I am You

A FAQ in renovation is where do you start? Take it easy and heed these words.

1. Get yourself a good contractor...Reread this line. Then check out Angies List, Yelp, your friends and his/her references. Be absolutely sure of the company controlling your short term life and wallet.

2. Ditto with cabinet, tile, appliances and lighting vendors.

3. Have a budget and a plan. Spend time in renovation magazines and other do it yourself publications.

3a. Add 10% to your budget.

4. Prioritize..what is important to you and then work from there.

5. Don't overbuy. You should have a reason to want that luxury item.


The key to any project or even running a business is people, plans and a systematic approach to finishing the job.

Handle This

Two different refrigerators from GE...One is GE Cafe and the other is GE Profile.

So what is the difference?



If you said handle, you would be correct. You have to love marketing. Change a handle add a series. They both do have huge rebates($200-300) this month...

The Independence Day EnergyStar Rebates

The appliance industry seems to target June 27 to July 7 as prime selling season. This seems odd, because most consumers seem to be on vacation at this time.

However, Whirlpool, Maytag, Frigidaire, GE and Bosch have added another $75 of rebates for this time period.

Lets look at the Frigidaire side by side as an example:



Refrigerator sells for $1209 but costs only $934 after 3 rebates.

Be (Environmentally) Friendly

Ah Friendly's...I remember sneaking out of camp when I was a kid for a Friendlys' Fribble. Friendly's is a Massachusetts based chain of family casual restaurants. They were started by 2 brothers and then sold to an investor group.

They just shifted from incandescent to LED for their new stores. The pictures are bad, but the 11 watt LED is brighter than the 75 watt incandescent and has 20 year life span.

This technology is starting to be financially viable in addition to environmentally friendly.


Have a look...


BEFORE
Incandescent 65W BR30 - Total Power 5135W


AFTER
LR6 - Total Power 948W