Gardening and Landscaping News

Top Reasons to Choose an Architecturally-Designed Home

June 26, 2018 By Don Newsom Leave a Comment

The world we live in is a constantly changing one and we as a species have numerous contingencies in place for many situations to make sure that life is as easy as possible.

The ready-made standard house design is one of those contingencies. This contingency enables homeowners to easily get home designs without having to make use of an Architect.

What more and more homeowners have noticed is that its kind of hard to transform your vision of the house you really want into a reality with standard readymade designs.

In order to effectively create your dream home you need to choose architecturally designed houses because they give you the opportunity to build the type of home you really want.

You’re going to be living in your house for a really long time. You don’t want to spend the next couple of decades of your life knowing full well that your home isn’t at the level you want it to be.

Below are a few reasons to choose an Architecturally- Designed home. The reasons include:

A home that suits your lifestyle
Potential increase on the estimated value of your home
Environmentally conscious home
You can control the total cost of your home
Work spaces that suit you

A home that suits your lifestyle

Architectural designs enable home owners to get exactly what they want in their homes and leave out what they don’t want.

Architectural designs enable you to custom build and design your home to your particular taste. With such designs you get to own a house that suits your specific lifestyle, nothing more nothing less.

By architecturally designing your home you don’t have to adjust your house to existing standards that have the potential to stifle the design and subsequent construction of your home.

Potential increase on the estimated value of your home

When architecturally designing your home, you can work with your architect to add features that attract potential buyers. This will also increase the value of your home.

You can also leave out features that repel potential buyers thereby making sure that you give your home all it needs to earn you a lot on the resale market should the time come that you decide to sell your house.

Architecturally designing your home would set your house apart from every other house in your neighbourhood thereby giving you and your home an edge over the competition.

Environmental factors

The planet we live in deserves all the care in the world and the only way to ensure that your building isn’t in any way hurting our dear planet is to oversee the materials used during the construction phase of building.

When designing your home, your architect will make an account of all the relevant environmental factors and considerations. After your architect accesses these issues, you can rest assured that your internal living environment will be as comfortable as possible.

Constructing your house with biodegradable and easily renewable materials is the best decision you’ll ever make.

You can control the total cost of your home

As anyone who has ever owned a home will tell you, the cost of building a house can run up beyond your wildest expectations. The last thing you want is to end up spending more than yu planned for or more than you have.

You can alleviate the problem of having the cost of your home run up by designing your home to make use of only the most cost-effective building materials.

You can also architecturally alter the total cost of your home by making it smaller or constructing it with materials that have a longer useful lifespan.

Work spaces that suit you

The number of people that work from home has increased sporadically during the last two decades and it seems like that trend is going to continue for a while longer.

In the spirit of getting work done from home, architecturally designed homes give you the opportunity to include the type of workspaces that is most conducive to getting work done.

This is a feature that may or may not be available on houses with readymade designs. It’s safe to assume that architecturally designed homes are the future of residential construction.

Image Pixabay CC0 License

It Is Possible to Remove Water Stains from Wood

May 2, 2018 By Don Newsom Leave a Comment

Water stains can be an eyesore on your wooden furniture and floors. Whether you have splashed some water onto your wooden cupboard or spilt some coffee onto your coffee table, it is important that you use proper cleaning methods to remove these stains.

In case you aren’t sure where to begin, we’ve highlighted seven tips to help you remove water stains from wood.

Clean stains immediately.

If the spillage is still fresh, blot away as much as possible and clean it up fast to prevent the moisture from seeping into the wood. The longer the moisture stays on wood, the harder it is to clean up the stains that remain afterwards.

Rub the area with an oily furniture polish, mayonnaise, or petroleum jelly.

You can rub any of these ingredients above onto the water stain and leave it overnight before cleaning it up the next day. This will get rid of most of the water stain because the watermarks will be replaced by the oil content within these products. However, if the stains persist, you can try more of the below methods.

Try toothpaste and baking soda.

Mix about ¼ teaspoon of baking soda and toothpaste together and rub this mix onto the water stain with some pressure. If the stained area is large, you can mix about ½ teaspoon of each ingredient.

This mix is also suitable for various other cleaning uses, partly due to the mild abrasive contained in the toothpaste.

Moisten a soft rag with mineral spirits.

Dip one of your old unwanted shirts into a mild solvent – this can be a mineral spirit or an odourless paint thinner.

Wipe the underside of the furniture to ensure that this solvent will not dissolve the finish layer of your furniture first. If you don’t see any discolouration after the test wipe, you can proceed to wipe the remaining water stains with it.

Mix equal parts vinegar and olive oil.

This mix can be applied with a soft cloth along the directions of the wood grains of your furniture. Most of the white marks caused by wet glasses will be removed this way, and you can shine your furniture up by wiping it with another cloth afterwards.

Make a paste with salt and a few drops of water.

Some water stains can be removed simply by mixing a teaspoon of salt with several drops of water and applying this thick paste onto the water stains.

Gently rub the water stain with a soft cloth or sponge in a circular motion until the stain goes away completely. You can also opt to polish the wood to restore its initial lustre.

Wipe and buff.

When you are done cleaning the water stains, you can apply a thin layer of paste wax to your wooden furniture and give it a long-lasting extra protection layer.

When this thin paste layer has dried, buff the wax layer by rubbing it in a gentle, circular motion with a soft, clean cloth. This process will give a lustrous shine to your furniture and floors!

Image via Pixabay CC0 License

When Weed Control Goes Wrong

March 29, 2018 By Don Newsom Leave a Comment

Uncontrolled, invasive weed growth in our backyards can be a huge eyesore. Thankfully, there are several weed-control methods we can employ to inhibit further growth or destroy these plants.

Several methods of weed control include herbicides, physical control and cultural control, but preventive measures are just as important in ensuring an ongoing measure to control weed growth.

But without careful consideration, weed control can go wrong, causing more harm than good to our plantations, health and soil. Take caution in your landscaping and gardening efforts to avoid damages from weed-control mishaps.

How to Choose Between Steel or Wood Farm Sheds

October 18, 2017 By Don Newsom Leave a Comment

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Farm sheds are an essential part when it comes to farming. They are used as a storage facility for a broad range of agricultural equipment.

Farm sheds are also used to house cattle, poultry, and other animals.

It is evident that these structures are necessary. This makes it tough to decide whether to use steel or wood for their construction.

To make things easier for you, let us compare both along five different parameters.