ReeHart – Blogging from the Heart

Posts Tagged ‘improvement’

Congratulations. As a home owner you have the great benefit of increasing house prices that will eventually put money in your pocket. Prices can increase and decrease but in the long run they will eventually increase in value.

But instead of just waiting for prices to rise to your favor you can also help them by adding an extra bathroom to your home. Especially if you currently have only one bathroom than an additional one will help you increase the value greatly.

Something as simple as a basement bathroom will not only be easy to add but you’ll also be able to do it fairly cheaply by following these simple tips and guidelines.

Tip #1: Do not go for something that you like personally or at least not if your taste differs from the common understanding of what taste is. Go for broad and conservative taste as it will increase the likelihood of future buyers wanting to buy the house.

Tip #2: Don’t buy anything at the normal price. If you have the time to wait for the god deals you’ll be able to save thousands of dollars in total. You can find wholesale dealers or maybe even closing sales that will let you have things at less than half price.

Tip #3: Do not buy designer furniture or fancy named tiles. Most people don’t know the difference between highly priced materials and fairly prices common elements. Since most of the expensive stuff will not be worth the money in terms of increase in property value the only one you’ll please is yourself and isn’t it better to get an increase in property value that didn’t cost you twice the amount?

Tip #4: If you possible can then do as much of the work on this bathroom yourself. Hiring people to do everything will cost you at least 4 times as much as if you do it yourself. This means that you can most likely fail 3 times and do everything all over and if the fourth time is perfect you would still have saved money compared to hiring help.

Each of these four tips can be followed on it’s own but if you combine them you will get the greatest benefit from it. You will probably be able to see home value increase by at least 5 times the price of the materials you have put into it and maybe even more.

It is extremely difficult to be dictatorial about pruning for I had seen large numbers of vastly differing methods practised-and most of them with success!

Therefore, with the ordinary outdoor varieties, all one has to do is to make sure that the soil doesn’t lack in moisture and humus, and once again we gladly accept the straw mulching system as advised for blackcurrants and gooseberries. Clean straw, free from such weeds as clocks and thistles, is put down all over the ground where the vines are growing, to the depth of about 8 inches when trodden down.

The object now is to let this cane produce young laterals on which the fruit will be borne. These laterals will be tied to the wires provided and will be pruned in the summer once a month or so to keep them under control. This is usually known as stopping.

Meanwhile a strong growth will be developing froth the base of the vine rod that was cut back hard in January. This should be allowed to grow upright and should be tied to the stake or wires. Any side growths that develop will be pruned back to one leaf, and if any flower trusses are seen, these will be pinched up.

In all cases it is most important to spread the roots out evenly and only to plant them about 4 inches below the surface of the soil. The earth must he trodden in firmly-this is important and it does mean, therefore, that one can only plant when the soil is not too sticky. After the planting, when the soil is raked down level, the bone meal is applied.

Some people allow two canes to develop each year: they cut one back hard and they train the other one round. This does ensure a stronger growth and the original bearing rod can then be cut right the way back, so as to prevent it growing again.