Picture your clients in a home improvement store trying to buy light bulbs. Many people — remodelers and homeowners alike — feel guilty reaching for the incandescents — in different shapes, sizes, outputs and color — which sit next to shelves of CFLs. CFLs are more efficient, but which do people likely choose? The wide variety of bulbs now available can be overwhelming.

"The Corner Office" is a look at the top executives at large remodeling firms. In each of the next three months, we'll profile these industry leaders and examine their unique business issues.

Like forecasting the weather, figuring out the remodeling and construction market over the last year has been a difficult task. Every time a recovery has been forecast, a new storm cloud has appeared on the horizon. Whether it's overbuilt new home inventory, tightening lending standards or simple consumer wariness, plenty of factors combined to make this a tough year for the remodeling industry.

For this sunroom addition in Wheaton, Ill., it was imperative the homeowner, who is an opera singer, have a beautiful, inspirational place to sing and write music. The room also had to reflect her and her husband's world travels.

Keeping up with the neighbors took on a whole new meaning while Nan and Mark Remme prepared their wooded enclave outside Minneapolis for sale. The homeowner had the 1993 house inspected, only to discover moisture damage behind the stucco siding. Alarmed, owners of neighboring 1993 stucco houses erected by the same builder hired a testing company to examine their houses.

Regardless of the size of your remodeling company, everyone benefits from healthy partnerships: owners, suppliers and clients alike.

Information about paperless timesheets; using technology to keep clients up-to-date; and communicating with trade contractors.

Four tips to help remodeling firms find motivated employees.

Tips to help remodeling companies grow and improve their business.

For more than two years, Allen Arsenault had watched a prime lot sit on the market as buyers were scared off by the deteriorated vacant building. "It was a sweetheart of a location on one of the busiest roads in town," says Arsenault, the owner of New England Design & Remodeling of Northborough, Mass.