Basement Ceiling Ideas – Creative Basement Renovations The Easy Way

One of the most significant things to consider when renovating your basement is the basement ceiling. There are unique basement ceiling ideas to make your ceiling a place that you wish it to be. People find basement ceilings somewhat ugly and if you are of the same belief, then you have to do something about it. Most persons want their basement to be inviting and comfortable, instead of that miserable look usually associated with an unfinished basement. Basement ceilings may either be dry walled or suspended. You can opt which kind to install but always consider including ornamental touches in order to make them appear just like any other rooms in your home.

Suspended Basement Ceilings

Suspended basement ceilings are business in nature but there are also benefits. The structure helps hamper noise levels especially if you are there in your basement working. Moreover, the topmost part of the ceiling can be accessed with expediency. If wires and ducts run on top of your ceiling, having a suspended ceiling makes them completely reachable.

Dry-Walled Ceilings

Another basement ceiling idea is to set up dry-walled ceiling which imparts itself to several preferences of basement remodeling. It requires a great deal of hard work, effort and rental tools to put in a dry-walled ceiling. It is also simple to wrap up and spruce up. If entry to pipes and wires running along your ceiling is required, you can either incorporate it in the plan or furnish an opening to it. To accentuate the ceiling, you may utilize neat and cute tiles for an extensive polished look.

Ceiling Mirrors

One more basement ceiling option is to set up ceiling mirrors. Installing mirrors on the ceiling intensifies the lighting that you have in your basement. You can use mirrored tiles in an inspired way for your basement to emerge larger than its real length. This is an effective ocular misconception for smaller basements. Make sure that your ceiling is not so low to avert fortuitously breaking up the mirrors.

Squandering much time and money on your basement will absolutely depends on what you propose to do with it. You can use a very meager amount or you can use a small fortune. The best thing though is that, a large extent of the work you perform will boost your home’s worth and charm at any time you might come to a resolution to sell it.

Inexpensive Updates to Sell Your Kitchen

It’s no secret that kitchens sell homes, so if you’re looking to put your home on the market take a look at your kitchen and see what kind of updates you can do to make it more appealing to prospective buyers.

Painting is the easiest way to give your kitchen a clean new look. Make sure that you use a good degreaser on the walls in the kitchen before painting as years of cooking can leave your walls sticky with old oil. It’s also not a bad idea to prime the walls before painting to leave the best possible finish for the paint to grip to. Paint the kitchen with a good washable paint; consider bright or off-white with a colored accent wall or strip.

When you’re done with the painting, you may want to add a back splash to your kitchen; back splashes protect the paint above the counter tops from cooking residue and getting banged up from appliances getting moved around on the counters. Backsplashes can be made from the same material as your counters or different types of tiles like ceramic, stone, marble, or metal. Try to stick with materials and colors that are fairly neutral; many prospective buyers don’t want to buy anything too outrageously decorated and a nice neutral palette allows them to customise it to their liking.

If your kitchen is large enough, consider adding a stand-alone workstation; a workstation that isn’t built in gives a prospective buyer the option of using that space however they like, while showing them that a kitchen island is a viable addition to the room. To give yourself an extra special workstation, get a workstation with a butcher block top for cutting on.

Another great way to perk up a kitchen is to add updated lighting; many kitchens have inadequate lighting for working. All the work areas in your kitchen should be lit: sink, food prep areas, and stove. There are a variety of products that work well for under-cabinet lighting which can really brighten up your counter top work space. Adequate lighting by the sink is essential; even if your sink is by a window it’s important to have an artificial light source for washing up when it’s dark outside. Pot lights that are set into the ceiling are nice and bright and are less obvious than other styles of light fixtures.

For those homeowners willing to put more time and money into increasing their kitchen’s appeal, there is also the option of cleaning up or changing the cabinetry. The most simple options for the cabinets: include giving them a good thorough cleaning with a degreaser, paint or refinish them, replace the hardware or cabinet doors, or even just take off the doors and painting the shelves for an open shelf style. If you want to spend a little more you can install new cabinets or custom open shelves in your kitchen.

The limits to what you can do to perk up and update your kitchen are almost endless and mostly depend on how much time and money you want to invest in prepping your home to sell; if you have any questions about which of the available options might give you the most return for your effort, try consulting with a kitchen designer or a realtor for advice.

Ten Tips For The Perfect Bathroom or Wet Room

1 Storage, storage, storage

A bathroom’s priority is storage. This might mean a large, low level cupboard that sits hidden beneath two curvaceous, countertop sinks. Or a wall cupboard, either with doors painted to blend in with the tile surrounds or with mirrored doors that reflect light and make the space seem bigger. If space is tight, wall-hung units might be your only option and if this is the case, choose mirrored doors to make the room look bigger from the reflection.

2 Make it practical but stylish

Two sinks are highly practical if you’ve got kids and they’re also very fashionable. When it comes to the bath, a big one is a plus point for a family so if you can fit one in, do! And by placing the taps on the wall at its centre rather than at one end, you will give it that elusive ‘spa’ feeling that a lot of baths lack.

3 Family friendly can be good looking

As for floors and walls, the more areas covered by wipe-clean and waterproof surfaces the better. Tiles are the number one choice but if you’re covering a large area then choose big ones as they’ll make the space seem bigger as well. Go for a sophisticated finish, such as a slate-effect, then indulge in an enormous mirror and good lighting to make it as light and bright as possible.

4 Make lighting a priority

A small bathroom cries out for good lighting so take out the central light fitting and go for halogen spots that mimic natural daylight.

5 Pick a show off

One focal piece – whether it’s a slightly impractical but good looking enormous sink, a sexy shower head or even just a fabulous mirror – will give the room instant character and turn it from a practical, apologetic cell into a room you’ll want to be in.

6 Choose clever surfaces

Use every trick to make a low-ceilinged room look taller. A white ceiling and good lighting will help, as will low-slung fittings. As for the surface, pick large, light-coloured tiles to enhance the space or go for something more unusual, such as wood veneer panelling.

7 Let in natural light

You need to get natural daylight into your bathroom any way you can. Put a big skylight in a loft room but if small windows are the only option, undress them completely and replace the glass with frosted panes or fit white roller blinds on for privacy.

8 Zone: Your room

If your bathroom combines with a wet room, a step to confine the wet area is a must. You needn’t splash out on getting one built in to your floor though – a super-size shallow shower tray does the job.

9 Ditch the shower curtain

A bathroom needs to look super-sleek to work well, so ditch the idea of a shower curtain in favour of a smart, glazed panel or door. Where do you hang it in a wet room though? It needn’t go right across the opening to the wet room – they are supposed to be open, after all – just hang it so that the shower area is accessible but not awkward to reach.

10 Get the flooring right

Bathroom and wet room floors need to be non-slip as well as waterproof. That means natural stone (not marble), treated concrete, treated dark woods such as teak, and Corian.

Cool Ways to Section Off Space

Do you have a room or space that you need to partition or section off? Well, there are many attractive, creative and innovative options available for the same. Depending on what your need is you can choose from the various options.

You have the standard option of using a screen. This could be a wooden screen that comes with carvings on them or the oriental cloth screen on a wooden frame. You could get innovative with the screen and have a painted canvas screen as a room divider. Another possibility is to get a favourite photo printed on a fabric screen to be used as a divider. The height of the frame can be chosen based on the amount of privacy you want to create. There are options available where the screen can be folded and kept aside when not needed.

The curtains are another beautiful and attractive way to section off space. You have the liberty to choose the fabric, the colour and the theme. You can choose between readymade curtains that are available and creating your curtain from scratch. They can be used as room dividers from ceiling to floor giving complete privacy. Curtains also give you the flexibility to maintain partial privacy. When you need the entire room to be completely open the curtains can be held back. You could also get beaded curtains. The beads could be made of acrylic, wood, bamboo, shells or fabric. Again you have limitless choice and designs available.

If you like plants and would like to have a few indoor plants around, why not use them as your room divider. Put them in beautiful containers and display them. The ideal plants would be bamboo, dracaena, palm or the ficus. Be sure to choose a plant that isn’t harmful to your pets. You could have each plant or tree put in separate container to form your divider.

A different manner in which plants can be used as a divider is along with trellises. It is best to use the trellis along with a planter box. You could have some beautiful indoor flowers in the planter with elegant vines climbing the trellis. Do remember that using plants as a divider is not going to give you complete privacy. But you are sure to have a pleasant and eye catching sight in the room.

A well designed sideboard or cabinet could be another option that you can use to section off your room. Of course this will not result in creating two separate and private areas but it will act as a good divider. The cabinet can be used to store things as well.

You could have the outside of the cabinet designed in glass, wood or leather to match your room’s settings. Instead of a cabinet you could also use a solid bookcase to divide the room. Other storage options too could be used as a divider. You could have a show case that has shelves or sections open on both sides where beautiful curios can be displayed.

Your creativity can help increase the options available. Make sure to choose a room divider that makes your space look beautiful and at the same time meets your requirements.

Ten Ways to Design & Decorate Your Bedroom

1. Use colour cleverly

Pale, cool colours are receding, and will make the room appear bigger, whereas stronger, warm shades advance to create a cosy atmosphere. In a long, narrow bedroom, painting the shorter walls in a deeper colour than the longer ones will help to widen it. In a dark room, choose reflective wallpapers.

2. Choose soothing shades for a good night’s sleep

Soft blues and greens are calming and tranquil, so conducive to a good night’s sleep. But the more pastel these colours are, the colder they can look in a north-facing room, so go for pinks and lilacs for an injection of warmth, instead.

3. Pick dramatic tones for a contemporary look

Don’t be afraid of stronger, deeper tones, such as sage and aubergine, deep turquoise or chocolate brown – either all over or on a single wall as an accent – which look smart teamed with fresh white bedlinen.

4. Neutral shades are easy to add to

Neutral, natural shades work well too, though creams are far more relaxing than wall to wall white, which can appear stark and clinical, and you can always add extra colour with bedlinen, throws and other accessories.

5. Test your colour choices

As your scheme needs to look good day and night, test out the colours first by painting them on to sheets of paper which can be moved round the room, so you can see how changes in light affect them.

6. Introduce pattern

Chosen carefully, pattern will lift a room and bring it to life, but get it wrong and it will look fussy and confusing. To avoid this, stick to the same key shades throughout, and balance patterned areas with expanses of single colours.

7. Play with your room’s proportions

If you want to disguise the fact that your bedroom has a small window, but a great fireplace, decorating the fireplace wall with a pattern, then hanging a plain, co-ordinating blind will play to the room’s good points. Equally, pattern can exaggerate the size of a room – for example, vertical stripes – perhaps in floor to ceiling curtains – will give the illusion of extra height.

8. Create a focal wall

The easiest way to introduce pattern is by papering one wall – behind the bed, for example – or by adding curtains in a coordinating printed fabric. If you’re not sure about pattern, and want something less something less permanent, ring the changes with a new set of bedlinen.

9. Pile on the layers

Adding colour in your bedlinen choice is a really easy option – and simple to swap about if you get bored. Once you’ve decided on the bedlinen, add texture by piling on throws and cushions in varying sizes to create a sumptuous, yet cosy effect that will make early nights a top priority.

10. Texture will make the room welcoming

Adding texture with different fabrics and materials is also a great way to enhance your bedroom’s scheme. Quilted or embroidered silks are sophisticated yet romantic, while tactile lace or mohair knitted blankets are warm and inviting. Look out too for faux furs, faux animal skins and thick chenilles, perfect for cuddling up to on a chilly night.

How to Make Golf Sponsorship Work

In recent days, the PGA Tour has announced its 2009 Fall Series schedule. Currently, it is missing two events from last season due to the departure of the Ginn sur Mer Classic and the move of the Valero Texas Open to the new Texas Swing in May.

The first real gap on the PGA Tour schedule in several years has caused the media community to go on the offensive about the Tour’s woes. Lorne Rubenstein, Dave Seanor, and Gary Van Sickle have all penned pieces talking about how the Tour needs to not lose sight of rank and file golfers.

Most talk about how the Tour and its best players shield themselves from criticism under the moniker of the “independent contractor” relationship that the players have with the Tour. Others have discussed the need to revamp the 15-tournament floor to keep a Tour card. Some others have attacked problems with the Tour’s scheduling and purses that have been known for years. Across the board, the writers really are saying nothing new in the criticisms they are levying. Rather, they’re recycling old material in light of new particulars to the problems.

It is true that the PGA Tour is facing sponsorship issues. With many tournament sponsorships agreements ending this year and next (along with the LPGA Tour on a much more staggering scale), the PGA Tour faces a difficult environment in which to negotiate new deals.

Considering the 40% drop in the stock market this year, skyrocketing unemployment, and somewhere in the area of $5 trillion in bailout lending, the PGA Tour can be assured of a tough go at retaining all of its sponsors and tournaments. Many of the companies that are in the cauldron of this crisis are sponsors of the Tour in a big time way. General Motors is a prime example, but the Tour is also heavily leveraged in the financial sector. It is no secret where that industry is. Ginn’s removal from the schedule is no shock. It would have been a bigger deal had they remained.

Still, the Tour has a track record of pulling a rabbit out of the hat. The Tour negotiated its way through the miniature recession following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In fact, the Tour managed to grow amidst that crisis.

In economic terms, though, this recession is different. It will clearly last longer – maybe two years or more – and is on a much larger scale. The contagion and its impacts are felt more globally than what followed 9/11. The amount of merger, acquisition, and bankruptcy activity is much higher.

The Tour also must renegotiate in a period of increased competition. The Race to Dubai on the European Tour has lured some of its higher profile players to more starts in Europe this season. Their schedule features 11 TBAs, has already cancelled a tournament, and is now playing for the same pool of multinational corporations that could sponsor their events as the PGA Tour.

There is no question that the PGA Tour faces a sponsorship environment unlike anything it has seen in its history. That said, the same old criticisms may not be the right ones to levy and address when trying to ensure the health of the Tour into the future. Still others are part of the problem that must be solved.

In a message delivered from Commissioner Tim Finchem to players and their agents, he pleaded with players to add extra tournaments to their schedule for the ’09 year. Given that they are only compelled to play a minimum of 15 events each year, players are not required to comply with Finchem’s request. The aim, though, is to give a boost to struggling tournaments by giving them a deeper, more attractive field.

Why not, instead, institute the PGA Tour version of the LPGA Tour’s rule that requires players to start in each event at least once every four years or face a fine?

That solution may backfire on the Tour, which is why they resist implementing it. The biggest events — and generally with it, the biggest sponsors — get the best players consistently. If the Tour were to implement this rule, players would not consistently show up at certain stops. It would reduce the value of sponsorship to these high-end sponsors because they would not be guaranteed the Tigers and Phils of golf each season. Also, Tiger and Phil specifically would balk at the proposal and likely consider European Tour membership because of its lax minimums and policy on appearance fees.

At the same time, the Tour risks further alienation of its “second Tour” — the events in which Tiger and the best do not routinely play — by not doing something to promote a more egalitarian schedule that benefits the fans and sponsors.

The solution may be an implementation of the “one in four” rule, but with a kickback to sponsors that suffer as a result of the rule. Northern Trust would be thrilled if Tiger had to play Riviera once every four years (and still stayed on Tour). Wells Fargo, new owner of Wachovia, would be angry. The Tour would have to be willing to reduce the sponsorship cost or provide additional perks, like free ad time, to balance out the cost of not having the same atmosphere in the corporate tents. It would take several years of this practice before sponsors would be accustomed to the notion of this kind of PGA Tour.

For those that would complain that the PGA Tour players would rebel against such a requirement, I only need tell you that the PGA Tour (largely thanks to Tiger Woods) made 104 players into instant millionaires this season. They’ll take their orders with a smile so long as they are being paid handsomely.

The Tour can really only pick one option between implementing a one in four rule or increasing the minimum number of tournaments for players. Finchem simply cannot increase the minimum number of events required on the schedule. Given the European Tour’s easy-to-attain minimum of 12 events, the PGA Tour’s minimum of 15 seems ridiculous by comparison.

Also, if one takes a look at the PGA Tour money list over the past five years, the complaints of shorter player schedules is unwarranted. Tiger Woods, Paddy Harrington, and Ernie Els were the only players among the top 30 on the money list to have fewer than 19 starts on Tour in 2008. Justin Rose was a part of the trio in 2007. For the most part, the best players start 20 or more times on Tour each year. That is a reasonable number of events for a top tier player. If the Tour were to increase the minimum, it would likely backfire into a very predictable balancing act of major championships and co-sanctioned events that would satisfy the requirements of both the PGA and European Tours.

Really, this is the heart of the whole problem for the PGA Tour. There may be many causes — too much money available too far down the money list, way too many limited-field events billed as spectaculars, and a clear-cut second-tier part of the schedule — but the problem is getting players to play more often.

The problem with the problem is how the Tour tries to solve it. It tries to do so by creating these limited field events with big purses and by throwing money at the top tier players through the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The Tour hypothesizes that players are driven solely by money (which isn’t a bad assumption per se), and that the best way to compel the best to play more often is give them almost no chance to miss a cut and make a big chunk of change if they have a crappy week. The idea of the guaranteed paycheck is very appealing, but since the Tour does not allow for blatant appearance fees, it tries to do the next best thing.

The Tour’s solution creates the subsequent problems that are now being shoved back in their face. Perhaps in lieu of that, the Tour should simply allow appearance fees. The reality is that the PGA Tour is a federation of events that compete with each other. Outside of the four majors, the Players, and the WGCs, each event has to compete with the other for the attention of the players.

Certainly there are characteristics of each event that compel players to get onboard — the course, the locale, the fans, and how much they are kissed up to by the tournament and its sponsors, i.e., ego stroking. The thing is, though, that the Tour’s assumption about throwing money at players is a pretty good one. If players have a guaranteed pay day, they tend to show up in droves. Instead of creating events with no cuts and limited fields that really create a narrow focus on players, why not just give them the money up front and unleash them on a full field?

This solves multiple problems. First, it allows for tournaments and their sponsors to dictate how much they want any player in a particular year. Combined with the “one in four”-styled rule, sponsors could compete in a marketplace to lure in players that are looking to round out their schedules. If the John Deere Classic wants Phil Mickelson, then they should bid for him accordingly.

Second, this creates additional playing opportunities for the bottom end of the rank-and-file. While I have very little sympathy for the mid-range players that earn north of $1 million for mediocre play, there are those at the lower end of the priority scale that really struggle to make it on Tour because of the number of limited field events. By creating a marketplace for top tier talent and opening up to more full field events, these guys could have a better chance of competing for their card each year.

It would also eliminate the need for guaranteed pay day events that really exaggerate the glass ceiling between the top tier and the bottom tiers. There is a clear division on Tour between the classes of players and how they are treated among their peers, by fans, and the media. By creating a more equal billing on the course, it will likely pay dividends for the entire Tour. There are a lot of interesting guys on Tour — even if they are brainwashed to be dull on course — and exposing fans and media to these players will grow the pie, so to speak.

So, the solution to the sponsor bind that the Tour faces is pretty easy: (1) institute a “one in four”-styled rule to mandate participation across the schedule and (2) allow for appearance fees to create a real marketplace for superstars. The coupled solution will work out better for sponsors, players, and fans. Certainly, there are side effects to particular tournaments and they will suffer for a time.

Regardless, it is in the best interest of the Tour, though, to create a more level playing field for all tournaments. Then, it would simply be the job of the Tour to forge relationships with sponsors. After that, it could then be the middleman between the players and the tournaments that want most to have the best fields.

If the Tour lets the market decide, then it may be able to flourish in a difficult time.