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Home Improvement Information
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From Savu to Infrared ? The History and Health Benefits of Saunas The health benefits of saunas are not a recent discovery. The use of steam or smoke baths to cleanse the body and reduce stress has been a part of religious, social, and family traditions in numerous cultures for thousands of years. Native Americans, Russians, Romans, and Mediterranean cultures all had some sort of bathing facilities and rituals that played important roles in both private and public life in those communities. But it is the Finns who are credited with developing the modern sauna. Skip Troweling Method for Textured Ceilings There are several ceiling texture choices to choose from when finishing a room. You can simply apply a flat paint to the ceiling, or spray or roll on a popcorn textured ceiling. However both these choices seem to be waning in popularity to the Skip Toweled look. The Skip Troweled look provides a compromise between the flat painted ceiling and the popcorn ceiling. It provides texture but to a lesser extent than a traditional popcorn ceiling. With A Stylish Bathroom Vanity You Can Take Pride In Your Bathroom?s Appearance! An easy way to instantly improve your bathroom's image is to buy a stylish new bathroom vanity set. Bathroom vanity sets come in a huge range styles and finishes. They typically include a sink cabinet, a mirror and a stool or a chair. A vanity unit can become a stunning focal point of the room and also has a practical function. Combining practicality with elegance and style can be a surefire winner in any bathroom! Useful Home Products Will Help Your House Sale Profits Even if you've never been involved in the sale of house before and yours is about to go on the market, you probably know enough about the process to be able to repeat, like a litany: clean it; paint it; fix it. But do you find yourself asking: How clean does the house have to be and how do I tackle the job? Do I really have to paint? What are the best colors to choose? What do I need to repair? When considering these questions, it's good to remember that most prospective home buyers are an unimaginative lot. Your house may be immaculate but if the rooms are cluttered, crowded, and dark, they may appear to be less clean and much smaller than they really are. Picture this: an old, seven-piece mahogany dining room suite plus a rocking chair and seven boxes of books packed in anticipation of your move are wedged into a dark green room with a brown rug and a window covered by heavy velvet drapes. Why is this decorating scheme a mistake? It's because most people are unable to imagine how big and beautiful the room would look if painted off-white, everything removed but the dining room suite, a pastel tablecloth and a fresh flower centerpiece on the table, curtains stripped from the window, the rug removed, and everything spotlessly clean. In the words of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, you must "make it so"; otherwise, it might take you a very long time to sell your house and the offers to buy will not only be slower, but lower. Clean, Clean, Clean Your best friend when cleaning your house for resale will be tri-sodium phosphate (TSP) or its equivalent. TSP is one of the home products that top the list of must-haves, and it's not expensive. Roll up your sleeves, put on your rubber gloves and scrub your walls and ceilings, and anything else that needs your elbow grease. Unless you can afford professional cleaners, there's no way out of this one. Carpet cleaning is another must and there are home products for the do-it-yourselfer or you can hire a cleaning company to take care of this job. If you have shabby rugs scattered throughout the house, forget cleaning them; it's probably better to remove them altogether. There are home products to clean things that require special care ? ceramic tile, porcelain, stainless steel, wood cabinets, aluminum siding, etc., and you can find whatever you need at your neighborhood hardware store. Ask questions and read labels. When using commercial cleaning products, wear gloves and a mask. It's wise to be careful. Paint for a Pristine Finish As thorough as your cleaning job is, it won't have much impact on sagging, faded wallpaper, gouges in the walls, or cracked and peeling paint. Repainting is the solution, and interior painting jobs start with stripping off old wallpaper, attacking cracks and gouges with filler, and then getting to work with your roller and brush. This is also the time to do all the small repairs that need your attention: hammer in nails; repair the broken step; replace the broken glass. When selecting paint, the best colors for your walls and ceilings are white, off-white, cream, creamy off-white ? you get the picture. A light, cool, neutral color can fit into everyone's decorating scheme. (You want that young couple to see your home as the perfect setting for their red plush love seats.) If you have recently painted one or more rooms in quite dramatic colors, leave them as they are. As long as the walls and trim are clean and fresh, prospective buyers won't mind a bit of repainting if they want to change the colors ? the main thing is not to overwhelm them. If you need to paint the outside of your house, it's not necessary to restrict yourself to neutral colors for exterior paint; however, a bright color is not a good choice. Something fairly subdued is better, but be creative when painting the front door; a dramatic touch might be needed to make your house memorable. It's easy for a buyer to repaint a door if he or she doesn't share your love of Christmas red or purple passion. Remove the Clutter It's time to say goodbye to your high school chemistry notes, the clothes you outgrew five years ago, the playpen your twelve-year-old no longer needs, and everything else your family will never use again, read again, or wear again. Be tough! Do it! Take it to the dump; hold a garage sale; donate it to your favorite charity. Don't let it take up any more of your storage space ? you're going to need it all to store the things that are currently stacked on shelves and floors and cluttering up counter tops throughout the house. Important home products that can help you deal with this part of your preparation are closet organizers. They come in every size and style imaginable, and you are sure to find something suitable. When you have everything neatly stored in your closets and cupboards, walk through the house and pick up and put out of sight everything else on your counters and table tops that don't need to be there. "Clutter-free" means clutter-free and it won't kill anyone in the family to have to reach under the counter for the dishwashing detergent or the toothpaste for the next few days or weeks. You probably don't think of furniture as "clutter," but clutter is anything that unnecessarily crowds a room, a doorway, or a hall. If your home has very small rooms and you can manage without some furniture items for awhile, arrange to use a friend's garage or basement to store them. It will "open up" the rooms and make your house appear larger and brighter, and that's a good thing. Let There be Light Sunlight is a friend to the house seller, and you should try and let as much of it into the house as you can. Wash windows inside and out and wash or dryclean the window coverings: curtains, drapes, and blinds. Before showing the house to a prospective buyer, replace burned-out light bulbs, turn on the lights, open the windows, lift the blinds, and pull back the drapes. Final Touches Ask a non-smoking, non-pet-owning friend to come into your house when you have finished cleaning and painting. Are all the pet odors and smoking odors gone? If the house passes the sniff-test, place some potpourri in open dishes to add a fresh, clean scent; otherwise, get back to work. Finally, step outside and see what a prospective buyer's first impression of your yard is likely to be. Mow the lawn, trim the hedges and bushes, weed the garden, edge the flowerbeds, and sweep and clean the walkway, deck, or patio. Your yard is another selling feature of your house, and must be clean and tidy, too. Home products can help make your house appear big, bright, clean, and ready for a prospective buyer to move right in, which is exactly what you want. Baking Soda for Cleaning Baking soda is a common, inexpensive household item that can be used for many kinds of cleaning projects. In an era when we are all exposed to many toxic chemicals, it's nice to know that something so mild can be effective. We actually make a form of baking soda in our own saliva, where it helps keep plaque from forming! Spring Into Action: Home Maintenance Spring has sprung! Even more important than buds, birds, and bees, spring brings buyers! When buyers are looking for a place to nest, they would really rather not see problems. As it turns out, nearly every home inspected has problems or imperfections of some sort or size. Most issues are very minor and simple to correct. Almost all are a result of deferred maintenance. Lighter Fluid: The Best Label and Scuff Mark Remover The first time my husband saw me scrubbing the black heel marks off of our kitchen floor with a toothbrush, he said, "You know lighter fluid will take those marks right off." And it did! No scrubbing at all, just a little lighter fluid poured on a paper towel, and the marks wiped right off. Gel Candle Safety: What You Should Know Before You Buy A lot of attention has been focused on gel candle safety in recent years. Irresponsible (usually foreign) candlemakers have flooded the shelves of dollar stores and discount retailers with poor quality and at times unsafe container gel candles. As a result, gel candles have gotten a "bum rap" as being hazardous works of the devil, rather than being viewed as an alternative decorating option for candle lovers. Following the guidelines here will help you in choosing safe gel candles for your home or gift giving needs. The Motors Best Friend The starting current of motor can become 3 to 6 times the normal running current! That's normal for motors. The motor can experience this high current for a period ranging from 20 to 50 seconds. Operation Closet When the wife comes to you one fine day and says, "dear, I think we need a new closet for the bedroom", the heart surges in joy. Immediate thoughts of grabbing the coat and rushing off on a mission to the nearest DIY center enters the mind before realization dawns that first must come a shower and then work. Thursday today, Saturday would be best! A whole day of fun and joy to look forwards to! "Yes dear", you say casually, "I will get the car out on Saturday and look for something nice". Age Old Question: Buy New or Remodel Existing Home? Your house doesn't have enough storage space, bathrooms, or counter space! Not too mention your kitchen is old, small and poorly ventilated. Now you are trying to decide between remodeling your current home to address some of these needs and buying a new bigger home. This is a question many homeowners find themselves trying to answer. There are a few key factors to consider as you try to decide what will be best for you and your family. Home Remodeling Business Need for home remodeling Help With Buying A New Ceiling Fan When you are choosing a new ceiling fan there are a couple of things that you really need to think about before you go out and make a purchase. If you do not think and plan before purchasing your new ceilnig fan, there is a chance that it will not perform the way you want it to or it might not even fit in the space allocated. Even worse, you may inadvertently be using a ceiling fan that is not suited to the environment you place it in. A Few Concrete Suggestions Up until a few years ago, my professional experience was in industries including retail, energy, health care, and fast food. In 1996 circumstances and opportunity led me into the manufacturing, marketing, and installation of products used for Floor Warming, Total Space Heating, Roof Snow and Ice Melting and Snow and Ice Melting of driving and walking surfaces. How to Install a New Toilet in 5 Easy Steps If your toilet is old and in need of repairs, it is cheaper to replace it by installing a new one. This is quite easy to do and can be completed in an afternoon. However, if you plan to install a toilet in a new location, you will have to extend supply pipes and drainpipes to the desired spot, a job you may want to leave to a plumbing contractor. Interior Design For New Homes When decorating or making decorating decisions for new homes, it is important to remember that your major decisions could affect decorating choices for quite a long period of time. Commitment to bold or unusual color treatments before you have actually had the opportunity to consider how such changes will coordinate with your furniture placement is not very advisable in this type of situation. In any case, the best advice you could receive while planning interior design for new homes is to make mediocre, undramatic design choices to begin that you can alter at a later time if you choose to do so. Beginning Interior Design Beginning interior design is a challenging, exciting adventure that one must be willing to endure sacrifices and even at times costly mistakes in order to complete this learning successfully. Remodeling Your Kitchen Remodeling a kitchen is one of the best investments a homeowner can make. For most homeowners it is the most important room in the house. It is used for cooking, eating, and gathering, and is typically a focal point in the home. Consequently, though a great investment, a kitchen-remodeling project can be very disruptive to the family. And the length of the disruption can take as long as two or three weeks. Five Ways to Create a Healthy Home Have you ever thought of your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the concept of a healthy home may be new to some of us, it is steadily gaining popularity with homeowners. A healthy home can include a number of elements from building materials used to construct your home to using non-toxic cleaning products. Below is a list of five ways to assist you in creating a healthy home environment. Sliding Glass Door Replacement This article is going to be about replacing an old sliding glass door with a modern Vinyl frame sliding glass door. If you currently have french doors and you want to replace them with sliding doors, or vise versa, future articles will cover that topic.
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