DIY

Change is the one word that is personified by your teenager, be it a son or a daughter. They are constantly looking for change and if you are in the process of furnishing your teenager’s room, keep in mind the need to change it sooner or later as change is imminent and absolutely necessary.

A lot of planning and decisions go into the furnishing of a teenager’s room. To start with, have a conversation with your children before deciding and consider their suggestions seriously if it is not too expensive and weird. If they ask for the unusual, suggest something more closely related and acceptable.

Choosing furniture for a teenager will always differ from choosing furniture for others especially because each of them has different hobbies and the furniture must suit their hobbies.

Bedroom sets for a teenager’s room are readily available in a wide variety of styles to suit the taste of the younger generation. Keep an open mind as you work with your teenager to create a room he or she will enjoy.

DirectBuy offers a wide variety of bedroom furniture for every bedroom in your home. You’ll find many styles and finishes to help your son or daughter design a room at great savings of up to 50% off retail when you shop at DirectBuy.

To ensure good health, longevity, and growth of your plants, you have to feed them correctly and regularly. Plant food such as fertilizers, however, can do more harm than good if used incorrectly. Here are some tips on feeding your plants properly using the different fertilizers:

Different Plant Fertilizer Require Different Method of Feeding

• Before adding any type of fertilizer, ensure that the potting mixture is already moist. This prevents the risk of high concentrations of minerals “burning” the roots, and damaging them.
• Foliar sprays should be diluted to the correct concentration, as they are easily absorbed. Spray over both sides of the foliage with a mist sprayer. Apply spray outdoors or in the bathtub to avoid inhalation and marking furnishings.
• Slow-release spikes tend to produce “hot spots” of concentrated fertilizer, so push them in at the edge of the potting mixture. Water well to help dissolve the nutrients. Slow-release pills should be pushed deep into the potting mixture with a blunt instrument without damaging the roots.
• Liquid or water-soluble fertilizers allow better control over the level of nutrients administered. Add a small amount to the watering can each time you water the plants for safe, low level feeding. Alternatively, use a larger amount every few weeks.

Related Topics

• Basics on Potting Mixtures

Dear Van Parked in My Driveway:

I know you have Virginia plates, but things work differently here in DC. See, here, you can’t park in someone’s driveway like an a-hole just because you don’t want to leave your car on the street even though I counted two empty spaces in front of my house. You see, it’s a shared alleyway, which means that everyone can drive up and down it, but no one can park

When I was a kid, snow was fun. I miss that. Now snow means having to wake up at 6 am to shovel my steps and the front of my house. I have a rowhouse, so it’s not a HUGE deal, but it’s annoying nonetheless. I guess what’s so annoying is how pointless it all is. I don’t have a lot of free time, but I have to get up early and spend time I would’ve spent doing something else, just to get my

Want to finally fix those cracks in your plaster walls and ceilings? Older houses shift over time, naturally developing cracks in the walls as the plaster breaks loose from the wooden lath behind it.

The only way to fix the problem is to reattach the plaster to the lath behind it. Plaster repair professionals generally spend enormous amounts of time reattaching the plaster with hundreds of screws and plaster washers, then covering these screws with mesh tape. The process is tedious and, if not done properly, leaves bumps in the wall.

Luckily, there is a new method for repairing cracked plaster walls. The method uses an special adhesive, rather than screws, to effectively “glue” the plaster back in place. It’s been featured by Tom Silva on “This Old House” (see the Plaster Repair Video) and makes plaster repair much easier and faster.

For more info check out www.plastermagic.com!

When designing a home theater that works one aspect that needs careful consideration is the lighting. Lighting designers classify lighting into three main categories.

• Task lighting: Task lighting is exactly what it seems to be; it is the lighting needed when one has to do something. An example of task lighting is the lamp that garnishes your desk.
• Accent lighting: Accent lighting is used for accenting architectural or favorite displays of a room.
• Ambient lighting: This is the filler. It is the light that fills every corner of the room. These should all be in a relative balance for a room to “work.” Light has a major significance to people.

When considering lighting for a theater room many different angels should be addressed. You don’t want a light that will cast a glare, but still needs enough light to make maneuverings possible. The room that one wants to create should be inviting. It should be comfortable to every one no matter the endeavor they would like to pursue.

Before You Buy Those Lighting For Your Home Theater

Think about what you want to do before you purchase anything. Know what effect you want to evoke in every inch of the room. Next pick your fixtures. These come in all shapes, sizes, color, and wattage. Visualize where a person will be seated in the room and consider what type of light is best for that particular spot.

Putting The Lights At Their Right Places

During the viewing of a movie you don’t want to be in total darkness. This creates an environment restrict the ability of movement and creates eyestrain. There are interesting ways to combat this with still casting the illusion of little light. Wall sconces, for example, create low light that is enough to diminish eyestrain. They can be positioned all around a room. Mounted on walls along the baseboards or even from the ceiling. The key to having a combination of perfect lighting is making sure that all light can be controlled. Try to set no more than three lights to a specific switch. This will enable a person to have the perfect lighting for what ever occasion.

There are many professionals along the lines of lighting. If you have questions don’t hesitate to ask for advice. It is important to get this right. And most are willing to assist the “do it yourself” without any cost.

Related Topics

• How to Cut Down your Electrical Bills by 30%
• Lighting Tips for Flowering and Foliage Plants

[after I drove over a huge pothole and almost killed my car]

Her: Yeah…by the way, watch out for that pothole….it’s
huge.

Me: You could’ve mentioned that before I ran over it. You could
break an axle on that thing.

Her: Or you could just drive around it?

[discussion about proper names of body parts]

Her: Stop saying "Chocolate Starfish" and "Turd cutter." Those
are stupid names for

Everyone I know of these days, is in search for the best home water treatment system. If you have visited a water treatment plant knows that the clear, drinkable water that come out of our taps is anything but clear and drinkable when it arrives at the plant.

Direct from rivers, it is a murky brown, bearing all manner of soil and dirt. Through a long process of sediment setting, filtration, ozone treatment and more, it is transformed into the clear product you get at the turn of a tap.

Local water is safe to drink from the tap, but individual tastes differ. Many people still like to “treat” the water themselves by boiling, filtering, or distilling it to feel they are drinking the purest possible product at home.

No water is 100 per cent “pure” water molecules, as foreign substances are always present. But some purification process may help ease the minds of health conscious consumers.

The Four Types of Home Water Treatment System

Filtration: This is one of the most common purification systems. Water passes through filters with tiny pores so that dirt and other undesirable particles are trapped, allowing only clean water to pass through. Other filters use carbon to draw impurities out.
Sediment filters have little or no effect on chlorine, fluorides, viruses, lead, pesticides, but they are effective in removing sediment and organic materials. Carbon filters may be better at eliminating chlorine, pesticides and some viruses.

Filters must be changed or cleaned regularly so that they themselves do not become a health hazard.

Reverse Osmosis: A special kind of filtration through a membrane with exceptionally small pores, so only water molecules pass through. Normal filters have pores of up to 100 microns (about the thickness of a strand of hair) while reverse osmosis uses membranes with pores of just 0.0006 microns.

Reverse osmosis is capable of removing chlorine, fluorides, sodium, lead, viruses, bacteria, and pesticides as well as sediment and organic materials, and can make sea water drinkable. But it requires water pressure to work, and may waste a fair bit of water too.

Distillation: In distillation, water is heated till it evaporates, then the vapor is condensed back into water in a different container, leaving impurities behind.

Distillation is a relatively slow process, but it does produce water of reliable quality without chlorine, fluoride, lead, detergents, sodium, viruses and other unpleasant impurities, though it tends to taste a bit “flat.”

Organic molecules which can be steam-borne, however, will remain with the distilled water. Distillers also need regular de-scaling.

De-ionization: This uses ion exchange particles to replace positive metallic ions with hydrogen ions, and negative ions with negative hydroxyl ions. The combination of the remaining ions produces water free of substances like chlorine, sodium, fluorides, pesticides, lead, and unpleasant tastes. However, it does not remove viruses, organic particles or bacteria.

De-ionization is usually combined with carbon and sediment filtration for maximum efficiency.

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To ensure good health, longevity, and growth of your plants, you have to use the appropriate nutrient care. Plant food such as potting mixtures, however, can do more harm than good if used incorrectly. Here are some pointers on potting mixtures:

Basics on Potting Mixture

• Houseplants should be grown in ready prepared potting mixtures. These would have been formulated according to their suitability for particular plants.
• There are two main types of mixture—soil-based and peat-based. Soil-based mixtures have heavy textures and are suitable for large plants. They contain some micro-organisms which help to process essential minerals for the plant. Peat-based ones are lighter and cleaner to handle, but as they do not contain built-in nutrients, they need regular feeding.
• Specialized mixtures are those that contain added ingredients. Some useful additives are charcoal, coarse sand, limestone chips, eggshells, manure, and peat moss.
• When selecting the type of potting mixture to use, take into consideration its drainage characteristics, acidity the amount of nutrients it contains and the root system of the plant.

Related Topics

• Are You Using Plant Fertilizer Correctly?
• Basics on Plant Fertilizers
• Watering Potted Plants: From the Top or Bottom?
• Are You Giving The Right Amount Of Water To Your Plants?
• Understand The Symptoms and Causes of Ailing Plants
• Lighting Tips for Flowering and Foliage Plants

One of the highest expenses in households today is the mortgage. The loans and interests rates add up quickly, and never seem to disappear. There are several ways to cut back your mortgage expenses, and surprisingly can help you save thousands of dollars each year. Obviously results will be different for everyone’s situation. However, keep in mind that if you make the effort to cut other expenses to get ahead on your mortgage payments, you will benefit greatly in the long run.

Trim Eating Expenses: Put the sixty dollars you spend eating out each month to your mortgage. That will add up quicker than you realize. If you get a raise, change the amount you pay for your mortgage to speed up the process of paying off loans.

Refinancing Mortgage: Also, consider refinancing your mortgage. For every $10,000 of your mortgage loan, ½ % difference in the interest rate saves you over $40/year or $3.40/month in interest expense. A $100,000 loan at 9½ % refinanced at 7½ % saves $142/month or $1,704/year, for a total of $50,991 over the life of a 30-year mortgage.

Short-term Mortgages: For an even more dramatic long term savings, consider a 15-year mortgage rather than 30-year. A $100,000 mortgage at 9½ % over 15 years saves $114,747 over the life of the loan compared to a 30-year mortgage at the same interest rate. At 7½ %, the savings between a 30-year and 15-year mortgage of $100,000 would be $84,854. A 9% loan of $100,000 refinanced for 15 years at 7½ % would add $86/month to your payment but would save you over $135,000 over the span of the loan.

Heavy on the Downpayment: You can achieve similar results by paying an extra principal payment on your 30-year loan each month. If you have extra cash, go above the regular payments. Try to get the loan paid off as soon as possible to eliminate interest rates.

Pay Fortnightly: Another way to achieve these results is to pay one half of your monthly mortgage every two weeks. As you can see just making minor changes in your mortgage plan can add up to thousands of dollars of savings.

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