How to Clean Painted Walls

Posted on May 1st, 2012

Prepare the things you need including soft bristled brush, broom, clean cloth, mild dish detergent, sponge and towels.

Get rid of dust by using a clean cloth to wipe the walls. To remove stubborn dirt and cobwebs, you can make use of a soft bristled brush. You can also make use of a broom to clean the top area of the wall all the way down. Tape the brush to an extendable light bulb changer tool to reach the tops of the walls.

Prepare your cleaning solution by adding one teaspoon of mild liquid soap to a one gallon of warm water.

Fill another bucket with cool water for later use.
Line the bottom of the painted wall with rags so you will not have a messy floor once you start cleaning the wall with your water solution.

With a sponge, apply your cleaning solution from the top down. Work in small areas or in sections. If you start at the bottom, the dirty water from cleaning the top of the wall runs down the wall leaving streaks in the clean part.

After cleaning one section, rinse it with cool water from the second bucket then wipe clean with a fresh cloth.
Squeeze out excess water and continue working on section from top to bottom.

Using a clean towel, dry the section you just cleaned. Wipe the wall in a downward motion starting from the top. After drying a section of the wall, go on with the next and repeat the procedure until you clean the entire painted wall.

Replace towels once they get all soaked up.

For grease and hard to remove stains, you can always buy commercial products for cleaning walls. Make sure that you do not use abrasive solutions on your wall as it can damage painted surfaces. Avoid scrubbing to protect your wall from accidental chipping.

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Time to Get Gardening It’s Spring

Posted on April 2nd, 2012

Spring is here. The weather is getting warmer so it’s time to start gardening. Whether you’re starting your landscape from scratch or just adding a few new plants, trees and bushes, there are a few tricks for how to grow a lush landscape

Plant trees and shrubs first. Evergreen shrubs and trees form the skeleton of the garden. These plants provide interest in the garden even if everything else is resting.

Flowers to the Rescue
It can take two or three years for perennials to start blooming profusely. Fill in with annual flowers.

Seasonal
Plan for four seasons of color, bloom, and interest in the garden. Your landscape will always look lush.

Location
Sun-loving plants need to be in a sunny spot while shade-loving plants have to be in the shade.

Water
Water just enough. Too much and not only do you waste water you might drown the plant.

Weed and Feed
Weeds take water and nutrients from plant you want in the garden.

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Luxury and Log Cabins

Posted on March 19th, 2012

When you think of log cabins you probably think of roughing it out in the wilderness. But think again. Log cabins come in a range of sizes and amenities from one room to 3,000 square feet with top of the line kitchen appliances, whirlpool in the master bedroom and everything in between.

When decorating a log cabin you don’t have to stick with animal head trophies, plaid upholstery and leather furniture. The only theme that probably wouldn’t work would be ultra modern minimalist. Although if you finished the inside walls with sheet rock and paint, rather than leaving it as wood, you could probably even do that.

Modern-day log cabins come in kits, pre-built manufactured or are custom-built. Site built, in most cases is more expensive that manufactured. Check the building codes of the area you’re considering for restrictions on size. Also keep in mind, you may have to dig a well for water and add a septic tank because there aren’t sewer lines.

Whether you’re considering a home away from home up in the mountains or by a lake or making the dwelling your full time residence a log cabin fits the bill.

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Match Your Decor to Your Architectural Style

Posted on March 6th, 2012

If you’re thinking about re-decorating your living room, consider matching the theme of the decor to the style of the house. For example, a country cottage look with hand-crocheted throw rugs, floral prints on the furniture and well-worn tables would look out of place in a high-rise apartment or inside a sleek sophisticated style house with lots of glass and geometric lines.

Contemporary Furniture fills the bill for a sleek look. That doesn’t mean the feel has to be cold or off-putting. Choose warm fabrics in textured patterns for a Modern Sofa Use throw pillows, shawls and even faux fur to soften the look.

Play with accessories but keep them to a minimum for a clean look. Don’t think that every piece of furniture has to be modern. Contrast the modern look with a wood bench, a child’s toy box as an end table or an antique chandelier. This keeps the room from looking too matched, as if you bought the entire living suite straight from the showroom floor.

It used to be that modern decor was monochromatic, meaning that everything was in shades of one color. Black, brown, whites and creams were favorites of interior designers. That look is happily in the past. These days, pops of bright colors add pizazz. Try red with black, turquoise with brown, or orange with whites.

Don’t forget to add a bouquet of flowers to the entry way table as a welcoming gesture. Orchids, roses and peonies go well with modern furniture. Sunflowers with their big round happy faces will bring a smile to your guests.

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It’a hot and muggy: Consider an air conditioner

Posted on February 17th, 2012

During the dead of winter you might only be worried about keeping the furnace going. While the northern hemisphere is freezing the southern hemisphere is experiencing summer. Summer means hot, humid, nights when the sweat just soaks the sheets and sleep is out of the question. Days are blistering and even the breezes seems to raise the temperature instead of bringing it down. Australia’s outback is dusty and so are its residents.

You can drink ice cold lemonade, eat spicy dishes to cool you down and turn on a fan, but the only real solution is air conditioning. A fan circulates the air. That air evaporates the sweat on your skin. The evaporation makes the air next to your skin drop a few degrees.

The problem is if it’s humid, the rate of evaporation slows down and a breeze or fan doesn’t cool you off. High powered fans, portable fans and ceiling fans work well in the shoulder seasons when it’s not too hot or humid. That works in desert climates like the Sonoran desert in Arizona and parts of Australia.

An air conditioner not only cools the temperature of the air but also removes moisture. You might think you have to spend a fortune on air conditioning but that’s not true. cheap air conditioners are available.

Select one that fits the size of the area you want to cool. An air conditioner with a cooling capacity smaller than the size of your room won’t cool the room down enough and has to work overtime. It will stay on too long. An air conditioner that’s too large will keep cycling on and off too much wearing down the motor.

Air conditioning can take the sting out of summer in any hemisphere.

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