Lend Me A Hand

Posts Tagged ‘home’

Whether you’re simply moving out from your parents and into your first home, or you’re a grown man who is trying to provide a better home for your growing family, the prospect of trying to hire a moving company to move your belongings is definitely something you’ll likely deal with at some point in your personal life. For the majority of the people who are already aware as to just how positive hiring a moving company can be, the only question they have left is just how damaging it can be to your pocket books. Below I will give a brief outline as to how much you can expect to shell out for premium moving services.

To be specific, the best Seattle moving companies who have a long track record of professional service will charge you around $40 per person who is sent out to work on your particular move. That’s a standard price for professional companies and you definitely get what you pay for. You will also be charged for the moving truck and perhaps an equipment charge, which are both flat fees and also industry standards.

In addition to those charges, there are certain situations which will inflate the hourly rate at which you pay for the services. For instance, if you need the movers to pack everything for you beforehand, this will cost extra for the time, as well as the materials required to get things packed.

Another scenario that can jack up the hourly rate of cost is what your access is like from the road to your home. If the movers have to travel up an abnormal amount of steps, or work in muddy conditions, your rate could definitely be affected. Another access scenario is whether or not the movers will have to walk an abnormally long way to get to and from your home to the moving truck. This is called a “long carry” and will almost certainly affect the price that you pay.

The bottom line is that when moving into a new home, if you can afford to have a moving company do the job for you, it is absolutely worth it.

There are a variety of ways to change the exterior of your home with exterior shutters; some are for decorative purposes and others are fully functional. Shutters can be purchased out of many types of beautiful woods, plastic or metal. If you really want the neighborhood to stand up and take notice you can spend the extra money for hand-made panel shutters.

They can be purchased ready made or custom ordered and they dress up many types of home styles including Colonial, French Georgian, Mediterranean and Cape Cod. People often buy fully functional shutters in areas off the coast where inland breezes and winds are frequent. Popular shutter styles include Bermudas, Board & Battens and Louvers.

Exterior wooden panel shutter sets provide more than just protection from the weather. They can be used to shut out heat during the hotter months and keep valuable heat in during the course of the winter. Many types are used to regulate the amount of sun entering a room, louvers can be set for air adjustments and of course they provide privacy.

Add a little class to your home with your own personal style by selecting panel styles from Recessed Panels, Raised Panels, Shaker Styles or Flat Panels. Expertly crafted workmanship will always show with impressive tongue and grove craftsmanship.

If wooden exterior shutters are your thing, then it is important to shop for high quality woods that are insect resistant and provide an attractive appearance whether left in their natural state, stained or painted. Some of the sturdiest woods to select include Western Red Cedar, Spanish Cedar or Honduras Mahogany. Spanish Cedar finishes well with stain and a clear finish. While Honduras Mahogany provides straight attractive grains and looks quite beautiful with just a clear finish.

As you can see there are several options for a variety of exterior window shutters that can make your house beautiful and provide protection from the elements as well as adjusting light and controlling heating and cooling.

For many of us our garage wears many hats. It parks the car, stores patio furniture, holiday décor, tools, and whatever else we cannot fit in the house. It is easy to pack something away in a box because you may need it again someday, yet someday never comes!

If you’ve ever been embarrassed to let your friends and family see your ever growing clutter, then now is the time to get started. Cleaning out and reorganize your space will ease your tension and make life easier. There are many different kinds of garage organizers available to help.

Getting Started

Gather the family and find a couple of days that everyone can commit to the project. Be realistic about the amount of time needed so that you don’t get discouraged. In fact it is likely that this project will take longer than you initially plan. Those storage bags and boxes may be holding more than they appear to have in them. It may not be realistic to schedule the clean out days consecutively which is fine.

Gather some garbage bags and at least 3 empty boxes or plastic containers so that you can get started. Label one box or container donation, one box sell, and one box keep. Encourage everyone in the family to really think about their items. As a general rule if you forgot you even owned it or you have not needed it in the past year, you can sell or donate it. If you run across ‘projects’ that some day you will have the time to fix or finish, have a heart to heart with yourself. How long have you been working on it? Do you really want or need it? Do you realistically have the time to get it done?

Clean As You Go

Since it is rare that you will find your garage shelves empty, take this time to give them a through cleaning. If you’ve got spilled oil on the cement and cob webs in corners now is the time to tackle them too. Try to detail clean your garage in this manner once or twice a year. This is also a good opportunity to take a look at the foundation, walls, windows, and doors.

Organizing

Now it’s time to head to your local hardware or organization store for storage options. Ask a sales associate to show you which shelves, closets and containers would be best for your space. For example if everyone in your family owns a bike you may want to invest in wall or ceiling mounted racks opposed to parking your bikes and hoping they don’t fall on top of one another. One great option is Elfa storage systems. These come in many different types for different sizes and needs in your garage.

Get creative with your purchases. For instance, if you store decorations for the different holidays in your garage you could color code the containers you purchase for each season. If you have a work bench in your garage, look into the variety of tool storage options that will incorporate vertical storage while maintaining easy access.

Remember that cleaning and organizing take excessively longer when you let something get out of control. Since you have put in all of this hard work don’t let it go to waste. From here on out, if you add something new to the garage make sure that it supports your organization efforts. Commit to checking in with your garage organization once every six months.

This site was established to bring you with a wealth of information about transforming your house into your dream home. Everything from recommendations on home improvement tools and renovation supplies for various Do-It-Yourself projects to kitchen appliances and bathroom and lighting fixtures, outdoor landscaping and project ideas and even cooking tips and recipes.

Covering everything that makes a house a home is a mighty big task and it wouldn’t be feasible to expect you to read it all through in a single sitting. Just the same, considering not even Lowes or Home Depot have everything you need for your home, we’re sure we won’t be able to cover everything here either. But we want to get to as much of it as we can.

Our contributors passions run the gamut from food preparation for fine cooking, to cooking ribs over an open pit barbecue at your favorite campground. We’ll look at the recipes and the equipment for all of it.

Looking to add some new kitchen lighting or upgrade your bathroom sink? We’ll take a look at those as well. Do you need to learn how to use a tile cutter or a circular saw? Are you trying your hand at hanging, taping and mudding drywall for the first time? Yep – we’ve been there too.

Hopefully you get the idea… no matter what it is, if it involves you, your house or things about and around your house, we want to be here for you when you’re ready to say, “Hey, could you Lend Me A Hand?“