As you’ve been spending these months of “shelter in place” at home, chances are you’ve noticed a laundry list of things in your house that need to be renovated and brought back to life. During the coronavirus pandemic, everyone was confined in the same house every day, but locked away in separate spaces. Many of us are waiting for it to be safe to invite friends and family over again.
Wouldn’t it be great to use this time to remodel your home so it’s ready for spending time with your loved ones once the pandemic ends? According to a recent study of the coronavirus impact: Surveys have shown that over half of homeowners who were in the midst of a project at the start of the pandemic were able to continue with renovations.
The summer season is actually the best time for home remodeling in Illinois. Common spaces such as the kitchen, living room, bathrooms, and even the basement need a facelift after the years of wear and tear. What better time to make updates than during quarantine when you aren’t hosting friends or family? Summer is also a great time to prepare your home for the harsh Illinois winter, such as installing a new fireplace or insulating the walls to keep warm. Not sure which parts of your home need renovations? Would you like to see examples of the magic that Tom Len Custom Homes can do?
Here’s Where Houzz Comes In…
At Tom Len Custom Homes, we welcome our clients’ visions and are proud to turn them into reality! Houzz is an online community for browsing and organizing custom renovations, beautiful home design, project portfolios, interior design, and more. Since 2008, professionals and everyday people have fallen in love with Houzz. This website is highly recommended by our interior designers to give you some inspiration for your next project. It’s a fun, easy to use online platform that clients can use to get a better understanding of their personal style. Read these tips for using Houzz to keep your home project on track even during the pandemic. Never heard of Houzz? We’re here to break it down for you…
Why Houzz?
“Houzz is an online community, directory and marketplace for all things home design. Whether you are building, remodeling, redecorating or just dreaming, Houzz offers a great deal of assistance and inspiration.” Houzz typical users are known as “Empowered Clients”. According to Houzz’s research on their users, these Empowered Clients:
- Average home value of $450,000
- Actively building, remodelling, or decorating
- 40% plan to build an addition or remodel
- 10% are planning to build a custom home
- 26% hire an interior designer
- 24% hire a landscape architect or designer
Are you an Empowered Client? The Tom Len Custom Homes team wants to help you navigate Houzz to use for organizing your luxury home remodel or custom home build!
Get Familiar with our Profile Page: A wonderful starting point is our Houzz profile page. Use it as a key to navigating through Houzz. From the moment you open our profile, you will be greeted with information about the services we offer, North Shore locations we serve, and how to contact us. Stay connected with us by choosing to Follow us, Share our profile, or Save it for future reference!
“The ease of navigation is one of the best features of Houzz. Pictures of projects and products are easily scrolled through by the user. Houzz is set up so that professionals and daydreamers will enjoy the site.” WT Marketing
Browse Our Projects: When you view our “Project” section, you will be able to see finished client projects! Our project portfolio is a great way to get a feel for Tom Len’s work, client aesthetics, and get an idea of how we’ll make your vision a reality!
Here are a few examples of Tom Len’s projects for you to check out:
Read Real Client Reviews: A great way to feel confident in your choice of professional is by reading client reviews! Tom Len Custom Homes is proud to showcase many 5-star ratings…
“We can not speak highly enough about our experience with Tom Len Custom Homes. He and his crew are incredibly professional and clearly experts in their field. From the initial planning to the final construction, they guided us and walked us through every step. The final product is beautiful and exactly what we had hoped for. Working with Tom Len was a pleasure, and we highly recommend Tom Len Custom Homes for your next project.”
“New Home Construction. Tom is an incredible builder! His team is professional, creative, attentive to every detail and most importantly trust worthy. This has been the most fun, stress-free process. I wouldn’t build a house with anyone else!”
Quick Tip: Find more reviews like these in the “Review” section on our Houzz profile. Simply scroll down past our projects to learn about actual client experiences.
Start Creating Ideabooks: If only you had a place to look at pictures of dream homes to get ideas, and then save them to show Tom Len? Look no further, here comes the “Ideabook” section! You can view thousands of images and videos for custom home build or home remodel inspiration. Most ideabooks are organized by interior design aesthetic or by rooms of the home. Ideabooks are similar to Pinterest boards.
“Select the type of room or outdoor space you want to search for. Use filters for elements including size, style, shape, layout, materials and more to narrow your search.” Ideabooks can be found under reviews. You may control your ideabook’s privacy, sharing and collaboration settings if you’d like. You also can make your ideabook private or public!
Here are a few of Tom Len’s ideabooks to give you somewhere to start:
Quick Tip: Consider creating separate ideabooks for different projects, rooms, items, or themes.
Searching for Products and Specialty Items: Within projects and ideabooks, you may see a translucent price tag icon appear. These little watermarks are indicators of which specific products are used in a design. These markers can represent furniture, title, wallpaper and even the type of wood the house was built with. If a certain product, paint color, item, or material catches your eye, you can simply copy the page link and send it to Tom via email to keep in mind for your project. Another option is saving these products in an ideabook of your own, and then sharing it with one of our interior designers when discussing your project!
How to Bookmark and Save Designs: Have you found what you’re looking for? Are you ready to show Tom Len and his interior designers exactly what you want when describing your dream home? Save photos, projects, ideabooks, and design aesthetics to your personal Houzz account!
When you find something you like, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the photo. After you click the Save button, a new screen will pop up, allowing you to add the photo, professional profile, discussion or story to an existing ideabook. You also can create a new ideabook by clicking the title field, selecting “Create New”, typing your new ideabook title and clicking the “Create” button.
Quick tip: You can add a comment about the item you saved at this step by typing it into the field labeled Add Notes, What Do You Like About This Photo? You also can add and edit comments on all items in the ideabook later.
Last but Not Least, Look for Badges: Best of Houzz badges on a pro’s Houzz profile page recognize the top-rated home pros and the most popular designs on Houzz by category and area. The Best of Houzz Service awards reflect a pro’s overall rating and client reviews submitted during the year. Tom Len and his team are proud to showcase several badges on our Houzz profile, including “Best of 2019” for the Service category – we’re working toward earning this award again in 2020!
