At Home With Valerie

The versatility of a storm door to transform your home and your comfort level, between the warm and cold months throughout the year, earns it a spot on most homeowners’ project lists. Each season brings out something new from a storm door, and yet many consumers struggle with the benefits of and tips for buying a storm door.  Advantages: * A Warm Welcome. Setting the tone of your home with the entryway is essential. Storm doors create a better first impression for guests and make your home feel warm and inviting. With the entry door open, natural light can create a bright and welcoming space for you and your guests. * Better Air Circulation. This is one of the transformative features of a storm door. In the warmer months, it can become a screen door. Many storm doors feature either full- or half-glass panels that can be switched out with a screen at any time. Some doors, such as the Rolscreen Storm Door from Pella, feature hidden screens th...

You know it’s cold outside when Florida gets snow. Which is exactly how 2018 began, thanks to a “bomb cyclone” that slammed the East Coast with heavy snow and temperature. Meanwhile, Embarrass, Minnesota won the unofficial title of “The Last Place in the Freezing Midwest You’d Want to Go Skinny Dipping” by hitting a low of 45 degrees below zero on New Year’s Eve. While you’re imagining the rising heating bills in winter (and with winter not yet over), the following tips might help you lower your own energy costs. • Easiest money-saver ever. “Aside from the furnace, a laser printer uses the most standby power in the house at $131.07 watts,” SaveOnEnergy.com reports. And yet, even though that translates into about $131 a year, a new survey found that only 14 percent of respondents unplugged their printers when not using them. • Pellet stoves aren’t just for environmentalists. This OldHouse.com likens them to the family pet because “they require ...

  Some Highlights: Housing inventory is still under the 6-month supply that is needed for a normal housing market. Buyers are often competing with one another for the listings that are available. Perhaps the time has come for you and your family to move on and start living the life you desire.

When Danielle and Jimmy returned to their home state after three years in Germany, they spent the next six months looking for their first home. "Location was so important to us. We got used to walking everywhere while we were in Germany. Grocery stores, restaurants, beer gardens and pubs were all within walking distance of our apartment. We wanted to find a neighborhood like that," explains Danielle, an employee relations attorney. They found the perfect neighborhood: Bay View, Wisconsin. They also found a house in a perfect location, right across from a park, with a lovely view of Lake Michigan. But the house itself wasn’t so perfect: it needed about $20,000 worth of renovations. And the sale price was on the high side of their price range. "We looked at other homes in the neighborhood that were cheaper and in better shape. But we kept coming back to this one. It was in the perfect spot. And when we found out there is a beer garden in the pa...

As autumn colors set in this season, make sure your all-important home and garden upkeep checklist is ready. Although the lawn is often overlooked during the fall, it’s actually the perfect time to make sure everything is organized before the harsher winter elements take hold. Paul James, host of HGTV’s “Gardening by the Yard,” advises homeowners to start early – approximately six weeks before the first good freeze. Here is a list of some of the tasks and items you should add to your fall checklist this year: • Maintain the landscape. Tidy up the lawn, flowerbeds, bushes, gardens, etc. Remove unsightly foliage, dead stems, piles of leaves and other debris. Fluff your mulch with a rake so water can seep into the subsoil. • Plant fall vegetables. Cool-season vegetable gardens can flourish with the right plants – lettuce, greens, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, potatoes and loads more. Imagine all the hearty stews and delicious soups you could ...

As the warm months of summer come to an end, consider these quick — but important — home maintenance tasks to finish before fall: Check window seals . Examine the edges of your windows to ensure the caulk shows no gaps. You can tell if a window needs new glaze by lightly tapping the window pane. If it rattles in its frame, new glaze needs to be applied, which will save on your heating bill come fall. Swap out summer plants . Transition your yard from the high maintenance flowers of summer to more hardy plants that will survive the first frost. Good plants for cool weather include pansies and garden mums. Also, now is a good time to prepare for spring blossoms, so plant your tulip and daffodil bulbs. Safety check your chimney . If you have a chimney, regular maintenance is a must to ensure safety. Have it professionally cleaned and inspected this year, and don’t forget to gather enough firewood to get the season started! Inspect smoke and car...