Cleaning Your Swimming Pool

Tips to Make Cleaning Your Swimming Pool Easier

Healthy HomesGardens

Many people have chosen to install swimming pools in their backyards to add enjoyment and fun to those long, hot summer days. Nearly every child enjoys a dip in the pool and some become water babies, spending every spare moment possible playing and swimming in their pool. It’s a great way to ensure your children get plenty of exercise and forget their electronic devices for a little while.

The downside is that it takes quite a lot of work to keep the pool clean and ensure the water is hygienic enough to swim in.  Here are some tips to make the job easier.

  • Since leaves and debris should be removed daily, this job can be delegated to the children, or an older child who is responsible enough to do it properly. It teaches them that work must be done by everyone if fun is to be had.  Encourage all children to remove a floating leaf while they are swimming or playing in the pool.  If some debris sinks, have diving competitions to see who can get the most debris from the bottom. A prize or two will make it more fun.
  • Save up for an automatic pool cleaner. There are many that are reasonably priced and some clean the sides as well as the bottom of the pool. Use it regularly and sure you take care of your pool cleaner.
  • If yours doesn’t clean the sides, keep a good lookout for algae and attack it immediately. Watch for shady areas where it is most likely to start. Scrubbing the sides every second week should prevent it.
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Security Fencing

4 Tips For Choosing The Best Security Fencing

Healthy HomesProperty Maintenance, Renovating

According to Eline Fencing, most homeowners have some kind of fencing around the perimeter of their homes, but it is not always security fencing. But increasingly these days, you need to know that your family and home are safe from burglary or home invasion.

There are obviously a few ways that you can deal with property security. Some of these are Security Cameras, Alarm Systems, Gate Intercom Systems and Security Fencing. For fencing you will need to install the kind of fence that will keep intruders out.

Not all so-called safety fencing is going to do what it is supposed to. Here are 4 tips to choosing the right kind of fence.

  • Make sure the fence doesn’t provide a hiding place. Fences you can’t see through will provide a place for any burglar to hide so they cannot be seen from the house. This is the kind of fence that burglars like best, since if you don’t know they are there they can work out how to get over the fence and you won’t know anything about it. They may even be able to spy on your house through a crack – or the gate – and find out if anyone is home or not.
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Garden Design

Ways Pots can Enhance Your Garden Design

Healthy HomesGardens

Many people have pot plants they love, but often they don’t make as much of them as they could. For instance, you often see garden pots made of black plastic holding a beautiful shrub or flower and the effect is actually quite ruined by that awful looking pot.  Or even if the pot is nice, it is not placed in a way that gives it the best advantage visually.Garden Pots

Here are some of the many ways in which pots can enhance your garden design.

  • A large pot can be used as a feature in the middle of a small garden or garden section. It can have a very dramatic effect on the landscape by using a pot with a bright colour that forms a contrast to everything else surrounding it.
  • You can have a row of decorative pots –and plants – on a hard surface such as gravel or concrete. This can be seen in some low maintenance gardens as the pots form the major point of visual attractiveness.
  • Pots with small fruit trees also add appeal to the garden or a small courtyard area and they can also bear fruit to enjoy fresh or make jam from. The fruit adds colour in its season, while the pot looks attractive all year round.
  • In combination with another feature. Pots make a great addition to another feature such as a water feature or a gazebo in the garden.
  • They can be used along the swimming pool to add interest to an area that might otherwise look bare. Make sure they all match and are not too close to the edge. Most plants don’t like pool water.
  • Use a garden pot for something different, such as a fish pond. Half barrels or even a deep pot would be suitable for this.
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Selling Your Property

Real Estate Advice for Selling Your Property

Healthy HomesMoving Home

If you are trying to sell your home, the most common property renovation advice would be to create street appeal.  If your home looks attractive from the street, people who want to buy a home will always be interested in looking further. If it looks unattractive on the outside, it won’t matter how pristine the inside is, people won’t want to look at it.

Here are some more tips for selling your home.

  • Most real estate agents would tell you to get all the yard cleaned up, with new flowers and shrubs in the garden.
  • Keep the lawn mowed neatly.
  • Scrub the outside of the walls if they look a bit mouldy or dingy and you can’t afford to paint it. This will give it a fresh look.
  • Paint the outside window frames, the front door and the gate to enhance the look.
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Bare Feet

Healthy Living – with Bare Feet

Healthy HomesHealthy Living

In all the advice about healthy living, you won’t find many people talking about tossing the shoes and going barefoot, yet spending time without having your feet enclosed in shoes and socks is very beneficial in several ways. In fact, running without shoes is very healthy, even more so than walking without them.  Here are 10 reasons to run or walk with bare feet.

  • It’s cooler on a hot day to go without shoes, and it makes you more aware of the environment you are in because you can feel it through your feet.
  • It makes your feet lighter, especially if you go jogging. Shoes add weight to your stride which puts a lot of weight on your muscles and joints, damaging them.
  • When you run in bare feet you naturally land on the front half of your foot. When you run in joggers or even expensive running shoes, your heel comes down first and the action is similar to having your heel hit with a hammer. It causes a lot of damage that even the most expensive shoes can’t stop.
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Limestone Walls

The Many Advantages of Limestone Walls

Healthy HomesRenovating

One thing that most beautiful homes have is some kind of fencing, whether it is a boundary fence, swimming pool fence or retaining walls in the garden, so essential on a sloping or steep block. Rather than having something ordinary, you could have a fence made from limestone blocks that would totally enhance your property and add value to it.

Higher limestone walls would be ideal for both shade and privacy, offering a material that is long lasting, durable and beautiful as well. Lower walls made from the same material would be a great way to put an attractive edging around a garden or along the drive.

There are two types of limestone blocks or bricks.

  1. Natural limestone that is cut from the quarry into the size and shape required.
  2. Reconstituted limestone that is made from crushed limestone with the addition of other materials such as concrete aggregate.

Both have aesthetic properties and are strong and stable for all kinds of use around the home. However, the latter choice is even more eco friendly in that it uses all the waste from broken limestone that would otherwise be unusable. So if a piece of the corner chips off the former block so it can’t be sold, both the chip and the block are crushed to form another kind of limestone block that is made even stronger with the addition of concrete.

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