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A Tiny Corner Became the Cutest Kitchen With 4 Smart Strategies

Categories: Home Decor, Inside Home Ideas

1 Color

“A gardeny palette helped enlarge this sliver of a kitchen, so it seems as wide open as the outdoors,” Lewis says. Along with the sky-blue cabinets and island and cloud-white walls, there’s also a Silestone counter in Olivia. “It’s a deep forest green that performs like a neutral — it can go with anything.”

COURTESY OF KOHLER

2 Sink

Even though square footage was at a premium, Lewis installed a cast-iron Kohler farmhouse sink. “There’s no dishwasher, and the sink can handle lots of big pots and pans. The ridges also echo the wall paneling’s planks,” Lewis says. A sleek matte-black Kohler faucet with pullout sprayer adds a fresh, modern note.

COURTESY OF KOHLER

3Hardware

Modeled on a potting bench, the copper-pipe shelving has hooks for hanging mugs and cookware, which keeps the counter free of clutter. Lewis chose copper-finished brass hardware from Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co. to match the pipes.

4Shelves

With zero wall space for upper cabinets, window-spanning shelves offer storage without blocking the view. “The sunlight reflecting off the glassware is gorgeous,” Lewis says.

See something here you like? Check out our shopping guide for where to find it.

This story originally appeared in the September 2016 issue ofHouse Beautiful.

COURTESY OF KOHLER
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Guide to Grass Cutting Heights

Categories: Curb Appeal, Lawn Care

All types of grasses benefit from high quality soil. Use an organic lawn fertilizer to improve the quality of your soil long term.

You can use this page as a guide for choosing a cutting height for your grass. If you click on the grass name, it leads to a detailed page about that type of grass.

Kentucky Bluegrass: mow at 1 1/2″ to 2 1/2″

Rye grass: mow at 1 1/2″ to 2 1/2″

Fescue: mow at 1 1/2″ to 2 1/2″

Tall Fescue: mow at 1 1/2″ to 3″

Bermuda: mow at 1/2″ to 1″

St. Augustine: mow at 1″ to 3″

Bentgrass: mow at 1/4″ to 3/4″

Centipede grass: mow at 1″ to 2″

Zoysia: mow at 1/2″ to 1″

Buffalo grass: mow at 2 to 3 inches, or leave it completely unmowed

The Better Lawn and Turf Institute also offers a guide to cutting height.

Need a mower? Visit Clean Air Gardening for environmentally friendly lawn and garden tools and supplies.

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Simple Tricks May Fix Your Appliances

Categories: Appliances Care, Maintenance

It’s every homeowner’s worst nightmare – you have a pot over the stove and turn the switch to find your burner won’t light. It’s the same idea with your refrigerator. No one wants to swing open the doors for a snack to see that their food is warm and spoiled. While your first reaction may be to panic and assume your machine has conked out for good, don’t lose hope so soon. According to The Family Handyman magazine, more than one-fourth of repair calls are resolved with a flip of a circuit breaker or push of a button.

Before you settle on the idea that your home appliance needs to be professionally repaired or replaced entirely, try these easy fixes to see if they bring your system back to life.

Refrigerator
If your fridge has stopped working efficiently, it may not be broken. Check the coils to see if they’re clogged with dust or pet fur. The Family Handyman explained that service technicians find this is the issue for 50 percent of their service calls. Locate the coils – either behind the grille on the bottom of the appliance or on the back of your fridge – and use a brush or vacuum to clean them. After a few hours, your fridge will turn back on if this was the problem.

gasstove

Gas stove
Are you known for making a mess while cooking? This may be the problem if your gas stove has stopped lighting. Leftover food built up around the igniter can prevent it from working, so it’s important to clean any spills. It’s also essential that the ceramic seal strike plate is placed properly over the burner.

handstove

Electric range
Try turning the burner off and removing it from its socket if your electric stove won’t heat up. Plug it back in to see if it turns your stove back on. If you notice that it feels loose, pull it out again and very carefully bend the prongs outward to make it fit tighter. The loose connection may have been interfering with your system’s ability to function properly.

Dryer
If you open your dryer after each cycle to find wet or damp clothes, this may be because you have a clogged lint filter. Even if you regularly clean it out, dryer sheets can leave an invisible film that causes the thermostat to turn off the heat before the cycle is complete. Remove your filter and clean it with hot water and laundry detergent using a course kitchen brush to see if this is the issue.

While these easy solutions may work on some of your appliances, every once in a while you’ll run into a problem you can’t fix on your own. This is why renewing your HMS home warranty plan is important. With an HMS Home Warranty, a local service provider is one call away and you’ll save big on repair and replacement costs when your home appliances break down due to normal wear and tear.

NOTE: THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS INTENDED TO PROVIDE GUIDANCE ON THE PROPER MAINTENANCE AND CARE OF SYSTEMS AND APPLIANCES IN THE HOME. NOT ALL OF THE TOPICS MENTIONED ARE COVERED BY THE HMS HOME WARRANTY OR MAINTENANCE PLANS. PLEASE REVIEW YOUR HOME WARRANTY CONTRACT CAREFULLY TO UNDERSTAND YOUR COVERAGE.

Brought to you by HMS Home Warranty.  HMS is an industry leader with over 30 years of creating success for clients and providing peace of mind for customers.  To learn more click www.hmsnational.com.

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Bigger and Livable: What 2016 has Shown us so Far for Houses

Categories: Curb Appeal, Inside Home Ideas, Trends in Real Estate

The busiest part of the real estate calendar is winding down. If you want to sell your home soon, but skipped listing your home this summer, you can still leverage lessons from recent months to ensure a higher return when you do put your home on the market.

It’s never too early to reflect on the trends that emerged over the last few months, and consider how you can apply them to your own home. If there’s one constant when it comes to selling homes, it’s that owners love to work up to the last minute to ensure they get a good return. By incorporating popular design elements, sellers can boost that return substantially. The American Institute of Architects sought to determine what some of those trends were in early 2016. Over 500 architecture firms came together in this effort to identify what has been popular this year. Here’s what they concluded:

  1. Open Layouts
    Today’s home buyers desire a floor plan that flows seamlessly from one room to another. Home buyers are looking for open layouts, where the kitchen opens up to the dining area and living room. The kitchen is where many buyers not only want to cook but also entertain. An open concept floor plan is also very popular home feature with families with young children as it allows the parents the ability to watch their children even if they are not in the same room or area of the home.
  2. Practical, livable outdoor spaces
    Gone are the days of aesthetically pleasing landscaping without practical purpose. Buyers are looking for outdoor spaces that they can use in ways similar to indoor rooms. Of the respondents to the AIA survey, 69 percent said they’d seen increased outdoor living space activity and 61 percent noted blended outdoor and indoor areas were growing more popular. Be sure to consider livability and practical uses when landscaping your property.
  3. Houses are getting bigger
    By a number of metrics, homes are growing larger, architects noted. Houses grew in terms of lot size, volume and square footage in early 2016. One reason for the rising demand in bigger homes is a trend toward multi-generational housing. With many baby boomers retiring, and millennials moving back in with their parents after college, it’s growing more common to see one or two generations of a family under a single roof.

Big, spacious and practical – those are the adjectives that describe the sort of homes most buyers are looking for in 2016. These are qualities that sellers and their agents should be sure to emphasize, both in their listings and through home staging. By appealing to buyers searching for these features, sellers can maximize the amount they ultimately receive for their homes. If the descriptions above sound like your home, you’re well-positioned to sell quickly at a great price.

Brought to you by HMS Home Warranty.  HMS is an industry leader with over 30 years of creating success for clients and providing peace of mind for customers.  To learn more click www.hmsnational.com

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