Consider this your reminder.

Over 15,000 fires happen in clothes dryers annually, and the vast majority of them are attributed to poor cleaning and upkeep.  Daily, newspapers around the country run articles about dryer vent fires and their devastating effect on local families.  15 deaths and over 300 injuries happen every year in clogged dryer vent fires in residential buildings.

Experts recommend having your dryer duct and vent cleaned out at least annually.  It’s all too easy to overlook some of these infrequent yet necessary home safety maintenance chores.  Again, the reason for this reminder.  I recommend grouping this task with other annual or semi-annual home maintenance jobs like changing the backup batteries in smoke alarms and emergency flashlights, or inspecting your fire extinguisher.  Schedule this group of tasks into your computer or cell phone calendar, or pencil it in on the tried-and-true printed calendar on the front of your refrigerator.

Have a happy (and safe) new year!

1. Use your move as an opportunity to de-clutter.  We all have stuff we have been hanging onto for far too long.  Clothes we no longer wear, or that have been out of style for decades; that old barbershop chair in the basement gathering dust; VHS tapes, rotary phones, vinyl record albums.  Some of it may very well be collectable.  Some of it may just be gathering dust.  Have a garage sale, and donate any leftover stuff.  Now’s the time to pull out everything that really has no business on the back of a moving truck, and no place in your new home.  Use the proceeds from your garage sale to buy pizza for lunch for your moving crew.
2. Have a toolbox handy for taking apart bed frames, tightening loose screws, removing wall-hanging hardware, and the like.  Be sure to have one or more box cutters in the tool set for unpacking, and be sure the toolbox is placed in a central location in your new home on move-in day, like the kitchen, so you don’t have to look for tools when it comes time to reassemble bed frames, for example, at the end of an exhausting day.
3. Use blankets to drape over delicate surfaces like electronics and furniture to prevent breakage and scratching.  Plastic garbage bags full of t-shirts or towels are excellent for stabilizing fragile items in the back of the moving truck, as are couch cushions and bed pillows.
4. Ask for help.  Moving is by all means a daunting job, so don’t be shy.  Friends, neighbors, family – even the children!  If you’re worried about things getting broken then handle the computer monitor and your great-grandmother’s antique full-length mirror yourself.  Enlist more troops to handle the rest of the grunt work.  Children can help more than we often give them credit for.  They can carry smaller boxes, or at a minimum babysit the family dog in the back yard while the adults take care of all the lifting.  Kids love to feel included in all the excitement, and to have their own very special job assigned to them is all it takes.

This by no means is a comprehensive list of helpful tips to ensure a successful move for your family.  Check out this detailed checklist for additional useful information.

1. Start early.  Begin saving empty boxes well in advance of the big day.  Visit local grocery stores and ask for their good used boxes; be sure to take a pass on boxes that have produce residue or traces of odor.  Purchase good packing tape; duct tape doesn’t adhere very well to a cardboard surface.  You want to make sure what you put inside the box stays there until you’re ready to unpack.  Visit your dry cleaner and ask for some used plastic garment bags.  These can be used to protect clothing on hangers from dust; and tied off at one end, they double as trash bags.
2. Pack up any off-season belongings you may have first.  If you’re moving in June, go ahead and pack up your Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations, and winter weather wardrobe.  The more you can get done ahead of time, the better.
3. Pack heavier items, like books or music CDs in smaller boxes; pack lighter items in larger boxes.  The fewer boxes you have to move the better, however you don’t want to pack boxes so heavy you risk a back injury.  Be sure to securely tape boxes as well.  We’ve already covered this, AND it bears mentioning again.  An over-packed box bursting open on its way to the moving truck is not the way to start moving day.
4. When packing, label the box with a permanent marker for the room it is being moved into, not the room it is moving out of.  You may have two children currently sharing one room who will now each get their own bedroom in the new house, or you may have decided to store some items from your basement into your new spacious garage.  Label individual boxes for the appropriate destination room.

Check back next week for Part 2 of “Packing and the Move” for more tips.  In the meantime, here’s a great comprehensive moving checklist to help keep important tasks from falling through the cracks.

Although the country’s ongoing foreclosure problem continues to depress home resale values there have been signs that the overall housing market is poised for a rebound.  The question is, When?  Many experts seem to believe it might be 2013 before we see things really begin to turn around.  Regardless, the simple fact that the debate is happening seems to have helped nudge rates down to their current point.

Overall home prices fell 2.8% in the month of October 2011 compared to October 2010.  We’ll have to wait for November’s final numbers to come out.  The bottom line though does look promising.  The national free-fall in home values that started in 2006 is slowing, more support for the argument that the rebound, though long in coming, is around the corner and in the distance.

Hardwood

Pros:    Can be sanded and refinished if damaged

            Adds to property resale value

            Can last well beyond 20 years

            Completely unique natural wood-grain non-repeating pattern

Cons:   No warranty

            More expensive

            Installation must attach to subfloor

            May need finishing once installed

Pergo

Pros:    Generally 15 year warranty against stains and fading

            More affordable

            Stronger than wood

            Lasts up to 20 years

            Resistant to wear and scratches

            Easy floating installation

Cons:   Cannot be refinished

            Must be replaced if damaged

            Print pattern on finish repeats after several boards

The choice between hardwood and Pergo has as much to do with personal taste as it does cost, ease of installation and maintenance, or resale value.  Ask yourself, “What is the norm in my neighborhood?”  Not to keep up with the neighbors, but if hardwood floors are the norm then that may very well be an expectation of incoming buyers for your home in the future.

Whether you’re venturing cross-country or just across the state, one thing to keep in mind when traveling during the holidays is the safety and security of your unoccupied home while you’re gone.  That brings up two main concerns, accidents and burglary.

Accidents are the easiest to mitigate.  Start with turning off the main water supply valve in your home.  One of the top insurance claims throughout the year is water damage, and a burst pipe while no one is home to take care of it right away is no way to start the new year.  Also, turn off your water heater and its gas supply.  Not only does this prevent potential gas leaks, you’ll save money on your energy bill.  Everyone’s equipment is different, so refer to manufacturer’s directions first when considering any of these practices.  Here’s a complete checklist of things you can do to minimize the chances of an accident occurring while you’re away.

The best way to deter burglary is to minimize opportunity while making it appear the house is operating just as it would any other day.  Stop newspaper delivery for the time you’re away so papers don’t start to pile up on the front porch.  Put house lights on timers.  Park a car in the driveway.  Remember, Business as usual.  That’s the message you want to broadcast to the outside world.  Even then, burglars are always out during the holidays looking for opportunities.  Don’t make it easy on them.  Hide spare car keys, jewelry, and other valuables in shoeboxes or behind the canned vegetables in the pantry.  Have a trusted neighbor stop by periodically to monitor the house, or consider hiring a house sitter for the week!

Take a few extra steps for your peace of mind before your vacation and enjoy the holidays!

1. Wood, paper, cloth fire: Put out the flames with water or a class A fire extinguisher.
2. Grease fire: Use baking soda or a class B extinguisher.  If the fire is in a pan, slide a lid over the top first to smother the flames and turn off the heat.  DO NOT USE WATER!  Water will only make a grease fire spread.
3. Electric fire: Baking soda or a class C extinguisher.  Again, no water.

Home fire extinguishers should have an ABC rating to cover most home fires.

It’s crazy to think that most families do not practice their emergency escape plan, let alone have a plan in place.  Statistically speaking, the most common home emergency requiring a family to evacuate is the house fire, so any emergency plan should take into consideration fire contingencies.  Here are a couple key pointers for your family’s emergency escape plan:

1. Plan your escape.  Create a plan that quickly and efficiently gets your family out of the house.  Designate primary and secondary exits, as well as a neighbor’s house as the destination everyone should head to for safety and for placing the call to 911.
2. Practice your escape.  This is as crucial a step for adults as it is for children.  Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.  Children can be easily confused in an emergency.  Add the emotional trauma of an unexpected fire in the house and even mature adults can panic.  Practice the escape plan from the fire alarm all the way to your neighbor’s doorstep.
3. Minimize risks in the home.  Test fire alarms and CO detectors, and change out backup batteries.  Clean build-up out of the bottom of your stove and grill, and never leave pots and pans unattended on range burners.  Get a fire extinguisher, make sure everyone knows where it is in the house (in or close to the kitchen), and have it inspected regularly.

Today’s low flow shower heads not only decrease water consumption, they stabilize water pressure and save you money on your water heating bill since you’re heating less water.  Check out these comparisons of the pre-1990 shower heads to the various incarnations that followed.  How does the shower head work?  There are two kinds of low flow shower heads, aerated and non-aerated.  The first kind uses air to pressurize the water stream, while the second maintains water pressure by pulsating water through separate water jet streams.

Let’s say your family takes a conservative total of three showers a day.  If you switch from a 2.5-gallon-per-minute fixture to a 1.5-gpm fixture, that’s a savings of 21 gallons every day.  And what if your shower head is still one of those pre ’90s water wasters?  You could be saving over 100 gallons a day by replacing it with a low flow unit.  Let’s see, in a thirty-day month that comes to 3,000 gallons of water NOT down the drain!

Unless you have substantial savings and liquid assets, you’re probably like most people and need to get a mortgage in order to move into that dream house.  There are many reasons for speaking to a mortgage lender or mortgage broker up front.  A professional who deals everyday in these types of loans will know what the current rates are.  They will take into consideration your credit scores, monthly income, available savings for a down payment, and best available interest rate based on all your information to come up with the loan amount you qualify for.

Please understand the primary benefit here: education.  This is a process not to be taken lightly.  The lender’s job is not to put you into the biggest house (and by association the biggest loan) possible.  Their job is to counsel.  Through the interview process they learn about your financial situation and determine your expected ability to repay the loan over the five, fifteen, even thirty year term.  The lender can also let you know whether there are some items on your credit reports that are getting in the way of your getting a better interest rate, or simply getting in the way of your qualifying for the loan altogether.

The mortgage market has changed over the last few years, and it has become more difficult to get that ideal loan.  Today you need more money for the down payment than you may have needed in the past, and guidelines for qualification are stricter than ever.  Speak to a mortgage professional you trust.  If you don’t have one, speak to friends, family and neighbors.  Ask who they have used in the past and what the experience was like.  Ask your friendly neighborhood Realtor® for a list of reputable candidates.  The last thing you want to happen is to find your dream home, write and have your offer accepted by the sellers, then discover you can’t get the mortgage to complete the purchase.  Get pre-qualified first, and house hunt with confidence.

What’s more, you can get coffee grounds from local restaurants and coffee shops to use at home.  Starbucks has made five pound bags of used grounds available to customers for free through its Grounds for Gardens program since 1995.  If you’re not close enough to a Starbucks (hard to imagine in the world today that anyone isn’t within a ten or fifteen minute drive) call around to your local restaurants and ask if they save coffee grounds for their patrons’ use.  What’s good for the garden is also good for the landfill.

Once you discover mold in your home get to work on mitigating the source of moisture and the clean-up right away.  Don’t ignore it.  Call a plumber with a good reputation in the community if you need to.  Simply closing the cabinet door to the kitchen sink and pretending it’s not there doesn’t work.  The problem won’t just walk away on its own and neither should you.  And don’t simply paint over the stain of a recently cleaned patch or wall without mitigating the moisture.  You’re putting more energy into a problem that will continue to reoccur.

So the question is, Where to begin?  A great place to start if you’re unsure just how to get started is the Frequently Asked Questions on the http://www.epa.gov/ website.  Stop the moisture, stop the mold.

1. The single most important factor for a plant to survive and thrive is its environment.  Here I’m speaking about sunlight.  Inside the home sunlight becomes all that much more important as your plants spend twenty-four hours a day under your roof and not outside in the great wide open.  Use the handy table at the bottom of this webpage to determine the best locations based on plant type to make sure your plants are getting adequate sun.
2. The size of your plant’s container is another environmental issue.  You want your pot to be large enough to accommodate the soil and roots.  Too small a pot will restrict your growth.  Too large a pot, compared to the plant making its home there, may look a bit unbalanced or awkward in the room.  Here are some creative plant container ideas.
3. Fertilizer, too much or not enough, can cause problems.  Signs that your plant needs fertilizer are dropped leaves, pale leaves, flimsy stems, and little or no new growth.  Likewise, signs that your plant is getting too much fertilizer are leaves with a “burned” appearance or dark spots, odd shaped leaves, and a white residue that accumulates on the surface of your potting soil.

With a little TLC for your plants, you’ll be greening up indoors and freshening your environment.

Tips on hiring a moving company:

1. Get an in-house quote, then another, and another. A quote is no good if a company’s representative doesn’t come out and take an honest look at each room’s contents and then follow their visit up by putting their price, and what you are actually getting for your money, in writing.  And the first quote isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if you don’t have a second and a third to compare it to.  Get three quotes.
2. Ask friends, neighbors, and family who they have used in the past and had success with.  Get the actual name of the company rep they worked with.  A good referral goes a long way in easing stress during a move.
3. Dig into the quote.  Know if the movers will be assembling furniture like bed frames after delivery.  What’s the delivery window look like?  What about insurance?  You have to know what you’re getting for your money, and you sure don’t want to have any surprises on moving day, or when the bill from the moving company comes in the mail.

Nowadays people shop online, but surprisingly only a very small percentage of identity theft cases occur as a result of online tampering, such as computer hacking.  More often than not it’s the same old-fashioned, live and in person thief that gets consumers in the most trouble.

However you spend your energy during the spirit of the season don’t neglect to heed these few tips that will help you keep from spending your January (and undoubtedly many more sad months to follow) cleaning up the fallout from having your identity stolen.

1. Shred anything with personal information on it before throwing it out, including credit card and mortgage mail solicitations.  Thieves will dig through your garbage to find information they can use to open new credit accounts in your name that can end up costing you big.
2. Keep your social security card, passport, and any credit cards you don’t currently use at home.  This minimizes the amount of information a thief can get if they steal your purse or wallet.
3. Take credit card receipts with you instead of leaving them behind.  It doesn’t matter if it’s the department store receipt for $100 or the coffee shop tab for $10.  If there’s ever a doubt, take it with you.
4. Keep your virus and spyware software up-to-date and running.
5. If you believe your identity has been stolen, don’t wait to get help.  Start here

for information on common questions asked by people who suspect they have become victims of identity theft.

Let’s take a look at the weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for November 17, 2011:

According to Freddie Mac and the PMMS the 30-year fixed average was 4.00, with an average .7 point, and the 15-year was 3.31 with .7 point.

5 year ARMs held at 2.97 with .6 point, while 1-year ARMs also remained steady at 2.98 with .6 point.

The problem is, this is one of those home repair issues you often don’t notice until it’s too late.  So I’m going to give you a quick task that can potentially save you a bundle.  And, watch this video to learn more on how to spot the warning signs of gutter, soffit and fascia leakage before it becomes too costly.

The easiest way to spot a potential problem area along your roof line is to go outside and watch for leaks while it’s raining.  This is not very practical as first, it must be raining outside, and second, you’ll have to remember my little message here and do your inspection when it does.  So here’s the trick, go outside and inspect the perimeter of the roofline RIGHT NOW!  Go ahead, I’ll wait...

…Oh, and, here’s what you’re looking for: Evidence of leaking.  I’m not talking about soffit and fascia that’s already pealing, cracked, decaying and falling apart, and I’m not talking about gutters that are falling away from the side of the house.  If you have those issues you already know to call a repairman.  I’m talking about finding a little problem before it becomes a BIG problem.  Look along your gutters, and the underlying fascia, trying to spot dark vertical streaks that are residue of dirty water from your roof overflowing the gutters, or working in behind the gutter and soaking the fascia.  I refer you to this website for the sole purpose of giving you a photograph example of what to look for.  This is not a foolproof method for spotting all problems.  There are many little things that can contribute to leaking.  This is, however, a very inexpensive (because it’s free) inspection you can perform yourself that can keep your repair bill in the hundred-dollar range and out of the thousands.  If you find these streaks, and your gutters are not obstructed with leaves, call your handyman and set up an appointment.  The problem might be as simple as installing a drip edge inside your gutters.

There’s some homework you can do up front as well to ensure once the transaction is done and you’re all moved in that your family’s transition continues to go just as smoothly.

When did you first visit your prospective home?  Was it at night after work?  At the end of a busy day?  Go drive the neighborhood during rush hour, morning and evening.  Drive by on a Saturday or Sunday if you haven’t been there during the weekend.  Have you only seen the home during the day?  Go visit at night.  Imagine yourself starting and ending your day there.  Ask yourself, where’s the nearest gas station?  Morning coffee?  Pizza house?  Where’s the nearest emergency room?

Talk to neighbors.  You don’t necessarily have to knock on doors, but since you are already driving through (see paragraph above), pull over if you see someone raking leaves or playing catch outside with the kids.  Have a short conversation.  Introduce yourself and let them know you’re considering moving into their wonderful neighborhood.  Ask them if they would help you make up your mind by telling you what they like best about the neighborhood.  Ask them what they like least.  If people are happy where they live they would love nothing better than the opportunity to brag about their neighborhood, the schools, the convenient drive to shopping, or the city, or the bank.  If they have a complaint they’ll let you know that too.

Drain flies can take over any drain in the house, but more often than not they show up close to their main food source, slime-covered garbage disposals and the kitchen sink.  They lay their eggs in the gunk coating the grinding mechanism down in the disposals.  The problem is, although hot water and ammonia can get rid of the adult flies it does little to eradicate the eggs.  And simply running the disposal even with a standard disposal cleaner won’t get rid of the gooey stuff.  You need to use an enzyme like DF5000 that will eat away both the slime and the eggs, right down to the metal.  Just keep in mind, the more crud deep down inside the disposal, the more applications you will have to use to completely clean out the drain.  How will you know when the drain is clear when it’s all but impossible to see down into the drain?  When the flies are all gone, you’re done.

1.     Before you dig, call ahead to have all your underground utilities located and marked.  Better to be safe than sorry.  This will not only keep you protected from electric and gas lines, but will allow you to plan a layout for your landscape that will avoid causing problems with utilities in the future.

2.     Dig your hole two to three times as wide as the root ball of your tree.  This gives the tree a chance to start establishing its root system without having to burrow first through the heavily compacted surrounding soil just to get started.

3.     Mulch.  Mulch serves many purposes.  It helps to protect growing roots from temperature extremes.  It also locks in moisture while suppressing grass and weeds.

Click this link to learn more tips for successful tree transplanting.