One reason people may take on home and garden improvements is that they are truly needing or wanting a change in their yard or home. This could be because they enjoy working in their home and garden, or they just want to make it more beautiful for their own viewing purposes. Personal gratification is probably the most common reason home owners do any home and garden improvements in the first place.

The first step to begin your home and garden improvements is to learn how to do the improvements you intend on doing on your own. Many home improvement stores have a myriad of home improvement books, magazines, and DVD’s for you to buy that will guide you step by step through the entire process. In addition to that, these same stores also have free in store demonstrations, as to how you go about the steps of accomplishing your task at hand. The internet offers you endless improvement articles, how to’s, videos and do it your self instructions. Most internet sites extend their home and garden improvement instructions at no cost to you. These sites can also provide you with new and better ideas for your home and garden improvements.

Planning Out Your Improvements

Your first step in creating that new and exciting look for your home and garden, is to figure out exactly how and where the work that is needed to be done. If you are the only man or women on the job, the work at hand can be quite overwhelming. Invite a friend over to discuss your ideas before you start your project. Asking someone’s opinion may save you time, money and they may give you tips and pointers you may have not thought of. If your project will be completed by yourself and many others, sit down together and talk out the home and garden improvements that each person would like to see accomplished.

Knowing beforehand the ideas of others involved in the improvements can reduce future disagreements about the project. Once you start doing something, it’s very time consuming to go back and try to fix your mistake. Remember not to get ahead of your self or your home and garden improvements will turn out exactly as you did them, rushed and half done. As problems approach, keep in mind they are merely set backs and not a project ending finality. After starting your home and garden improvements and unfortunate circumstances cause the project to end up in total chaos, professional help may need to be considered.

When you attain help from the professionals, the cost expense of the project may double or triple. Begin your project with an idea, budget and time line. Consider limiting your steps to several weeks or months for completion. Do not plan on taking on and completing the entire task in a weekend. For better results, take time to map out the whole improvement process from beginning to end.

If you are considering a wood siding for your home, the first thing you must consider is the type of wood. If you want the log cabin look then your choices of wood might be; ponderosa, white pine, cedar, red cedar, redwood, cypress, or maybe even oak. And although this is a no-no amongst true wood lovers, tree-huggers will want you to look at the imitations.

They make simulated aluminum log siding and fake steel log sidings too. And there are Wood and Cedar vinyl sidings as well. Vinyl log siding may have you shaking your head, saying “no way” and yet, the cost is next to nothing compared to real wood and the maintenance is very little to keep it up. The cost of wood siding can be astronomical, and if you don’t keep it up, well, it’s not going to be worth much in future years.

The specification and grade of the wood also matters – for instance if you go with a Western Red Cedar there is Kiln Dried Clear Siding, Dry Knotty Sidings, and Green “unseasoned Siding grades – all with a different look, and feel and drastically different in price as well. The color of wood siding of course changes with the type of wood and the region from where the wood was taken, which forest and exact species of tree.

It’s best to buy your wood in one place from the same vendor so that the color is all the same, as even after you apply protective coatings you can have variations in color. And some folks like this because it gives the home personality, others who are more detailed and perfectionists often cringe at the sight.

Wood Composite Siding is another concept to think on, as composite wood siding comes in two variations and many choices of materials as well. Plywood style sheet is one variation, and particle laminated boards another. It’s all a matter of taste, but as one recent realtor warned, do not get too exotic, as your return on investment at resale might be tough.

Clapboard Wood Siding is yet another type of wood siding, it is quite common, and again it is a personal choice. There are indeed a lot of advantages to clapboard wood siding, and in some regions of the US it is practically a tradition. So, please consider all this.