Beautiful Home

I have one of the smallest back yards in my neighborhood, but I always get rave reviews from neighbors and visitors to my home because I am very big into back yard landscaping, and you don’t have to put a whole lot of money into it to make your yard into something beautiful.

The lot that my home is on is about a half an acre, but it was divided into two by the previous owner for a garage apartment in the back. He decided to put a privacy fence halfway between my house and the garage apartment, so my back yard is essentially a quarter of the size of most of my neighbors’ yards.

This has been a drawback in some ways. I cannot have a dog, and there is not a whole lot of room for my children to play, but it has also been a blessing in that back yard landscaping is made a whole lot easier because there isn’t as much area to cover.

I started by planting a garden between my fence and sidewalk, which was about a one-foot tract of dirt. I planted flowers in that area, and now it is probably the most colorful area of the entire yard and it makes the yard smell great.

I then made a walkway of pea gravel that curves in a semicircle the length of the back yard and out to the fence that leads to the front yard, through that gate, and out to the front yard where it stops at my driveway. This makes my wife happy, because I don’t track mud into the house when I take the trash out.

The next step for me was one of the very basic elements of back yard landscaping, which was to plant grass. The yard had virtually none when we first moved into the house. Now, the entire back yard is covered with thick Bermuda grass.

I planted some banana trees in one corner and started a little vegetable garden along the opposite fence of the flower garden that I planted, and bought some second hand lawn furniture, including a bench and two tables with umbrellas. I made the only expensive purchase when I bought to fountains for the yard.

If you exclude the fountains, the rest of the back yard landscaping probably cost less than $200, and it looks 10 times better than when I first moved in. It not only looks better, but it is also therapeutic to work hard at something like that and see the end result, especially when your back yard suddenly becomes the envy of all of your neighbors.

Back yard landscaping is something that can be done with any size yard, and I defy anyone to put some kind of effort into it and not feel a certain sense of satisfaction at the end result.

Ever walk into your bathroom and scrunch up your nose, wondering where in the world that musty smell is coming from? Well, if you have, you are certainly not alone. No matter how new or old your house happens to be, that musty smell is a lot more common than what most people would like for it to be. What’s the typical cause of that mustiness? Most likely, it comes from having black mold. And let’s face it – you can light as many candles and use as many air fresheners as you want, but if you can’t eliminate the leading source of the musty smell, your black mold will continue to create chaos. Unfortunately, black mold is one of the most common battles that even the cleanest of homeowner’s has to deal with regularly. There are lots of ways to combat black mold and ensure that it doesn’t continue to win any wars.

For a lot of people, cleaning the bathroom is a dreaded chore. You may get those self-cleaning sprays that you can spray onto your shower walls after taking a shower, and while they work well, you will still have to do some cleaning on your own in order to get rid of the mold. The main reason the black mold, especially in bathrooms, is so successful in its existence is because it is typically the one room of the house in which the ventilation and moisture is at its worst. A lot of moisture will provide a perfect breeding ground for black mold. In fact, sometimes it will seem like it just appears overnight. One of the best ways to cut down on black mold is to increase ventilation. If your bathroom doesn’t have an overhead vent to take the heat and moisture out of the air, it is something that you should consider installing. If you allow for all of that moisture and humid air to simply linger in your bathroom, it is just encouraging the mold to reproduce on its own free will.
 
One of the very best and most powerful methods of cleaning your bathroom is to use bleach. Regular cleaners typically work fine and there’s nothing wrong with them. However, bleach is incredibly strong and will kill your black mold on contact. Of course, if you are going to use bleach, take all of the necessary precautions before doing so. If you can’t seem to get into some crevices with the bleach, find some creative ways of doing so. Some families will keep old toothbrushes on hand just for cleaning purposes. One of the most common places for black mold to flourish is underneath any cracks and crevices in your caulking. If the caulking around or inside your shower or tub is a bit cracked, you can guarantee that mold is trying to makes its presence known. Stripping the caulking and reapplying it may be necessary. Once you have the caulk stripped, clean underneath of where it was with bleach.
 
If you truly want to get rid of black mold, be aggressive. Make some changes and keep the changes in place. You may end up saving some money on those air fresheners and candles and find that a clean bathroom that smells like bleach is pretty rewarding.