Archives: Design

Colonial Home Exterior Design Features

By Todd Fratzel on Design, House Plans

Colonial Home Design Recently a friend of ours shared a photo he took of our home last fall. I wanted to share it here and point out some of the design features of our colonial home. When it comes to two story homes the colonial style is by far the most cost effective type of…

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Tray Ceilings Add Elegance To Rooms

By Todd Fratzel on Design, Framing, Interior Decorating

Tray Ceilings Ceilings are typically quite boring unless you create some special details such as tray ceilings. We built a really elegant tray ceiling in the custom Energy Star ranch style home we’re building for a customer. As you can see in the photos the tray ceiling really adds a unique feature to the room…

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2010 International Builder’s Show – Day 2

By Todd Fratzel on Design

2010 International Builder’s Show Day 2 at the IBS was packed with fun demonstrations and meetings with folks that we’ve been working with on HCI. We also had the pleasure of meeting some new folks from companies that will be excited to feature here. Our second day at the show also featured some of the…

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Kids Play Room | Closet Factory Design Consultation

By Todd Fratzel on Closets & Storage, Design, Interior Decorating

Closet Factory Design Consultation Recently we decided that we wanted remodel our children’s play room. In a previous article we also announced that we’ll be using the design and installation services from the Closet Factory. One of the reasons that we’re going to use Closet Factory for this remodeling project is because they offer design…

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Kids Play Room Makeover Coming Soon

By Todd Fratzel on Closets & Storage, Design, Interior Decorating

Kids Playroom Organization Project We’ve lived in our new home just over three years and there’s still plenty to do before every room is completely finished the way we want. Our large colonial style home features four bedrooms and a bonus room that we’ve turned into a kids play room. Currently the room is very…

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Free Sketching (CAD) Software by Autodesk

By Todd Fratzel on Design

Autodesk Introduces Project Cooper Autodesk, the maker of AutoCAD drafting software has just released a free sketching/drafting program called Project Cooper. This is something that be a huge hit with DIY’ers that want to create their own plans for additions, floor plans, lanscaping projects and plans that require scaled drawings. Normal drafting (CAD) software is…

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Avoiding Project Creep and Budget Overuns

By Todd Fratzel on Design, Home Improvement Cost Savings

Project Creep Equals Busted Budgets Ever heard the term Project Creep before? Project Creep is defined as a break down in the management of a construction project that loses sight of the original goals. Typically it puts a project in jeopardy by slowly growing the scope with small changes. The small changes may seem insignificant…

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Unique Roof Measuring Service

By Todd Fratzel on Design, Product Reviews, Roofing

GeoEstimator – Safe & Inexpensive Roof Measurements Recently I stumbled upon a very cool new service for the construction industry that really caught my eye. GeoEstimator is a service that measures roof dimensions using satellite and aerial photography. They have a sophisticated software system that helps them create a report that includes all the major…

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