New House Improvements
 

I'm sure this has been discussed here before. I apologize if it has. We're coming down next week to sign papers and give our down payment on a new designer home-Iris model- and after moving in, I want to make some improvements, e.g., landscaping. I'm curious if people have recommendations for improvements we should consider, and if you do, is there someone you would recommend we use. Thanks.

Many people install attic stairs in the garage and epoxy coat the garage floor before they move in. Tim Miller aka "Tim the Tool Man" at 352-217-0561 is experienced and reasonable for both jobs.

You can spend and spend to improve these houses. One of our favorite improvements was to install crown molding. We have it in every room except for the laundry room. There are several good contractors for that...if I'm not mistaken, you can do a search on crown molding and come up with some names.

Good luck and have fun with your new house.

We also installed attic stairs. I got them at Home Depot and installed them myself - with help from Mrs SteveFrom NY. The hole is pre-cut to the stairs size, so the install didn't include cutting through the ceiling.

We installed solar tubes in the guest bath (no window), laundry room (also no window) and the kitchen. They are great. We used the SolarGuys. They now have a location north of TV on 441, and they are at the craft shows.

We also installed a lightning protection system. A personal choice, but one I didn't want to go without.

We are currently expanding our lanai a bit and adding a hot tub. We have held off on landscaping until that's done so we could do front and back together.

Really no end to what you can do!

We installed solar tubes in both bathrooms, then we expanded the lanai. We had landscaping done at the same time as the lanai expansion.

I also had new cabinets and a countertop and sink installed in the laundry room. The garage is next.

Someone told us to wait 6 months to decide what we wanted to do, but we had the solar tubes installed earlier than that. A girl needs light to do her makeup! lol
Judy

andkerans
 

Crown Molding sets off the house wonderfully. Peter Sammons installs this. He is licensed and insured 904-484-7248. Can provide Village resident referrals in various locations, has done Premier and Designer models. Great Work.:

Attic Stairs
Solar Tubes
Redo standard closets to make more room
Tile Floors & Lani
Epoxy Garage
Landscape for total no-maint.

Army Guy

Hi Army Guy,

Did you epoxy your garage floor yourself? My husband and I want to epoxy our floors and are considering doing the work ourselves. It seems as if it would be easy enough, though it seems as if all the people we know that have had their floors done by someone else.

Hey Julie, no we had Tim the Toolman do it since we are not full time yet. He did a great job and very good price.

Army Guy

Hey Army Guy,
Do you know if Tim the Toolman is still in business? I left him a message a couple of weeks ago and still haven't heard from him. I want to get our garage floor coated and have attic stairs installed as soon after our March closing as possible.

If you epoxy your garage yourself, you have to be sure that the product you buy is from the same lot. Someone I know did it and it turned out that they went on the same, but when dry one was flat and the other shiney. NO GOOD> ASK QUESTIONS.

Bluedog, as far as I know he is. We just saw him last month when were donw. Maybe he took off for a vacation. But also saw his ads in The Daily Sun.

Army Guy

Thanks Army Guy, I'll try him again.

I was able to reach Tim by phone last Wed. (1/6/10) We made an appointment for him to come yesterday (1/12 - 3pm) and give us an estimate for cabinets in the garage and laundry room. He never showed - no call, no nothing...needless to say we hired another company and will repost after their work is done.
We used M&M services - 352-307-5972 - for the attic stairs and are recommend them.