive to the eye, which increases the curb appeal and value of your Dallas home. Garage doors take up a considerable amount of space on the front of a home. The front of the home is the first thing homeowners, guests, and people passing by get to see when approaching the house. A typical white or almond colored garage door can make a house look plain and boring. It also makes the home blend in with every other house on the street. New garage doors found on the approved list offer a variety of the latest styles, including a carriage house or country look, sleek and contemporary, steel doors with real wood grain panels. No matter what the style of your home, there is sure to be a garage door that compliments and completes the picture.

Learn more about Dallas home ownership at TexasHomeCentral.com.

What’s your Dallas home worth?

Finding ways to deal with small spaces in your new Dallas home can be tricky. Everyone likes the place they call home to be somewhere they can kick back and relax. However, it is hard to relax in areas that are cluttered and uncomfortable. Strategic interior design can make a big difference when dealing with small living spaces. Colors, lighting, organization, and décor can make spaces appear smaller or larger. Here are some solutions to make your Dallas home look and feel cozier. 

Organization is the first thing to be conquered when transforming a small living space. Getting rid of clutter and maximizing the use of storage space are the keys to success. Clutter will make any space appear smaller than it really is. Eliminating excessive nik-naks is one way to reduce clutter. Multiple pieces of small, scattered furniture can also make a room look jumbled. Using a couple pieces of slightly larger furniture leads to a less cluttered look. Every inch of storage space should be taken advantage of in small living areas. Planning out storage space will allow for more walking room, functional closets, and more productive space. Use multipurpose furniture like ottomans, which can be used for storage and seating. Try installing an organizational system in the closets. These systems usually provide a perfect spot for everything. 

Colors, lighting, and decorations also affect the appearance of your Dallas home. Colors play a big role in creating illusions of size. The color scheme of small living spaces should consist of light hues. Although white can be a boring color, it will ultimately maximize the illusion of a bigger space. Other colors that tend to open up space include beige, neutrals, and pastels. It is important to avoid contrasting colors. The furniture, especially larger pieces like the couch, should be in the same color family to match the color of the walls. 

Lighting makes a big difference in small spaces. Take advantage of as much natural light as possible by avoiding heavy curtains and window treatments. Although natural lighting is always the most ideal, it isn’t always available. Track and recessed lighting work well as alternatives for lighting up the space. 

Décor should not take over small spaces. Using medium sized pieces of furniture can do a lot for small rooms versus one big piece or a bunch of cluttered small pieces. Mirrors compliment small spaces perfectly. Mirrors reflect light and color, creating the illusion of more space. Mirrors can be found in all shapes and sizes, with and with out frames. One large mirror or several small mirrors collaged on a wall can make a big difference in a small living area. There are tons of solutions to make a small area more livable.

Need more space? Search all Dallas homes for sale.

Fixing A Fixer Upper
Remodeling a single room of a house can be painful enough, but when you buy a fixer-upper home, whether for your personal residence or as an investment, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. You need to have a plan and, then, just like anything else, take it one step at a time. The plan you create needs to be one that will work for you and will differ greatly depending on whether or not you’re living in your fixer-upper.

Not Living in Your Fixer-Upper
Obviously, the process of a general home remodel is significantly easier when you’re not occupying the house, but there are still some guidelines that may make things easier. Tearing down the walls or “gutting” the house should be the first thing you do. This will give you access to the wiring, insulation, and windows. If you know all three are in good condition, you may forgo this step, but more often you’ll want to work from scratch. Replace and possibly upgrade the wiring. The insulation should go in as thick as possible and don’t forget to insulate around the windows. Since you already have the walls down, now is also the best time to replace those windows. Finally, think about the flooring and whether you want to change or replace the material. Once you have these basic renovations done, you can finish the house however you wish without worrying about disturbing anyone’s life.
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You may have heard buzz around the term “universal design” in recent years, but do you know what it is or how it affects the Dallas TX real estate and construction markets?

According to Lowes.com, universal design is the creation of products and environments meant to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialization. The intent is to simplify life for everyone by making products, communications and the built environment more usable by as many people as possible at little or no extra cost. Universal Design benefits people of all ages and abilities.

Think this is some “far out” theory just now working its way into the “modern” world? Think again: if you’ve ever walked through an automatic door, you’ve experienced a version of Universal Design. Likewise, a ramp or curb cut is just as welcome to someone with a baby stroller as it is to someone in a wheelchair.

Universal Design has become a hot topic in the Dallas TX real estate market as more residents are retiring and making the decision to “age in place,” as opposed to moving into assisted living facilities. As we discussed previously, this aging generation is already driving the design of new products for the home that will affect real estate in the future. Even if you are not part of the “mature” population, however, Universal Design should be important to you. If you are planning to build or renovate, keep in mind the principles of Universal Design and know that it’s more cost effective to add many Universal Design features during the planning stage. There are a number of design features that can be built for little or no cost. Their addition at the beginning saves the need for future retrofits.
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I recently wrote a post about how to use a house value report. In that post I briefly mentioned using one for determining the value of your home improvement projects. Since writing that article, I have received a lot of requests for more information about this. Understanding the true return on your home improvement investment is mostly science with a little art mixed in.

Before you start a project, there are 3 steps to determining the value of your home improvements.

1. Step One – Find a good Dallas area Realtor that really knows your area or hire a professional appraiser. An appraiser is expensive (around $300) but will be more accurate than a Realtor. Plus, many Realtors have never done a TRUE comparative market report, opting only to compare bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage so they do not understand the intricacies that go into this science called an “Appraisal”.
2. Step Two – Have your Realtor or appraiser prepare a comparative market analysis or full appraisal to determine the value of your home compared to other homes in your neighborhood. Once that first appraisal is completeld, have them provide a second house value report comparing your home with future home improvements to homes in your neighborhood with those same improvements.
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I recently had a new pool built for my home and I have to say, I am rather pleased with the result! After meeting and getting quotes from numerous local pool builders in Dallas Fort Worth, I came up with these 4 steps to help you make your decision.

Here are 7 steps that will help you to choose the right pool builder.

1. Find out how long the pool builder has been in business under present name and if they have ever filed bankruptcy under any name. Also, visit their showroom as many fly-by-night pool builders work out of the back of their truck making it easy to skip town.

2. Ask for the name and phone number of their insurance company. It’s important to verify that they have a current liability policy directly from the company.

3. Ask the pool builder to furnish lien waivers from vendors and subcontractors to prove they’ve been paid. This is extremely important! The greatest nightmare for any homeowner buying a pool is to pay 75%+ of the money for their new pool and have the pool builder skip town when they’ve only done 25% of the work. These criminals usually leave the subcontractors unpaid, which means they’ll come knocking on your door for payment.

A lien waiver is a receipt showing that funds have been paid to a supplier or subcontractor, and that they have no lien rights against your home. When your pool is complete, you should have lien waivers from all vendors and subcontractors to prove you don’t have to pay them again.

4. Check the pool builder’s references… not just the ones they give, ask a friend or neighbor if they have ever heard of that pool company and what was the quality of the work. Of course a company is only going to give you numbers of happy customers with good references. You want to hear about the problems and how they were handled. That will tell you about the quality of the builder.

5. Check the Better Business Bureau to see if there are any complaints but make sure you delve in to see what that complaint is. You’d be surprised to see what some people complain about.

6. Get real quotes from a couple of pool builders. Make sure they see your property before giving you the quote or you’re just asking for a higher priced ticket before everything is said and done. Plus, make sure the quotes are for the same design and materials or you’re not really comparing apples to apples.

7. Find out about their pool building process, time lines and materials used. Have them explain it to you like you’re a 5 year old and don’t assume anything. It helps to find a pool builder that will hold your hand through the process.

Here’s my story!

After looking at dozens of pool designs and really looking at the flow of my yard, I set about designing the shape of the pool myself. I wanted a salt water pool to avoid the green hair, bleached bathing suits, red chlorine eyes and two days of the chlorine smell on your skin. That’s what I love about salt water pools, the salt in the pool is less than half the amount in a human tear drop. The salt water system creates natural chlorine from the salt just like the ocean does which means you also save a lot of money on replacing the chlorine all the time.

I designed the pool, spa and waterfall plus all of the underwater benches for people to sit. I had a lot of fun until it was time to find the right pool builder for the job. I spoke to all of the top names that everyone knows here in Dallas Fort Worth but in the end, I settled with a smaller pool builder who I felt I could trust to answer my phone calls and really pay attention to what I wanted. Not to mention, since they didn’t have the massive overhead, the pool quote came in close to $7,000 below the larger builders. Yeah for me! …at the same time, I was concerned about the old saying, “you get what you pay for”.

In the end I was very happy with the quality of the pool I got. A few months later, when the seal on the Pentair filter failed, the owner of the pool company I used personally came to my house the next day to check it out and had the Pentair technician out a day later. I was happy about that, especially after hearing some of the horror stories from my neighbors about the warranty service they received from their pool builders.

It’s hard to know the outcome of your new pool. Like a new home, every new pool is unique and will have something go wrong at some point. At that point, it really comes down to knowing the long term relationship the pool builder has with their customers and how well they respond to warranty issues. I didn’t like exactly how my waterfall came out and even though I’m the one that designed it, my pool builder agreed to send a crew out on his dime to make adjustments to it. Now that’s customer service!

Information on the pool builder I used!

I get a lot of clients that are interested in building a new pool when they buy their home or updating and renovating the one that is already there.

The pool builder that I used was Playmore Pools and they are a small pool builder that only builds in the DFW area. I convinced the owner to give my customers a $500 discount on a new pool or renovation. Before you say, “big deal”, then you will be happy to know that he promised it would be a real $500 discount and not the old trick of raising the price $500 to show a discount. He gives a $500 referral to his customers so why not pass that on to you? You’re already spending a lot of money buying a home and moving so every dollar counts. You can download the $500 coupon from my website by clicking here.

No matter who you use, good luck with your new pool or pool renovation and have fun!

Comment posted by mark1519
at 10/23/2007 5:42:05 PM

Joshua:

I read your comment. Is this a legitimate post representing your true independent feelings about Playmore or is this a veiled marketing/promotional post.

I am truly interested in whether this is a legitimate post.

Mark (mark.alfieri@hsblaw.com)

Comment posted by Joshua Harley
at 10/30/2007 10:01:29 PM

Mark,

This is a true legitimate post. I was very happy with the experience. In fact, I added the “Info on the pool builder I used” paragraph later because I received so many requests from people to tell me who the builder was. That’s when I called the owner and asked if he would offer a discount if I posted his information. I wasn’t sure if I should because I didn’t want to play favorites or make it seem like an advertisement. Case in point, your question.

Anyway, I am still happy with my pool and would recommend him. I also think Riverbend Sandler is a great builder but their price is premium and I personally needed the lower price to get the pool I wanted.

Good luck and let me know if I can be of service.