According to a recent Bloomberg article, the home improvement industry is expected to rebound by more than 13% for the period of April through June 2011. If you've never gone through a home remodel before, you've probably heard horror stories from friends or co-workers. Even if you're an old pro at it, there have probably been times where you wished for some help along the way to take some of the stress out of tracking all of the logistics and research involved.

Regardless of budget, household income or demographic of the home, there is a "process" for making good home improvement decisions. About.com author Jackie Craven outlines eight steps to getting a home improvement project off on the right foot: 

  1. Draw your dream.
  2. Learn from others.
  3. Think ahead.
  4. Count your money.
  5. Choose your team.
  6. Negotiate a contract.
  7. Get permission.
  8. Plan for problems.

 
Without a doubt, each one of these planning stages involves a tremendous amount of inspiration, information gathering, document consolidation, budget management, and team organization in order to get the job done right — and on time!

Traditionally, homeowners have relied on isolated documents, a mountain of emails, bookmarked websites, loosely collected catalogs, and even spiral-bound paper notebooks to capture all of the details of their dream kitchen or bathroom. If you've been through this process before, you know how quickly important websites are forgotten and vital information and emails are misplaced.

If a home remodel is on your To Do list this summer, your timing is perfect. We've created a free home remodel planner for Microsoft OneNote 2010 that can help you take the drama out of any renovation job.
 

OneNote DIY Home Remodeling Notebook
 
Our free Do It Yourself home remodeling planner lets you take the stress out of any project
by organizing, tracking, and sharing all of the logistics surrounding your remodeling plans.
 

More valuable than a hammer and nail, OneNote is the perfect digital "catch-all" for capturing and organizing home improvement research, notes, and ideas. There's a section tab for every major category that your remodel project will require — from research and budget, to calendar and contractors.

You can customize the planner to your needs by deleting any of our suggestions that you won't need and adding your own pages and sections for the information you'll need to keep track of.
 

Inspiration page detail
 
Be sure to explore all of the sections and pages in our free Do It Yourself home remodeling planner.
Customize the pages that you want to keep and discard those that you don't need.
 

Here are some of the ways in which our free planner notebook can help you:

  • Gathering inspiration. Easily clip or copy and paste every image and idea that inspires you into your OneNote notebook. Pasted items automatically include each item's URL (Web address). If design sketches are key to your plan, it's also easy to insert scanned images into OneNote — right within the text and website images you've already included.
       
  • Sharing your plan. Whether you're keeping contractors up to speed, or soliciting feedback and recommendations from experienced friends and family, OneNote makes it easy to keep it all in one place and to share your plans with anyone you want.
     
  • Consolidating documents. Keeping track and referencing everything, from permits and contracts to design layouts, is always a necessary and important part of any home renovation. With OneNote, simply insert file printouts and attachments and then easily search the text (even text in pictures) to locate exactly what you need, when you need it.
     
  • Being budget conscious. Insert your budget table under the Budget section tab in our notebook to keep track of all those nice-to-haves and must-haves, and don't forget to add 10-15% to cover unexpected expenses. OneNote can even do basic calculations for you as you type out figures.
     
  • Having your plan with you at all times. Whether you're managing your home improvement project from home, from work, or while on the road, OneNote lets you take your plan and information with you and share it with others via Windows Live SkyDrive. Just save your notebook to the cloud with a free Windows Live ID, and then access your stuff with the OneNote Web App on Windows Live SkyDrive.
     

Summer is upon us, but before you know it, the kids will be back in school, the cold and wet weather will be back, and your friends and family will be making their way over to your house for the holidays. Whether it's the bathroom, the kitchen or the exterior, let OneNote 2010 be your "mission control" for your home improvement project to help you stay on budget and on time.

Download our free planner and start customizing! If you don't yet have OneNote 2010 on your computer, you can download a free, fully functional 60-day trial version.

-- Michael C. Oldenburg