Home and Gardening

If you are thinking about adding wood siding to your house there are many different options that you can pick. As a house cover, wood siding is a sensible choice, and it is also attractive. There are several things that you may want to think about before you begin your project so that you make sure to pick the most appropriate product for your particular situation. Not only do different types of siding look different, but they also may install differently.

Plywood
Aside from being quite hardy, plywood siding is very easily maintained. It can last for thirty years and it is easy to install. When you install plywood siding it also offers additional structural support on any wall that it is installed on. While there is a huge variety of patterns and textures from which to choose, it is most commonly made from western red cedar, redwood or pine.

Clapboard
Typically made from ponderosa pine or Douglas fir, clapboard planks overlap horizontally on the exterior of a house. It is very adaptable, and it fits into almost any style of home. You may also find clapboard made from redwood and cedar.

Tongue and Groove
Another popular type of wood siding is tongue and groove siding where one piece slides onto another piece and locks in place. Also versatile, this siding choice is very attractive. It can be installed in any direction on the home?s exterior, and it comes in a rough finish or a smooth finish. So depending on the look that you are going for, you can find a finish and pattern that will work for your project. Since there is so much variety with this siding, you can find it in teak, cedar and pine among others.

Shakes and Shingles
For a coastal look, shakes and shingles are very attractive and versatile, and they work on many styles of homes. Usually they are made from cedar to be insect resistant and sturdy. They are labor intensive to install, but the finished product is rustic elegance. They come in different grades, so depending on the harshness of your weather conditions they can last up to forty years.

Hardboard
A composite product, hardboard is pressed into sheets from wood chips. It is cheaper than solid wood, and it is still quite durable. However, you have to make sure that all joints are perfectly sealed, and you cannot get it within six inches of the ground. You need to protect it from getting moisture inside its core, because that will cause damage. It comes in a variety of textures and styles and is a great choice when you are on a budget.

Vertical Siding
For a rustic appearance vertical siding works perfectly. Used on farm structures or barns, the boards are placed vertically, and they run the length of the wall. Sometimes vertical siding is tongue and groove, and sometimes it is butt joined. Finished in a board and batten style by nailing a full strip of wood over the joint, vertical siding is perfect for any rustic application.

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It used to be that when you spilled almost anything on your carpet you were guaranteed a stain, however, with new carpet materials and stain removers almost any stain can be successfully removed from your carpet.

Whenever you have a spill on your carpet, you increase your chances of removing all of the stain if you attend to the spill directly. First, remove any solid portions from the spill, and then use a towel, cloth or paper, to absorb as much of the liquid as possible. You do not want to spread the spill, so always blot from the outer edge of the spot towards the center. Never add water to the stain, because this will just make the spot larger. After you have blotted up all of the excess liquid, cover it with a few paper towels and put a heavy object on top of it to get out any last remnants of liquid.

Success with Stain Removers
Once that last little drop of liquid has been absorbed, use a stain remover specified for the type of stain in your carpet. You can find carpet stain remover products in most any store that sells cleaning products. If your spill was wine, juice or food, you can probably use any standard stain remover to lift the stain. If you have a tougher stain like coffee, then there are special formulations to remove just coffee.

Before dousing your stain with the remover, test it on an obscure corner of your carpet. Apply a tiny bit and make sure that your carpet remains colorfast. See if there are any changes to you carpet?s color; if you do notice any change at all, then get another brand of remover to try on your stain. Once you find a remover that will not alter the color of your carpet, then apply the solution to a clean, soft cloth and begin to work it into the stain, following recommendations on the product label. Do not apply a lot of pressure and let the stain remover do most of the work. After several minutes, blot the area and reapply the carpet stain remover. You may have to repeat this process several times until the entire stain is gone. When the stain is out, rinse the area with cold water and blot it dry.

Home Remedy Stain Solutions
If you find yourself looking at one of the harder stains to remove like blood, ink or grease, you will need to use stronger solvents to get the stain out of your carpet. Two things that you can try are dry cleaning solution and brake cleaner. Brake cleaner is particularly effective on grease, and dry cleaning solution is full of powerful cleaning chemicals. Use these products sparingly when blotting up your stain.

If you have a coffee or tea stain then try removing it with dishwashing liquid. You can also try the old home remedy of one part vinegar and two parts water. For wine and juice drinks, try club soda before you try a commercial stain remover. Club soda loosens the stain?s grip on the fibers of the carpet.

Clean with Steam
If all else fails, you can steam clean the spot with a small steam cleaner. This machine works very much like a vacuum cleaner. It creates hot steam, which should loosen the stain, and then it vacuums up the debris. If you find yourself facing frequent spills, you may want to invest in a wet/dry vacuum cleaner, which picks up liquid as well as dry debris to make the clean up process just that much quicker.

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It is really easy to keep your home neat when you have a place to put everything. Then even if your rooms become a little disheveled, you can pick them up in a snap because everything has a place to go. As you organize your home, of course you can install expensive new shelving systems, but you do not have to. You can get organized simply by matching the amount of stuff that you have in your home with the amount of room that you have to store it.

Baskets and Bins
For a simple solution to manage the clutter of magazines, toys, and all of the little stuff that accumulates on tables and counters, use storage boxes or baskets. You can find storage containers on sale, at the dollar store or at your local thrift store. Baskets can live on shelves, tables or even on the floor. Wicker hampers can be used to store blankets and pillows, and they can double as a side table.

Another great storage solution is simple cardboard boxes. You can cover them with wallpaper as sturdy and attractive storage bins. You can label them, or cover them in theme paper that belies their contents.

Shelving
If you have some empty vertical space tucked away in a corner or closet, try adding some inexpensive shelving to make a storage area. You can find little areas in your closet, laundry room and pantry that are great for storage. Plastic shelving is great for storing lighter items like hats and shoes, and they can help to clear up the clutter on your laundry room floor.

Organizers
Look for spaces that you are not using to add storage for your stuff. The backs of bedroom, bathroom and closet doors make ideal locations for behind-the-door organizers. These organizers simply hang over the door, and are great for storing smaller items. They are very handy for getting clutter off of counter-tops and tables and keeping little items organized. These organizers are also a great way to store shoes.

Drawers and Cabinets
You can keep your drawers organized by heading to your dollar store and getting a couple of plastic organizer inserts. You can also use boxes, jars or any other small container that you have to make customer storage in the drawers throughout your house. As you make a place in the drawer and cabinet space in your kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms your entire house will begin to feel more peaceful and organized.

By keeping the insides of your drawers and cabinets organized, you can keep a handle on your clutter. This will keep you from busting at the seams, because you will know that when your drawer is getting messy, it is time to get weed out some of your stuff. It is much easier to thin out your belongings when you only need to get rid of a couple of things instead of waiting until your whole house is overflowing with too many belongings.

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You use lamps throughout your house, and regardless of which room they are in, lamps are an important accessory. If you put a plain lampshade on your lamp it offers a neutral accent to the room, but you can also add a finishing touch to the style of any room by adding a little embellishment to your lampshades.

Adding style accents to your lampshades does not need to be an expensive proposition, as a matter of fact it may not cost you anything at all. Take a minute to consider the lamps in your home and think of how they can enhance the style of any given room.

Ornate and Classy ? Adding crystals to anything immediately gives it an elegant and ornate look. Cut crystal enhances the light and its many facets set off specks of light that dance around the room. You can add an elegant touch to your lampshade by trimming with a strand of glass beads or glass bead fringe. The trim can be sewn on or attached with glue to the top and bottom edges of the lampshade.

Quick and Simple ? You can embellish a lampshade with just about anything like seashells, buttons or even colored paperclips. Add buttons to your craft room lampshade, and add seashells to the shade in your tropical theme bathroom. The paperclip shade will be a fun touch in your home office.

Clean and Modern ? If you take a single pattern and repeat it throughout a room it adds a cohesive look to the room. Make your lampshade add to the design of your room by adding your chosen design to your lampshade. Whether it is paisley, polka dots, stripes or checks, adding the design to your lampshade by gluing on shapes or using fabric paint will let your lamp add to the ambiance of the room.

Cute and Precious ? If you want to adorn the lampshade in a baby girl?s bedroom, think in terms of delicate lace and sweet pastels. For example, adding a piece of lace trim to the bottom edge of the lampshade is very feminine, or adding a larger piece of lace to the lampshade itself is also very sweet. Trimming the shade with a satin, pink ribbon can be easy if you simply use a hole-punch to add holes along the bottom edge of the shade, thread the ribbon throughout and finish with a pretty bow.

Comfortable and Cozy ? Adding fabric with a lot of texture helps give a lampshade a cozy feel. Adding a felt or velvet border to a lampshade adds a warm tactile quality to the shade.

Easy and Organic ? If you want to add a natural quality to the room, you can embellish your lampshade with pressed flowers or dried leaves. Both look attractive on any lampshade and they add a natural quality to the shade. To give the shade even more interest, add a layer of translucent rice paper over the dried leaves and flowers and connect with diluted glue. The effect will be three dimensional and beautiful.

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Older homes are frequently built with materials that we now know to pose serious health consequences. Asbestos is one of these materials, and unfortunately it was a very popular building material throughout the seventies and eighties for residential homes. You can find asbestos throughout these homes as it was used in all facets of the building. You can find it in the tile, the insulation, the roofing material, the piping wraps and ceiling treatments. Asbestos was used in building materials to add strength, and it provided insulation and fire resistance. While these materials were originally added to residential homes to make them safer, they have actually caused the opposite effect.

Kit versus Professional
If you think that you have asbestos in your home, you can have your home tested by a professional, or you can test it yourself. There are many kits available that you can use to test your own home for asbestos, and using a kit to do the testing yourself is generally cheaper than it is to have a professional do the testing for you. If your tests come up negative, then you are done; whereas when you call in experts, they may continue to probe. By doing the test yourself, you can simply check the area of your home that you are interested in, and if you do get positive results, then you may want to call in the experts.

Test Kits
When you are looking at test kits they often contain protective coverings for you and sample bags for the material in questions. The kit will also have detailed instructions that explain how you need to go about collecting the samples for evaluation. After collecting the sample and placing it in the bag, you simply seal the bag securely and label it. If you are taking samples from several different areas, make sure to label each sample distinctively enough that you can tell exactly where it came from just in case one some of your samples test positive while others test negative. If your tests do yield positive results, call in an expert to do the removal and cleanup. Never remove asbestos yourself.

There are many different types of kits available on the market. Compare kits for price and contents. Find out if the lab fees are included in the price of the kit or if you have to pay for them separately. Also find out how many samples you may submit. Usually you will have to buy the kit as well as pay up to twenty dollars for the lab fees. Find out up front what is included in the price of the kit and what will be regarded as an extra fee, so that you do not have any unpleasant surprises.

Testing without a Kit
If you do not have a test kit, you can still collect and send samples off for evaluation. There is a list of labs that are government approved to perform asbestos testing. However, most labs prefer to deal with other companies and not with private parties, so you may find that your lab fees are higher when you have your testing done without a kit. For example, you may find yourself paying in the twenty to forty dollar range for testing whereas a company would pay six to ten dollars for the same tests.

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If you are planning a bathroom remodeling project, environmentally friendly fixtures such as low-flow or eco-flush toilets are a money saving and conscientious approach to consider. These days the discussion of ?going green? is everywhere. It is a growing movement impacting our daily routines as well as our house renovation choices. Making the decision to use low-flow eco-flush toilets will reduce water consumption, which can help save money, energy, and the environment.

But first, what are low-flow, eco-flush, or low-flush toilets, and are they effective? These green toilets have been developed to use much less water than high water-use toilets and perform just as well. Over the years since they first appeared on the market the models have changed and improved. Today a balance between reduced water amounts and toilet design has been reached to create high functioning and efficient eco-flush toilets.

One of the reasons to incorporate an eco-flush toilet into one?s home is simply that saving water equals saving money. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency website ?the average household spends as much as $500 per year on its water and sewer bill. By making a few simple changes to use water more efficiently, you could save about $170 per year.? High water-use toilets use 3.5 to 7 gallons of water per flush. Low-flow toilets use 1.6 or less. Using more efficient toilets helps significantly in the reduction of your monthly water expense.

Next, reducing water consumption can help in the conservation of energy. Again according to the EPA, ?it takes a considerable amount of energy to deliver and treat the water we use everyday. Letting your faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours.? More water in our wastewater treatment plants means more electricity is needed to treat that water. Using a low-flow or eco-flush toilet can help save a considerable amount of energy expenditure do to water usage.

Lastly, using the eco-flush toilet helps the environment by assisting in the protection of water as a natural resource as well as by working toward minimizing pollution. As the population increases so does the need for fresh water. Yet the amount of water in the world does not increase. The EPA advises: ?Less than 1% of all the water on Earth can be used by people. As our population grows, more and more people are using up this limited resource.?

Using eco-flush low-flush toilets also helps reduce pollution. By lowering the amount of water used in our toilets, the amount of chemicals used to treat wastewater is also lowered. This in turn cuts back on the amount of chemicals impacting our environment.

It is easy to see that there are many good reasons to reduce our water consumption. Addressing the high amounts of water that are often used in our toilets is an optimal place to address these issues. Along with other water reducing fixtures, such as low-flow showerheads and faucets, the eco-flush toilet is a sensible and painless option to assist in this endeavor.

So, think about eco-flush toilet for your next bathroom remodeling project.

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Steven Mellini is the director of Priele Italian Design Bathrooms, the best source in Miami for bathroom remodeling. Priele offers beautifully-crafted bathroom vanities, cabinets, shower panels, spas, and eco-flush toilets in the Miami, West Palm Beach and Broward county areas.

Over the years, the popularity of leather suites has increased due to the active and lively promotions of different furniture on the internet. Leather suites really look lovely on the webpage but much lovelier to have them around. They have the reputation for having the most luxurious and classic finish among all home and office furniture. They can add a touch of class to any office room and bring coziness to our own rooms at home. So if you are on the lookout for leather suite that has new design and style, better look up for a modern leather suite because this suite is packed with all the trendy features you need.

However, since there are probably hundreds of leather suites that are out in the market at present, you have to take some considerations if you want to have the most comfortable, elegant and durable leather suite the would suit your needs. So consider the following advice.

First, consider what type of leather suite you would want. They come from a wide variety of styles from corner leather suites, recliner suites to lounge leather suites. All are comfortable and stylish enough but if you can consider your available space and where you will put it then you will know what type of leather suite you will need.

Second, as soon as you have opted about the type then comes the choice for your kind of leather. Top grain leather can provide you long lasting functionality for your leather because it is most durable and more reliable. It is also the hardest wearing and will stay good-looking for many years especially if properly maintained. However, this kind of leather is also the most expensive. If you can afford it then that would be good but if your budget cannot accommodate it then better look for other leather grained suite that are also durable and elegant.

Considering that you have already chosen your style and type of leather, it is now time to test the leather suite itself. A modern leather suite is always convenient to buy because it can be considered a product of innovation from the classic leather suites. However, you need to try it as well so that you would not feel sorry if ever it fails to satisfy your feel for comfort. Basically, the best test that you can do is sitting on the suite and feels the back rest. Can it properly support your spine and neck? Is the seat not to supple and deep? How about the stuffing, are they too thin or too soft. If these entire categories meet your requirement then move on to the last option.

Leather suites are generally made to be tough but sometimes this depends on the credibility of the manufacturer. There may be suites that have solid body structure but nevertheless do not meet the standard quality of their support base so it may happen that some leather suites usually break their legs easily especially when constantly pushed around the house or office. The proper thing to do is ask the vendor if he can help you check out the underside of the suite and see if its legs are well supported and solid.

So now that you have these factors to consider it is time to hunt for stores that can give you the best bargain. However, beware of the suites that are offered with almost 50 percent discount because some of these products are made of low quality materials and with synthetic materials that may look like real leather so always ask for the suite?s warranty and authentication in order to protect your right as a consumer.

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