DIY

3 Easy Home Improvement Projects To Do Without Leaving Your Home

April 17, 2020 Jayne2 Comments

Lockdown so far has been a hard time, millions of us are now hidden away in our homes away from friends and family. So we have a lot of time on our hands and limited resources for what we can do. To take our minds off everything that is going on, we’ll be going through some easy home improvement projects you can do without leaving your home.

Revamp Your Bathroom

Bathrooms are usually quite dull looking rooms, so why not add some flair to your own bathroom? The first move to make is giving it a nice big clean, slap on your rubber gloves and get cleaning, this gives you a good place to start with a nice and shiny bathroom. Having a proper clean in your bathroom can usually rejuvenate it nicely.

Next step, is to adding some colour,. Tthis can go a couple ways, for example, if you have some bright coloured towels, hang them up over your radiator in the bathroom to bring in some colour. The next option for colour, if you have a window in your bathroom, you can order a new set of bathroom blinds online from DotcomBlinds to bring some colour to your bathroom. Pop in your measurements on their website and they will make your blind and safely deliver it to your door, in line with full social distancing guidelines.

Arts and Crafts For Your Livingroom

At the moment, there are limited options for how you can add some flair to your living room, new furniture is out of the question and likely you won’t be able to get trinkets to place around the room, so it’s time to take things into your own hands. Arts and Crafts materials can easily be found on Amazon or maybe you have some bits lying around the house.

Maybe you can get some knitting supplies and make a new throw for your sofa or something similar, some painting supplies and you can make some art to hang on your walls. The opportunities are endless in what you can make, this will take up some time to keep you occupied and can help you keep your kids busy with fun tasks!

Declutter Your Kitchen

One thing that can make your kitchen look unappealing is having cluttered surfaces, if you just have the basics out like your toaster and kettle, you should be fine. But if you have the whole suite of kitchen appliances: Panini Press, George Foreman Grill, Blender etc, this can cause your kitchen to look messy.

So hide away all the un-needed appliances and you’ll have a much sharper looking kitchen, on the surface it’s not a massive change and won’t take much time out of your day, but it’s a little task to bring a room to life.

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Obligatory DIY House Repairs Every Homeowner Must Learn

March 24, 2020November 8, 2022 Jayne6 Comments

Pexels.com

I think no one will argue that keeping houses free from any trouble is challenging for any person. Whether you own the place or simply renting it, it becomes a huge and overwhelming responsibility to make sure that everything is in place and things are working well inside and out. Fortunately, we don’t have sunrooms here so we don’t have to worry about maintaining lots of glass!

Because maintaining a nice home is a serious commitment, there is a great need to learn basic skills to address occasional repairs, to resolve issues such as the humidity in your basement. To save yourself from future troubles, there are a couple of effective hacks you can do by yourself in fixing household problems.

Basic home problems can be solved without needing to spend lots of money. In this article, I have listed a few items that can be quickly repaired with a little persistence and patience:

Toilet Lever

The usual home repair issue occurs in one of the essential sections of a home- the toilet. No one can stand a problematic toilet situation, and that is why there is a need to master repairing the common issues that you may encounter in your comfort room.

Among these problems includes a broken toilet lever, which causes trouble in flushing the toilet. Replacing or fixing a toilet lever is considerably easy and cheap.

Here are a few points to ponder when dealing with this trouble:

After popping the tank open, you have to re-attach the chain first.
If it still does not work because the handle or the connector to the flapper is completely or partly broken, you are left without another option but to replace the lever itself.
There are replacement toilet lever kits available in your local hardware stores and online that you can choose from.

Pexels.com

Toilet Bowl

A clogged toilet bowl is not a pleasing situation for anybody. Unclogging the toilet does not need a plumber immediately because there are several alternatives to remedy the situation. Two things may save you from spending too much: a plunger and an auger.

A good first try is using a toilet plunger, preferably those with flanged or accordion styles. Take note that you should not confuse the sink plunger from a toilet plunger.

If the toilet is the culprit of your household troubles, use a toilet plunger and not the other way around. To effectively use the plunger, you have to make at least eight downward thrusting motion in the bowl.

If the plunger remedy does not work, it is the best time to use the toilet auger which is intentionally designed to solve massive clogs. Make a perfect grip on the auger to pull the unwanted clogs out of the bowl. While it costs relatively higher than plungers, it can still prevent you from paying someone to do the job.

It also helps to invest in durable and cost-saving bathroom fixtures that have a long, useful life or one that requires minimal maintenance. Look into upflush toilets for bathroom additions or renovations. These toilets are convenient to install, their macerating systems tested to last for 50,000 cycles, and their motor requires no maintenance.

Water Pipes

Pipe and faucet leaks can cause significant inconvenience at home. While this kind of problem is commonplace, the statistical data shows otherwise. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that at least 11,000 water gallons are wasted in every home each year due to leakages. The wasted resources cost great sums of money if left unfixed.

In fixing pipe leaks in kitchens or restrooms, the simplest thing to do first is to turn the water off. Usually, you can shut off the valve near the sink. In other houses, you can turn off the water system located in the basement. The next steps would involve placing a bucket underneath the pipe and twisting off the compression nuts.

Conclusion

Most people devote time and effort in checking parts of their home regularly and allocate a good cost for the upkeep. Financial expert Eric Tyson once advised that at least a percentage of the total value of the home shall be set aside for purely home maintenance purposes as a matter of foresight and preparedness.

Unfortunate events are beyond any person’s control and may require immediate action. Homeowners are in a better position if they can address the issues quickly without having to wait for a technician or plumber to fix stuff at home. Aside from the ease and convenience of fixing things, it can save homeowners significant costs from paying repair and maintenance services.

Learning these simple home repairs need no bachelor’s degree. By mastering these easy-to-do repairs, you can save money which you can use to buy other essential things for your home. There are several do-it-yourself repair tips you can find in your bookshelves and online.

If you can do things on your own, why still hire and pay someone? This handful of tips you have read helps you jumpstart your DIY home repair journey.

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5 Important Things To Keep in Mind Before Renovating Your Home

February 12, 2020February 13, 2020 Jayne8 Comments

Your house is more than just your home. It’s also an investment. It will look after your money for you as you get older, and potentially provide a fantastic nest egg for you when you choose to retire. When you own your own home, you always have collateral so you can finance anything from a new business startup to making the home of your dreams even dreamier. Renovating your home is a great way to help ensure that you’ll get a greater return on your investment if you eventually decide to sell. More than that, however, it can help you to breathe new life into the old place and ensure that you get more pleasure and enjoyment out of every moment you spend in your home.

Image by Laurie Shaw via Pexels

However, a renovation is a major commitment, and it’s essential to go in with your eyes wide open. Here are 4 important things to keep in mind before embarking on a renovation project…

You can refinance to finance your project

When it comes to financing your project, be wary of spreading the cost across several credit cards or incurring the high interest rates of most loans. Instead, you may wish to consider refinancing your home to fund your renovation. You may benefit from a much better rate of interest and improved borrowing power.

Not everything needs planning permission

If you’re worried about the lengthy and confusing process of applying for planning permission for a major renovation, don’t let this put you off getting the most out of your home. The truth is that there are lots of renovations that can be carried out under your permitted development rights that do not require planning permission at all, from minor repairs to extensions and garden buildings. Get in touch with a local architect to advise on whether or not what you have in mine requires the granting of planning permission. However, you may well be pleasantly surprised.

Add a 10% margin onto your estimated costs

If you’ve ever watched a property show, any property show, you’ve likely seen how often even a modest renovation goes over budget. No matter how long you agonise over calculating the costs before breaking ground, there’s a chance you could go over budget. This is why it’s good practice to add a safety margin of around 10% to ensure that you don’t encounter any unpleasant surprises.

Never choose a contractor on the basis of cost

It’s not that there aren’t many, many reasonably priced and eminently capable contractors out there. It’s just that making these kinds of decisions on the basis of cost can set you up for a fall. Instead, you should choose someone who asks a lot of questions and gets excited about your project. Someone with a proven track record and reliable references who has lots of experience handling jobs just like yours. And if you hire an electrician, make sure they have the best multimeter on the market.

If you get cold feet, remember you don’t have to renovate

Finally, there are so many logistical and monetary considerations when it comes to renovations that it can make your head spin. Just remember, even if you get cold feet, there are still lots of great ways in which you can spruce up your home without the need for renovations.

DIY · Home

Cheap Ways to Give Your Home a Makeover

January 31, 2020 Jayne6 Comments

With Christmas out of the way, many of us are starting to think about ways that we can give our home a makeover for the year ahead. However, the dent that the festive season left in our finances is probably still a factor for most of us, which means that any home improvements need to be done cheaply, or even better, for free. With this in mind I thought I would look at five ways that you can improve your home on a very tight budget.

Recycle

One way that you can improve your living situation is to go room to room and do a full inventory of all of the furniture and fixings that you have in each space. You may realise that one piece of furniture isn’t working for one room, but with a lick of paint or a rub down it might be perfect for a different space. Our TV unit doesn’t really go with the rest of our room, however we’ve been thinking lately that we might mount the TV on the wall, give the TV unit a makeover with a coat of chalk paint and use as a coffee table.

Freecycle

Freecycle is such an amazing place to get things that you need without spending any money at all. If you want to declutter, giving old items away on Freecycle is a great way to do this as more often than not people will come and collect them, meaning you have to make little or no effort to empty a space. Asking for things on Freecycle is also a great way to obtain the resources you need to transform your spaces. We once managed to get hold of enough laminate flooring to recover the floor of a whole bedroom and it didn’t cost us a penny!

Ebay

Finding things cheaply on eBay can be really easy, although sometimes you may need to spend a little extra time seeking out those bargains. However, one trick that I learned years ago is to search eBay with misspellings. This might sound weird, but sometimes you’ll find things with a low reserve and absolutely no bids because they haven’t shown up in anybody’s search results, thanks to a misspelling in the listing. If you can find these listings, these are the holy grail of eBay and often mean that people can get things for next to nothing if you’re willing to put in the time to find them.

Swaps

If you’ve got stuff to give away you might find that someone else has something that you want and is willing to swap with you. Facebook is a great place to find swaps for your items and you may even find that there is a local event where people take their items for swap seats. Hey, if there isn’t a local event maybe you could organise one, if you have the time!

Plants

If you haven’t got the money to do a full makeover of your home, sometimes adding little touches like house plants here and there can make a massive difference to your living spaces. As well as plants giving a burst of colour to a room they are great for your well-being, help to produce clean oxygen and will make your room look stylish and put together.

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Plumbing Emergencies and Tips on How to Deal with Them

September 23, 2019December 28, 2022 Jayne23 Comments

Plumbing problems are uncommon, especially when you live in an old house. While a good plumbing system can run with minimum maintenance, there are still many things that could go wrong. In a worst-case scenario, you may have to deal with a plumbing emergency in the middle of the night.

Knowing how to deal with the most common plumbing emergencies is something that everyone needs to know. Taking the right first steps helps to prevent those emergencies from becoming bigger problems that aren’t always so easy to deal with. To help you prepare for the next plumbing emergency, here are some of the things you need to know.

The Right Tools for the Job

Before you are forced to deal with plumbing-related issues, you want to make sure that the right tools are available in the house. Simple things such as a forced cup and plunger can be very handy; not having them, on the other hand, can make dealing with plumbing emergencies difficult.

You also want to have a big enough bucket and leak-sealing tapes. These let you deal with leaks before you can contact the best companies offering plumbing Waukesha, or wherever you are, who are available for the job. At the very least, you can prevent water from spreading before the emergency plumber arrives.

Other tools are more common; you probably have them around the house already. Some Allen keys, wrenches, a set of screwdrivers, and a tool caddy for keeping them organised are all useful tools to own. Complete the set by adding blind caps and towels or rags.

Know Your System

Next, you want to equip yourself with some basic knowledge on how the plumbing system is set up. At the very least, you need to know where the main water shut-off valve is located. When there is a sudden leak, you can shut off the water immediately and prevent further damage. Leaks at home are one of the primary sources that contribute to wasted water yearly in the United States. This water conservation infographic provides useful information on the matter.

A good plumbing system also has a number of isolation valves. Their main purpose is so you can shut off the flow of water to certain areas around the house, making dealing with specific issues easier. For example, there is usually a shut-off valve below a sink, so you can isolate the taps without turning off the main’s water supply.

When working with the plumbers, it is also a good idea to have professionals inspect the system thoroughly.

Who to Contact

24/7 services are handy because the best service providers can be contacted at any time. That said, you want to find the best plumbers to contact so you don’t have to go through the hassle of searching for one when you have an emergency to deal with.

Asking the plumbers to inspect the system, or deal with pipe relining in Brisbane, prior to dealing with an actual emergency is a good idea for this very reason. If you’re looking for a recommendation, you can start by contacting the Bristol plumbers at Plumbing Care Services. You can get a fast quote by filling in the contact form on their website or simply give them a call if you have an emergency. They strive for a 60 minute response time so are a good option to consider if you’re in an emergency.

Having the number of a reputable plumber to hand prior to an actual emergency also allows you to compare quotes and estimates better. By the time you need their services, you already have their day rate and know how much the job is likely to cost.

The Right First Steps

Shutting off the main valve or the isolation valve to a specific area is always a good first step to take when you have a plumbing emergency to deal with. However, it is far from a permanent fix. In fact, leaving the master valve closed for too long is inconvenient.

Remember that you have more tools to use, which means you can deal with many emergencies yourself. In the event of a leak, for instance, you can use Teflon tape to seal the leak temporarily. You can also use blind caps as a quick-fix for broken fixtures.

Wrenches are handy for when you have loose pipes, or when you need to replace some fixtures yourself. You can use a plunger to fix a clogged drain or toilet. Use a cup plunger for smaller drains, or a forced cup plunger for sinks and toilets.

Keep a bucket handy, especially when you need to open fixtures or drains. Even when there is no water visible from the top, the system may still have water inside. Opening pipes and drains could mean letting a lot of water out of the system, something you want to do with buckets and rags handy.

Here’s another reason why knowing who to call is a must: you can ask for first-aid advice over the phone. If you are not sure about what to do in the emergency, contact your local plumber and ask for a step-by-step direction.

With the main issue solved – even when it is only temporarily fixed – you don’t have to worry about the plumbing emergency turning into a bigger problem or damaging other parts of the house. You can then sit back and wait for the plumber of your choice to come and deal with the bigger repair.