Tag Archives: house

Create an Annual Home Maintenance Checklist

Your vehicle requires routine maintenance to run smoothly, and the same goes for your house. Without service reminders, however, it can be easy to forget to tend to all the systems that keep your house fully functioning. Fortunately, you can create a simple annual maintenance checklist to properly care for your home and prevent potential issues from becoming major problems.

Start by making a list of each task you’ll need to complete over the coming year. Make sure your yearly home inspection includes all major systems (HVAC, electrical and plumbing), the interior and exterior of your home, water and septic tanks, doors and windows, and the attic or basement if applicable.

When that’s done, organize the list according to how often each item needs to be checked or maintained and set reminders accordingly. Your home maintenance checklist might start to look similar to this:

Monthly

Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Change air filters in the heating and air conditioning system.
Clean range hood filters to avoid possible grease fires.
Trim back any shrubbery or plant growth around the outdoor HVAC unit by at least 18 inches.

Quarterly

Check and wipe down sliding doors and window tracks.
Replace batteries in smoke detectors.
Test garage door and grease tracks as needed.

Semiannually

Clear gutters of spring and fall foliage.
Power wash windows and siding.
Schedule seasonal service of the HVAC system before summer and winter.

Annually

Inspect and insulate pipes to protect them from freezing.
Trim trees and shrubs away from the home’s exterior.
Touch up exterior paint and check for wood rot or water damage.
Check grouting in kitchen and bathroom and repair if necessary.

A home maintenance checklist will make it easier for you to manage the upkeep of your house. It can also help you catch minor issues before they become costly home repairs.

Tips for Choosing the Right House Color

Choosing a new house color can be quite tricky. It takes some thinking and observation. We’ve gathered some pointers that can hopefully help along the way to choosing the perfect color for your dream house.

1. Accentuate

Photo by: Andersen Windows / Flickr: Creative Commons

Photo by: Andersen Windows / Flickr: Creative Commons

That’s right. Accentuate architectural details like window trim in a contrasting color, which in return will add character and charm. It’s always a good idea to emphasize your entryway.

2. Trends

Unlike fashion or sporty car models, color houses seem to stay in style for years. For that reason, what you choose today most likely will still be trending the following day, or even year. Take a walk around your neighborhood, or other neighborhoods that have caught your eye and observe the colors other use. You might get new color ideas, and find they work perfect for your house.

3. Dark vs. Light

Photo by: John / Flickr: Creative Commons

Consider that darker lights in the lower portion of a house can suggest permanence and stability. Lighter colors make a house appear larger in size and more inviting. Know what you want your house to portray and go from there. It is after all, a reflection of you.

4. Don’t accentuate the wrong things

If you have air conditioning units or gutters, you might want to work them into the house. Don’t work around them, make them work for you. Don’t accentuate them in anyway, just the opposite , try to drive the eye to the better assets your house has. Again, emphasizing on the entryway is always a must.

5. Don’t ignore the neighbors.

Photo by: Daniel R. Blume / Flickr: Creative Commons

Be creative. If you’re one to always stand out, do so. However, when choosing a color don’t choose one that will clash with your neighbor’s. When you take a stroll around the neighborhood, look at the other colors the neighbors use and try to find that median, where you find a color you’ll be happy with, yet also mesh well with the neighborhood’s colors.

6. Don’t ignore the landscaping

Take into account everything that’s around your house. The color you choose might help bring out those beautiful flowers you work so hard to grow. Compare and contrast earth tones if you have a lot of greens growing around you.

7. Do not wing it

Photo by: Erik Söderström / Flickr: Creative Commons

This is something that not only you’ll have to live with everyday but, also other people. Plan it out at the best of your abilities, and don’t be scared to paint a small portion of the house with the colors you’re considering. At the end, you’ll be sure you got the right one.

Photo by: Loren Kerns / Flickr: Creative Commons

Well dear readers, this is where we end our post. Do let us know if any of these tips helped you out at all. Feel free to comment below the steps you took before choosing your house color, and why you decided on that color? We’d love to know!

Find the original article here.

Gym vs. Home chores: Which one burns more calories?

Do you ever feel guilty for staying home and cleaning your house instead of going for a jog, hitting the gym, or missing your yoga class? Well, fear not dear reader we have good news! You might burn more calories staying home and doing chores than lifting weights! Don’t believe us? No worries, take a look at this infographic and tell us if you were surprised as much as we were.

Source: Yourgreenpal.com

House Cleaning Facts: Men vs. Women

As homeowners, couples often get into arguments about who does the most cleaning? Often times people want to divide it 50/50 but it’s not always the case. Here are some numbers that finally tell us the truth. Take a look.

So dear reader, after looking at these numbers, would you say you agree? Do you do most of the cleaning or the least? Let us know!

Property Searching Tips and Guidelines

If you need to find the perfect home you have envisioned, then you will likely have a fairly good idea of the things you’re looking for. Get your priorities right and focus on making a good plan for your searching efforts. There are a few things you may easily forget while you focus on the bigger picture, so the following tips aim to give you an idea what you can do to make things work out to your advantage.

Setting your priorities

Before you start the search, you will need to make sure you have all things you need to have in your home down on paper, so you can keep track of them during the search. Once you do that, pick the ones you know you will need to have no matter what. Once you start looking you should make sure you keep your priorities tight and with a good list on hand. This will allow you to track things with greater efficiency.

Comparing things

Once you have gone through no less than a dozen homes, you will likely begin to lose track of all the details you may be dealing with. You would do well to keep a chart or checklist of the features you saw in each of the homes you went through for future reference. Once you finish things with the basics, you will need to cover other things such as exterior decorations, natural light, roofs and more. You can use that chart to keep track of the search, so make sure you do so for your future searches if you’re not doing one now.

Home walkthroughs

When you do a tour of a home for your first time, you will likely feel overwhelmed and excited if the place is nice. This will make you less likely to notice any inherent problems the home may have, so keep your eyes open for such even if you’re having fun in the process.

Floor plan and measurements

Make sure you have your furniture well measured and ready to move before you find the right home. You would do well to be ready for this before you start your search just in case, as it will allow you to pack and move fast and without any delays that would set you back financially. Something else you need to do is keep a good floor plan so you can figure out which items will fit well and which will need more work and whether they really need to be moved or not.

About the Author: Heather Roberts is a content writer from London, UK. She lives in Balham, London with her husband and two sons, and loves planning family trips and exploring new places.