How much is your family's health worth? If you're already doing a remodel, install a whole-home water filtration system.

If you are planning to remodel, or are in the process of a remodeling project, the time is right to insure a healthier and more convenient lifestyle. One of the most important aspects of day-to-day living is the quality of the water used for everything throughout your home.

With remodel projects on the rise, people are staying in their current home and updating it with today’s latest amenities. With this comes a desire to take control of internal environmental issues, not least of which is the quality of water. Water touches us in numerous ways in our home every day, from consumption and cooking to cleaning and washing.

D & S Kuhn, Inc. has helped discerning clients incorporate whole house filtration systems that address a myriad of water quality issues. The latest state of the art systems are custom-built and installed by Pure Elements, Inc. of Newport Beach, California. Many of today’s leading healthcare and longevity experts are referring clients to Pure Elements because high-quality, chemical-free water in the bath and shower as well as for drinking is critical in the search for optimal health. Readmore…

Do you know how much you should pay, or NOT pay, for architect's plans?

A small mistake early on in a construction project can costs thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, sadly. Take, for instance, clients who purchased a property in San Juan Capistrano; this property overlooks the ocean and was intended to be their dream home to retire in.

They hired a very well-known contemporary architect to design the home, because they loved that style and thought it would be a match made in heaven. Because the architect was so well known, the clients didn’t comb the contract as closely as they would have with an architect of lesser reputation. They certainly didn’t understand how clever the architect was at drafting a contract that would allow him free reign to charge as many hours as he wanted. And unfortunately, although they did gloss over the contract, they didn’t get either a lawyer or an owner’s representative to look it over for the fine print.

As the project begins, red flags start to pop up, the first being that the architect is not designing the home to the clients’ specifications, but rather designing a home that fits into his oeuvre of past work; in other words, it will be another example in his portfolio of masterpieces. Readmore…

Everyone knows that making improvements on your home can affect the selling price and, let’s face it, in this crazy, mixed-up economy, we need all the help we can get. People are concerned about if the housing market will improve (and when), if this is a “double-dip” recession, and whether or not their savings will survive the stock market’s volatility.

Since it will take a while for the housing market to recover from the last few years, it’s time to get back to doing what our parents did when they owned a home, before this trend of “flipping” started: remodel.

But where do you start? What should you do first? Everyone has a budget, large or small, and it pays to plan how that money should be spent. There’s no point in starting a project, then running out of funds before it’s completed. Readmore…