(2.5-min read)

If you’ve surfed Pinterest or visited a new house within the past two years, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered the ever-trendy wall-mounted sliding barn door. Though sliding barn doors installed within a home give it a touch of utilitarian chic, some of us are wondering if we’re going to look back at this trend 20 years from now and wonder, “What the heck were we thinking?” Let’s take a look at some of the upsides and downsides of installing wall-mounted sliding barn doors in your home. 

Sliding Barn Door Benefits

Space-Saving Design

There is a particular benefit to having a door that doesn’t require a sweep-path for its opening. For smaller homes, sliding barn door means more of the space can be utilized. In particular apartments and tiny houses, sliding doors may be the only viable option for closing off a space.

Intriguing Look

Sliding barn doors have a slightly rugged-yet-chic aesthetic about them that is currently still popular. This visual appeal also modernizes dated spaces. This makes them extremely popular among house flippers who are looking to make their properties feel as new and modern as possible. 

Slide Barn Door Drawbacks

Slide-Path Limitations

For as space-saving as wall-mounted barn doors seem to be, the slide path (where the door hangs when it is not closing off a room) needs to be free of all light switches and electric outlets. No wall hangings can be present on the wall that doubles as a slide path. 

Privacy Issues

Most doors provide a level of privacy for a room. You could likely have a low-toned conversation in a closed room without worrying about disturbing people in nearby places or being overheard. Wall-mounted barn doors don’t provide as much privacy due to a slight gap between the door frame the door itself. It is essentially like having the door cracked at all times.

Potentially Dated Look

While we have no crystal ball, we know there will come a time when wall-mounted barn doors may date a space. The doors are still fashionable and trendy, but there’s no guarantee that they won’t end up as the wood paneling and shag carpet of the future. That being said, none of us can guarantee what the future of interior design will deem timeless or dated. 

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Traditional doors, sliding doors, no doors — the options for customizations in your new custom home from Perry Hood Properties are virtually limitless. 

Learn more about the custom home construction professionals at Perry Hood Properties today.  

(3-min read)

Even though carpet is falling out of style to hardwoods or laminates, it is still a common flooring choice. Let’s take a look at some helpful bits of information to have before you go buy carpet. 

1. Don’t buy the highest quality. 

It sounds counterintuitive, but if you’re buying the highest quality carpet, it is likely the most expensive carpet. Will it last? Absolutely, but the issue is that it will probably go out of style before it wears out. You’ll likely want to change it out before it wears out because it will be badly dated. If you buy a carpet whose quality is going to age as fast as its style, you’ll be spending your money more wisely. 

2. Looking up close or outside is useless. 

When you’re shopping for carpet, there’s no sense in either looking at the details intensely up close or in natural light. Your carpet will be mostly illuminated by artificial light, which will ultimately change its color. Unless you love to lay on the floor, you probably won’t see your carpet up close after it is installed. The best way to get a feel for the color and look of carpet is by leaving a sample on the floor in your house and seeing how it looks from a distance. 

3. Don’t skimp on the padding. 

The padding is not only one of the most significant indicators of carpet comfort, but it is also one of the cheapest aspects of the carpeting experience. If you’re already saving money by buying a medium quality fashionable carpet, you can likely afford to splurge on the padding just a little bit more. Your feet will thank you later. 

4. The claim of “invisible seams” is oversold. 

Many carpet installation companies will guarantee installation with invisible seams. They will claim that their techniques will remove the appearance of seams no matter what. Well, there’s no real way to guarantee this until the contractor visits the installation site. Any carpet installation professional worth they salt will do their best to hide the seams in your carpet but know that there’s no guarantee of invisible seams — especially as the carpet ages. 

5. Save money by doing some work yourself. 

Much of the carpet installation process requires the careful work of a professional, but some of it doesn’t. If you pay someone else to rip out the old carpet or to move the furniture in the room, you may be paying a highly-skilled professional to do what you or another family member can do. Pulling out old carpet isn’t a complicated process and moving furniture requires a good back. 

6. Buy local. You’ll likely get better deals and service. 

When shopping for carpet, start with the smaller independent carpet stores. You will notice that they are much more eager to earn your business. In addition to increased price negotiating power than a chain store will have, you will also likely receive better service. They want you to be happy with your experience so you will return to them or recommend them to your friends. 

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Instead of getting new carpet, have you ever considered a new house? If so, the custom home construction professionals from Perry Hood Properties can help. 

Learn more about the custom home building service of Perry Hood Properties. 

(3-min read)

Even though basements aren’t as common in Oklahoma due to the rocky soil, there are some houses equipped with basements and storm shelters. Because many Oklahomans are unfamiliar with proper basement maintenance, one of the primary headaches of having a basement is water damage. Whether you have a basement or are looking at buying a home with a basement, here are some tips on preventing and avoiding basement water damage.

French Drains

Like french fries, french drains do not actually originate in France. These Massachusetts inventions are a series of perforated drain pipes buried a few feet under gravel-lined ditches that run along the foundation of your home. Angled down, the pipes catch residual water that would typically flow through the foundation of your basement. While there are various designs and applications depending on the style of the home, climate, and soil composition, the design is essentially the same. Water follows the path of least resistance, thus is more apt to flow through the gravel into the hole-filled drainpipes than to make its way into your basement.

Vapor Barriers

To keep moisture from seeping into your basement, cement is frequently too porous to do the job alone. Insulation can also be particularly gross and musty when wet. It’s for this reason that many recommend installing a vapor barrier between the wall insulation and the concrete foundation. A vapor barrier is a variety of sheets of water-resistant material designed to keep water from getting wall studs and insulation wet. For the excellent job vapor barriers do in keeping moisture out, they’re unfortunately also great at keeping moisture in. For this reason, it is recommended to leave a gap between the vapor barrier and the concrete wall to allow for the water to evaporate instead of being locked into the basement.

Waterproof Paint

While waterproof interior paint seems like an obvious solution to keep water out of your basement, it really should be treated more as a temporary fix. When applied, the paint will prevent a fair amount of water from entering the basement and will hide past water stains. The problem lies in the fact that the water has already made its way through the foundation and is only being kept back by a few layers of waterproof paint. It may hold for a while, but it will eventually fail and require and more permanent solution.

Sump Pumps

The most tried-and-true method of removing water from your basement is with a sump pump. Sump pumps are typically connected to drains located at the lowest points of the basement. After a heavy rain or just when the drain is filled with a certain amount of water, the pump kicks on to remove the gathered water before it has a chance to flood your basement. Sump pumps are highly recommended for those whose basements are located on higher water tables that make them more prone to flooding.

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Have you always wanted a basement? The custom home construction professionals from Perry Hood Properties can help.

Learn more about the custom home construction professionals from Perry Hood Properties today.

(5-min read)

A friend of ours related a story from his childhood: 

“When I was about five or six years old, I remember coming home from school to find my mother in tears. While I wondered what the matter was, I didn’t even know how to ask. A few hours later, when my father came home, I asked him why Mom was so sad.’ 

‘We put in a bid for a house your mother loved and were outbid by someone else.’

I remembered that my mother was truly in love with the house in question. She remarked how ideal the house was for our family and how much she liked the neighborhood. I even recalled going with her for a walk as she met the neighbors. In her mind, this was becoming home. Around the time the details were coming together, her joys were dashed by being outbid. She had started to build our family’s life in this home in her mind and with a single telephone call, that future was taken away.” 

Such is a common story of letting your emotions mingle with your home buying experience. Let’s take a look at several other ways to keep what should be a transaction from becoming an emotional rollercoaster.

1. Don’t place wants over needs.

Even though this is good advice for any transaction, prioritizing an excellent option over a requirement is a recipe for confusion. If your family absolutely needs two full bathrooms, but you’d like a pool, know which option you’re willing to budge on and on which you will remain firm. Electing for a nice feature over what was once a required element is a guaranteed recipe for buyer’s remorse. 

2. The only thing you should be absolutely married to is your budget.

We’ve all seen the cable television shows where a person or couple are having to decide between several houses. At times, you may find yourselves rooting for them to go ten, twenty, or even thirty thousand dollars over their budget for that exclusive neighborhood, the back deck, or the pool. We need to remember that life is not a TV show and that an extra twenty or thirty thousand dollars isn’t going to magically materialize out of thin air. It will likely put a strain on them as it would on you. Letting your mind rationalize going over budget is not only not recommended, but may even put your family in financial jeopardy down the road. A good rule of thumb is to not even look at houses that are out of your price range. There’s really no reason to. 

3. Don’t choose realtors based on likeability.

We often forget that realtors are salespeople. Of course, they’re going to be nice and bend over backward for you. Still, like salespeople, some truly talented realtors know their stuff, and there are underhanded or just inexperienced folks with realtors’ licenses. When deciding on a realtor, don’t just pick the first one who rubs you the right way. Interview several as though you were hiring them to work for you…because you are. 

4. Respect and understand the seller’s emotional state.

There is an idea that we overvalue things we own just because they belong to us. This is true of tons of random junk in our garages, but it is also true of our homes. This emotion may cause a seller to overprice their home. When you approach them with an offer lower than their possibly-inflated asking price, be ready to justify your bid in a respectful manner. Keep in mind that this place has been their home. Their family has formed priceless memories here. Be mindful of this, but also realize that the value of these memories are non-transferrable into the value of the house. 

5. Don’t get emotionally attached to a home until you’ve moved in.

As we read in the story above, getting emotionally attached to a home can be a recipe for heartache. When house shopping, do your best to channel your inner Spock. Look at everything with logical and critical eyes. Take note of what will work for you, what would need to be changed and how much that would cost. If you allow yourself to emotionally put down roots in a home you do not yet own, it will be excruciating when you have to rip those roots out. 

Remember our friend from the beginning of the article? Well, this story has a happy ending. The family found their dream home in a fixer-upper elsewhere that they were able to transform into a home that saw all of the children into adulthood. This goes to show that there’s no need to get wrapped up in a specific location. There’s always another house waiting for you. 

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Did you know that there’s a way to skip the nail-biting home shopping process? The custom home building professionals from Perry Hood Properties can help you customize your dream home from the ground up. 

Learn more about the custom home options available from Oklahoma’s own Perry Hood Properties.