House Archives - House Lift

How to Transform Your Porch Into a 4-Season Space

One of the main benefits of updating or remodeling your home is maximizing your available space to suit your lifestyle. Transforming unfinished attics and basements into enjoyable, fully-furnished spaces are smart ways to accommodate your growing family. However, you shouldn’t limit yourself to what you can update inside your home; it’s time to think outside of the box and extend your living space outdoors. When you are sitting outside, you want to enjoy the scenery, but you also want to be comfortable. But what do you do when it’s freezing during the winter and blazing hot during the summer? A four season porch is the perfect solution. Read on to find out how to make that a part of your dream home makeover. Enjoy Nature’s Beauty in Comfort A four season porch functions as an interior room made almost entirely of glass and windows that allows you to take in the views of the outdoors year-round. It is equipped with permanent heating and cooling, and it is included in the finished square footage of your home. This distinguishes it from a three season porch because three season porches are not equipped with any internal heating or cooling. What Your Four Season...

Spring Cleaning Tricks for a Modern Home

Are you looking for great spring cleaning tips? Look no further. The days are getting longer, the temperatures are getting warmer and the air is filled with fresh fragrance. This means one thing: it’s time for spring cleaning! Spring cleaning is deeply rooted in human history spanning every culture and country around the world. As winter turns to spring, we feel an energy of renewal that drives us to refresh and revive our homes. The dwellings we clean today, however, are quite different from those of our ancestors. Modern homes are larger, with more spaces and items to clean, including technology and appliances, making the task of spring cleaning a much larger undertaking. While doing a full-home spring spruce-up is a lot of work, the reward is spending those precious first warm days in a sparkling clean home. And with a few easy tricks, you can make the spring cleaning a lot more manageable. We know the value of feeling great about the home you’re in. Keep reading for our spring cleaning tips. 1. Start With a Game Plan Before you embark on your spring cleaning journey, you need to map out your path and make sure you have all of...

From Idea to Breaking Ground – Steps to Remodeling Your Home

Remodeling is a great way to invest in your home. Remodeling projects not only add property value, they can help you find greater enjoyment and better use of your space. The popularity of home improvement programming shows that many people daydream about how they’d upgrade their houses, and the renovation and remodeling industry continues to grow. When homeowners get inspired to change things up in their home, they can quickly become overwhelmed by the logistics of the project. With the right planning, pacing and professional support, remodeling can be much easier to navigate than one would expect. House Lift has provided remodeling and renovation services for more than 30 years. Keep reading to learn about the steps you can take for a smooth remodeling project, from idea to breaking ground. 1. Organize Your Inspiration Before you start sizing up your space, vetting contractors or pricing materials, it’s important to know what you want. Assess which rooms and areas of your home you’re interested in remodeling. Start by listing what you love about each existing space and what you’d like to change. This will help you prioritize your goals for your home renovation. Next, find style inspiration to inform your remodeling...

5 Creative Chore Chart Ideas for Families

Everyone enjoys a clean house, but the word “chore” doesn’t exactly elicit warm feelings from even the tidiest among us. Families often squabble about who’s doing the most, or the least, amount of cleaning, and kids often feel like any amount of help is some sort of indentured servitude. The family home is a space everyone shares, so we should all share responsibility in keeping it clean. By organizing chores on a chore chart, you can fairly share the responsibility of cleaning, and with these creative ideas, you may actually have a little bit of fun. Work For the Weekend A lot of people use incentives to get their families on board with chores. In this model, the incentive is a fun Saturday activity. Using a dry erase board, make a chart with days of the week across the top (Sunday – Friday) and rooms in your house down the side. Write down what needs to be done in each room on each day. Using magnets for each family member, assign each person one room per day. Some rooms require more daily upkeep than others, so make sure those are allocated fairly throughout the family. Every completed chore is given a...

Tips for Spring Cleaning Your Appliances

Spring cleaning – it’s that gritty process you’re thankful only occurs once a year. But giving your house a facelift is a great way to start off the fair-weather season the right way, even if it takes some effort and a few rolls of paper towels. However, when we freshen up our homes in the springtime, we normally neglect our appliances. In fact, there may be a couple that you only clean in the case of a spill, or have never cleaned at all. But how exactly do you go about cleaning your appliances? Is it possible to do it yourself? In short, there are some easy steps you can take to spruce up the cleanliness of your kitchen appliances without hiring a professional cleaner or shelling out for expensive chemicals. Keep reading to see our top tips for cleaning out each appliance this spring: Microwave Place a microwaveable container filled with water and a few lemon wedges in the mic, and nuke it for 3 minutes. The vapor and lemon will loosen any stains and smells living in your microwave. Let it cool down, and give it a wipe. Easy peasy! Oven Similar to your new microwave strategy, place...

Ways to Prep Your Home for the Holidays

The holidays are upon us here in the Twin Cities and whether you are able to celebrate with family and friends this year or your holiday plans have been postponed, what better way to add some cheer to the season with some easy home upgrades and festive decor! Here are 3 ways to prep your home for the holidays: Winter Cleaning Giving your home a deep clean prior to the arrival of guests goes a long way. Of course cleaning the main rooms of the house where guests will congregate first will allow you to feel more prepared, but doing a deep clean on corners and closets and other out-of-sight locations will help relax your mind so you can focus on spending quality time with your family, rather than worrying about what the guests think of your home. A clean home promotes a sense of well-being that will carry over into your holiday. Consider it your early spring cleaning. Stock Up On Supplies To avoid the unwanted stress of holiday shopping, try stocking up on necessary items well in advance. Items ranging from food, to household supplies, to holiday gifts can be purchased before the holiday season so that when...

3 Spring Updates For Your House

Spring is a time for renewal and rejuvenation. After months of a cold, dry, and dreary Minnesota Winter, we all feel ready to embrace the Spring weather. If you’re feeling the urge to update your home, here are three ways to embrace the Spring season in your home with style. 1. Flowers and Plants Brighten up your house with some freshly cut flowers or potted plants. Next grocery haul pick up some fresh flowers or plants from the grocery store or order online at marketplaces like Amazon for added convenience. Another way to welcome the Spring into your home is to plant an indoor garden which will make your house feel Spring-ready as it brings the outdoors indoors. You can build a beautiful Spring garden inside by installing a rack, hanging capabilities, or an indoor trellis. To make sure you choose the right plants for your house read The Spruce guide to indoor plants for your best indoor garden. If you’re worried about remembering to water your plants, there are many custom, self-watering systems available for installation. All the plants and flowers in your house will improve air quality; making the house feel healthier and happier. Between mini-cactus desk plants...

How To Organize Your Closet

As we transition into the fall and back-to-school, it’s important to keep a tidy closet space to stay organized. Here’s some tips from House Lift to organize your closet: Design Your closet space should work for you and your family’s lifestyle. Consider if you want a walk-in, California, or hidden closet, ask yourself the following questions to see what kind of closet you need: What are your style needs? How do you plan to use your closet? How will your family use the closet? Is your family messy or organized? Do you value function or style more? Organize If you create places for all of the things in your closet it makes it easier to clean and creates a more tidy look. Try shelf dividers to keep your folded shirts, organize jewelry on a jewelry tree, install a pegboard on the wall for backpacks or raincoats, find a shoe rack to lift shoes off the floor, or buy matching storage boxes to hide sweatshirts, scarves, or sunglasses. Simplify The easiest way to streamline your closet is to invest in hangers that match. Matching hangers not only tie your closet together, but also highlight your wardrobe. If you or your kids...

Tips For A Kid-Friendly Home

A beautiful and kid-friendly home is within reach, here are a few tips as you design or remodel your bathroom, living room, and kitchen to create a stylish and family-friendly home. The Bathroom To achieve a safe and convenient bathroom, consider installing a separate shower and bath, instead of a combination of the two. Design a “wet zone” to keep the water confined and place the shower next to the bath with a glass wall dividing space from the rest of the room. For flooring, large-format tiles are easy to maintain, and the designs are both modern and classic, so you can enjoy function and style. The Living Room A living room adjacent to the kitchen not only gives a communal feel to your home, but also allows you to keep an eye on your children while they’re playing or doing homework. This layout will bring your family together in unexpected ways that matter most. Unless you have a separate playroom, you’ll need to keep this space tidy while housing the kid’s toys. Find furniture that’s stylish and storage-friendly, like an ottoman or sofa with hidden storage. Designate a few bookshelves or cupboards for books and toys. This way, your...

4 Summer Home Improvement Projects

The first day of summer is this Saturday and it’s already warm and sunny in Minnesota. If you’ve been thinking about tackling a few home improvement projects this summer, now’s the time to do it! Here are four summer home improvement projects to think about: 1. Powerwash Your Home’s Exterior Give your walkways and home exterior the high-power shower that they need, just make sure to follow the sprayer’s instructions to prevent any damage to your siding. The summer months are especially perfect for power washing your home as the sun rises earlier and goes down later. The extra hours in the day allows more time to get the job done, and this means more time to enjoy the outdoors. 2. Replace Your Windows Old windows cause major heat loss during the winter months, which results in higher heating bills and lower levels of comfort in the home. If your last summer’s caulking of the windows didn’t stop the chill in the winter, it may be time to call a professional to replace your windows this summer. 3. Re-side Your Home Nothing increases curb appeal quite like new siding. The right style transforms your house into the best looking house...

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