Category: Home Improvement

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Gardens

Everyone loves a water garden. Whether it is a small one in a pot, or a large one in your yard, people are just fascinated by the ecosystem you can create with water and plants. Not only are they beautiful but they add a serenity to your garden that you will appreciate.

Making your own water garden in a pot is relatively easy and inexpensive. You have to find the proper container or pot first. It must be sturdy enough to hold a lot of water without collapsing or leaking. Glass, copper or galvanized metal are usually the best. Ceramic will work as well, but you want to stay away from terracotta. Terracotta will leak or just plain give out as it is not strong enough.

Next you will need to choose where you want it (making sure it has plenty of sun) and buy your plants and water garden soil and gravel. Make sure to buy a blooming plant as well, because it will make your water garden really look nice. The water in the garden needs to move to keep mosquito’s from breeding as well. You can click here to see water pumps that are available for just that.

If you are doing a large water garden, there are several things you must take into account. First figure out where in your yard it is safe to dig (ie no underground utility pipes) and then decide how large you want the garden to be. Some can actually be built above ground with wood and flexible liners, these are relatively easy to put together.

You can also make a floating garden, within your water garden, by building floating “decks” to plant your regular garden on. Of course you have to make sure they are wired to stay in one place so they wont damage your water plants, but it makes for a two in one garden and is very beautiful and takes up less space in your yard. That is a bonus for those who have small yards. If you build one of those above ground, it can be drained and moved later one, if you ever change residences as well. Double bonus, because after all that hard work in building and maintaining your garden, you really wouldn’t want to leave it behind if you don’t have to.

Choosing the plants in your water garden is very important. You don’t want to over crowd it and it will need “weeding” or “thinning” from time to time.  Make sure to remove any dead leave or flowers as well on a regular basis. If you don’t you will get too much “compost” at the bottom of the water and it will get choked and can clog the pump.

Most of all, enjoy the work as you do it and the rewards will be well worth it. If you plan everything ahead of time and have all of your supplies handy, you will be finished in no time at all. Good Luck !

 

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Prevention and Protection

Moms are the beginning and the end when it comes to keeping our homes running smoothly. Not only do we take care of balancing the checkbooks, paying the bills, cleaning the house, and raising the kids, we also have to see that our home and family are protected. Protection comes in many different forms, from safety to pest control.

When you buy a new home, you have the obligatory inspection done. They test for everything from water damage, roof leaks and termites. When the report comes back, you decide if you really want the house or not. Ours came back clean but in order to keep it that way, it needed regular maintenance. I saw to it that we are continually protected from infestation by Terminix pest control.  I don’t want my dream home damaged by little bugs.

There are a few things that you can do for some extra prevention:

  • Make sure the soil slopes away from the house
  • Keep plants at least three feet from the house
  • Use plastic sheeting under the house to cover the dirt.
  • Point sprinklers away from the house

You should never have any standing water around the base of the home, as termites need water for survival. Get rid of any dead or dying trees and don’t pile up firewood against the house. You shouldn’t have those anywhere near it in fact. Make sure the base of the house shows about six inches of the concrete foundation all the way around it. Don’t use a lot of mulch around the house, as it breeds termites.

Depending on your area and the regular weather you have there, you might want to make sure there are no large trees too close to the house either. They can be knocked over by storms and you don’t want them to fall on the house. I know that they shade the house and help keep electricity bills down, but in areas with high straight line winds, those trees can be dangerous to your home and your family. Keep the trees well trimmed as well. This way you won’t have to worry about dead branches falling from them.

When you buy a home with a pool and you have small children, you should invest in a safety pool fence. Some of them are removable for those pool parties and such, but they are definitely worth the expense to keep your children safe. In addition to the safety fence, you can put latches or locks at the top of the doors to your home to keep the children from wandering outside. Kids have a tendency to do that the moment you turn your back or use the restroom.

Make sure you have the safety plugs for all of your outlets as well. We all know that children love to stick things into small holes and spaces. We buy them lots of toys teach them to do just that and need to make sure they can’t do it in the wrong space. This goes along with cabinet locks to keep children out of chemicals and such as well. You would be surprised to learn how many children are able to get that Pine-sol bottle open and drink it.

Protecting your home and your family is not very difficult or even expensive if you take simple precautions. Most of it is common sense and easily done on your own without the help of professionals. If you do need a professional to help you, just do your research and you will be fine. I hope this helps you ladies. I know that a lot of it helped me when we first bought our home.

 

 

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City water

I hate city water, but never more than now. Seriously, they have made some definite changes to our water and I am so not happy about it. There is so much chlorine in the water that it is messing up my hair. This makes me go through so much more conditioner because I am trying to equalize it and it is not working at all. Even my hairdresser noticed the difference and asked if I had changed shampoo’s or somthing. Definitely not good. I decided to call our local water company and find out what the deal was. Why did they change our water? The answer was basically that they were forced to up the chemicals due to the heavy rains and since our winter weather is mostly rainy, it was here to stay. Great! Just what I needed to hear.

I cannot handle the water as it is right now, so I guess I am going to have to think about putting in a water filtration system. I thought about ones just for the bathrooms, but apparently of the four available, that is not one of them.

  • A pitcher filter only gives you clean drinking water. That is good but certainly won’t help my hair any.
  • A sink or faucet filter only services that particular area
  • An under the sink filter is about the same with only doing that sink
  • A whole house filter will service the bathrooms and showers, but of course is much more costly.

Since my main concern is for my showers and bathtubs, I suppose that I will have to bite the bullet and spend the money for the system. No one in the house is happy about the changes made by the water company as the children have complained that their eyes hurt after taking a shower. You know when that happens, there is way to many chemicals in the water. I had this problem once before when we lived in our old house. We didn’t own it so weren’t about to spend the money for a filtration system for it. Now that I own my house though, I can justify the expense and it will add value to my home as well.

Environment Masters in Jackson MS have come highly recommended after much research, so I have decided to go with them. I have a few friends and family members who have used them and still do for repairs etc… At least I know that my home will be taken care of correctly. I should have done this a long time ago.

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Roof leaks

Roof leaks are caused by many different things. Detecting them before they do any major damage can be a problem, because you generally do not realize it is leaking until visible damage has occurred. Most often you will notice a discoloration in the ceiling or wall near the ceiling depending on your paint of course. If you have a really dark colored paint on the wall, and it isn’t showing up in the ceiling, you may not find out about it for a very long time. That in itself can be bad.

Doing regular roof leak detection on your own, for missing or worn out, cracked shingles is the first step to preventing water damage to your home. Sometimes it can be as easy as banging a nail back in to keep it from leaking, other times a professional is needed to assess your roof and to make sure it is in tip top condition. One major reason for leakage is incorrectly installed flashing around chimneys, exhaust vents and such. This usually only happens from low quality work or a poorly done DIY job. Peak Roofing Systems in Frisco, TX have specialists for roof leak detection to help you find those leaks that are not readily apparent.

Just because one area is wet, doesn’t necessarily mean that is where the leak is. Water naturally rolls downhill, so the leak could conceivably be elsewhere and usually is. If you have found the leak by the usual means, ie it’s coming through the ceiling, you need to get that repaired right away. Here’s the tricky part. The leak is fixed, but the damage caused by the leak needs to be addressed. Sometimes it is as simple as a little paint and either drying out or replacing the wet insulation. However, if the damage is extensive, it may take more work. I should note that any damage done in or near any electrical outlet, box etc..should not be attempted by you yourself. An electrician should handle drying out and taking care of that. Only then can you replace the drywall and paint the areas needed. With any luck, your leak didn’t extend down to your carpets, but if it did, the first thing you should do is open the windows to allow air to in to help dry them out. Even if it is only in a small area.

You don’t want to end up with mold, because that is almost impossible to get rid of. You can also use a wet dry vac or rent a shampoo machine to suck the water out of carpets. They will dry much faster that way. My personal experience with this actually came from a tree limb that landed on top of our own roof. It did no visible damage and we were relieved and thought all was good, until months later. In hindsight, we should have had the roof checked out immediately to ascertain if there was damage to begin with. It certainly would have saved us a lot of money, because our damage was extensive later on.

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Preparing for Winter

Well it is that time of year again and the weather is getting cold already. Even as far south as Houston gets some really cold spells. Of course, now I have to do regular heater maintenance to make sure it is working properly before it gets too cold. I don’t want to turn it on and not have it work right. That happened once before during a really cold winter and we were miserable until the repairman was able to get here to fix it. I certainly learned my lesson on that one.

We have a fireplace as well and that is helpful too. When the heater went out that year, we lite the fireplace and all slept in the living room to keep warm. It is also one of our favorite things to do during cold weather. We light a fire and sometimes roast marshmallows over it or play games, sing songs and Christmas Carols. Winter is a great time for family bonding since we are stuck in the house a lot.

I like to keep regular maintenance on all of our appliances. Whether it is the the refrigerator, washer and dryer, stove or the AC unit. Lifes little lessons have taught me well that things can break down at the most inopportune moments and being prepared is always best. Most of our appliances are fairly new and under warranty so keeping them up is not difficult. I make sure to buy the regular maintenance insurance whenever I buy a new appliance or anything electrical. Even our TV’s, computer etc, have them.

I dug out all of the big comforters for our beds and put away the summer blankets. This is a ritual every year and with it comes all of the heavy winter coats, sweaters, and thermal underwear. Likewise, I have to take the kids lighter jackets and put them away or they will try to wear them in 30 degree weather and end up sick. I do not know what possesses them to do this every year, but I am definitely not going to let it happen this year.

Now it is time to call the repairman and get him out here. My cousin uses the Aramendia Houston office for all of his and suggested I give the ones in our area a try as he highly recommends them. My cousin always lets me know the best companies to use.

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Bathroom vanity

All of a sudden I heard a big crash, I flew to the window and threw up the sash… Okay it didn’t come from outside. Time to turn around and see what happened. I haven’t heard any hollering, which means that no one is hurt. In the hallway stand two children outside the bathroom looking in. Alrighty then, I guess that is where the problem lies. I go inside and apparently the flowerpot that was in the window sill has fallen onto the bathroom vanity and broken. Great. A mess to clean up and I am still barely awake this morning. *sigh*

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The trees

Well I am having some tree work done next week. The weather is nothing but thunderstorms all week and there are already branches down. I know that there will be a lot more, but there is no reason to start with it still raining. First thing Monday morning they will come and lean it up, as well as cut down any branches that need to be taken down. We used to do it ourselves but started hiring someone else because honestly, they have professional climbing gear and it is much easier for them to do.

This will also get our trees ready for the winter season that will be coming along shortly. That way if we have any ice storms this year, I won’t have to worry about it then. It will all be taken care of. I learned my lesson with that a few years ago when we had a large branch come down on the hood of one of the cars. Now we don’t take any chances. I wouldn’t want one to come down on one of the kids when they are outside, so it is best to be prepared. You might want to take a look at the trees in your yard and see if they need to be trimmed so that you don’t have problems with it later.

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Artificial grass

Whether you are tired of mowing the lawn for what seems like twice every week or looking at the disheartening results of dead grass that used to be a vibrant green become a withering brown – artificial grass is the answer. Residential lawns and even golf putting greens that have been replaced with artificial turf no longer have to be concerned with the constant chores of watering, weeding, cutting, fertilizing and having to apply pesticides to maintain a consistent healthy look to their landscape. The key to installing artificial turf properly includes many important concerns. It is vital to make sure that your synthetic grass is eco-friendly and meets the standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association (IPEMA).

These certified safety standards must be upheld for the health of children, adults and animals by a company that you choice to purchase your artificial turf from, such as System Pavers. The other considerations for properly installing synthetic grass is not just making sure that it is made from extremely high quality yarns, but that it is also accommodated with holes for drainage to make sure that water is able to disperse after landing on your artificial grass. A artificial grass installer such as System Pavers is capable of meeting these installation requirements, as well as being able to include toxin-free infill that is safe for the environment and is also anti-microbial to avoid the growth of various unwanted forms of bacteria.

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Spring cleaning again

Okay, I do spring cleaning about four times a year or more. I cannot stand clutter in my house. I rip through it from one end to the other and the kids and hubby hide so I don’t draft them into helping. I just did this in April, so I am not sure why it is already necessary again. Perhaps it is because the kids just got out of school and the massive amounts of stuff they brought home.Some of it from lockers others from desks, but the real stuff I hate, is the stuff the teachers give them. Most of it is decorations from around the classrooms. For some reason the teachers like to hand that stuff out to the kids, so I have to throw it away later. It is highly annoying.

Then I noticed that for some reason we have collected a ton of CD’s and DVD’s. I am going to sell some of my old CD’s, because I don’t even listen to them anymore. Who needs them anyway when there is IPod’s and Itunes. Better I can get rid of them while decluttering my house. I am going to go through all of the cabinets in the family room as well and clear out any junk that has accumulated. The kids are always stuffing all kinds of paper and whatnot in there and I know that they are full. I went looking for something and saw that mess yesterday. It was awful. I think I can sell DVD’s online, so I will go through those and get rid of all the ones the kids don’t watch any longer. They have outgrown some of the cartoons and toddlers ones, so there is no point in keeping them. This way another child can enjoy them, and I make a little bit of my money back for new ones. Makes sense to me. Anyway, I am going to get busy and you guys have a great day!

 

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Stair lifts

Have you ever seen a stair lift in action? I got to see one yesterday when I stopped by my neighbors house to see if she needed anything from the store. I didn’t know that she had gotten one put in, but it was really cool. I am happy that she is safer now that she has one, because she has had such a hard time walking lately. They are really a great thing for an elderly person to have.