Summer Fix-Ups - August 2011

By: Crissy Knibbe

    After this unusual weather, you're probably more ready for summer than usual. Now is the perfect time to get your house ready for warmer temperatures too. Kick off the summer with 3 easy projects and a few inexpensive ways to spruce up your home.

     GUTTERS Cold weather can cause gutter seams to leak and fasteners to pop loose. A leaf blower works great for blasting out leaves and other debris. Finish by sealing leaks with gutter sealant and replacing loose spikes with gutter screws.

    AIR CONDITIONER Get your central air conditioner system ready for summer by cleaning the condensation drain line. This small plastic pipe running from your AC unit outside is a magnet for algae and other gunk. To keep it from clogging, pour a cup of bleach through a funnel into the drain line's access hole (near the air handler unit located inside your house), let it stand 20 minutes, then flush the line with water.

    WINDOW SCREENS Before you hang your screens, give them a good scrubbing. First lay four 2x4's on the ground to create a frame, staple a sheet of plastic over it to make a homemade "tub." Fill it with warm soapy water and use a soft scrub brush to gently clean both sides of each screen. Rinse screens with hose and allow to dry. ~Info provided by BHG.
Have you wandered around in your house and wondered what would give it just a little boost, something that won't break the bank or take up a lot of time to accomplish? These ideas may not seem like it would put that spark in your spring, but trust me, it will.

    FIND FRESH FLOWERS Fresh flowers are an automatic room booster. Not only are fresh flowers visibly appealing, but most of the time, the aroma stimulates the appeal of the room, as well. You don't have to spend $100 on flowers from the florist either. Take your family for a drive up the mountain and pick some wild flowers alongside the road and make a family outing out of it. Grab your favorite silk flowers and make your own arrangement and then you can save them and make new ones for each season. Or sit down with your kid's make a bouquet of flowers out of paper, but whatever you do, DON'T pick them out of your neighbor's flower garden.

    CONCEAL THE CLUTTER A bread box can hold more than just bread! Put your sandwich bags and peanut butter in there to cut clutter in your cupboard or pantry and it will make it easier for you to just grab it for a quick breakfast or to make a sandwich for the kids' lunches. A simple island or cart with wheels adds storage and usable surface space to a modest size kitchen. Give your remote controls good homes and they'll be less likely to wander. Most importantly, train everybody to put remotes back in their homes and nowhere else. Store bulky gaming gear (balance boards, guitars, etc) in a storage ottoman. Tired of looking at your shelves lined with DVD's? Put them in decorative storage bins or baskets. Label them kids' movies, mom & dad movies and video games. That way, you will know exactly where to find the movie you're looking for. If you don't want to use the baskets or bins, there are media storage containers that hang on the back of doors or small enough to hide under the bed. If you just have outgrown certain DVD's or games, try downsizing by swapping them with friends or selling them (swapadvd.com, swaptree.com or bookins.com).

    CHANGE UP THE CURTAINS Simply changing the curtains will transform the room that you're bored with. Put up sheers with a neutral bright color to let the most natural light in or get creative and unite colors and layer patterns for a more updated visual appeal.

Just remember, you don't need to spend a million to look like a million.

 
 

The Basin's Dirtiest Jobs - Home Remodeling - May 2011

By: Jennifer Rook

    Sometimes the dirtiest jobs aren't the types of jobs one would get paid for. Sometimes they're the jobs folks pay to GET to do. Home remodeling is one such job. Not every person can afford to build a new home from scratch and sometimes a great deal on a "fixer-upper" type home is just too good an offer to pass up, but cleaning up after a former home owner is never a clean or easy job.

A home listed as "a cute and charming fixer-upper" may seem like a bad nightmare to some, but to others, it's a challenge worthy of taking on. The truth is, however, most homes that are in need of remodeling work aren't so "cute and charming" to begin with. In fact, there are some pretty dirty details to get through before some places can even begin to resemble something cute and charming.

    "When we bought this place we knew what we were in for." says our daring homeowner. She and her husband and four children have been working on a home remodel for the past ten months. "We got a great deal on this house, but it was in terrible shape." she admits. "We knew we were in for a lot of DIRTY work. There had been water damage so there was a lot of nasty drywall behind all the lovely 1970's paneling. Every inch of wall in this house was covered with wood paneling. We even had to take out all the insulation and clean and treat the frame before we could put up new drywall."

    Hauling out water logged carpets was another challenge for these hardworking homeowners. "The carpet had to come out in pieces because it was just so heavy. And you would not believe the dirt that was beneath it. So disgusting! I will never have carpet again."

    Water damaged drywall and dirt aren't the dirtiest elements home remodelers will have to deal with, however. Dealing with animal urine and feces leads the "gross out" list. Another home remodeler relates a story. "Thank God there was a concrete floor under the carpet or else I think we would have just torched the place. That carpet was just saturated. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever dealt with. The cats had taken over this house. We had to replace cabinets and drywall as well."

Local plumbers tell horrific tales of nastiness as well. "I got a call from a woman once who said she needed me to fix a leak underneath her remodel house. " one plumber recalls. "When I got there I look under it and sure enough, there's a leak. It's not JUST a leak though. It's a four inch sewer pipe that hasn't ever been hooked up. They'd had raw sewage running under the house for who knows how long?"

Even without dealing with fecal matter of all sorts, mold, dirt and dust, sometimes just dealing with junk former owners leave behind is enough of a mess. "This house was a foreclosure so the people just left tons of junk in the house." admits our daring homeowner. "The man who was contracted to clean the place up threw all that trash out into the yard. Dishes, old computer discs, computer parts, toys, paper items, clothing…just junk…was all just tossed into a pile in the yard and then he buried it with a bobcat. We had a lovely mound of JUNK to remove, but he got pictures of the home all cleaned up and got his money from the bank."

    As nightmarish as it sounds, most of these dirty situations can be cleaned up and with the right amount of detail and care, can be turned into nice homes free of dust, mold and any former nastiness. It's a very, very dirty job, but well worth it.