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Home Maintenance Tips For Your Apartment

Out of all the little things you have to do each day, home maintenance is probably the easiest one to put off. Things are a bit more hectic if you own your home – although having an apartment doesn’t exactly mean you can neglect the upkeep. If nothing else, you surely want to keep any pests from outside from invading your living space. In the following, we’ll take a look at some of the things you need to be mindful of to make sure home maintenance doesn’t pile up into an insurmountable issue by the end of the year. You could always look for apartments for rent in Austin, where many of these things will be taken care of for you. 

Opt For Stainless Steel

Stainless steel doesn’t blemish easily, and is stunningly easy to clean. If you’re buying or renovating your home, you can get creative with other types of surfaces – particularly in the kitchen – but for an apartment, you want material that isn’t easy to damage (security deposit issues) and is easy to clean. For example, apartments for rent Belmont CA | The Glen apartments specifically, have stainless steel appliances throughout the kitchen area.

Other surfaces, such as marble for the bathroom and quartz countertops in the kitchen, also make cleaning especially easy.

Bathroom Grime And Caulking

Make a habit of re-caulking your bathtub and shower area, as well as around the sink faucet. This is essential not just for aesthetics, but also to prevent water damage – it’s usually hard water that does the damage with the mixture of soap and conditioners. Regrout the tiles in the bathroom and kitchen if applicable; as for a timetable, it shouldn’t be necessary more often than a few months between cleanings. This can significantly preserve the lifetime of your present fixtures, and lets you avoid any major cleaning jobs down the line.

Then there’s the issue of plumbing, of course. Unless you’re a contractor, yourself, this is best left to the professionals. If you own your home, then chances are you’ll need the local numbers of nearby professionals to help you with maintenance, installation and repair. If you live in a complex, such as the apartments for rent Ewa Beach | Kapilina Beach homes, then this is taken care of for you promptly and efficiently with a single phone call or email.

Maintain Your Home Comfort System

Make sure your air filters are clean so that the appliance is actually hitting its prescribed efficiency rating. Another way to save money is to have a new, updated model installed by a professional HVAC technician, such as MetroPHA Heating. The newer models are more efficient and save you money on your energy bill – which means greater savings overall.

Again, if you reside in an apartment complex, this should be taken care of by the front desk. If it isn’t automated, be sure to call ahead and schedule a maintenance checkup.

General Cleaning For Pest Control

As the fall and winter seasons draw near, some of the larger pests can emerge – house mice, large bugs and even rats (hopefully not the latter). As spring and summer draw near, insects and flies can be a problem. The single most effective thing you can do to minimize these occurrences in any season is to keep a clean and clutter-free home.

However, if the pests are already present despite your efforts, then a reliable pest control company is your best option. They have a plethora of devices on hand to ensure the eradication of your pest issues, as well as providing the option of regularly-scheduled checkups to make sure they stay away.

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Keep The Kids Happy This Winter With An Exciting Austrian Retreat

If you’re looking for the ideal family holiday destination this winter, look no further than a Kristall Spaces property for sale within Austria. Boasting a gigantic range of illustrious apartments available to rent or buy, they host several luxury Alpine ski resorts across Austria, in some of the most scenic locations the country has to offer. You can enjoy the peace and quiet, go skiing with your family, and take part in a huge selection of activities and attractions – all you need to decide is what to do first!

Situated in some of the most beautiful regions of the Austrian Alps, each resort and its accompanying apartments boast every conceivable amenity for you and your family to enjoy, with winter activities such as skiing and snowboarding, indoor and outdoor heated pools, cinemas, restaurants, gyms, and underground parking. For the more summer-related ventures, abseiling, trekking and hiking are all popular choices. Each resort also has a ‘nursery slope’ intended for helping children learn how to ski, and there are many professional trainers and tutors available to help you get that head start and stay safe in the snow.

According to City A.M., there is a marked increase in the number of Brits looking to purchase property in Austria, citing the security of their property rental returns throughout the year. This makes Kristall Spaces properties incredibly versatile, since you can choose whether you simply want a short stay on rental, or an investment purchase that generates income while you’re away and increases in value at an average growth rate of 4.6%. That alone could pay for your child’s university fees!

Forbes also commented on the changes observed over the last few years, stating that many tourists now see Austria as a fantastic holiday destination in both the summer and winter months.

A similar sentiment was echoed by the Telegraph, in an article that encourages parents to take their children on a skiing holiday, and that such resorts are a lot more family-friendly than most people would believe.

There is already a diverse selection of resorts available on Kristall Spaces, with constant developments adding new apartments and resorts year after year. Destinations that already have their own resorts include Fieberbrunn, Ischgl, Karwendel, St Anton, Kühtai, Ötztal and Sölden.

This article was written by David Newman, owner of Ad Lab: an e-commerce magento website developer based in Hertfordshire. David has a keen interest in writing articles for lifestyle blogs and family matters, having recently become a family man himself.

Days Out

Exploring London as a Family

Living where we do means that London is only about an hour away by train, which makes it really easy to get to for a day trip. However, London is so vast that it would be good to spend more than just one day at a time there. We’ve been a little bit London-phobic since the girls came along, not wanting to tackle the big city with changing bags and buggies, but both girls are probably big enough to need minimal luggage now and Burrito Baby has been stubbornly refusing to get in a buggy for about 18 months, so a weekend in London is definitely on the cards!

Urban Retreat Apartments offer short-stay, fully serviced apartments which would be the perfect base for a family wanting to explore London, because it would be like a home from home. You don’t have to worry about being crammed into one room with a tiny bathroom like you would be in some hotels, and you’ve got a full kitchen to allow you to make bottles or cater for small ones.

There are SO many places that I know the girls would love; the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum are firmly at the top of the list, but the National Gallery is somewhere I love as well and I think Sausage would get a huge kick out of seeing paintings by some of the world’s most famous artists in real life. Visiting London doesn’t have to be all about learning – I’ve still not been on the London Eye after all these years so that’s definitely something that I feel I need to tick off of the list!

I also know for a fact that both of my kids are desperate to visit the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Harrods; if you haven’t heard if it, it’s basically a magical beauty salon where kids can go and be transformed into a Disney Prince or Princess. It’s not cheap, but it’s one of those ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences that I’d love them to have before they’re too old for the magic to have worn off! I’m pretty sure they’d also love browsing some of the huge stores like Harrods…and definitely Hamleys!

Where would you do if you had a whole weekend to spend in London? We’d love to hear your recommendations, especially places to eat and things to see which might not make the mainstream guidebooks. Leave me a comment below!