Solar Lit House Number Signs
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The Truth About Toilets…
Toilets are an essential in every home and one that is highly under appreciated for the job it does. It is one of those things you don’t really notice until you don’t have it available. I learned this lesson all to hard when my daughter flushed my cell phone down the toilet.
The key to functional toilets is in the plumbing which has to be made so that the connections are clean.
There is a thick 1 inch wax seal that loosely connects your porcelain toilet to the top of the pipe at the base of your toilet. This seal is an essential part of the plumbing and the key to keeping your room sanitary and free of foul smells. Everytime you do any work with your toilets, you should replace the seal with a new seal. When tightening your toilet down, you should make sure that you don’t tighten it so tightly that you could crack your porcelain.
A toilet is unique in it’s float system of controls. This system uses no electricity to function. It is a gravity and float system, controlled by the hand flush.
You push the flush and it lifts the plug the keeps the water in the tank. The tank empties and the float valve lowers because the top level of the water goes down. That opens the valve that fills the tank and the water comes in until the float valve is back to the set top of what you want the tank to fill.
There is such a huge variety in toilets to consider when you are remodeling or getting your new porcelain. You can choose from a huge variety of colors. White is the over all leader in color though. You can also choose from a huge selection of styles. There are styles that go from wide for the more obese users, all the way to the very bizarre. There are styles where the tank is kept up by the ceiling away from the seat.
The flush handles also come in a variety. There are some that are pull handles, some that are push in buttons, and most are the pull down tabs. The pull down tabs are what seems are the preferred style of flushes.
Best of luck with your new remodel or home purchase.
Written by Jennifer Hitchcock - Visit WebsiteThe Truth About Interior Painting…
There is slightly more to painting than meets the eye, so for this article. I am going to focus on a wall that has been painted before and not a new construction. This is also interior painting. I am not going to go into details of painting over a variety of surfaces, but maybe I will in future article. This is everyday simple painting here.
There are 6 major steps to painting:
- Plan
- Purchase supplies and get organized
- Prepare the room
- Prime the room
- Paint the room
- Clean up and get rid of all that painting tape.
There now doesn’t that sound simple?? LOL….
Plan for your room, choose a color that best fits the style of the room and your personal preferences. Color the room for the mood you mostly want to be in while you are in the room. Light colors make a room look larger and cooler. Dark colors make a room look more intimate and warmer.
After you have a plan for color and a measurement of the room for size, so you buy the right amount of paint. Head on out to the paint store, don’t get overwhelmed at the paint store by the variety of colors. At this point, look for the color that you have decided at home and take a deep breath and pick the color that stands out to you almost right off the bat in that color range. Your first instinct in color choose will probably be right.
Get the amount of paint needed for you room, avoid the paint that is the very cheapest. You also don’t need the most expensive a good mid-range priced paint is usually quite good.
You should pick up an equal amount of primer coat. The primer that you choose isn’t all that important, but the fact that you do get it will make your wall twice as color correct when you get to painting it. Primer also blocks out unwanted stains and such from the under coat of the wall. It acts as a sealant from any past damage as well, no it won’t stop that major crack that is creeping down from your ceiling, but it will keep out some things.
You can pick up painters tape and floor protection as well. The cheapest of these will probably do perfectly. I used giant plastic sheets that were less than a dollar each for my last paint job.
The most important thing you should buy is the brushes and roller. You should get a medium sized brush where the bristles are soft and easily bend as you finger through them. Stiff bristles will leave more marks in your painting than soft ones. Synthetic bristles with split end like ends and wooden handle will work best. Your brush should have angled bristles for perfect painting in the seams and corners where the roller can’t get to.
The roller that you choose should have short naps. A steel frame will be more sturdy than some chooses. The frame should have sealed ends to keep the paint out of the center of the roller and on the roller. After you purchase the roller, give it a good rubdown to get the lint and dirt from storage off it.
Tip *** Pringles or Lays chip containers make great storage for a paint roller over night, they will keep the paint moist enough for a second paint job, if your paint job is large enough. You can easily do it over a weekend. ***
Now that you have all the supplies, it is time to prepare the room.
You should wipe down all the walls to be painted. Tape off all the edges of where you want the paint to end, like the ceiling or moldings. I have found that installing the tape in small sections rather than running it across a whole wall at once makes an easier install. I generally apply tape in 3 feet sections and cut the tape in the corners at an angle for easier application. You can then lay the drop cloth.
That sounded like a really short part of the project, but I have found that the preparing actually takes longer than the actual painting of the room.
Next, you paint the complete room with the primer layer. This should be a very thin even coat, you can consider it practice round if you would like.
You should allow the primer 24 hours to fully dry.
You can then apply the paint of your choose. Confident and proud that you have picked the perfect color and the room is going to look great in only a few hours.
Allow the paint to dry as well before taking the tape off, taking it off prior to drying fully will cause the paint to peel at the edges where the paint meets the tape.
The tape will be much easier to remove than it was to apply. It is much more fun as well. Pick up those drop clothes and take a deep breath while you admire your new room.
Extra paint will store nicely in 1 quart sports drink bottles, so you will have that touch up paint when you need it for the little one who colored on the walls and you can’t seem to get it off.
Written by Jennifer Hitchcock - Visit Website