Reasons to Renovate Your Home

Reasons to Renovate Your Home It's easy to find a list of home improvements projects that can enhance the appearance of your home, but it might be harder to work up the motivation and find a good reason to go through all that effort. It might help to know that implementing some of these ideas can make your home more appealing to potential buyers and also increase the value of your home. In addition to livening up your home, many home improvement projects also carry extra benefits you might not notice right away!

Enhancing Your Home's Curb Appeal

Improvements such as updating the landscape, replacing the roof, adding siding or painting the exterior of your home can enhance your home's curb appeal. Curb appeal is considered one of the most important aspects of maintaining a home’s perceived value and attracting potential buyers when it’s time to sell! Adding features such as a blooming garden, ornamental outdoor lighting, or replacement windows can make a dramatic difference in how your home looks to those passing by or driving into your driveway.

Updating the Interior of Your Home

Many interior updates or improvement projects such as replacing flooring, painting, and updating appliances can impact your home’s interior in a positive way. New flooring has been shown to help a home maintain its value more than many other remodeling projects, and a fresh coat of paint can both change your home’s look and draw the eye of anyone looking to purchase your property. You’d be surprised what a positive change this can make for the appearance of your home, its value, and even your mood!

Improvements that Offer More Than Looks

Any time a home improvement project can yield multiple benefits, you should put it at the top of your priority list. For example, installing more energy-efficient windows can help reduce your heating and cooling costs, or renovating your bathroom can reduce water usage and further lower your utility bills. Potential buyers are always looking for completed projects that will save them money over an extended period of time, and you can consider it a return on your investment!

The Difference between Asphalt Paving and Sealcoating

When to Take Notice of Your Driveway

If you’ve been a homeowner for over five years and have yet to take notice of the condition your driveway is in, now might be the time.  Driveways that haven’t had any maintenance done to them in five or ten years might have cracks, weeds growing through those cracks, or a level imbalance of the driveway.  All of this can be fixed with the simple service of asphalt paving.  If you’re city government allows it, your best bet is to have your whole driveway redone and be put on a yearly maintenance program.  Some people get confused though of the terms asphalt paving and sealcoating though.  They’re not the same thing, but similar to each other.  One of the biggest differences though is the price of each one.  A new asphalt driveway would also go great complimenting your new vinyl replacement windows you just had installed by Wallside Windows.    

Asphalt Paving

If you do happen to get your driveway totally redone, after all of the old concrete gets disposed of asphalt paving would be the next step in the process which is steamrolling the asphalt onto the area where you’re driveway is.  Although, this is the process of putting in a whole new driveway, this is also the process if you want another layer put on top of the asphalt driveway that you already have.  This process can be done relatively quickly depending on the size of your driveway.  This is also the much more expensive one out of the two.  

Sealcoating

The process of sealcoating is the cheaper one of the two and it’s for great reasons.  Sealcoating may sound difficult, but can actually be completed in minutes and isn’t very costly.  Many asphalt and sealcoating companies recommend that you go on a yearly maintenance program to avoid any long-term problems that your driveway may encounter.  The yearly maintenance program would include an annual sealcoating procedure that extends the life of the pavement, and protects it from common weather conditions like rain and snow that would cause it to erode otherwise.  Yearly sealcoating can sometimes double the lifespan of an asphalt driveway and will save you hundreds of dollars in the long run.  Sealcoating instead of asphalt paving is also ten times less expensive in some cases.  

Now that you know the difference between asphalt paving and sealcoating, you can go on with maintaining your driveway the proper way.  We want to save you money in the long run just like we want you to save money on your windows in the long run by having Wallside Windows install the proper windows necessary.  Your driveway will look brand new after you have it properly asphalted along with having it sealcoated every year after that.  

The Case For Above Ground Pools vs. Inground Pools

Why do you Want a Pool?

Before you totally write off inground pools, you have to consider why you want a pool in the first place.  While there are many more benefits to purchasing an above ground pool, inground pools can be useful for specific purposes.  If you’re into synchronized diving and swimming exercises, an above ground pool isn’t for you because it’s not deep or long enough.  The deepest an above ground pool will usually go is five feet which restricts you from diving and the diameter doesn’t usually stretch longer than 15 feet or so, which doesn’t make fun to swim extensively in.  Above ground pools are made for families to relax, float around, or perhaps to teach their young ones to swim in.  One of these reasons are why people want a pool in the first place.  

Show Me the Money

While inground pools may look nicer and increase the value of your house, they also cost sometimes five times as much just to have it installed.  The installation and kit for an above ground pool will cost you between 5,000 and 12,000 dollars while the cost range for an inground pool is between 40,000 and 70,000 dollars.  All it takes to set up an above ground pool is you and a few friends while you need to hire a specific construction company to come and dig out your whole backyard to even begin installing an inground pool.  Also, with an above ground pool you can set it up at any time of spring or summer, where with an inground pool it’s suggested that you have it only installed at the end of summer when the conditions have to be just right.  

While you’re making changes around your home, check out the windows around your house and make sure they’re all up to date.  If you need window replacements, contact Wallside Windows and we’ll be glad to help out by installing nice vinyl replacement windows.         

Family Safety

If you’re looking for the safer option between an inground and an above ground pools you’re definitely going to want to go with an above ground pool because of the fact that it’s harder to get into.  You can set up a foldable ladder with an above ground pool that you can put up and lock into place when you’re done using it for the day, but with an inground pool there’s nothing stopping a toddler from getting too close and falling in.  Although, this is a sad circumstance it has happened throughout the course of history.  You can control when your child goes in and out with an above ground pool.  Although, above ground pools may be harder to clean out, it’s worth it to know that your children are safe from stumbling it at all times.  

Make sure to have tons of fun with your above ground pool when summer comes around.  You’ll be glad you made the investment when you’re relaxing on your inflatable raft, soaking in the sun’s rays.        

Stay Healthy During the Winter Season

Keep it to Yourself

During the harsh winter season you constantly see people sneezing, blowing their nose, and coughing.  Where exactly is everything that came out of their mouth going?  Sometimes you see it going right into the open air, but hopefully it’s going into their hand, or the inside of their elbow.  This is the number one way to keep viruses and germs from spreading.  As long as you keep everything in your mouth from projectiling then this will save hundreds of people from becoming ill over the winter.  To prevent the virus even further from spreading, make sure you carry tissues or a handkerchief with you at all times so, it doesn’t get on your own skin.  

Keep Clean!

Even if you don’t sneeze that often, it’s important to wash your hands as many times as you can throughout the course of a day.  Anti-bacterial soap and hot water is the best way to keep clean, and not spread germs to other people.  If you’re not near a sink and a bottle of soap, then carry around a little bottle of hand sanitizer with you as an alternative.  This is important because there’s a high chance that you’re going to touch another person throughout the course of the day, and that last thing you want to have happen is that person become ill.  

While you’re keeping yourself clean, it’s also a good idea to keep clean around the house with disinfectant sprays.  Make sure you clean your brand new vinyl replacement windows from Wallside Windows as well because while they’ll look better after you clean them, it will also keep from spreading germs when the person after you goes to open the window.  

Stay Healthy

If staying fit isn’t a good enough reason to exercise and eat healthy, not getting sick should make you stay on the treadmill at the gym as well as eating those fruits and veggies.  Staying healthy equals a healthy immune system, and with great health comes getting enough sleep at night because your immune system is also affected by your sleep.  It’s easy to find any healthy food at your local grocery store at a decent cost.  Make sure throughout the course of a day you make sure that all the food groups are being covered including eating enough whole grains.   You can’t always rely on getting a flu vaccination shot every year because there isn’t enough to go around in the time that winter lasts.  It’s important to take these natural, note-worthy steps to stay away from the flu virus, and prevent it from spreading this winter season.  Keep your house as warm as possible with the help of Wallside Windows, and our selection of windows that won’t disappoint you.

Properly Fixing a Leaky Sink Faucet

Drip Drip Drip

We all know when the problem of a leaky faucet arises.  We have to stare at the sink and watch water casually drip out as we try to tighten the faucet handles as hard as we can until the drip goes away, but it never does.  A dripping faucet can lead to a major increase in your water bill, and can also cause a shortage in hot or cold water.  Calling a plumber is too much money for just a leaky faucet, so you want to fix it yourself.  Fixing a leaky faucet yourself can be done in an hour if done properly, and will be at minimum cost as well.  Although it’s cheap and time efficient to do yourself, there are a list of steps that need to be taken in order to be done successfully.  

Preliminary Steps

Before you start going to work on the sink it’s important to turn off the water supply in the house, and not just under the sink, just to be safe.  Close the sink drain and cover it with a rag in case you drop any parts in the sink.  Now although there are many different types of sinks, the leaky faucet is usually because of the same thing with each sink.  We’ll take a look at the compression sink which consists of a separate cold and hot handle.  

Taking Apart the Faucet

Before you disassemble your sink you might be intimidated because of all the different parts you have to take apart and remember where they go, but it’s simpler than you may think.  After you remove the handle on one side of the sink, it’s simple to take a Phillips-head screwdriver.  Before you remove anything though, make sure you’ve added padding to the pliers and wrench you’ll be using with electrical tape so you don’t scratch up or scuff the exterior of the sink.  The one thing about leaky faucets is the problem always consists of worn out washers or O-rings.  Whatever size O-ring you need, make sure you coat it with plumber’s grease to ensure that your handle will turn once you put it all back together.  You can find any new O-ring or washer at your local hardware store at a minimal cost.  

Putting it All Back Together

It’s important that you remember the order in which you took your sink apart because you're going to put it back together in the reverse order.  It’s important to remember to apply plumber's grease to any new part that you installed.  The last thing you want to have happen is get everything back together and then not be able to turn the handle. While you’re replacing things around the house it might be a good idea to check and see if your windows need replacing too.  If your window needs to be replaced, contact Wallside Windows and we’ll send an expert out to do an estimate for you to see what kind of window you need, and how much it will cost you.  After all your repairs are done, you’ll finally be able to relax, but don’t get too comfortable because the next malfunction might be days away.