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Welcome to
Houseworks Unlimited
You’ve worked hard for your home, so it’s important that it be treated with care and respect. Remodeling your home isn’t to be taken for granted or treated as ordinary. During our remodeling process, we strive to show you that we care about you and your home while providing you with top quality remodeling services.

Houseworks is an award winning full service remodeling company specializing in home additions and renovations, serving Montgomery, Howard, Frederick and Carroll counties. Since 1990 our creative design-build solutions have assured that our customers receive the best value for their investment. Our staff is committed to professionally managed projects and long term satisfaction.
January 27th, 2012

EPA Improves Web Resources Related to RRP

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency updated several of its Web resources related to the lead renovation, repair and painting rule.

The EPA improved its search tool for EPA-certified RRP firms, allowing the public to search by firm name and location. EPA-certified firms should encourage their potential customers to use the tool to check the certification statuses of firms the customers are considering hiring.

The EPA also updated its database of Frequent Questions about the RRP rule to reflect recent regulatory changes that became effective Oct. 5. A searchable PDF version of the FQs is also available. A fact sheet describing how provisions of the RRP rule apply to repairs and renovations done in response to natural disasters, such as floods and hurricanes was also issued.

“Common home repair activities – from sanding a wall to adding a room – can spread dangerous dust from lead-based paint throughout a home and poison children. That’s why EPA is urging everyone to hire trained and certified lead-safe contractors when considering work on homes built before 1978. Our website has a search tool to help find EPA-certified contractors. These contractors have been specially trained to work safely with lead painted surfaces, and they will help you protect your biggest investments – your family and your home,” says Michelle Price, chief of the lead paint regulatory program, EPA.

January 20th, 2012

Bathroom Flooring Options

The flooring in your bathroom can make or break the entire appearance. You need your flooring to be attractive, durable, practical and comfortable under foot. There are many options when it comes to choosing bathroom flooring and knowing which will best serve your bathroom can be a mind-boggling task.

Choosing the perfect flooring for your bathroom is incredibly important. Before you jump in at the deep end, have a read through some pointers which will help you to decide which flooring will most suit your bathroom. Read more »

January 5th, 2012

Does Maryland Home Improvement Commission do anything about unlicensed contractors?

MHIC investigators actively work to enforce the home improvement law by coordinating with the local prosecutor’s offices throughout the State and by continuously educating homeowners about the risks and dangers of hiring unlicensed contractors. MHIC depends upon licensed contractors and homeowners filing written complaints against unlicensed contractors. Each month, MHIC investigators make approximately 75 appearances at criminal trials against unlicensed contractors. If you wish to file a written complaint against an unlicensed contractor, please do so and include as much specific information as possible, including the contractor’s full name, address, and the dates and location where the work was solicited or performed. You may file a complaint even if you did not hire or pay the unlicensed contractor.

January 5th, 2012

The Suburbs of the Future

In a recent New York Times blog, Allison Arieff suggests to her readers that it is time to rethink the status quo when it comes to home design and community development. She argues that the cookie-cutter, single-family home in the suburbs is not for everyone and that both the housing industry and policymakers should take advantage of the slowdown in construction to rethink the practices of the recent past.

Arieff is certainly correct that if there was ever a time to re-envision housing and community development, it’s now. Housing starts in 2010 numbered fewer than 600,000—roughly one-fourth of the level in 2005. While the earth-movers are idle, households and policymakers have time to catch their breath and challenge the notion that a single-family unit on a large lot is housing’s best incarnation. Read more »

December 19th, 2011

Kitchen Designs That Work for Small Kitchens

Many of us have kitchens smaller than we would like them to be, but it’s possible to have tons of storage space without giving up style. Here are some helpful kitchen decorating ideas to maximize the kitchen space that you do have.

Making efficient use of the space can make your kitchen seem much larger than it is.

Finding the right sized kitchen appliances

Smaller and more compact gadgets and appliances are better for smaller kitchens, especially when these gadgets need to stay on top of the counter. Huge appliances can swallow up an entire counter, even when there are only a couple of them. Consider buying a stove with two burners instead of four, and a smaller oven and fridge. Read more »

December 9th, 2011

Tips for Building a Two-Story Addition

Homeowners who might have tried to sell their houses a few years ago are staying put with the hope that they’ll fetch a higher price if they wait out the bad economy. In the meantime, some are making their homes more comfortable by adding rooms—downstairs and up.

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies notes that homeowners are redirecting their remodeling dollars away from kitchen and bath remodels, room additions, and interiors. But pros in some areas are still doing a brisk business in two-story additions, often to enlarge a kitchen, add a home office, or build a tricked-out master suite that’s separate from the rest of the family’s bedrooms.

That project is among the most expensive of remodeling undertakings, so contractors are taking care to add value to the home as they add space. Here are 16 tips from pros who are successfully building up and out: Read more »

December 6th, 2011

10 One-of-Kind Building Techniques for Decks

Builders of award-winning decks typically don’t set out to snag honors and accolades, says Colorado deck builder Barry Streett; they aim to design structures that will please their clients and suit their lifestyles.

The key: “You have to listen to them,” advises Streett, owner of Rolling Ridge Deck in Evergreen, Colo., and winner of multiple awards from the North American Deck and Railing Association. “They’re going to tell you what they want, but they don’t always know what they want. Listen in general terms, and then specifically think about how you can deliver it.”

Even then, notes Justus Lambros, owner of Signature Deck in Maumee, Ohio, not every fabulous deck delivers a prize. “Some amazing decks have won those awards,” says Lambros, another NADRA winner. “You couldn’t just put those decks on the back of a subdivision home. You have to have the right site, the right view. I’ve done only two in my career that would qualify for that type of award.”

Those award-winning decks feature attention to the minutest details—from curves and angles that drop the judges’ jaws to hidden fasteners and above-code framing that add an unseen something to the finished product.

“It’s really easy to build a square deck,” admits Dave Kramer, sales manager for D.G. Liu Contractor in Dickerson, Md., a Chrysalis award winner. “But if you can add a little personality to it, that raises you above the pack. There are a bazillion deck builders out there who can put up a deck fast, but they don’t pay attention to finish details so they can charge less.”

Here are 10 best practice tips from award-winning deck builders: Read more »

December 6th, 2011

Department of Energy Updates Refrigerator Efficiency Standards

Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released new minimum national energy efficiency standards for most new refrigerators, which will improve efficiency and cut energy use by refrigerators 25% by 2014. This is the fourth time that the standards have been strengthened. Since the first standards were implemented by the state of California in 1978, refrigerator efficiency has improved dramatically—a refrigerator that conforms to 2014 standards will use about one-fifth as much electricity as one from the 1970s.

Refrigerator efficiency standards are a prime example of government standards that actually benefit consumers. The precise savings for major categories are as follows:

• 25% for top-mount (i.e. freezer on top) and side-by-side refrigerator-freezers
• 20% for bottom-mount refrigerator-freezers
• 30% for automatic defrost freezers

Categories with lower sales volumes will require 10-25% savings.

Since the first standards were enacted, the price of refrigerators has dropped significantly, even though modern refrigerators are larger, have many more features and cost less to operate than previous models. In 1978, the average new model cost $1,566 in today’s dollars – almost three times as much as the $550 an average model retails for today. This trend is expected to continue, even as refrigerators grow in size and features. Read more »

November 22nd, 2011

Obama looks to preserve role of government in mortgage market

Federal loan subsidy would be extended for home buyers; Fannie and Freddie could be saved as well.

President Obama has directed a small team of advisers to develop a proposal that would keep the government playing a major role in the nation’s mortgage market, extending a federal loan subsidy for most home buyers, according to the Washington Post.

The decision follows the advice of his senior economic and housing advisers, who favor maintaining the government’s role as an insurer of mortgages for most borrowers. The approach could even preserve Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants owned by the government, although under different names and with significant new constraints, said sources knowledgeable about the discussions.

A decision to preserve a major government role would mark a big milestone in the effort to craft a new housing policy from the wreckage of the mortgage meltdown and could mean a larger part for Fannie and Freddie than administration officials had signaled.

In a statement, the White House said it is premature to say that senior officials have agreed on any of the three main options outlined earlier this year in an administration white paper on reforming the housing finance system.

For more information: www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/on-mortgage-rates-government-should-keep-significant-role-obama-says/2011/08/15/gIQA8wP0HJ_story.html?wpisrc=al_national

Thanks to Mary Beth Nevulis, HousingZone Contributing Editor

November 15th, 2011

Mortgage rates at record lows.

Meanwhile, 15-year fixed-rate loans and 5-year adjustable rate loans hit record-low levels of 3.54 and 3.18 percent, respectively.

Mortgage rates have fallen in recent days because of the debt deal — which averted a feared scenario in which the US Treasury ran out of funds to pay all its bills. That could have sent ripples of unrest through financial markets, pushing up interest rates throughout the economy.

So the good news for potential home-buyers is that the worst didn’t happen, and that mortgage rates have actually fallen a bit as a deal was reached.

Rates may have also come down for other reasons, such as signs of weakness in the US economy, which in turn postpones the day when interest rates will start rising back toward more typical levels. Also, fresh concerns about government debts mean firmer demand for US Treasury bonds as a comparatively safe alternative. Read more »

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