Noisy neighbors in the condo or apartment next door, street sounds, the night owls in your family, or that "man den" are all reasons to consider soundproofing in your home. If you are converting that basement to a rental apartment or mother-in-law suite, you may be able to sound proof and make your home more resistant to fire too. We'll show you how to spend your money wisely on both below beginning with the least expensive.

It's very obvious that Lowes and the Home Depot face great challenges in serving customers who are just not that handy. I put myself in that category and I am sure that other men and women do as well. Sure we can do the obvious- go buy a book or search the Web. Like anything else, we have to undertstand the basics and common tools associated with do it yourself (DIY) projects. Cartoons by Howtoons.com and Instructables.com may be an easy and fun way to bridge that knowledge gap and to enable customers to be brave enough to undertake more complex projects. We illustrate this with a couple of examples.

I received a question in the forums about commercial contractors doing residential remodeling work. Instead of responding to it in the Forums, I thought it was very important to many people who are looking for a remodeling contractor. It's also important for commercial contractor to fully understand what they are getting themselves into if they want to do residential remodeling. Here's what Gloria Z asked:

"Hello, I saw site and read some of your articles about contractors. We have narrowed the selection to two contractors. One is very easy to talk to but they have only done commercial and apartments projects. The other contractor does residential projects but not of the quality or price range that we are looking for. Do you have any advice on which to choose. Thanks, we are really don't know who to turn to." Gloria Z

You've heard the horror stories and unfortunately many are true. People handing over their hard earned money to contractors who can't deliver or worse construct unsafe projects. No one can promise that it won't happen to you, but we can tell you how to reduce your risks, protect yourself and improve the chances of getting the remodeling project that you want. Just follow these steps.

Remember the "Unwritten Clause" in every Remodeling Contract
HGTV's Mike Holmes of "Holmes on Homes" recently said that it seems that on the projects he fixes there might as well be an unwritten clause in the contract. The clause is reads "Beware, you could be screwed." Those may not be the exact words, but they are pretty close to it even if you have done your home work, checked references etc. before going with a certain contractor. If we got it wrong, we apologize Mike. By the way we love the Holmes on Homes website and show.