1. Pre-qualify for a mortgage. Now you know how much house you can afford before you start looking. This will narrow your search and keep you “real” and not disappointed on houses you can’t afford.
2. Find a good neighborhood. Know the school district and is it a good one if you have kids attending. Is shopping convenient? Is the area growing and can you look forward to appreciation on your house? What’s the area like? Are you next to vacant land that could be a freeway or a new mall in your backyard?
3. Log. Log your visits to potential houses. Sounds silly, but after you look at several, it can get confusing later on. Write down advantages and disadvantages of each house. Even draw a simple layout sketch to refresh your memory.
4. Money. How much more is your house going to cost than just your house payment? Taxes and Insurance. And if you are new home buyer and don’t have a huge down payment (20%) then add in mortgage insurance. Required by the government. Check with your mortgage company. They can give you the rate. Realtors sometimes forget to tell you these added costs. This will be your real payment. You also have to look at utilities. And certainly it would be hard to move into a house without repainting or wallpapering or something.
5. Shop till you drop. Don’t stop at the 3rd house and say that’s it and pick one. You should look at a bunch of homes to get a good comparison. And you’ll remember number 3 above. You should look at 15 homes at least as an average guideline.
6. Inspect. Found the house you want? Ready to make an offer? Not yet. Hire a professional inspection service. Once they make their inspection, you are better armed with any potential problems and can adjust your price accordingly.
7. Let the negotiations begin! Now you are armed with your inspection information, you are ready to negotiate carefully. Put it ALL in writing. No exceptions.
8. Moving. Allow extra time to move. Something always happens. Make sure you have plenty of overlap and plenty of time to get out of your old house. One word. Rain.
9. A word on insurance. Shop around. Consider a high deductible. $250 deductible seems a little low these days. And you pay for it. Also, consider your car insurance while shopping. Most offer discounts when they get all of your business.
10. Real Estate Agents. Yes, you can find a house on your own, but agents are helpful to assess your needs and show you houses that may match what you are looking for. They also get on your side for the negotiating. Get a referral from a friend or family.
Buying a house is a big deal. No need to rush. They make them everyday. Shopping for financing can be as big a step as actually finding the house. Don’t give up. It’s work. Then you have to move everything.
It's spring time and that means we start working on our homes. Cleaning, organizing, purchasing new things to spruce the place up are just some of the home furnishings we do. Why do we go to all this effort? Well, that's simple! We want our homes to be comfortable, clean, and beautiful so that we can enjoy it! One way to add extra storage or a great touch to a room is to add some shelving.
Adding shelving to a room can do more then create a place to store books. It can be a great focal point as well. Imagine walking into a room and being drawn to a wall of shelving displaying your favorite treasures? Of course, shelving does have some great advantages. It allows for a place to display your items, store a multitude of things, or so many more functions.
Home furnishings, like shelving are easy to find and install. It does not have to be something that causes panic. Many times we worry that the smallest project involving shelving will take us too much time or aggravation. In fact, shelving units have become much easier to install. They also come in all different types to allow you to find the best option for your area. Whether you are planning to install shelving in a closet, in the garage, or a decorative unit in your living room, there are plans and designed shelving units you can choose. Many of these shelving units are even carried in your local home improvement stores. What's more, if you can't find just the right shelving unit for your home, you simply need to check online for more options. Lastly, if you feel that shelving unit installation is just not for you, you can hire on the handyman down the street or even the guys at the hardware store to do it for you. Adding shelving to your home can be a good experience and a great addition in home furnishing to your home.
One of the pleasurable spin-offs in organic gardening is finding alternative ways of coming up with the same, if not better, end result.....
Household throwaways can be valuable to the alternate enthusiast. Here are ten recyclable ideas to make gardening a little less hard on the pocket!
1. Hedge clippings: Instead of burning or direct composting, beg, borrow or even buy, if the quantity justifies the price, an electric garden muncher.
Branches up to an inch in diameter are posted into a slot and the machine munches them up into small chips. Spread these chips thickly around shrubs or fruit trees to help keep moisture in, and control the temperature of the soil.
2. Food Waste: All food waste must be composted. Composting is becoming quite an art form, and special composting bins can be bought, or very simply made.
There are many different theories and each gardener will find his or her preferred way. Keeping the compost fairly warm is the overall key to a good result. Or, if you're in no hurry, simply keep adding to a heap, and dig out the bottom when required. Sieve before using and the compost will be ready for planting small plants and even seeds.
3. Old carpets, large damaged cardboard boxes; and similar materials can be laid over the vegetable plot in autumn to help prevent those early spring weeds appearing. Spread over a whole patch and weigh down with stones or logs. Lift off on a sunny day in early spring a few days before digging.
4. Paint trays: Keep old roller painting trays and similar containers for seed trays. Punch a few holes in the bottom for drainage. Add a little fine gravel before filling with seed compost. Seed trays shouldn't be deeper than 15cm.
5. Yoghurt pots: All plastic yoghurt or dessert pots can be washed and saved for re-potting seedlings. Make a hole in the bottom of each and add a little fine gravel before filling with compost or soil..
6. Glass jars: Glass jars with sealable lids are excellent for storing seeds, beans and peas for planting next year. (Safe from mice as well) After washing the jars, dry in the oven to remove all traces of moisture before storing your seeds. Collect dark glass jars, or wrap paper round clear jars to prevent seeds being damaged by light.
7. Ice Lolly sticks: Make perfect row markers in your seed trays or greenhouse beds. The wooden ones won't last for ever but you can at least write on them with pen, pencil or crayons!
8. Wire coat hangers: Make mini-cloches with discarded or broken wire coat hangers. Pull into a square shape. Place the hook in the soil and push down gently until the natural bend in the wire rests on top of the soil. Place another a short distance away in your seed bed to create two ends of a cloche. Now throw over a sheet of plastic and hold down with logs or stones.
Note: this will work only when creating very small cloches.
9. Clear plastic: Keep any clear plastic containers that could be placed upside down over a plant. Cut a mineral water bottle in half to make two handy individual cloches. Large sheets of clear plastic from packaged household items are fine for throwing over mini coat hanger cloches.
10. Aluminium bottle tops: Keep aluminium tops from milk or juice bottles, and also coloured foil around beer or wine bottles. Thread together to maka bird scarer. Simply thread with thick cotton and hang on your fruit bushes before the birds find the new fruits.
Look out for other tools for the garden from kitchen throwaways such as: old kitchen spoons and forks for transplanting tiny plants in the greenhouse. Leaky buckets for harvesting small quantities of potatoes, carrots etc; light wooden boxes for harvesting salads through the summer, and transporting pots etc;
Keep an eye on that rubbish bag and turn today's throwaways into tomorrow's tools!
About The Author
Linda Gray is a freelance writer and, with her partner, has spent ten years renovating an acre of neglected woodland. With a growing family to feed 'off the land', frugal gardening has become second nature! Drop in at http://www.flower-and-garden-tips.com for pots of gardening inspiration!
About Hummingbirds and How to Attract Them to Your Garden
By Lesley Dietschy
Visualize watching a bright green hummingbird in your garden moving from flower to flower in search of the tasty nectar within. These beautiful and tiny birds weigh about 2 to 20 grams and are found in a wide variety of environments from the high Andes to lowlands, and from dry desert areas to rainforests. They have slender beaks, extensible tongues, ten primary feathers, and tiny feet suitable for perching but not walking.
Hummingbirds can fly straight up, straight down, backwards, left, right, and even upside down. While most birds obtain their flight strength only from the down stroke, hummingbirds have power on the up stroke as well.
Most hummingbirds flap their wings about fifty times a second and have a very fast heartbeat and high body temperature. They feed every ten minutes or so throughout the day and typically consume two-thirds of their body weight in a single day. Their source of nutrition is primarily nectar from flowers, as well as sources of protein from insects and tiny spiders.
The key to attracting hummingbirds to your garden mainly consists of the right type of flowers and places where they can perch and rest during the day, such as trees or large plants. Hummingbirds are guided by visual means and are particularly attracted to certain shades of red. According to The Hummingbird Society, there are several possible explanations for their preference of red blossoms. Given that insects also see nectar, they can be regarded as competitors. Nearly all insects see well in the visible and near-ultraviolet light but poorly in the red end of the spectrum. Also, a red blossom may appear nearly black and unattractive to a number of insects, but not to the hummingbird, which can see the full visible spectrum but also some in the ultraviolet. This makes it less likely that an insect has taken nectar from a red flower. Another likely explanation is that during migration, red blossoms effectively contrast with a green environment more than other colored flowers do.
Hummingbirds are welcomed guests to nearly all gardens. By planting flowering shrubs and plants that are their favored food source, we can easily attract them to become regular visitors to our gardens. Below is a short list of their preferred flowering plants by common name, separated by region:
Southeastern United States:
• Butterfly Bush
• Cardinal Flower
• Coral or Trumpet Honeysuckle
• Cypress Vine
• Native Trumpet Creeper
• Texas Sage
Southwest United States:
• Indian Paintbrush
• Lantana
• Lily of the Nile
• Mexican Honeysuckle
• Texas Sage
• Western Coral Bean
West Coast United States:
• Beebalm
• Bottle Brush
• Cape Fuchsia
• Colombine
• Salmonberry
• Woodland Orchard
Northeastern United States:
• Blue Lobelia
• Cardinal Flower
• Hollyhock
• Red Morning Glory
• Salvia
• Scarlet Sage
Midwest United States:
• Coral Bells
• Coral Honeysuckle
• Foxglove
• Hosta
• Impatients
• Lilac
Even though flowers are the natural means to attract hummingbirds to your garden, man-made feeders filled with a mixture of water and sugar (sucrose) are an essential alternative. Sugar, whether from a flower or a feeder, is a necessary nutrient in a hummingbird’s diet. Tests have shown that hummingbirds favor sucrose in flower nectar more than other sugars such as fructose and glucose. Therefore, with the proper ratio of ingredients, your feeder becomes a good substitute to the flowers that hummingbirds like best.
The formula for the mixture used in hummingbird feeders is 4 parts water (not distilled) to 1 part table sugar. Boil the mixture for one to two minutes, then cool and store in refrigerator. The mixture can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week. Do not use red food coloring, honey, or artificial sweeteners in your mixture, as this could be harmful to the hummingbirds.
If one of your goals is to attract hummingbirds to your garden, a visit to your local nursery is a great starting point. Find an experienced employee who can tell you which species of plants grow well in your area and have a history of successfully attracting hummingbirds. Most importantly, be imaginative and have fun planting and growing your garden to attract beautiful hummingbirds.
Copyright 2005, Lesley Dietschy, All rights reserved.
Lesley Dietschy is the creator/editor of The Home Decor Exchange, a popular home decor, garden decor, and home improvement website. Please visit the website for hundreds of resources, articles, ideas, tips, free projects, and much more. The website also has a unique Gallery and Consignment shop featuring Pine Needle Baskets and Gourd Art. http://www.HomeDecorExchange.com
The black walnut tree manufactures a substance that is a natural insecticide according to experts at the Texas State University in Austin.
American black walnut tress contain a tannic acid chemists call juglone. The reddish yellow substance leaches from leaves, and some believe exudes from roots, or transfers from branches and foliage to the roots. Tree physiologists agree that roots of other plants that come in contact with those black walnut tree roots die--even other black walnut seedlings.
Juglone is sometimes washed out of the still green walnuts during late summer or even autumn rains. The growth of plants 60 to 80 feet away are inhibited by the juglone. The substance affects plants of various families. Studies have found that tomatoes, alfalfa, potatoes, apples, blackberries, rhododendron, mountain laurel and pine trees are all affected.
According to a professor and extension forester at Iowa State University, juglone is known to repel various garden insects. Just by placing branches of the tree around the house and under furniture dog and cat owners are amazed to find that their pets have fewer fleas.
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Author: Marilyn Pokorney Freelance writer of science, nature, animals and the environment. Also loves crafts, gardening, and reading. Website: http://www.apluswriting.net
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