Tenants love landlords who diligently maintain their rental properties. Here are some tips from our friends Harding Mortgages on how to get started.

1. Always keep the wooden exterior of your rental property painted. Not painting these areas will hasten the wood’s deterioration which is quite costly to repair.
2. Keep your gutters clean. Leaves and debris can clog up your gutter, causing water overflow that could penetrate into your home. Water damage is costly to repair. Adding extenders to your downspouts is also a good way to keep your gutters from emptying next to your home’s foundation.
3. Routinely inspect trees around your property for dead limbs that may fall down. Also, keep your eyes open for any trees with rotted bases. They must be removed before they fall on your rental property. Fallen trees and dead limbs not only damage your property, but they can also become a liability issue if they injure or kill someone.
4. Check your roof for damages or missing shingles — especially after high winds and strong storms. Damaged roofs let water in, causing water damage to the interior of your rental property. Dampness promotes mould growth behind your drywall or inside your attic. Mould problem is serious and is quite costly to correct.
5. Clean and inspect your heating and air conditioning systems annually for safety reasons. Also, don’t forget to replace filters once a month. This simple maintenance tip can keep your system running smoothly. Also, make sure to keep stuff and vegetation away from your exterior AC unit to keep airflow open. Usually, maintaining the AC system of your rental property is the tenant’s responsibility so, don’t forget to make this part of the discussion when the lease contract is signed.
6. The dirt around your foundation should slope away from it, not towards it. If necessary, add a dirt backfill around your property’s foundation to make sure that the water is draining correctly. Water draining into your foundation may penetrate into your basement or crawl space, causing damage.
7. Seal gaps on windows and doors with a weather-proof sealant to keep water and moisture in check. Water intrusion can cause serious and costly damage to your rental property. It also helps you save energy by keeping heat loss to a minimum.
8. If your rental property has a fireplace that burns wood, make sure to have the chimney cleaned and inspected annually. Chimney fire caused by the buildup of creosote can put your entire property at risk.
9. If your rental home has a crawl space, enter and check this area regularly. Inspect the walls and plumbing for any sign of leaking. If you find any standing water in your crawl space, do not enter it. Instead, call a professional contractor to figure out the problem. Most houses have exposed electrical wirings inside crawl spaces putting you at risk of electrocution.

Take the time regularly inspect and maintain your rental property. Not only this saves you a lot of money on repairs but also keeps your tenants happy — making them stay longer.

Leaving your precious angel in the hands of a babysitter while you are at work or out for an event could be apprehensive. Trusting someone to take care of your child is not that simple and easy. Yet, there are still caring, loving, and reliable babysitters out there who can have your full confidence. Consider the following things when hiring a babysitter:

 1. Decide What Best Suit Your Needs

Before getting into the hiring process, decide what your family needs. Is an au pair right for you? Do you need a babysitter living-in or living-out? List down the qualities or characteristics you want your babysitter to have. With this, you can form a precise job description which you can use during contract making.

2. Consider All Your Available Networks

Take recommendations from friends, neighbours, and colleagues. Consider also agencies with a solid reputation. Reputable agencies do all the careful and critical examination and background check of the candidates for you. You can also join online networks such as Sitters, Childcare, and Yoopies when looking for babysitters. They provide access to their references and background checks.

3. Interview Thoroughly Candidates

When you have chosen your top candidates, invite them to your house for an in-person interview. Ask them specific questions about their previous experiences, child care philosophies, and basic baby care. It’s also worth knowing how they plan to interact with your child. Any knowledge of safety measures and first aid is also an advantage

4. Do Background Check

If you are hiring from a reputable agency, they will run the background check of the candidate for you. If you are not using an agency, you nned to make sure that your top candidate is legally able to work in your country

 5. Check References Given

To validate what you’ve observed during the interview, be smart in checking references.  Contact your top candidate’s previous employer and ask thorough and open-minded questions such as their strengths and weaknesses, work ethics, and personality quirks.You will also want to make sure that your babysitter has a had a CRB check. If you are a babysitter you can go to CRB Direct and get yourself a check. This will give parents peace of mind and increase your chances of employment!

 6. Write a Contract of Employment

Settle on a written agreement to govern the relationship and terms between you and your babysitter. This is a critical document which includes basic components such as salary, insurance coverage, job requirements, job hours, expectations, commitments on the part of the babysitter, and other set rules such as termination procedures, policies, and restrictions.

 7. Introduce the Babysitter to Your Children

Schedule a meet and greet with your children and your top babysitter candidate. Observe how everyone interacts with each other and see if the relationship seems comfortable.

Building a trusting relationship between you and your babysitter takes time. By following these guidelines, you lower your risks of hiring someone who’s not fit to take care of your precious little ones.

As children, almost all of us had a special box or space to store our childhood treasures. Little girls would store dolls, dresses, ribbons, and hairpins, while boys stored baseball caps, balls, action figures, and sweets. Since we were young, saving all our favourite things has always been a habit. As adults, why should that be any different?

Making a jewellery box for you to save and store all your ornaments can be a delightful task. After all, if we stored our treasures as children, why not continue the same trend as adults. Storage, security, and taking care of our belongings has always been an essential aspect of owning expensive things.

Boxes with designs, compartments, and small spaces are just some of the things that you can build and keep redoing. Today, we will start with the basics of making a jewellery box.

All you will need are the materials listed below, and you can make your jewelry box.

Hollowed book box:

A secret jewellery box made from an old box is sure to be reminiscent of our childhood memories, and make a great home for patterned wedding rings. 

•   Materials and tools required:

Hardbound book, paintbrush, craft knife, mod podge gloss, acrylic paint, scrapbook paper, drawings/ designs, scissors, ruler, pencils, strong glue, and four wooden beads.

•   Method:

1. Paint the outside pages and stick them together with mod podge. Once dry, create a niche in the book approximately 1” from each side. Cut till even thickness and remove the pages. Cut through carefully and remove the pages as required, without adding stress to your hands.
2. Paint the inside edges and the bottom with mod podge and let dry.
3. Once done, paint the inside and outside of the new jewellery box with any acrylic paint of your choice.
4. Decorate the cover with images, cutouts, scrap papers, or drawings of your choice.
5. Once done, coat the entire art layer with mod podge.
6. Glue the four wooden beads to each corner on the bottom face of the book. This will serve as a stand for your jewellery box.

A jewellery box from toothpaste cover:

Reuse regular boxes like toothpaste boxes to make small jewellery boxes for everyday use with this method. If you have larger covers or boxes, merely scale the measurements up.

•   Materials and tools required:

Decorative papers, scissors, two boxes of the same size, acrylic paint, plastic wire, beads for decorations, glue/gum, packing tape, paintbrush, pen and pencils, adhesive, and ruler

•   Method:

1. Take any one toothpaste box and cut into an equal number of smaller boxes so that these boxes line up neatly inside the remaining toothpaste box.
2. Colour these small boxes with acrylic paints of your choice – gold and silver are lovely colour choices for adults.
3. Cut the remaining box to flip open with a lid. Paint the spare toothpaste box white from the inside.
4. Take the decorative paper and cover the entire toothpaste box from the outside.
5. Open the box and apply adhesive in the tray of the box and stick the small coloured boxes inside to make compartments. Let dry completely.
6. Add a gold bead to the lower part of the box and attach a small plastic wire to the top inner portion using tape. Once done, you can seal it off with white paper.

Shoe Box to Jewellery Box:

This is probably one of the easiest and simplest boxes to make. You can make this within 30 mins, and if you want multiples, you can stack them one on top of the other.

•   Materials and tools required:

Old shoe box in excellent condition, pencils, pens, ruler, colourful paper, knife, glue, stiff cardboard paper for separators, acrylic paint, paintbrush.

•   Method:

1. Reinforce the inside of the box by gluing it with stiff cardboard paper.
2. Paint the inside of the box according to your specifications. Make markers to measure the spaces you would like to have for separate jewellery containers.
3. Cover the outside of the box with decorative paper. Cover the inside and out of the lid as well.
4. Cut separators according to your measurements, cover with decorative paper, or paint, and then place them according to the markings on the inside of the box.
5. Close the lid on the box to have your jewellery box ready.

There are several creative and unique options to make your jewellery boxes. Unique boxes should reflect the nature and cost of your jewellery and should look good on your dressing table or the inside of your cupboard. In case you are traveling and need to carry your jewellery box, secure it with added cardboard on the inside to make it travel-worthy.

Small changes can make a huge difference in kitchen design. If you want to update your kitchen, but don’t have the budget to install a completely new kitchen, then you need to make some clever design choices. Sometimes it can be as simple as removing clutter or painting a wall, and sometimes it can mean completely replacing your kitchen units. This is something that only you will know by looking at your space.

To give you some inspiration, we’ve compiled a list of small changes you can make to give your kitchen a fresh new feel.

Choose a Featured Wall: If your kitchen is a neutral colour, like magnolia or cream, then you could make a huge difference with a featured wall. Whether you go for a solid block colour or a patterned design, the juxtaposing colours will add liveliness and character to your kitchen. Remember that a featured wall will become the focal point of the room, so you need to decide carefully which wall to use. Ideally, the wall shouldn’t be interrupted by windows or doors.

Add an Eating Area: Kitchens are often designed for their functionality and not for relaxing or eating, which can make the room feel lifeless. There are loads of ways to create space without having a table and chairs. For example, having a diner-style wall-mounted table will save space and invite your family or housemates to enjoy the room with you.

Bold Lighting Choices: Choose a striking light fitting – like a chandelier, industrial-lights or a vintage light – to create a focal point for your kitchen.

Geometric Tiles: In modern designs, geometric tiles are a fantastic way to bring colour and fluidity into your kitchen. They can be used on almost any surface of the kitchen – walls, floors, splashbacks, countertops – to give the room a unique flow. In order to get the best effect, make sure that they are used sparingly and not on every surface, as this will make the design too busy.

Use Striking Patterns: Used in the same way as geometric tiles, striking patterns are a great way to create a feature out of one of your kitchen’s surfaces. The best place to use them is on a wall or splashback – using them on the countertops or units can create a busy design.

Use Two Different Bold Colours For Your Units: Traditionally, kitchen units are all one colour. This creates a consistent and clean design, but you can break the norm and use two different colours. The most effective way to do this is to choose one light colour for your top units and a darker colour for your floor units.

Choose A Featured Splashback: In the past, kitchen splashbacks were purely functional – used to protect the area around your hob – but now they have become an important feature of kitchen design. You can choose from multiple different materials and designs to create a striking feature. Recently, plastic splashbacks have become popular due to their versatility and durability. You can buy kitchen splashbacks online, conveniently cut to size to fit your kitchen.

Feature Ceiling : The ceiling is often the most neglected surface of a kitchen. It’s not like people are going to be looking up when they walk through the door, right? In fact, a well-designed ceiling can really bring a room to life. Use a dark colour to create a cosy feel or a light patterned colour to reflect light and bring attention to space in the room.

Use Artwork: With space at a premium in kitchen design, artwork is often an overlooked option. Like in any room, a well-chosen piece of artwork could make or break a design and really give your kitchen a unique identity, Katie from civilizedhealth.com agreed.

Hide Your Clutter: Clutter is the enemy of design. Think of ways to remove the clutter in your kitchen. This often involves finding storage spaces for small appliances and generally having a clear out of utensils you don’t use.

Use Exposed Copper: Exposed copper piping or lighting fixtures is a really powerful way of giving your design an industrial feel. It works best against dark granite or wood and can either be polished regularly or left alone to give a more subtle effect.

Install New Countertops: While it’s not the cheapest option, installing new countertops can immediately change the feel of your kitchen. Alternatively, if you like your countertops but they are tired, you could have them professionally cleaned or sanded down and recoated.

Install New Faucets: It’s amazing how new faucets can update your kitchen dramatically. Of course, you have to pick faucets consistent with your design. There are hundreds of options now that can not only improve the design but make your kitchen much more functional.

Home is where the heart is. We protect our hearts with great care, then why not our homes? Your home is where you come back to relax, unwind, de-stress, and live with your family and loved ones. While you take care of your family, friends, and yourself, you should also care for your home. Home security systems help in keeping your home safe and preventing break-ins from burglars and criminals. With the increasing rise in crime, it is essential to protect your home. Proper home security should be the prime concern of every homeowner.

Apart from the property and financial security, home security helps protect our loved ones and ourselves from harm. The best way to avoid dangerous situations for our dear ones is to protect our property and valuables. The best solution to this issue is to invest in a well-reputed home security system that has a fast response time and is fool-proof. Secured through high-speed networks, you will be able to rest assured that everything is safe.

Let us look at how you can secure your home from threats.

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)

Just tall fencing and locked doors might not be enough to keep intruders out. CCTV helps prevent crimes since thieves, burglars, and criminals have to think twice about being recorded on camera. The chances of them getting caught in facial and body recognition software are higher than not getting caught at all. Crimes are prevented from occurring with the help of CCTV recording and footage. Apart from this, CCTV footage counts as evidence in court since most criminals automatically deny ever having committed a crime or breaking into a house.

Closed Circuit Television also helps in accessing areas that are difficult to monitor daily like the roof, closed off windows, backdoors, garages, narrow gaps, and blind spots around your house or apartment. This helps prevent any break-in attempts to your home or property.

Secure Garage Doors

Most garage doors are flimsy and do not offer the right kind of security to your home. A weak garage door that is easily disabled or broken can be a vulnerable point of entry to your home and premises. Today, garage doors are available in basic and high-tech installations and can guarantee a much safer feeling to your home. Roller shutter doors are a compact and versatile garage door that are quick and relatively cheap to install. Smart garage doors are controllable from mobile phones and are wirelessly connected to the wifi of your home. If you don’t want a high tech garage door, you can upgrade the locking mechanism to improve the durability of the door and prevent break-in attempts, you can find a local locksmith to do this if you aren’t comfortable.

Security Doors

Security doors are a crucial aspect of home security. Most burglars and criminals avoid breaking into a home that has secured safety doors and windows. The time taken to breach or destroy a safety door is longer than that of a regular one. There is a chance that someone passing by or a patrol car might see the break-in attempt and the burglar might get caught. Most criminals do not want to attract attention, and a secure safety door acts as a fantastic deterrent. Apart from keeping unwanted people out, a security door also works to keep people and pets indoors. Small children cannot access the door and wander off on to the road.

Security doors provide extra security to your house. They come in all colors and styles and won’t compromise the beauty and grace of your home. You can select the perfect door according to your house décor, lawn, and fencing. Classic steel security doors are excellent for security and style and have the added benefit of leaving the main door open for ventilation and air.

Safety Windows

Most people overlook the safety and security that windows can provide. Most burglars and criminals often enter homes through flimsy windows that are easily broken. Invest in a secure tempered glass that is more durable and harder to break than regular glass. Another excellent type of glass is laminated glass, also known as safety glass, which has a layer of vinyl placed between sheets of ordinary glass. Safety glass is harder to smash since it is more robust and makes a lot of noise when repeatedly struck.

You could also opt for safety latches that are wirelessly connected to your home security system. These latches emit signals that are transferred to your mobile or handheld device. Apart from this, you could also invest in bullet-resistant or wire-mesh glass for your windows, but these could be expensive options.

If you have children, keeping the floors (and the rest of the house..) clean, can be a nightmare and becomes an ongoing exercise. Carpets can get grubby very quickly from little feet going in and out of the garden, not to mention making it difficult to manoeuvre push chairs and bikes and scooters, so what is the best kind of floor to have with messy and creative children?

Ideally you want something easy to clean, durable and that won’t end up getting scratched to pieces by wheels, toys, building blocks and anything else children want to throw onto it. But there are all sorts of other things to think about so here is a quick rundown on picking the right floor for kids. Also consider adding a kitchen bin to the room and encourage your children to use the bin to save cleaning.

Chris from IB Flooring agreed “People quite often buy flooring because it looks nice and then it turns out to be a nightmare to keep nice, especially when you have kids running about.”

1. How do I choose the right flooring?

When choosing the flooring for your home, think about where it’s going to go – is it a really busy area, like an entrance hallway or play room or kitchen, where your children spent a lot of time running around and playing with their toys, dragging in bikes and prams? If so, then you need to go for durability and practicality.

In a room where they don’t spend so much active time, like a bedroom, or a TV room, you could choose a different type of flooring and would probably be fine with a dark coloured carpet in these types of rooms.

You also need to think about safety issues and the ages of your children – if they are young toddlers, just starting to work, then avoid floors which are very slippery, and wooden flooring does tend to fall into this category. Older children are not so likely to experience this problem.

2. What types of flooring should I consider?

While an elegant hardwood floor might be durable and easy to clean, it is not going to be scratch resistant and might also be too hard for young heads when children have a tumble while playing, so probably not the best option for kids, however much you might like the look of it as parents.

Bamboo and cork flooring are very popular at the moment due to the green credentials, however, when it comes to being robust enough to handle messy and creative children these types of floors are not so likely to last under all of the daily wear and tear.

Wooden flooring and vinyl or laminate floors are the best options for areas where children are going to be spending a lot of time, coming in and out, playing and actively using the floor so look for these flooring materials in the rooms with the most family traffic. With wooden flooring you can go for engineered wood or veneer which gives you easy installation. If you are looking for less slippery floors to avoid accidents, vinyl tends to have more grip than wooden flooring. Oli from http://thefablab.co.uk agreed “for our parties we just hope people have these kind of floors!”

3. 3. How will the flooring be installed?

If you are having a new floor installed and you have children, one of the things to think about is the actual physical installation – keeping children out of the way but also, depending on the type of flooring, if it is being set with glue it could involve nasty fumes.

It might be worth looking into floated flooring which doesn’t need glue or fastening and also means you can do the work yourself as well as reducing the risk to your children’s health. Floors which can be floated include plastic laminate, ceramic tiles, lino and engineered wood.

It also means the floor is very easy to replace if it did get damaged or once the kids have left home or grown out of all the scratchy toys and you can finally get the elegant wooden floor you always wanted! Of course with any floor replacement there will be a lot of debris of the old flooring. With Kwiksweep they provide domestic rubbish removals, which makes your life easier.

Conclusion

When installing flooring for messy and creative children you need to consider several aspects including durability, safety, scratches and scuffs, and also how easy it is to clean. You need a floor that will survive daily family life without becoming a complete mess.

Opting for a floating floor will make installation quicker, easier and with no fumes, and will also allow you to change the floor very simply at a later date, perhaps once the kids have grown older, or when the floor is beyond its best and needs replacing again.

Think about the area it will be in, the installation process and also make sure it fits with the overall aesthetic of the house, so that you don’t end up with a practical floor which just looks hideous! Find reviews on the best floor and other products at reviewslot.

Choosing a plastic greenhouse makes sense when looking to replace your greenhouse glass this Summer.

Check out greenhouse glazing here, cast acrylic sheets online.

Participating and making home crafts and arts has been an output of creativity, bond, and fun, it has a wonderful benefit to the children. Little did we know but, home craft and arts contribute developmental benefits, the five developmental benefits of art and crafts to the children are:

Bilateral coordination. Arts and craft require the use of both hands together, this skill can be used in other areas of our lives, such as writing, typing and tying the shoe lace.

Fine motor coordination. To cut patterns, draw shapes, it requires the fine motor coordination. This skill can be translated to dressing and eating.

Self-regulation. Crafts need a lot of patience. This can teach your child to demonstrate self-control and patience, it promotes flexibility and exploration with one’s creativity.

Self-esteem booster. Children can find the crafts challenging, yet choose arts and crafts that are at their skill level. A sense of accomplishment and pride as the child finishes the craft. Add more and more challenges as your child continues to excel.

Bonding and fun. Your children will love to spend time with you and create different home crafts together.

Image credits: home craft ideas

In need of home crafts and arts for the Christmas season? You do not have to worry! Here are three crafts with the steps to follow.

Snow Flakes

• Trace a circle on a white construction paper
• Cut out the circle
• Fold the circle in half 3 times
• Draw shapes from the edges with a pencil
• Use scissors to cut along the designs

Cotton Ball Snowman

• Make three circles for the outline of your snow man. Fill in each circle with glue completely
• Stick cotton balls in the glue circles to form your snowman
• Use chopsticks, small tongs, or tweezers to pick up and place the cotton balls
• Be creative and give your snow man a face and accessories

Cards for friends and family

• Fold a piece of construction paper in half and decorate.
• Write your message in pencil and have your child trace
• Attach a picture of the friend or family member
• Use holiday inspired stencils and have your child trace onto the card

There are a lot of different crafts you could make for your home. If you have a spare time on a day, well probably, you could make one or more! Here are some home crafts for you.

Lovely Placemats. You might have shabby clothes in your wardrobe, why not get those, cut it out and stitch it into placemats! At least you can use it during any celebrations you’ll have at home, it’ll add to a lovely dining time.

Mason Jars. You better look for old mason jars or look for some because you’re going to make each one of these as displays in your home. You can use these jars as flower containers and decorate it to look gorgeous. You may use these as well as candle jars. Add some string on its neck part and hang it anywhere!

Whiskey Barrels. I think almost all have old barrels at home! Haven’t used it for so long? Try to repurpose your barrels at home. It’s a clever idea for you to keep a rustic item and turn it into a trendy one. Make it as a stand for decorations. Make it look like a pub table or an outdoor table. You just need a little furnish of it! It can also be a barrel trash can. Oh boy, garbage never looks so good but it will now!

We recommend Deepsouthbarrels for small whiskey barrels

and the Blog Whiskeytangoglobetrot: small whiskey barrels

Stock Tanks. It’s crazy how people have imaginative minds to create ideas for a stock tank. Try to make it as a planter in front of your house. Add some alluring plants or flowers to make it look astonishing. Sensing a hot degree weather? Why not make your stock tanks into a backyard pool to keep you cool on a hot day.

Porch Swing. Pull out your working instruments! Putting up your own porch swing can be an additional adornment on your porch and a relaxing spot.  Although it may work one’s finger to the bones, the end result will be worth it!

Wood Wine Rack. Turn your barn wood into a wine rack! It may be rustic and unsophisticated but once you remodel it, it’ll turn to an intricate one. You can add or use heavy-duty screws to hang your rack in the kitchen or dining room!

Revive an obsolete flower. Implant flowers onto a candle by sticking dried flowers to the surface, then over-dipping in clear wax. Crafting like this is a distinct one especially when the shape of a flower and/or leaves is fascinating.

Flower Napkin Rings. Fresh flowers die a little faster, why not buy a faux one on a craft store and sew it on to regular hair ties in pairs or individually and make it as napkin rings. It will help illuminate your table setting!