Exterior Painting Preparation Tips
1/4/2019
We get asked a lot of questions about exterior painting preparation tips. There's nothing like a vibrant, fresh coat of paint to enhance the appearance of your home. A clean, new coat of paint looks great, even if you're simply replacing the old color or style with the same type. In many cases, repainting begins with stripping off the old layer in preparation. That smooth, newly repainted look depends on having a smooth, prepared surface to start from. Here are some situations in which old paint needs to be stripped off:
Painting your home is a big job, and it's important that the house be prepared beforehand to allow for many years of new, beautiful paint. The Painting Group, the most trusted painting contractor in Marietta, has received high praise for our professionalism and expertise. Call us today at (770) 818-9885 to learn more about our painting experience. You can also visit us online for details about the staining and painting services we offer for both residential and commercial buildings. The post Exterior Painting Preparation Tips appeared first on The Painting Group.
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by Dillon B. (additional writing by Ryan O.)
You will find the switch to connected to your particular junction box in the breaker box of your house. Power this off to stay safe on the job.
Step two – Dismantle the Junction box
In our example, our technician marks each pair of electrical wires with colored tape and numbers them with a permanent marker to keep track of them. The technician also labels the switches that correspond to those wires. This will organization will make things easier when you have to reattach these wires to the new electrical box.
At the house exterior or in your attic, you will need to find the junction box that is the source of the wires. In our example, the electrical wires (or romex wires) went through the hole that was drilled through the top plate or header beam.
When you have determined the new position of the surface mounted multi-gang electrical box, install the metal conduit first, drilling any new holes that are needed through the studs for the installation. Then install the frame junction box to the pipes of the conduit so that you have something to attach to. After unbunching the wires that you put through the conduit, take wire strippers and strip the casing from the wires. If you labeled everything in the beginning, you can match the wires to the corresponding switches. With all of the switches in place, replace the switch cover. Turn the power back on from the breaker box and the transition is complete! The post How to Move a Surface Mounted Electrical Box appeared first on Best Online Cabinets. If you consider cleaning your home before an occasion or celebration, it is a good idea, but don't schedule the cleaning only before a festival. Consider your health, well-being and staying fit. Cleaning is an integral part of keeping your home away from harmful bacteria and germs. But cleaning of your entire home is not an easy task as well. It is difficult to manage time after a whole week of busy work schedule for routine cleaning. Hiring house cleaning maids can let you take a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, you can arrange a checklist for the maids to keep your home clean with the help of a maid from a reputed cleaning service. Here is some help for you to make the checklist separately. ![]() Bedroom
Bathroom
Kitchen
Other AreasApart from the above-mentioned areas, you can ask the maid for cleaning service for the cleaning of other areas including carpets, electrical switches, appliances, handrails etc. For reliable house cleaning maids, you can contact us at Home Maid Better. We only provide our customer with the experienced and trained maid. Here, you just have to tell them about your requirements and that's it. You will give you a sparkling home without spoiling any of your weekends. The post Checklist for Your Maid to Clean Your Place appeared first on . As the temperatures continue to fall, daylight hours get shorter, and the final leaves begin to fall off the trees. One might think this marks the end to another season in the landscape. In one aspect, this is correct; the growing season is over. But, there is still much you should do to the landscape to prepare it for the stresses of Winter. Here's 4 Winter landscaping tips from a pro. Winter Landscaping Tip #1 – Dormant Season PruningPruning of your trees and shrubs during the growing season, in most cases, is a must. To keep the plant clean and shaped, cut back some of the new growth that comes out as it grows. Once the plant goes dormant however, one would think that there is no need to prune anymore. That is not the case! When there are no longer any leaves on the trees and shrubs, you can easily see up into the plants. This inspection may reveal a very thick and densely branched tree or shrub. In most cases, this is not an ideal growth habit for the plant. Thinning to reduce that density of the branches will help the overall health of the tree or shrub. Another benefit that dormant season pruning has for you is that the debris that you create from the pruning is substantially less because there are no leaves to worry about. In some cases, this translates to a lower cost to have a professional do the job. Less debris means less for them to haul away. Winter Landscaping Tip #2 – Perennial Cut BackAnother type of plant that benefits from pruning are perennials. As freezing temperatures hit, most Spring, Summer and Fall blooming perennials begin to store their energy for the Winter down in their root system. The result is a brown plant on top. You could leave these ugly, brown remnants of the perennial in your landscape, but that isn't very visually appealing. Also, having a lot of dead foliage in your garden provides great places for rodents to hide and feed on the root system of your plants. The best thing to do is to cut back the foliage remnants of your perennials. Your final result will be plants cut to a few inches above ground level. Winter Landscaping Tip #3 – Fertilization of Trees and ShrubsGiving your trees and shrubs the proper nutrition is vital to the success of their growth and structure. With a low amount of nutrition in the soil, many plants will struggle to stay healthy. Plants will lack the proper color foliage and have limited blooms. Additionally, having a stressed tree or shrubs increases the chance of disease or insect infestations. There are two main type of fertilization that can be done in the Fall that help the landscape. A liquid fertilization can be performed around the drip line of a tree or shrub and instantly puts the nutrients into the soil. A granular fertilization is also placed around the drip line of the tree or shrub and the product will slowly dissolve into the soil. Either option is a good choice for the Fall. The vital nutrients that are in the fertilizers will remain in the soil until the Spring time. This means these nutrients are ready be there to be taken up once the plant emerges from Winter. Fertilization can be done in the Spring time for trees and shrubs too, but it can take some time in order for nutrients to be absorbed. So, having the greatest impact starting the Spring season off would be a Fall fertilization. Winter Landscaping Tip #4 – Fall PlantingOnce you have gone through your landscape pruning your trees and shrubs, cutting back your perennials, and fertilized the beds, you may begin to starting thinking about what next Spring could bring and what you could do now to fill in a few areas that just seem to be missing something. A good thing to do in the fall is planting of perennials, trees and shrubs.
Also, when planting in the Fall make sure to provide your new and existing plants with a good layer of mulch to help insulate the soil. This practice helps reduce the chance of heaving from the alternating freezing and thawing of the ground.
Being outside in late Fall weather may not always be pleasant, but making sure your trees and shrubs are protected from the potential damages of the Winter are necessary. Making sure you tackle each of these steps above will help to ensure that your landscape is properly protected this Winter. If you'd like a free consultation about Winter landscaping, please Contact Us. The post Prepare like a Pro – 4 Winter Landscaping Tips appeared first on Tomlinson Bomberger. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and got to spend time with friends and family. Your gift from the government was a shutdown. This week's a little slower because of the holidays. But, we did get some housing data. Let's dive in! Headline NewsS&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller HPIHome prices in October were up 0.4% on a seasonally-adjusted basis as expected. Prices were flat overall on the month. Home prices have gone up 5% for the year. The Northeast is hot with Boston and New York both seeing home prices rise 0.7% on the month. The West is starting to cool. Seattle was down 0.3%, while Portland and Denver were up 0.2% on the month, exhibiting slower growth. Las Vegas was up 0.8% on the month and has risen 12.8% on the year, while San Francisco is a 7.9% annually. Washington and New York City trail, up 2.9% and 3.1% respectively. Monthly revisions were mixed with the index showing up 0.7% in October and down 0.2% in August. FHFA House Price IndexThe Federal Housing Finance Agency saw a gain in home prices of 0.3% for a 5.7% year-on-year rate. However, this is still a 2-1/2 year low. Prices in the Mountain region are still reporting strong at a nearly double-digit yearly gain, while prices in New England, the Mid-Atlantic and the West South Central had weak reports where appreciation is in the low- to mid-single digits. New Home SalesWith the continuing federal government shutdown, there wasn't much in this report. While rates were weak in October, November has had a bounce back to 560,000 in new home sales. Jobless ClaimsInitial jobless claims were down 1,000 to 216,000 last week. This brought the four-week average down to 4,750 to 218,000, down for the third straight week. Continuing-unemployment claims were down 4,000 to 1.676 million, while the 4-week moving average was down to 1.676 million. Consumer ConfidenceConsumer confidence fell 8.3 points to come in at 128.1 in December. While the points continue to show the lowest numbers since July, it's good news for jobless claims as December shows strength in the employment rate. Taking a look at current conditions, 1% fewer consumers see jobs as hard to get, bringing the total to 11.6%. Consumers who expect more jobs in the months ahead decreased to 16.6%. Inflation expectations were down to a 4.3% level, which is low for this report. There are also reports of the Federal Reserve policymakers planning a couple more rate hikes in the coming year to stem the risk of inflation. International TradeSimilar to new home sales, there wasn't much of a report with international trade, but the U.S. trade deficit decreased to $75.7 billion from $77 billion in October. There was a 0.6% downturn in exports and a 0.1% rise in imports. Pending Home SalesHomes with a purchase agreement in place for sale was down 0.7% to an index level of 101.4 in the month of November. Looking at regional data, pending sales were weakest in both the South and Midwest balancing out the slight gain in the Northeast and West. Mortgage RatesAs of this writing, the federal government remains shut down. Since our last Market Update, there doesn't seem to be any changes regarding FHA, USDA or VA loan applications, although Quicken Loans will continue to accept these loan applications. We'll continue to keep you posted, but if you have any immediate questions, you can contact our team at (800) 863-4332. Ending the year on a high note, mortgage rates dropped last week, making it as good a time as any to lock your interest rate if you're in the market to purchase or refinance. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage with 0.5 points paid in fees was down to 4.55%. This is up from 3.99% at the same time a year ago. In shorter terms, the average rate for a 15-year fixed mortgage was 4.01% with 0.4 points paid. This is a slight change from last week and up from 3.44% last year. Finally, the average rate on a 5-year treasury-indexed adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) with 0.3 points was 4%. This has risen from 3.47% at this time in 2017. Stock MarketThings are looking up for the stock market, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 250 points. The S&P 500 also had a good day and gained 0.9%. The Nasdaq continues to rise from last week at 1.1%. While the optimism surrounding the U.S.-China trade is to credit for the higher numbers, they were still down at least 4.8% year to date through Friday's close, their worst annual performance since 2008. However, there are talks of future climbs in stocks in 2019. Our Fantasy Stock League will end with the close of today's stock trading. We hope you learned more about investing in the stock market, and more importantly, we hope it's been fun for you to see how you would do. We'll announce the grand prize winner in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for updates on the Fantasy Stock League home page. The Dow is up 248.86 points today, to close at 23,311.26, up 1.08% on the week. The S&P 500 closed at 2,505.00, up 0.77% on the week and 19.26 points on the day. Finally, the Nasdaq rose 1.02% on the week to close at 6,651.87, up 67.35 points on the day. The Week AheadTuesday, January 1 Ring in the new year! Quicken Loans is closed in observance of New Year's Day along with the stock and bond markets, as well as banks. Be safe, everyone! Thursday, January 3 MBA Mortgage Applications (7:00 a.m. ET) – The mortgage applications index measures applications to mortgage lenders. This is a leading indicator for single-family home sales and housing construction. Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m. ET) – New unemployment claims are compiled weekly to show the number of individuals filing for unemployment insurance for the first time. An increasing trend suggests a deteriorating labor market. The four-week moving average of new claims smooths out weekly volatility. ISM Manufacturing Index (10:00 a.m.) – This index measures the general direction of manufacturing within the U.S. The qualitative survey of purchasing managers looks at production, new orders, order backlogs, inventories and supplier deliveries, among other factors. Friday, January 4 Employment Situation (8:30 a.m. ET) – The employment situation report measures unemployment in the labor force as well as the sentiments of workers about the job market. The New Year is a time to make resolutions, so if you're in the market to purchase or refinance your home, now remains a good time to do so. If you're not ready to make the leap into homeownership, there's still plenty of home, money and lifestyle content to enjoy by subscribing to the Zing Blog. If you're planning a last-minute New Year's Eve party tonight, check out our guide for everything you need to throw an end-of-the-year bash. Have a great week, and Happy New Year! The post Mortgage Rates Fall as the Year Comes to a Close appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans. 82 Healthy Breakfast Ideas
1/1/2019
The post 82 Healthy Breakfast Ideas appeared first on Fit Foodie Finds. Want to read more in 2019?
1/1/2019
(Note: The links in this post are affiliate links, and we will be compensated when you make a purchase by clicking through our links. Read our disclosure policy here.) ![]() If you want to do more reading in 2019, I've got just the solution for you to provide you with a pretty endless source of books you can read and listen to - without having to wait for them to be available from your library! Through January 11, 2019, if you're an Amazon Prime member you can get Kindle Unlimited for three months for just $0.99. It's typically $9.99 per month, so this is a big savings! I just signed up today and have been checking it out to see if it would help me be able to fit in more reading in the new year. If you're unfamiliar with Kindle Unlimited, it's a service offered by Amazon that gives you access to over 700,000 ebooks and thousands of audiobooks. My Honest ThoughtsI will be super honest and tell you that I was disappointed at first when I looked at the selection of books. A number of them are cheap and cheesy looking. However, they did have some really great titles hidden amongst all the not-so-great titles. Here were a few I saw:
Here's how it works:
For the record, I don't think this service is worth paying $9.99 per month (the usual rate) for, but I think it's every bit worth signing up for three months for just $0.99 - even if you only read 2-3 books from it, that's still a really, really great deal!
Have you tried out Kindle Unlimited before? If so, I'd love to hear your honest thoughts on it! Note: This deal is valid for new Kindle Unlimited customers only. If you no longer wish to continue with Kindle Unlimited after your first three months, be sure to cancel your subscription before it renews at the full price of $9.99 per month. Valid through January 11, 2019. |
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January 2019
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