In the zeal to add some spark to our housing décor the flooring, one of the most overlooked components of the house is the floor. It is not only important to have a sturdy floor that lasts the test of time but also have one that is aesthetically pleasing and adds a nice range to the rest of your house’s decorative style.  In deciding what flooring system best suits your needs one vital aspect to consider is durability. Will the floor durable enough to withstand the pressure of multiple people at a time? Is it delicate enough to cater to the needs of children and pets? As one looks to renovate their current floor, it is a good be sure of all the available options in order to properly determine what would work best for the housing occupants. Hopefully in this article, some light will be shed into what options are at your disposal and help you decide which ones best suit your preferences.

Ensuring Permanence

As previously stated, one of the paramount things to consider before partaking in opting for a flooring system is figuring out how long it will last. How this is done is by considering the of the house and their needs, for example, if one has children or versatile pets that like to move around freely in the house, a laminate, vinyl, or wood flooring would work well in helping maintain a good sense of hygiene for the carpet.  These options come opposed to the popular hardwood choice which often times prove a hassle and time costly to constantly maintain. Durability is best ensured by having proper maintenance. This means making sure that no hard objects are dropped on the floor’s surface and keeping dirt or liquid stains to a minimal as this might lead to mould build up or even worse insect infestation.


What flooring works best where?

Hardwood and lacquer work well for heavy traffic areas like kitchens and entry ways whereas stone and tile are preferred in bathrooms The best colors and textures to go with in the common areas are neutral colors such as mahogany and grey, they will better broaden your options for more dynamic styles and patterns to better suit your preference. It is important to not have thick grout lines between tiles in high traffic areas in the house as this would lead to fast dirt accumulation and prove to be tedious to clean up during vacuuming and mopping. For bathrooms, it is much better to go with stone and tile because of their grittiness as well as the delicate vibe they emit. Bedrooms and living rooms should have laid back essence to them. Consider choosing real wooden tiles with eclectic patterns for lasting beauty and durability. The preferences listed here should not be inhibit your free spiritedness. Be adventurous and explore other materials and options, like leather floors, carpet tiles and metal. Remember that the limit is your imagination. Thank you and good luck!

Cam vintage and contemporary décor mix? Of course, they can and the good thing is that you do not have to go overboard with your budget in order to create a perfect modern and vintage décor. With a low-cost budget, you can create a perfect combo. If your home is filled with modern furniture and you need to sprinkle a dash of vintage, you can get a few antique pieces and hang them in strategic places in your house. Note that most second hand vintage items are usually not in perfect condition and it is wise to invest in high quality pieces. 

If your house is filled with modern furniture, go for casual vintage items in order to create a perfect balance. You could go for the shabby-chic vintage pieces. If you are the handy, you might want to add a few touches to create that vintage look and give your pieces and furniture a personal touch. The secret is to ensure that the pattern and the color remain consistent when you are upholstering the furniture. 

Alternatively, you could make use of your old furniture. Before you throw away your old furniture, ask yourself whether you have exhausted all the options. Obsolete furniture can be recycled to look like modern vintage. Paint and re-model your old furniture and you will be thoroughly impressed by the results. Modern vintage gives your home that contemporary outlook by assimilating traditional pieces with modern ones. It is the in-thing in most homes today as it covers both the practical and stylish aspects if it is well fused. 

Autumn is here and your garden has given you a bunch of wonderful moments in the past few months. Now it's time to give something back and prepare it for the coming winter.

First of all take a good look at your lawn. Does it look tired? Giving it a bit of nutrition might be a good idea. All the autumn rain will make sure any kind of fertilizer gets distributed evenly. Even if it does not look tired, get a garden fork in your hands and make sure you give your lawn a bit of air. Scattering some lime over it might be a good idea if you have moss you want to get rid of. Raking any grass clippings is a good idea as well, as they will simply take too long to decompose during winter months.

 
Gather all the fallen leaves and grass clippings and get ready to do some composting. Many people simply burn the fallen leaves, but this not only makes your neighbors unhappy because of all the smoke, but burning big piles of leaves can also be dangerous. Creating a compost heap will give you a lovely natural fertilizer that should be ready in about two months. Be sure to cover it well to keep out water and keep in nicely warm so the process doesn't stop too soon.

If you make time to do a few necessary preparations to your home the autumn, then you can definitely save yourself some money and possible headaches in the future. There are a few things you should check before winter is upon you. By fixing any possible problems that you have now; you will reduce your electric and heating bills during the colder months.

 

1) Check Attic Insulation

            Every Fall, you should check out your attic insulation and make sure it's still in good condition. In a year's time, it is possible for rodents or bugs to get into the attic and ruin parts of the insulation. If your attic isn't well-insulated, then you will lose a lot of heat through the roof of the house. In addition to checking the insulation, plug up any gaps in the floor and framing if there are any.

 

2) Install Storm Windows

            If you live in an older house, you might only have single-pane windows. These are very inefficient when it comes to keeping heat in your house during the colder months. If you spend a little money and install storms windows, you will reduce the amount of air escaping your home. In the end, it will all be worth the money you had to shell out because you will save money in heating costs.

 

3) Check Interior Doors to Exterior Spaces

            Take a look at any interior doors you have that lead to exterior spaces, such as the basement, garage and covered or enclosed porch. Just because these doors are inside, you can still lose heat if they aren't properly insulated. What you can do is check the perimeter of the door and to make sure there are no gaps that could be leaking air. If so, you can easily install weather stripping to make it flush to the door when it's closed.

 

4) Secure Exhaust Vents

            Walk around the outside of your house and take a look at any exterior vents you have. You should at the very least have a vent from the dryer. Make sure the seal around the vent is air-tight to not allow any cold air in or warm air out. Check any other vents you could have, such as a fan for the entire house or stove vents.

 

5) Clear Away Crawling Plants

            Some homes can have climbing plants around them, like ivy. Even though they may look lovely, especially going up the sides of an older brick home, they can be damaging to the walls. These vines can dislodge the mortar from between the bricks. Once that happens, water can now enter the walls and ruin the wood inside and cause rot, which would be completely irreversible. Your best bet is to just get rid of the plants and vines now before you have to pay for it later.

 

6) Restore Run-Down Shingles

            Climb up onto your roof (safely) and take a thorough look at your shingles. If you have any that have separated from the roof or look damaged, replace it with a new shingle. You will prevent any future leaks and possibly some serious roof problems.

Keeping a home in good condition is challenging enough on a daily basis. Add young children to the household, and it can be a nightmare. Not only the daily grind of picking up toys, but the accidental crayon marks on the floor and the extra tracked-in dirt can leave parents overwhelmed and feeling as if they’re constantly threatening Armageddon to achieve only a very low grade of tidiness.

Here are a few practices that can transform your home and your family, leaving you with relative cleanliness at home and, much more importantly, young people who are developing personal responsibility, home keeping skills, and confidence in their own abilities. The first principle is this: no one, not even a child, really prefers to live in chaos and disorder. Many of us prefer not to make the effort, and many really are not naturally inclined to organization or tidiness, but even these people prefer it when there are clean dishes in the cabinets and they can walk across the floor in bare feet without feeling filthy by the time they get down the hall.

If that is the premise from which you begin, then everyone in the household must contribute to the process. With children, it is far best to start them young, to make home keeping work a social event as far as possible, and to let them know that you trust their ability to do what needs to be done. The outcome is important not only for the state of your home, but for their development; pediatricians will tell you that children who have regular chores at home grow into young adults with higher self-esteem and a greater capacity to solve problems.

Tip #1/Start Them Young: Three-year olds can vacuum the house. You know those toy vacuum cleaners they sell for little kids? They light up and even make little vacuuming noises and kids love them. Well, Eureka sells the Quick-Up Cordless Vac. It’s light and easy to push, it picks up dust, dirt, and crumbs quite well, and a three year old boy or girl enjoys it even more than the toy, because it’s actually helping out. If only it worked this way with the toy lawnmowers!

Tip #2/Dishwasher Rock: Make a playlist to accompany various regular tasks at home. Your average seven-year-old will grouse about emptying the dishwasher, but not if you’re in the kitchen too and there’s some great 50’s rock playing. Or if you’re sorting the laundry on Saturday morning, get everyone involved and do it together. You’ll start out giving plenty of instructions, but soon they’ll know how it’s done. And somehow, sorting laundry seems a lot more fun if done by climbing into the tipped-over hamper to get things out than it is the normal way.

Tip #3/Yes, We Can!: Never let there be any room for doubt. Just as you can trim a hedge without cutting your arm off, of course your children can collect sticks in the yard or pick up the acorns. If you frequent a farmer’s market where you meet a farmer who wants them to feed her pigs, even better. Just as you can scrub the bathtub, of course your children can clean the mirrors. If you know they can do it, they will too, and your home will reap the benefits.

What does your landscape have to offer? Whatever its challenges, the opportunity is there to design something radically wonderful, and far beyond the typical limited vision that tends an established lawn and puts a few seasonal annuals in a square around the mailbox. First, know your land. Second, imagine how you want the landscape to make you feel and understand how you want to use it. Third, begin to integrate your vision for the landscape with the realities of the site and solve for various problems in the landscape. Only then can you begin to design the space, from its large features down to the grouping of plants in newly created beds.

One challenge that many sites have, including places in cities that would not have seen such a thing a few decades ago, is a large deer population. They can devastate your landscape by using it their dining room. While there are a number of chemical or natural repellants on the market and some municipalities are even allowing limited deer hunting to curb the population, you can help rid your yard and garden of a deer problem by working that challenge into your landscape design.

One element of landscape design involves partitioning the space, creating outdoor chambers within your garden with a variety of landscape and soft cape features. So while you might not want to enclose your entire garden with a deer fence over seven feet tall, there is some potential for smaller-scale work within the space. As deer can jump very high but seem less likely to jump a low, wide barrier, you could use a short double fence (about 3 feet wide and four feet tall) around an area in which your plantings will still be tall enough to be seen. Just leave enough margins that the deer cannot stand outside your fence and graze freely.

You might want to use such an option to protect plantings that are very likely to attract deer. But such fencing would not give at all the right impression if it were used widely within the garden. To promote a feel of openness and beauty without sacrificing plantings to the deer, consider constructing areas of deer-resistant plants. You might begin by creating your bed spreading from the corner created by a two-sided decorative fence panel. The fence won’t keep out the deer, of course, but it gives you the opportunity to create a good focal point and develop some lovely texture by placing taller plants behind the shorter ones, finishing with some deer-resistant ground covers at the front of the bed.

There are a number of lists of deer-resistant plants, and any good nursery or garden center can help you select some good options for your land given the amount of sun and water it receives. If you would like to include a beautiful, low-maintenance hedge as part of your planting, consider the Golden Ticket Ligustrum Privet, which is non-invasive and offers deer-resistance as well as foliage tinged with shades of yellow and fragrant white flowers in spring. It grows only 4-6 feet tall with an equal spread. Further forward in your bed, consider the Yuki Cherry Blossom Deutzia, which is a deer-resistant deciduous shrub only 1-2 feet high with beautiful small pink flowers in spring and amazing purple burgundy foliage in autumn.

The best time to prepare your soil and garden for the spring is to work it in the fall. The best time to do this is before the winter snow arrives and when the leaves are just starting to change into their lovely fall colors. At the end of the summer season, as your vegetables have all gone to harvest, here are some tops you will want to do in order to clean up your garden and yard to ready it for the next year.

 

1) Remove old plants

            The last thing you want to face in the spring is having to clean up your old plants that have died off last year and have been left in place. They will just rot, turn the soil bad and possibly carry plant diseases and fungus. Rotting plants invite rodents to visit your yard, and possibly your home. Throw away or burn any plants with signs of disease, so as to not spread it. All other plant life can be broken back into the soil and chopped up.

 

2) Plant a cover crop

            Weather elements such as wind, rain and snow can wash away your precious top soil if left uncovered. The top soil is important because if holds most of the nutrients and organic material your future plants will thrive on. The use of a cover crop will protect your soil. Cover crops also break up packed soil and will make it easier to work with in the spring. The roots will loosen the soil and allow better oxygen flow into the ground, which is a plus for your spring fruits and vegetables. In addition to oxygen, cover crops also cause nitrogen levels to increase. There are many crops that are nitrogen-living plants and benefit greatly from this increase. You can do some research and determine which is the best choice for your cover crop.

 

3) Manure or leaves

            If you do not wish to plant a cover crop, you can always use manure or leaves to cover your soil until the spring. The best manure to use is from chicken, cow, horse, llama or pig, so you should have no trouble in finding some in your area. Over the winter, the manure will break down and provide essential minerals and fertilization to your garden. Leaves will protect from soil erosion and can be found right in your own yard.

 

4) Plant in Fall

            Fall is the best time to plant certain trees, shrubs and bulbs. As they take longer to grow, trees and shrubs that are planted in the fall will have that extra time to build their root system. Before winter fully arrives, the soil will stay warmer far after the air turns cold. Bulbs also flourish when they are planted in the fall. Not every bulb plant is great for this time of planting, so do your research. Daffodils are excellent flowers to plant during the fall. They are hardy and will survive in the ground during the chilly winter and show themselves to you in the early spring.

Many homeowners prefer to have a private yard where they can feel free to do as they wish without having nosy neighbors constantly checking in on them. If your yard is not already a private retreat, you can make it one to suit your needs.

 

1) Make use of a fence

            If you do not already have a fenced in yard and would like one, you can discover how the phrase “good fences make good neighbors” really comes into play. If you are installing a fence, the possibilities are endless. One of the best things about choosing your fence is the ability to place a tall fence around your yard. That way, you will be sure to get the privacy you are looking for. In addition to providing you and your family with a sense of privacy, you can also decorate your fence to your own taste. Place decorative latticework in certain areas or hang interesting sculptures from your fence. Hang string lights around the fence for serene ambiance in the night.

 

2) Use latticework

            Lattice fencing offers a subtle amount of privacy between you and your neighbors. It is not as formidable and solid as a fence can be. It provides just the right amount of privacy in a sort of screen-like fashion. You can place climbing plants, such as ivy, around the perimeter of your lattice fencing. As the ivy grows you will gain even more privacy. You can also use latticework to support bushes and flowering plants, such as roses. Beautiful roses growing on latticework is a great addition to any back yard. You can fill in the bottom, more open space with any number of low growing bushes. Open latticework fencing also offers good air flow for your plants and bushes to thrive on.

 

3) Create a nook

            If you have a nice, little spot in your back yard that would look wonderful if converted into its own special place, then take advantage of that. The use of different types of plants and trees can create a natural cocoon, closing you off from the rest of the yard. Taller trees or even a pergola will provide you with a semi-private roof. Grow grapes, strawberries or ivy on your pergola for added pleasure. As this will be used as your special retreat, you will want to make use of a small table and chair(s) or even a bench with soft cushions. Make this space your own. Have garden statues and creative outdoor works of art placed all around you.

 

4) Plants instead

            If you do not already have a fence and do not want to spend the money on one, you always have the choice of going natural. Use plants and trees to form the natural perimeter of your yard. You have so many choices when it comes to which plants and trees to choose. Make sure that they complement each other and will grow well in the same space. Plant tall grasses next to even taller trees. Bamboos are becoming a popular natural fence, but beware of how it grows. Bamboo will natural take over your entire yard, if you let it. It is best to plant bamboo and other aggressive plants in containers and place them around your yard. Depending on which plants you use, the color palette can be limitless.