STORM DOORS: ADVANTAGES AND TIPS FOR YOUR HOME

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 that are simply pulled into place when needed.

* Exterior Door Protection. A storm door can help protect your front entry door from rain, ice, and snow. And it can help protect your entry door investment and maintain curb appeal.

* Improved Energy Efficiency. Storm doors can help reduce energy loss by providing a buffer against summer heat and winter cold. With a storm door, the other systems in the home, such as the heater or air conditioner, don’t need to work as hard. Tips 

* Sizes & Configurations. Ensure that you are getting the right size by measuring the opening for the storm door — between the door jambs, not the door itself. Most screen doors come in standard door widths of 30, 32, 34, and 36 inches and may be hinged on either side. But some can be specially designed to open to the right or left. Be attentive of the way the entry door opens.

* Designs. Want to see the whole entry door? Want a retractable screen or a screen that is removed every winter? With updated hardware styles, beautiful glass designs, including Low-E options, retractable screens and assorted colors to choose from, you can keep the architectural aesthetic as well as your functional goals in mind when shopping.

THESE 4 TIPS CAN CUT YOUR HOME ENERGY BILLS IN WINTER

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 a regular feeding schedule” — but Fido won’t heat a 3,000-square-foot ranch house, say, for perhaps less than $120 a month. And with the weather turning colder in most places, curling up with a glass of wine in front of one of these babies in the living room could be as appealing to romantics as their eco-friendly heating is to greenies.

What does a “regular feeding schedule” mean? Depending on the size of the hopper and how often you use the stove, you’ll need to load in pellets — made from concentrated sawdust — every four or five days.

• Make sure your attic is properly ventilated. By not doing so, homeowners might as well just send their utility company a blank check if they lack what GAF’s Jason Joplin, program manager for the Center for Advancement of Roofing Excellence, calls “a continual flow of air to help protect the efficiency of your attic’s insulation.”

The culprit working against achieving that? Excess moisture buildup that clings to your roof’s underside in winter from seemingly benign sources, such as appliances, showers and cooking vapors, before ultimately soaking the insulation when the condensed moisture falls.

Don’t be one of the 86 percent.

Joplin’s suggestion to help ward off the problem? A properly balanced ventilation system consisting of Cobra Ridge Vent (installed at the ridge) and Cobra IntakePro (installed at the eave) by GAF (gaf.com), North America’s largest roofing manufacturer. “Both products work in tandem to allow cool, fresh air to enter at the eave edge while forcing moist, super-heated air out of the ridge vent,” he explains.

• Adjust door thresholds. “Sneaky” is the word Popular Mechanics magazine uses to describe this hint, the theory being that if you can see daylight beneath your front door, it means the indoor air –which you’re paying to heat or cool — is escaping outside.

“A little light in the corners is okay, but don’t raise the threshold so high that it interferes with opening and closing the door,” the magazine notes.

4 REASONS TO SELL THIS FALL

 

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.

HOW TO AFFORD A PRICIER HOUSE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD YOU LOVE

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 park in summer, it was a done deal!" Danielle says.

They successfully closed on the house in January and spent a month painting, installing a new kitchen floor and remodeling the master bath before they moved in.

So how did Danielle and Jimmy manage to buy a more expensive home and have money left over to fix it up? With direction from their loan officer, here’s how they did it: 

1. They were pre-approved before starting the house hunt, so they knew their price range. 2. They used conventional financing with private mortgage insurance, which allowed them to put down 5 percent instead of 20 percent. Their mortgage payment is higher, but still within their monthly budget. 3. The lower down payment made it possible to buy the more expensive home. 4. Putting less money down also allowed them to keep cash for the renovations. 

For more information on how to purchase a home with conventional financing and a low down payment, check out the articles and videos on this website, created especially for first-time home buyers: readynest.com.

HOW TO PREPARE YOUR LAWN AND GARDEN FOR AUTUMN

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 make from scratch.

• Keep muscles relaxed, and stay hydrated. Don’t underestimate the fall sun. Summer may be over, but hours of gardening in the sun can still leave you exhausted, strained and parched. Remember to drink plenty of fluids, take breaks and stretch your muscles. If you suffer from backaches and muscle strains, keep some relief like Absorbine Jr. (www.absorbinejr.com) on hand. The natural menthol in Absorbine Jr. helps relieve muscle and back pain to make it a must-have for yard work. Its herbal ingredients also help provide relief from sunburn and gnat and other insect bites.

• Make room for indoor plants. Your potted or container plants won’t survive the winter outside, so it’s time to make room indoors for tropical plants, herbs and succulents. Potted perennials can be transplanted into a garden after trimming the roots and some top growth.

• Clean garage, shed or outbuildings. Once you organize your storage space, you can neatly put away all of your summer tools or patio furniture. Plus, your newly emptied planters will have a home next to all the other stuff families accumulate.

GET YOUR HOME READY FOR FALL

As the warm months of summer come to an end, consider these quick — but important — home maintenance tasks to finish before fall:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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!
4. Inspect smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Dangerous carbon monoxide leaks can lead to serious harm when a home is sealed up as it is during cold weather. House fires are most likely to occur during the cold months when people use candles, Christmas trees and fireplaces. Make sure your safety detectors are in proper working order before the cold weather arrives, and rest easy.
5. Store outdoor items. Do a clean sweep of your yard, tidying away garden hoses and patio furniture for next year. This gives your curb appeal a boost and also helps you avoid frozen hoses and moldy furniture later in the season.