Tag Archive for Home Services

Kate Miller | November 30, 2012
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Remodeling Your Bathroom on a Budget: Part 2

Earlier this week we started a discussion about remodeling your bathroom on a budget. Today we are going to look at the three different levels of bathroom remodeling projects and see what you can get for your hard earned money.

Bathroom Remodeling Budgets

  • Minor Remodel: You can spend as little as $100 or as much as a couple thousand and complete a minor bathroom remodel. These remodeling jobs typically involve a fresh coat a pant, a new shower curtain, and minor repairs like caulking, grouting, and possibly even tile repairs. These are all very low cost improvements you can make to change the look of the space, but it will do little to improve the function.

If the plumbing system is problem free and the fixtures were installed within the last 10 years, you can probably get away with these minor changes and still create an impressive result. Read more

Category: Helpful Tips, Home Improvements, Home Repairs, Home Services, Money Saving, Remodeling | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | September 12, 2012
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Home Flooding: Keeping Your Family Safe

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When I was a kid, the house my family was living in was over 50 years old and had a foundation that invited rain water indoors. We would get anywhere from a few inches to a few feet of water in our basement at

least once a year, and the cleanup was always a gigantic family project. Once the water was pumped out, we would gather up carpet squares and lay them outside to dry while my parents bleached nearly every surface. After consulting with a waterproofing company and constantly replacing the sump pump, we realized that our best bet would be to move.

Flood Safety Tips for Your Home and Your Family

However, there are thousands of homes that undergo the same type of flooding year after year and never do anything to stop it. Repeated flooding can cause thousands of

dollar worth of damage, but the damage it can cause to material things is nothing compared to the damage it can do to the health and safety of your family. Due to the risks that flooding can create, we have compiled a list of safety tips that every homeowner should keep in mind should the flood waters begin to rise.

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Category: Helpful Tips, Home Repairs, Home Services, Safety | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | July 6, 2012
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Easiest Gutter Cleaning You will Ever Complete!

Cleaning the gutters is no one’s favorite task, but it is one of the most basic jobs when it comes to home maintenance. Scaling a dangerous ladder, sticking your gloved hand in a gutter full of leaf goop, and slopping it into a bucket just doesn’t sound like a fun afternoon. However, this is a job that must be done, and getting it done during the summer makes the task a little less gross. Putting this off could leave your home vulnerable during the weather extremes we have during the summers here in Chicago, so roll up your sleeves and get ready to scrub down your gutters.

Heat Makes Gutter Cleaning Mess Free!

The summer is the best time of year to get a gutter cleaning in because there are many hot, dry days. The dryer the day, the dryer the leaves and debris in your gutters will be. Wouldn’t you rather dig out dry debris than leaves that are soaking wet and musty? Anyone would, and getting to work now could help protect your home. Read more

Category: Home Improvements, Home Services, Safety | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | July 4, 2012
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Is there a Hidden Treasure beneath Your Feet?

Carpet became popular during the 1960s and 1970s and many homeowners at the time covered up their beautiful hardwood floors with a layer of carpeting. Doing this would be considered a crime in this day and age because many homeowners shovel out big bucks to get hardwood floors installed in their homes. However, if you live in an older home, you might just have a hidden treasure beneath your feet. Old carpeting is an eye sore in many homes, but take a quick peak beneath and you may find that the previous owners covered up hardwood floors! If this is the case, a simple refinishing of the wood flooring could leave your floor looking like you spent thousands in renovations.

Looking for Hardwood

The first step is to find out if you are lucky enough to live in a home that has hardwood floors hiding beneath the carpet. Find a loose corner of the carpet, and pull back a little at a time. Go slow so that you don’t cause damage to the carpeting just in case you don’t have a treasure hiding below. Once you know that you have hardwood floors, you need to assess their condition. Removing all of the adhesive, nails, and staples that have been holding down the carpet for years is just one of the tedious tasks you will have to complete to refinish these floors. Sanding and staining them is a whole other task that must also be completed and you may want to consider hiring professional help. Read more

Category: Home Improvements, Home Repairs, Home Services | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | April 27, 2012
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Spring Window Upkeep

Spring is home repair and improvement season, and if you are like many Americans you are using this time to get some work done on your old beat up windows. When you consider that one side of your windows spends all of its time exposed to the elements, you can see how time and Mother Nature can take their toll. Now is the time to get motivated and to consider performing some of these improvements on your windows this spring:

  • Screen Repair or Replacement: Children, pets, and neighborhood kids playing baseball can do some real damage to the screens in the windows of your home. Take this time to replace the screens with new, more durable screen materials.
  • Window Cleaning: Window leaves a layer of grime on the outside of all of your windows, and curious fingers leave their marks on inside. Now is the time to arm yourself with a bottle of glass cleaner and a rag, and get to work bringing shine back to your windows. Read more
Category: Go Green and Energy Efficiency, Home Improvements, Home Repairs, Home Services, Money Saving | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | January 25, 2012
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New Year, New Home!

The beginning of a new year is usually taken a symbol of new beginnings, and maybe 2012 can be a year of new beginnings for your home. We all have our to- do lists and if you haven’t done much to make that list shrink odds are it is just getting bigger. These problems are not going to solve themselves, and we need to be honest when it comes to our limits as amateur handymen and women. Take a moment to assess your list or sit down and compile one if you haven’t done so already. Don’t just look at what you think you can handle, consider everything that goes into a job before you ever take it on. Over reaching could increase the cost of the repair and hiring a handyman pro may be a better option.

Consider This Before Tackling a Repair:

  • Time: Many of the jobs on your list will take more than a day to complete, especially if you have no experience with the repair. Many of us only have a couple days on the weekends to work with when it comes to finding time for these repairs, and if you don’t have the time, you need to accept that you are never going to get these jobs done on your own. The pros will be able to check many of those repairs off your list in one day!
  • Tools: Another aspect of performing repairs in the home is the supplies that are needed to complete the job. Many of us don’t have power tools, painting supplies, and other basic tools of the trade, and renting or buying them could make doing the repair on your own pointless. Consider all of your costs before taking on a job by yourself. Read more
Category: Contractors, Home Improvements, Home Repairs, Home Services, Plumbing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | December 21, 2011
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Redesigning Your Dining Room for the Holidays

Odds are this holiday season is going to greatly increase the use of your home’s formal dining room. That room that only sees action at one time during the year is going to need to look its best and if you live in an older home, that old dining room is probably in a less than presentable state. Let’s drag that room into the 21st century with a few updates that will truly impress your guests. From minor changes to bigger remodeling projects, you can make a variety of changes to the space that will not only make it more beautiful but also more functional for the future.

Updating Your Dining Room

  • Modernized Fixtures: Outdated light fixtures are the number one giveaway in an outdated dining room. This is can be a very simple upgrade if you know what you are doing. This is one of those upgrades that will require extra care. The last thing you want is for that fixture to come tumbling down in the middle of your turkey dinner.
  • Wood Flooring: Changing the flooring in your dining room may seem intimidating, but pull up that raggedy carpet and you may be surprised by what you find. We have seen homes with beautiful hardwood floors hidden beneath hideous carpets. If you aren’t lucky enough to have hardwood floors beneath your carpet, you can install laminate floors in a weekend with a little elbow grease and a good set of instructions. Read more
Category: Home Improvements, Home Services, Remodeling | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | December 14, 2011
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Mounting Your New Flat Screen: Safety Concerns

The hottest Christmas gift the past few years has been the flat screen TV. If you have not yet upgraded, you and your family are in the minority because these high tech televisions are not going away any time soon. If anything, they are just going to keep getting bigger and more popular. Whether you get one as a present or you invest in the upgrade on your own, our biggest concern when it comes to that television is safety. If you have small children in the home, the flat screen is a bigger hazard than you may have initially thought.

The Safety of Small Children

Flat screen televisions are very insecurely balanced upon their stands. One tip forwards or backwards could send that TV falling off an entertainment center and onto whomever may lie below. Small children love to climb on furniture and one moment of distraction could lead to a disaster in your home should your child decide to use the television for support. This is an accident that has been growing in frequency over the past few years, and falling televisions have cause very serious injuries and even death. Read more

Category: Helpful Tips, Home Improvements, Home Repairs, Home Services, Safety | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | December 5, 2011
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Prevent Problematic Plumbing

You would think that most homeowners know what they can and cannot put down the drains in their home, but you would be surprised by the crazy things we have found clogging pipes. Even if you have a garbage disposal attached to your sink, there are still certain items that should never be forced down a drain, and doing so could cause a costly plumbing repair. The holiday season usually means big business for plumbers across the United States. With all of the turkey, grease, and potato skins, it is no wonder so many homeowners find themselves with a backed up sink during this season, but it can all be prevented with a few proactive steps.

Watch What Goes Down the Disposal!

  • Bones: Turkey bone, chicken wings, ribs, and any other animal bone that may be left over after a delicious meal need to make its way into the garbage can and not your garbage disposal.
  • Pasta and Rice: Putting pasta or rice down your garbage disposal has got to be the easiest way to impact your sink. We have pulled out full sections of piping that are literally packed with noodles that had expanded and backed up the sink. The homeowners assumed the garbage disposal could chop them up into small enough pieces but even small pieces of pasta swell with exposed to water. Read more
Category: Home Repairs, Home Services, Plumbing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | November 2, 2011
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Wrong Duct Work for Your Dryer Vent

Many homeowners think that their home is basically fire proof because they have taken some basic fire prevention precautions. You have the furnace cleaned out yearly, blow out candles, and use space heaters properly. You may even have smoke detectors and fire extinguishers all throughout the home, but if you haven’t checked your dryer vent, all of those protective measures could quit literally go up in flames. The dryer vent is the duct work that your clothes dryer uses to exhaust combustion fumes to the outdoors. Most homeowners don’t even know that they have this line of duct work in their home, but neglecting it could cause a major home disaster.

Accordion Duct work and Your Dryer Vent

Accordion duct work consists of some sort of material like plastic or aluminum that is coiled to form a long tube. It is flexible and can be easily installed, but it should never be used to vent a dryer. This type of duct work is usually safely used for add on duct work in the HVAC system, but there are two reasons why it should not be used to vent combustion gasses from your dryer.

  1. Friction: The coiled design of this type of duct work encourages lint to become lodged within the duct. Overtime this can be what creates a buildup of lint within the vent. Lint is extremely flammable and a simple spark of static can set your dryer ablaze. Read more
Category: Consumer Protection, Duct Cleaning, Home Services, Safety | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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