Maintenance and Repair
When you talk about curb appeal and changing the exterior of your home, usually simple things like landscaping, fencing, and walkways come to mind. However, have you ever thought about what it would take to dramatically change the exterior facade of your home? Well, I have, and I'd like to share a series of posts on what it would take to do just that.
After reading the Forbes list of the 10 must-haves for new homes, I began to think about how I could incorporate some of those attributes into my own home. Even though my house is 112 years old, that doesn't mean it can't hold a flame to the newer, cookie-cutter homes, and I'd like to make sure it's a real competitor when we go to sell it.
The one "must have" that kept popping up in the back of my head was the preference for some exterior materials over some others. Out were vinyl and stucco siding (my house has vinyl) and in are brick and stone. And I kept wondering, how on earth can I, just a lowly homeowner and renovator, make that work in my favor?
Winter can be rough on your fence. As the frost leaves the ground and you start to wander around the backyard, you may notice that some of your fence posts have moved around.
Is your fence leaning? Are their sections snapped off or threatening to? Does your gate take heavy machinery to open? All of these conditions are a result of frost heaving the concrete around the post and doing a number on your fence.
With some sweat, a sledge and a shovel, you can fix these up before the summer hits. Here's how.
Ah, the housing market. For those of us who have property up for sale, we're either forced to lower our asking price or take it off the market, crossing our fingers that it's only a matter of time until it's a seller's market once again. Until that happens, it's important to keep your home updated.
An upgrade doesn't necessarily mean a heavy kitchen reno or a landscape lift. DIY Network has come up with a great list of updates for under $1,000. But my faves? Some major changes for under $100. Now that's in my budget.
Here's some of their under $100 tips:
Pay A Pro
Yup. An hour consultation with a pro is usually under $100. They'll point out things you've never even thought of doing. Who knew brick linoleum was passe?
Hire An Inspector
A full home inspection will nip little problems in the bud - before they can become big break-the-bank problems. They can pick up on things that aren't cosmetic - like deteriorating roofs, termite infestation or outdated electrical systems.
After a long, nasty winter, temperatures in Kansas City climbed near 60 degrees yesterday, causing a widespread outbreak of spring fever (which was soon remedied by the announcement of impending snow through the end of the week.)
In the spirit of the coming warmth, there are a handful of late-winter outdoor tasks that make spring gardening and other related projects much easier when the season officially turns. To start? Consider your home's command center, also known as the garage.
Water damage repair can be hazardous. The most common types of hazard? Contaminated water and mold. Both pose a huge threat to you and your family.
Thankfully personal protective equipment, also known as PPE, is readily available this day in age.
In this third part of our series on water damage repair, we look at recommended PPE for both contaminated water removal and mold removal. As always, these articles are merely suggestions, and we do not recommend removing toxic materials unless you are certified to do so and you understand the risks!
Your PPE protects against three major forms of contamination:
+ Inhalation - Breathing contaminated air.
+ Ingestion - Contaminated materials entering your mouth, nose or eyes.
+ Skin Contact - Contaminated materials touching your body and exposing you to illness.
Sounds delightful, right? Use the following PPE to combat these elements:
Living in an older home comes with many things you can see as "charm" or "obstacles" depending on the situation at hand. You have less-than-stellar plumbing and electrical, uneven floors, creepy crawl spaces, dank and dark basements, inefficient windows, doors that don't hang straight, mismatched millwork, etc. One of those situations in my home is our plaster walls.
As our home has aged and settled (and actually been moved from one location about a mile away to where it is now) over its 112 years of life, our walls have been worse for the wear. Cracks are apparent everywhere, and seem to be reproducing and spreading at an alarming rate. Dents become huge dusty messes to repair and camouflage. And in the case of two of our rooms, just began falling off in sheets due to fire and water damage and general rot. So while we've torn down and drywalled in its stead what was necessary, we're not keen on creating that kind of mess any time soon again.
However, our foyer-stairwell-upstairs landing area leaves much to be aesthetically desired. Removing a broken banister and plastic wainscoting (that was GLUED to PLASTER WALLS for added angst) caused us to partially repair with drywall and partially ... just cover it with paint. Unfortunately, the color isn't what I had hoped for, and our first foray into drywalling isn't pretty. (Mental note, if your spouse tries to convince you that spackle and wall mud are the same thing, STOP THEM. It's not, and I have the unsightly wall to show for it.)
My friend Marc (of the demolished kitchen fame) asked me one day if I knew of any "backwoods" methods of removing wallpaper from plaster walls as to prevent damage from being done. I didn't - we just tore down the walls that had wallpaper on them (but regretfully so - the paper was gorgeous and vintage, but the plaster behind was as rotten as a jack o'lantern at Thanksgiving).
However, as someone with a house still 80% full of plaster walls and dreams of wallpapering, I figured it was something worth researching.
So after putting my sociology degree to good fact-finding use, I present you with the Internet's best resources on removing wallpaper from plaster walls:
Hands down, this eHow article is the most direct with information, making it a winner in my book. It describes the process in painstaking step-by-step detail, and it gets bonus points for first using vinegar - a non-toxic, enviro-friendly and cheap solution to a messy problem.
In Kansas City, each of the four seasons isn't shy about making itself known to residents, whether that means 100-degree temperatures with 90 percent humidity or a below-zero plunge and an ice storm.
To protect your home's gutters year-round, consider the GutterMonster system, an unobtrusive gutter guard that boasts a "patent-pending corner system," according to the company, that will disperse water "evenly along the roofline."
A lot of consideration needs to go into the flooring you choose for your home. Other than considering your personal design aesthetic and the use of the space, you have to think about what's going to work best for you and your family - especially when it comes to refinishing, replacing, or painting hardwood floors.
I remember agonizing over what to do about the wood floors in what is our master bedroom in progress. There had been peel-and-stick vinyl tiles from approximately 1976 on top of hardwood, and though the tiles were so old they just popped right up, the residue from the glue seemed to damage the wood. Living in a 110+ year old house, we knew restoring the hardwood would not only look gorgeous, but it could potentially add to our home's value.
After a lot of discussion and realization that we hadn't the faintest about wood floors, we had a local wood flooring expert known for his expertise in the historic neighborhoods in the area come out and tell us his opinion on an appropriate course of action.
When Joan Crawford demanded the absence of wire hangers, she clearly never had to unclog her tub. For the past few weeks, I've avoided the growing pool of water by my feet during each of my morning showers.
Chemical materials like Draino just aren't for me and a plumber isn't in my budget. I started researching my options and it seemed like every response began with a simple solution: stick a wire hanger down your drain.
Here's the breakdown of what happened.
First, I popped off the top to my drain with a screwdriver and peered in. I couldn't see any obvious blockage, even with a flashlight.
Next I poured a kettle of boiling water down the drain - a tip from my neighbor who suggested it. After running the shower for a few moments, the puddle did fill up a little slower, but there was still blockage.
