Tag Archives: repairs

Jan30

Finding Your Dream Home Needn’t Be So Difficult

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Finding Your Dream Home Needn’t Be So Difficult

Buying a home can be a trying time even when you’ve already identified your dream home. When you’re unable to discern which homes offer everything you need, it can become even more complicated. But you don’t have to, and shouldn’t be, treating it like a gamble. Instead, you should use these techniques to make your search all the more effective:

Know Your Wants and Needs: The first thing that you should do is make a list of what is a necessity in your new home and what are things that you just would like to have. Organizing your wants vs. your needs will make it easier for you to narrow down your choices based on your list. For a home that exceeds your needs, you might have to be willing to compromise on some wants. The point is to figure this out beforehand. What’s more important, the right amount of space or the right area? A patio or a pool? Energy efficiency or a wood stove? These are the elements that you need to prioritize before you even start viewing. As you establish your wants and needs, you might find that you are not willing to compromise on them. Should that be the case, it’s important to think about the pros and cons of building vs buying a home so you will be fully satisfied with the end result, whatever you choose.

Broaden Your Horizons: If you’re having trouble spotting the home that fits all of those needs (and a few wants for good measure), the fact might be that you’re not looking in the right place. There are a lot of different marketplaces to check out and some of them might be exclusive, meaning they’re out of your reach. This is why you should consider getting on side with realtors that could help broaden your search. With the experience of finding homes specific to individual needs, they could not only help you see more but also stay updated on the latest additions to the market. Otherwise, be willing to spend a lot of time looking in a lot of diverse directions for your dream home.

best suburbs for commuting to Philadelphia

Do Your Research: Worse than not finding a home is finding one only to discover later that the home comes with some issues that you never expected. Make sure you get your own house inspection and even an evaluation done on a house before agreeing to it. You should consider doing research on the neighborhood, as well. Not only can that highlight problems such as crime rates, but it can also highlight opportunities. You could find development prospects in your area which will make it an even more attractive neighborhood in the future. For someone considering a home as an investment, there are few better signs.

Another important aspect of doing your research is looking into the school district. Is your new home in close proximity to award winning schools like in this Milton Ontario neighborhood? If not, are you able to drive your child to a better option? Be sure to consider the distance to local hospitals, grocery stores, and entertainment. If everywhere you like and need to go is a fair drive away, that can really put a damper on the dream home experience.

Be Willing to Do Some Work: Sometimes, you need to bite the bullet and accept the compromise. If that compromise is that the home lacks the lighting or the fixtures that you really desire, then you should be all the more willing to make it. In that case, all it takes is a little work. Don’t let the decor or the color of a room put you off in any case. Know which aspects of the home could be easily fixed and put in the effort to solve the problems.

Take your time with any decision before you make it. Make sure you know the alternatives, as well as the properties of the home you’re potentially buying. Visit it as often as you see fit and, most importantly, be willing to understand that most houses are going to take some work before they really become a home.

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Jan27

Maintenance Checks for When Spring Has Sprung

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Many places might just be reaching peak winter conditions but spring isn’t too far around the corner. It will be here before you know it, so don’t despair if the cold weather is getting you down. If you can’t wait for spring to arrive, you can start thinking about how to prepare your home for slightly warmer weather. Winter can be harsh on some parts of your home and other things could be a little rusty from misuse. Take your spring cleaning to the next level by doing a bit of spring maintenance as well. These tasks will help get you started:

Clean Your Gutters: Wind, snow, and rain during the cold months can affect your home’s gutters, spouts, and roof. Leaves and other debris might block up your gutters, making it harder for them to drain properly. With rainy spring weather on the way, you need them to be able to cope with a lot of water. Cleaning them out, along with your downspouts, is an essential job to do before the spring. You should also make sure to inspect your roof to ensure that there is no damage. It needs to hold up through the spring to keep your home warm and dry.

Check Your Air Conditioner: Spring might not be the time to put your AC unit on just yet, but you don’t want to leave it until the last minute. Checking your air conditioner well before the summer months is essential if you don’t want it to suffer a sudden breakdown once it’s stifling hot. There are a few simple jobs you might do yourself, such as changing the filter. However, it’s a good idea to schedule an AC service from a professional to give it a thorough check. They’ll know what to look for to make sure that your air conditioner is working correctly.

Check Your Home’s Exterior: Winter can put a stop to working on the exterior of your home. Who wants to paint their house or fix any fences while it’s so cold? But once the weather gets a little warmer, it’s a good opportunity to spring clean your home exterior. You don’t want to do them when the temperature is through the roof, either! Check decks, fences, and other woodwork to see if you need to reseal them before the spring rains arrive. Pressure washing will be an instant face lift to your home as well as a deep clean of the windows. You might choose spring to paint your home’s exterior or maybe install some new siding.

Tend to Your Garden: When spring first arrives, it still might not be the best time for planting. However, you can start to prepare your garden for later. Turning over your soil once it’s not too hard to do so is a good task to start with. Start planning what you want to plant and when you need to plant it. It might be time to unwrap or replant some plants that you had to protect during the winter, too.

Spring is a time of renewal, so take the opportunity to refresh your home. It’s a good way to get your mojo back after a cold and blah winter!

Jan26

Get Ahead of the Game

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There is no time better to get everything ready for the winter months than in the winter months. That may sound a bit confusing, but it is the only season that you both start and end the year in (unless you’re in Australia, and then it’s flipped around … lucky!). So while you’re stuck firmly in winter at the start of the year with not much to do, think about the future and how you can get ahead of the game.

Sort the Heating: There may not be anything wrong with your source of heat now, but it’s best to make sure that everything is in tip-top working condition before you lessen your uses of it. You may not be using your furnace as much as you have this season over the next coming months, so it’s always good to get a furnace repair or inspection organized to make sure that everything is working as it should be. If you use a wood burner to provide your home with warmth, start looking for your wood now; it gives it plenty of time to dry out over the coming months and you’ll get a good stash of it ready and available. You also will save yourself quite a bit of cash by not outsourcing for it.

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Burn baby burn!

Buy the Gifts: You may have just exhausted the contents of your purse or wallet with Christmas, but the sales are still happening and now is the time to grab a bargain ahead of the next time the festive season rears its head up. How many times have you been left flapping and panicking about a present, resulting in your impulse-buying an expensive gift that you’re not really sure why you picked up in the first place? Maybe because it kind of resembled something that the other person liked once upon a time? If you spot something now that you know the receiver will love and admire, buy it before it returns to its pre-sale price.

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Pixabay Image

Tackle the Odd Jobs: Does the bathroom need a lick of paint? Gaps in the wall that need filling? Pictures that need hanging up? Do them all now. Stop thinking about a time to do them and increase your productivity levels by getting the jobs done. Actively look around the house for things that need fixing, cleaning, or even just checking-over to make sure that the batteries work (smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are a great example). It doesn’t matter what time of the year it is to get stuff sorted; if you set next winter as your goal, it gives you plenty of time to get it all done.

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Handy is dandy!

Don’t just read this and move on; think of all of the things that you could achieve before the coldness settles upon us again and get to work! You’ll look back on the past you and give yourself at a pat on the back – you deserve it, you handy and magnificent human, you.