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Why You May Want To Hire A Professional Painter Instead Of Taking On The Job Alone

by Trish



We lead extremely busy lives these days and because of this, finding time to do those little projects around the house, such as paint, can prove to be quite difficult. Instead of trying to cram your days to their maximum capacity, why not find someone else who can get the job done for you? This will give you more time to focus on what’s most important in life; such as your family and staying healthy. While DIY jobs can be fun, never feel as though you need to take on everything on your own because there are always plenty of options to choose from. Sometimes spending a little more cash now is more beneficial to you in the long run.


Save Yourself Time

As we touched on above, hiring a professional to do something you may technically be able to do on your own is going to save your household quite a bit of time. It can actually save you money as well, if taking on a job for the very first time. Typically, mistakes are going to happen. At least if you hire a professional, you are going to be able to rest assured knowing they have completed similar jobs hundreds, if not thousands of times before. If you so choose, you don’t even have to be home during the entire paint job. You can enjoy your family, go on vacation or take that much-needed hiking getaway; knowing the entire time you are away that everything is being taken care of effectively and efficiently.

Preparation: Avoid It

Did you know one of the most time consuming aspects of most DIY jobs is the preparation? You need to make sure you have all your proper tools, your safety gear, etc. When you aren’t the one taking the task head on, you don’t have to worry about any of this. An experienced painter will always have everything they need with them. For someone who is new to a particular type of project, organization may be tricky, causing much more time to be wasted.

Keep Your Family Safe

Staying safe is one of the most important things in life. Not only do you want to protect yourself but you want to protect your family as well. By hiring a professional painter to do the job, you are keeping yourself and your family away from the toxic fumes that paint work exposes those in the surrounding areas to. If you are looking for ways to keep the kids out of the house, why not take them to the park or to a friend’s house and let the magic happen while you’re away?

If heights are a fear of yours, as they are with many people around the globe, then you’ll probably be pretty excited to have someone else climb up on your roof if the paint job requires doing so. Even if you aren’t worried about it and have done it many times before in the past, it really isn’t worth the risk. A paid painter is going to have all the right safety equipment to get the job done without putting anyone at risk and since they’ve probably done similar jobs often, they are going to know which precautions to take to keep them the safest as well as the most productive. On a side note, it’s very important to make sure the person or company you hire has documentation to prove they have insurance just to be on the safe side. Even the most experienced of painters can have accidents, so verify coverage and you should be golden.

This guest post is authored by Matthew Jennings. He is one of the finest house painters in Melbourne. When he is not busy working, he likes visiting art galleries and museums to find inspiration for his work. He says highlighting one wall of the room with a dark shade makes it look more stylish.

Filed Under: Home and family, Home Improvement Tagged With: DIY, hire, home, house, painter, prepare, professional, time, Vacation

Bring The Beach Inside With A Beach-Themed Bedroom

by Trish

You love everything about the beach from the crashing waves to the feel of sand underneath your bare feet. While you wish you could live on the beach, you will eventually have to go back home to your own boring bedroom for the night.

You don’t have to be separated from the beach you love. Bring it inside your own home by creating a beach-themed bedroom. Beach themes can be placed in all types of bedrooms whether they are big or small or have hardwood flooring. With just a bit of imagination, you can go to sleep and wake up on the beach every day.

Paint Scheme

Tackle those boring walls by incorporating the colors of the beach. Different shades of tans and blues work great.

You can either paint the entire wall a solid color, divide the wall by painting the top half blue to represent the ocean and the bottom half tan to represent sand, paint the walls tan and the ceiling blue, or color wash the walls in different shades of blues as it can look like waves. You can stencil in white seashells for more of a beach feel.

Furniture And Flooring

The furniture can be a difficult to place into a beach-theme if you aren’t looking to spend a lot of money replacing your old furniture. You can go with white furniture in the way of beach chairs and tables. If you aren’t keen to having that much white in your room, go with light wood color tones.

As for the floor, hardwood flooring with an area rug of rattan material or bamboo can give the perfect beach appearance to your room. It will also work fine if you have regular carpeting.

Beach Accessories

Beach accessories can come in all shapes and sizes for decorations in your room. Hang paintings of the ocean or other beach themes on the walls. Scatter seashells on dressers, tables and shelves. Purchase beach-themed lamps, bedding and knickknacks to complete the overall beach look.

Sleep In Paradise in Your Beach-Themed Bedroom

Devote time and creativity into your beach design to have a warm and comforting feeling in your bedroom. You’ll never be too far from the beach even in the winter time when you decorate your room with these beach ideas. It doesn’t have to take a lot of money or time to have the perfect bedroom of your dreams.

Amy Nelson is a mother, avid home decorator and author. Mrs. Nelson has written several informative publications on family life, interior decorating, and simple home improvement tips.

Filed Under: Home Decor, Home Improvement, Interior Design Tagged With: accessories, beach, beach theme, bedroom, carpeting, colors, flooring, Furniture, hardwood flooring, home, imagination, paint scheme, sand, waves

Proper Light Placement To Better Illumine The Exterior Of Your Home

by Trish

While lighting the exterior of your house is not difficult at all, it is also easy to make mistakes when it comes to where the lighting fixtures should be affixed. Try strolling around your house after dark and you will notice that there are some areas that are cloaked in the shadows, paths that are hard to thread on in the darkness, or seating areas that are rendered useless at night. You may also find spots that are too bright that guests and passers-by have to cover their eyes from the glare of your lighting fixtures.

Fortunately, it is easy to correct these problems. With a little know-how on proper placement and what type of lights to use for certain spots, you can make the exterior of your home safer and more usable after the sun goes down and at the same time lend drama to the space. Below are some tips on how you should incorporate lights into your home’s exterior, where they should be placed, and what types of fixtures you should use.

Front door

Lighting is particularly important on the access and egress point of your house for good reasons. It shows people where to enter and where the doorbell and keyhole are positioned; prevents tripping on the steps; and allows the people inside to know who is at the front door.

The most ideal light fixtures to use on the front door are lanterns with two low-voltage compact fluorescent bulbs placed on both sides of the door (preferably mounted along the front door’s upper third portion). These fixtures provide the right amount of light without glare and at the same time enhance the appeal of the front door.

When picking wall or post lanterns, go for pieces with frosted or colored lenses instead of those with clear glass as they are easier on the eyes.

Garage and Driveway

Just like how you would light up your front door, you should also provide proper illumination on your garage and driveway entrance so that guests and vehicles will be able to find your home at night. For the driveway, it is not necessary to light up the entire strip. A few low-voltage spreadlights staggered along the edge of the pavement will suffice. Your garage, on the other hand, will benefit from the addition of some wall-mounted compact fluorescent floodlights near the door and on the sides. Also, do not forget to illuminate your house number. Guests arriving at night as well as emergency responders will definitely appreciate such addition since they will be able to know which house is yours.

Steps and walkways

To lead guests to the front door and guard them against slipping, layered lights coming from low-voltage fixtures are the most suitable choices for illuminating steps and walkways. Popular fixture selections for these locations include bollard lights, mushroom lights and path shaded tier lights. All these fixtures cast light downward so they are easy on the eyes. They also come in a wide variety of styles and different price points, allowing you to pick pieces that complement the look of your home and your budget.

For the most pleasing effect when positioning the lights and prevent the runway look, do not place all the lights on a straight line. Instead, stagger them on both sides of the steps and walkways.

Seating areas (patios, decks, porch)

To ensure you will be able to entertain guests even after dark, do not forget to light up your outdoor living areas. There is no hard or fast rules when it comes to lighting up outdoor living spaces, allowing you to take free helm on your light choices. However, do not forget to install task lighting in or near areas where they are needed and where safety might be a concern, such as benches, stair risers, deck railing and the wall near the grilling or dining area.

To avoid attracting pests to your patio, deck or porch, it will be preferable to go for compact fluorescent bulbs that are specially designed to ward off pests. You may also control the amount of light in the area if you use dimmers that will let you adjust light levels.

Landscape features

Add a touch of drama to your home’s exterior by highlighting the beautiful features in your landscape with a combination of low-voltage lighting and accent lighting. To do this, pick a focal point that you wish to emphasize, such as a specimen tree or a structure, along with secondary areas. To illuminate your primary focal point, use flood lights affixed to in-ground poles or spotlights attached on a nearby wall, fence or other elevated structure. For secondary areas like flower beds, ground covers and statuary, emphasize them with low-voltage fixtures that are recessed into the ground. Or, go for a backlit effect or hidden glow by pinning the light sources between the objects you want to highlight and the wall of your house.

Just a word of caution: be mindful where you direct the beams of your lights. At the most, they should not be pointed toward your neighbors windows.

The guest post above, which was written for www.steelbuildingsuk.co.uk, was contributed by Ericka. Ericka is a home improvement and gardening enthusiast. Her passion for these subjects inspires her to write useful posts about house repairing, decorating, cleaning and organizing.

Filed Under: Home Improvement, Lighting, The yard Tagged With: dark, driveway, Exterior, front door, garage, guests, home, house, landscape, light, Lighting, living space, safe, safety, seating areas, secure, security, steps, walkway

5 Reasons Why A Small Home Might Be A Better Investment Than Its Big Brother

by Trish

colourful burano house

 

People have goals in life and the main idea is always to improve on what you have right now. Everyone always wants bigger because they think it is better, but is that really true? You only need to look at houses to understand the way people’s minds work. A much bigger home makes them feel like they have accomplished something. Even though half the rooms would remain empty they want to become rich so they can buy themselves a huge mansion with an even bigger garden.

You’ve got to ask yourself if this is the route you want to go down when you’re looking to buy a new home. Will something that big fulfill your needs, or do you just want it because you can say to yourself your home is massive? You need to think about if very carefully before you make one of the biggest financial decisions of your life. Owning a small home can be just as good and if you’re looking for some reasons why we can go over a few of them now.

It will cost you less

Money

When you buy a small home it will be cheaper than one that is twice the size. It doesn’t just mean you will save money when signing on the dotted line, because there are much more ways to save more over the years. Think about how much it will cost you to keep it cool in summer and hot in winter. It will definitely be cheaper. The same also goes for repairs and a good example we can use is the guttering, because you will need less lengths when it is time to replace them.

You’ll have more time

Cleaning a large home is a tough job, but someone has to do it and it will probably be you. Imagine how much time you would save hovering if you had 50% less carpet space. When you work out how much time you’re cutting out per week it might not seem like much, but now times that by 500 and work out how much time is being saved over 10 years. That isn’t just cleaning the house because it also includes doing work in the garden.

Buying nice things

Pink ice-pendant

Big homes are expensive to buy and your mortgage payments will be a lot. It’s not nice watching all of that money leaving your account each month. If you add that onto the money you’re paying in bills you might not have much money left on the 31st. With all that money you will save on your home it means you will have a lot more to buy nice things. Would you rather have a big empty house, or a small one filled with wonderful treasures?

Living the easy life

People buy a huge home and they have so much space to fill. That means going out and getting things to fill the space. Before you know it your home is full of junk. With a small home you can’t be so rash. You can buy amazing things, but not millions of things. Just a few amazing things and it leaves you will less materialistic problems which lets you relax a bit. Having too many things can be very stressful if you believe the minimalist movement.

Selling it more easily

Everyone wants to buy a huge home, but how many people do you think will be able to afford one? Not many if you read the news. A small home is well within the price range of the biggest majority of people. As the future gets closer and closer you will also see a huge jump in the number of people looking for smaller, more energy efficient homes. Maybe the millionaires of the future will realize that smaller might be better than bigger, too.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Josh Butler is real estate consultant at Abercromby’s. He has vast knowledge of the real estate sector and has suggested many useful tips in Abercromby’s real estate blog.

Filed Under: Home and family, Home Improvement Tagged With: better investment, garden, home, house, items, mortgage payments, price, savings, selling, small home, time

6 Great Deterrents That Will Make Would-Be Thieves Turn Around And Walk Away

by Trish

You must have worked really hard to save up for your home and it will probably be filled with nice things. The last thing you need is someone coming along and thinking they can waltz right in and steal from you. One of the easiest ways to stop this from happening is to deter the would-be thieves in the first place. We’re going to take a look at some ways you can accomplish that.

Don’t show off

Even if you’re not struggling for money you must see how hard it can be for some people to have a comfortable life. That doesn’t make stealing right and thieves’ nice people, but it helps to understand when trying to deter someone from breaking into your home. If they walk past and see expensive things lying around it might start putting ideas in their head. Sometimes it’s as simple as not showboating because the majority of people won’t think your home is worth breaking into.

Tricking people

How many people do you know that would attempt to break into a home when there were people sitting inside watching TV? It might occur a tiny percentage of the time, but this is usually because they think everyone is out and they get the shock of their life when they discover it’s not the case. These are usually the times when someone can get hurt, so by closing your blinds and leaving your lights on you will leave no doubt in a thief’s mind that someone is home.

Do you have sliding doors?

It’s pointless having a sturdy door with a huge steel deadbolt if someone can simply walk up to your home and lift your sliding door off the rails. This is usually only a problem for older ones, but you are best making sure because it’s better being safe than sorry. If you’re not in any position by buy a new door you might need to take a two-by-four and slide it into the grove at the back because it will stop someone from sliding it back.

Forget the spare key

Do you know anyone who keeps their spare key somewhere in the garden? If you do this yourself you are really playing with fire because thieves are not stupid and if they want to break into an empty home they will know to look around for a key. You might as well leave the front door lying wide open for them with a big sign pointing inside. If you must leave one lying around you should ask a neighbor if they can keep it for you. Try to choose an older neighbor that doesn’t go out much.

Lock everything

Nearly half of break-ins happen without any force being used which means a huge amount of thieves are just walking up to someone’s home and walking inside. This is a crazy way to lose all your possessions and the only way to stop it from happening is by making sure you leave everything locked whenever you are out or in bed. If this is something you think might easily slip your mind then write it down to remind yourself until it becomes a habit.

Go with technology

If you don’t already have an alarm system you might want to think about getting one installed. The ones you find nowadays are really sophisticated and work much better than a dog ever could. Unless you have some specially trained professional thieves wanting to break into your home there is no way an alarm won’t alert you to a robbery. It’s usually enough to scare away some drug addict looking to steal a TV to pay for his next fix.

Attached Images:
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Ian Wilson is a home security expert with many years of experience in the industry. He works with Crown Integrated Systems, a company providing solutions for both commercial and residential clients.

Filed Under: Home and family, Home Improvement Tagged With: alarm system, blinds, close curtains, deter, deterrent, home, lights on, lock doors, lock windows, secure, show off, sliding doors, thieves, trick, tv on

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