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Home Repair

6 Great Tips For Improving, Organizing And Repairing Your Home

Whether you’re improving, organizing or repairing some aspect of your home, getting it done efficiently and at the most affordable cost is generally the goal. The seven tips below touch on several of these areas and provide food for thought for achieving this objective.
1. Invest in a toilet tank water saver. If you’re remodeling your bathroom and you have a perfectly good commode that matches the other fixtures, but you’d like it to be environmentally friendly, save the money involved in an extravagant low flow toilet and purchase a toilet tank water saver instead, installing it into your present toilet.
2. Seal drafty areas. When you want to stop paying money where you don’t have to, go over your home and seal all the little air gaps around windows and doors that can let out all of your heat and cool. Caulking, draft excluders when your windows are closed, weather stripping, and draft stoppers under doors can make a measurable difference.
3. Save used coffee and tea grounds for acid-loving plants. Plants like gardenias, blueberries, azaleas, camellias, and rhododendrons are plants that love high acidity in their soil. To ensure that they have what they need for optimal health, without spending extra money, save used coffee grounds and tea leaves and sprinkle about a quarter of an inch thickness of them onto the soil on a monthly basis. This will keep the soil adequately acidic.
4. Consider the long-term value of a kitchen counter before buying. Think very carefully about the material that you would like to use for your countertops. The actual price you pay is different than its genuine value. If a countertop cost less, but doesn’t last very long, then you’ll end up paying much more in the long run. Find a material that has a long life and a price within your budget to ensure the highest value overall.
5. Use a pegboard in your garage. To make sure that your most often used tools are easy to find and grab when you need them, hang them from a pegboard with screws set into them to fit the tools perfectly. Trace each item with a marker so that you can always see where to put it back at a brief glance.
6. Create a renovation schedule. Planning with a schedule will help you to keep motivated and on track. It doesn’t need to be set in stone; as elements take more or less time than thought, it can be altered to some extent. However, scheduling will make certain that the work will continue to move ahead instead of slowing, stagnating or being left partially completed.

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Home Maintenance

Great Home Remodeling Ideas That Cost Less Than a TV

You’ve seen them, you love them and you really, really want one. A huge wall mountable led or plasma screen TV, with all the bells and whistles. The kind that dominates the living room and brings you every program in high definition and surround sound. They only cost about $2,500 these days, so why are other members of the household still balking at the idea of getting one? Maybe because there are some home remodeling projects that cost less than that big TV and will do a lot more to increase the home’s aesthetic appeal and its value as well.
Refinish Your Kitchen Cabinets
Never mind new TVs, how about new kitchen cabinets to replace the ones you currently have that would be right at home in an 80s sitcom but do little to make your kitchen a nice place to hang out.
Ripping out all your kitchen cabinets will probably cost over the $2,500 mark but having them refaced shouldn’t and it is a great way to breathe new life into your home.
Have a Custom Closet Built
Who couldn’t use an extra closet to get some of that clutter off the floor and neatly hidden away from sight? Instead of going for The Hulk of all TVs, why not invest the money in a custom built closet? Your home will be neater and you’ll be increasing its value as well.
Get a Solar Water Heater
You complain every time the energy bills come in, they keep going up all the time. How does an investment that helps the environment and saves you money on monthly bills sound? Having a solar hot water heater installed averages out at under the $2,500 mark and, unlike that television, it will pay for itself in energy savings in just a few years.
Have a Masonry Fireplace Built
That TV you have your eye on will undoubtedly supply you with hours of quality entertainment but it will also be all but obsolete within ten years. Having a real masonry fireplace built will really enhance your evenings at home, whether you are alone or entertaining, reduce your energy bills and add to the value of your home considerably.
Refinish Your Wood Floors
Wood floors are beautiful but, over the years and with all the traffic they have to endure, they can end up looking a little worse for wear, especially if you have been a little lax on the maintenance front. A good professional sanding and refinishing job can change all that and the price tag is a lot less than the one on that TV. Because this process actually exposes fresh wood, the results will make your floor look brand new, literally melting away all those years of abuse.
So, before you head out for the electronics store, think about the state of your home and whether all that money could be a little better spent. Then when all the improvements are finished you should still have enough cash left over to get a more modest television set to enjoy in your newly improved environment.