Building a Home AdditonWritten by Mark J. Donovan
Besides providing your home with more living space, a home addition can be a terrific investment. However, before embarking on such a project homeowner should first consider several important items. These items include: home market values in neighborhood, financing, size and scale of project, architecture, timetable for completion, personal disruption/inconvenience threshold and sweat equity commitment level. Size of Addition and Market ValuePrior to actually breaking ground on a home addition, it is best to first determine what you are looking for in terms of additional living space. For example: How many square feet? What types of rooms? Once this is understood, it is then important to find out market value of homes in local area with similar size and features to new and improved home. With this information homeowner can then calculate difference between their current home market value and new and improved home market value. This difference should represent maximum budget for new addition if a positive investment is desired. For example, a homeowner would not want to spend $50,000 on a new home addition that provides only $25,000 in increased market value to improved home. Financing The next important question involves how to fund home addition. Unless project is being funded via cash/savings then financing will be required. If current mortgage rates are higher than existing mortgage, then a home equity loan will probably make most sense. If current mortgage rates are lower than existing mortgage, then refinancing entire home, including cost of home addition project, may make most sense. Architectural Considerations Once financial items have been addressed it is then time to focus on size and scale of project, as well as architectural and aesthetics of new addition. The addition should be of size and scale such that it aesthetically melds into original house. It should not be too small or too big. Frequently, homeowners get carried away and add large amounts of new living space without sufficient thought on outside appearance. From a market value, there is more to a home than just pure living space. A home needs to maintain its exterior aesthetics as well. It is important to consider such items as siding, doors, windows, rooflines, and elevations. All should meld into existing home exterior seamlessly and aesthetically.
| | Smart Home NetworkingWritten by Leviton Integrated Networks
Leviton Integrated Networks takes concept of structured cabling, as practiced in demanding commercial applications, and combines it with multimedia. This blending accommodates convergence of telephone communications, computer and Internet services, audio/video, and much more. An innovative series of modules and media centers – set up as either pre-configured essential platforms or more customized enhanced platforms – manage and distribute voice, data, audio and video in flexible configurations and typical packages that best suit each homeowner’s individual requirements These requirements can range from something as simple as cable TV and telephone in several rooms, to a local area network (LAN) for a small office or home-based business, to a sophisticated home theater entertainment center.
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