One mistake that people often make is to douse their hardwood floors with too much water when cleaning. Make sure the mop you use is only somewhat damp, not soaking wet. Just add a little water to your floors to clean them. Too much will damage your flooring. Before you put a mop on your floors, make sure your hardwood has been thoroughly vacuumed to remove excess dirt.

Cleaning your hardwood floors routinely should prevent many problems down the road. This is because a clean hardwood floor is less vulnerable to deterioration and as well, stains and dirt buildups won’t collect over time and thus become difficult to remove later.

Never use ammonia to clean your hardwood floors. Ammonia is one of those miracle cleaners for many materials, but it will only hurt your hardwood floor. Ammonia can discolor and take away a few years from your floor’s life. So when you do have a cleaning product around that you’d like to use on your floor, check the ingredients and if there is ammonia included, do not use it! Vinegar, on the other hand, can be useful. In that sense, hardwood floors really won’t cost you a lot as you can often fight tough stains with simply water and vinegar.

There are some easy things you can do to help keep your hardwood floors in good shape. One of those things is to buy some area rugs to protect your floor in different spots where there might be high traffic. For example, at the entry way of a door, or the middle of a room, you can place a rug down so that your hardwood floor can be saved from some serious wear and tear. Rugs are also a great way to dress up your home and even though hardwood floors are pretty, they can also look bland if there aren’t a few rugs here and there to jazz things up.

 Hanging drapes is easier than you think. With these simple rules — you’ll have your new window treatments installed in no time.

First, measure your window to see what size curtains you will need and where you will want the curtain rod mounted. Remember to always measure twice and drill once.

 Mount the bracket for the double curtain rod using a power drill. Make sure that the placement is where you want it so that your curtains will hang correctly. If you are mounting the bracket in drywall, you may need to use anchors so that the weight of the curtains won’t pull the bracket out. If you are mounting directly into a wood window frame you will not need them.

 Using the smaller of the two rods, hang the sheers. You will hang the rod on the inside bracket. Using the larger of the two rods, hang the curtains. This rod will go on the outside. When finished, you can buy decorative tie-backs to finish your new look.

We are happy to recommend Tracy and her incredible staff.  Tracy and Mary were our team and they did an amazing job.  We have a 2,700 sq ft house and they basically gutted it AND remodeled it in TWO weeks!!!! 

They presented the options — of it taking much longer (if we remained living in the house) OR moving out for two weeks and letting them take over and go ‘pretty much’ non-stop!  We decided to give it a try and not live through the chaos. 

Both Tracy and Mary worked very closely with us through the whole planning process.

Their involvement during the remodel process was ‘Hands-on”!!  Tracy inspected every aspect of the job and she IS a perfectionist; she was aware of things we would have never even thought of. 

Their team of contractors literally gutted our house and remodeled it from floor to ceiling:

We did: Two structural changes (kitchen design and master shower remodel) plus, baseboards, tile, carpet, stairway banister and front door (with transom and sidelight). Also, all sinks, faucet fixtures, and counters (including both granite and marble), all new cabinets and lighting (including new canned lights, chandeliers, and pendants).

Tracy is extremely knowledgeable and  her contractor team(s) work wonderfully with her.  When we saw the timeline she presented at a meeting, we too were convinced she (they) would get this job done.

We absolutely love our “New” house!  It’s been since August and I’m still in awe. 

I understand the importance of this decision and hope our input reinforces our faith in Tracy and her Style On A Shoestring team!

All the best,

Tammie Johnson

 Style On A Shoestring (SOAS) remodeled our entire ground floor and some of our upstairs. Our project finished just two months ago. I have often said to family and friends the end result is far better than we expected. We were given a timeline and spending plan and everything went as scheduled and within budget. There were questions and issues that arose but SOAS went out of their way to make sure we were happy.

As for advice, I would say you should trust SOAS and be flexible with what they suggest. 

 After committing to use them for our project however we often said for them to do what they thought was best when asked for our opinion. This allowed them to be creative and not boxed in by things we were fixated upon. I believe this is why we had no idea how wonderful the end results would be. Everyone who comes over is shocked by the huge difference!

Perhaps the only negative is our upstairs now looks pretty shabby in comparison to the downstairs. As soon as we’re ready we’ll call SOAS to help us out with the rest of our home.

Jim Ochi