Example of a large country master gray tile and marble tile porcelain tile and gray floor freestanding bathtub design in Nashville with beaded inset cabinets, white cabinets, gray walls, an undermount sink, quartz countertops and a hinged shower door

Photo: Rikki Snyder © 2013 Houzz
Inspiration for an eclectic living room remodel in New York

© Paul Bardagjy Photography
Mid-sized trendy formal and open concept light wood floor and brown floor living room photo in Austin with white walls, no fireplace and no tv

Customized version of our Bradford plan. Stone wrapped porch and craftsman posts. Photo courtesy of Paul Schwinghammer.
Inspiration for a mid-sized craftsman blue two-story vinyl exterior home remodel in Indianapolis

Inspiration for a huge mediterranean wooden spiral staircase remodel in San Francisco with wooden risers

Stone work at windows should never be painted. House lacks harmony due to bad painting.
Inspiration for a large victorian home design remodel in New York

While my wife was steaming the wallpaper, I started testing the walls to pull paper. The results were very nice. You can see here that the paper was sheeting off in large strips. I would scrape the still wet glue to reduce the washing of the walls. What we found was that if the steamer was passed slowly over the holes the steam pushed into the holes and the wallpaper heated up which seemed to saturate the glue better. If we moved too fast over the wall, neither enough heat nor moisture made it through to the glue. We were able to remove the paper in just a couple hours. ( not bad for a guy that generally refuses to remove wallpaper ) The garment steamer experiment was a success. If you wonder why I didn't just rent a wallpaper steamer, it was because I have one more wallpapered room to steam for this customer, I wanted to see if a DIYer could get by without renting, and now my wife has a garment steamer Hahaha. The next day I washed the walls and we were ready for plaster.

Top Tips for Selling a Home in 2016 Want to sell your house in 2016? It’s a great year to sell your home and if you go about it the right way you’ll get what it’s worth and maybe more. Now I could write this post and do the usual “do this, “do that” type stuff but I wouldn’t be doing you any favors. Because unless you know your numbers and the value of your home, you could wind up leaving money on the table or even losing it. So here you go. If you want tips for selling your house in 2016, listen to me - a guy who has bought and sold hundreds of properties as a full-time professional Real Estate Investor. Before you repair anything or call a real estate agent… ...you have to know your numbers. Tip #1: Know the After Repair Value (ARV) of Your Home If you’re going to get the right amount of money for your house, you have to know the After Repair Value (ARV). Essentially this means that you should know what your home can sell for after it’s is 100% rehabbed. If you have a house that you can sell for $120,000, you need to know that. If it will sell for $350,000, you need to know what you need to do to your house to get it there. At the same time, you don’t want to overdo it. If you have a house that’s currently worth $100,000 as is and it can sell for $115,000 when it’s all fixed up, you may or may not want to put the money into a rehab job. If you put $10,000 in just to make an extra $5,000, it might not be worth the hassle. So whatever you do, know what it’s worth now (as -is) and know what it’ll sell for afterward. If you want to find out how much your house is worth, there are plenty of agents out there who will give you comps (Comps is a term that is short for “Comparisons” that lets you determine an appraisal value for your home by comparing it to recently sold homes in your area that are similar to yours) or advice for free, so ask them. So don’t over do it, but don’t be hesitant to put money into your house if it’ll yield a big payoff when you sell it. TIP #2: Make Your Agent Work For You After you determine your ARV and enlist a good agent to help you sell your home, It might be worthwhile to hop in their Escalade to drive around town and look at some high end houses in your area to see what kind of upgrades they have. And when you see a common theme, you’ll have a good idea as to what kind of upgrades you might want to do to be able to sell your house. Granite? Concrete? Tile? Carpet? Wood floors? It depends. I don’t know your area or market so you have to do the research, ask your agent questions, and exercise wisdom. Every market is different and you don’t want to put money into an upgrade or rehab if it’s not the type of thing people in your area are looking for. So talk to a competent agent, and even offer to pay them a bit more in commissions if they can sell your home for a higher price. This is not a waste of money. A good agent with a proven track record is worth every penny because they know exactly what needs to be done to sell your home for the most money. Tip #3: Interior Improvements So once you have an idea about what your home is worth, have a good agent, and have toured homes in your area to see what kind of upgrades homes in your area typically have, it's time to look at your interior to decide what you should and shouldn’t do to sell your house in 2016. No matter what you do, you need to be wise about it. Maybe you live in non-traditional or funky house. That’s fine. Just go through 2 or 3 times with a notepad, write down the frustrations you have with it, and do what you need to do to make it functional, warm, beautiful, and inviting. Interior must-haves: 1. Make sure your kitchen is functional. 2. Always have (or add) a 2nd bathroom: If you don’t have a second bathroom, build one. Sure it could cost you $5-$6k, but it could net you an additional $20k when you sell. No matter what you do, make sure there is a second bathroom. It’s a must. 1. Open floor plans are huge in 2016: If you don’t have one, first- make sure it’s right for your area, and if it is, create one. This might mean building or breaking down a wall, but it’ll pay off in the end. 2. Stage your house: Just do it. Staging your home means that you hire a home stager and/or an interior design consultant (like the lady on Love It or List It) to set up your home in the most inviting way possible and tell you everything you need to do to make it sell. You’ll pay some cash up front but staged homes are shown to sell for 6% to 10% higher according to realtor.org. Tip #4: Exterior Improvements Just like the interior, you have to make sure the exterior of your house looks appealing if you want to get the most value of your house in 2016. Exterior must haves: 1. Add curb appeal: When people pull up to your house, most won’t even want to go inside or look at it unless it looks good from the curb. So make sure it looks gorgeous. Rake the leaves, plant some flowers, mow the lawn - make it inviting. 2. Make sure the picture on the MLS listing matches what your house currently looks like: People don’t want to look at a picture and pull up to your house, only to be disappointed. 3. Hire a professional photographer: This is crucial. It could mean the difference between someone viewing your house, or someone skipping it because the pictures look like a child took them. Hire a pro - it’s worth it. Ask me how I know. 4. Don’t paint your house diarrhea green or brown: This is just common sense. If you’re going to paint, use a neutral color. You don’t want to make your house unsellable because you chose an odd color or made a bad decision elsewhere. Tip #5: Common Sense, Common Sense, Common Sense No matter what you do or do not do, don’t make any hasty decisions. Ask your agent questions, look around, be observant, and don't do anything extreme. If you need to fix up your house to see a big profit, do it. If you have a modest budget and improvements won’t raise the value or your house (the ARV) anyways, don’t go crazy. 2016 is a great year to sell your house. Do it right and do it wisely. Cheers, Nate --- Nate Pyles is a long term Real Estate Investor who made it through the crash in 2008 and spends his week buying and selling houses for profit in the Boise, ID area. He runs House Flip Mentor, has 4 kids, a gorgeous wife, loves to fly, and even built his own Irish pub on his property.

*NATURAL/DAYLIGHT* WOW! This turned out to be an extremely powerful kitchen renovation project. This client was the most easy-going guy and a craftsman himself at that. I knew then, though, he wouldn't settle for something simple. He came in and explained he had been looking for a back splash but had this really dramatic island counter top to work around. We decided on a long, creamy subway tile with a crackle finish for the main field but he wanted an accent to jazz that up. We tried an iridescent glass that looked amazing in the showroom with everything, but almost took on too much blue/green at home in his lighting. After tweaking it a bit, we decided on a matte hand painted ivory stone hexagon in the frame. We added an inset of 1X1 gloss glass accents around the hexagons to bring out some color. Never a bad idea to to mix finishes! We couldn't go too over the top, again, because of the island, but this delicate stone brings in enough interest without being distracting. I think the stone keeps the style of the kitchen more in that traditional/transitional phase, where the specific glass we started with might've been a little too modern. It's definitely an updated look, and it's fabulous. The colors in the frame worked wonderfully with the island and I think that ties everything back around. Overall, I'd say this project had a timeless and elegant feel, but also includes unique touches that add a little something different. Beautiful!

Appliances Installed! We finally have a functional kitchen again. Last week I plumbed the kitchen sink and the guys came to install the range, dishwasher, and refrigerator. Although I planned on installing the appliances myself, I finally conceded the fact that I could not get the 500lb range into the kitchen alone. The price wasn't too bad and it was nice watching someone else work for a few minutes. Broke in the griddle with bacon and eggs for the family on a lazy Saturday morning...followed by a pot of gumbo on a cold afternoon.

Example of a mid-sized eclectic brown tile and stone tile powder room design with brown walls and a vessel sink