The kitchen is the most heavily used area of any home; we cook, we clean, we eat and we socialize more in the kitchen than any other area of the home. How it looks and feels plays a major role in how we enjoy our home and how we interact with everyone else who lives there too, as well as most of the people who come to visit. When we come to sell our home, a major selling point is just how good the kitchen looks to potential buyers. A shabby kitchen is dangerous, unhygienic and a major negative selling point for anyone thinking of buying your home.

But then, there is also the perception that renovating or refreshing the kitchen is an expensive affair. The cost of appliances, new flooring, and window treatments and of course, the kitchen cabinets and countertops is prohibitive. There has to be a better way to raise the appeal and eye-candy value of your kitchen without the need to go to the eye-popping expense typically associated with it.

Fortunately there is a way and it is simple, cheap and delivers a highly customized look and feel for your kitchen which will create the “WOW!” factor you are looking for, no matter whether it is for yourself or to impress potential home buyers.

By replacing just the kitchen cabinets, you can remove the bulk of the expense associated with fitting a new kitchen. Indeed, you may not need to go the expense of fitting a brand new set of cabinets and can simply replace the doors and handles. This latter method is often used by people on a tight budget, but who nevertheless want a great looking, personalized kitchen. It is exceptionally cheap to do in comparison, and because visitors are only likely to look superficially at the appearance of the cabinetry, they are never going to realize you have only fitted new doors. In any event, there is usually many years of practical life left in the cabinet skeleton for most installations which are ripped out during a refurbishment.

With the ability to simply swap out kitchen cabinet doors and furniture, there comes a relaxation on the amount of available budget. Instead of spending thousands on a kitchen remodel, the budget is likely to be a few hundred dollars for the doors and furniture. It pays to buy the best you can find in this instance, because the doors really are the face of the kitchen itself. Choosing doors which reflect the tone you are trying to create and demonstrate high quality finish with a superior custom look is going to pay huge dividends when it comes to the impact the finished swap-out will create on the eyes of the beholder.

Opting for customized kitchen cabinets and doors will also provide a firm impression of superior quality, even if you are using old cabinet frames to hang the doors off. You can also use the odd full cabinet to utilize space which was not possible to use when the original kitchen was installed. It is simpler and easier today to source customized kitchen cabinetry in a wider array of dimensions than was previously possible, so always take the time to check with your supplier as to what is possible.

Agee Woodworks crafts customized mantels as well as a variety of CNC routed projects like customized cabinets.

What’s the Big Lebowski of all power tools? Easy…a sliding-compound miter saw. And if you are like me, you will have to read 19 different miter saw reviews before heading to your local home center to make a purchase like this. And for good reason — Today you can easily spend over $800 on a 12-inch slider. It’s a big ticket item that you will (hopefully) be using for years to come, so it pays to get it right the first time.

Let me start your search with a closer look at the “king of the green machines”: the Hitachi C12LSH 12 inch slider. In the interest of full disclosure, I have always been a big fan of Hitachi saws, and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint.

My 5-year old son told me that this tool looked like a Transformer when I pulled it out of the box. I don’t know about that, but the slime-green and black styling is certainly eye-catching. But what I was most interested in was how does this saw perform…Once again, this Hitachi didn’t disappoint.

Now if you’ve read any other miter saw reviews in a magazine like Fine Homebuilding, you know that a saw this size has plenty of power to spare. This model boasts a 15 amp belt-driven motor with a soft start and smooth operation, with virtually no blade wobble. I must say that I really hated the blade that came with a saw, but once I switched it for a 12″ Forrest Chopmaster the cut was glass-smooth (for half the price of the Forrest blade, I think the Ridgid titanium blades available at the Depot do a nice job).

There are three features that really set this tool apart frome the other entries in the 12-inch slider category:

1. Rising like a serpent above the blade is the digital display mounted on a flexible arm, which holds an an LCD screen indicating exact miter and bevel settings. While it’s useful to know that the bevel I’m cutting is actually 46.3 degrees, I won’t be using it as much the laser guide, which is still the best and most accurate on the market. Best of all, this laser can be read off the back edge of the workpiece, which is a real bonus when cutting crown molding miters.

2. This tool also features a micro-adjustment dial for both bevel and miter settings. While this may sound like a gadget that you will never use on the job, it’s actually quite useful if you need to cut a half-degree on either side of a detent setting (i.e. 45.5 degrees). This means you won’t be fighting the tool past the detent setting to make this adjustment — Instead, just dial it in on the micro adjustment wheel.

3. The best feature found on this Hitachi is the clearance you’ll find BEHIND the saw. This is because the rails do not extend beyond the base of the tool when you finish a cut. This is very useful when trimming a remodel job, where walking lanes are often difficult to come by, and sometimes the only place to set up is in a hallway!

This tool is built like my truck…weighing in at 68 pounds, it is one of the heaviest models in the 12-inch slider category. While I’m tempted to install it as a stationary tool in my shop for this reason, I think I’ll find a way to haul to my next trim job as well…It’s just too nice of a tool not to use it all the time.

At the end of the day, the Hitachi C12LSH is a terrific combination of brains and brawn, and the unique features mentioned above make it a real money-maker. However, if you’re in the market for a sliding compound miter saw, do your homework! Be sure to look at at least three different tools to determine which one best suits your needs and budget…You’ll be happy you did. And if you can’t visit a home center for a first-hand look, you’ll find plenty more miter saw reviews like this on my blog at http://www.squidoo.com/miter-saw-reviews…Good luck and happy hunting!

Looking for more miter saw reviews like this one?…Learn these little-known secrets of the big-name tools before your next sliding compound miter saw purchase.

The best kitchen design ideas are the result of careful planning and thought. The kitchen is a central room in most houses and one of the most important as it is usually used as a gathering place. If you settle on the wrong kitchen design, you will have set the wrong tone for the whole house.

Anyone wanting to add new life to their house might start with changing things in the kitchen. You can brighten up the kitchen and add value to your house at the same time if you do things right. You might want to get some opinion of your friends first though, before you embark on any big changes.

Choosing the correct colors for your new kitchen is important because the kitchen is often viewable from the living room. The colors in your kitchen may affect how the rest of the ground floor looks and you will want it to all blend together nicely. As people like to hang out in kitchens, the colors you pick should be uplifting and not too dark. You will want to make sure your kitchen walls are a color that creates a happy atmosphere and not one the is too gloomy.

One of the first things a person sees when they walk into your kitchen is the cabinets. As they are all along the walls, they take up a big space. Kitchen cabinet ideas should be carefully considered when you remodel as it they are such an important part of the design of the kitchen.

If you dont have the money to buy new cabinets, you can have your old ones refaced. This is one of the cheapest ways to quickly give your kitchen a new updated look. The outside part of most kitchen cabinets will fade and look worn after years of use and refacing them is an easy way to make them look new again.

Redoing the cabinets and changing the colors in your kitchen are two ways to make the most noticeable impact and make your kitchen look new again. The kitchen is always an important room and modernizing it will go a long way towards improving the overall look of your home.