Keep Your House Covered For A Warmer Winter

Keep Your House Covered for a Warmer Winter

Homeowners are 40% more likely to experience water leaks due to cold weather, but the damage may not be covered by their insurance policy. Many will state that it’s the homeowners responsibility to heat their home even if they are away in order to prevent accidents like burst pipes happening. Getting your plumbing system serviced and making sure your pipes are lagged can help prevent these occurrences and, along with other insulation and draft proofing, will keep your home safe and warm in winter.

Lagging Pipes and Insulation

Insulating your water pipes prevents them from freezing or getting damaged.  On cold pipes it can also prevent condensation forming on the pipes. This happens when the water inside the pipe is colder than the heated air surrounding it and can cause issues with damp. Lagging hot water pipes helps reduce heat loss and can raise the water temperature by up to 4 degrees. If a pipe does burst, make sure you know where to turn off the water to prevent further damage before calling a plumber.

Chimneys and Fireplaces

Another area to cover in your home is an open fireplace. When not in use, 14% of air in your home can be lost through a chimney. Check your damper is well fitted and working efficiently, or block the chimney completely with a tightly fitted foam chimney draft excluder. If your house is still chilly, think about adding an extra source of heat. An ethanol fire doesn’t require a flue and can be the cozy main attraction or accent to a living area.

Insulation and Draft Proofing

The US Department of Energy estimates that you can save up to 30% of your home’s energy by having it properly insulated and, for optimal energy efficiency, this should extend from the attic to the basement. As well as fitting insulation in the roof and walls, draft proofing smaller areas can make a difference to heat loss.  Weatherstripping can be fitted around windows and doors stop to seal any gaps. Heavy curtains, draft excluders at the bottom of doors and a rug on wooden floorboards will also help to minimize cold drafts and heat loss.

Covering up and adding extra layers is good advice to keep warm in the winter and it works for your house as well. Lagging pipes, insulating walls and covering floors keeps more of the valuable warmth of radiators and fires inside your home for a safe and cozy winter.

Guest Contributor, Cindy Trillo

Tips on Choosing the Right Color for Your Bedroom

Tips on Choosing the Right Color for Your Bedroom

How do you paint a room that bookends your day? Bedroom is more than sum of its parts, its function is something sacred – to offer you a moment of respite from daily woes and comfort you when you feel the most vulnerable. In fact, it is a place where you should be able to feel the most vulnerable without any reserve. This is why it is so important to choose the right colors for this area – because you will wake up to them every day and they will be the last thing you see each night. With that in mind, here are the tips on choosing the right color for your bedroom.

It needs to be calming

Calming color scheme is the top priority and the tip you’ll get from basically anyone if you ask them about bedroom aesthetics. Now, the idea of calmness can vary from person to person, but it would be safe to say that you should definitely go for serene composition. In other words – no distinct contrasts. Just make the lines and tones blend into each other and complement each other’s level of warmth. The question of whether you should go for lighter and darker tones is mostly dependent on you, but darker ones are usually recommended for the bedroom.

Dark and calming nuances

Dark colors are actually a good go-to option if you want to create a truly calming and comfortable bedroom. However, these dark colors should not be too harsh or bold. Go for some nice pastels like charcoal, olive, deep violet, navy or silver tones. The best variant is to either go for gentle blue-steely tones with a pinch of milky gray if you want a cold scheme, or olive-celery sort of green that can be a good basis for a room that aims for organic and warm tones. Line your room with furniture that has white skeletons in order to add some crispy visuals and a sense of space to your bedroom.

It needs to be done right

After you have created a hypothetical arrangement of colors for your bedroom – preferably a collage you can actually show to professionals – you should seek out high quality painting services that can bring your vision to life. The last thing you need is a messy environment which cannot be fixed, so avoid doing this all by yourself. Lines that are drawn sloppily can also impact the levels of your anxiety in the long run. You might not notice it at first, but it is one of those things that creeps into one’s mind slowly and insidiously.

If your bedroom is small…

Still, if your room is already cozy when it comes to space, the darker colors (which are there to create a comfortable and cozy atmosphere) might not be the best solution. If your bedroom is small, you should consider lighter tones and start with a white basis. According to the type of bedroom you want to create (warm or cold) you can choose a white with a bluish hue or the one with a warm creamy dash. The brighter tones will add a sense of airiness and brightness to your bedroom, almost without fault, so it is a risk-free and solid solution.

The window conundrum

The windows in your bedroom are a tricky element – you’d want big windows for bright mornings and sunny afternoons, but you’ll also want to minimize the presence of light if you want to sleep in. In that case, you will get the best of all worlds if you installed bigger windows but also added some solid shutters which are easy to manage. You will also want to install windows which can be easily opened and don’t let any bulky furniture block them. You will want to have an option to let the fresh air flow through your bedroom whenever you need it.

If you followed at least a few of these tips on choosing the right color for your bedroom, you should end up looking at something truly aesthetically pleasing – a place that, as far as palette of colors go, suits your sensibilities and makes you feel content. Even though people have different ideas of comfort, they all share this deeply-rooted yearning to have a safe place where they can rest, and with just the right combination of colors on your hands, you too can have a bedroom of your dreams.

Guest Contributor, Diana Smith

Decorating On A Dime

We all can have a cleaner and more harmonious home at a fair price. This can be achieved by getting rid of clutter, proper placement of items and paying attention to what's on your walls and doors. My name is Krystal Brown and I run a blog entitled “Freedom in Frugality”. In this quick article, I am going to teach you how to have a more pleasant looking home for pennies. If you find this article useful, please subscribe to my blog at https://krystalbrownblog.wordpress.com/. I pledge to keep your email address private. Now, let's get started.

The first order of business is getting rid of clutter. If you haven't worn something in a year, you aren't likely to start wearing it. Now is the time to get rid of things like old purses, shoes and kitchen equipment you know you won't get around to using. Place your items on the free section of Craigslist. You can also give away the items on Freecycle. Freecycle is a list where people can give away and receive free items. If you need something, you post a message detailing what you need. If you have something to give away, you make a post telling about what you have to offer. I subscribe to their email list and everyday I get a newsletter telling me what is being offered. I have received free sheets for a new twin bed I purchased just by posting a request on Freecycle. The sheets were almost new. I simply washed them in hot water and they have been a fixture in my home every since. I have also given away a lot on Freecycle including clothing I had not worn in a long time.

Next, combine style and functionality by hanging needed items on your walls and doors using Command Damage-Free Strips and “over the door” hangers. They have both at my local Dollar Tree. I put the Command Damage-Free strips on my walls to hang everything from keys to shower caps. I use over the door hangers to hang up my purses, umbrellas and scarves. This keeps needed items at my fingertips and also reduces clutter. I use the hanging strips on my front door as well. I have about 4 strips in strategic places on my front door. Every season, I hang different decorations on the strips. My door is decorated differently for every season and all of the decorations are purchased from the Dollar Tree because they don't need to last a long time—they just need to last for a season or even just a month. On Halloween, I had a felt scarecrow and some felt pumpkins. For Christmas, I had a wreath and some golden angels and doves. For Valentine's Day, I had a “Happy Valentine's Day” sign with several hearts hanging from the strips. If they don't have the Command brand of strips, they are likely to have another good brand like VELCRO. I don't buy “generic” or “off brand” strips because even though I change out the decorations frequently, the strips themselves have to last season after season. So, if they don't have Command strips or another brand name, I simply go to Dollar General or Family Dollar instead of Dollar Tree. Dollar General and Family Dollar are low priced as well, but they have more brand names.

My next piece of advice is this—everything in your home needs a “home”. Don't leave keys or mail just sitting around on counter tops and tables. Get some decorative baskets and make sure that everything—from remote controls to paper bills—is in a basket. These baskets can be metal, plastic or wood. Get several glass vases from a dollar store. Use them on your bathroom sink to reduce clutter. Fill one vase with cotton balls, another with make up swabs and so on. All homes automatically look better when everything is in its place. You can use colored mesh laundry bags for stuffed toys and other things that are too big for baskets.

The last step is decorating our walls. Buy a dollar store calendar and about 5 $1 picture frames. Choose five of your favorite calendar pictures and put the pictures in the frames. Hang the frames on your wall and you have several beautiful pieces of wall art for next to nothing. I also use silver “wall clings” from the Dollar Tree on my walls. They have inspirational sayings or some are just pretty to look at—like wall clings in the shape of flowers or vines. Just follow the package directions. I also put up greeting cards on my bedroom doors. I use birthday and holiday cards that I've received for this purpose. Put a little tape on the back of the cards and stick them on your doors. You have just used something that you probably were going to throw away anyway to make your home look nicer!

Having a more beautiful and organized home does not have to be expensive at all. You just have to be aware of what you hang on your walls, reduce clutter and make sure that everything in your home has a place. You also have to shop at the right stores. All of the items I wrote about can be purchased at discount stores such as Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Roses', Ollie's' and TJ Maxx. I hope this article was useful to you! If so, please consider subscribing to “Freedom in Frugality” at https://krystalbrownblog.wordpress.com.

Guest Contributor, Krystal Brown