Month: July 2022

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Steps For Protecting Your Floors From Damage

In today’s real estate market, hardwood floors are a highly desired feature in a house. Potential buyers are often turned off by homes with carpeted floors because it’s almost impossible to keep them clean. Time is not on your side when it comes to maintaining nice-looking carpeted floors!

No matter how careful you are, sooner or later someone’s going to knock over a glass of grape juice or wine — and that’s only the short list of accidents waiting to happen! While dogs and cats can be a wonderful addition to any family, they are not a friend of floors — either carpeted or hardwood.

In theory, hardwood floors are easier to clean than carpeting because of the absorbency factor. If your carpeting hasn’t been treated with a stain-resistant chemical, it will quickly absorb stains, spills, and pet accidents faster than you can clean them up! Although the latest carpeting materials are much more stain resistant than earlier versions, spills that are not noticed and cleaned up quickly may cause permanent damage.

Spills, water, and pet urine can also wreak havoc on hardwood floors, so a quick response is essential to preventing damage. Here are a few other tips for keeping your floors looking clean and beautiful.

  • Door mats can be helpful in minimizing the amount of dirt and grit that gets tracked into your home. What homeowners and even housekeepers sometimes forget is that door mats need to be shaken out on a regular basis. If they’re not, dirt, soil, and other debris will accumulate on the mats, causing them to create more of a problem than a solution! Door mats need to be replaced periodically, too, when they become too worn down or wet to be of any use.
  • Shoe removal: This is a difficult policy to enforce, but it will make house cleaning and floor maintenance easier and more effective. Whether you’re talking about carpeting or hardwood floors, shoes are invariably going to track in dirt, grime, water, mud, and other miscellaneous contaminants!
  • The right cleaning methods: Although it’s always a good idea to follow manufacturer recommendations when cleaning any type of flooring, hardwood floors often need to be treated with more care than their carpeted counterparts. Since there are a lot of ways to scratch, dent, or gouge hardwood floor surfaces, it’s crucial to avoid trying to scrub away spills or stains with any abrasive material. To remove potentially damaging grit, floors should be regularly cleaned with a soft dust mop or broom with soft bristles. Ideally, your vacuum cleaner should also be padded on the bottom to avoid scratching the finish of your wood floors.

While any kind of flooring can be subject to wear and tear over time, the good news is that you can take preventative steps to protect your floors and keep them looking great for many years to come!

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Is Now the Right Time to Sell a Florida Luxury Residence?

If you are interested in selling your Florida luxury house, there may be no time like the present to list your residence. The Sunshine State luxury housing market frequently offers many opportunities for home sellers. Meanwhile, home sellers who plan ahead should have no trouble maximizing their profits from a Florida home sale.

Ultimately, there are several factors to consider before you list your Florida luxury home, such as:

1. Your Home Selling Timeline

Do you want to sell your Tampa Bay luxury residence as quickly as possible? Or, can you afford to be patient as you try to sell your Miami luxury house? Take a close look at your home selling timeline, and you can map out a successful home selling journey.

If you want to immediately relocate from your current Florida luxury residence, you’ll want to price your house competitively. Thus, you’ll want to conduct a home appraisal to ensure you can receive expert insights into how to price your house.

On the other hand, if you want to get the best-possible offers for your Sunshine State luxury home, you should consider taking a wait-and-see approach. This approach will require you to wait for offers that meet or exceed your expectations before you finalize your home sale.

2. Your Home’s Value

What you paid for your Sunshine State luxury house a few years ago is unlikely to match what your house is worth today. Fortunately, if you assess your house’s value, you can determine whether now is the best time to list your home.

A home inspection is a must for Florida luxury home sellers. This inspection will enable you to learn about any potential home problems and correct these issues to boost your house’s value.

Furthermore, it may be beneficial to analyze the local luxury housing market. This will ensure that you can compare and contrast your luxury house against similar houses in Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale and other Sunshine State cities and towns. Then, you can establish a competitive price for your Florida luxury house.

3. Your Home Selling Goals

Regardless of whether you want to sell a luxury house in Gainesville, Key West or elsewhere in Florida, it helps to create home selling goals. With these goals in hand, you can determine the necessary steps to ensure that you achieve your aspirations in no time at all.

When it comes to creating home selling goals, it generally is beneficial to collaborate with a real estate agent. This housing market professional will do what it takes to ensure you can enjoy a fast, profitable home selling experience.

Also, a real estate agent will respond to your home selling questions. That way, if you’re unsure about how to price your Orlando luxury home, a real estate agent can offer guidance. Conversely, if you’re uncertain about how to promote your Miami luxury residence to potential buyers, a real estate agent is happy to help you find ways to showcase your house to the right groups of buyers.

Want to list your Florida luxury residence? Consider the aforementioned factors, and you can prepare to add your luxury house to the Sunshine State real estate market.

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3 Simple Tips for Customizing Your Flower Pots

You don’t need to spend a fortune on expensive flower pots and planters. Decorating a plain pot and turning it into a custom piece is simple and inexpensive and can really make a difference in your plant collection’s aesthetic. No matter your style, terracotta pots make the perfect starting point for this project. Here are some tips you can use to create your very own custom terracotta pots.

Recommended Materials

Terracotta flower pot
Paint brush
Foam brush
Craft Paint
Painter’s tape
Rubber bands
Pencil
Plants or flowers

Painting Tips

Plan Your Design

When you begin any sort of creative project, it’s helpful to have an idea before you begin. Starting your pot painting project with a design or at least part of a design already planned will help you save time and materials. While you can paint over any mistakes with enough coats, it’s better to avoid them entirely by planning your design.

One thing that can help is drawing on the pot with a pencil before you paint. This is especially useful for more complicated designs, motifs or even lettering. If you plant to use a stencil, try different placements on the surface of the pot to get the best look.

Use Shortcuts

It’s not cheating to use your resources wisely. With art, any tools that can save you time or make tough parts easier will reward you with a better finished product with less frustration. Use painter’s tape to block out areas you don’t want to paint. Just like when used on walls, painter’s tape will give you a perfectly straight line without the hassle.

Another great shortcut for painting flower pots is to use rubber bands for horizontal lines. Fit a rubber band around the pot and adjust so that it’s even all the way around. Not only does the rubber band make a barrier for paint but it will stay in place, giving you a perfectly even horizontal line every time.

Make Your Pots Versatile

To get the most use out of your newly painted pots, treat them for outdoor use. You can do this by adding a coat of spray sealant after the paint is dry. There are different finishes you can use as well, so it provides an opportunity to enhance your artwork with a glossy sheen or a cool matte finish.

Terracotta is a porous material, so if you want it to avoid absorbing water meant for your plants, use sealant on the inside too. This can also make cleaning the pots easier in the future as it makes a smoother surface in contact with the soil.

Terracotta pots are incredibly versatile whether or not you customize them. The variety of shapes and sizes available on the market makes this project not only simple but budget-friendly. Try these tips if you want to give your container garden or houseplants an aesthetic boost.

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The First Questions to Ask About a New Neighborhood

Buying the house itself is only part of home buying. When you buy a new home, you choose a brand new place to live. In some cases, that place might be unfamiliar or far away from where you lived before. So, it’s important to keep the local area in mind during your search. But how can you determine whether a neighborhood is right for you? Here are some basic questions to ask to learn more about your new neighborhood:

Is it Safe?

It’s quicker than ever to find an area’s crime statistics on the internet or through local law enforcement, but that will only tell you so much. When trying to determine how safe a neighborhood might be, you can ask questions like:

  • Are there “neighborhood watch” signs or official neighborhood security?
  • Is there enough street lighting at night?
  • Do the home’s exteriors seem generally well kept?
  • Are there a lot of other properties for sale or rent?

These are only a few of the details to consider, but a great place to begin when trying to learn about neighborhood safety. If possible, try visiting your new neighborhood a few times to get an in-person feel of the area.

What Schools Will I Have Access To?

If you have children in your household or are planning to in the future, school districts will make a big difference. The quality and choices of schools nearby is a great thing to research to see where your new neighborhood would fit among the options. Try comparing statistics like dropout rates, test scores and reviews from both parents and students.

If you’re interested in adult education or specialist training, check to see what options your new neighborhood provides. While you won’t be restricted by districts in the same way as primary schools, ease of access can make a significant difference in your education and overall quality of life.

These are only a few things to keep in mind when researching a potential new neighborhood. The more you can learn about an area before you move, the more likely you are to feel at-home.