Splendid Willow

The Professionals use techniques and skills for hardwood floor refinishing that can be acquired by anyone. So, Floor Refinishing can be accomplished by the homeowner in a very professional manner. Apply the following 8 methods and you should be on the road to less costly great looking hardwood floors in your home. The number one key to success is preparation. Proper Preparation is the most important key to achieving a nice looking floor. When sanding the old finish with a power belt sander, be sure and sand in the direction of the grain and remove all old stain completely over the entire floor. Start and stop marks will cause unsightly marks on your floor once the stain is applied, so avoid them like the plague. Be sure and feather sand areas that need it. This helps eliminate a splotchy appearance, by allowing a more even absorption of stain. With floor refinishing, thorough clean up is crucial. Proper clean up is also where a lot of people go wrong. Once you have sa...

It's amazing how poorly people treat their paint brushes. I've been in the painting business for over 25 years and during that time I have seen some funny looking brushes. However, when you are paying $25 to $50 dollars for a quality brush, then brush abuse is no laughing matter. Poor care of your paint brush will drastically shorten its life. Described below are some procedures that a house painter or homeowner should follow when using, cleaning and storing brushes. First you need to consider the type paint you are going to be using before choosing your brush. Will you be using oil or latex paint? Do you know if you should use a Nylon or a Nylon Polyester mix, or China Bristle brush for the paint you have purchased? Always use the right brush for the type of paint you are going to use. Never use a Nylon brush in oil base paint. If you use a Nylon brush in oil paint, the oils and chemicals in the paint will permanently change how the brush bristles feel. ...

Professional painting Safety tips you should know before starting. Are you properly equipped physically and with the proper equipment to handle your exterior painting project?   The following equipment considerations are important for your safety and productive work. Buy and install ladder levelers on your ladders. Over 70 % of all ladder accidents are caused by make shift props for ladders. Levelers attach securely to the legs of your ladders providing a very secure fit. Safety minded and production oriented painting companies use them. Good quality levelers make your ladder a lot more stable and greatly reduce your risk of injury. Once you have them installed they will last for a long time. They will provide safety for all your outdoor painting projects. They will increase your production significantly. They are well worth every penny you spend on them.One other thing you will want to consider. Ladder levelers will save you a lot of time. You will not be constant...

 Do you use Plywood in the trim areas on your home? Is the exterior paint on your home cracking where it was applied over it? Many homes built today have plywood for certain trim areas. Although Plywood is a durable material, it does has one drawback. It is prone to cracking at the surface level along the grain line. Cracking of exterior paint along plywood’s grain line is called checking in the exterior painting industry. When exposed to sunlight, temperature changes and moisture plywood surface starts to weather. Checking usually occurs because the outer veneer of a plywood. As the plywood outer veneer weathers, it separates along the grain line of the veneer from repeated expansion and contraction. As the cracks in the grain occur, it causes the painted surface to check. So how do you properly treat areas where checking is occurring? That usually depends on how bad the checking is. First evaluate how much sunlight, temperature and moisture exposure the plywoo...

Room decorating must first start with forming a concept of the new colors that you want for the room. New fresh colors can give a great sense of change and satisfaction. Nothing can improve the overall appearance and image of a room as a change of color. Painting can improve the look and feel of a room at an affordable price. While planning room decorating, there are things you can do to increase the beauty of a room and at the same time decrease the effort and cost involved with painting. Listed below you will find interior painting tips that will increase your painting performance and decrease your work load. Be Properly Equipped Before Starting Your room Decorating Project Make sure you have enough plastic or drop cloths to cover all your flooring and furnishings. Keep all areas covered always. Cover up may take you only 10 or 15 minutes, but clean up can cost you hours. You will need sheet rock mud and sand paper to repair any dents in the wall. When you apply the ...

 Removing paint from your hands is easy when it is latex, but when you’re using oil based paints it’s not so easy to remove with most cleaners without harming your skin. Years ago when I started my house painting and repair business, I would buy hand cleaners that were solvent based to remove oil based paint from my hands. Most of the hand cleaners back then had mineral spirits as part of their formula. As you probably know mineral spirits is very hard on the skin. After using these hand cleaners for a few years, my hands started looking more like tree bark than smooth skin. They did an adequate job of cleaning but at the expense of poor quality skin. I then switched to using citrus based hand cleaners for removing paint. I found that citrus based hand cleaners were an improvement and cleaned my skin about as well as the solvent based cleaners. The condition of my hands improved. However, after using the citrus cleaners, I became allergic to something in its ingre...

 There are prerequisite steps that must be taken to properly prepare your home's exterior for it to last and have that quality look. In addition to your preparations, there are important application procedures that will serve to deliver a nice looking paint job you can be surely proud of. The first step in preparation for exterior painting is to properly clean your home’s exterior. Pressure wash your house using M1 and bleach, making sure flaking paint, dirt, mildew, green algae, wasp nest, and other obstructions are removed. Once washed, scrape any remainder of loose paint off with a sharp scraper and metal brush. Sand any bare wood to prepare it for primer. You should wear some kind of eye protection from the bleach and then start at the top and work your way down. Hold the nozzle of the pressure washer about six inches away from the surface and at a 45 degree angle. Sometimes mildew can still exist after this process. You may need to apply concentrated bleach t...

 Painting trim on the interior of homes seem to produce more questions in the mind of homeowners than any other aspect of decorating. I am often asked by homeowners planning interior painting projects for their home, if painting trim in a particular room a different color than the trim in the rest of their home the correct thing to do. Many times the issue arises when they are planning a particular color for a room, on account of a color they have seen in a magazine or while visiting a friend's home. Maybe they're trying to match colors in a particular fabric they are planning to use in that room. Anyway, the problem arises with what to do with the trim for that room. How do you work it into the existing color scheme of your home? While there is no absolute rule about trim color, that if broken, would cause you to be arrested by the color scheme patrol, there are some things you should consider. The trim and ceilings of your home are what establishes a unified...

 Since I started my house painting contractor business (Homeowners First Choice Painting) in 1983, I've heard about every reason a homeowner can give for going with the cheaper price for house painting and home repair work. However, I often get calls from homeowners who say they wish they had paid a little more for quality service. Many in the end, have to pay more money just to correct problems created from their previous contractor. What I have found through the years is that most homeowners do not know how to properly evaluate a painting contractor before hiring. Just because a contractor is cheaper doesn't mean you're getting your money's worth. When it comes to hiring contractors, cheaper priced services often end up costing you a lot more. The following 10 attributes will help you better qualify your candidate. How long has the house painting contractor been operating his business in your area. Instability is common in this industry. Some pa...

 Before you decide to buy your next paint brush, there are some important considerations. An experienced painter will consider the following when choosing brushes. As a average homeowner you should do the same. Will the brush you are considering, pick up and release paint well? How well it holds and releases paint will make a big difference in how long it takes to complete your house painting project. How long will the bristles last. Nylon is the longest-wearing filament used in brushes. How well can the paint brush be tipped? Tipping affects how a brush will spread paint. The tip of the bristles varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some sand the end of the bristles so they are not just a blunt end. Some actually split the tips of the bristle through an abrading method. This makes a difference in how well it holds paint and how evenly the paint brush will spread paint. You should consider how flexible the brush is. A paint brush with proper flex distribu...

 Home painting is often made more difficult than it needs to be. People struggle in selecting colors and that's why house painting is often viewed as complicated. If you find this to be true, you're not alone. Many people struggle with choosing colors for their home. Many novice homeowners are overwhelmed by the number of colors to choose from. Then there is the fear that they will make a mistake in color choice and have to live with it. Having to pay twice to finally arrive at the right color on your house is not an expense most homeowners want to undertake. Furthermore, what will the neighbors or homeowners association think about the new colors? Review the following tips on home painting . Applying these suggestions should help you feel more confident with your color choice. The first thing to consider if you are planning to paint your house is what colors on your house will not change. Roofs typically last from 30 years to lifetime. Bricks are permanent...

Golden sand, the sound of waves and romantic sunsets. These are frequent memories of the stay at the Polish seaside. I would like to keep these moments for longer. It is possible. Especially if we want to wisely invest our money and have additional benefits from it. The solution in this case will be to buy a seaside apartment. You can find the sum of the benefits below. A dream place to relax in the standard that we expect. We often need a stepping stone, a place where we can rest on our terms. Our own apartment gives us this possibility. The constant search for new, interesting places for a weekend getaway is quite absorbing. Additionally, we never know what standard will meet us.  Our own property in a tourist area, arranged as we want, will always be an attractive holiday or weekend alternative for us. Of course, we can have such a seaside apartment at our and loved ones disposal, and treat the purchase itself as a safe capital investment.  However, we always have the optio...

The purchase of an apartment for rent is only the first step for a beginner investor. Such a place still needs to be skillfully arranged. It depends on how quickly the given premises will be leased and what profit the purchased apartment will bring. To avoid the mistakes of a beginner rentier, it is worth remembering a few rules. When preparing an apartment for rent, let's focus on the functionality of solutions and a kind of versatility. Let's create a space that will be a good base for the tenant, a material for arranging their own M. Colors and materials It is worth arranging a flat for rent in a neutral, light color scheme that will suit many potential tenants. Such colors of the walls will also make our arrangement fresh and timeless. With this approach, it is easy to change the interior design and make a quick metamorphosis by replacing only the accessories. The floors are important.  To avoid frequent repairs or replacements, it is worth choosing materials that will be e...

Breakfast and delicious coffee on the terrace overlooking the sea or the profit from renting? Investments in seaside apartments are currently very popular. No wonder, having an apartment by the Baltic Sea has huge benefits. This is confirmed by developers who are recording an increase in sales of attractive apartments by the sea. How does it look in practice? Apartment for rent Every year, over 8 million nights are guaranteed at the Polish seaside - that's a lot. This statistic is great news, not only for the tourism industry, but also for private investors who are increasingly willing to buy luxury apartments by the sea for rent. Check how to choose apartment - Suits your need The awareness of Polish tourists about the mechanisms operating in the tourism industry turns out to be greater now than a few years ago. They are more and more willing to move away from accommodation in hotels and boarding houses in favor of short-term rental of flats and apartments. What are they gaining? ...

Investing in real estate is invariably one of the best solutions in the context of capital investment. Many people decide to buy an apartment and then use the passive income generated by renting it. If you soon belong to this group or have just joined it, in this text you will learn what your duties (and rights) look like. About what lies with the landlord First of all, as a landlord, you undertake to deliver the premises in the condition as agreed for a fixed or indefinite period. During this period, you will be obliged to maintain this state (that is, to ensure access to, cleanliness and order to the rooms and equipment common to all residents).  An important element is the preparation of a handover protocol. It specifies the technical condition of all installations, and meters should also be measured. This document is the basis for settlements when returning the premises, when the contract ends and you leave the current tenant. It is also on your side to adapt the apartment so t...

An investment, your own vacation spot, a great way to spend your retirement - buying an apartment in Dziwnówek is one of the best alternatives in the real estate sector on the coast. Especially that currently this resort offers apartments in high-class apartment buildings built by investors. If you really love spending time by the Polish seaside, then read on! Dziwnówek - a Baltic resort Living by the sea, in places such as Dziwnówek, is a dream of many investors. Both during the season and beyond, the inhabitants can enjoy the natural circumstances, wonderful views, a healthy atmosphere and everything that a summer or winter holiday on the Baltic Sea can provide.  The biggest attractions of Dziwnówek are a wide sandy beach, clear water, almost endless ways to enjoy water madness, beautiful areas for walking and cycling, as well as excellent conditions for anglers.  The proximity of large resorts and a satisfactory base of shops, cafes and restaurants mean that you can live in...

According to specialists, investment in real estate on the Polish market remains one of the most sensible alternatives. However, on the other hand, we are dealing with an increasingly popular trend - long-term rental. Let's check what issues make Poles choose to rent an apartment instead of buying their own apartment! For ownership or for rent? Own apartment - for generations, striving to change the state of ownership to one that takes into account your own M is extremely desirable. A flat to own is a sense of stability, security and security. In addition, it is a great way to invest your capital, as well as an ideal investment with a view to returning profit over the years. Buying an apartment is also a good way to secure your children's future. These advantages, although clearly positive, often differ from the possibilities and values ​​of a fairly large group of people who determine the comfort of their lives with other aspects. Nowadays, issues related to finances, work or ...

Choosing a new apartment is a very responsible task, after all, it will be a place where we will spend a lot of time , where we will rest after a hard day's work and spend time with loved ones, or it will be an important investment of our savings. Each of us has their own specific preferences, so it is very difficult to provide universal advice on what type of apartment is best for you. However, there are some evaluation criteria that can help you make the best decision that works for you. Read also:  Buying Apartment What location to Choose? # 1. Determine what you are buying a new apartment for Think about the purpose of buying a flat, what criteria it should meet, what is its purpose . We will buy another apartment for ourselves, and we will buy another apartment if we do it in terms of a quick investment, and still another if it is for investment for rent. If you want to make a wise, informed decision, this point should be at the very beginning. # 2. Define your needs Once you ...

A newborn baby, especially the first one, is associated with quite a lot of stress. This is perfectly understandable. However, if you have really little space then it is even more stressful. Don't worry, it is still completely possible, you just need to plan everything well, think through and then implement the appropriate solutions. You will definitely be fine! image source: extra space # 1. Use any available space If you don't have enough then you have to use as much as possible, that's obvious. Therefore, it is good to have as many shelves as possible, wherever there is still some space. Thanks to this, you will have space to stuff all your baby's clothes and other things. # 2. Don't keep everything on the ground or in a closet Suspended containers for toys and other items are a very interesting idea. Thanks to this, you will gain a lot of valuable space. Besides, this way you can largely regulate the child's access to various items. Every parent knows how us...