Monthly Archives: July 2021

Helpful Landscaping Ideas

July 12, 2021   Matt

Helpful Landscaping Ideas

In architectural terms, landscaping means the art of modifying land areas through the use of natural, cultivated, or constructed elements in an organized manner and with accordance to a comprehensive yet aesthetic planning. If you are getting interested with this art, it is best to come up with fresh landscaping ideas to set your self apart from the rest.

Indeed, landscape design is one of those terms that can be quite overwhelming especially for neophytes. But, this doesn’t have to sound so intimidating because the underlying principles in it can be translated in simple terms or layman’s terms, so to speak. Once translated into less complicated terms, landscaping would be easily understood and more people can do it on their own.

Aiding the ideas of creation

If you new into landscaping, you need to landscaping ideas to help you create you own one. But, before going gaga over numerous landscaping ideas out there, you need to familiarize yourself first with the basics of the art. These include knowing the basic elements of landscape design such use of colors and its combination as well as the various color theories. The standards of forms, lines, scales, and textures should also be pondered upon.

To help you come up with your own landscaping project, here are some helpful landscaping ideas that you can use in order to enhance the beauty of your home or make your own personal space pleasing to the eye.

1. Always assimilate the hardscape into the initial and final landscape design. “Hardscape” refers to elements and features including fences and other decorations used in the garden as well as patios and decks because these will give a wonderful transition coming from your indoors to the outdoors of your garden. Always make sure that the elements used in hardscape will complement other elements such as plants.

2. Try building a dependable but fashionable set of fences. People might not notice it but fences—if placed and designed properly—can create a huge difference in the overall look of the house. When doing your own landscape, make sure that you invest on great-looking fence because it will be standard in the garden. To be more creative, try to use plants as a fence aside from using the traditional wood ones. Here, you have a unique and reliable fence that will speak of your distinct taste and preference. But, if you plan to use plants as fence, make sure that they are composed of shrubs so they will be easier to manage.

3. Consider using foliages and drought-tolerant plants to use. If you are not sure if you can take care of the plants in your garden regularly, make sure that you use plants that don’t need constant watering and taming.

4. Combine colors of plant foliages and flowers. To create an eye-catching landscaping, always think of the characteristics of the foliage. Make sure that the foliage of plants has various textures and colors to create easy patterns that are pleasing to eye.

5. Be experimental in choosing materials. One of the most refreshing landscaping ideas out there is the use of substitutes in place of the traditional ones. This is because in enables the designer to explore more possibilities and lets him or her to be more creative.

One good example is the use of wood chippers especially for those who constantly redesign their space. These are a good option especially for people who want to trim their growing plants often.

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Auto Repair: The Top Ten Mistakes Made By Your Mechanic

July 11, 2021   Matt

Auto Repair: The Top Ten Mistakes Made By Your Mechanic

Number One:
Not confirming the concern. Confirming a repair concern is a basic diagnostic principle frequently overlooked. To fix a problem, the first thing one must do is recognize it.

Number Two:
Insufficient Road Testing. The importance of a thorough road test (even for an oil change) is well documented in automotive training manuals. Yet, many technicians consider driving the vehicle into the shop good enough.

Number Three:
Misdiagnosing. For the above reasons and a multitude of others, your vehicle is misdiagnosed more often than not. Mechanics will spend hours chasing the wrong problem, wasting your time and money.

Number Four:
Throwing parts at a problem. To compensate for lack of skills, mechanics often just throw parts at the problem in the hope of getting lucky. It’s common to hear mechanics say I replaced this, this, this, and that, and the problem’s still not fixed. This goes right back to mistake number one: confirm the problem with diagnostics, then proceed.

Number Five:
Not addressing primary concerns first. Technicians often spend an inordinate amount of time looking for easy sells that will fatten their paychecks. There’s nothing wrong with this provided there’s no charge for the inspection, it doesn’t conflict with your time, and the upsell suggestions are valid (they’re frequently not). However, this type of free inspection and the subsequent upselling too often overshadows the primary concern. So…what’s wrong with my car?

Number Six:
Overconfidence. Too often unqualified technicians get in over their heads. Rather than defer to a more experienced technician or facility, they often keep going and do more harm. How’s it go…The road to hell is paved with good intentions?

Number Seven:
Taking shortcuts. In the ongoing effort to beat the clock, technicians will create a host of problems: breaking parts, snapping bolts, short circuiting sensitive electronics. Refer to Auto Repair: How Can They Screw Up an Oil Change for a great discussion.

Number Eight:
Poor Repairs. Whether through incompetence or laziness, mechanics frequently don’t do repairs correctly. It’s often sloppy work. Forgotten bolts, parts not lined up correctly, or components not re-installed properly are common. It gets worse with computer repairs: incorrect software programming, coding, and resynchronization protocols are just a few.

Number Nine:
Not confirming repairs. After a repair is complete, it’s important to re-check to ensure that the problem is indeed fixed. Too often parts are thrown in and the car is pulled out only to pull in another victim.

Number Ten:
Making a mess. If the above nine mistakes weren’t bad enough, there are now greasy fingerprints on the hood and steering wheel, and two big greasy boot marks on the carpet.

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Plumbing 101: Tending To Your Pipes Like A Pro (2)

July 10, 2021   Matt

Plumbing 101: Tending To Your Pipes Like A Pro

Plumbing issues are never that easy to deal with, but you will find it is easier to navigate the problem when you have solid advice. Whether you need help diagnosing or putting the project together yourself, these steps will guide you through each process that you will encounter as you take on your home’s plumbing.

Garbage disposals are a common cause of plumbing problems, which is an easy problem to solve. Don’t just put everything down the disposal or treat it like a second trash can. Use the disposal things that would be difficult to dispose of normally. Putting all leftover food down the sink is a good way to produce clogs.

It’s important to know how to turn off the water in your home in case the worst happens. For example, if your bathroom sink started leaking, do you know how to stop it? Walk around your home and find all the shut-off valves for each set of pipes and write them down. Create a map so you can always have a reference if necessary.

It is not always necessary to call in a plumber when you have a damaged section of pipe in your plumbing. There are repair kits you can buy in your local hardware store which are excellent in repairing leaks. If you have a small leak, you can rub a compound stick over the hole or crack in the pipe to seal it shut. Epoxy paste is also an excellent remedy for a leaking pipes. Make sure you turn off the water and completely dry the pipe before applying the epoxy.

In order to keep your garbage disposal in optimal working condition, run it on a regular basis. Just a simple 60 seconds per day under cold water can keep it running clean and smooth. If not run regularly, your disposal can be susceptible to corrosion that will eventually make it inoperable.

An important plumbing-related decision that must be made these days is the choice between an electric water heater or a gas water heater. In these times with gas costing as much as it does, it is more cost efficient to buy an electric water heater, especially if you have a smaller water heater.

Do not pour hot grease down your kitchen drains. It can build up in the pipes and cause your plumbing to back up. Allow the grease to cool in your pan or in a can and then dispose of it in the garbage. This consideration is going to reduce the amount of backups that occur in your kitchen sink.

To clear mineral deposits from your showerhead, try a soak in white vinegar. Simply add a cup or two of vinegar to a plastic bag and tape it around the showerhead, ensuring that it is submerged. Leave the bag on for an hour, and the vinegar will dissolve the mineral build-up, allowing water to gush through like it was when it was new.

Plumbing problems are some of the potentially-nastiest issues that homeowners ever have to face. Dealing with them quickly and effectively is very important. By using the information in this article, you can move through an entire project successfully and easily, either by yourself or with the use of a professional.

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How To Clean Your House In Hurry

July 08, 2021   Matt

How To Clean Your House In Hurry

You’re lying on the couch in your living room, in one of your husband’s old t-shirts and a pair of baggie sweatpants, watching last night’s taped episode of Desperate Housewives, when suddenly – the phone rings. You don’t recognize the number on caller ID and you make the mistake of answering it. It’s your long lost best friend from the sixth grade. She’s in town and she just happens to be in your neighborhood. She’ll be over in 10 minutes, and your house is a MESS.
So, how do you clean up for unexpected guests in 10 minutes or less?!
1. Stay calm!
2. Do a clean sweep. Grab a trash bag or laundry basket and gather up everything that is lying around that shouldn’t be, and throw it into the bag. Hide the bag.
3. Plump up pillows on couches and chairs in living room, fold blankets. Give each cushion a swat for crumbs.
4. Stack mail, newspapers and magazines in a nice, neat pile. Stick the pile in a corner or on a kitchen chair.
5. Give the bathroom a speedy sprucing up! Wipe out the sink, wipe off the toilet seat and quickly swish the bowl. Then, close the shower curtain, and throw odds and ends in cabinets or drawers. Spray some air freshener so the bathroom will smell clean – even if it’s far from it.
6. Rinse off any dishes in the sink and stack them neatly or toss them in the dishwasher. Wipe off the table and counter tops.
7. Take a peek inside the fridge – what beverages and snacks do you have that you can offer your guests?
8. Close the doors to all rooms that you don’t want on display.
9. Light a yummy scented candle in the kitchen – like Cinnamon Buns or Chocolate Cake. Lighting a few scented candles will uplift the mood of your home and make guests feel welcome. Throw some fruit in a bowl and place it in the center of your table. Fresh flowers also do wonders, if you have them on hand.
10. Take a deep breath. Give yourself a squirt of perfume and you’re all set! You may even have enough time to get changed into something a little more presentable.
Cleaning up for unexpected guests does not have to be a mad rush, if you stay caught up on your housework as a rule. A friend of mine gave me some really good advice right after my husband and I got married, she said “The best way to keep a clean house is to entertain in your home at least once a month.” There’s nothing like having company coming to get cleaning!

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Landscaping DIY: Learning the Basics

July 07, 2021   Matt

Landscaping DIY: Learning the Basics

Landscaping DIY style can be successful only if one has learned about the basic principles regarding landscaping in general. Whether you are borrowing a certain landscaping idea that you found in a magazine or on the Internet, knowing about the basic landscaping principles would be able to help you understand what you would be doing later on. Knowing about these principles can even help you improve your own creativity as you try to develop your own landscaping ideas.

One of the basic principles of landscaping is aiming to achieve some form of unity in design. Unity, as a principle, should be considered as one of your main goals in landscaping design. Unity can either be applied in the form of consistency and repetition. Repetition creates unity in landscaping design by repeating similar elements such as plants, plant groups, or other types of decor throughout the landscape.

Consistency creates unity by enabling some or all of the various elements of a planned landscape to fit together and be considered as part of a whole. It can be achieved through the consistency of character of the different elements such as height, size, texture, color schemes, etc.

Another important principle essential for landscape design is balance. Balance is a sense of equality in the overall design. There are basically two types of balance being employed in landscape design. Symmetrical balance is characterized by the equal spacing of the matching elements in the garden design. A garden design strikes up a symmetrical balance when the elements share all or part of the same shape, form, groupings, colors, theme, etc.

Achieving asymmetrical balance in garden design can be a little more complex. While element characteristics such as textures, forms, colors may remain constant to create some unity, some shapes and design may be more random. In achieving this form of balance, it is often essential to makes use of separate or different themes in the landscape design but with each one having an equal yet different type of attraction.

Another principle to consider in landscape design is natural transition. This principle can be used to avoid radical or hasty changes in your landscape design. Transition is basically gradual change. It can best be shown in terms of plant height or color. Natural transition can also be applied to all the other elements in the landscape such as textures, shape and size of the different landscape elements.

The transition can be achieved in the natural means by gradual, ascending or descending, arrangement of different elements. A good example of achieving natural transition would be employing a stair step effect from large trees going to medium trees then to shrubs and then finally to bedding plants.

Simplicity is another basic landscaping principle that can be one of the best guidelines you can follow when just beginning landscaping DIY. The aim to just keep things simple can provide certain advantages to begin with. One is that you can achieve more by doing less. Improvements can be done later.

Picking two or three basic colors to use for the landscape and then repeat them throughout the garden design is a means of keeping things simple. Keeping the use of decor to a minimum and limited to a specific theme is also a means of achieving simplicity in garden design.

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Lightning Season

July 06, 2021   Matt

Lightning Season

Lightning Season: How to Avoid Data Loss
We have just entered the time of year that most electrical storms occur.
Sudden loss of power, power surges, and electrical spikes are all very common causes of computer damage.
There is no way to stop Mother Nature however; there are some precautionary measures that can be taken to save your computer from these types of damaging electrical storms.
The staff at Eco Data Recovery, located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida (the lightning capitol of the world) offers the following suggestions to keep your computer and hard drive safe from Mother Nature:
1.) Plug your computer into a battery backup.
If a power outage does occur, a computer plugged into a battery backup will continue to run for several minutes giving you time to shut down the system properly.
2.) Use a surge protector.
A surge protector will prevent a power spike from burning out the mother board, hard drive, power supply and other drives.
These protective units are inexpensive and can save you hundreds of dollars in repair costs.
Brian Cain, data recovery consultant at EcoDataRecovery.com suggests “If your computer is unprotected from power issues and you know there is a storm headed your way -shut down your computer if possible, disconnect the power cable and telephone line until the storm passes.”
If your computer has already experienced some sort of electrical damage and the hard drive seems to be dead, don’t fret. The engineers at Eco Data Recovery have experienced this problem every season for over 10 years and are prepared to help.
Most people opt for the least costly method possible to recover their data. This is usually a software solution.
There are many data recovery software options available to the public however, software will do nothing for a drive that won’t power up or that has a physical problem. The physical problems must first be overcome before any sort of recovery of your data can take place.
Eco Data Recovery has the equipment and expertise to overcome these issues.
When a company experiences data loss it usually means down time and down time means lost revenue.
The experts at Eco Data Recovery can help to get your business up and running in a timely manner.
About EcoDataRecovery.com : Based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. EcoDataRecovery.com is committed to delivering the most cost effective solutions for expert data recovery services. EcoDataRecovery.com has been using their advanced technology and expertise to recover data for corporations and individuals alike for over 10 years. This company utilizes multiple world wide networks to source parts if needed. Delivering retrieved data in a timely manner, fanatical customer support, and confidentiality of client data is what keeps their clients’ coming back.
On The Web: www.EcoDataRecovery.com

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