Help with cleaning house to get it ready for sale
enduring
5 years ago
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Cleaning out beds, getting ready for spring,WEEDS!
Comments (1)Depends on you plant spacing, you could use a weed barrier but when you get done, you probably wished you pulled weeds. Costco has it in the spring. Grey in color. Compost might be good to mix in with your existing soil, make the soil more friable, easier to pull weeds. What kind of mulch did you bring in the had different kinds of weeds? Chipper mulch might be the best kind, 2" deep, should keep the weeds down. Call an arborist and see if they are trimming trees in your area, it could be cheaper then buying bags at a big box. Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials...See Moregetting home ready for the holidays?
Comments (2)I think it depends on what you're planning. Is it a dinner for 6 or 20; a buffet for the neighborhood; a house-warming drop in thing or overnight guests with all the food and entertaining for several days. Clean and decorate those rooms that will be used; don't worry about the other rooms. Decorate to make yourself and family happy; don't worry about others' reactions. Keep your economical situation in focus. It's about warmth and bringing together family and friends without pretension and celebrating the holiday appropriately. Some years I don't bother with a tree (inside). We often have a nature inspired tree on the front porch. It doesn't take up space inside; it's fun for everyone outside; and the dog isn't dumping it over. I have a display tree stand that I use to show family ornaments. Festive ribbons around your usual decorations or added to your kitchen cabinet tops or fireplace area sometimes adds a very uplifting feel to your everyday decor without extra expense. Rechargeable or battery lights are easy to decorate with and don't add the extra burden of candles or electric connections. This year, we're keeping it simple with our usual candles in the windows; battery lit wreaths outside, etc. Good food; good friends and more charity donations....See MoreGetting ready to build a home.. Wayne home reviews
Comments (11)After living in a manufactured home for the 1st 4 years of my married life AND living in a Jim Walter home, I am NEVER going with a "chain" builder. Several people I went to high school with have become contractors. (We had a very small school and pretty much knew each other quite well.) I've been in several of their homes and they are built a heck of a LOT better than my home. We bought our current house in foreclosure(The house was only 2 years old at the time), so we didn't go through the building process with Jim Walter. We did, however, visit their showplace to get some information where we found the people there like car salesman on the car lot, waiting for their next "sell." I tell EVERYONE that they cut so many corners on our house that our house is round. Our front porch columns were painted with indoor eggshell paint. The railings that we had to pull off because they were rotting had a groove in the bottom that was supposed to be flat so water stayed and caused the rot. There wasn't any plastic sheeting put under the slab so it sweats. There is NO house wrap. There is no underlayment under our shingles. They put MDF painted molding around my Jacuzzi bathtub as well as painted MDF for the tub deck. The kitchen cabinet doors were not sanded right and they are hard to clean and rough as tree bark. There is only ONE outlet on the outside of the house. There is NO water faucet near the garage. We have to drive to the side of the house to clean our vehicle. The staircase railing is there for looks and not for assistance. The spindles are coming undone because they were attached to the side of the staircase with finishing nails. They put tack strips down on each stair step on the side and to the back of it AND every door threshold! We have to watch where we step because tacks get our feet. We replaced the carpet in the living room and are wanting to the staircase. I just don't know how to fix what they messed up. They forgot the molding on the bottom of the 2nd floor bathroom; the vinyl floor is curling. There is a LARGE 120" x 60" window in my dining room. I love the BIG window BUT it faces the East AND is not insulated. Every time it rains there is a flood in our garage because the floor is THAT uneven. They "forgot" to add a pipe to the drain for the HVAC system which our HVAC technician "tried" to fix but told us that we needed a plumber. We fixed it but not before having a pretty little stain on the ceiling exactly where 2 pieces of drywall fit together. The staircase turns just before the bottom of the 2nd floor so sharply that you have to hug the wall to get upstairs. The other side of the steps are flat and you drop 2 feet if you don't pay attention. We don't think the Master Bedroom WIC is insulated because the temperature is the same as the outdoors and makes the bathroom either really HOT or really COLD. There is SO much more wrong with this house like no housing for the electricals under the lights and ceiling fans. My hubby thankfully knew how to do that when we changed out the ceiling fan in the living room and the florescent light in the kitchen. I may not have built with these people but I don't want to have the same mistakes in our dream home. I am not willing to shell out that money for what I DON'T want....See MoreReadying house for sale - need help choosing flooring
Comments (2)We're listing our house next month so we're hip deep in these kinds of decisions. If you're unloading the house in a year, I don't think it's that big a deal if you're tired of the color of the carpet, you're going away and leaving it. ;-) Since the carpet "looks great" and Karastan is a high quality product, as long as it's a neutral color I would just have it deep cleaned and leave it. It probably has several more years of useful life in it, Karastan's pretty well known for being long-lived. If it's an odd or very dated color like pink or teal, removing it and installing a midrange neutral-colored carpet (that isn't Berber, a lot of people really hate Berber and would consider it a strike against the house) might be a good plan, but I would wait until it's closer to listing time so it looks newer and you can advertise it as "new carpet". You can put a couple of large area rugs on top of the existing carpet (they make a special rug anchor pad for putting area rugs on top of carpeting, to keep them from buckling and sliding) to jazz it up for your remaining time there. However, if you're bent on removing the carpet, ceramic tile over electric heating mats (like Suntouch) would be a nice option to consider as people are very aware of mold/mildew/dust/allergies/asthma these days. Since it's a big room, a large format tile (like 18x18) would be flattering, and can be had for a reasonable price at the big-box stores, especially if you catch a sale. Area rugs can be scattered around for softening and noise reduction, but don't cover too much of the floor else you negate that nice floor warming. I have warmed tile floors in my bathroom and they are downright heavenly - have to pry the cat off them with a crowbar. We will really miss them! BTW, $250-400k means completely different things in different areas... in my town in coastal NH $300k buys a starter home (!), so you don't expect too many amenities for that, while in, say, central Missouri (just to pull an example out of my hat) $300k gets you a house with bells and whistles galore and people would expect a lot more....See Moreenduring
5 years agoenduring
5 years agoIzzy Mn
5 years agoenduring
5 years agoenduring
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoenduring
5 years agoenduring
5 years agoenduring
5 years agoenduring
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
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