What’s Your Style? A Guide to America’s Most Common Home Styles Styles of houses vary across the country. From the New England Cape Cod to the Victorians of San Francisco, the choices are almost endless. Knowing which style you prefer is one of the basic elements in your hunt for the perfect home. Following is a quick guide to help you recognize and use the professional terms for many of the most prevalent house styles: Ranch: these long, low houses rank among the most popular Continue Reading ...

Understanding Shingle Architecture Shingle architecture helped define the look of many of America's most popular waterfront communities in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Reminiscent of the Queen Anne style, this building form helped residents make the most of lake and ocean real estate with a variety of ornamental features to enhance view, and construction materials that worked well in wet, coastal climates. As the name suggests, Shingle architecture relies heavily on the use of shingles Continue Reading ...

Windows NT Windows NT was released by Microsoft Corporation in 1993 as a successor to the previous versions of Windows. It was designed to be a powerful, high-level language based processor independent operating system with features compatible to Unix systems. This version of Windows complemented work station versions running on MS-DOS. A main design goal of Windows NT was hardware and software portability. Versions of this operating system were available for a variety of processor Continue Reading ...

Simple Ways to Protect Your Home from Nature Well, for those home owners who do not have storm shutters, storm windows or storm doors you might just be relying on your insurance. For anyone whom has ever dealt with insurance knows that not only does it take a long time to receive funds but the process itself and time spent is not worth it. As technology increases so do the ways that we are able to protect our homes from nature’s fury. Storm windows are engineered to withstand extreme Continue Reading ...

Roofing Q&A: New Roof And Re-Roofing Answers * How do I know if I need a new roof? The roof should always be checked. You should keep tabs of its state. The following are signs that you may need a new roof. · Your roof is between twenty and twenty five years old. · The shingles are excessively cracking, curling, or they are blistering. · There are many shingles that are missing and/are torn or damaged. · The roof is leaking in many places. * How much does a new roof Continue Reading ...

The Advantages of James Hardie Siding Products One name that stands out in the fiber-cement siding industry is James Hardie siding. Its operations cover the United States, New Zealand and Australia. Asia has also enjoyed the product lines of James Hardie siding as they have a manufacturing plant in the Philippines. James Hardie siding products are a result of the company’s drive to be number one in the fiber-cement industry. They boast of their leadership in terms of the quality of Continue Reading ...

Bay Windows Add Character And Space To A Home It was the perfect spot. Our California ranch style house had a large picture window in the front room. The window extended from a few inches above the floor to only a few inches below the cathedral ceiling. The walls and ceiling were redwood stained knotty pine and the floor was a matching hardwood. The window looked out over a flower bed, shrubs and the expanse of front lawn. It was the perfect window to be replaced with a bay window. The Continue Reading ...

Guide To Hiring A Roofer The average life of a roof is approximately fifteen years. If the roof is under fifteen years old yet you are having problems, it will likely be able to get repaired as opposed to having to install a completely new roof. However, if your roof exceeds this age it may be necessary to install a new roof. To accomplish either repairs or new installs, a roofing contractor should be employed. A roofer will be able to properly install or repair roofing materials to ensure Continue Reading ...

The Advantages Of Metal Roofing Roofing is an important part of your house construction or your home improvement tasks, you know that you should invest not only money but time and planning into your new roof and that some research and extra information would not hurt. The roofing market has a lot to offer the consumer today, there are many different kinds of roofing solutions, from different materials and with varying costs attached to the materials and the work. A roofing solution that Continue Reading ...