I have been singing “Let it Go” since 2013. My kids sang it, watched it, we bought the toys. Now my 3 year old niece is equally obsessed. So needless to say, we were super excited to see the new Frozen 2 trailer released today!
Anyone ELSA as excited as I am? =)
Frozen 2 will be released in theaters across the U.S. on November 22, 2019!
Check it out:
As well as hampering day to day life, clutter can be bad for your health, increasing levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. One solution to an untidy home is to embrace the latest home organization trends that involve brutal and regular decluttering of belongings. However, there are always going to be items that need to be kept, especially in a family with ever-evolving needs, lifestyles and hobbies. Whatever the size of your home, it’ll run much more smoothly if you can find space to store small treasures for safekeeping or keep larger items ready at hand but without cluttering up your home.
Storing Large Items
If you have a backyard, then storage sheds can provide extra space for larger, important items that, although not needed every day, still need to be readily accessible. It can be tempting to cram any new overflow space with stuff from your house, but try to be organized and make good use of every inch. By suspending bicycles from the ceiling or hanging gardening tools on the walls you can free up floor space, making it easier to move around and find what you need.
A Place For Everything
A recent study has revealed that Americans spend two and a half days every year looking for lost items. One of the most common and frustrating items to misplace is a set of house or car keys, and often they get ‘lost’ because we don’t have a regular place to store them. Simply fixing some small hooks in your hallway and practising the habit of hanging up your keys as soon as you come in the house could save you a lot of time, money and anxiety in the future.
Filing Paperwork
With a family, kitchen surfaces and dining tables can very quickly get covered in piles of school reports, invitations and unsolicited mail. A simple filing system in your hall means that you can deal with paperwork as soon as it comes through the door. Sort it into piles using an in tray, and immediately recycle anything you no longer need. This will avoid paperwork building up and ensure that you keep important receipts and bills safe, never miss out on a party, and stay up to date on your kids’ progress.
Taking a few small steps to organizing your home, can make everyday life much easier and less stressful. As you create good habits, set up new storage space and find a regular place for every important item, your home will soon be running smoothly, and the idea tidying up will be much less daunting.
When deciding to build a home you will be faced with a number of difficult decisions. One of these will be whether to build the property from brick or whether to opt for the more traditional wood frame house; which is clad in your choice of siding.
Before you make your final decision, it is a good idea to talk to a reputable professional such as Peter Bracey; this will allow you to visualize the final look of your property if you choose the cladding route.
The Benefits Of A Brick Home
You may be interested to know that 34% of people surveyed preferred brick as their exterior choice.
Brick is generally very low maintenance. It doesn’t usually lose color over time or degrade, in fact, brick houses can last for centuries. There is no need to worry about it rotting and, perhaps most importantly in Australia, termites will not be able to eat the supporting shell of your home.
Despite being one of the oldest used building materials, brick remains one of the most environmentally friendly. There is an abundance of clay and shale, which are used to make brick. Of course, some energy is used and there is an environmental impact connected to creating the building brick shape.
It is also good to know that brick is fire resistant and is surprisingly good at withstanding the impact of flying debris, an important consideration in some parts of the country.
In fact, the safety aspects associated with brick means that many insurance companies will actually lower your insurance premiums; that’s an ongoing saving.
Of course, building with brick is more expensive than the traditional timber frame with cladding.
The Benefits Of Siding
If you choose vinyl siding then there is no maintenance, except for the occasional pressure wash. Of course, applying cladding to a wooden framed house is a much cheaper option than building with brick. However, there will be ongoing maintenance issues with the wooden frame that you won’t have with a brick house.
It will be important to have access under your home to check the structural integrity of the building.
But, despite the extra maintenance that will be needed, it is worth noting that cladding allows you to create a unique home, in virtually any style and color.
The options with cladding are virtually unlimited; you can even change the look every ten or twenty years just for the fun of it. It is also possible to build and clad a house sustainably, by using recycled wood and composite cladding. This is an important consideration in an environmentally conscious world.
Is Brick better?
This is a difficult question to answer as the final decision will be personal. If you want low maintenance and live in an area prone to storms then brick could be the best option.
However, if cost is more of an issue and the weather less, a timber frame with cladding is a viable and attractive solution.
The decision will rest on your budget and where you are intending to build
I used to be a bit wasteful. If bananas were overly ripe, and turning brown I’d chuck them in the trash and not give it another thought. Last year I decided to try my hand at some banana bread with those mushy brown bananas, and I have been working on trying tons of different recipes, and combining them to get what I really want – a great taste, and not too dense of a bread. So with all my experimentation I give you: the best banana recipe ever!
The trick to a really good banana bread is a really brown banana – like where the skin is already turning almost black, and if it was too warm in the summer the fruit flies would be all over it. The more overly-ripe the banana, in my experience, the better the bread.
To get the best banana bread ever, you will need these simple ingredients, you probably already have in your refrigerator and pantry:
2 medium, very ripe bananas (mushed)
1/2 cup of butter (melted)
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
*if you are in the mood you can definitely add cinnamon, or walnuts, etc.
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 F, and grease the 9×5 inch loaf pan
In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla and bananas and sour cream, and mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt into the wet mix, and stir until smooth. Then spread into baking pan evenly.
Bake at 350 F for approx 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let loaf cool in the pan for a few minutes, then you can remove and let sit on wire rack until cooled completely.
Serve alone or with butter. Enjoy!
These days it can be tough to make ends meet. While we all do our best to be frugal, 40% of Americans can’t cover a $400 emergency expense. But if you own your own home, you may be sitting on untapped potential income.
Rent Out Room
Fewer homes are being built, relative to the US population, than at nearly any time in history largely due to the real estate market crash of the last decade. This has led to a lack of available housing in many US communities. If you have extra room in your home to create a rental suite, this could be a fantastic and reliable source of side income for your family.
If you live in an area that has a decent tourist population, or live close to a college or university, you might also have luck renting out extra rooms, or even your whole house on occasion, to visitors through sites like AirBnB. While possibly not as consistent as having a full time tenant, the per-night rate can be much higher and you’ll have more flexibility for how often you want to share your space.
Even if you don’t have space for anyone to reside in your house, you might consider leasing space on your property for off-season storage of large vehicles like RVs, boats, snowmobiles, or motorcycles. Depending on where you live, you may even be able to take advantage of opportunities to sell parking space during special events where overflow parking lots are in demand.
Leverage Your Equity
If you have owned your home for awhile and have accrued equity by paying down, or paying off, your mortgage, your house can be used as leverage for getting certain types of loans. A home equity loan is often a better option than higher interest credit cards or personal loans. Because your home is such a valuable asset, banks are willing to lend money at a much lower rate if you can offer your home as collateral.
Another option, available to those aged 62 and over, is working with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to obtain a reverse mortgage which allows you to access cash from the value of your home while still living in your home, rather than waiting until some distant date in the future when you sell the property. While reverse mortgages are insured by the government, the loan itself has to be obtained by a private company. That means if you live in Ohio, for example, you’ll want to find a local equity release originator who works with HUD.
Live Off the Land
If you’ve never tried vegetable gardening, you might find that it’s not only a relaxing and rewarding hobby, it’s a great way to save money on groceries. After a small initial investment in establishing your garden beds and purchasing seeds and other equipment, the benefits go up and up each year as seeds can be harvested and saved and used the next year while food scraps can be returned to the soil as nutrient rich compost.
But why stop at vegetables? If your community allows the keeping of animals, you might try raising chickens for fresh eggs and poultry. A prolific pair of rabbits takes up little space and can provide as much meat to a family as a single cow!
Or if you simply don’t have the itch to farm, but you would like to put your yard to use as arable land, open your front yard up to community gardening and share in the bounty of the harvest while meeting neighbors and enjoying having less lawn to manage. Just be sure to check that front yard vegetable gardening is allowed in your community first.
From starting a home business to upgrading your utilities to more efficient systems, there’s many more ways to tap into the money-making potential in your home. All it takes is a little creativity and patience to make the most of your property’s value.
