Informative Project Solutions provides a unique service style: one that’s rooted strongly in ethical practices, holistic vision, and customer satisfaction.
“Take Care of Yourself and Love Each Other”
This family creed has been our guide post for several years. As a family business, we extend this to you. Our mission is to provide our clients with the skill and/or information they need to make the best possible decisions for yourself, your family, your home, and your budget.
Informative Project Solutions wants to be your first call for all of your home maintenance, repair, and improvements. From interior painting, to collaborative remodeling assistance, we are here to reduce the hassle of homeownership with “Expertly Personalized Home Solutions.”
Your Team
Jolene Lomnes
Jolene has 15 years of commercial and residential building maintenance and improvement experience. Jolene has a passion for helping families create and maintain healthy homes. Since 2014 , she has operated Informative Home Inspections in Upstate NY, and has consulted with hundreds of clients. In addition to her inspections, she has also provided repair and consultation services to countless clients and colleagues. Informative Projection Solutions will allow her to continue to expand and assist homeowners in creating more healthy, happy homes.
In her personal life, she is a single mother of two: Drew and Sarena, and the owner of a little ‘Fixer-Upper’. She is proud to have Drew officially join her in the business, and equally proud that Sarena will be attending college in Massachusetts.
‘Home‘ has changed many times for her during her life. She has first hand experience owning, maintaining, and improving homes of several different styles and ages. The first home that she and her young family owned was a neglected log home in the mountains of Eastern Rensselaer County. The log home was brought back to life and into the classic vision of a warm, safe cabin in the woods. Since then, she and her family have shared, and improved, five other homes. She believes that it has been a wonderful journey, and feels especially blessed to blend her personal and professional life.
The best piece of advice she can provide to new DIY’ers is: “try and understand that a home is a collection of systems, each system needs to function well, independently and collectively. No one component is isolated from another, you and your family are part of that equation just as much as the insulation(or lack there of).” The term for the interaction and integration of all of these systems is Building Science. All contractors should have a firm understanding of Building Science and the role that their work/trade plays in the equation of your home. This is critical to maintaining, repairing, and improving your home, maintaining your health, and protecting your investment.
NYS Home Inspector ~ NYS Mold Assessor ~ EPA Lead Inspector-Assessor ~ EPA RRP Contractor
As you live in and remodel your home, creating and maintaining a healthy, safe environment should be the first priority for you and your investment. A few examples of where a great project idea could go wrong:
Adding a beautiful deck can be a great return on investment, but if done poorly can create a litany of issues that will negatively impact your home and your health.
Did the contractor remember to install flashing? If not, you may find water damage, deterioration of your homes framing, and/or interior mold growth. Is there spacing between the decking to allow water and debris to shed away? Would you know if your builder was following industry standards/code requirements? Will it support all the guests at your BBQ?
Having a roof replaced? Did your roofer take a look in your attic? If he finds damage to the decking the day of the roof replacement, you may be facing a surprise price increase. Did your roofing estimate include repair to damaged chimney flashing? Did you know most roofers do not include the repair of flashing? Or, if you are dealing with ice damming(winter season water intrusion), you may not need a new roof, you should first evaluate your insulation and ventilation.
Do you want to have your windows replaced in an older home? Is the contractor following Lead Safe work practices? Failure to follow Lead-Safe work practices can be devastating to the health of young children.
Does your remodel require demo? Has asbestos testing been done?
There is so much to consider when preparing for home improvements and we simply don’t know what we don’t know.…
we simply don’t know what we don’t know
Jolene has been a NYS Home Inspector since 2014.
However, she has been ‘inspecting’ homes for as long as she can remember. She grew up in the hills of eastern Rensselaer County, riding motorcycles and snowmobiles through a labyrinth of old carriage roads and logging trails. Along these forgotten paths, it was not uncommon to find an abandoned homestead. Sometimes, the house and barn were relatively intact and great for exploring(the natural prerequisite to inspecting), and sometimes all that remained was a depression of a small stone foundation. As a teenager, visiting friends in Troy, NY, she was often more interested in the home’s history than engaging in whatever gossip invades a group of teenagers. This distraction is still evident, she has a deep love of our New England history because of, and in spite of, all of its ups and downs. Did you know that Troy, NY was an important route for the Abolitionist Movement in New York State, and some physical features are still evident in the structures? Do you know there is a local home with a screen room assembled from the workshop Edison had on the GE plot in Schenectady?
From the start, Informative Home Inspections has been an independent inspection company. Jolene believes that home inspectors and real estate brokers/agent should practice a level of equal but separate respect for their perspective roles in the purchase transaction. Informative Home Inspections does not market to real estate brokers or agents.
Jolene is an EPA Registered Lead Inspector/Assessor and an EPA RRP (Renovation, Repair and Painting) Contractor. What does that mean? If your home was built prior to 1978, it is likely to contain lead based paint(LBP). To protect you, and the contractor, special care and safety procedures are implemented when renovating, repairing, and painting older homes.
Learn more about Lead in Homes and the EPA RRP program here: https://www.epa.gov/lead
Jolene is a licensed NYS Mold Assessor and has been teaching Mold Licensing classes (at Flatley Read) to other professionals since 2018. Mold exposure can simply be a nuisance to one person, and seriously detrimental to the health and happiness of another person. For this reason, she believes that it is imperative to approach every mold assessment and remediation effort with the highest level of care.
NYS DOL Mold Fact Sheet Mold Assessment and Remediation
in New York State
NYS DOH Mold and Your Home: What You Need to Know
Whether you need to get ready for a new baby’s arrival, snow clearing, or need some assistance with the design and work scope of a project, Informative Project Solutions wants to be your first call for all of your homes needs. IPS/IHI is available to assist you with your occasional projects, or be your consistent and long term partner for all of your property maintenance and repair needs.
Drew Lomnes
Drew is excited to be a part of Informative Project Solutions. He has been involved in the trades with his family from a young age. Growing up with Jolene means that he started “holding the flashlight,”(some of you might know the pressure that comes with that task, lol), since he would walk. His professional experience includes starting a small engine repair business at 15 years old, and several years as a full service auto technician. Drew has developed an expansive knowledge of carpentry, plumbing, appliance repair, building science, electrical systems, and mechanical systems. To Drew, customer satisfaction is the key component of any project, so, it is his mission to provide the best possible service.
Informative Project Solutions 