Get Kamfortable

When planning a home renovation, it can be tempting to jump straight to the fun part of picking out new paint colours, fixtures, and fittings. However, there are a few things you need to think about before you even start.

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Know What Your Plan Is

Before you decide how much to change, you need to know what you want to do with your home in the end. Do you want to raise the value of your home so you can sell it, or do you plan to stay there for a long time? Before you start, think about the condition of your neighbourhood and know which improvements will give you a good return on your money and which will be too much for the area. Having a clear plan for your future will help you figure out how far you want to take your project. For example, if you need demolition and excavation make sure you put it in your plan. 

Have A Budget

One of the most important parts of planning a renovation is to know your budget and stick to it. Don’t forget to include a “just-in-case” fund for any costs that come up that you didn’t plan for, and plan to use it. This could include the cost of eating out during a kitchen renovation or staying in a hotel for a night or two. It’s easy to want a top-of-the-line renovation, but maybe all you need are some cheap upgrades that will make your house look more expensive. Before you ever pick up a hammer, do your research and plan your budget.

Do As Much Research As Possible 

Talk to your friends, family, and neighbours about the work they have done on their homes and the problems they have run into. Homeowners who have been in your shoes can give you a wealth of information that can help you plan, and this information may change your final plan.

Know Where You Stand 

DIY renovations are a great way to save money, feel like you’ve accomplished something, and get the whole family involved, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, they can go horribly wrong. Know which jobs you can do safely and which ones you should leave to the professionals, like a wall that could hold weight, asbestos, or lead paint.

Pack Up

To make a house renovation as easy as possible, get rid of or move anything that is in the way. If you are remodelling your whole house, you might want to rent a locker or storage pod to keep all of your things safe and clean.

Think About Your Routine

If you’re a seasoned do-it-yourselfer, you probably know how to work around the mess of a house remodel. But if you’ve hired a contractor to do any part of the job, make sure they know your daily schedule and work with them to find start and end times that cause your family the least amount of trouble. After all, nobody wants to meet a salesperson while still in their robe.

These tips should help you to get started with any house renovations. Do you have any tips that could help? Please share them in the comments below. 

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If you live somewhere where it tends to get quite cold in winter, you are going to find that keeping the home warm is one of the most important things you need to do at home. Of course, it should actually be fairly easy to achieve this, so long as you know what you are doing, but if you are not sure then it’s something you need to think about. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the things you can do to make your home much warmer in winter as easily as possible.

Repair The Roof

If you have any even slight problems with the roof, then you are going to find that this affects the home’s ability to hold heat in quite considerably. If you are keen to make sure that you are keeping the home as warm as possible, therefore, repairing the roof is a really important thing to consider. You should always allow the professionals to do this, whether that’s Dwight’s Roofing or whoever is the go-to in your area. That way, you will be able to keep your home a lot warmer overall, which is obviously important here.

Service The Boiler

The boiler is obviously another really important factor in all this, and something that you need to make sure you are looking at carefully if you want to ensure your home is much warmer in the winter months. The main thing to do here is to ensure that you get it serviced, which is the kind of thing that is actually very important but most people overlook most years. Hire a professional to do it and make sure that you don’t do it yourself, as that could really make things dangerous. However, having it done will make a huge difference.

Insulate

Of course, insulation is the main way that people tend to make their homes warmer, and this is definitely something that you should think about too if you want your home to be as warm and cozy as possible. With the right insulation in your home, you are going to feel much warmer at all times, while also ensuring that the home is more eco-friendly as well, so it’s a two birds with one stone kind of situation. All in all, this makes for a much more enjoyable winter experience at home.

Rearrange The Furniture

You might be surprised to hear this, but actually rearranging the furniture is a great way to help keep your home warmer in winter too. In particular, you should think about putting the furniture by the radiator, but not too close of course, so that you can effectively ensure that you are going to be warmer physically without having to change anything else at all. That is a very handy low-tech way to make your home considerably warmer in terms of how it feels for you at least, so it’s definitely something to think about if you are keen on making that happen.

It can be a chore to get your family to dry new foods. This is particularly true for kids, but let’s face it, you can run into issues with adults in the household too. People get set in their ways. The problem is that these ways can lead to a constant surge of unhealthy bland dinners. So, how do you ensure that your family is willing to try a few new recipes? Here are some of our key suggestions. 

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Put It With Foods They Already Like

The first thing that you can try is putting the new food with something that you know they already like. Trying new food can sometimes be scary especially for children of a certain age, but when you think about it there are a lot of adults who are hesitant to try new foods also. Don’t forget that it’s not all about the taste, it’s also about the visual of the food, the texture and the smell. But, if you combine the new food with a food that they already enjoy, then it should be easier to convince those fussy eaters in your family to try something new!

Pretend It’s Yours 

One of the reasons why kids tend to avoid trying new things is that it comes from a source that they are unfamiliar with. This is a huge problem because it will limit them to only things that they know about. But there’s a way around this. They’ll probably always trust things that they link to you and that they know you have prepared from your own wonderful ingenious recipes. So, if you want them to try something new, just tell them that it’s a recipe that you’ve had in the back of your mind for years or that has been passed on from family member to family member. This can work for anything such as a turkey breast instant pot recipe. The more you sell it, the more inclined they’ll be to try it. 

A Little At A Time

The final thing that we’re going to recommend is that you just start adding in small amounts of a new food into meals. This is similar to the first point that we made, but if you’re going to be introducing it a little at a time, then you want to start with a really small portion on the plate, or even hiding it among the other food if this is possible.

If you add new foods gradually into meals, then it’s entirely possible that your family won’t even notice, or if they do it will be so small that they won’t care much. Sometimes large quantities of a new food can put people off, even if it’s with a food they already enjoy, which is why this might be your best bet. 

We hope this helps you understand some of the key steps that you can take to ensure that your family is ready to try some of the most exciting new food options that you’re thinking of. In doing so, you can avoid the issue with bland meals and perhaps get a little more excited about meal time once more.