Creating Your Backyard Landscape Plan


Are you spending lots of time in your backyard? Or maybe you’re dreaming about what you want in this special space, once you have more time and money?

New homes have lots of expenses. We spend more time indoors so we focus on the kitchen, bathrooms, window coverings and some new furniture. With older houses, you might want new appliances, flooring and maybe some new light fixtures. It’s common to delay making improvements to the backyard for years … and years (are you smiling?).

What’s On Your Backyard Wishlist?

We thought you might want some tips on how to turn your backyard dreams into reality, in... 

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Time to Inspect Your Home’s Exterior


It’s spring and most of us are ready to spend more time outdoors. So you’ve got to decide how to spend that time. You probably want to do some gardening, hiking or other outdoor sports. But one critical thing you shouldn’t ignore is assessing your home’s exterior. The sooner you find and repair problems like missing roof shingles, the more money and time you’ll save because problems you ignore only get bigger.

By understanding home maintenance priorities, you can decide what has to be taken care of now. And some projects can wait, especially larger projects where you’ve got to save money and/or research different solutions... 

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Home Maintenance or Low Maintenance?


there are lots of low maintenance building materials you can use in your kitchen to save time spent cleaning & maintaining your house

Spring is that time of year when you start to think about home maintenance. You know your house weathered severe weather over the winter, so it’s time to check for damage and make needed repairs. At the same time many homeowners wonder how they can reduce or even better, eliminate many of these maintenance tasks .

So we thought it made sense to look at low maintenance materials and products on the market. We picked ones that can lower the time needed to clean, seal and/or complete other home maintenance chores we’ve come to expect. Until then, here’s a spring home maintenance checklist for... 

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Tips to Making Your Closets Work Harder


Closets look so big when you see them in model homes. Once you move in though, they seem to shrink and somehow there’s never enough room for all the stuff you’ve collected over the years. That’s true whether you live in a home under 2,000 square feet, or a newer house that’s more than 2,500 sq. ft.

You’re not alone as the average size of a new house in the US increased to 2,687 sq ft in 2015. As our houses have gotten bigger, closets are also getting larger. At the same time though, we’re buying more which means we need more... 

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A Sneak Peak at What’s New in Housing


You know car manufacturers come out with new models every year. One year they might change the lights and another year, the door handles. Houses evolve the same way – we just don’t buy them as frequently as we buy cars, so you might not notice.

The way we learn about new home products is different too. The most popular advertising today are the television shows like HGTV’s Property Brothers or Fixer Upper (see the top 25 shows). These are followed by websites like Pinterest and Houzz, and traditional magazines like Better Homes & Garden and Architectural Digest.

Builders and remodelers learn... 

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How LED Lights Are Changing Our Lives


We probably think more about lighting during the holidays than any other time of year (unless you’re building a house). You have to decide what holiday lights to hang, whether to buy new ones or what neighborhoods to visit to see the best holiday lights in town (watch these house lights flicker to music).

This made sense in the past because there weren’t a lot of new lighting ideas. Now that LED lights are everywhere, there are many more lighting options for every room in your house. So this month we’re exploring lighting ideas because the light in a room can affect your emotions.

How... 

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Doors that Welcome Family & Friends


Fall is in the air and soon we’ll be welcoming friends and family into our homes. That’s the one time we get to use the front door as most families go into their house from the garage or a side door off the driveway. So we decided to step back and take a look at what makes an attractive front door, as every homeowner has one (or two).

Where is Your Front Door Located?

The front door traditionally faces the street, going back to the days when people walked to the store, bus or rail station. Where the front door is located was... 

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It’s Time to Review Your Homeowners Insurance


We lead such busy lives there’s little time to sit back and review things. Autopay has replaced paper bills so where we once might have reviewed an insurance policy at renewal, we don’t even know when it happens.

Many of us take homeowner insurance for granted, along with health and automobile insurance. We assume every national insurance company is trustworthy, without realizing their coverage can be quite different. It’s not enough to shop for the cheapest homeowner insurance. It’s important to read your policy and understand what it covers.

Learning about your coverage when you have to submit a claim adds stress to an already uncomfortable... 

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Want 20% More Storage Space in Your Home?


Have you got a room or closet like this in your house? Let’s be honest as most of us do, and keep it hidden behind a door we rarely open. We keep saying we’re going to tackle the mess. We have the best intention of getting things under control tomorrow but that day never comes.

There are lots of reasons why you want to get rid of the clutter.

You waste time looking for things you can’t see or find. You waste money (and time) buying replacement items because you can’t find things. You don’t enjoy life at home as much as you could if the clutter... 

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How to Add Personality to Painting Projects


When it comes to painting a room or the entire house, most people focus on picking paint colors. Painting involves a lot more, from prep to cleaning brushes and picking the best paint finish for durability.

You can find lots of great tips on coordinating paint colors with your furniture, artwork, flooring and more (see HGTV’s 15 Designer Tricks for Picking a Perfect Color Palette). Now we’re also seeing interior designers decorating walls with much more than paint. Wallpaper is coming back, and homeowners are now using tile and wood for wall coverings but these types of wall treatments require a bigger investment than paint.

We know there... 

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