Green Lawn

Speak to the Lawn

Let’s say your lawn could talk to you. What would it be saying? Most lawns put up with a certain lack of care and attention over the years, so it might start a real whinge about being abused, underappreciated and a bit hungry. Lawns add value to your property so you might be wasting a big asset.

Virtual Reality Lawn

Technology has leapt ahead to the point where you could put on one of those Virtual Reality head pieces and transport yourself to a yard with a beautiful, healthy green lawn. But it is ‘virtual reality’, so you can’t simply flick a switch to change your poor existing lawn. A well cared for and healthy lawn for instance, looks rather stunning. It’s great to look at, fun to play on, and there’s no doubting its ability to dramatically increase your property’s curb appeal. As an added bonus, a lawn is healthy for the environment.

KISS

Achieving that beautiful lawn is not something that requires you to have a Master’s degree in agronomy. You just need to adjust the way you are doing some of the things and make sure that you continue with the changes in the future.

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Moving Your Refrigerator

Removalist Tips for Moving Your Refrigerator

Refrigerators are some of the more sensitive appliances that you should exercise care when moving from one place to another. Here are some removalist tips from Brighton Removals for preparing your refrigerator for a move:

  • Begin by removing all the contents from your refrigerator. Everything from food to ice in the freezer should be removed to avoid having any object stirring and causing damage inside the fridge during the move. It is advisable to consume all perishable items ahead of time to avoid any wastage.
  • All shelves, drawers, and trays should also be removed to make the refrigerator not only lighter and easier for moving. This will also prevent your trays, shelves, and drawers from unnecessary cracking during the move. These parts should be wrapped in bubble wrap or towels and stored in a box during transport. Otherwise, you can apply non-sticky tape on the shelves if you don’t want to remove them for the move.

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Small Garden

7 Landscaping Trends for the Small Garden

As house blocks become smaller, so do gardens and outdoor spaces, so to make the most of the alfresco area, it’s a good idea to have professional landscaping done. Professionals have had a great deal of experience and training and know the best way to ensure every tiny corner is put to use so your garden not only adds value to your home but enhances your lifestyle at the same time.

Here are seven of the latest trends for small gardens.

  • Most people enjoy some kind of greenery in their life, so small gardens are really taking off. Even if your courtyard is only big enough for a shrub and a chaise or two, you can have it designed to make it look larger. Potted plants and raised gardens don’t take up much room and will enhance your courtyard, and the time spent there will be more pleasurable.
  • Edible landscapes are becoming trendier. Add some herbs for cooking, one or two tomato plants, peppers or snow peas in your flowers for a great garden that tastes great and looks good. Remember to only plant your favourite food, though.
  • Not everyone wants to mow and water lawns on their days off, so increasingly, small areas are being paved. Whether you choose fake turf, decking, limestone, tiles or bricks, or perhaps gravel with pavers is up to you. Replacing the lawn is also eco-friendly as you will save on water and fertilisers.
  • Creating a garden that reflects elements of your latest overseas holidays is also trendy. Think what you liked best on your holiday and work it into your landscape: a fish pond, bridge over running water, white gravel and pavers or a row of brightly coloured garden pots.
  • Going vertical with your gardening, with a particular grow wall that faces the sun, will enable you to have even more plants and can hide ugly brickwork. Remember to choose vines that are not rampant growers, so you don’t have to keep cutting them back. You could even espalier a fruit tree. Many modular systems have all you need for watering and fertilising, making maintenance a breeze.

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Recycled Timber

7 Hot Trends for Interior Fitouts

You don’t have to be an interior designer such as Sorgiovanni Interiors to make some trendy changes to your restaurant or cafe the next time it needs a fit-out.  Simply knowing what is trendy and incorporating it into your present decor is often enough to give your hospitality space an edge.  These days, so many people are interested in going green, being sustainable and saving the environment that they will even choose a cafe where they can see such themes in action.

So here are 7 hot trends some of which also incorporate sustainability, making your cafe of interest to many such patrons.

  • An open plan kitchen. This won’t suit every cafe model, but when it does the result is magical. People love to be able to see how chefs work, especially when they are creating meals with natural ingredients, all part of sustainability.
  • Using recycled materials somewhere in the building ensures that those who are into recycling will feel satisfied to know you are trying to conserve the earth’s resources. This can be as simple as finding used bricks to use as part-walls or for the front of your reception counter, or finding some distressed timber to add in for a counter or for ceiling beams or other decorative elements.

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Home Renovation

How The Right Financial Planning Can Pay for House Repairs

Whether you’ve paid off your home or not, financial advisors such as andep will tell you there are sure to be many other expenses such as house repairs. Some of these can be quite unexpected; for instance, a car might run into your home and wreck the foundations or stability of it, or a sudden storm might mean a tree falls across your roof. How do you pay for these major repairs and still afford to pay the mortgage off? Financial planning right from the start is the best way.

Even if you have never sought advice from a financial planner, it’s not too late to start now. Most financial experts will advise you on the ways to minimise your risk and get more from your dollars. One way to minimise risk of loss is through insurance. Even though it might seem like money down the drain, having insurance for your home is essential. Then any kind of damage can be paid for.

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Carpet-Cleaning

11 Carpet Cleaning Secrets

Carpets are found in nearly every home and office as they reduce noise levels significantly. No matter how hard you try, eventually, the carpet will become a victim of spills, drips and accidental dirt.  However, by implementing some tips from Brilliance Carpet Cleaning Perth your carpet will look its best for longer in between that essential professional clean.

  • When liquid is spilled onto the carpet, blot it with a soft towel, cloth or paper. But be sure to spot from the outside towards the centre so the stain doesn’t spread.
  • Never rub the carpet; this can break the fibres and spread the dirt.
  • Club soda can be used as an effective stain remover. Place some on a cloth and start blotting as above.
  • Another good stain remover is equal parts of white vinegar and water. Put it into a spray bottle to make applying it easier. Spray, let it soak for up to 15 minutes, then blot. Repetition will bring success for stubborn stains.
  • Shaving cream applied directly to stains is also effective. Leave for 30 minutes, then clean off with your vinegar and water spray solution. Remember to blot, not wipe.
  • Have the kids left chewing gum on the carpet? Use ice cubes to freeze it solid, then lift and cut off trapped carpet fibres as close as possible to the gum.  Don’t try to pull it off, as that will tear the threads out from the base of the carpet.
  • If you get grease or fat on the carpet, use a water solution and dishwashing liquid. Spray it on and blot it several times over for the best result, and contact the professionals at Carpet Cleaning Perth.

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Colorbond-roofing

Reasons to Choose Colorbond for Your Re-Roofing Renovation

The time usually comes when those tiles are old and leaky and do nothing to make your home look good or keep its value. It is time for re-roofing but what material should you choose? Staying with tiles will eventually give you the same problem that makes your home look rather old and awful right now; namely, mould.

This black growth over your roof is one of the major problems of tiles. It is hard to remove and often keeps coming back. This is because the roots penetrate into the tile and cannot be scrubbed away. After you have gone to the cost or time of having it all washed down and treated it will end up back on your roof as bad as ever.

Tiles are not good for another reason. Because they are so small they need to have a lot of infrastructure underneath to support them.  And because they are quite heavy it needs to be strong, so no cutting costs there. In addition, the very shape of tiles and the way they have to be aligned means that there are many niches in and around each one. In bushfire season, this allows red hot embers that are blown onto your roof to lodge there securely, thus your roof is most likely to catch on fire, so installing fire protection with the help of Fire Services Perth would be advised.

Happily there is a great alternative to tiles. Steel roofing does not have any of the above problems. It is light and the sheets are large, so less infrastructure is needed and it is quick to erect. No mould can grow on it because it does not absorb moisture; the spores cannot get a hold in it.

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Decorating-Stairway-Space

8 Tips for Utilising and Decorating Stairway Space

If you have a stairway in your home there are many ways in which you can utilise the space above or below it to add character and space to your home. That said, stairways are often rather dark areas, so they should have specific lighting either on the stairs or the wall to ensure you don’t overbalance and fall. A qualified electrician can do this work for you and give you advice on where the best place is to install the lighting.

Decorating-Stairway-Space

So how can you use the space around a stairway?

    • Use the wall where the stairs go up to hang a family album of photos or several beautiful landscapes. Make sure the frames all have something in common such as toning colours, but they don’t all have to be the same shape or size. You can have round, square rectangular or oval shapes to break things up a bit.
    • For a really modern look, you could have all the frames the same colour and paint the landing and/or stair rail to match. Try bright green, red or yellow for some eye popping fun. Match the colour with some other nearby accessories such as a table lamp or rug.
    • If you are not into photo displays you can create visual interest and a most elegant look by displaying a wall of mirrors with gold and silver frames. These can be found at op-shops or flea markets and you can spray on the gold paint yourself. An electrician can install pendant lighting to match.
    • Replace the plain banisters with a filigree of wrought iron lacework to lighten up the area and make it really eye-catching and decorative.

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Veranda-Furniture

How Veranda Furniture Should Differ from Outdoor Furniture

Many people these days design their home to include a beautiful and relaxing outdoor area complete with comfortable outdoor furniture so they can entertain or have family meals outdoors if they want to. If you home doesn’t have one of these areas, it is easy to renovate the home to include a deck or verandah, or add a gazebo or outdoor dining area to the backyard.

The kind of furniture you purchase for this area will differ, depending on where it is and what your dining or relaxation area consists of. Basically, whether it is weatherproof or not. A veranda or deck that includes a roof and is enclosed on at least three sides can be considered mostly weatherproof.

Veranda-Furniture

However, a gazebo with a roof but no walls is not weather proof because the wind will blow rain straight in. Even if there are one or two walls and a roof it is still not exactly weatherproof from any but the lightest shower and that only when there is no wind.

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Fencing-Hobby-Farm

Security Fencing for a Fencing for a Hobby Farm

With an increasing number of people moving into country areas on small acreage, there comes a need for training about caring for the animals they have on their hobby farm.  Even though it’s a hobby, such a farm really needs security – whether it be an alarm system to alert you if an unwelcomed guest enters the premises or some type of security fencing to keep the stock safe from wandering onto the road.

This doesn’t have to be the same kind that you would find in the city. The kind of fence for a hobby farm would depend on what kind of animals were kept. 4-5 strands of barbed wire will keep cattle in, but horses would be likely to injure themselves on it because of their flighty nature. They tend to kick out when frightened and if they do it near the barbed wire it could result in nasty cuts.

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Patio-floor

How to Floor It – the Patio That Is

Not all patios have floors, but you might want to floor yours so it can be used more like a room. Without a floor the base of the structure will eventually get wet, no matter how dry your climate is. This means that the furniture or anything else sitting under the patio will also get wet from the ground up.

Chair and table legs made of timber will end up rotting, while cupboards will the ruined, especially if they are clad with MDF, which absorbs moisture and expands, then falls to pieces. So what kind of floor will you have for your patio? Much depends on how you want to use it. If it is just to park the car under, there is no real need for any floor.

Patio-floor

But if you want to use it during rainy weather or put furniture in it, then a floor of some kind is advisable. Here are 7 suggestions for a patio floor.

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Protect-Mattress-when-Moving

How to Protect Your Mattresses When You Move

While it is easy to wrap and pack smaller items into boxes, mattresses are different. A mattress is made from fabric, so it needs to be protected from dirt and dust. Even the packing provided by removalists is likely to be too dirty or leave a lot of unwelcome lint and dust on the mattress. So, what can you do to protect it? There are a few options.

Use old sheets

Your old fitted sheets are the ideal way to protect the mattress. You can put one over the top and another one over the bottom. If you don’t have old sheets, use new ones; they are easily washed after all. If you don’t trust them not to come off during handling, pin the edges together, or tie twine around the mattress like you would a gift box. You could even staple the edges together if the sheets are relatively old.  Sheets are also good protectors for fabric lounge chairs or the sofa. Even flat sheets can be used to wrap the mattress in, albeit not as easily as fitted ones.

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built-in-pool

What Kind of Pool do You Need?

Pool builders will tell you there are many different kinds of pools and different types of building materials for them. If you are considering adding a pool to your backyard it’s important to ensure it is suitable for your children and this will depend on their age. If your kids are still toddlers, they won’t get much use from a pool that is six feet deep.

You may think that installing a deep pool now will at least enable you to have a nice swim, but how many times can you get outside without those little ones toddling along after you? Mum in the deep pool while toddlers sit and watch is an unrealistic expectation. It is far better to have a small above ground wading pool for the little ones and you can sit in it with them while they have fun. It will be enough to cool you off on a hot day.

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Pool Maintenance

8 Easy Pool Maintenance Tips

When you have a pool, cleaning it is essential and for major clean-ups automatic pool cleaners of some kind are ideal. There are several types of cleaner that make the work less of a drudge, the best of all being the robotic cleaner that picks up all kinds of debris both large and small. But in between these major cleans, you still need to do maintenance so the water is less likely to get algae and bacteria in it. Here are 8 easy tips to help.

  • Use a pool skimmer to remove surface debris every day. Most such rubbish floats for a few hours before sinking, so it is easier to remove it at this time and it will not then have time to start decomposing to any great extent, making your pool water pH out of balance. You should also empty the skimmer baskets every day.
  • It is not only the leaves and twigs blowing into the pool that causes a problem with water purity; sunscreen and body oils wash into the water also. These can’t be lifted out with a scoop, but if you throw 2-3 new tennis balls into the pool, the oil in both will get caught on the fur as they bob around. Take them out and run them under the hot tap every so often to remove the oil.
  • Having an automatic pool cleaner or brushing the pool once a week to prevent mould or algae build-up. Everything that is under the water needs to be brushed, including steps, rails, ladders, walls and base. Vinyl, fibreglass and tiles need a soft brush; concrete and plaster need a stiffer brush.

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Removals and Storage

Removals and Storage

According to professional moving company, Brilliance Removalists Perth sometimes the date you have to move out of your home doesn’t coincide with the date you have planned to move into your new property? It’s a common enough problem. It will require new instructions to your removals company, that’s for sure.

The obvious solution is that all your household possessions will have to go into storage for as long as it takes until your new residence is available. Some people have an innate fear about storing their precious household possessions. But they shouldn’t really worry. Let’s take the time to address some of the concerns that are more fiction than fact.

Fiction: Your goods are plonked in the middle of a warehouse

Fact: No, they aren’t (well they shouldn’t be)!

A reputable and professional company providing furniture rеmоvаlѕ wоuld not contemplate simply “dumping” уоur hоuѕеhоld goods іntо the mіddlе of a gеnеrаl рurроѕе wаrеhоuѕе.

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