Category: Nature

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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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Have You Ever Noticed

Have you ever noticed that when guys take a nap ( no matter what age) in the afternoon, they wake up in a cranky mood and proceed to let everyone know about it.

This is quite possibly one of my biggest pet peeves with guys. I mean REALLY ? You supposed to take a nap to feel refreshed and better when you wake up, not to feel like you hate the world. Seriously irritated right now…grrr

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Beautiful

This is one of the most beautiful colts I have ever seen. I absolutely love his markings. They are so unique.

I will bet that he will sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I hope to one day see pictures of him after he has grown up. I am sure that I will. He is like living art to look at. I just love horses.

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Blood Services

You gotta love irony. This is too funny. I guess whomever it is that owns this car must work there, and definitely has a sense of humor. That is the kind of person I like to work with, someone who can laugh at themselves and have a little fun.

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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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Love it

I was just scouring the ads for Wilmington NC Real Estate. They have some amazing homes for sale there. I just love the south and the coastal areas especially. Looking at the homes is one of my joys. Just a little something to dream a little dream from time to time. We love to vacation on the beaches of the south each year. The warm water and breezes softly wafting your hair are so relaxing. They are hands down the best places to vacation ever and one day I want to move to the beach. I know that it probably won’t be for a while, but I will keep looking just because I can.

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The sun came out

So the sun finally decided to show it’s face today and for some reason I cannot get these kids to go outside and enjoy it. They whined for three days about the rain and when it doesn’t rain, has no interest in the outdoors. These are the days that drive me straight up a wall…lol

 

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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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Greenhouse

I would really like to build one of these greenhouses for my plants that need more humidity. I love tropical plants, yet where I live gets far too cold to plant them out of doors. During the winter a small heater can be placed inside to keep them from dying. I think it would be great to have one.