Tag Archives: House

Simple Strategies On How To Efficiently Improve Your House

May 12, 2024   Matt

Simple Strategies On How To Efficiently Improve Your House

I guess you could say I’ve been involved in-home improvement projects quite often in my life. At this very minute my husband is finishing the drywall in our living room, and will soon be painting it. While it’s great to see the finished product, the process can be very messy.

Building a rock climbing wall on an outside or inside wall of ones home can be a great improvement. Not only will it be a unique feature for ones home but it will also be able to be used for a fun exercise and will be sure to be a hit with the family.

If your home is an older house there’s a good chance you might have outdated PVC windows, which are difficult to maintain and often yellow with age. Replacing the PVC with modern plate glass can make a significant difference in the look of the house. Glass windows will also allow more natural sunlight into your home, creating a more open, inviting atmosphere.

Don’t throw out paintbrushes and rollers each time you use them! They can be cleaned and reused as long as you take care of them. Paint pans can be cleaned by letting them dry and then peeling off the paint. Don’t waste your money on pan liners as cleaning the pan itself is simple.

Put in an outdoor motion detector for your outside lighting. This way the lights will only be on when they are activated and not all day or all night unnecessarily. Most people don’t need their outside lights other than when they come home or leave after dark.

This tip might seem like it is common sense, but you’d be shocked at just how many people do not shut off the main water supply before attempting plumbing repairs. You might cut off the water to a direct outlet, like the sink or toilet, but as long as the main is still online you could end up flooding your home.

Improving your home’s curb appeal can be as easy as replacing a mailbox. A new, more modern mailbox can make your home feel upgraded. The project can often be completed in less than two hours. Just be sure to follow any Home Owners’ Association guidelines when picking your mailbox out.

If your carpet has lots of unsightly dents from moving furniture around during a home improvement project, use a fork to fluff the carpet fibers back to their original shape. The tines are the ideal size for re-plumping fibers that have been flattened by the heavy legs of your sofa or coffee table.

Put a skirt on your bathroom sink! Tired of seeing those tired old pipes every time you go into your bathroom? Buy a pretty piece of fabric from the sewing center, cut it to size, and hem around all four edges. Run a cord through the top hem and gather the curtain so it hangs daintily in place.

We have a home which is over 100 years old and updating it has been an ongoing process over the past five years. We have a new dining room, two new bathrooms and half of a new kitchen. Recently, my husband installed four new windows and put new siding on half of the house. I can’t wait for the whole thing to be done!

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Landscaping Stone Designs That May Make the House Look it’s Best

December 19, 2023   Matt

Landscaping Stone Designs That May Make the House Look it’s Best

When you own a home, you want the exterior to appear just as good as the inside. This is why you notice lots of people on the weekends planting tons of plants and trying their best to create their yards appear amazing. However, the only problem is the fact that plenty of the good ideas for landscaping have previously been performed. Obviously, there is one thing that people used to forget about whenever it comes to landscaping, and it actually is one of the great things to work with, and that is stone. Landscaping stone ideas can, not only provide your yard a look all of its own, however at the same time, it will give your yard a fresh feel. There are so lots of various things that you can do with stone, it’s curious that more people do not utilize it. The possibilities are endless, and that stone is a best method to create every yard different.

To start with, you have to understand that stones, not only make an ideal walk way, but they create a good patio. Whenever people are using stones around their house, the main thing that they always do is utilize it for a walk way. Sure it’s a good idea, but it’s been played out to death. It’s time to come up with a fresh idea. Rather than just using it for a pathway, utilize it to build the ground of your patio. They make very flat stones that are perfect to be used as a floor. This will furnish your patio a very classy, yet, very outdoor feel. Another plan you may want to consider about using is using the stones to create levels to your floors. What you do is put down stones to build a wall (not a big wall, but a small one). Then behind the wall you fill it by dirt. Then you set your flowers. Behind those flowers you craft one more wall, but this time you build it a bit bigger. Then you fill that with dirt and you repeat as several times as you desire.

The finest idea for stones, however, is to apply them when making a pond in your plot. This is actually simple to do, and just about anybody can perform it over the course of just one weekend. Not only that, but the stones around it are going to give it an incredible look. If you add a little pump to the pond to create the pond have moving water, then it will keep things like mosquitoes out of it. There is no end to the amount of things that you can do with stones in your backyard. The great news is that the majority of it can be completed in a day, and stones (for the most part) do no cost that much to work with.

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House Cleaning – The Professional Business

November 10, 2023   Matt

House Cleaning – The Professional Business

Most people get into house cleaning to earn some extra money. You may have family, friends and neighbors as your regular clients. Are you ready and motivated to take your part-time business to the next level?
Growing any business takes time and patience. And if you have a loyal client base now, set aside a portion of your gross revenue for advertising, custom business forms and your own products and equipment.
Expanding your business also takes planning. How can you start getting new clients without a large advertising budget? A small one-time investment in custom business forms is the first step.
So what’s wrong with not using business forms? Absolutely nothing if you’re satisfied with your client base right now and not interested in making more money.
But I hear from a lot of professional house cleaners that are struggling in their business. They wonder why they don’t get more of the jobs they bid on. They ask why people won’t pay their rate and instead want to negotiate the price down.
If you’re not presenting yourself as a professional business, your prospects assume you just need to make some extra money; you don’t have their respect and they think you’ll be happy to take whatever they offer to pay.
Now think about this for a minute. Who would you be more likely to hire: the plumber that shows up to estimate your job with a clipboard and custom business forms or the plumber that shows up with a flyer? Be honest with yourself; you are going to trust this plumber inside your home around your personal possessions. What if this person were to break or damage something? Do you think about this issue with the plumber with the clipboard and custom business forms, or is it more of a concern with the plumber with just the flyer?
Your prospects are judging you and forming an opinion from the moment you answer their call. And you know what they say about first impressions? It’s absolutely true in running a business. Not only are they judging you before they hire you, but they judge you again when you arrive on the scheduled service date.
– Use the Service Agreement to define your terms of doing business and to document the service for each client. This forms performs dual purpose as it is also your estimating form that you use during your in-home or telephone bidding. You will discuss the content with your prospect and then have them sign it, not as a contract, but to provide you and them with an understanding of your terms and the service start date.
– The Customer Checklist records your estimate for your new client and has all the cleaning tasks listed that you perform. This form alone can get you the job immediately or even later after your prospect has tried other services.
– The Work Order is created from the important notes you recorded on the Service Agreement during the walk through or telephone interview. It specifies the client, the address and phone number, information pertaining to pets in the home, client specific requests and directives, including important notes you documented about the home.
– The Service Checklist is used by you or your team on the scheduled service date. It is a reminder of the regular service tasks that are to be performed and is used to maintain quality. One of the biggest complaints from clients is that quality deteriorates over time. If you’re not using a Service Checklist, you’re not instilling trust in your clients, especially new clients. They will auto- matically check your work on every appointment to make sure you didn’t miss anything. And if you did, you’ll hear about it – quick!
When you start to use business forms for your existing clients, they will probably ask you why the sudden change. This provides you with a chance to tell them that you’re expanding your business and would appreciate referrals. This leaves them impressed and knowing that you are serious about running a professional business and will be more likely to make referrals.
Custom business forms speak loudly to your prospects and in the long run land you more jobs, referrals and larger profits!

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Cleaning House – Caring For Your Dollhouse

October 01, 2023   Matt

Cleaning House – Caring For Your Dollhouse

We all have things in our lives that hold some sort of sentimental or monetary value. For some, it is a prized collection of coins or rare books. For others it is an irreplaceable antique or piece of jewelry. It is these things that always require special care and preservation, whether it is a yearly polishing or a consistent cleaning.

The same practice holds true for avid dollhouse collectors. Dollhouses are basically miniature replicas of a large-scale home, equipped with wood furnishings, electrical lights and even miniature pieces of china and crystal. Dollhouses, and their accessories, require the same kind of loving care that a regular home needs.

First of all, you should never place a dollhouse in a room that gets direct sunlight. The suns rays can heavily damage the delicate woods used in making most dollhouses. It can cause paint, wallpaper and fabrics to fade dramatically. And in extreme degrees of temperature changes, it could even end up warping or cracking the wood.

Another thing to keep in mind when caring for dollhouses is to always dust it regularly. Dust collects in our own homes on a daily basis, and the same holds true for dollhouses. All the accessories are so small and intricate that they require a good dusting and polishing to maintain their value and beauty. The dolls, animals or other small figurines you purchase for your dollhouse should also be dusted regularly to maintain their quality.

You should never store a dollhouse in damp climate. Dampness, such as in a basement, can deteriorate the materials used to make a dollhouse. It can also lead to mold development that can be difficult to remove or eliminate from fabrics or carpeting. You should also be weary of storing a dollhouse in the attic because moths or other household varmints could do damage to the house itself or its accessories.

Be sure to keep your dollhouse away from household pets. Pets love to chew and nibble on small objects, and what better chew toy than a piece of dollhouse furniture or a miniature figurine? Small children and toddlers should also be kept away from dollhouses. Children of this age like to put things in their mouths. The small accessories present a choking hazard to younger children who don’t understand the value of what they are touching.

Not all dollhouses are going to be detailed enough to go to extreme measures of protection. But for most avid collectors, these precautions are necessary. In fact, one of the best ways to store a prized dollhouse is to have a special case made for it, usually from a clear material. This prevents dust from collecting on items inside the house and it keeps pets and small kids from touching it. And if you are a smoker, a case is a great way to keep smoke from tobacco away from the dollhouse.

Prized possessions need proper care, so it is best to stay on top of keeping your dollhouse in tip-top shape.

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Mom, Do You Want To Get Out Of The House And Make Some Money?

July 03, 2023   Matt

Mom, Do You Want To Get Out Of The House And Make Some Money?

Question: I’m a stay at home mom and I want to contribute to our income. I don’t want an online business, though. I really don’t like computers. What can I do?
Signed, Let me Outta Here!

Dear Let me Outta Here!
There are just oodles of ways to make money and still have the flexibility to be home when you want to be.

Here are just a few ideas.

Crafts. If you have a craft that you enjoy, soap, jewelry, painting, or anything else crafty, then you have the potential for income. Find out where craft shows are, fairs, bazaars, church events, and reserve a booth. It’s an inexpensive way to test out a business idea. All you need is some inventory (which, if you don’t sell, you can give as gifts or sell on eBay) and some basic supplies like business cards.

Wedding Photographer. Do you have a talent for photography? You can work for yourself as a wedding photographer. Work only when you want to, and be home with the kids during the week.

Home Daycare. This one can be hit or miss. If you love kids, and you’re home all day anyway, then taking in one child during the day or after school can help you to bring in a little cash. Check with the laws in your state, first, though, as they do differ in their requirements.

Face Painter. This job is in high demand. Every carnival, birthday party and church festival needs a face painter. And, if you love kids, this can be a very rewarding way to make some extra money.

House or Office Cleaning. If your schedule allows it, you can book cleaning appointments for regular clients. The hourly rate for housecleaners can be lucrative, and you get a great workout in the process.

As you can see, these are just a few of the ways you can work for yourself. You’ll have the flexibility to set your own schedule so you can still attend school plays and be home when you need to be, but you can also help your family by bringing in some money at the same time.

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Preparing Your Old House for Sale

March 10, 2023   Matt

Preparing your old house for sale

If you’re selling your house, you have to do several things to ensure its ready for a smooth and easy sale. You can hire an estate agent, interior stager or complete sales teams to sell your house – or you can do it yourself.

Houses are considered to be easiest to sell when they are clean, tidy, free of clutter, and the walls are neutrally toned – some sites and experts suggest painting your walls white, others suggest that you should paint them with pale, neutral, matching colors. If this isn’t possible, it is important to make sure your walls are clean – removing clutter and cleaning woodwork and painted walls, can give your room a much needed lift.

If you’re de-cluttering, you can also begin packing whilst doing so, but considering some houses sell up to three months before you’re planning on moving OR up to a year after you’ve moved, its also important not to plan to sell straight away, unless your house is in a highly sought after area, and you’ve got a good, competitive price. If not, you might be in for quite a wait on selling your house – and you also have to find a new place to move to yourself.

Estate agents, and Realtors do a great job of selling houses, but in an ever increasingly competitive market, you have to do very unique things to sell your house – it has been reported that some people are offering new cars, or paying the tax on your house for the first year of your stay in the new house. The housing market is always expanding, but you can’t sell just anything – dilapidated houses can’t simply be considered ‘fixer uppers’ and all houses for sale have to meet ever increasing stringent codes – or have new owners that will fix these to meet those codes.

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