Being a good listener is hard work. There is no way around it. It takes more concentration and discipline than most things in life. When it comes time to hire an interior decorator/designer, one of the most important things you should be looking for is someone who can listen well.
Indoor air pollutants have increased over the past few decades for variety of reasons. Contributing to indoor air quality issues in homes are construction of more tightly sealed buildings, reduced ventilation rates to save energy, the use of synthetic building materials and furnishings, and increased use of chemical products such as pesticides, housekeeping supplies, and personal care products.
Remodelers and homebuilders fall into one of three categories: Accounting driven, Marketing driven, or Construction driven. It is very important to know which kind of builder you are consulting with in order to know what to expect from them and their building processes.
In Salem, as well as most parts of Western Oregon, our weather is usually mild enough to allow certain remodeling projects and custom homes throughout the Fall and Winter without serious problems. In past years, Kaufman homes have begun many various size new homes, remodels and additions in October and November without significant problems.
When it comes to heights for bath, kitchen, utility countertops or dining surfaces, the heights should be based on the needs of the homeowner. The main purpose for remodeling or building custom home is not just to have a new pretty kitchen, bath or utility room, but to also to make the living experience more enjoyable and comfortable.
NW Natural Gas has a great website on energy saving issues as well as new trends in the building industry. They are very proactive on presenting new natural gas technologies to save energy. It is interesting to note that in spite of NW Natural providing ways to save on energy costs, gas prices in Oregon have still decreased 26% in the last 3 years! Below are two articles that I thought were interesting.
As baby boomer aging has become more real, Kaufman Homes has become more aware of what should be done to make a custom home a place to age comfortably. Whether your goal is to build a custom home or remodel an existing home, we can enable you to live out the rest of your years without having to seek suitable accommodations.
This is the second part of the blog post series on selecting a home remodeling or custom home contractor. The first post can be found here. In this part of the series we are going to look at what questions to ask potential contractors as well as how to compare estimates from two different contractors.
Over the years Kaufman Homes has used many different kinds of siding depending on Customer request, types of applications, desired home style and for economic reasons. Past experience has shown that some siding’s can be problems such as LP siding back in 80’s and 90’s. Kaufman works really hard at analyzing new products and the potential problems that may exist.
Kaufman Homes receives a lot of inquiries saying they would like to consider building a new home or remodel an existing home, and how much would that cost? Most people are in the fact finding stage when we get this call as they have been assessing their needs like: “we need more space”, “our current home is outdated” or “It would be nice to have”.
