Point Of Home Improvement

Posts Tagged ‘garage’

Because of the decline in the housing market, and thanks in part to the lowest mortgage rates in history, more and more people are choosing to refinance their home loan rather than move to a new home. Low rates can mean lower mortgage payments and bigger savings to your bottom line! All good news!

But one thing people seem to forget is that by staying in your current home, you’ll need to pay more attention to your home’s upkeep and maintenance. Chances are if your home is more than 10 years old it is in need of some winter weather maintenance to keep it in optimal shape. Here are some simple and easy things you can do to add to the life of your home while saving you money on energy bills in the long run.

Weatherproofing your windows and doors

The first place you should check when you begin to weatherproof your home for winter, is to check around your windows and doors for caulk that looks stiff or crumbly. If it is peeling, chipping or otherwise falling apart, it definitely needs to be replaced. Fortunately replacing weatherproofing caulk is easy and inexpensive and even the most ‘unhandy’ handymen can replace old caulking. Use a screwdriver or utility knife to remove the old caulk. Take care to completely remove all of the old caulking, and lay down a new bead of caulking in its place. Choose a brand of exterior caulk with a long lifespan, and use a damp – not wet – sponge to wipe away any excess.

Weatherproofing with weatherstripping

Another simple place to check when beginning to weatherproof your home is to check your weatherstripping. Weatherstripping is the flexible material that surrounds your doors or windows to protect against drafts. Typically the material is made from vinyl, but made be made from foam, cork, plastic or even in some cases metal. New vinyl weatherstripping will last longer and provides a much tighter seal than older materials. For doors and awning or casement style windows, open the door or window and remove the existing damaged weatherstripping and cut the vinyl strips to length, pressing firmly and tightly into place. Voila! You’re done!

Your home supply store will be able to provide recommendations on the appropriate size of weatherstripping for your job – adhesive-backed vinyl is typical for windows and doors while heavy duty stripping (for garages and such) may require nails and tacks. You may luck out if your home is a relatively new home, because then you can purchase pre-made threshold stripping to fit your doors.

Weatherproofing to avoid heat loss

Some homeowners, in lieu of installing storm windows and doors, add plastic sheeting to their windows to help stave off heat loss. This is a very inexpensive, and easy, way to help keep your warm toasty in the winter. Simply attach the plastic to your home’s window moldings and shrink the plastic using a hairdryer. This ensures a tight seal and a good fit for your windows. If your windows are in the least bit drafty, you’ll be surprised at how big of a difference weatherproofing your windows with plastic will make.

Another small change that can make a big difference is checking your outlets for drafts. Many homes, especially older ones, don’t have proper insulation around their outlets. Simply remove the outlet plating and check to see if you feel a draft. If you do, one quick way to seal up any drafts is to cut a sheet a foam to the size and shape of your outlet and place behind the outlet plate. This will help form a tight seal and keep out any drafts blowing through.

Weatherproofing your pipes

The cold weather can be incredibly hard on the plumbing in your home – especially when temperatures reach below freezing. To avoid your water freezing, or worse – your pipes breaking – you should have insulation protecting your hot and cold pipes throughout as much of the home as possible. The insulation will help your cold pipes from freezing and and bursting, while it helps protect your hot water pipes from thermal loss, making your electrical or gas consumption more efficient.

The easiest way to protect your plumbing against the weather is to install tubular-sleeve insulation. It comes in a variety of sizes and is incredibly easy to install. All you have to do is cut the sleeve to the length of the pipe you wish to protect and wrap it around the pipe! If you need more than one sleeve to cover a long pipe, make sure to duct tape the seam. Easy as 1-2-3!

Weatherproofing your home is something that can be done in a day! The investment may be short-term, but the rewards will definitely be long-term! You’ll notice a huge increase in your comfort – and your wallet – once we’re in the thick of the cold winter months.

The garage is something that every house can generate disorder, do not think many people can say that this part of the house is sorted; let alone how to help decorate the house.

Generally one can say that the garage becomes a kind of shell, which not only find the car, but a number of objects as diverse, from elements of gardening, sports, bicycles, tools, and many more. All this accumulation of things is causing the mess if we are not the right place to place.

That can bring a great loss of time in the future as we seek is something we need and somewhere in the garage. Or it may happen that only one person in the house have an idea of where things stand in this chaos, and if someone needs something what will you do? Either way it’s always a loss of tempo.

To avoid giving this kind of situation and keep the garage organized, I present this series of tips that might be useful:

- To locate the bike, nothing better than hanging from the ceiling hooks, so you do not hinder the passage and will always be easy to remove.

- For some gardening elements, such as rakes, shovels, brooms, hoes, among many others, you can use hooks, sold everywhere and can be found of any kind, or you can manufacture or the same and then hang on the wall. Also for this you can use shelves or organizers. I think in any way that the hooks can be most useful and functional. They also have the advantage of small space they occupy and that as soon as you enter the garage you will see the tools.

- Also for gardening you can use plastic containers with wheels, these are very useful to save earth, manure and fertilizers, as well as smaller tools, and bring the advantage that you can move easily.

- Choosing the shelves can be a good alternative, it is best to save space is to place them near the ceiling as possible, so you can place another underneath. The shelves are useful because they allow you to store heavier items, but the disadvantage is that we have things to look at and are to be found inside. To avoid this, it pays to organize things by doors, or doors to classify certain things, and tag.

Here are some options that can be found to organize the garage, hooks, shelves, bins on wheels, sort and label, but surely they can occur for some alternatives that would be good to share.

Sometimes it seems that housework is a task that never ends and time consuming. Just when we thought we had one or two days off work, then we must spend our time cleaning. However, cleaning the house does not have to consume all your free time. With some clever ideas and some time-saving actions, you can earn more time with your family doing things you enjoy.

Clean your home

Instead of spending an entire day or weekend cleaning; clean half the house or part of it in one day. Another day, clean the other half. Book a special part-time for the attic, basement or garage. Try cleaning the lamps with a lint roller. Work quickly and effectively, to avoid taking the vacuum and connected. An old half upside down on your hand may well serve to clean the dust.

The papers work well to clean the mirrors and windows. Not only will save money on paper towels, but will also be recycling the same time creatively. Vinegar is an effective and inexpensive cleaner that can be used on windows and mirrors, and if expected to reach a cloudy day to do this, you will have less grain. Soak your toilet with specialized cleaner mops while abroad. Thus, the inside will loosen dirt and make it easier to remove. Use a little baking soda to clean the inside of the refrigerator. It can be a great help and will not damage surfaces.

When you start cooking, leave the faucet open basin with hot water, with a little soap and clean as it cooks. The food on the plates will not have a chance to harden, and will advance to clean once the lunch is over. Make sure you have many paper plates and cutlery on hand for those nights where they do not have time to clean.