Communicate Value Your April story on Sunvek ("Selling the Difference") and communicating your firm's value was super. There are even some good lessons for PR people, too. I know communicating my value to potential customers is not my strong suit, either. The shoemaker's kids...? Keep it up! Margie Simon, Simon & Associates Public Relations, Minneapolis New Design Speaks Volumes First react...

Remodeling homes and redesigning magazines might seem to be two completely dissimilar endeavors. In reality, however, there are a lot of similarities between renovating an existing home and revamping the content and design of a publication such as this. The first step in either instance is to define the needs and desires of the people who will be using the finished product.

We've all been there — forced to make amends or concessions with clients or subs for property damages that we knew predated our involvement. Hopefully, you've also witnessed the look of surprise that comes after producing a photo to demonstrate the preexisting nature of the damage and your innocence.

For centuries, people have been warming their homes — and their feet — with radiant floor heating. Warm, clean, and efficient, radiant floor heating is increasingly popular in new homes, but it remains a rarity in remodeling, as many contractors believe radiant heating is impractical to install in an existing home.

Denver's older neighborhoods have what every city-dweller longs for: great parks, homes with timeless character, and easy access to a complete range of urban amenities. The only drawback: The homes are small, usually at or below 1,200 square feet, with little room to grow. Most are brick bungalows, Victorians or Denver squares with cramped rooms built for working-class families of the early 20t...

The owners of this 120-year-old house had a patio, gazebo and a small pond in the backyard, but they wanted to create an outdoor haven that would better integrate their active lifestyle with their pastoral environment in rural Pennsylvania. The space they envisioned would be more functional and also more architecturally distinctive.

"All I ask is that you make my wife happy, or I'll eat you for lunch." Those were the instructions given to Ryan Haas, vice president of Houston Structural Inc., by the homeowner — an attorney — of this 1950s ranch residence. "The owners had been working on this project more than eight years," Haas recalls.

Why me? What did I do to deserve this? Sometimes, as with accident or illness, these questions have no answers. But they're still worth asking after each business success or failure: Although life delivers unavoidable situations, luck is not a viable business strategy. Creating a steady stream of qualified leads and closing profitable jobs requires two things: providing products and services wo...

Several years ago, Jim and Ann McLaren watched a neighbor's house undergo an extensive renovation that included an addition. They liked what they saw, and when it came time to update their four-bedroom, three-bath, brick colonial home, the McLarens called Kirkwood, Mo.-based Riggs Design & Construction — the same company that had worked on the neighbor's project.

ROI: Return on investment. It's an important metric when gauging what to spend on advertising and marketing your business. It can be measured in sales and margin; it can also be measured — though not easily — in brand awareness. Some remodelers do primarily repeat and referral business and avoid advertising.