Our clients love us to death, our mothers can’t get enough of us and we think we’re pretty cool. But as of this year, we are officially something special in the eyes of industry leaders.

We were selected for two regional National Association of the Remodeling Industry(NARI) awards in 2008 – One for an exterior renovation in Shawnee, KS and the other for an exterior renovation in Olathe, KS. We replaced siding, installed new windows, painted the exterior, installed new entry doors, replaced garage doors and upgraded the landscaping of the home.

This year, we were again selected for two regional NARI awards. We remodeled a kitchen in Raytown, and we preformed a whole house exterior remodel on a home in Olathe, KS. Both received awards. We were pretty stoked to win another set of awards on the regional level.

But we learned this past weekend that we were going to be awarded ANOTHER set of awards on the national level (and by “set” we mean two).

The Contractor of the Year (CotY) awards are given each year by NARI headquarters to members who have demonstrated outstanding work through their remodeling projects.

We will pick our CotY awards (did I mention there were two?) up in Phoenix, AZ at the recognition ceremony this April.

And if you’d like to join us, all airfare & accommodations are completely not provided for by us. But we’d love to have you! Holler if you want to come golfing.

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Economy is jacked. Bonuses have been pulled. Household budget is struggling to keep its head above water.

You’re well aware of this. The kids know all about it. Hell, the dog has even accepted the circumstances for what they are. Everybody is doing their part in making sacrifices and concessions.

But what about the house? What sort of concessions have you asked your house to make during the past year or so? Is your house all too aware of your current financial situation?

Despite it’s kindness and unsurpassed level of understanding, has your house ceased to require maintenance? Does it no longer require replacements? Has it agreed to hold off on all pressing projects until “things get better?”

If this is the assumption you’re operating under, then might I suggest you reconsider your hypothesis.

Your house is your largest investment (tired of hearing me say that, yet?) and it should be treated as such. Rocky financial times may not afford you the ability to turn your queen-size bedroom into a king-size master suite. But the necessary maintenance and replaceable items of your home should not be left to they wayside.

Windows, siding, roofing and guttering need to be considered absolutes on your home’s maintenance and replacement checklist. With the case of each of these items, failure to replace them in a timely manner will most always result in higher paid costs later on down the road.

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Seriously. How rational does that sound?

I had to have a heart to heart with a client the other day. We were wrapping her kitchen remodel project up and she told me she was ready to go ahead and replace the windows throughout the home. We talked product and pricing, but when we started to talk scheduling, she told me she figured she’d just suffer through the winter as is, and schedule installation in the spring.

“Why in the world would you want to go and do that?” I said.

A very common misconception lies within most homeowners. They believe the winter months are inconvenient times to purchase and install replacement windows due to harsh elements and bitter temperatures. They make the logical – albeit false – assumption that a window replacement project would open the house up to the winter elements, thereby turning the cozy Kansas City home into an Alaskan igloo.

Not the case.

The average time a home is open to the elements during a professional window install is 10 minutes. (I say professional because I can only speak from the standpoint to which I work from. Those other guys, however – well, I’m not sure why you’d let them into your home in the first place. But that’s an entirely different blog topic in and of itself).

Windows are the #1 source of energy loss in any home. Choosing to wait any additional amount of time before replacement is costly and unnecessary.

Questions? Request for estimate? Interested in promos and discounts? You know where to find us.

(Quite clearly, we did not conceptualize or draw the hilarious image displayed above – hence the multiple forms of credit stamped throughout).

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The weirdest thing happened to me several years back.

I took a vacation to Arizona during the winter season and I stayed in one of those fancy-shmancy hotels on a hill. The resort was fantastic. It offered amenities such as slippers and bathrobes, pricey water bottles, on-site spa services and clean sheets. The shower soaps were sweetly scented and the bath towels were over-sized and plush.

Now. The ‘weird thing’ had nothing to do with the fact that I had been allowed onto the premises of such a a luxurious property. The ‘weird thing’ had everything to do with the interestingly hot floor space.

I stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom to brush my teeth and to quickly evaluate what type of hair day I would be having. As I stood there on the ceramic tile floor, brushing my teeth, I took note that my feet were not being affected by the cold, tile surface. In fact, they were experiencing an unusual, yet pleasant, warming sensation.

Heated tile floors are absolutely fantastic. Their popularity may exist amongst high-end resorts, but more and more, homeowners are getting in on this fun little detail.

These systems are typically only about 1/8″ thick and they install conveniently on top of your sub floor. The system embeds within the thinset cement that is used to lay the tile. Lead wires will run from the heated mat to a thermostat (usually located in the gang box next to a light switch).

In terms of cost, you should expect to budget an average of $2-$3/square foot for installation. Additional fees will be required for electrical work (budget $300). According to our web research, a typical bathroom tile floor heating system will cost approximately $800.

Necessary? Probably not. Luxurious, sexy and fun? You betcha.

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