ImageMash » Household

Spring Needs to Spring

admin — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:44:53 +0000

I am so sick of the snow and cold winter weather. I need spring to be here! I can’t take the cold, depressing winter anymore. So to ease my pain of the fact that we probably have another month of winter left I am making plans for my hubby for this summer. I am hoping he will be building a new front porch on our house. It’s quite beautiful inside my head.

I want him to rip out what is there- yucky, ugly concrete that the previous owners painted gray which is now peeling. I want it rebuilt with beautiful wood. I want tons of flowers- and I really want some window boxes to dress it up. I am thinking that it would look nice if I added a window box to each of the windows in the front of our house too, to kind of keep things the same. Our deck that was built last summer needs a little sprucing up as far as flowers, so some window boxes back there would look good too!

I wish I could start a countdown to the nice weather, but where we live it’s impossible to know. It will be here someday and I’ll be out there sprucing things up!

Our Family Room

admin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:13:03 +0000

Last winter my DH took on a major project and renovated our family room. It wasn’t very attractive looking when we bought the house. It had dark paneling that looked like it was from the 70s. It looked dark and just didn’t feel warm and inviting. So he ripped it all out and put up new sheet rock walls. He painted them and now it looks fantastic! While he had the walls ripped out he put the wires for our home speakers behind the walls so you can’t see them. I love the end product!

Save Some Electricity

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:21:34 +0000

Need to save some money? With the rising costs all around us most of us are looking for ways to save some extra cash. Here are a few things you can do this summer to reduce your electric bill.

Set your air conditioner to 78° while you are at home.
Run a portable fan which will make the room about 4° cooler.
Only run your dishwasher when it is full.
Stop your dishwasher before the dry cycle and let the dishes air dry.
Wash your clothes in warm or cold water (not hot) and use cold water for your rinse cycle.
Hang your clothes outside to dry instead of using the dryer. (Unless you have allergies, like me, then you do not want to do that.)
If you use your dryer- make sure you run it full, use the moisture sensing setting so that it doesn’t run longer than necessary and clean your lint filter.
Turn off or unplug your electronic items when you are not using them. If you can’t turn your computer off, at least turn the monitor off when not in use.
Replace your old incandescent light bulbs.
Keep your refrigerator or freezer full.

And one thing we like to do is eat outside on our electric grill. It sure beats turning on the stove, which costs us more than we ever thought. By using our grill our electric bill went down. I’m going to be cooking out more even during the winter.

Search For A Plan

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:07:24 +0000

If you own a home then you know you need to have insurance on your home. You have to protect your home as well as your valuables that are inside your home. But with all of the choices out there how can you possibly know the best home insurance you could have? One tip they offer is to make sure you are getting all of the possible discounts there are- for example your insurance company probably offers a discount if you have a security system. Be sure to check out information available on the internet to find more great tips like that one as well as ways to get your home covered quickly, accurately and easily. Not only that, but make sure you get a life insurance plan as well to make sure you’re getting the best coverage there too.

Less Than 6 Months Away

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:34:50 +0000

Did you know that Christmas will be here in less than 6 months? And it’s almost fall, and once fall arrives things just seem to fly by. It’ll be Halloween, and all those crazy Halloween costumes . Then we’ll all be rushing to get things done for Christmas.

This year, rather than waiting until the last minute why not get started now? One thing that is really easy to do ahead of time is to order some Christmas cards. I love the idea of using cards with a personal photo on them, rather than just your standard card that will probably get thrown away after the Christmas season is over. Anyway, let’s get through summer first, then move on to the Holidays.

Online Shoe Shopping

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:34:06 +0000

Online shopping can save you a lot of money. I always compare prices and look for coupons online before I do any shopping. I love shoes, so I’m always looking for new shoebuy coupons online. And when I find good coupons I book mark them, never know when you’ll need them again. Many times if I find a store doing free shipping then I will make my purchases online too. Be sure to shop around online before you go shopping to save yourself time and money.

Back Yard

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:23:16 +0000

We recently redid our deck in our back yard. My husband and my dad ripped out our old deck and built an all new much improved deck. It really changed how our back yard looks. We have had several of our neighbors comment about how much better it looks. After the deck was finished my husband did some work on our patio as well as adding some new patio cushions to really improve how things look. I love the new look and can’t wait to do some entertaining!

Shopping Tips

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:32:03 +0000

So you love to shop, right? And you also love to save money, right? I know that’s how it is for me. I want the good products but I don’t want to spend anymore money than I have to. That’s why I like to check out as many web sites as I can, to price comparison. Just the other day I was looking for something new for doors in my house when I came across discount door hardware . Not what I was looking for, but more ideas that I can use down the road. I simply add any site that looks like I may use someday to my fav’s. I recommend that you do the same thing, could save you money later on.

Looking for a New Home?

admin — Sat, 01 May 2010 23:33:42 +0000

Are you thinking about buying a new home? If you are, then you can go the old route- serach for hours upon hours with your real estate agent trying to find a house the fits your needs and has all of the extra features you want too. Or you can check out the Outer banks foreclosures . But then again you can build your own home and know that you’ll be able to get exactly what you want in your home. Me personally I would consider having my built for me, if I had the money. Foreclosures could turn out to be a huge mess mostly because people are destory them before they leave them. So I quess I’m taking the agent out with me, seems like the best way at this point. If you had your choice, what would you do?

Laptop vs. Desktop

admin — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:07:39 +0000

I remember when laptop computers first started coming out. I thought I would always love my desktop and want to stick with that. It took me a long time to be convinced otherwise. Now that I have a notebook computer I can’t imagine going back to a desktop. We have a desktop but it never gets used. It’s so much easier to use the laptop.