Just when I was wondering which of the dozens of possibilities to mention in this post, there came my Verizon Wireless newsletter with results from a survey about peoples’ 5 favorite things about fall. The results from this survey, to which 9,000 Verizon Wireless customers responded, were: Leaves Changing Color, Cooler Weather, Football, Thanksgiving, and Apples and Pumpkins.

This is a dandy springboard for home and landscape must-dos! Since these are things that are on so many peoples’ happy lists, why not see what they indicate for sprucing up the homestead for the fall season?

Leaves Changing Color

After the glories of all the gold, red, and orange, all those colorful leaves turn brown and fall – many of them landing in gutters. It’s important to make sure your home’s gutters are cleaned out before the rainy season starts. Clean gutters mean proper drainage from your home and garage’s roofs all throughout the wet seasons.

Cooler Weather

Soon the HVAC unit’s rest from the brief hiatus between summer and chilly times will be over. Instead of the air conditioning cycling on, it will be the heat. This is a great time to replace indoor air filters on ceiling air returns, and to run a test-check to make sure the heat cycles on when the automatic temperature gauge indicates it’s time to start heating the house. …continue reading 5 Fall Must-Dos

A few years back, we had a disaster that nearly ruined our yard and patio. We needed a quick fix and had little money available. The problem happened back in July of 2002, during the Biscuit Fires here in Southern Oregon. Most of the homes in the neighborhood, including ours and those of our immediate neighbors, had above-ground pools. During the summer in our rural area, irrigation is the main source of watering, especially where there is or once was farmland. There was an irrigation ditch that ran along the length of the property lines at the back of our chain link fence. That summer, water from the ditches was dumped, right on time, to put out the fires. But that was the beginning of our problem.

The fires all around were so bad for a couple of days, you could see red from the flames. Can you imagine what ash can do to a pool, along with 110 degree temperatures? The pool will become an algae factory. As a result, everyone started dumping their pool water, including the neighbors who owned the 5’x10’ pool behind us. After this, we had irrigation water and pool waters flooding our downsloping yard, flooding to the point that our porch was covered in water. We didn’t know what to do with our pool water, let alone how to get rid of all the water in our yard.

This problem was solved in two stages. First, we pumped out the water from our pool and off the porch into the existing drainage pipe in the yard, while waiting for the water on the ground to drain. This took about two days. The county stopped the irrigation from flowing, so it could be used for the fires. Pumping out the water helped clear things up at that time, but we worried about the same problem happening again, especially if everyone decided to drain their pools at same time. So we decided to install a French drain.

…continue reading French Drain Solution to a Flooded Yard

My father was a talented carpenter and used to make jokes about how he could easily spend all of his pocket money in the hardware store and lumberyard. In their day, he and my mother collaborated on many do-it-yourself projects and remodels.

In the home in which I did most of my growing up, a large suburban brick outside of Chicago, my father did a full basement remodel that still amazes me when I remember it. He divided the huge, cement floored and walled basement into two rooms – the larger side became the entertainment center; the smaller side housed the furnace and became the shop and storage area. This article is about the entertainment center.

…continue reading Inspiration from My Parents’ Home