DECORATION AND MAINTENACE

Coach Homes in North Vancouver - Expand Your Space and Your Income!
Home Decor

Coach Homes in North Vancouver – Expand Your Space and Your Income!

- by Avery James

Coach Homes in North Vancouver - Expand Your Space and Your Income!What is a coach home?

North Vancouver, Canada, has approved coach home construction for qualifying lots. Also known as laneway homes, granny flats, or carriage homes, they are small self-contained homes that share lot space with a larger primary home. A small secondary home is a great way to increase your monthly income or to expand the living, working, and playing space available for your family.

Great mortgage Helpers

Given the shortage of space and rising cost of housing in North Vancouver coach homes are gaining interest. Secondary basement suites are already very common as mortgage helpers in North Vancouver, but with a detached secondary home there is the added bonus of privacy for you and your tenants! Coach homes are more marketable than basement suites because they offer an independent living arrangement, are above ground, include private garden access, and may be built with outdoor decks.

Home office, guest house, studio

If you have wanted a comfortable space for of town guests, a private place for an ageing family member, a home for a live in caregiver, a place to concentrate on work, a peaceful studio where you can reflect, or even a place where musicians in your family can practice, then a coach home could be your solution. If you live on your property and don’t already have a legal secondary suite then you may be able to build one. Coach homes are usually located at the rear of a yard, in place of a garage, although they may contain a one car garage.

Qualifying lots

Qualifying lots must be within the boundary of the city of North Vancouver, and it is very likely that in the near future they will be built within the district of North Vancouver as well. The lot type must be designated for …

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How to Save Thermal Energy at Home
Home Decor

How to Save Thermal Energy at Home

- by Avery James

How to Save Thermal Energy at HomeHeating is one of the most important functions of our home energy. This is why the biggest proportion of energy bills is allocated to our heating. Just like other things in our homes, our ways of using heat can be improved to be more efficient for our homes and especially our money.

A major amount of things at home require quite a lot of funding to be made environmentally friendly and energy/money efficient – however, there is also a great number of things you can do to ensure the efficient use of your home energy that cost you absolutely nothing but a bit of time and patience. Why is it that our heating bills can be so much higher than, for example, our neighbors, even though our houses are roughly of the same size, and use the same amount of heat?

The answer to this is simple – bad insulation; unwanted heat escape. On the surface of things, it may seem that heating your home is nice and simple; that we turn on a switch and expect our home to be heated after a certain time. It escapes many of us that the amount of heat we actually need is usually much, much less than what we pay for, and this is normally due to 2 things: drafts (through cracks and holes) and poor insulation.

Let’s focus on each of these in a little more detail and look at how we can solve them. Research shows that cold air (drafts) coming into your home causes 20% of your heating to go to waste. From high-school physics, we know that heat travels from regions of higher temperature to regions of lower temperature – if your home’s walls have even the smallest of holes or cracks in them, you are automatically wasting …

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DID YOU OVERLOOK SOMETHING IN YOUR NEW HOME DESIGN?
Home Remodeling

Did You Overlook Something in Your New Home Design?

- by Avery James

DID YOU OVERLOOK SOMETHING IN YOUR NEW HOME DESIGN?There are quite a few details involved in designing a new house and it is very easy to overlook certain aspects of what will make that house a home. I have been a home designer for almost three decades now and have come up with a list of things that are often forgotten in the layout. Maybe that list can be of some help to you.

Number one on my list is storage space! Are you allowing for this? Chances are that if your home is cluttered now, you either have too much stuff accumulated or there is not enough storage space to store this stuff. If you overlook this in the design of your new home, you may be transferring one problem from your old dwelling to the new one.

The common lack of storage in homes are:

– Pantries for extra food stuffs like canned goods that would be overflowing from the kitchen cabinets.

– Clothes closets that are too small to handle the wardrobe of a family member for at least one season. Make sure they are large enough.

– Coat closets in the entryway of the home. When this omitted, the living room, kitchen or dining room starts becoming a catch all for winter coats.

– Linen closets are often overlooked also. This space is for sheets, pillow cases, washcloths, and towels. All too often, if a home does not have a linen closet, extra shelves have to be added to handle these.

– Attic or basement storage that is easily accessible to store Christmas lights and family keepsakes. When attic or basement storage is unavailable the garage fills up with all this stuff.

If the home is in an area that experiences more than usual rain or snow fall, is there a mud room for …

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HOW TO CUT COSTS WHEN BUILDING A HOUSE
Home Decor

How to Cut Costs When Building a House

- by Avery James

HOW TO CUT COSTS WHEN BUILDING A HOUSEEveryone would like to save a little money when building a new house. After all, there are added expenses when building, such as repayments on the land and during the construction phase which often adds pressure on both the buyer and builder to have the house completed as fast as possible. These simple tips will help to cut costs even before you start building your new house.

  1. Choose a block that is already prepared – A new subdivision should have all your services in place and also have a nice sandy block ready to be built on. This will reduce the cost of your earthworks which can be significant. If you’re buying in an established area with the intention of knocking down and rebuilding, call the local council to find out what the conditions of the land are like in that area. They may be able to tell you the type of engineering detail that is common and if limestone or rock is prevalent.
  2. Ensure your home designer has a track record of bringing house designs in on budget – this is also such an important step as a poor house designer or architect can spend your money on poor construction details that provide no benefit to the home or the owners. Be sure to ask them how they have performed in the past. It’s their job to ensure that they deliver a home on budget, and not blame their clients for ‘changing their mind’.
  3. Make all your product and colour selections before construction starts – Most owners don’t understand why this is critical to cost savings. A builder will typically send out for quotes at the start of the project. If colours and product selections have been totally completed then the builder can receive quotes for the entire home.
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HOME OFFICE DECORATION - WALL-MOUNTED SHELVING SYSTEM
Home Remodeling

Home Office Decoration – Wall-Mounted Shelving System

- by Avery James

HOME OFFICE DECORATION - WALL-MOUNTED SHELVING SYSTEMIn many parts of the world, having a home office is a norm and Malaysia is no exception. The home office is sometimes used as a place for the kids to do their school work and it is also where parents do some last minute planning (in relation to their home, life and work) in a convenient and comfortable environment. Doing such work in a noisy living room is not always conducive.

Get your home office organized. The same way you need a bedroom to be comfortable and quiet, you need a home office that is regulated. A messy desk equals a messy head – and nobody can work well under such circumstances.

Suffice to say, a wall-mounted system is a product that can maximize your wall space without breaking your bank account. Each wall panel is affordable and fully customizable to suit your home. Accessories can be used to store stationery. If you are sharing the home office with the kids, help them organize their color pencils, pens and pencils, and other items easily and conveniently.

Easy cleaning and management. If you have a helper at home, this should be a breeze; but not everyone can afford one at the current economic climate. Hence, you might need to think of a wall-mounted shelving system that is easy to clean on a regular basis. It should not be too bulky to move around (if you have to move it to another place to have it cleaned).

Keeping things off the floor, kids not in danger. With kids running around, you have to seriously consider keeping things off the floor. They might trip, slip or injure themselves when they step on dangerous items. Even simple items like a pencil sharpener can be a choking hazard to a toddler.

There are other …

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