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Why Should You Install A Deck In Your Backyard?

by Trish



A big backyard can be like a blank canvas.  Unfortunately, though, you may not feel creative enough to fill that canvas!  If you’re looking for a great way to turn your backyard into a fun, stylish place to be, you need outdoor decking.


Wonderful for Backyard Barbecues

A deck can be the perfect centrepiece for your yard.  Once it’s installed, you can surround it with landscaping or even a garden, so that you can inject all of the various colours and textures that you want.  The area will look great, and it will be practical, too!  After all, everyone loves hanging out in the backyard for a barbecue, and outdoor decking gives you the perfect space to host all of your friends and family.  From it, you’ll be able to enjoy warm afternoons and great sunsets!

Best of all, outdoor decking is so versatile that you can fit it into any decor.  No matter what type of home you have, what type of yard you’ve got, or what type of budget you have to work with, a deck can match it.  Even if you’ve got a ton of hills or uneven patches in your yard, you can make outdoor decking work!

Think you can’t enjoy a deck because your yard isn’t big enough?  Think again!  Sure, you may not have a sprawling area to host giant parties, but you can definitely create a spot that injects a little bit of life into your plain ol’ backyard.  In fact, it could be just the thing you need to add some dimension and some much-needed extra space to your smaller home!

OK, so you want outdoor decking… But does that mean you have to spend a ton of money on a professional builder?

No way!

Outdoor decking is so versatile that you can build it yourself if you want.  If you’ve got some woodworking experience, building your own deck can be a great way to spend your free time.  All you need is a pencil and some paper to draw out some designs.  Once you measure your yard, you’ll be able to figure out how much wood you need to build the deck of your dreams.

What if you’re not that handy?

There are tons of timber decking specialists out there, who can give you the expertise you need, without charging you an arm and a leg.  They can help you figure out which type of wood is right for your deck — soft or hard — along with the perfect level of treatment you need to create a deck for the long haul.

Whether you decide to do the work yourself or call in an expert, you’ll be happy to know that the outdoor decking possibilities are endless.  As long as you plan ahead carefully, you can wind up with the perfect finished product.  In fact, an addition like this can add some serious value to your home — not to mention all of the “style points” you’ll get from it.

Bottom line — a deck can make your house feel like home again!

Sam Nathan is a freelance writer. His interests include sports, travel and health.

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Filed Under: Featured, Home Improvement, Landscaping Tagged With: backyard, deck, decor, garden, install, Landscaping, outdoor decking, versatile

Three Easy Steps To Prepare Your Backyard For The Warm Summer Months

by Trish

Pool parties, barbeques, and sunbathing… Spring actually isn’t as far off as it seems. It’s only a few months away! With Spring approaching shortly, it may be time to start thinking about some Spring-cleaning so that your backyard is ready to go by the time summer rolls around. Get your yard ready for summer by following a few simple steps such as cleaning it up and setting up a patio space… you may even want to consider a home extension if you live in a sunny area in order to beat the heat (and sunburn!) By following the steps below, you can properly prepare your home for the upcoming warm months and make the most out of your backyard this summer.

1.       Clean up

Chances are that your yard is a bit of a mess if you haven’t been keeping up with it throughout the winter. Enlist some helpers (i.e. family members) to help get the yard back in shape. This means picking up any fallen branches, cutting down dead trees, trimming bushes, weed whacking, and raking up any dead leaves that have collected over the past few months.

2.       Set up

It’s time to bring out the old patio furniture out of storage and uncover and fill up the pool. Set up a nice sitting area, as well as a lounge area so you can easily host a barbeque or get-together without having to worry about having enough seats. Place mosquito-repelling candles around as well as some extra lighting so your yard will be useful at nighttime as well – solar powered lanterns will do the trick.

3.       Improve

Think about what you can do to improve your backyard’s appearance, as well as it’s worth. Whether you add a garden with seasonal flowers or a miniature waterfall, your backyard’s aesthetic is just important as your home’s interior. Leave it to a landscaper to plan out your backyard and find plants that work best in your location’s climate and weather conditions. If you live in a primarily sunny area, you may want to consider adding on a home extension to provide shade to you and your guests.

There are a variety of things you can do to improve your yard and perfect it before the summer season arrives. However, the first step is cleaning up your existing yard, setting up with the tools and materials you already have, and then thinking about what you can improve on.

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Jillian Johnson is a professional content marketing writer and blogger with a particular interest in writing about home and garden. To read more writing by Jillian, follow her @MissWritey.

Filed Under: The yard Tagged With: backyard, barbeque, branches, clean up, easy steps, Furniture, garden, Landscaping, leaves, lights, party, patio, prepare, set up, solar lights, summer, tidy yard, warm, weeds

Pros And Cons Of Invisible Dog Fences

by Trish

Pet owners use invisible fences as a way to keep their dogs safe. It is especially welcomed by pet owners who might not have the special permits required to erect physical fences in their backyards. If you’re thinking about installing an invisible or electronic fence, you’ll naturally want to learn about the pros and cons. Only then you can completely decide if it is a good solution for you. The pros and cons of invisible fences are described below.

Pro of Wireless Dog Fences

  1. Wireless dog fences are much cheaper that their more traditional counterparts. They are also easier to maintain as you won’t need to patch holes or fill up dirt that your dog dug up in a bid to escape.
  2. You won’t have to deal with complaints from neighbors about an unsightly fence. The fence is buried underground or wireless so there will be no unsightly structures in your backyard.
  3. You can easily adjust the areas where you want your dog to wander. It’s simple to reduce or add more wire for in-ground structures and it is even easier with wireless systems using the controller.
  4. A switch on the dog’s collar can be used to adjust the voltage applied when the dog crosses the boundary. This is essential if your dog is getting pain or burns from the system.

Cons of Invisible Dog Fences

  1. It’s true that some dogs will not respond well to this type of training to keep them within a defined boundary, so discontinue use of the fence if your dog is not responding.
  2. Some dogs are intelligent enough to find their way around a wireless fence. For instance, large dogs might do vertical jumps over the upper limits of the fence and won’t receive shocks outside this region.
  3. The wireless fence will keep your dog within a confined area, but it will not keep other animals outs. This is something to take note off if you live in an area where there is threat of wolves, coyotes, raccoons and other intruders. It also will not stop someone looking to steal your dog.
  4. Rats can dig up and chew on the wires and reduce the barrier. When this happens it might be difficult to locate the area where the damage has been done.
  5. Some dogs could be reckless and charge outside the boundary when there are other pets in the area. After the excitement abates the dog, remembering the shock, might not want to go back into the confined area.
  6. The final disadvantage comes in the form of neighbors and other passersby. If you have a particularly ferocious dog, they might be wary or fearful of the dog that is seemingly free to roam wherever he wants. To combat this you can install a sign to indicate that the dog is confined within an invisible fence.

About Author

Crystal is a passionate blogger who loves to write on various lifestyle topics. Recently she got a electronic dog fence from flexpetz.com for her pet dog that had a habit of running away into the neighbors.

Filed Under: Pets Tagged With: backyard, boundary, cons, dogs, invisible dog fences, jump, permits, pets, Pros, shocks, system, wanders, wild animals, wireless dog fence

Noisy neighbors kid

by The Diva

My neighbors kid is making noise again. I swear I’ve barely slept since Febuary! Honest. I think that’s when the woman next store took her toddler out of day care and started working at home and of course that’s when all the noise began.

The kid is obviously going through the terrible two’s and oh how terrible they are and to make matters worse the parents have told us that they don’t like to say no to her because it makes her reaction worse. Duh … well times a kid has to learn what no means. So since February she’s been screaming at 6 am, thumping her feet at all times of day, slamming doors and just making a ton of noise and to top every thing off her parents didn’t seems to realize that we, in the adjoining house next door, could hear all the noise right through the walls.

It’s awful. We’ve talked to the neighbors a few times about the noise and for a while things got better. Now I think that the noise got better because they were putting in a fence and they wanted us to go along with it and now that the fence is in they don’t care any more so they’re letting their daughter run wild again. Sigh … so much for my sleep. I think I’m going to buy a tent and maybe some Sierra Designs Sleeping Bags and then I’m going to camp out in my backyard. Maybe they’ll see the tent and get the idea and maybe I’ll get a better sleep.

Filed Under: Health and Fitness, Home and family, Items to Try, neighbors Tagged With: backyard, daughter, exhausted, fence, kid, neighbors, no sleep, noisy, sick, slamming doors, talk, thumping feet, tire, toddler, yelling

Birds on a wire

by The Diva

I saw something the other day that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before …

I was standing in my kitchen after having just fed our dog. I was waiting for her to finish eating and then I was going to take her outside to do her business. As I waited for her I stood looking out my kitchen window into the backyard.

As I gazed out I noticed two birds on the electrical wires leading to our house. One bird was on the top wire and the other was below it on the second wire. The second bird flew up and looked like it was trying to land on the first birds back. He only did it for a few seconds and then he’d fly down to the second wire for a few more seconds before repeating his move.

It only took me a few seconds of seeing this odd repetitive behavior to realize that the birds were mating. LOL

It certainly didn’t look like a very safe place to mate! I kept thinking that both birds were going to fall off the wire each time the male landed on the females back for a few seconds. Hmm I wonder if they have life insurance quotes for birds? It looked dangerous … but, hey, maybe these birds were thrill seekers.

I guess the male visited the female about 10 times before he flew off into another yard. The female waited around on the electrical wire for a few minutes before she flew off in the opposite direction.

No cuddles for them!

I felt a little bit like a voyeur watching their intimate moments, but hey … they were right out in the open. Have you ever seen birds on a “wire”?

Filed Under: Entertainment, Humor, Items to Try, The yard Tagged With: back, backyard, birds, electrical wire, kitchen window, mating, seconds, watching

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