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My new blog, Tracy DeCarlo's Home Building Lessons is live! For more practical ideas for building your home, click the above link.

Building or Remodeling?

Do yourself a favor and increase your knowledge of the construction process and your options. Being informed can have a direct positive effect on the bottom line, the conveniences inside your home, and the future cost of the running the home.

• Do you know how to select the most energy-efficient roofing?
• Do you know which commodes can save an average family of 4 approximately 7000 gallons of water per year?
• Do you know the difference between a positive and negative undermount sink and which one is easier to clean?

The Difference is in the Details: The Homeowner's Planning Guide to Building a Functional Home not only provides hundreds of tips like these, it also provides lives links to suppliers and organizations. This photograph-filled e-Guide shows you how to adjust the building sequence to your financial advantage while helping you create a healthy, energy-efficient home that works for your family—inside and out, from the foundation to the rooftop.

“With dozens of “how to build your new home” books available, what could be left out? Plenty, as author DeCarlo shows in her practical approach to topics often left out, forgotten, or given scant attention. Readers will thank her for raising subjects to consider in the earliest stages of planning a new home.”
-- Carol Smith, Author of "Building Your Home: An Insiders Guide"

• Click here for the Table of Contents
• Click here to place your order
• To read more about this home building reference manual visit www.DifferenceInTheDetails.com

Don’t Forget This Last Step Before Insulation

Have you ever wished you had X-ray vision when trying to make small electrical or plumbing repairs or hang a heavy object on the wall? To make these jobs easier down the road, capture the location of framing, plumbing, electrical, gas lines, and ductwork on film. Before the walls and ceilings are covered with insulation and drywall, seize this opportunity to create a record of the scene-behind-the-scene of your new or remodeled home. The information you capture may prove invaluable.

Create a systematic approach for this procedure. Take pictures and/or a video by starting, for example, in the far right-hand room of each floor and the right-hand wall of every room. To distinguish which wall is being photographed, you may want to write the description on a stud or post a description on paper and affix it to a stud prior to taking the picture. You can use this same method if you want to record measurements describing the distance to a particular object (a plumbing pipe, for example).

One homeowner told me how glad he was that he followed the advice in my book about documentation. There were several instances, he went on to say, where it really came in handy. For example:

• His contractor forgot to build an access into one of the attics. The photos helped to ensure the installers weren't going to cut or hit anything when they put in an access door after the fact.
• Hanging a flat screen TV became an issue when the installer swore, based on a stud-finder reading, that there was no bracing for the TV behind the wall. The photo to the right proved otherwise.
• When the drywall installers accidentally covered the electrical box for a light fixture, the photos came to the rescue once again. I’ve seen this particular problem on many job sites, including ours. In our house, the drywall guys covered over a can light and an electrical outlet box. The photos and the electrical plan helped them locate the exact spot to cut back in.
• The homeowner also referred to his photo documentation when hanging speakers.
• You can see from the photo to the right where documentation of the washing machine plumbing came in handy for a repair.

Don’t Forget the Outdoors: Take photos and measurements outdoors, too. Record the location of things like:

• Septic tank
• Drainfield
• Plumbing
• Chase (pipe) containing electrical wiring to yard outlets or pole lighting.

This information will be helpful when designing the landscape plan and plotting the location of future trees, etc.

IS THERE A SUBJECT YOU'D LIKE ME TO COVER? Let me know by sending an email to tracy@tracystips.net.

WANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE? All past issues of this ezine are in the Ezine Archives on our web site. Click here for Ezine Archives !

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Tracy DeCarlo, author of "The Difference is in the Details" publishes the idea-packed, monthly e-zine "Tracy's Home Building Tips." If you're ready to learn how to plan a more durable, energy-efficient, and easy-to-live-in home, get your FR*EE tips now at www.DetailedSolutions.net.

Tracy DeCarlo owner of Detailed Solutions, Inc. and One Stop Green Home Certification, has more than fourteen years' experience in the residential construction industry. As a Home Building Function Analyst, Certified Green Professional, Green Certifying Agent, and Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist, Tracy addresses the functional aspects of home construction, design, and usage, including items such as energy efficiency, disaster mitigation, air quality, aging in place, green building, plumbing, electrical, lighting, and storage.

By working with homeowners to focus on their daily habits and preferences, she helps them create living spaces that support and compliment their lifestyles, while at the same time teaching techniques to manage the bottom line.

I’d love to hear from you:

• What topics would you most like to see covered in upcoming issues of "Tracy's Home Building Tips"?

• How has this e-zine helped you to improve your design or avoid change order charges?

• Mail to: Tracy's Tips E-Mail

Tracy DeCarlo, Detailed Solutions, Inc.

P.O. Box 161644

Altamonte Springs, FL 32714, United States

Phone 407-814-2328

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Copyright ©2009 Tracy DeCarlo Detailed Solutions, Inc.