Home Decoration & Real Estate

Posts Tagged ‘Planning’

Gardening can be a very relaxing and enjoyable hobby. It is a creative activity, which can add color and appeal to your home and yard. Gardening is more than just throwing some plants into the ground, though. For the most enjoyment, and the biggest impact, you’ll need to do some planning, and make some decisions about your garden.

Probably the most important consideration for your garden, is the type of garden. Do you want a herb garden or a vegetable garden? Do you want a flower garden? Do you want flowers that only bloom during the spring, or a variety of flowers to bloom from spring through fall? Or if you want, you can have different gardens in your yard. Maybe a plot near the house for growing herbs, and then maybe some flowers in the corner of the yard to add a touch of color.

Once you know what type of garden you want, you can choose the location. If you want herbs or vegetables, the best place for them is near the house, so that you can access them easily when cooking. If you want flowers or shrubs, you can place them just about anywhere you’d like in the yard. One thing to keep in mind as far as location is the amount of sun that your yard gets. Either take some paper, and draw a rough map of the yard, or simply list the various sections of your yard. Then, beginning in the morning, check the yard every hour and note whether the various sections of the yard are in sun or shade. If an area gets 6 or more hours of direct sunlight, it is a full sun location. 3-6 hours of sun is partial sun/partial shade, and less than 3 hours is full shade. Once you know the amount of sunlight each part of your yard gets, you can choose the appropriate plants.

You will also need to decide on the layout for your planting beds, and what you want to plant. Depending on your tastes, you can lay out your planting beds in strict geometrical shapes, or you can plan them in more free-flowing shapes, like an amoeba. The design is up to you, and what you prefer. You’ll also need to decide on how to plant the flowerbeds. You can plant a single type of plant, in neat rows, or you can have several groupings of different plants. If you are going to be planting different plants in one bed, make sure that they are all compatible. You’ll want to choose plants that have similar needs as far as soil, water, and sunlight.

Be sure to address visual appeal when you plant. Use plants of varying colors and textures. Just be sure that the colors and textures don’t clash. You can add a vertical dimension to your flower bed by planting taller plants in the middle or in the back of the flower bed, reducing the height of the plants as you go towards the edge of the flowerbed. For the most visual appeal, you should place plants in odd numbered groups, three, five, or seven plants in a group, which will help the planting to look more natural.

When you’re planning your garden, you may also want to plan where you want to place accent pieces in your garden. If you have taller plants, you may want to place a couple of garden stakes or a gazing ball among them to add some appeal. Tall accent pieces can also provide a visual anchor among shorter plants.

A poorly planned garden can just look like a jumble of random plants. A well planned garden will have a much greater visual appeal. So, take the time to plan out your garden. Keep in mind that you can always change your mind as you go along. Use your imagination, and make your garden unique.

It is now September. The kids are going back to school. The football season has begun. The nights have gotten a bit chillier, and the days are not as hot. The price of energy to heat your home is up there It is time for you to see how much money you might save.

You should begin by conducting an energy audit of your home or apartment to help detect waste. If you are a homeowner, this will gauge the efficiency of your current heating system. Your utility company may offer free or low-cost energy audits, or you can conduct your own. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) offers instructions over the internet.. The home “walk-through” may help you spot needed maintenance or problems that, if fixed, could save you money. For example:

Check your attic, attic stairway, attached garage walls and basement to make sure your home is insulated to DOE-recommended levels for your area. When inspecting and buying home insulation products, look for the R-value. The higher the R-value, the greater the insulating power.

Wrap your hot water heater in an insulating jacket.

Schedule an annual tune-up for your heat pump, furnace or boiler. Your utility company may provide this service.

Hire a professional heating contractor to seal and insulate leaky ducts, and to ensure that the airflow distribution system serving your heating equipment is operating at peak efficiency.

Clean or replace filters on forced-air furnaces, seal flues in fireplaces you don’t use, install drapes or some other covering on windows, and seal holes around plumbing and heating pipes.

Install a programmable thermostat that will automatically lower nighttime temperatures. You can keep just as warm sleeping under a good insulating blanket or quilt as you can by running the heating plant full blast at night.

Check caulking and weather stripping, and make repairs where necessary.

Close your foundation vents in the winter if there’s a crawl space under your home.

Close the doors to rooms that you don’t use.

Prune shrubs that may block airflow to your heat pump.

Install ceiling fans. The air circulation promotes heating efficiency in the winter.

When buying a new furnace, boiler, heat pump, water heater, or other home appliance, consider a high-efficiency model. Although some energy efficient appliances may cost more to buy than other models, their lower operating costs may save you money in the long run. Use the black and yellow EnergyGuide labels to compare the energy use or efficiency of models. You can find these US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) required EnergyGuide labels on most major appliances. The labels provide useful information about products’ energy use or efficiency and estimated annual operating costs. In addition, the EnergyStar logo will help you identify high-efficiency appliances.

You should shop around for the best prices on oil – and gas, if you live in an area that lets you choose your natural gas provider. Ask your selected utility or oil company about a budget billing plan to protect against sudden or unexpected price increases. Your provider takes the amount of energy you use during one year and divides it into equal monthly payments. At the end of the season, you pay any outstanding balance or your provider credits any overpayment to your next monthly bill.

If you’re on a fixed income and have trouble paying your utility bills, contact your utility company. They, or your state or local government, may have energy assistance plans to help you pay your heating bills.

The Heating Scam Artists Are Out Don’t Get Burned

When energy prices rise, so does advertising for a host of energy-saving products and services – including some that are just plain bogus. The FTC recently settled charges against marketers who claimed their “liquid siding” product had a significant R-value and would yield dramatic reductions in consumers’ utility costs. Although good maintenance such as caulking and painting can reduce air leaks in older homes, consumers should be wary of coating or paint sellers that promise their product will perform like insulation or will significantly reduce utility bills.

Sellers offering other devices, gadgets, and energy-saving products also promise drastic reductions in home heating costs or extreme energy savings. Read energy-saving claims carefully and, if possible, get independent information about product performance. Avoid unsolicited door-to-door sales calls and high pressure sales pitches from contractors offering furnaces, windows, roofing, and other home improvement projects.

To make sure that a contractor is licensed and reputable: Ask friends and neighbors for referrals; ask the contractor for customer references; and check out potential contractors with the Better Business Bureau, state and local consumer protection officials, and your state licensing agency. The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule gives you three business days to cancel a contract if you sign it in your home or at a location other than the contractor’s permanent place of business.

In Conclusion

The last two winters in the North American region have been milder than usual. This is not an indication that this coming winter will follow suit. We could have a season filled with high winds and below normal temperatures. This means only one thing – high wind chill factors. That means only one thing – high heating bills

September is a good month to begin getting ready for the coming season. Be wise – Winterize.

All of us love to surround our world with things, which are both beautiful as well as exotic. Our homes are one of the most intrinsic parts of the world around us. Therefore, most of us enjoy making our homes more than a mere structure made up of four walls and a roof.

Home decor styles range from a number of themes, designs, and materials. While planning your home decor project, you can either opt for the theme being implemented throughout the house or use one specific theme for a specific room. For example, a house was once designed in such a way that each room was decorated with the styles of the different countries the home owner had visited. All rooms included authentic art and furniture from each visited country.

An assessment of your needs is preferrable before embarking on the process of a new home interior decorating project. The next point to keep in mind would obviously be taste such as personal likings and dislikings. You can then choose from several themes that can stretch from Victorian to more contemporary themes, which are more suited to the modern and urban lifestyle. One of the modern themes including home decor ideas that are really catching up is the use of bamboo. Eco-friendly and beautiful, bamboo has a number of advantages that account for its popularity as a first choice for home interior decoration. Transform your home to a tropical paradise of peace and harmony with the use of bamboo. Another benefit of using bamboo is the fact that the material is famous for its sheer versatility. You can incorporate it into almost anything beginning with floorings to even towels! The main point to remember when using bamboo for decorating your home interior is the fact that the glue that is used for sealing the sheets into a pattern should be non-toxic glue. This is especially important when bamboo flooring is glued with inexpensive or low quality glue. The flooring can cause the floors to dent and also cause them to give out a harmful gas called Formaldehyde.

Curtains can also match with the flooring with convenience as bamboo curtains can be easily purchased all over the world. It is best to keep the interior spaces clutter-free while using bamboo flooring, as this would go a long way in enhancing the ambience. The color that this theme would necessarily involve would be slightly muted. Furthermore, this color is quite fashionable in this decade. In case you want to add color to the space, cushions and rugs make make nice floor decor additions. To add a bit of freshness to the room, accentuate the muted sophistication of the theme with a couple of bright hibiscus flowers and perhaps a well chosen painting with a color selection that matches the home decor accessories.