6 Small Home Projects to Plan for in 2020

If you haven’t done much upkeep in your home for several years, it might feel overwhelming to know where to start. Aside from a major, full-gut remodel in a kitchen or bathroom, there are many smaller projects that can be completed to contribute to a more modern look overall.

Aesthetically speaking, minor upgrades here and there can really make a big impact in your home as a whole as time goes by. One way to go about this is to choose a handful of small projects to complete independently throughout the year, resulting in a beautifully updated home over time. For example, refreshing the interior paint in the spring and replacing dated carpet with a solid-surface flooring in the fall can provide for a modern, updated look come holiday season. It may not be realistic for you to do everything at once, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with tackling small projects individually to slowly transform your dated home! Read more

We’re Expanding Our Service Area!

As our team and business have grown over the years, we have added several team members that live south of Tarrant County, now enabling us to offer our services to parts of

Hood, Johnson, and Ellis Counties!

This includes Midlothian, Cleburne, Granbury, Willow Park, Aledo, and surrounding cities.

If you know someone that lives in these areas and needs Design-Build or Handyman services, be sure to pass on our name! Read more

Mike’s Guys: Your Holiday Handyman!

2019 is quickly coming to a close, which means the holidays will be here before we know it! This time of year is exciting, but tends to be very hectic. The joys of the season also come with the stress of planning for family time, preparing for upcoming travel, and meeting work deadlines; not to mention there is often a long list of things that need to be repaired, replaced, or updated around the house before holiday guests arrive. That’s where our handyman division steps in!

Mike’s Guys Handyman & Exteriors is here to help with all of the small home projects you need to get done prior to the hustle and bustle of the holidays. These projects can include: Read more

Mike’s Guys Handyman: How Does it Work?

If you’ve done any work with the Medford Team recently, or if you follow us on social media, you have likely heard about our Handyman division — Mike’s Guys Handyman & Construction. For 30+ years, our design-build team has provided custom design packages and quality construction for large-scale home remodels. The inclusion of Mike’s Guys allows us to better meet the needs of our clients that need help with smaller projects such as home repairs, maintenance, and installations. Read more

10 Home Projects to do Before Winter (and a Handyman that can Help!)

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It’s hard to believe we’re already in the last few months of 2019! Fall is just about here, which means the busy hustle and bustle of the holidays is just around the corner. While most people enjoy the holidays and the change of pace that it entails, it can easily be one of the most stressful times – for homeowners in particular. Not only do you have to think about gift shopping, special events, unusual work schedules, and potential traveling, but you also have to prepare your home to endure the harsh weather and elements that come with the season. Unfortunately, cooler, wetter weather can wreak havoc on your house if it has not been properly maintained!

Because no one wants to be hit with an unexpected home repair bill during the already expensive holiday season, the best thing you can do is make a conscious effort to prep your home throughout the weeks leading up to winter. You might think it’s not a big deal; why fix something if it’s not broken? The answer is that, more often than not, the expense of an emergency home repair far exceeds the cost of maintenance before the damage is done. Similar to the expression “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” it’s in your best interest to keep your home in great working order instead of waiting until something goes wrong to address an issue.

On top of the additional expense, it’s much more difficult to find a professional that is available to provide their services during the holidays. Most businesses have shorter hours and are closed for multiple days, meaning their available work schedules fill up much more quickly. It can be extremely frustrating to call one handyman after another only to hear that no one has any time to fit you in right before the holidays. Save yourself the struggle and get these things done ahead of time!

Here are a few home maintenance projects you should consider having done before the cold winter months arrive:

1. Clean out the gutters

As much as we all hate to do it, cleaning out the gutters is a must. Clogged gutters can be a dangerous hazard during the winter months. Water and debris freezing in the gutters can make them very heavy, causing them to break and fall. Not only can this be dangerous to you, but it can also cause serious damage to your home. Who wants to pay for gutter repair or replacement when cleaning them out a few times a year can easily prevent this problem?

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Mike’s Guys: 5 Steps to Remove Wallpaper

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Although wallpaper seems to be making somewhat of a comeback, removing it is something we almost always do when remodeling a space that is wallpapered. In most cases, homeowners prefer to have all wallpaper removed to allow for the more modern aesthetic of paint. Unfortunately, in many older homes, wallpaper was applied on every wall of a room, so even if new wallpaper was going to be laid over one wall to provide a decorative accent, three other walls would still need to be scraped and prepped for paint! While not impossible, the task of removing wallpaper can be tedious, messy, and time-consuming. Read more

Mike’s Guys: Installing New Exterior Doors

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One of the most popular requests we receive by our handyman division, Mike’s Guys, is for exterior door replacement. Often times, exterior doors and trim need replacing due to years of wear and tear from the elements, usually including water damage. It might sound simple to take out an old door and pop in a new one, but it is actually one of the more complex handyman services we offer. There are a lot of variables when it comes to door replacements, such as the width of the jamb, the type of casing, the trim, and bore specifications. There is even more to take into consideration if the existing door is rotten because water is coming in where it shouldn’t – this requires us to determine the cause of the issue and fix it prior to installing the replacement door. Of course, there are companies out there that would install a new door without fixing any underlying issues first, but who wants to put a band-aid on something that will only cause the same problem a year or so down the road?!

Exterior door installation requests are not always in relation to damaged doors, however. We also get requests to install sliding patio doors or traditional French doors where there is not already an existing door. This request may be to install the door in place of a set of windows, or just in a desired location on an exterior wall.

Here is an example of a French door installation we did for a client that wanted to access the backyard from the master bedroom:

If you are interested in having new exterior doors installed, or if you need to replace some damaged ones, our team would be happy to help! The quickest option we offer for quoting this type of project is a virtual estimate: simply snap some photos of your existing problem doors or of the wall you’d like to install a door in and email them to us for a quote. We’ll need the approximate width and height of the doors, along with interior and exterior photos. If you’d like to proceed with the quote we provide, we’re happy to completely manage the project going forward. We’ll send one of our handymen out to take hard measurements, source and order the door, complete installation once it’s delivered, and finish out the door with painting. We’re happy to consider ourselves a ‘one-stop-shop’ for door installations, making it easier on you as the homeowner while allowing us to provide the highest level of quality workmanship!

We can also offer assistance with other types of door installations, such as interior doors, barn doors, and decorative iron doors. Contact us today for more information!

Warm Regards,

Mike’s Guys

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Mike’s Guys Tip: 3 Options for Getting Rid of Popcorn Ceilings

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One of the top requests we get from our clients – whether they are remodeling their current home or have recently moved into an older house – is to have the popcorn ceilings removed.

These textured ceilings, also known as popcorn ceilings, acoustic ceilings or even cottage cheese ceilings, were very popular in the 1970s and ’80s as a quick and easy way to hide imperfections. Unfortunately, this texture can be very difficult to match if you have cracks or holes in need of patching. The uneven surface also catches more dust, allows for cobwebs, and really makes a home’s interior look stale and dated. These reasons alone are enough to make a homeowner opt for removing the texture! This is why we include popcorn ceiling removal in just about every home remodeling project we complete. Read more

15 Tips to Keep Your Home Cool and Your Electric Bill Low!

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Late spring through the end of summer are when the temperatures in North Texas really heat up! There are a lot of good things that come with warm weather – cookouts, sporting events, family trips, and checking off those home projects you have been putting off. Unfortunately, warm weather also brings some not-so-good things, like an increase in your electric bill. In fact, according to the US Energy Information Administration, the United States used more energy last year than ever recorded before! Our guess is that the energy usage will continue to climb as the years go on. The good news is, there are a number of things (easy things!) you can do to use less energy and still keep your home cool; benefiting both the environment and your wallet! Read more

3 Benefits of Working with a Professional Handyman

If there is one thing we have learned since introducing our handyman division – Mike’s Guys – it’s that some homeowners tend to associate the term “handyman” with “inexpensive” as a means to get large projects done for less. This isn’t completely wrong; Mike’s Guys was established with the purpose of providing assistance with smaller projects that typically cost less than major remodels. Our goal is to provide professional service and high-end results for small remodels, home maintenance, and repair projects—the same great service and results that you would expect from Medford Design-Build for major remodels! Read more

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