House Extension

How to Save for the Cost of a House Extension

One thing that most people know is that a house extension will cost quite a lot. What they may not realise is that there are many ways of getting what you want for less. A house extension will certainly enhance your lifestyle and may save the need to move into a bigger home. If you consult with a financial planner like Andep to find the best ways of making your money go further, it can cost less than you may think.

The ideal scenario is to get a financial advisor to do some financial planning on your behalf. They not only show you how to save money when you buy your materials from Building Materials Perth, but may be able to ensure you get a bigger tax return. Even though their advice costs, you will save much over the following years once they put you on the right track. So a house extension can soon be well within your budget.

Lighting-Into-Work-Shed

How to Get Lighting Into Your Work Shed

Many homes include a shed of some kind in the backyard that can be used for storage, gardening or as a work shed for various hobbies or projects around the house.  These sheds only have one thing wrong with them – apart from being too small – and that is no lighting.  If you get an experienced Perth electrician to add lighting, you’ll be able to get a lot more use out of that shed.

Smaller sheds often don’t even have a window to let light in, making it really difficult to find what you want and to keep the shed tidy, let alone dodge spiders. Instead, you tend to stand at the door and throw things in, hoping they’ll land somewhere you can find them next time they are needed.  If you installed lighting you could have a tidy shed that will fit more in because you’d be able to see well enough to add some shelves or hooks on the walls.

kitchen-cabinets

How to get Kitchen Cabinets with that Wow Factor

If you are renovating your kitchen, it is most likely because you were dissatisfied with the look of it. Older kitchens and kitchen cabinets were rarely designed with aesthetics in mind. In fact, most were built from the same old design that was considered good enough for what was essentially a work room. These days that is no longer good enough.

Now that open floor plans are so popular it means all the living areas are open and merge into each other. You can see the kitchen from the living room and sometimes from the front door, which means it has to look just as good as the rest of the living area does. When visitors come to your home, they can see the kitchen from the living or lounge room and can sit there comfortably and chat to their hostess while she sees to the dinner.

growing-pot-plants

8 Tips for Growing Pot Plants Successfully

Not everyone has a green thumb when it comes to growing plants in garden pots. It is a shame to see what would otherwise be a beautiful plant struggling for life in a pot. If you find your pot plants are looking a bit sick, here are some tips to help them get better.

  • Make sure you use quality potting mix. Follow the instructions on the bag. Often you will find that the mix should be left to settle, but you have that plant and are anxious to get the job done so you don’t want to wait. But in a week or two the mix will settle and leave the roots half exposed, or the whole lot will sink down into the pot so you have half the pot showing at the top and the roots have less room than they need.
move-during-renovations

To Move or Not to Move During Renovations

If you are having your home renovated be prepared for a lot of noise, dust and interruptions – depending on what you are having done, of course. If only one room is being renovated you may be able to stand remaining in the same house, but if more than that is scheduled, you may want to think about contacting Brilliance Removalists to move you out so the renovators and builders have free rein.

The noise factor

You may not have experienced living in a house where there is constant banging and the whine of a saw going on and off all day. The latter is a bit like being in the dentist’s chair with the high pitched noise of the drill grating on your nerves. You have to be strong to put up with it. But at the dentists, you at least know it will be over in a few minutes.

Budget Friendly Kitchen Renovation Ideas

Since the kitchen is the most used room in the house it makes sense that it would need renovating sooner than other rooms. Perth Kitchens need not be expensive, especially if you can do the work yourself. It is the full renovation with custom build cupboards that becomes expensive, but here are some more affordable options that will improve the look of your kitchen.

  • Putting in new bench tops is probably the number one way to renovate a kitchen affordably. Using some of the newer materials means you can throw away your old chopping boards and just use the bench top, which withstands such abuse.
aluminium-windows-doors

The Advantages of Aluminium Windows & Doors

If you have ever struggled to open or close a window that sticks, or if you have a door that is warped and doesn’t fit properly into the doorway, you will be interested in aluminium windows and doors. Toughened glass with an aluminium frame is never going to warp or twist like timber does. Timber absorbs moisture, then dries out during hot, dry weather and this process is what makes it warp and twist. So timber frames around doors or windows will not give the same durability as aluminium. Here are some more advantages of aluminium doors and windows.

property-maintenance

No-Stress Property Maintenance

In many homes stress is elevated to an almost unbearable level when any handyman job is getting done. This is partly due to the fact that the handyman may not really know what he is doing and so it takes longer to complete the task. The household is usually in turmoil until it is all finished and cleaned up and everyone can relax and enjoy some peace and quiet.

In some cases the stress comes about because the home handyman makes a mistake that then has to be fixed. This can be a really expensive mistake such as a break in the plumbing behind the wall, that calls for a professional person to repair it.

Since doctors now understand that stress is what causes a variety of other illnesses, it is far better to have a professional handyman come in to do your maintenance, repairs or renovations. Not only will they be in and out of there really quickly, having handled the job in next to no time, they will not make any stuff-ups and cause even more problems. If they do, they will repair it without added costs to you.

Gardening Ideas for Seniors

11 Easy Gardening Ideas for Seniors

Many people get a great deal of enjoyment out of gardening. There is something about growing plants that is in our blood and we are never happier than when messing with soil, seeds and fertiliser. But as the years roll on, gardening and landscaping becomes a more difficult chore. Seniors are not as strong as they once were and they often find it difficult to bend over or lift heavy weights. Digging sometimes becomes impossible. So how can you still enjoy gardening as a senior? Here are some tips to make it easier.

  • If you loved showy annuals, keep them for pot-plants and instead, grow perennials or plants that last for many years. This will save a lot of digging and bending over to plant them. There are many shrubs with showy flowers that will remain in your garden year after year with little effort from you.
  • Low maintenance gardens are ideal for seniors. There is less watering, next to no digging and you still get to enjoy being outdoors amongst your plants.
  • Add plenty of organic mulch to reduce weed growth and feed the garden. It also saves watering.
  • Inorganic mulch like pebbles can do the same job –apart from making fertiliser – and look very attractive in a garden.
  • If you have pot plants, have them up on a chair, bench or table when planting them to save bending over. Heavy pots need to be placed on a pot stand with wheels to save you lifting when they need to be moved.
  • Consider having an automatic watering system installed. This will save you a lot of work in watering and pulling that hose along.
  • Get a handyman in for those more difficult jobs rather than trying to do them yourself. It will be worth the cost to be able to enjoy your garden.
Concrete Swimming Pool

12 Benefits of a Concrete Swimming Pool

According to holiday booking experts Easy Villas, many people these days have a swimming pool in the backyard. It is almost an Aussie icon, since so much of this great country has a warm temperate in some places, a tropical climate like the island of Bali that makes swimming such a popular activity, let alone a great way to cool off. Concrete was the normal material for building a pool until fibreglass made an upsurge. But now, concrete is coming back into its own. Why?

There are many benefits to having a concrete swimming pool. Here are some of them: –

  • The design of a concrete swimming pool is almost limitless. It can be deeper and bigger than a fibreglass one which is great as long as you have a pool cleaner. Fibreglass pools are made in the factory to a set mould. There are many different shapes and sizes, but they are all limited to a certain size because they have to fit on a truck for delivery.
  • Concrete pools are made on the location. They can have anything in them that you want as far as seating, steps, ledges and varying depths are concerned. This is really handy if you have children of varying ages; littlies can play in the shallow part and older children can swim where it’s deeper.
  • You can have a spa attachment in a concrete pool.