Home renovation costs: when to save, when to splurge
Undertaking a major home renovation and extension is a large investment in your family home, and in your family’s future. There is a myriad of decisions and selections that need to be made, and overarching it all is a budget that you are determined to work within. This advice will help you decide if you should spend or splurge.
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How to ensure you have the best viewing at home?
Do you have bad TV reception at your home? Australians love to watch TV and it is very frustrating when you are about to settle in to watch a movie or your favourite game of sport and the signal is playing up. So get an Antenna service expert to identify and fix the problem once and for all.
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5 tips for choosing a good home air conditioning unit
There are lots of air conditioners to choose from on the market, and lots of different factors to take into consideration when purchasing an air conditioning unit. This article includes tips from an electrician to ensure you make the right choices when purchasing an air conditioner.
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Gabion retaining walls for flood control
If you have a home located along a river or by the sea, or you have a creek running through your property, erosion control is an important factor in protecting your property. Heavy rain and flash flooding are becoming more frequent causing land to wash away and it is important to maintain, stabilise and repair your river or stream bank.
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Building Inspections – Know What You are Buying
If you are seriously considering buying a property it is essential that you get a qualified building inspection before you make that big investment. We can get caught up in the excitement and perhaps emotion of our new purchase and overlook an inspection and end up buying a whole lot of trouble, not to mention the expense of costly repairs that may be way over your budget.
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Roofing: concrete tiles or Colorbond steel?
Whether you’re building, renovating, or doing repairs, it’s worth reconsidering your roof. The best fit for your home and lifestyle isn’t always immediately apparent, and there are plenty of factors to consider. The most popular roofing materials in Australia are concrete tiles and Colorbond steel.
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Updating your existing pool
It’s time to bring your existing pool into the 21st Century. Just as we renovate, redecorate, paint or update our homes we should do so for the swimming pool. Just as a bathroom or kitchen needs remodeling so does a pool. No pool will last a life time without modifications, so if your pool is looking tired and dated now is the time to act.
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How to light your home
When planning lighting solutions for your home, it is important to consider what each room needs, in terms of ambiance, decoration, and utility. Using a few different types of lighting in each room will give the best effect, and provide you with greater control. Installing dimmer switches on your lights is also a great way to easily manipulate the ambiance of a room.
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7 ways homeowners can benefit from professional landscaping
For many homeowners, notions of professional landscaping are a bit farfetched. They don’t feel relevant to life because, well, not everybody needs a lawn fit for the Chelsea Flower Show. What they don’t realise is that the term ‘landscaping’ covers all kinds of different features, designs, and arrangements; not just high maintenance e blooms and lavish water fountains.
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Setting up a home gym
If you have ever thought about a home gym you’ve probably weighed up the cost against the benefit of having your own space and equipment. But you don’t have to go all-out to create the perfect home gym, and with the money that you save on membership fees, it doesn’t have to hurt your bank balance either.
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How to choose the right kitchen bench top
The kitchen is the beating heart of your home. It should be a functional and hard wearing as well as an attractive and inviting space.
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Bringing your home’s exterior back to new
Sometimes we tend to neglect the maintenance of the exterior of our house. We mow the lawns, weed the garden and trim the hedges but overlook the actual house itself. Your home’s exterior may not need a fresh coat of paint but just a good clean. By enlisting the services of a professional house washing service you can make your home sparkle like new again.
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Choosing timber flooring
When it comes to flooring which is remarkable, long lasting, timelessly beautiful, and natural, you can’t go past timber. However, there are many different types of timber floors to choose from, and it can become confusing if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Solid, hardwood floors made from new or recycled timber are traditional and remain popular, however floating and engineered floorboards and parquetry are also great options.
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Professional painters - the pluses
Building, renovating, updating, time for a change or selling are the more common reasons to paint your home. Inside, outside, one room or many, it is important to get the colour and the finish just right and to achieve that it is advisable to enlist the services of a professional licensed painter.
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Guide to Bathroom Lighting and IP Rating
Starting with the technical details, safety is key when choosing your bathroom lighting. To identify whether a light is safe for your bathroom, all lights are given an IP Rating (Ingress Protection rating) which measures how resistant the light is to both water and dust particles. IP Ratings can be determined by reading the first and second digits following the initial ‘IP’.
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When to call in a handyman
Maintaining a home is important to ensure that small problems don’t become large problems when left unaddressed for long periods of time. Our home is probably our biggest investment and we should keep it in good shape. Let’s face it – not everyone is a home handyman. You may not be handy or you may be too busy to get those little jobs done around the home and that’s when you should call in a handyman.
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How to choose a staircase
There are many homes throughout Australia with staircases and in some more than one. A staircase can be tucked away and unobtrusive or can be a focal point and add real wow factor to your home. Taking regulations and guidelines into account your staircase can then only be limited by space, budget and imagination.
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Green plumbing tips
Water is the world’s most precious commodity. We can be blasé about our usage and consumption of water during the wet months or when there are no apparent shortages and our dams are at a decent level.
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Making the most of your pool area
Swimming pools are often the focal points of modern landscape designs. However the areas around them are often overlooked and neglected when it comes to maximising the potential of our backyards.
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Warning signs of pest infestations to look out for while house hunting
Check open spaces for anthills, window frames for wasps nests, trees for termite nests, and sheds and trees for possum nests. Be on the lookout for other evidence that pests are living there such as droppings under trees and the skin being eaten off lemons on fruit trees. Secondly, observe greenery in the area. If there are damaged plants or patches of grass pests may be to blame.
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