LA CROSSE, WI--(Marketwire - Jul 3, 2012) - The storm clouds from the housing bust are starting to reveal a silver lining for remodelers: A Harvard University study predicts remodeling activity will grow quickly as Baby Boomers sell their homes and downsize -- which should create extensive remodeling opportunities for the next decade.

Although new construction suffered during the Great Recession, remodeling work held tight -- dropping from $326 billion in 2007 to $286 billion in 2009 before rebounding back to about $300 billion in 2010, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

The center singled out specialty contracting firms like Kitchen Solvers for their ability to withstand even the worst of the recession. Kitchen Solvers pioneered solid-wood kitchen cabinet refacing, which can transform the look of a kitchen without all of the mess and expense of a full remodel. It's part of a full range of services Kitchen Solvers offers.

"By offering quality refacing as well as full remodels, and by offering new cabinets at a variety of price points, we can deliver an outstanding kitchen to people regardless of budget," said company President and CEO Gerry Henley.

The Harvard center puts the current value of kitchen and bathroom remodeling at $75 billion a year, and its Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity projects remodeling spending to grow 5.9 percent in 2012 and 3.5 percent a year through 2015.

What's driving the projections? As people hit retirement age, they often downsize, selling homes they haven't upgraded in decades to younger buyers eager to remodel. The huge Baby Boom generation is just beginning to retire and unload houses in massive numbers -- and many of them need remodeling.

"There is a huge generational bulge of people who have owned their homes for decades," Henley said. "Some of them will remodel their homes to continue living in them long into retirement, but many more will sell to younger buyers eager to have a kitchen that suits their needs."

Kitchen Solvers has remodeled more than 45,000 kitchens since the company was founded in 1982. To learn more, visit kitchensolvers.com or kitchensolversfranchise.com.

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As Economy Rebounds, Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Franchise Kitchen Solvers Poised to Take Off

Got the ugliest kitchen around? It could be a winner in a summer contest from Cedar Mill Group to earn thousands of dollars in home design and remodeling services.

The Webster-based company is accepting contest entries for the "ugliest kitchen" on its Facebook page until Sept. 21. Director of Operations Brett Cusick said the company has already received some competitive contestants.

"They layout of the kitchen or these kitchens could use some serious help," he said. "The material used in these spaces, whether it be the cabinets or the wall coverings, are just outdated. The funny, funky colors of the seventies are no longer in touch."

Cusick said Cedar Mill Group will award $5000 of design services to the winner of the contest, who will then have the option of going forward with the proposed remodel. The winner will also receive a drinking water reverse osmosis system from Capital Well Clean Water Center in Dunbarton.

Other local companies working with Cedar Mill Group on the contest are The Ultimate Bath, Rumford Stone, Vintage Kitchens, Pella Windows and Doors and Baron's Major Brands. Prizes from Cedar Mill Group, Capital Well and The Ultimate Bath will still be awarded even if the contest winner does not chose to go forward with a full remodel.

"The most important thing is that Cedar Mill Group is a full-service design, remodel and build company," Cusick said. "We like to be the go-to for an all-inclusive remodel."

Cusick said the company coordinates all aspects of the home remodel or construction project, from pre-planning the design to partnering with local companies as the design is built.

"Our claim to fame is that not only will we deliver a tremendous product, but the process you go through takes out a lot of the gut-wrenching, stomach-hurting process of a remodel," Cusick said.

Entries can for the Cedar Mill Group contest can be submitted at http://www.facebook.com/cedarmillgroup by posting a picture of an ugly kitchen on the company's page. The deadline for entries is Sept. 21.

For more information, contact Cusick at brettc@cedarmillgroup.com.

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Do you have the ugliest kitchen?

When considering new ideas for kitchen remodeling shopping around and working with a remodeler can lend new perspectives. If you are remodeling in the Boston area for example, Beantown Builders can give you ideas about area, color, and flooring. A good remodeler should have plenty of questions to ask about your home and preferences so you can end up with a space you can really enjoy.

Some of the questions Beantown Builders asks include how much space you have available to you, the form and layout of your home, and colors you have today and what is popular now.

You want to think about what type of atmosphere you want to create. For example the company states that dark color tiles creates a more cramped confined feeling but that floor tiles in whites and lightweight colors work best to make the space feel more open. The company also recommends cork flooring if you want to have a greater sense of warmth in your remodeled kitchen.

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Remodeling Tip: Answer the Right Questions

Is summer the best time to remodel? Well, according to remodeling expert Dan Fritschen, yes it is. Here are some reasons why, and also some tips on how to get it done.

Summertime is when you might go away for the weekend to visit Grandma and perhaps take another weekend or a week to go to Disney. If you are remodeling, these are the best times for the workers to be in your house making a mess and getting the work done. The workers will have more space, and you don't have to worry about staying out of their way plus when you come home, all or at least a good amount of the work will be done.

If you are remodeling the kitchen, summer is certainly a good time to do it. You can eat outdoors, and light meals, not requiring much if any cooking, are just the thing during the summer. Picnics are fun.

If you happen to be opening a wall because you are adding a room, or if you need to open a wall to add a window, summer is the perfect time because you don't have to worry about freezing-cold temperatures entering your humble abode. If painting is in order, summer is good because you can open windows to let the smell out and the fresh air in.

Nature gives great inspiration, and summer is a perfect time to go out and enjoy nature. Look at the colors and the color combinations in nature. Absorb what appeals to you and use it in your remodeling.

While you are out there soaking up the sun, consider getting your yard in order. Remodel, upgrade or simply clean up your landscape. Do it yourself for some great exercise! Some remodeling projects, such as a new driveway or walkway, might better be left to experts. But you never know: You might be ambitious enough to tackle these yourself. (A note of caution, however: Before tackling any project that could involve significant exertion, you might want to get an OK from your doctor.)

Solar panels are suggested for installation on your house. They can save you money and power your home, and summertime is when you will benefit the most from the panels.

Well, there you have it. Don't be too lazy during the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Get the house in order and the yard, too. You'll be glad you did.

Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, an interior designer in Naples, Fla., is author of "Mystery of Color." For design inquiries, write to Rosemary at DsgnQuest@aol.com.

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Interiors: Summer remodeling

Is summer the best time to remodel? Well, according to remodeling expert Dan Fritschen, yes it is. Here are some reasons why and also some tips on how to get it done.

Summertime is when you might go on a weekend trip or extended vacation. If you are remodeling, these are the best times for the workers to be in your house making a mess and getting the work done. The workers will have more space and you don't have to worry about staying out of their way - plus when you come home, all or at least a good portion of the work will be done.

If you are remodeling the kitchen, summer is certainly a good time to do it. You can eat outdoors, and light meals, not requiring much if any cooking, are just the thing during the summer.

If you happen to be opening a wall because you are adding a room, or if you need to open a wall to add a window, summer is the perfect time because you don't have to worry about freezing-cold temperatures If painting is in order, summer is good because you can open windows to let the smell out and the fresh air in.

Nature gives great inspiration during summer. Look at the colors and the color combinations in nature. Absorb what appeals to you and use it in your remodeling.

While you are out there soaking up the sun, consider getting your yard in order. Remodel, upgrade or simply clean up your landscape. Some remodeling projects, such as a new driveway or walkway, might better be left to experts. But you never know: You might be ambitious enough to tackle these yourself.

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Summer remodeling makes use of weather, vacation

A full kitchen replacement consists of demolishing and removing everything in the room, including the sheetrock, so that the walls are open and the plumbing piping and the electrical wiring are exposed.

You then begin building the room back up, often replacing the infrastructure as well as all of the finishes and equipment.

Such an undertaking averages between $40,000 to $50,000 and results in a return of approximately 68 percent on that investment, according to Remodeling Magazine's 2011 Cost vs. Value report.

A kitchen "face-lift" is not so invasive or expensive. This generally consists of upgrading just the things that you can see.

Often new countertops are installed, along with a sampling of further improvements that could include new appliances, a new sink/faucet, new cabinet doors, new flooring and new lighting.

While you are limited to your current sizes and location of appliances and plumbing fixtures, you can still get some good bang for less bucks as you bring your kitchen into the 21st century.

Doing less than this in a kitchen is tricky.

Of course, you can always paint and change the window coverings, but making a smaller change in the function of a kitchen is difficult because as they say "one thing leads to another."

Nowhere is this truer than in a kitchen!

Recently, one of our architects attempted to undertake such a "minor change" in her kitchen.

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Renovation Solutions: Truth about updating kitchen without a full-scale remodel

Home for sale, file. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

CHICAGO (CBS) If you are in the market to remodel your home, you might be surprised to learn that what you do on the outside is a better investment than fixing up the inside.

But if you are longing to knock out a wall, or add a room, CBS 2s Dorothy Tucker reports on just how much you can expect to recoup if you ever decide to sell.

Joyce Judah recently finished a $10,000 upgrade to her kitchen. The remodeling job wasnt her first; not long before that, she gave her bathrooms a $6,800 makeover.

The price was steep, but Judah thinks that, in time, she will earn back some of what she spent.

The two rooms that get the most attention in the house kitchens and bathrooms return money after remodeling, according to Remodeling Magazine. A homeowner who spends $22,000 to redo a kitchen will earn back 63 percent of the cost when the house is sold. Fixing up bathrooms also pays: A $21,000-makeover will return 50 percent of its cost.

But the economic climate has forced remodelers to scrimp and save, rather than splurge. Many homeowners are thinking small, adding knobs to cabinets instead of replacing them entirely, or painting over tile rather than ripping it up, says Don Van Cura.

With the economy changing, people are a little more practical, and theyre looking at, What do we have to do to not let the house devalue? says Van Cura, who helps clients remodel their homes.

Homeowners also want to ensure they are paying to overhaul the right parts of their houses. Some of them turn to real estate developers like Ron Abrams, who advises homeowners on what is worth it and what is a waste.

I think a really good place to spend money is on flooring. Carpet doesnt always wear the best, Abrams says.

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Not All Home Remodeling Pays Off When You Put Your Home On The Market

By Alina Dizik

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A year after purchasing their Richmond, Virginia, fixer-upper for $290,000 in 2010, Sherry and John Petersik rolled up their sleeves and tackled the outdated kitchen.

They dragged the refrigerator and microwave out of the way, set up a dish-washing station at the bathroom sink and plunged into do-it-yourself mode, installing a new countertop, refinishing cabinets and replacing appliances.

"We knew to expect the chaos," says Sherry Petersik, 30. That's because it's the second home the Petersiks have renovated for fun and the promise of profit.

They actually lost money on their first handyman's special, buying a home for $190,000 at the height of the real estate bubble in 2006, pouring $30,000 into it, and then selling it for $195,000.

"But we lost tens of thousands of dollars less than our neighbors did," Petersik says. Plus, they unloaded the house in days.

Now the couple is older and wiser, but still hooked on the dust, noise and profit potential of home renovation. "We got comfortable with that lifestyle of sweat equity," says Sherry.

They have already added window treatments and a cobblestone patio and modernized a fireplace in their new home, and after the kitchen is done, they expect to have spent a total of $10,000. She expects that to give them a nicer house than they could have afforded to buy, and to add $50,000 to the home's value.

The DIY strategy is gaining traction these days as energetic homeowners try to build equity in a still-depressed housing market, with a growing number of foreclosures filling the multiple listing services with run-down homes.

According to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service, 26 percent of homes sold in the first quarter of 2012 were foreclosed properties, an increase of 8 percent from 2011. Short sale properties accounted for 12 percent of national sales for the first quarter of 2012, up from 9 percent last year.

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More foreclosures mean more fixer uppers

World-Herald reporter Roger Buddenberg and his wife embarked on a major home remodeling project back in March. He blogged about the ups and downs, delays and accomplishments at Omaha.com/living. Now that he has a new kitchen, he's sharing what he learned over the past 12 weeks.

The Beginning -- March 8

Gulp. We knew this day would come.

When my wife and I bought our Omaha home 14 years ago, a friend dubbed it "the Cleaver house." White two-story. Paned windows. Shady yard. The only thing missing, she said, is a white picket fence and a kid named Beaver.

More was missing, in fact. And what wasn't missing was wearing out. In short, it was a fixer-upper. We knew that. That's how we could afford it. We went in with eyes open.

The kitchen has always loomed like a wall cloud over the other fix-up projects. Painting rooms we could do, no problem. Ripping the mint-green disco shag off the wood floors that we could do. We built shelves, updated lighting, even overhauled a couple of bathrooms, stretching my DIY skills to the limit.

Still the kitchen loomed. If we're going to stay in the house, we said heck, even if we're going to ever sell the house then something has to be done with the kitchen. Something big. A makeover, not a comb-over.

Nibbling at its edges new Formica on the countertops, new light fixtures, a lick here, a promise there held us for a while. But nothing could disguise the cabinets, site-built in the 1960s and now falling apart in places. Nor the closed-off, galley-style layout, which might have suited June Dear when the Cleavers lived here but did not suit my Current Wife.

"In the kitchen of the future," she has been saying for roughly 14 years, "we will have double ovens. The kitchen of the future will have an island. And a gas cooktop. The kitchen of the future will have a wine rack." And so on.

The husband of the future mostly muttered to himself and tried not to think about it. But because I desperately love her, and because a gas cooktop does sound pretty cool, the day has come. The future is now. The kitchen commences. Both daughters have now made it through college even snagged juicy scholarships along the way, which makes it easier for Mr. and Mrs. Empty Nest to contemplate the remodel.

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Stuff I learned remodeling my kitchen

CHESTER, Pa., June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --After an abnormally warm winter and spring, many homeowners have already begun sweating the inevitable increase in their electricity usage that arrives along with warm summer weather. In addition to the longer days and more frequent thunderstorms most regions experience every summer, the Farmer's Almanac is predicting record high temperatures across the country in 2012. The combination of those factors can wreak havoc on a home during summer months, and Power Home Remodeling Group, the nation's fourth largest home remodeling company, offers homeowners tips for protecting both their homes and their wallets by saving energy this summer.

"So many homeowners dread their high energy bills during the summer months without realizing there are a multitude of common sense solutions that can help increase their home's energy efficiency," says Matt Hess, Power's VP of Operations-Installations. "The beauty of these steps is that they are not only extremely simple to implement, but they also defeat the negative effect heat can have on a home and a wallet."

Power offers the following tips to make your home more energy efficient during the hot summer days and nights:

In addition to these tips, energy and savings-conscious homeowners can conduct a home energy assessment through a do-it-yourself energy review or by hiring a licensed company. By seeking out air leaks and inspecting insulation, lighting and heating/cooling systems, homeowners can easily target the energy-sucking culprits around their homes and determine solutions.

About Power Home Remodeling Group

Family-owned since 1992, Power Home Remodeling Group is the nation's fourth largest home remodeling company with more than 1,200 employees and $135 million in sales. Headquartered in Chester, Pa., Power provides energy-saving and environmentally friendly exterior remodeling solutions to residents on the East Coast, including Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, DC. An Inc. 5000 company, Power has served more than 50,000 homeowners and is recognized as a home improvement leader by its "Dealer of the Year" award from Window and Door Magazine and the 2011 "Top Workplace" from The Philadelphia Inquirer. For more information please visit PowerHRG.com, or follow the company on Twitter @PowerHRG and Facebook at facebook.com/PowerHRG.

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Beat the Heat in Your Home with Tips from Power Home Remodeling Group™