Breathe New Life Into Your Home This Summer

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If you are looking for a way to make your home feel like new, then there is good news: there are plenty of them. We all get a little tired with our homes sometimes. Whether it is because we have lived there for a long time, or just because nothing has changed for a while, it can sometimes be frustrating. However, giving your home a new lease on life is probably easier than you think. If you are curious as to how it can be done quickly and inexpensively, then you are not alone. Plenty of people are constantly on the lookout for that quick fix to improve their home. The truth is, with a little inventiveness, it can be surprisingly straightforward to make your home feel like new. Let’s have a look at some of the best ways to do that now.

Change The Decor

If you find that you are literally just sick of looking at the walls, then there is a clear solution. Changing the decor is a deceptively effective way of making your home feel a little fresher. What’s more, summer is a great time to do it. Go for brighter colours, or something completely unlike anything you have had before. That way, you are much more likely to feel as though a huge change has been made. Really, what we are going for here is a psychological change. Repainting the walls and hanging some fresh artwork is a great way to do that, in no time at all. What’s more, it is unlikely that it will cost you much.

Spruce Up The Bathroom

For many people, the bathroom is one of the most important parts of the entire house. If that sounds like you, then this tip might be your ideal starting point. If you are happy to make a more permanent change to your home, then why not consider sprucing up your bathroom this summer? There are many ways to completely alter the feel of the bathroom without breaking the bank. For instance, you could consider installing bathroom pods. These are generally a great solution if you are looking for durability and longevity. And it means that you can completely change the look and feel of the bathroom, in no time at all.

Get Green-Fingered

The garden is an essential part of the home, especially during the summer months. Yet, in many homers, it is sadly left forgotten or abandoned. Often, this is the fault of the winter. During those colder months, it can be hard to convince yourself to go out in the garden and prepare it for the new year. Nonetheless, it is never too late to make some changes to your garden. More to the point, doing so will likely make a dramatic difference to how you feel about the house overall. Giving your garden a new lease on life need not be a huge project. All that is really necessary is that you take proper care of the lawn, and perhaps consider investing in a few new plants. With a little effort, your garden will be teeming with life in no time.

from Home My Heaven: Home Improvement Blog UK http://www.homemyheaven.co.uk/2016/06/breathe-new-life-into-your-home-this.html

Interesting Facts about Luxury Bathrooms

 This infographic is from The Brighton Bathroom Company.



from Home My Heaven: Home Improvement Blog UK http://www.homemyheaven.co.uk/2016/06/interesting-facts-about-luxury-bathrooms.html

Reader Remarks: Ridiculously Good Built-In Ideas

I know I’ve been doing a ton of outdoor projects lately, but I haven’t forgotten about the inside as much as you might think. In fact, I’ve still got a very LONG list of projects I’m trying like hell to plan in the right order so that I don’t go insane from my whole house not having anywhere to put the stuff that is supposed to go in one room but can’t because it’s full of stuff from that other room that’s full of stuff from a different room and all of them are mid-project.

Basically, Thursday.

For now, I guess I’m just kicking around ideas and could use your input (like you did for me here and here). Lately, it seems like everyone is either just completing or just getting started on a new built-in project, and I think I could use a few of them in my house — especially the master closet, the entryway closet, and the living room. But what I wonder is, will the effort be worth the cost of labor, time, and my wallet? Should I go with pre-made bookshelves and built around them to make them look built-in, or is the quality difference worth the extra labor of building straight from plywood (I already know what some of my hardcore builder buds will say about that!). I found a few great examples online during my search for answers, so for today, I’m just going to break down my thought process so that I can get back to the to-do list. Writing these things down strangely help by letting me focus, and your insight could be useful too!

(By the way, if you want to pin one of the projects below, please go to the original source and pin from there!)

1. I love the idea of adding a reading nook upstairs, kind of like this one from Just Call Me Homegirl. In truth, I don’t get much of a chance to read until I’m on vacation (unless you count blogs and Facebook articles, I suppose… I read a lot of online articles), but I also secretly wonder if I could Field-of-Dreams my way into a good habit; if I build it, the reading will come, right?

2. Speaking of books, I have been eyeballing the wall that separates my living room from my dining room as the perfect spot for a wall of built-in bookshelves. Now’s the time to start figuring out if I’m going to pull the trigger or not, because I also won’t want to do the crown in that room twice (or undo previous molding work to get it all to match). If I were to add them, I’d work in the crown around the top, sort of like Ciburbanity did on her Billies.

The general idea would be to have two larger bookcase openings flanking either side of the large doorway between the living and dining room. I’d show you some pictures of what I mean (click here just to see the living room in general), but it’s a huge mess right now from closet makeover madness (I’ll get to that a little further down). Place of My Taste did something similar below, and I think what I like so much about it is the way the shelves are broken up with vertical dividers… it keeps the eye moving, ya know?

Shine Your Light Blog added a wall of buit-ins that almost exactly mimic my thought process on this. I want to incorporate the space between for the door opening in order to make it all look like one purposeful unit. (She also did a comparison of using Billy bookcases from Ikea versus DIYing the whole thing out of plywood, so it’s worth a read!)

3. Finally, there’s the downstairs closet near the entryway. I haven’t really shown you any sneak peeks of this yet (and won’t for a couple of weeks), but I’m taking some heavy inspiration from mudroom pictures. I’m kind of on board with the ease of building a bench-like area that could house baskets, like Little Red Brick House did here…

But I also LOVE the way Brittany (Pretty Handy Girl) created more of a hidden storage space near her windows. I just got some chest hinges delivered from National Hardware (as you might recall from this post, they’re a sponsor of mine this year, so I’m trying to really put it to good use and get a bunch of hardware tasks done!), so I’m thinking of going this route to better use the floor space that’s being wasted in the entryway closet (I don’t want to take off the door, but I also realized how little I hang coats in there but still use it for other storage).

But, here’s the part where I get you guys to chime in, because I’m still not really decided on anything yet and want to do some more brainstorming. What do you think of built-ins in general? Have you been wanting to put them in or are there some you’re anxious to rip out? I’m all ears.

The post Reader Remarks: Ridiculously Good Built-In Ideas appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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from The Ugly Duckling House http://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/ridiculously-good-built-in-ideas/

How to Hide an Air Conditioning Unit

Man, I am SO glad to be done with this project! Check out my new screen that hides my air conditioning unit on the side of the house:

As you guys may have heard me mention in the Periscope sneak peek I did last week, this was a project I did in a sponsored partnership with Liquid Nails Fuze*It. They sent me a box full of the stuff and told me to go bananas (okay, so those are my words, but that’s kind of what I did anyway):

I’ve used Liquid Nails Fuze*It on a number of projects in the past, but this seemed like a fun opportunity to really see what I could do with it. So, I decided on a plan to hide the air conditioning unit on the side of the house with an inexpensive, quick building project. You guys might recall that the whole area used to look like this:

I’ve made quite a  lot of progress so far, especially with some inexpensive egg rock and air conditioner-friendly plants back here, but the element I wanted to add most of all was something that would hide the A/C unit from the road. Nothin’ fancy, but something.

And while I was at it, I realized that I might as well extend the screen to the right, which would then also hide the meter that’s closer to the chimney:

This project was going to put a lot of their bragging points to the test:

• bonds almost anything to almost anything else, both porous and smooth surfaces – needed to join the smoother and chemically-treated PT lumber 2x2s to the rough cedar boards
• offers an instant grab to save time – needed because I had a limited number of clamps and time (and to be honest, patience)
• creates a durable, flexible bond – needed since I was going to eyeball the crap out of my measurements but didn’t want it to look that way
• can be applied interior and exterior in hot, cold, wet, or dry environments – the humid Atlanta weather (and a freak rainstorm) made for 3/4 of these without breaking a sweat (okay, I totally broke a sweat, but you get the idea!)

Materials Needed:

• cedar fence pickets
• pre-treated 2x2s
• clamps
• Liquid Nails Fuze*It
• Optional: fasteners (I went without, but I think the project would set up a lot faster if you use them in combination with the LN)

To start, I cut the dog-eared ends off the cedar pickets. But don’t throw these bits away just yet! You’ll need them later.

Next, I measured and cut down enough cedar boards to create 5 boards per panel, a total of 15 (length would be determined by your own A/C unit measurements, but mine were 50 in. for the front panel, 34 in. for the side panel, and 34 in. for the panel in front of the gas meter).

I also cut the PT 2x2s down for four total posts. These would be what I glued and clamped the cedar boards to, but with about 12 inches of overhang at the bottom that would serve to anchor the panels into the ground. (***Important*** Before digging this into the ground, know where your utility lines are! You can find this out quickly and easily by calling 811 or submitting online a few days before you plan to dig. ***)

Time for gluing! I started with the top piece and carefully glued and clamped to make it square with the vertical 2×2 posts. I wasn’t very precise with making things square, but since I was careful with my cuts and working on a level surface, things came together nicely.

Don’t worry if a little oozes out; I used the edges of the scrap pieces to clean some of it up, and it’s hardly noticeable when all is said and done.

Next, I added the second board below the first, but this is where the scrap pieces come into play.

Use the pieces (provided they are visually straight and not warped) as a means of evenly spacing out each board.

I noticed that the fusing of each piece of cedar to the post began to set in a matter of minutes; working quickly, I glued and clamped until I had five pieces in a row. I also read on the back of the tube that it actually adheres even better when you wet down the surface a little before applying, so I grabbed a wet paper towel to move even faster. Little did I realize that the next day, an afternoon shower would come through and basically take care of the wet factor all on its own, so I went without a paper towel for the remainder of the project.

While the first panel (which wound up being the middle panel that the others attached to) cured, I came up with my plan of action on the two remaining sides. The piece that would go in front of the meter was next, but I only cut four posts total. So, the plan was to use the middle panel as my base and attach more panels to it on the left and right sides, creating a sort of “Z” pattern when all is said and done. Figuring out whether to glue the panels in front of or behind the post was the hardest part, especially because I was clamping things upside down… and it’s been a long week.

If the visuals aren’t helping you picture it as well as you hoped, here’s a simple diagram. Imagine this is the vertical view, looking directly overhead each panel, and the small squares are the posts that support the boards:

So once I flipped it over, panels 1 and 2 looked more like this:

With the first two cured, I then glued on the third and final panel (but this time, right-side up).

Finally, it was time to dig some holes and place the new screen in the ground!

It took a little sweat, but in the end, everything was magically level. I say “magically” because I popped the screen into each hole I’d dug and put my level on top of each panel expecting I’d have to make some adjustments, but it was oddly perfect right away. That never happens!

If you need a refresher on spacing, go to this post from when I added landscaping. Keeping a good distance away from the unit is really important for air flow!

Truth be told, I would have buried the posts a little deeper if I didn’t also need to plan for the scalloped edging that will go in front of this area, but the corners are nice and secure for me. If you’re going to try this project yourself and are concerned about the posts sticking into the ground, you might want to attach some rebar onto the posts and hammer them into the ground. But again, be sure you have contacted your utilities to make certain that you won’t accidentally interfere with any lines buried in the ground.

The whole panel only really hides the side that’s visible to the street, but because it’s got a simple installation and opens in the back, it’s freely accessible if anything needs to be serviced (theoretically… I haven’t heard anything from anyone yet, but it should be fine). And just because I like the fun comparison, here’s the before:

Here’s progress:

And here’s after!

• Paint remaining house trim on this side
• Dig the scalloped edging in front of the A/C screen down
• Possibly add some additional plants near the chimney area to finish off the whole side!

Big thanks to Liquid Nails Fuze*It for sponsoring this project, available exclusively at The Home Depot. I love the way it turned out!

#DontJustGlueIt #LiquidNails

The post How to Hide an Air Conditioning Unit appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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from The Ugly Duckling House http://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/hide-air-conditioning-unit/

What to Look For When Buying an Anti-Ligature Handle

If you're considering a purchase, you are most likely active in an environment where one or more people run the risk of harming themselves, accidentally or not, and you are thinking about how to reduce that risk. Personally, I have found that Stronghold Direct is a good solution, as it carries a large selection of anti-ligature handles from the world's leading manufacturers. 

 

Anti-Ligature Handle

Considering the purchase of a this sort of  specialty handle usually means that you work with, or somehow are in touch with environments in which the risk of people harming themselves, either on purpose or by accident, exists. This means that making this type of purchase is very serious and important requiring careful thought and the right advice. Creating a safe environment for more vulnerable people, like children for example is not a task that should be taken lightly.

There are reliable manufacturers in UK like Stronghold Directthat specialise in security hardware, and have a large range of high-quality security products, including anti-ligature handles of many types. With an accumulated experience of over 80 years in the business, it is one of the frontrunners in the South and in the Midlands when it comes to high security hardware.

First of all, it's important to identify the environment in which the anti-ligature handles will be placed, or under what circumstances they will be used.

·         What are the handles for?

·         How will they be used?

·         Who interacts with the environment?

·         What risks exist at the moment?

These are all valid questions when looking to buy high-quality anti-ligature handles, and they will all influence your choice of handle.

Second of all and something that already briefly came up in the previous paragraph, is to identify who will be the main interactors with the handles you are planning to purchase and install. There exist countless types of handles and deciding on your choice will be largely influenced by who the principal user will be.

In elderly homes, for example, the handles are often aimed at reducing the pain felt by arthritis patients when operating certain handles. In the children's departments of hospitals, for example, the type of handle you choose will largely be based on how to reduce the risk of children getting harmed by interacting with, or being in proximity to, the handles and other devices.

Finally, what you also want to look out for is the reputation of the manufacturer of the handle, and the certifications of the handle itself. You don't want to take any chances with safety, especially not when more vulnerable segments of the population are part of the equation.

Good security itself can prevent crimes, as it is a visible deterrent that there are no easy pickings available. So stop the problems before they start. Insurance is a necessity but it is always best to have a robust and visible system in place that is not compromised by also having anti-ligature functionality.

You know that a company is easy to trust when they only carry high quality, high security handles that will also meet your safety requirements. While each type and style has a selection from the world's leading manufacturers. 

from Home My Heaven: Home Improvement Blog UK http://www.homemyheaven.co.uk/2016/06/what-to-look-for-when-buying-anti.html

Living DIY Challenge: Cascading Stump Planter

How to Save Caulk and Glue Tubes Between Projects

Have you ever been in the middle/close to the end of a project, grabbed a tube of caulk or adhesive that you’ve used in a prior project (maybe just days ago!), only to find out it’s all dried up? It’s happened to me a number of times. In fact, when I started this blog, it happened to me nearly every time (that is, once I learned that caulk, in fact, needs a caulk gun in order to work). Sometimes a long rod (like the ones that are automatically attached to decent caulk guns) works great for getting the dried caulk out of the tube; sometimes, the tube is just too far gone to be saved. Either way, I get frustrated.

Caulk and adhesive aren’t really the most expensive materials on the planet, but after losing half a tube here and a quarter tube there, I got tired of the cumulated cost of constantly replacing them. Not to mention, having to run to the store mid-project, while not at all unusual around this house, was just a recipe for procrastination (and my most common source of project delays… well, procrastination delays the project — lack of coffee delays the post!). So, anything I can do to keep the project train chugging along is a welcome change, which is why I’m glad I picked up this nifty hack (in fact, I’m almost certain I picked it up from going to Haven or whatever, so I’m just going to say thanks to Pretty Handy Girl and Sawdust Girl, who are often my sources for pleasant little tricks like this).

If you know you’re going to use the caulk or glue again soon (say, in less than a week), I’ve found that this is a crazy easy go-to method. And the best part is, it requires literally no other materials than what you’re already working with.

How to Keep Caulk and Adhesive From Drying Out

Step 1

With the caulk gun still in your hand, just let a bit ooze out of the end. It usually happens anyway with caulk, but adhesive (like Liquid Nails) can be a little more stubborn and sticky. I try to let it kind of create a fat little lump on the tip of the tube without touching it (because despite having a blog where I regularly get my hands dirty, sticky hands bug me to no end).* But you just have to make sure that the entire end is oozing out enough so that no air can go down into the tube.

*Dear Lord, how many suggestive things can I say in a single paragraph?

Step 2

Once the end is covered, remove it from the caulk gun (or don’t, if you’re me) and just rest it in a spot where it can begin to air dry (both adhesive or caulk will start setting in a matter of minutes, especially when you live in a warm climate like I do).

Step 3

When you’re ready to use it again, just pop off the dried end and continue on. You can see in the shot below that the top part is dry, but the adhesive directly underneath was still fresh!

This method has worked pretty well for me, but I also go through caulk and adhesive outrageously quickly, so I don’t have to wait very long between uses. That also means that even though my method has worked well for me and probably would work well for others who use these products on a routine basis, those of you who don’t live, sweat, and breathe DIY might need a hardier method. And, just like any DIY other project, there’s more than one way to solve this problem!

Other methods for saving caulk and adhesive tubes**:

**that people get into internet arguments about when deciding which method is best

• Stick a nail down the tube (my dad does this, but they rust if you don’t use something like galvanized nails, and then your pretty white caulk has a rust streak in it… no good)
• Use a golf tee (I can’t help but think if the tube has any existing pressure, the tee would easily slip out… so probably also only a short-term solution)
• Cover the end with a wire nut (I’ve never gotten a good seal from this, but some people insist it works)
• Use a resealable latex cap (never tried this, but looks interesting)
• Use a resealable plastic cap (used these, liked them, but they are costly and I have way too many open tubes for that kind of expense)
• Duct tape the end (decent, but would probably still let too much air in over time)
• Jab the end of the tube into an inexpensive toilet wax ring
• Invert the end in a bucket of water (fine I guess for silicone caulks, but not likely a good idea with ones that are easy water cleanup)
• Melt the tip down to seal it shut again (usually with thin plastic, such as cut from a milk jug, but be careful not to burn yourself!)
• A combination of the above methods (or, as I’m sure there will be, other methods mentioned in the comments below)

As you can see above, there are lots of different ideas, and each of them have their own merit. Try whichever sounds worthwhile to you and give it a shot!

The post How to Save Caulk and Glue Tubes Between Projects appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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from The Ugly Duckling House http://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/save-caulk-glue-tubes-projects/