Trends in Bathroom Remodeling

Bathrooms are a huge area for remodeling in homes. Contemporary colors, new styles and technology advances modernize your home to fit you’re your family’s changing needs. Here are some of the trends we are seeing in remodeling bathrooms.

Contemporary Styling
Changing the style of your bathroom brings a whole new feel to your home. There are many options to choose from for updating the lines and look of your bathroom with new cabinetry and fixtures (lights, faucets, etc.). We can help with interior and design choices to fit your style.

Custom Cabinetry
Custom cabinets have become a huge focus for storage in the bathroom. Each family has its own needs and custom cabinetry can fit your style, your look and your exact family needs for storage.

Dark Espresso Custom-Stained Maple
A newer style people are bringing into their bathrooms for a dramatic look is dark espresso stained wood. The combination of dark wood and warm colors brings out a spa feel for relaxation and beauty.

Large Built-in Linen Cabinets
Expanding on custom cabinets, home owners have been requesting large built-in linen cabinets in their bathrooms to store all their bathroom needs.

Granite Vanity Tops
Adding a contemporary, stylish look and an extra ‘pop’ in bathroom designs are granite vanity tops. Using remnant slabs for small countertops offers a reasonable cost and lasting beauty to bathrooms.

Tile surrounds with In-Wall Niches
Incorporating custom needs into all areas of the bathroom, tile surrounds with in-wall niches for holding items in showers and around bathtubs are extremely popular.

Are Your Locks Safe?

Have you heard of a Bump Key? The bump key is a threat to about 95% of the locks in America.

Standard Locks
Most locks work on a pin tumbler system design that uses a set of lower pins cut at different heights to match the key and a set of top pins that contact the top of the bottom pins. When inserting the right key, the bottom pins are lifted to the correct height, creating an even line between the top and bottom pins so you can turn the key. If one pin is off, the lock cylinder won’t rotate and you can’t turn the key.

The Bump Key
The Bump key can open a lock easily even though it’s not the proper key. By striking the Bump Key in the lock, it transfers a force into the lock system pins making them jump therefore separating the top and bottom pins for a fraction of a second, allowing the lock cylinder to be turned unlocking the lock.

The Pin tumbler lock design is found on most locks we use every day. If a matching bump key is possessed, most likely the lock can be opened in seconds.

Lock Standardization and Quality
There are hundreds of different types of locks available around the world but American manufacturers use primarily use two different key shapes which allows for two kinds of bump keys to open most locks including deadbolts. High quality and deadbolt locks tend to be made to tighter tolerances so the bump key energy transfer process is even more effective.

High Security Locks
Here are some high security locking systems you can research:
- Abloy Protec manufactured in Finland
- Medeco manufactured in Salem, Virginia
- BiLock manufactured in Australia

Protect your home and other valuables by installing bump key proof locks in your home and other valuable areas.

Protect Your Home While Your Away

Over the last year we have done some major whole-house remodeling projects that were as a result of furnace failure while the owners were out of town. This had prompted us to provide some information for caring and protecting your home when leaving for an extended period of time.

It is a good idea to take some precautions to minimize the likelihood of major damage to your home due to equipment malfunction. We have repaired several homes when during lengthy winter vacations the furnace has failed causing freezing and bursting water lines throughout the house. In the summer a washing machine supply hose or icemaker line can burst and with no one home for days, the amount of water damage is unbelievable.

If you are leaving your home to go out of town for more than a few days it is a good idea to:

1. Shut off your water at the main house shut-off by the meter. If you have a well, shut off the well circuit breaker. Do NOT drain the system.

2. Turn off your water heater, or turn it down to ‘vacation’ setting

3. If you are going to be gone for a month or more, fill all drains with RV anti-freeze so they do not dry out. Dry drains will allow sewer gas to flow back into the house.

4. Have a friend or neighbor check your home on a regular basis (daily if possible).

Other things you can do to protect your home while you are gone:

1. Check to see if your furnace thermostat has a battery. If it does, change it yearly. Some thermostats have a battery power supply and do not control the furnace if the battery dies. If this happens while you are on a two-week vacation you will come home to a house full of frozen burst pipes.

2. There are several models of home monitoring systems. Some have a feature that will call to alert you if the temperature of your home drops below a set level. Others are integrated with a thermostat so you can control the temperature of your home from anywhere in the world through phone or internet connection.
If you have any questions about protecting your home, give us a call.

2012 Top 5 Kitchen Remodeling Trends

A successful kitchen remodeling project can be a great return on your investment, since it automatically raises the value of your house. Kitchen remodels bring better utilization of space to meet the demands of lifestyles too – as well as providing better storage.

Hiding Appliances
Tucking away or hiding appliances is a new kitchen remodeling trend that is very popular due to the artistic way of saving space. It improves functionality in the kitchen and also prevents the kitchen from looking too cluttered. Some good examples of concealed appliances are: steam ovens, warming drawers, and built-in coffee centers. Built-in coffee centers, provide a customized cup of coffee with just one press of a button.

Color Trends For Appliances
Stainless steel is a common color choice for over a hundred years now. It has a universal appeal and a shiny appearance, which is often associated with luxury. It also provides a more sterile surface than the others. Black is another favored color. It offers a more formal, yet contemporary appearance and goes with any style. Other popular colors are beige, gray, and cream.

Cabinets
Maple cabinetry is among the most favored kitchen remodel ideas in 2012. Woods with different shades of white or off-white hues make good finishes, as well as dark natural finishes. Finishes that are either light natural or color painted are popular too. There are a variety of trendy styles of cabinets: floating units, cabinets with touch-latch doors, systems that are hidden behind sliding doors, and cabinets with innovative surfaces, such as semi-translucent glass, bamboo, and aluminum.

Countertops
Countertops with custom touches, such as marble pastry slab inserts and wooden butcher blocks will be huge in 2012. Some homeowners even embed concrete with metal and glass bits. Choosing renewable and recycled materials over natural stone, marble and quarts are a great option for those who want to cut down on maintenance. Some of the recycled materials that are used are laminate and paper.

Illumination
Light fixtures are also in the top five kitchen remodeling trends. Accent lighting to draw attention to kitchen decorations like glassware, dishware, and frames are extremely popular. For decorative light fixtures, sconce lighting is a great choice. They spill the light upward or sideways and form attractive backdrops.

2012 Home Remodeling Trends

Remodeling in 2012 is full of new ideas to benefit your home with practicality. Instead of going big and extravagant, people are looking more cost effective and useful features for their home.

Steam showers are on the rise since soaking tubs are rarely used and can be expensive. Homeowners focus their budget on a larger and more comfortable shower for therapeutic effects and conservation of water.

Drop Zones or Mud Rooms are extremely popular because they serve as a great way to de-clutter and organize your home. Cubbies, hooks, or closets are custom designed to hide these items and eliminate clutter in your home.

Formal living rooms are considered wasted space so opening the living room is a new trend that creates a great room that is warm and inviting. An open family room combines the kitchen, living room, and dining room. Creating one big room will help lessen energy consumption and create a more inviting environment.

Developing a lifestyle center for your whole family. Computers and electronics are put in this room for kids to do homework and parents to be able to monitor their children. It’s a versatile room work at home, paying the bills and more - instead of a closed-off office space.

Creating an outdoor living space remains popular. A patio can serve as a secondary dining room or living area. Making this outdoor living space available year-round with electric radiant heat, like slab heating or a snow melting system is the ideal for use all year long. It also makes your house feel larger, by adding sliding doors that lead from inside your house to the patio.

Now is a great time to maintain and clean the inside of your home for the upcoming cold weather months. Plus, it will help you get ready for Holiday parties and gatherings.

• Clean from top to bottom. Vacuum drapes and window treatments. Clean window sills and window wells. Dust curtain rods. Vacuum baseboards and corners.


• Wash the inside of your windows and vacuum screens.


• Vacuum upholstered furniture or have it professionally cleaned. Move all furniture and vacuum beneath and behind it.


• Schedule professional carpet cleaning or clean the carpets yourself with a carpet cleaning system.


• Wash bowls from light fixtures.


• Pull refrigerator away from the wall, and vacuum the condenser coils. For bottom-mounted coils, use a long, narrow brush to clean coils of dust and debris.


• Check and empty the central vacuum's collection area if you home has this system.


• Clean or replace humidifier elements.
  Inspect washer hoses for bulges, cracks or splits. Replace them every other year.


• Check dryer exhaust tube and vent for built-up lint, debris or birds' nests! Make sure the exterior vent door closes tightly when not in use.


• Drain sediment from hot water heaters.
  
  
  
  

Outside The House

With a few warmer days of Fall left, you still have time to finish preparing the outside of your home for winter. Here are some tips and suggestions before cozying up inside your home during the snow and cold.

• Clean and store outside items: patio furniture, umbrellas, children's summer toys and other items.


• Wash exterior windows.


• Check caulk around windows and doors and re-caulk if needed.


• Inspect outside doors and garage doors to make sure they close tightly. Install weather-stripping or door thresholds if needed.


• Touch up paint on house trim, hand railings and decks. Remove flaking paint, prime bare wood and paint.


• Drain and store garden hoses. Install insulating covers on exterior spigots. Have sprinkler systems blown free of water.


• Check gutters and downspouts. Clear leaves and other debris if necessary. Here in Minnesota consider installing heating cable to prevent ice dams.


• Have chimneys and flues inspected and cleaned if necessary.

Updating Your Entertainment Space

As time passes, the way you use your home changes, especially regarding entertainment. Your children grow up and have friends over, technology brings new innovations and maybe the way the way you wan to entertain. Where does leave you? Often with need to make modifications to your home to fit the way you want to use it.

You may want to convert your family or recreation room into a 3D home theater. Or perhaps you would like to add a wet bar in the basement for easy entertaining. In the last year, we have seen a huge increase in wine cellar additions. Updates to entertainment spaces have become one of the most popular types of remodeling projects over the past two years.

We have some great ideas to help you get the most out of your home entertainment space. All our work is custom designed so we can create exactly the space you need with the newest technology and the comforts you want. We can bring you the greatest place in the world to relax and enjoy life without leaving your home.

Remodeling Professionalism

When we started Integrity Home Projects (IHP), our vision was to build a remodeling business that would stand out in the industry with notable ethics and professionalism. Sharing the same family values, the same work ethic, and the same commitment to quality, excellence and customer satisfaction, only reinforced our dedication to being a top-notch professional company. This includes our family of Subcontractors that hold themselves to the same standards we do.

Our extensive backgrounds in engineering, quality control and process management bring our customers a detailed process-based plan for each and every remodeling project. We continually communicate with our customers so they know what is happening every day on their home. This level of commitment and professionalism is our goal because it is the level of service we want to provide our customers.

We are members of NARI, the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, for professional, ethical and honest remodelers committed to the highest standards. We follow the code of ethics every day.

Holiday Remodeling

If doesn’t seem possible but the Holiday season is just around the corner. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s – the perfect time for festive gatherings of friends, family and neighbors in your home. But wait, did you think this was the year for a new wet bar in the basement, new kitchen cabinets or maybe a new floor in the bathroom?

You still have time but it’s going quickly, so call us today so we can determine the best solution for your remodeling needs. With our processes, we give you a project guideline, step-by-step communication and help you with the design and selection of all the items to make your remodeling project fit your budget and timeline.

Plus, you’ll have a new gift to yourself for the Holidays.

Act Now to Reduce Ice Dams

We’ve spent a lot of time recently discussing water and the damaging effect it can have on homes. With the damage that water can cause, we feel it’s critical for us to share solutions for common problems. Fall is here which means winter is around the corner along with the potential for ice dams. If you have had ice dam issues in the past, call us to perform a free assessment of your attic ventilation and insulation. Don’t wait until the ice dams are on the roof and water is coming in the ceiling. In most cases there are immediate improvements that can be made to drastically reduce your ice dam problems.

Don’t ignore the signs of water damage!

It’s easy to look past signs of water damage to your home; the ripple in the paint by the window or the rotten siding under your deck because it doesn’t seem to be doing anything. But not taking action can only cause more damage to your home. In a matter of days mold growth can begin. Over a month or two of leakage into your wall, you can have thousands of dollars of repairs to your home.

The photos below show some examples of water intrusion we have found during window, door and siding replacement projects. In every case, there is evidence all around the damage that it has been there for a long time, but did not get the attention it deserved.

Make sure your house is watertight. At IHP, we can test moisture levels for an assessment of potential repairs. The sooner you catch it, the smaller the repair will be. Give us a call.


Complete rot-through framing from improper deck flashing

Rotten Rim Joist from improper door flashing.

Wall structure water damage from improper window flashing

The Attic’s Weather Role

Has the recent heat this summer in Minnesota soaked through your attic into your house? The amount of insulation in your attic can drastically affect the temperature in your house and the amount of energy you use in air conditioning. Proper ventilation in your attic also plays a huge role in keeping your attic cool. Winter will be coming again before you know it. Keep in mind that these two things, poor insulation and ventilation are the leading cause of ice damns in the winter. We live in an area of serious weather extremes and your attic plays a key role in how well your house performs in those extremes.

We can give you the information you need to properly maintain an attic helps monitor the ventilation in your home.

Humidity In Your Home

Whew – this week in Minnesota has been hot and very humid. So it seemed like a good time to remind people about that fact that we do need humidity in our homes, although this week it is has been a little bit too much!

What is Humidity?
Humidity is the amount of moisture or water vapor in the air. A comfortable range of relative humidity is between 40 and 60 percent. If the humidity is too low, people may experience having dry nose, throat, lips and skin. Low humidity may also wreak havoc on your home, causing static electricity, cracks in furniture and paint, and peeling wallpaper. High humidity feels stuffy and creates an environment in which biological contaminants can thrive.

Moisture can be added or removed from indoor air to make a room feel more comfortable. Home humidifiers add moisture and there are several kinds:

• Console humidifiers are in cabinets that stand on the floor, and are usually kept in the same position in a home
• Ultrasonic humidifiers, which create a cool mist using ultrasonic sound vibrations
• Impellers, or cool-mist humidifiers, which create a cool mist using a high-speed rotating disk
• Evaporators, which transmit moisture into the air invisibly using a fan to blow air through a moistened absorbent material, such as a belt, wick, filter, or evaporative cartridge.
• Steam, or "warm mist" vaporizers, which create steam by heating water with an electrical heating element, and allow steam to cool before it is released into the room.
• Central humidifiers are built into heating and air-conditioning systems, and are used to increase the humidity level in an entire home.

As always, IHP is here to help you to determine what is best for your home. Give us a call.

Being Sump Pump Prepared.

We have been helping customers with more Basement finishing and remodeling this past year as the economy recovers in the Minneapolis metro area. One thing to think about when finishing or remodeling a basement is the possibility of water problems. This past wet spring has sump pumps running constantly in many basements. If your pump fails or if the power goes you could have several inches of water on your basement floor very quickly.

We strongly recommend the installation of a back-up sump pump for any basement that has an existing sump. We discourage battery back-up pumps due to constant battery monitoring and maintenance. Plus, if you lose power for more than an hour or two the battery will drain, the back-up pump stops and you still have flooding. Installing a Zoeller® Home Guard Max back up pump that is powered by your city water is a great solution. The motor is turned by water flow that is connected to your city water line, which never loses pressure. The water powered pump keeps water out of your basement until you restore your electric pump. It pumps out two gallons of sump water for each gallon of city water used. This is not intended for use as a primary pump, but is the best back-up pump solution hands down. For more information on the pumping system check out: http://www.zoellerpumps.com/ProductBenefit.aspx?ProductID=65.

For all your basement finishing and remodeling needs, give us a call.

Relax and Enjoy a Porch

Building a porch addition can immediately add value and instant curb appeal to any home. Plus it gives you extra living and entertainment space to the front, side or back of your home.

A porch addition can be as simple as replacing an existing pediment with a roof over the entrance or by adding more with a "shed roof" or a gable roof complete with skylights! In addition to placing a roof over an entrance, a combination front porch and screened room is a great option by extending both the roof and the size to make it a large outdoor living space. Keep in mind, the porch style needs to match or complement the home's architecture. The materials used to build the porch determine if feels like a part of the house or an extension of the outdoor area. The new porch should match your existing home or you can design a variation that complements the original house. The columns should be the primary focus of the design to create visually interest and depth as an integral part of the home.

Don’t forget to consider your lighting needs and electrical requirements as well as design features for the columns, railings, doors, and decking for your porch.

Additional Considerations:
Unexpected elements can really add impact to your porch:
- Fireplace
- Built-in Grill
- Ceiling fans
- Speakers
- Built-in bookshelk
- Bench swing or a hammock

Home before Porch Addition













Home after Porch Addition

Deck Living

Summer is almost here in Minnesota. It’s time to enjoy the outdoors and entertain family and friends with grilling and parties. A new or remodeled deck can expand your living space to the outside with comfort, convenience and beauty. There are many decking options to make your outdoor living just right for your home. Here are some ideas:

• Enclose your deck with a roof for shade and a decorative addition.


• Get Creative - rail systems can be made from wood, metal and cable or as a combination of materials


• Add accents around your deck with: Lighting, built in seating, planters and more


• Feature metal accents as pole caps, accessories and other interesting creative ideas


• Build a store closet on your deck to hold and organize items for your deck


• Add Vinyl flooring for decks, a choice that is becoming more popular as an excellent alternative to wood

In addition to the top of the deck, you can add a water drainage system to allow you to comfortably use the space under a high deck. These systems divert water away from the deck to create a dry space below – now having double the outdoor living area.

Hail and Storm Damage

Hail and storm damage to your home can be stressful. It’s a necessary repair from the unexpected that needs to be addressed immediately to restore your home. Sometimes home owners don’t even realize they have damage from hail - small to moderately-sized hail can produce roof damage and result is not always visible. Hail can affect the life expectancy of your roof and you should have it checked out by a professional.

Damage to siding, gutters, roofing and windows from hail or structural damage from wind should be inspected with a contractor that has set processes in place to handle your storm damage insurance claim. We do at Integrity Home Projects.

The first step is a thorough inspection of your home for qualifying damage repair, next is a meeting with your insurance adjuster. At IHP, we handle the meeting and manage the paperwork, supplemental claims, depreciation recovery, and final distribution settlement. We work to make a stressful situation a process that makes it easy for you.

9 Years for IHP!

Integrity Home Projects was founded in April of 2002 with a vision of creating a remodeling services company that would stand out in the industry with notable ethics and professionalism. We started this company to help people realize their dreams for their home. Integrity Home Projects has enjoyed steady and continuous growth since the start of the company keeping us busy and happy to be working with our customers. With over half of our business based on direct referrals and repeat business, satisfied customers are the key to our success. We thank all of our customers for their business and referrals. We wouldn’t be here without them.

At IHP, we will continue to provide outstanding service for our customers through our professional approach and detailed process-based business philosophy. Thanks for a great nine years!

-Dan & Brian

Home Exteriors

Spring is here. It’s time to refresh and give your home a new look and lots of curb appeal. Changing the look of a home's exterior with a facelift can bring a new modern look to your home or just give you the style you want. Something as basic as using new paint colors can update a home. A plain exterior can be made more distinctive by adding a package of coordinated trim. Or you can go for the truly dramatic by adding porches, columns or dormers to totally change the character of your house. Some ideas for giving your home a new look are:

• New paint color(s)


• New trim packages, colors or accents


• Adding stone to exteriors


• Including columns and archways


• A new patio or front porch Switching siding to hail-proof Hardie Cement board siding http://www.jameshardie.com/

Before Exterior Remodel

After Exterior Remodel & Design

For more ideas that bring a new look to your home, call Integrity Home Projects.