Blog Archives




 

  • Five reasons remodeling is awesome
    By Rob Heselbarth - Monday October 1, 2012
    As daylight dwindles and temperatures drop, it’s easy to let these changes in nature affect your mood. It always takes me a few days to mentally adjust to the end of summer and the beginning of another winter. But, remodelers have much to feel good about, so I am listing a few here to help make you feel better about the cold, dark days ahead.   1) You’re always learning. With an endless stream of new products entering the market, you must remain educated about each of them to best serve your clients, and to build the best possible homes. New software such as BIM products are changing the way homes are built, as they maximize efficiencies and profit. Wise remodelers are learning how to use these tools to sharpen their...

  • Five ways to prepare for housing's recovery
    By Bonnie Pickartz - Thursday September 27, 2012
    Housing is beginning to recover. New home sales are up significantly over last year, and prices continue to rise. Now we have to make sure we are not only ready for a full-scale recovery, but are ahead of the game.   It's time to grow your online presence. If you haven't developed a website and social media profiles, then you need to start now. If you have already done that, you need to take time to freshen it all up and promote yourself. Your competitors are out there, setting up pages, growing their follower lists, showing off their work, so keep up.   Following are five ways you can get ready to succeed in the housing recovery.   1) Brand yourself. Make sure your website gives the world a good picture of who you are and...

  • Luxury, Storage, Ease of Use Top Baby Boomers' Design Wish List
    By Janice Costa - Tuesday September 25, 2012
    If your clientele is made up primarily of baby boomers, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that, as a group, these consumers tend to have money to spend on their homes, and many are looking to upgrade, having had their fill of “waiting ‘til things get better.” Baby boomers also tend to favor luxury: While “trophy” spaces may have fallen out of favor, these clients are still more than willing to invest in luxury features and amenities if they believe they will enhance their quality of life.   The bad news is that baby boomers tend to demand a greater attention to detail, and often have higher expectations for service than either older or younger buyers. That means you can expect to spend more time closing the...

  • The Benefits of Using Moulding
    - Monday September 24, 2012
    Editor's Note: This is the second in a five-part series about mouldings, taken from a whitepaper by Fair Lawn, N.J.-based Kuiken Brothers Co. Inc. titled "Using Moulding to Enhance the Beauty and Elegance of a Space and Create New Revenue Streams." There are many reasons to use mouldings in your next remodel or whole house project. “When you see classical moulding, you’re looking at the origins of American architecture,” says Christine G.H. Franck, designer and co-author of Winterthur: Traditional American Rooms: Celebrating Style, Craftsmanship, and Historic Woodwork . “There is a whole tradition still alive and vital today. You’re celebrating something that’s uniquely American by using classical mouldings, especially...

  • Clients running the show? Never again
    By Todd Vendituoli - Friday September 21, 2012
    Years ago when I was starting out and in a slow period I received a call from someone that was building a new home. They wanted me to give them a price on a kitchen, which of course hit me as odd because if they were building a new home why wasn’t the contractor doing it? But being that times were slow I decided to go and see what they wanted and maybe find out why their contractor wasn’t doing it.   When we got together they explained that the contractor wasn’t fulfilling his duties in a way they wanted and so they wanted to get someone else to finish the kitchen which was one of the last things to be done. They also had a few other things that needed doing so I proceeded to listen. The clients also informed me that they were...

  • Home Shows Are Worth the Investment
    By Jeff Kaliner - Monday September 17, 2012
    In the age of digital communication and tech-savvy consumers, it’s easy to lose a personal connection with the homeowners who support your business. At Power, we pride ourselves on the personal attention each one of our customers receives at every stage of their home remodeling project. From the initial introduction to our products to the final walk through after a project is completed, customer satisfaction is always first on our list of priorities. The art of personal communication is just as important when marketing your business to potential customers. This is especially true in the home remodeling and renovation industry where consumers trust our companies enough to open up their homes to us and let us help them realize their...

  • The Evolving Tastes of Younger Homeowners
    By Janice Costa - Monday September 10, 2012
    While it’s commonly assumed that that younger consumers love complicated technology and anything trendy, that’s not necessarily true when it comes to kitchen and bath design choices. In fact, while younger consumers may love their technology and idolize Tim Gunn, that doesn’t mean they’re willing to sacrifice practicality, or durability, in order to achieve their high-tech, fashion-forward vision. Generations X and Y may have modern-day sensibilities, but these are still consumers raised by practically minded parents – and those parents would likely be proud of the way those values “took.” So it should come as no surprise that when kitchen and bath designers were recently surveyed about what they saw these generations...

  • Ahh, the simple joys of sketching
    By Todd Mather - Sunday September 9, 2012
    As an architect and designer, the skill and/or talent of sketching is paramount. However, not all need this skill. I am reminded of so many positions within the profession of architecture and building for which the need for using a pen and paper is limited. To me, though, it is invaluable to be able to quickly sketch the essence of an interior, a change to an exterior under construction, or to take their idea of a fireplace detail, for instance, and translate my client’s words into a picture on paper. They appreciate this.   Contractors appreciate it, as well as the structural engineers with whom I work. The ability to take mental pictures or words from a discussion and create a three-dimensional image allows design solutions...

  • A Serial Entrepreneur's Common Sense Advice
    By Victor Green - Thursday September 6, 2012
    It’s true that many factors contribute to an organization’s success, but in the end it all comes down to this: how will your business be better, or different, than what is already available? Will you provide a better service than anyone else? Will you offer something that will improve your customers business and make them more money? The answers to one—preferably both—of these questions should always be a resounding, “Yes!” This article assumes you have done the research and built the product. You have found a gap in the market that you can fill. Now, you’re tasked with building or managing an organization that already exists. You may find the tips below are obvious or common sense. I would argue that these days, common...

  • Swinging Hammers
    By Laurie Banyay - Friday August 31, 2012
    I’m in the middle of a visit to my family, who live north of Pittsburgh. I worked out of their home office for a while, anticipating a quiet work time that would be productive. Although the latter occurred the former did not. Their house is in an area once country that’s slowly being developed. Behind their house, a rooster cock-a-doodle-doos from about 6 a.m. through sunset. When the rooster isn’t stealing the show, I can hear goats. If the breeze is blowing the right way, I smell cows. The noise I noticed the most, however, was that of construction. My parents live in an almost fully developed neighborhood. Right now, they’re having a deck addition put outside their sliding door where a patio formerly stood. Across the...

Events