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household tips

5 Plumbing Tips To Save You Money On Your Water Bill

As a homeowner, you know that the bills pile up quickly! Often the water bill can be very high if you are not cautious of your use. In order to reduce your bills each month, consider utilizing these 5 plumbing tips that can help you to save a significant amount of money on your next water bill.

First, be sure to turn of the water any time you’re not using it. This may seem obvious, but there are often times when you may not be aware that the water is running when you’re not using it. Try to be more aware of turning of the water while brushing your teeth, washing your hair or washing the dishes. These tiny changes and adjustments can add up and make a huge difference when the water bill arrives at the end of the month.

Displace the water in your toilet bowl chamber. Often toilets use way more water than needed to flush. You can avoid this by lifting up the cover of the toilet chamber. Then, place a brick or big rock inside in order to displace the water. This will allow the toilet to function but use a smaller amount of water to flush–only what is necessary.

November 25, 2013

Household

5 Tips For Saving Money On A House Painting Project

Whether you’ve finally decided on an accent wall in the living room, you want to repaint your interior for an updated look that features new color trends, or it’s time to address the peeling paint on your home’s exterior, you are probably aware of the fact that such projects do not come without an attendant price tag. Certainly painting is more affordable than remodeling or renovating, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s cheap, especially if you plan on hiring professionals to get the job done for you. However, there are plenty of ways to save where your painting expenses are concerned, and with a little leg work and some common sense on your side you can make the right decision for your home and your budget. Here are just a few tips that will help you to shave dollars off the cost of your house painting project.

DIY. You might not be keen to get up on a ladder and paint the entire exterior of your home, but there are a lot of painting projects you can tackle in order to save some money on labor. For an outside project, for example, you can at least paint the window frames, including storm windows and screens (if applicable). And you can do some prep by masking off windows and doors with tape and plastic so that the painters can get right to work with their brushes, rollers, and airbrushing tools. As for interior jobs, there’s just no reason the average homeowner can’t tackle these instead of shelling out for a professional paint crew.

September 6, 2013

Household

5 Easy Ways To Trim Your Home Improvement Costs

There are many reasons why the average homeowner might want to invest in home improvements. If you’re looking to increase the functionality of your home, add aesthetic appeal with something more modern or in keeping with your personal style, and/or boost the resale value, home improvements are a great way to accomplish all of your goals, especially if you put some time, effort, and thought into the planning process so that you can select the best projects. However, most home upgrades of value are not going to come cheap. And if you’re working with a budget, you might find that you have to compromise in order to get what you want at a price you can afford. Luckily, there are ways to trim costs that won’t require you to take an all-or-nothing approach to your upgrades. Here are a few tips to try.

Get bids. Like any type of consumer purchase, it’s in your best interest to engage in comparison shopping where your contractor is concerned. You should, of course, have a budget in mind for your project. Some contractors may tell you that it is insufficient while others promise you the moon at your price. But what you want to look for is a contractor that tells you what you can reasonably afford with the money you have, that warns you there could be overages should any unseen problems arise once the project begins (such as issues with inspectors, city codes, or elements of your home interior like plumbing or electrical), and that lets you know how you can save money throughout the process.

September 3, 2013

Household

5 Annual Home Maintenance Tips To Save You Money

When you buy your first residence and become a proud homeowner, you no doubt have a lot of ideas whirling through your head about how you can fix the place up. But beyond the repairs needed to make your home livable and the upgrades that will ensure the height of functionality while allowing you to put your personal stamp on the space, you’ll find that there are myriad home maintenance tasks that you’ll have to perform annually or semi-annually in order to keep your home in ship shape. And some go well beyond the demands of simple spring cleaning. Although you can always hire service providers to take care of these tasks for you (and some of them may require professional attention), there are also many home maintenance activities you can learn to do on your own in order to save some money. Here are a few you’ll definitely want to put on your list.

Watch where water is going. You might think that inspecting the roof and cleaning the gutters is all you need to do in order to make sure that water doesn’t damage your home. And while this is a good start, the truth of the matter is that you also need to pay attention to water levels around your home if you want to make sure it won’t seep in. In some cases, the downspouts on your gutters could be improperly aligned, causing water to pool rather than flow away from your foundations. Or your property could be improperly graded, bringing water towards the house instead of away from it (you might be surprised how often this occurs). Drains could get blocked during heavy rain. But by keeping an eye on the conditions around the outside of your home you can quickly spot problems and address them in order to avoid water damage. If an unfortunate event, such as flooding in your basement, occurs, you could reach out to the experts at somewhere like Protegrity Restoration to help you get things back in order once again.

August 31, 2013

Household

5 Tips For Giving Your Bedroom A Budget Friendly Makeover

Being that most of us spend an average of 6-8 hours each night in our bedrooms, we can totally get why sometimes you might find yourself looking around and thinking, “I really want to give this room a makeover.” Then you look at your bank account and realize that although the desire is strong, the resources are pretty limited.

That doesn’t mean you have to totally go without “upgrading” the space, though. In fact, there are a few things that you can do to makeover your bedroom that are highly effective and also very budget friendly. Check these five recommendations out below:

Paint the walls. You can find a gallon of paint for well-under $20 and being that one gallon can give you about 350 square feet of coverage, in most cases, you only need one (two tops). So if your walls have been white ever since you can remember, why not go with a soft green, a light blue or even a shade of lavender? All of these colors are beautiful to look at, plus they can help to calm you as you drift off to sleep.

Get another comforter. Something that will immediately change the appearance of your bedroom is purchasing some new bedding. Although the cost of comforters can get to be pretty steep, you can find some at stores like Target and Kmart that are well-designed and also pretty durable for under $50.

Hang up some art. Have you noticed that your walls look a little bare? Understandably, you probably can’t afford a Picasso but that doesn’t mean that you can’t add some of your own kind of art. Whether it’s a print of your favorite drawing or painting, some pictures of your family members or friends that you had blown up to poster size and framed or even some stencil art that incorporates your favorite quote, this is another smart and cheap way to change the appearance of your room.

July 30, 2013

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