Give Your Home A Valentine

Our Valentine’s Day always includes a greeting card, sweets and fragrances. Sharing gifts that say “I love you” go a long way to make a special day extra special for that someone special in your life. Our wives love: jewelry, perfume, flowers, clothes and romantic things like a candle lit dinner. There are special things that you can do to your home that will make it a more loving place as well.

Jewelry

There are a few gifts that you can give to your home that can make it more a romantic place to be. A home can’t wear a ring or a necklace. A home’s jewelry is a little different than ours. Think about it. A home has lots of jewelry that can make it look more beautiful and romantic:

• Light fixtures
• Bath fixtures
• Switch plates
• Wood moldings and trim
• Door handles, and more

Most of these items can be replaced or added in no time at all. They are reasonably inexpensive and will show your loved one how much you care. And both of you will end up enjoying the results.

Perfume

Hugging a loved while at the same time inhaling their intoxicating fragrance is beyond description. A fresh clean scent always lifts our spirit and excites us. Often the smell of our home is so common to our sniffer that we notice no smell at all. Sure, you can boil a cinnamon stick in a pot atop your stove and your home will smell like it did when mom used to bake. And you can use air freshener as well. But what really smells great is a nothing less than a really clean surrounding. When a home has been “deep cleaned” it smells fresh, and a thoroughly cleaned home looks better too. To accomplish this we need to clean in places that are normally not included in your normal housekeeping routine:

• Ceilings and high moldings and trim
• Light fixtures and the tops of the blades on decorative paddle fans
• Beneath and behind major appliances and storage closets
• Filters in your range hood, exhaust fans, compactors, heat register grilles, furnace filters
• Beneath and behind furniture and rugs

Most of us tend to save deep cleaning for once a year – spring. But, when we actually do it, we feel so much better about our home – and each other. Why not make it a habit of deep clean more often. Don’t you just love it when the one you care for smell’s special?

Flowers

Flowers say “I love you”. Many are every bit as fragrant as they are beautiful. We can guarantee you that the one you love will feel extra special when presented with a bouquet of flowers or a plant. Flowers bring beauty and fragrance to a home as well.

• Roses
• Azaleas
• Gardenias
• Jasmine
• Carnations
• Lilies
• Mums

It doesn’t make any difference which ones are your favorites. Flowering plants can be grown year round both inside and out. It is especially nice to have flowers with a fragrance, but the color and beauty that a flower brings to the home is worth frequent trips to the garden. Snow and cold weather are no problem. Grow lights, a homemade mini-green house or even a small part of the kitchen can be used to nurture flowering plants all year long. All it takes is warmth, water and a little sunlight. You can do it.

Clothes

Special occasions mean getting dressed and looking our best.  It may be your best pair of jeans or a favorite suit. What’s important is the specialness of taking the extra steps to show someone you care. A home doesn’t wear clothes, but it can be made to look more special too. Tattered comes in many forms. Here are a few tips that will make it look less worn:

• Replace ugly, faded and torn window screens
• Spruce up, repair or replace tattered blinds, curtains and drapes
• Prune shrubs, hedges and trees so that they look neat and stately
• Paint tattered walls

A home may be as clean as it can be, but if a home looks tattered it feels worn out. All it may need is a simple coat of paint. But keep in mind that paint color can affect how the room will make us feel. Before you paint you will need to choose a color. Red stimulates a faster heart beat and breathing. Maybe that is why it’s the color of love. A little red goes a long way. The kitchen or family room, or the room where you and your special person get together, may be in need of a splash of red. Blue, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite of red. Blue is a peaceful and tranquil color and causes the body to produce calming chemicals. That’s probably why it is often used in bedrooms. We’ll have to think about that one for a while. Our bedroom is yellow.

A simple look out a window can actually be a pleasant experience. That’s why it is important for the window to be clean and for the screen to be in “like new” condition. A faded or torn screen can camouflage the beauty of the outside. By the way, a garden full of weeds and overgrowth isn’t conducive to a warm loving relationship.

Romance

Everyone loves to be romanced. Heck, even Rambo loves being hugged. Add romance to your home by replacing your existing old-fashioned light switches with dimmers. Put your home in the “right mood” and we guarantee you that your lover will follow suit.

We bet you didn’t realize how easy it could be to make you and yours feel better about the place you live and how doing so could add excitement to your life.  Romance your home and it may end up bringing more romance into your life. And that’s all there is to it.

Send us your home improvement tip, concoction or interesting story. If we use it in our column we will send you an autographed copy of our book “Home Maintenance For Dummies”. And that’s all there is to it. For more home improvement tips and information search our website or call our listener hot line 24/7 at 1-800-737-2474.

 

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