Q. I'm thinking of redoing my family room, and don't quite know what to do. There's a maroon red brick fireplace, a light redwood bookcase & the right wall has white shutter windows. It's a medium-sized room, about 20x20 ft. around I want to take out the rest of the furniture and repaint the walls. Any ideas for the wall colour and colour of furniture?

A. Change the room to having neutral light colours. Not only does light colours make a room seem more spacious, they give a feeling of airyness and freedom. I'd paint your walls a nice ivory or cream colour. A vase of colourful flowers on the dining table adds a pop of colour, and so does artwork and cushions. It's amazing how much of a difference those things can make to a neutral colour scheme. If you have dark furniture you can also use mirrors and glass to make a room look lighter and to draw attention from the dark furniture, floors etc http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_design_small_space/article/0,,HGTV_3382_4403111,00.html http://www.housetohome.co.uk//galleries/living/Warm_white_living_room_2708.html?subslug= http://www.fotosearch.com/IMP166/inghdyrm0032/ http://designsavvymaui.blogspot.com/2008/01/white-living-rooms-with-pink-accents.html http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Beauty-Of-A-White-Living-Room&id=920354 http://ratemyspace.hgtv.com This is a good site to see what other people have done with their rooms in their house.

Q. I'm trying to pick out some blinds for my living room and my family room. Which is more sutiable for the living room? Family room? We spend much of our time in the family room and very little in the living room. Any advice would be appreciated!

A. Honeycomb blinds help with insulation. Something to do with the shape of the blind. If utility bills are high I would go with those. If not then go for the faux wood blinds they are attractive and come in some many colors and wood grain choices.

Q. We want to add a garage w/ bonus room, and extend out back with an additional room or two. Will require HVAC upgrades. What can I expect to pay / square foot?

A. $60 per sq ft basic. $100 gets you luxury. Can you do any of it yourself? /

Q. We are moving to new york state. We bought 37 acers and are builday a house. We will be going down for a week in may {only my family not the animals}. My house will be a 11 BEDROOMS 16 baths 2 kitchens 1 family room 1 study room 1 reading room 1 game room 1 living room 1 fromeal dining room 1 great room 1 dining room 1 sport room 1 spa room and 2 sunrooms 1 gym and basket ball court and indoor pool this will be expensive but we can afford it is this 2 much? and a raqnch for our horses and 3 green houses one out side pool one BIG pond 1 moster size swing set

A. One day at a time and alot of patiance.goodluck.

Q. My brother is coming to live with me, so i need to make a Room Addition and remodeling of the bathroom; I live in Hialeah, Miami Can somebody help me? My friend told me about http://www.remodelinghomemiami.com but he haven't used them...

A. I used Miami Home Improvements last year, they had really good prices if you do the kitchen and bathroom remodeling. We also made a room addition with a new bathroom and painted the living room. It was really fast too, i recommend it http://www.remodelinghomemiami.com/kitchen_remodeling_miami.html you can see also they do free estimates

Q. We are in need of more cabinet space in our some what small kitchen. We are gonna knock out one wall and open the kitchen to what will be a family room. We will also turn a 5.5 foot wide window, in the family room, into a patio door that will lead out to a soon to be deck. We have a kitchen door that is now 3.5 feet adjacent to where said patio door will be in 6 months. We have been getting different opinions on our kitchen back door. some people say yeah remove it for more cabinets. Some say no keep if for emergency exit. My question is if we should keep the door even though we will have another set of doors 3.5 feet away in the family room on the same wall. what do you think. Please try to explain your answer. your opinion will help me decide. Thanks.

A. Can you leave the door for now, purchase the cabinets necessary to go in that space, and install them when you add the family room? This would allow you to keep the door for safety's sake now but close it off for additional space later. I don't know how your countertops and such will be laid out, so I don't know if this is truly a possibility. In any case, I'd go for the long term solution and close the door off if building codes allow it.

Q. Our countertops in the kitchen turned out to be a lot more blue than we had anticipated (The sample chip looked to be mostly grey with blue and khaki accents). We have a very open floor plan, and there are no divisions between the kitchen, breakfeast nook, and family room. We don't yet have furniture for our family room, and now we're unsure what color we should get, and what color to paint the family room. Anybody have some advice? I'd prefer to have neutral color furniture, but I don't want everything to be neutral and end up looking bland.

A. Yep the 1st person took the words right out of my mouth. yellow is an excellent color with blue. you just have to be real careful and do a creamy toned down yellow. you can use rusty, pumpkin type colors as accents if the red is too eye popping.

Q. My family would like to add on to our exsisting 1200 square foot traditional rancher. We'd like to add on a 2 car garage, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, family room and knock out a exsisting wall in the kitchen, we are having are electricity done for free and i would greatly appreciate what the approximate cost would be and how can i save money with an addition like this?

A. You have to figure in alot of things - will it have a foundation ( basement) or slab ( for the concrete)? Plumbing will need to be run for the bathroom- the further away from the main lines ( drains and water) more itll cost) . You'll have to figure in for wall studs- roof rafters, sheetrock , insulation , nails/screws, roofing materials ( shingles,tar paper, gutters), flooring, siding , finishing materials ( vynal or tile finish floors, paint , decorating , lighting, doors ,mouldings, windows), demolition ( for the removal of the wall) , a dumpster ( for waste materials) . Rough guess - Id say $50,000 - over $100,000 easy and always make it higher for unexpected changes - so top end will probably be an easy $200, 000. Will there be a company doing all the work? Are permits included in the bid? You almost have to figure if its cheeper to locate a larger house then add on to the exisitng one ( unless theres a ton of property). Its a big expense.