home--garden

3 Great Ways To Personalize Your Home Library

Whether you are creating a huge home library with vaulted ceilings and shelves the go up your entire walls, or a small cozy library that has more of a cottage feel, there are certain things that you can do to personalize it. You want your home library to be comfortable and inviting because it is a place where you and your family will spend a lot of your time when you are reading.

Five Reasons To Go Soft On Your Hard Water

If you're a bit ashamed of the etched, foggy glasses that you pull from your dishwasher on a daily basis, or if hard-water stains and residue have you scrubbing tile night and day, it may be time to consider investing in a water-softening system. Hard water is a problem that causes major issues for homeowners when pipes and tubing become clogged with mineral deposits. Help protect your plumbing and major appliances by softening your water.

How To Protect Your Home From Intruders

A person's home is his castle. For many people, it's the one place where they're free to truly relax and be themselves. However, it's hard to relax if you're concerned about your home being broken into by intruders. Safety is paramount. Here are five tips for securing your house that will give you some peace of mind: 1. Change the locks when you move in. When you move into a new house or apartment, you have plenty of things to attend to.

4 Fun Ideas For Turning Your Patio Into An Outdoor Room

If you are getting your patio ready for summer entertaining, why not take some time to turn it into an outdoor room? When you add a patio cover or roof over your patio, it becomes quite easy to transition from boring patio to outdoor oasis in a matter of hours. Here are some ideas you may want to consider: Island Hideaway One great way to enhance your patio is to turn it into a tropical hideaway in your own yard.

Window Treatment Solutions For Tricky Spaces

Not all windows are conventional double-sash panes, and there may be some challenges when looking for window treatments for these features. Try some of the following tips to install treatments that not only are fully-functioning, allowing you to control the light that comes into the space, but also that have a polished and cohesive appearance with the rest of your home's windows: Casement windows Casement windows resemble traditional windows with one exception: the cranking mechanism typically located at the bottom of each pane.

Tips For Attracting Birds And Butterflies To Your Property

If you enjoy watching birds and butterflies in your garden, there are some ways to lure them to visit your property. Depending on the time of year and types of birds in the region, you can bring more flying friends to your home with the right type of seed, and a warm welcome. Butterflies bring a beautiful spot of color to your property, and can be very relaxing to watch. Some tips for bringing birds and butterflies to your yard are:

The Benefits Of Paying For Professional Landscape Maintenance

Whether you have worked really hard to create the perfectly landscaped yard or you had someone do it for you, it is probably safe to say that you would like to keep it that way. To help you achieve that goal, you might want to look into professional landscape maintenance. This is a service that provides much more than just grass cutting so make sure that you are learning about the various benefits of such services.

Don't Let Burdock Dock In Your Yard: Tips For Eliminating This Invasive Plant

Burdock, though commonly confused with rhubarb, is an invasive plant that can take over your yard, suffocate your landscape and release thousands of seeds every year. The seeds are contained in small burrs that can stick to clothing and animal hair, irritating skin. It grows best in areas that are nitrogen-rich and moist. If you suspect that you have burdock in your yard, it's important to confirm its presence first, then be aggressive about eliminating it.

Water With Wow: Using Sprinklers In Your Landscaping

Forget the old fashioned sprinklers that spray water from side to side in a monotonous fashion, and ignore the fancy sprinklers that pop up out of the ground at times intervals to squirt out water and then disappear. Instead think about watering in terms of sprinklers that add visual appeal and interest to your lawn. Here are some ways sprinklers can double as a water feature in your yard.  Flowing Fountains

How To Prevent Your Trained Cat From Scratching Your Brand New Furniture

Your trained cat probably already knows to stay away from your existing furniture, but new pieces of furniture are vulnerable to your cat's claws until you can train him or her to stay away. These tips will help you protect your new sofa or ottoman, or whatever piece of furniture you've recently purchased. Cover the Furniture with Something Undesirable   You probably already own a scratching post or two to keep your cat away from your old furniture, but when your new furniture is brought home, your cat may think your new furniture is a new scratching post.