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Landscape Plans / Planning For Success

February 12, 2024   Matt

Landscape Plans / Planning For Success

One thing you will quickly find out when landscaping your property is that the landscape plans are the most important part of the whole process. A well laid out design on paper really helps, and is a necessary step to do before you start digging and planting. The last thing you want to do is have to move any plants after you finish, so a little upfront designing can help eliminate headaches later on. Just try to be creative and take your time, but also don’t feel like you are locked into anything after you start the work. You can alter your designs anytime throughout the project.
If you are struggling with ideas for your landscape project, try looking through some magazines or books. And also use the internet as a resource. There are alot of good websites devoted solely to landscaping design. Try to plan something that fits your personality so you can have the most enjoyment out of it when you finish. And even experiment a little to find things that work perfectly for your property.
Once you’re happy with your plans, it’s time to get all the materials you need. You’ll need at least a good shovel and landscape rake, plus all the plants and trees you decided on. Place them around the yard to get a good idea of what the finished project will look like. Move the items around until you are satisfied, then start breaking ground. It is recommended to start any work in the spring, so you can enjoy your hard work in the nicer summer months.
Plants And Flowers Can Make Your Design Stand Out
You will want to create a list of the plants and flowers that are candidates for your landscaping project so that you can easily get pricing and availability of them. Make sure you research the soil conditions and general weather of your location so the ones you pick have a good chance for survival. If you buy them locally you usually are ok, but when buying a plant or flower online it’s necessary to do this. Plus some will do better in full sunlight while others need shade, so where you place them has a big effect on their chances. You also want species that will compliment each other, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere for your visitors.
Get Some Help With Your Landscape
When you start the physical work, make sure you enlist the help of friends and family members with any of the heavy lifting that may be required. Some examples are removing larger trees or raking a large area flat. Doing this can be back-breaking work, especially if you don’t have heavy equipment. The last thing you want to do is injure yourself, as this is supposed to be a recreational activity.
Now that you have all your landscape plans designed, selected the necessary materials, scoped out your property, and enlisted the help of others you are well on your way. Landscaping is a wonderful way to not only improve the value of your home, but also show off your creative side to everyone who views it. You and your family will enjoy fruits of your labor for many years to come.

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It Is Important To Know A Little Bit About Plumbing (5)

February 10, 2024   Matt

It Is Important To Know A Little Bit About Plumbing

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.

As tempting as it may be to try and save on the heating bill, keep your furnace set no lower than 55 degrees over the winter to prevent inside pipes from freezing. If you have pipes located in an excessively cold basement, consider running a space heater in the basement, but only when it can be checked on frequently.

If you have plumbing pipes that are exposed, meaning you can see them as you walk through your basement, you should take the time to insulate them. This can be done easily by wrapping them with foam tubes that slide right over the pipes. This will prevent any damage due to freezing.

If you are in need of a new bathtub, try to get one that is made of porcelain enamel. These kinds of tubs do require precise and proper care, but their advantage is that they are able to withstand the chemicals that are found in many bathtub cleaning products.

Throw coffee grounds in the trash, don’t rinse down the sink. Coffee grounds that are washed down the sink drain can cause severe blockages that will be a challenge to take care of. If you are making coffee, you want to always throw your grinds into the trash to dispose properly.

You should never dump grease, fat, or cooking oil down the drain. These fats and oils could solidify in cold pipes and clog your sink. Instead you should put the fats and oils in a dish and wait for it to solidify, then throw it away for garbage men to pick it up.

Plumbing choices can come in many ways. One decision you need to make as a homeowner is to purchase a tank-less water heater. One thing to remember if you are considering a tank-less heater. You will pay two to three times more than if you purchase a tank heater.

The next time you have a clogged drain, avoid the simple solution of dumping drain-clearing chemicals into the pipes. While this method involves the least amount of effort, the chemicals in these liquid cleaners are destructive to your piping. Instead, consider using a little bit of elbow grease with a plunger, snake, or other device designed to clear your clog without chemicals.

Keep an eye on the grout between tiles in your bathroom. Watch for cracks and areas where the grout seems to be falling out, and repair them immediately. Small grout crack issues can be easily repaired by pulling out the bad and putting in new grout. Allow any new grout to dry completely before exposing it to water.

Plumbing should be taken seriously and when something such as problem occurs, it must be handled right away. Use the tips that you have read, and you can fix the problem by yourself or with the help of a professional, easily and successfully.

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Initial Steps to Getting Organized

February 08, 2024   Matt

Initial Steps to Getting Organized

Getting organized doesn’t have to be a chore. Below are a few simple steps you can initiate right now that will start you on your way.
*Begin with messes and clutter that you see every day. Organize your kitchen, garage, and family room before your hallway closet. Once you see how nice it looks, you will want to work on the hidden areas.
*Use drawer dividers for socks, underwear, lingerie, and tiny items, to keep them separated and organized. This works well for both silverware and office supplies too.
* Give everything in your house a place of its own. This way your family will know exactly where to find it and where to put it away.
* Establish one defined place in your house for storing library books, and end a house-wide hunt when it is time to read or return them.
*Hang hooks for your keys and purse at the entry to your home, so each time you walk in, you can hang them up.
* Set aside one basket for you and your partner for incoming mail, bills, and receipts and letters. This way everyone will know where these important items are when needed. Keep all important papers such as birth certificates, social security cards and medical insurance information in one folder.
* Get rid of things that are not needed any long. Expired coupons, old prescriptions, magazines you might get around to reading someday. All these take away space you could be using for items you do need and use..
You will free your mind to remember more important things like appointments and birthdays when you are organized. Be attentive about thoroughly cleaning once a month and you will find it much easier to keep up, week-by-week. An organized house does indeed help unclutter your mind.

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Transform Landscaping with Outdoor Lighting

February 07, 2024   Matt

Transform Landscaping with Outdoor Lighting

Your enjoyment of your home increases exponentially when you have a beautifully landscaped yard. Whether you’ve nurtured your home’s landscaping with your own hands or hired a landscaper to create your slice of paradise, you no doubt experience pride and pleasure when you see dappled sunlight peeking through the trees or the riot of colors your perennials lend to your garden in the morning light.
Increasingly, homeowners are going to the next level with landscaping, and are investing time and money in outdoor lighting. Outdoor lighting enhances both the appearance of your home and your landscaping, as well as the enjoyment you and your guests experience when you entertain outdoors.
Typically, outdoor lighting focuses on focal points in the yard, though it can also be used as security lighting. Bill Locklin, owner of Nightscaping, the preeminent outdoor lighting company, suggests using 12-volt outdoor lighting to bring out the features of large trees, specimen plants, architecture, and water features. His suggestions include the following:
Large Trees: If the tree has open growth, let the light spill down through the leaves and branches, creating interesting shapes and contrasts in highlight and shadow. If the tree has full foliage, like some pines, try cross lighting or using a grazing light. If your focal point tree has an interesting bark texture, try grazing it to accent this feature and add a greater element of visual interest.
Specimen Plants: Consider hanging plants as well as ground plantings for focal point lighting. Try to throw shadows of smaller plants on walls and other surfaces for added effect. Bonsai plants are very effective when silhouetted to accent their unique shapes.
Architecture: Look at decorative construction techniques in masonry and wood facades. For example, place fixtures at the bottom of the gables and project the light up from each side so that it meets at the tip of the peak, or place two fixtures under the peak and aim them down to the lower edges. A home’s door can be a focal point, as in the case of hand-carved wood, raised wood panels, pr artistic metal designs. Draw attention to the door from overhead, being careful not to cast glare in the eyes of those entering and exiting the building. Likewise, objects in the atrium, such as columns, arches, breezeways, ledges, shutters, cupolas, weather vanes, and seasonal and holiday flags can all be architectural focal points that can have attention drawn by professionally designed outdoor lighting.
Water Features: Fountains, fishponds, and moving streams all lend themselves to the introduction of landscape outdoor lighting. Filtered, crystal clean water can be lighted either from within or from above. Dirty water is usually best lighted from above or used as a reflecting surface to accent surrounding features. Designer fountain lighting can add drama to a yard’s fountain.
Outdoor path lighting is also important, both for aesthetic and safety reasons. You, your family, and your guests should be able to safely move around your property after dark. Walkways should always be lighted both as a directional guide and prevent people from tripping on obstacles.
Outdoor lighting – whether it is path lighting, designer fountain lighting, or security lighting – gives your home another dimension, one to be enjoyed for years to come.

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Easy Tips To Cure Your Plumbing Woes 4

February 05, 2024   Matt

Easy Tips To Cure Your Plumbing Woes

Plumbing has so many possibilities as to what you can use, do, and how you can apply it to your own plumbing jobs. It is rare to find somebody that has plumbing needs just like you, so why not take advantage of that and perfect your own? This article can help you.

One of the ways that you can improve the functionality of your shower head is to clean the mineral deposits from the surface. Unscrew your shower head and soak it in vinegar overnight. In the morning, brush off the deposits with a toothbrush to help the flow of water for your showers.

While it may seem like a seemingly harmless thing to do, never run potato peels through your garbage disposal. The chemical make up of this seemingly harmless food allows the potato to turn into a thick, viscous substance that can wreak havoc on the disposal itself, with the potential to render it completely useless.

Insulate all of the pipes in your home that run along an exterior wall to prevent them from freezing. This step is not going to cost you a lot of money, but it is going to save you quite a bit of damage by preventing pipe freezes. It is easy and cheap to do and should be done as soon as possible.

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.

Do a routine check around your house each month on each and every faucet to make sure there are no signs of leaks or drips. Over time, leaks can add a lot of money to your water bill and will worsen if you do not take care of the problem.

For the most effective plunger to use on a toilet, choose one with a flange that sticks out from the end and fits into the hole in the bottom of the bowl. These typically work better than the classic cup-style plungers, since they create a tighter seal in the drain.

Make sure never to store flammable objects near the water heater in your home. These heaters can rise to a high temperature, risking ignition of surrounding objects. Try to keep the area around your water heater clear of debris if you want to be in the safest position during the day.

When you are snaking out your drain, always make sure that you use a mask to cover your face. You will be pulling up all sorts of chemicals that you do not want to inhale or get on your skin. Practice safe plumbing if you desire to optimize your health.

Isn’t doing your own plumbing a lot of fun? As you have seen in this article, there are a lot of ways this can be done and no two techniques or equipemnt will yield the same results. There are also lots of customizable options that can work with your home and budget.

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What Are Some Economical Things That Eliminate Odors?

February 03, 2024   Matt

What Are Some Economical Things That Eliminate Odors?

Running a household is not easy. Between keeping up with children and pets, maintaining sanitary conditions in and around the home, and providing your family with a nurturing environment, housekeeping is one of the hardest jobs around. So how is it that you can spend all day cleaning, and your house still does not have a fresh scent? Even with the best cleaning and laundry agents, everyone needs things that eliminate odors from time to time.

If you have pets and children, you know that odors come with the territory. But other odor-causing elements can create smells that linger long after the source of the smell is gone. Take cooking, for example. If you spend a great deal of time in the kitchen, you may be releasing smells into your home that do not disappear just because the leftovers have been eaten. Fragrant vegetables, hearty stews, dishes made with fish, all of these are odor-causing meals that can linger, not only in your kitchen, but in the furniture, carpet, and curtains of your home. And just because a dish smells good when you are cooking does not mean that the remaining scent will be as attractive. Often, the smell that a delicious meal leaves behind is anything but appetizing. If you are a frequent cook, look into some things that eliminate odors in the kitchen before they reach the rest of the house.

A room freshener is good place to start. Many fresheners come in spray form, allowing you to use them on an as needed basis. Among things that eliminate odors, liquid air fresheners (Liquid Air Freshener – Rainforest) are known as long-lasting and easily dispersed through the air because they are made with scented oils. When you create a particularly fragrant meal, simply use your air freshener as you go, spraying periodically to restore a fresh scent to your home.

Also keep in mind that if you, your family members, or your guests smoke in the house, even one cigarette or cigar can create a stale smell that rides on the smoke and embeds itself in your upholstery, destroying the fresh scent you worked so hard to achieve. A long history of smoking indoors can create a difficult odor problem that may call for things that eliminate odors on a daily basis.

Pets are a source of joy and constant companionship. Most pet owners believe that they are well worth the time and effort it takes to maintain their health and happiness. Unfortunately, many pet owners forget that maintaining the home’s freshness against persistent pet odors is also necessary. We have all walked into a home and immediately smelled the pet odors that linger in every room, making it obvious that the owners, though diligent in their pet care, have neglected to include things that eliminate odors in their daily cleaning regimen.

For persistent smells like pet odor and stale smoke, a daily upkeep of your home’s air quality is advisable. Look for a room freshener that provides a continuous fresh scent and can stand up to the everyday smells created by smoking or pets.

One concern that many people have is what to use to eliminate odor on furniture. Upholstery holds onto smells when it has been exposed to adverse conditions. You can do a sniff test to see how strong the smells are and to help you determine what to use to eliminate odor on furniture in each area of your home. You may be able to use a spray deodorizer or simply vacuum the smell away if it is mild. When determining what to use to eliminate odor on furniture though, it helps to know if the odors come from a stain or are embedded in the entire piece. Stains can be treated with a good one-step upholstery cleaner.

If the source of the smell is not a stain, to truly restore a fresh scent to your upholstery, you may need to take some time to clean it. When you have decided what to use to eliminate odor on furniture, keep in mind the type of fabric you have and how long it will take the cleaner to dry before you make a purchase.

Overall, there are some very efficient and cost-effective things that eliminate odors in your home. If you have trouble diagnosing your own needs, ask a trusted friend or relative to come over and give you an honest opinion. Often, people become accustomed to the smells in their homes, even the bad ones. Remember not to be offended by their comments. Instead, use the feedback to find things that eliminate odors for good. And then take a deep breath for a job well done.

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