1)Here's a home remodeling organization tip: If you are being your own General Contractor, keep an expandable folder (“redwell”) with individual folders inside for each trade. For example, I have an expandable folder for each house that I’m working on, and inside are manila folders labeled “Plumbing”, “Electricity”, "Tile", etc.

2)Local building codes require a certain number of electrical outlets in a room. However, some electricians will slap the receptacles into the walls in an unattractive configuration when you consider where the phone and cable jacks are going. Tell your electrician exactly where you want the outlets and jacks to be (and how high you want them as well). This is especially true if you have an idea where you want your furniture to go and you want to hide the outlets and jacks behind the furniture.

3)Here's one of my favorite home remodeling tips that's easy to forget: Be sure that your painter saves you some paint in the cans for touch-ups and duplication later.

4)Before the plumber (or any contractor, for that matter) digs into the ground, you need to call your local utility locator service to come out and mark the underground utilities. This will prevent your contractor from accidentally digging into and damaging the existing services. If you neglect to have the utilities marked, you could face very large repair bills that the utility companies will require you to pay.

5)One of the classic home remodeling tips is to maximize resale value by spending your money "where the water is". This means kitchens and bathrooms. Also, having a good trim carpenter install fine crown molding, etc. can really dress up your house.

Available now: Home Renovation and Remodeling Tips for Amazon Kindle and Amazon Kindle Iphone app: click here

Amazon Kindle Book by John Zedd

Former builder and instructor of "Save Time and Money in Home Remodeling" cont. ed. course at Emory University

Mission Statement: "Unlike do-it-yourself websites, Renovation 101 specializes in assisting homeowners who are hiring general or subcontractors to do the work for them."