House owners may now recieve up to $30,000 for home improvement items and mobile home owners may recieve up to $15,000.  Residents may qualify for the zero percent (0%) deferred loan or the three percent (3%) loan for home repairs depending on income and other qualifications. 

Eligible repairs include roofing, windows, exterior and interior painting, plumbing, electrical, energy/weatherization items, garage doors, and other common home repairs.  Income limits and other qualifications apply.

If you have questions regarding Housing Rehabilitation Loans, or would like to request an application, please call Theresa Dobbs at 949-461-3473 or Elaine Nagano 949-461-3471. 

An Old Leaking Roof Needs a Roofing Contractor

Is your roof still in a good condition? Well, if your roof is starting to leak and is 15 years old or older, maybe you need to contact an expert roofing contractor in your place. Don’t wait for even more roof damages to occur.

How will you know if you need a new roof? It is simple. You only have to consider the age of your roof. If your roof is less than 15 years old and only needs for regular roof maintenance, then you don’t need a new home roofing installation. Small replacements, repairs, and regular maintenance are enough for it to last to experience more season change. But if your roof is a lot older (15 years of age or more) and fragile unlike before when it was first installed, you will be forced to hire a roofing contractor to ensure your house’s excellent condition.

Before hiring a professional roofer, make sure to keep in mind these helpful tips. It is not a good idea to just hire somebody right away. First, hire not just a roofer but a professional roofer – a licensed roofing contractor. You have to verify that he is licensed and you also have to check the status of his license. From this, you can be sure that a professional will be handling important tasks for you. You can ask help from a roofers association in your area. They can show you a list of licensed roofers who may help you. Or, you may have relatives and friends who may know a few excellent residential roofing contractors. You can ask for recommendations and tips from them.

When you come face to face with a roofing contractor, you may request to see his work. Get at least three references and personally check his past projects. Talk to him about the project you would want him to accomplish. Details of the roofing work, payment and other legal details can be discussed with the contractor. For example, if you are sure that he’s the one you are going to trust with your roofing needs, talk about the contract. The contract must be in writing; everything must be in writing including the changes to the contract. It’s important that you don’t sign until you fully understand the terms of the contract. If it is your first time getting into an agreement, you may ask somebody who is knowledgeable in those matters.

When your roofing installation is currently ongoing, you should always ask for updates or if there are any problems taking place with the installation. Through this you can monitor the progress of the roof project. If you and the contractor have concerns, you should an open communication line to avoid misunderstandings. If you do not supervise the installation yourself, most likely you will have problems when the installation is at the finishing stage.

When the roofing construction is done, make sure that you are satisfied with the roofing contractor’s job. If there are minor changes, talk it over with the contractor. Don’t give the full payment unless you’re completely satisfied with the project. And after that, maintenance and repair is all you will need.

What To Expect When You Hire a Landscaper

Landscaping your home can be a big endeavor. There are several options including plants, hardscapes, softscapes, fountains, ground cover, etc. Hiring a landscape professional to help you through the process can be extremely helpful. Here is a brief rundown of the process from beginning to end.

A Base Map is drafted: After measurements and photos are taken, a base map, showing the existing property conditions is drafted to scale.

A Site Analysis Diagram: The first stage will consist of a tracing paper overlay on the base map of the property, showing circulation and weather patterns, orientation of the house to the site, and identifying the placement of functional areas within the site, and their relationship to one another. Problem areas are identified, screening and views are shown.

 A Concept Sketch: The second stage will be a conceptual layout of the property, further refining circulation with specific pathways, patios or decking drawn in more detail. The shapes of planting areas and hardscape elements are defined to reflect the various possibilities.

A Final Planting Plan: After a meeting with you, a final plan is drafted, identifying the specifics of all the planting and hardscape elements. A planting list should be provided including specifications and perspective or elevation sketches to aid you in visualizing the plan view, Discuss implementation of the installation, phasing, and maintenance of your landscape with your landscaping professional.

After your planting plan is finalized, the landscaper starts to work implementing what you have discussed. Sit back, relax, and soon you will be enjoying your new yard, garden, or backyard retreat.

Carpeting For Your Home

Carpet can offer more versatility, comfort, ease of maintenance and health benefits than other flooring options. It is also more "budget-friendly" than most other choices and there are styles to coordinate with every décor.

Here are some general terms for understanding how carpet is made and how to judge carpet quality and durability. Judging how durable your new carpeting will be determines how long your carpet will look and feel good. Ideally, carpet will retain its original texture and appearance for years to come. Durability depends on finding the right balance of three important factors defined below:

Fiber
During carpet manufacturing, natural or synthetic fiber is converted to yarn and tufted, or locked into a backing to form the pile or surface that you walk on. There are five major types of carpet fiber - nylon 6,6, nylon 6, polypropylene (olefin), polyester, and wool; the most popular being nylon.

Ideal for carpeting, nylon 6,6 is a man-made fiber that is wear-resistant (soil and stain resistant). Its natural properties allow for a very wide range of colors and color blends and the newest fibers offer the look and feel of wool, but with much less maintenance and expense.

Twist
The twist of the fiber is the way the fiber filaments are spun into yarn, and how the yarn is in turn twisted upon itself. Twist is usually locked into the fiber with a steam or heat-setting. The tighter the twist, the more the carpet will resist changes in appearance and texture.

 Density
Density describes the amount of pile in the carpet and how close the tufts are to one another. In general, the more dense the carpet the better the quality. Check density by pressing your fingers on the carpet and trying to reach the backing. It will be difficult to reach the backing of a very dense carpet. With the tufts facing outward, bend the carpet into a U shape to see how much of the carpet backing shows. The less backing you see, the more dense the carpet.

Now if clothes make the man (or woman), then we'd like to propose that carpet makes the home. Virtually every season new designer colors and patterns, along with improvements in fibers, are introduced, making it easy to update your décor with a look and feel that captures your personal style.

Color theory studies have proven that the palettes we select for our walls and floors do more than provide a pretty backdrop for our home furnishings. They impact our mood, our energy level - even our appetite. The wall and floor covering colors you choose should be "non-offending" in order to ensure the highest resale value of your home. Most carpet lines feature a range of beiges, off-whites, taupes and soft sisal-like naturals. Selecting a neutral allows for maximum compatibility with prospective buyers' existing furnishings. This way they won't have to move in and redo the walls and floors or their furnishings right away, unless they want to.

10 Reasons Your Fireplace Doesn't Work

 Why fireplaces work, and how best to build them, has been a topic of hot debate literally for centuries. From the first stone rings stacked around the campfire, to the modern factory built fireplaces with carefully engineered dimensions, there has been a steady evolution of design parameters to make sure they draw well and cast as much heat as possible. Most of this evolution has been by trial and error, and some designs work much better than others.

Simply put, fireplaces work mainly because hot air rises. When you start a fire, the air inside the chimney becomes warmer and less dense than the air outside the chimney, and consequently it starts to rise. As the warm air rises, cooler air from the room flows into the firebox, fanning the fire, creating more heat in an ongoing cycle. There are also some pressure differentials produced as wind moves across the top of your chimney.

A true understanding of fireplaces requires extensive knowledge of air flow patterns, pressure differentials, and actual fireplace construction techniques. If the information provided here does not help you solve the problem with your fireplace, consider hiring an experienced, certified chimney sweep. Often the problem is obvious to someone with enough experience once they can actually look over the entire situation.

1) Is your damper fully open? Everybody eventually forgets to open the damper. Many dampers also cease to fully open because of water damage or soot buildup behind them on the smoke shelf. A good professional cleaning can usually solve this problem.

2) Is your firewood green or wet from rain? Remember the main reason your fireplace works at all is the heat inside the chimney. If your wood is not dry and well seasoned it makes more smoke than heat and there simply may not be enough heat for the chimney to work properly.

3) Is your chimney dirty? The gradual accumulation of soot can seriously affect the way your chimney performs. Thick layers of soot of course can physically restrict the flue so there is no longer enough free area to vent the fireplace properly, (see problem 5) but as little as a 1/4" to 1/2" inch buildup can make more difference than you might think. Consider that a 1/2" buildup will restrict the air flow by 17% for a typical masonry fireplace chimney, and by a whopping 30% for the average prefab. Birds and small animals also think your chimney looks like a hollow tree in which to set up housekeeping. Sweeps often find chimneys literally packed full of leaves, twigs and baby animals. The solution of course is a good cleaning and a chimney cap.

4) Is your chimney tall enough? To function properly, the chimney should be at least 10 or 12 feet in overall height. Where it projects above the roof, the chimney should be at least 3 feet tall, and at least 2 feet higher than anything within 10 feet of it-including other buildings, trees, etc. If your fireplace smokes because your chimney is too short, the problem is usually worse when the wind blows.

5) Is your flue large enough for the fireplace opening? There are many variables that can affect this including; overall chimney height, how warm the flue stays, throat configuration, etc., but the basic rule of thumb here is that the area of the fireplace opening can be no more than 10 times the area of the flue (12 times for round flues). An undersized flue simply can't handle the volume of smoke produced, and some of it will spill back into the room. Since there is no practical way to make the flue size larger, the solution may be to make the room opening smaller with metal smoke guards or some creative masonry work. In fact there are now some pre-manufactured refractory firebox retrofits that work well with a 15 to 1 ratio and deliver twice the heat of conventional fireboxes.

6) Is your chimney on the outside of the house? Remember that warm rising air is the basic engine involved here. If you have a large masonry chimney on the outside of the house, and it's cold outside, the air inside of the chimney will also be very cold, and it will want to fall down the chimney instead of rising. This can even happen a day or two after it's warmed up outside. These chimneys may be hard to start and they may smoke as the fire burns low. To help get the fire started many people light some rolled up newspaper and hold it up near the damper to get that cold plug moving upwards. Keeping a moderate sized but bright, actively flaming fire can also help this situation. Remember that as the fire dies down, it will revert back to the original direction of flow.

7) Is your home too tight? Fireplaces require large volumes of air to burn. Visualize a 12" x 12" column of air rising up your chimney and exiting the top the entire time your fireplace is working (but don't visualize your heat bill!). This air comes from inside the living area and must somehow be replaced. With modern energy efficiency concerns most houses have been carefully insulated and weather-stripped to keep out the cold drafts, but an undesirable side effect is that there is often nowhere for all that air leaving the chimney to get back in. This can lead to fireplaces that burn sluggishly and smoke. A temporary solution is to open a window to let in a little make up air, preferably on the windward side of the house. It can also lead to very dangerous carbon monoxide buildup if your fireplace and furnace must compete for combustion air, and a permanent solution should be found at once.

8) Your house can also be too loose. A house that leaks too much air to the outside, especially a multistory house that leaks air in the upper levels, can actually set up its own draft or chimney effect strong enough to overpower your fireplace chimney, particularly if the fireplace is located in the basement on a cold exterior wall. Be sure the attic access door is in place and that all upstairs windows are tightly closed.
9) Is there a return air grill in the same room as the fireplace. As the fireplace consumes air and cold air moves into the house to replace it, the furnace is likely to come on. When the furnace comes on, air is drawn into the return competing directly with the needs of the fireplace.

Looking for a new, fresh look for your kitchen but you don't need a total remodel? If your cabinets have enough space but don't quite create the look you want - refacing your cabinets can transform your kitchen from merely functional to fabulous. It's a quick kitchen makeover that can deliver stunning results while adding value to your home, as well as enjoyment.

  As you start your cabinet refacing project you will be faced with many decisions. The endless choices in color, style and components can be overwhelming! Don't panic. We are here to help you with insightful articles and practical advice.

Warm chestnut. Thick maple. Gleaming oak. It seems as though the classic connection between wood and cabinet just can't be denied. If you have some money to spend, redoing your kitchen with wood cabinets is an attractive choice

Chestnut. Chestnut wood is fairly soft, and cabinets are characterized by a straight, coarse-textured grain and light to medium-red color.

Maple. Also used to create musical instruments, maple is hard, usually fine-grained, and attractively colored. Maple wood cabinets are popular because of their beauty and durability.

Oak. Oak is sturdy wood used in traditional furniture. Oak wood cabinets are generally straight grained with a coarse texture. Oak offers classic good looks at a reasonable price.

 If you're looking for ways to personalize your wood cabinets you have several options to choose from. Custom wood cabinets let you design your kitchen based on your personality and attitude.

 Custom Wood Cabinets 

Painted. Continue a kitchen theme with professionally painted cabinets.               Carved. Wood carvers can transform your cabinets with looks from ethnic to rococo. Treated. Choose from glazed stain, glazed paint, or other unique treatments.

In cabinet refacing, our handpicked professional installers remove your old cabinet doors and drawer fronts and install new ones. There's no need to reconfigure cabinets or modify plumbing or wiring because the cabinet's basic box, or case, stays intact, saving you time, trouble and money. Get great ideas at Five Star where you can begin to imagine how to transform your cabinets into your dream kitchen.

Five Star Consumer Referrals will be at the Anaheim Home & Garden Show from August 18th-26th.  For more information click here.

Summer is a great time to dig in and start fixing things up around your home. Investing in replacement windows can add value to your home, added beauty, and can also help save you money in energy costs. Double paned windows are three times as efficient as single paned windows. There are many great varieties to choose from and selections for every budget and décor.

Generally people think of windows as being square, can include grids, and come in either wood or vinyl. So picking out windows for your home should be a piece of cake, right? Well it can be with the right information and research, but the choices are a little more varied than most people think. Do your research ahead of time to make the most well informed choice as to what windows will be right for your project.

Window types include fixed, single, hung, double hung, casement, slider, and awning. There are also single paned, double paned, and tempered windows. Tempered windows are made of glass that resists shattering. These type of windows can be required in areas where a person might accidentally fall through the glass such as in a bathtub, along stairs, a window seat, or where a door opens towards a window. Research for yourself the different types of windows available by visiting websites of well known manufacturers. They will have photo galleries, technical information, and resources for finding local dealers.

Next you will have to decide between wood or vinyl windows. Questions to ask yourself might be, will wood hold up in this climate or need constant maintenance, what is the difference in the cost between wood and vinyl windows, and will a contractor charge extra for installing wood or vinyl windows.

If you are seeking energy efficiency, double paned or double glazed glass windows are the way to go. Like a storm window they create insulation by adding an extra pane of glass to create an air pocket. Glass alone is not an insulator, but an air pocket is. Unlike storm windows there is no loss of heat along the frame which makes double paned windows more energy efficient. The air pocket in these types of windows often has a drying agent to absorb moisture and often comes with a reflective coating to increase the insulation. The down side of these windows is that if they become cracked, perhaps by a stray baseball, it is necessary to have them replaced.

Prices can vary greatly between quality vinyl or wood windows. Factors that will effect your cost include size, the larger the window the more expensive, if the windows you choose have window grids which increase the price of the package, whether you go with standard white windows or choose a color that would increase the price, or if you get mulled windows. Mulled windows are two windows that are built together to create a larger window. These type of windows usually come with an extra charge. Also if you choose to have a transom window installed, which is a window either fixed or operable which is placed above a larger window, it can be a bit more expensive. These types of windows are generally used for decorative purposes.

As a rule, picking out windows that come in standard sizes, colors, and options can significantly decrease the price of your window package. When you choose your windows you are not only choosing the style that you like, but also choosing a specific design and function. Picking a professional installer is the final step in completing your vision for your home. Choose someone knowledgeable who you can trust to help you through the process. Make sure that your window installer is licensed and bonded and comes with good references.
If you are looking for a window installer, Five Star Consumer Referrals, Inc. is a free service to homeowners. We can put you in touch with a licensed contractor that is both bonded and insured. While homeowners are ultimately responsible for who they choose to work on their home, Five Star Consumer Referrals prescreens its contractors through the California Contractors State License Board and checks their references.

For more information please contact Five Star Consumer Referrals, Inc. at
(949) 305-5900.

--
Shannon Shimizu
Five Star Consumer Referrals, Inc.
Orange County Contractor Referral Service

Most homeowners have a laundry list of small home improvement jobs that need to be taken care of. Fixing the leak in the bathroom sink, the chip in the tile, or refinishing the deck are chores that we often put off simply because of lack of time. This is where a handyman can help. You can save yourself a lot of money by finding one competent handyman who can do several different projects instead of hiring a different person or company for each individual job.

When choosing your handyman it is a good idea to ask how long they have been in business, how long they have been doing repairs of a particular type, and how many jobs they have done. Make sure your handyman has experience doing the type of jobs that you need done. Also get a written quote for the project and ask about a guarantee of performance.

Keep the lines of communication open between you and your handyman. Make sure that your handyman has a clear and concise understanding of the project that you want done before they start. Check to see if they will come back at no extra charge to fix any problems that may occur with the work after the job is completed. Also check to see if they offer a guarantee on completed work.

Checking references is also a good idea. One of the best ways to check on a handyman’s prior performance is to ask previous customers what they thought. Questions to ask may include did they show up on time or call before hand if they were going to be late, did they clean up after themselves, and were they respectful to you, your family, and to your property.

If you are looking for a handyman, please check our website for competent services. We prescreen all of our contractors to make sure that they are licensed, insured, bonded, and carry workman’s comp if applicable. We also check their references. Our goal is to make your home improvement experience an easy and pleasant process by referring competent individuals and companies that provide excellent customer service.

We here at Five Star Consumer Referrals feel that it is important for consumers to have a place to call and talk to a friendly voice about their home improvement needs and receive up to three qualified bids from pre-screened contractors. We have a centralized database of pre-screened, qualified contractors. We carefully listen to our customers needs in order to match them to the best contractor possible to meet their list of expectations.

All contractors on our service are pre-screened to make sure that they are licensed, bonded, insured, and carry workman’s comp if applicable. We also check their references. Contractors are also required to sign a code of ethics stating that they will follow up with homeowners, take responsibility for their work, provide quality service, and strive to adhere to the philosophy of Five Star Consumer Referrals which is “Raising the Standards in Home Improvement.”

Although homeowners are ultimately responsible for who they choose to work on their home, Five Star Consumer Referrals does the best job it can to pre-screen its contractors through the California Contractors State License Board. We feel confident that our contractors are reputable and do good work. For the consumer this means that they only need to remember one number to be referred to a excellent contractor. This is a big step up from just calling one of the many contractors listed in the yellow pages.

Five Star Consumer Referrals is a FREE service to consumers. We invite you to check us out on our website. We have a growing list of contractors to meet almost all of your home improvement needs. We feel confident that you will find our friendly customer service to be unique in every way.

There are a large variety of options available when it comes to home security. Options can range from impressive alarm systems that protect your whole house and require professional installation to small do-it-yourself kits that are easy to install and provide limited security at a reasonable price.

A basic security system that is installed by a professional will consist of both perimeter and space protection. Perimeter protection secures vulnerable access points such as windows and doors. Space protection will monitor the open spaces in your home by using devices such as motion detectors. You can choose from different levels of security based upon the number of protective devices that you have installed and the sophistication of the system you choose.

A reputable company should perform an on site inspection and discuss in detail with you your individual requirements. Any system that you choose should be tailored to your individual needs. They should also provide you with information as to what else you can do to protect your home such as installing proper locks, putting in additional lighting, and clearing shrubbery.

When shopping for an alarm company do your research. Asking questions such as is the company local, do they have a state license, do they offer 24 hour service, will they work with your insurance agency for reduced rates, is there a warranty and service contract, and checking to see if the system is monitored by a central station with a live person on the other end can weigh heavily on your decision regarding which company and alarm system you choose.

If you choose to go with a do-it-yourself system installing motion sensors, sound detectors, or individual window alarms are all easy and inexpensive options. Whatever system you decide to go with, either professionally installed or something you can easily install yourself, having some kind of system in place can bring you that extra added sense of security and protection that you are looking for.