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There’s No Place Like Home

By on August 15, 2020
No place like home for the holidays

There’s no place like home! During the holidays or otherwise!

August is National Curb Appeal Month 

Top Tips For Creating “Top Down” Curb Appeal 

 

  • The roof plays a major role in creating curb appeal because it can be up to 30 percent of what you see as you approach a home. Blend the color of your roofing material with other elements of the home exterior to create an overall cohesive look. 

 

  • Window frames can either blend in or standout; it all depends on the color you choose. Selecting a green, chocolate or bronze painted frame can add a powerful punch to your home’s curb appeal. 

 

  • Add color to trim and decorative millwork to call attention to architectural details and enhance the design appeal of your home. 

 

  • Update the color of your shutters for big curb appeal results. Rather than black, try inky blue, chocolate brown or deep forest green. Consider soft gray or taupe to replace white. 

 

  • From classic and conservative to punchy and playful, the color of your front door tells the world something about the people who live inside. Think about what the color of your front door say about you. 

 

  • The front door offers you the most flexibility in color choices and is a great place to add a “pop of color” to a home’s overall neutral color scheme. Think out- of- the- box and consider a pumpkin orange, nautical blue or harvest gold color for your front door. 

 

  • Draw attention to the front porch by adding bold hues. A colorfully-painted ceiling or new outdoor furniture can update your porch. Pillows and cushions in a mix of colors and prints create a welcoming tone. 

 

  • Replace rotting or peeling wood porch rails, columns or porch posts with low-maintenance polyurethane or PVC pieces for a clean, attractive look. 

 

  • Garage doors are a prominent feature of many homes, taking up 30 percent of the front view of the house. Replacing old garage doors with fashionable new doors can instantly increase your home’s curb appeal. 

 

  • The colors of your home’s exterior and landscaping should complement each other. Choose colors for your plants with the same eye for design you use when selecting accessories for your interior. 

 

Get Your Home Ready For the Holidays or Any Day! 

 Since all the media is hyping Christmas already we have some tips for the holidays or any days to do now. It’s never to soon to get your home fall and winter ready!

Dry Doormat 

Is your doormat squishy and virtually useless after a rainstorm? With a fine-tooth handsaw or a jigsaw, cut a piece of 2 x 4-ft. suspended ceiling plastic grid (about $10 at a home center) to fit under your mat. Air will circulate better under the elevated mat and help it dry faster and prevent mold from growing in the fabric. The plastic grid is sturdy and won’t break under the heftiest footstep in your neighborhood.  

Squeaky-Clean Vases 

It’s difficult to clean out the cloudy residue left in slim flower vases. You can make any vase sparkle by adding warm water and denture cleaning tablets. Let it fizz for a few minutes and rinse well. 

Buy Zip Ties 

Zip ties are a simple way to string holiday lights on banisters and fences without marring the railing with nail marks. Zip ties are sold at home centers. You’ll find them in the electrical supplies aisle. After the holidays, snip the ties off with scissors. 

Clean Out Dryer Lint 

If you notice that it takes longer than normal for loads to dry in your clothes dryer, it may be time to clean out the vent. First detach the duct from behind the unit and then push a plumbing snake through your dryer vent from outside. Tie a rag securely to the snake end. Pull the cloth and snake through a couple of times and your clean vent will not only save energy but possibly prevent a fire as well. 

Carbon Monoxide Season 

You’ve got a house full of guests, so the oven and stove are working overtime, the water heater is struggling to keep up with demand, the fireplace is burning and the furnace is fighting the cold. It’s the perfect setting for carbon monoxide buildup. So if you don’t already have a UL-listed carbon monoxide detector, put it at the top of your shopping list. 

Touch up Nicks and Scratches 

If you have shallow scratches or nicks, hide them with a stain-filled touch-up marker. Dab on the stain and wipe off the excess with a rag. But beware: Scratches can absorb lots of stain and turn darker than the surrounding finish. So start with a marker that’s lighter than your cabinet finish and then switch to a darker shade if needed. For deeper scratches, use a filler pencil, which fills and colors the scratch. If the cabinet finish is dingy overall and has lots of scratches, consider a wipe-on product like Old English Scratch Coat. These products can darken the finish slightly, so you have to apply them to all your cabinets.  

Speed-Clean Chandeliers 

First spread a plastic tarp on the floor under the chandelier to catch the drips. Then turn off the light and spray the solution on the chandelier until liquid beads start to run (you’ll use a lot of spray, but it beats wiping). The spray rinses off the dust. The solution that’s left evaporates quickly and doesn’t leave water spots. The spray works well on hanging crystals, but don’t expect it to remove dust from crevices. 

Heat Up a Lukewarm Dryer 

If your clothes dryer isn’t heating properly, first make sure the machine isn’t set to ‘fluff air’ — a nonheat setting. If that’s not it, the lint filter may be clogged. Even if the filter looks clean, it may be covered by a nearly invisible film caused by dryer sheets. Test your filter by pouring water into it. If the filter holds water, it’s past time to clean it. This film reduces airflow and forces the thermostat to shut off the heat before the clothes are dry. Pull out the filter and scrub it in hot water with a little laundry detergent and a stiff kitchen brush. Also check the outside dryer vent for any lint that may have built up there. 

Disinfect the Trash Can 

Even with a trash bag in place, the bottom of the kitchen trash can harbor all sorts of grime and bacteria and be a source of bad odors. So take it outside and spray it down with the garden hose to loosen up any dirt or food particles. And while it’s wet, wipe it down with an antibacterial spray and rinse. Let it dry before fitting it with a fresh trash bag. 

Have the Fire Extinguisher Ready 

Many fires start in the kitchen, so make sure you have a fire extinguisher ready before you start preparing holiday meals. And review fire safety guidelines, such as how to put out a grease fire. 

Clean Chimney 

Regular cleaning with a shop vac and standard chimney cleaning tools will prevent dangerous creosote fires. 

Walls 

A Swiffer Sweeper floor mop is useful for more than just cleaning hard floors. Use it to dust interior walls and trim, too! Attach a dry cloth to the rectangle end and press it along walls and trim. You can pick up dust, cobwebs and dirt safely, without having to step on a ladder. 

Remove Tough Stains from Vinyl Flooring 

Sheet vinyl “resilient” flooring is so easy to clean that it may never require anything beyond damp mopping with a cleaner intended for vinyl floors. But if your floor has marks or stains that still won’t come off, you can use stronger stuff. Isopropyl alcohol, sold as a disinfectant at drugstores, is a mild solvent. It’s the best cleaner for heel marks and works on other tough stains too. You can also use lighter fluid or mineral spirits. Remember that all these products are flammable; turn off any nearby pilot lights and hang rags out to dry before throwing them away. 

Clean Range Hood Grease Filters With a Degreaser 

Running your vent hood grease filter through the dishwasher can yield disappointing results. Likewise with ‘grease cutting’ household cleaners. Get great results with a water-based degreaser from the auto parts store. Fill the sink with hot water and degreaser, drop in the filter and let the degreaser do all the work. The filter will come out sparkling clean in just a few minutes. Then just rinse it off. 

Mask Pet Claw Scratches 

Mask shallow claw marks and scratches in wood doors with stain and varnish. Gel stains work well for matching the existing finish. 

Make a Safety Plan 

You should have a safety plan for your family all year long, but if you don’t, the holidays are the time to put one in place. Where will you meet up if you leave the house due to a fire or other emergency? What are the quickest ways out of each room if there is a fire? Does everyone know where the fire extinguishes are located? 

  

WD-40 Company Recall 

X-14 Mildew Stain Remover Due to Risk of Skin Irritation 

Name of product: 

X-14® Mildew Stain Remover  

Hazard: 

Pressure can build up inside the bottle and cause it to fall over and leak, posing a risk of skin irritation. 

Remedy: 

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled X-14 Mildew Stain Remover and contact WD-40 Company for instructions on how to dispose of the product or return it to receive a full refund. 

Incidents/Injuries:  

None. 

Sold At: 

Amazon.com, Ace Hardware, Publix, Do It Best Hardware, and other retail stores (not sold in California stores) from March 2020 through July 2020 for between $4 and $5. 

Manufacturer(s):  

Spartan Chemical Company Inc., of Maumee, Ohio 

Distributor(s):  

WD-40 Company, of San Diego, Calif. 

Manufactured In:  

United States 

 

Units:  

About 130,000 

 

Home Features That Have Secret Purposes 

These amazing home facts are sure to wow even the biggest design buffs. 

That space under your lower cabinets serves a very specific purpose. 

There’s a reason your lower cabinets are lifted and protrude slightly—and it’s not just aesthetic. This area, called a toe kick, allows you to stand closer to the counter while you’re cooking,  

The cabinet under your sink isn’t really for storage. 

While you’ll likely find assorted cleaning products under the kitchen and bathroom sinks in most homes, that’s not what the cabinet is for; It’s actually designed to be able to access the plumbing in case of leaks. 

Your brass doorknobs may keep you healthy. 

If your home has brass doorknobs, it’s staying cleaner on its own than homes with wood or glass ones. 

Brass doorknobs will typically disinfect themselves in about eight hours. This is because the metal ions in brass and copper are actually toxic to mold, viruses, and other living things.  

The overhang on your roof is a good thing. 

If you’ve ever wondered why your roof doesn’t look like it’s a perfect fit for you home, there’s a good reason. 

When we apply shingles to a roof, we actually create a slight overhang so that the shingles jut out a half of an inch, in doing so, you’re actually keeping wind and water out from under the shingles, keeping the roof intact for longer. 

Your home may have its own bird box. 

Bird boxes are located at the corners, typically in the front of your home, as a connection between the overhang of your roof and your home’s siding, these roofing elements are not actually intended for use by birds, contrary to the name. 

Your staircase balusters are named after a popular fruit. 

Balusters—also known as spindles—are named after balustra, the Italian word for pomegranate flowers. While the spindles are typically less ornate today, balusters once had a more curvaceous shape at the top where they connected with the banister and were said to resemble the pomegranate plant’s red blossom. 

The bricks on your home’s exterior have a very adorable name. 

Those bricks sticking out from your Tudor home share a name with a popular confection. 

“The little pieces of brick that stick out in almost a random pattern, contributing so much to the textural quality of the exterior, are called chiclets, like the chewing gum 

Your little balcony has a Shakespearean nickname. 

Shallow balconies, or balconets, are often referred to as Juliet balconies after the famous balcony scene in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. 

Your new home is 30 percent larger than it would have been if it were built 40 years ago. 

You might feel cramped in your home, but odds are you’re living larger than your parents or grandparents did. According to Census data, the average square footage of an American home was a spacious 2,344 square feet in 2018. Back in 1973, the average stateside home was only 1,660 square feet. 

Your home’s double faucets were intended to prevent illness. 

There’s a specific reason why your sink has two faucets. The cold water faucet was traditionally linked to the local water supply, which had been treated and was safe to drink. On the other hand, the hot water faucet was typically connected to a tank stored in the homeowner’s attic, which would often be contaminated by bugs, rats, and random detritus, and, as such, was considered non-potable—and potentially hazardous. 

 

Mentioned Links 

~ Thank you~ 

A very special thank you to all of our callers! We live to answer your questions, so keep them coming! 

Thank you to our Technical Support: 

  • Danny Bringer – Chief Engineer  
  • Carol “Remodeling Babe” Carey – Executive Producer  
  • Sam Reed – Associate Producer  
  • Rico Figliolini – Digital Master 

 

Thank you for tuning in to No Place Like Home! And check in next week for more cool tips! 

“No Place Like Home” Show Notes for On The House with the Carey Brothers aired August 15, 2020. 

Missed our live show? Don’t worry! Because we have a podcast of the show. It’s the same thing we aired on the radio, but ready for you whenever and wherever you are! Check it out here. 

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