Are you tired of living in a home that is all about fitting in with other people and their style ideas? One of the joys of homeownership or amicable long-term rental arrangements is being able to personalize your home. Your home is not just there to be comfortable and convenient; it should be making a statement about who you are. If you want to express your personality through your home, here are some approaches you can try.
Step outside the ordinary
Few of us can afford all the things we might want for our homes, but what we can do is invest in a few striking items. Choosing a signature piece for each room in the house is a great way to make an impression, and you can make smaller adjustments to other items in the room – sometimes just by repositioning them – to complement it. Some people choose to do this by buying works of art or pieces of furniture designed to look unusual, but you can also accomplish this in simpler ways. For example, you can buy a sofa with a bold geometric print and place it in front of a wall that bears a different geometric pattern on the wallpaper.
Light up in style
Light fittings serve a double function in the home. First, the positioning of lamps and spotlights that can be pointed in select directions does a lot to direct attention within a room and can make some areas or pieces of furniture stand out more than others. Moreover, the lights themselves can make a statement. This could mean choosing an elegant and unusual desk lamp, hanging up colored lanterns, setting the mood with a tall, floor-standing lava lamp, or going for the luxury look with an antique chandelier. You can do all of this on a much lower budget than you might expect.
Switch to shutters
Windows naturally attract the eye in any room, so it is worth making the most of them. If you feel that you’ve exhausted the possibilities of curtains, why not go for a more dramatic look with full length window shutters? They let in a lot more light, making the whole room look better, and you can paint them to suit your tastes. Make them part of a dramatic color scheme, paint a pattern on them or paint murals on them. They can bring a real sense of style to even the most ordinary of rooms.
Bring the garden indoors
Most people like to have a few potted plants around the house, but have you thought about taking it further? Some kinds of indoor trees are easier to care for than you might imagine, and they can make your hallway or living room look magnificent. Another fantastic way to use plants indoors is to run vines along a wall so that they form a backdrop like wallpaper. They will require a net or mesh scaffold and careful training, but they are fairly easy to maintain.
Make more of the floor
One part of the home that often gets underused by designers is the floor. Polished wood or a good-quality carpet can look beautiful, but these floors do not convey much personality. Rugs can say a lot, however, whether you go for quirky, modern styles or luxurious antiques. You can frame a room around them or make an impression by using a sumptuous rug instead of a bathmat, immediately adding character to your bathroom. Linoleum or painted wood are also interesting options. The most modest of kitchens can look quite stunning with a bright red floor.
Accessorize!
Sometimes it is not a single design feature that makes a room look amazing; instead, it might be a combination of little things. You might choose ornaments and textiles featuring the same animal, for example, or display a collection of items based on a strong color scheme. Small mirrors and carefully placed glass objects can do amazing things with light. If you visit art galleries, you can often get great deals on striking paintings or sculptures by new artists, and these can really stand out in your home.
Decorating your home requires confidence and practice. It is easiest to begin by introducing a single new feature in each room, then take your time to determine what will work alongside it. Your home will evolve as you spend time in it, and although it may take months or even years to feel complete, it won’t take long at all to feel unique.
The complex chemical reactions that define our world and this reality can either be constructive or destructive. That’s also true for your house’s roof.
Oxidation and erosion are some of the worst enemies your roof can have. Whether it’s galvanized iron, metal compounds, or plastic, oxidation and erosion are always present.
It’s the inevitable law: entropy. Everything in the universe goes from an orderly state to a more disorderly state in due time. Think of an apple getting rotten over time due to oxidation and internal chemical changes.
So, how do you keep your roof protected from oxidation and erosion?
Keep it Dry
Remember that water is the universal solvent. It means that it reacts highly with anything. It may not react immediately but it corrodes any surface it touches due to its chemical properties.So what keeps anything from corroding is keeping water away from it. Roof coatings that prevent water from contacting your roof keep it free from corrosion.
Oxygen-free
If your roof comes in contact with oxygen, it reacts with almost everything. Water and oxygen work best together as water is an oxidation catalyst. Even though it doesn’t violently and immediately react, your roof is surely oxidized especially on extreme weather conditions such as heavy rainfall. So coating it is your best chance to keep it away from oxygen.
Heat Resistant
Your roof, if you may not believe it, contains enough moisture to retain its form – be it metal or plastic. If it dries out, it can become brittle and can easily be dislodged from your whole deck. This is true, especially on mineral-based roofs. This kind of roof should maintain a certain amount of moisture to retain its properties and protect your house from rain and heat all the same.
Dirt and Stain Free
Foreign particles can fall into the crevices and cracks (most especially on mineral roofs) and can alter the elasticity of your roof. Elasticity is essential especially in countries where it rains and shines unpredictably. The internal stress due to temperature can lead to the cracking and tear. This can let water, dirt and other foreign articles seep through thus decreasing the ability of your roof to allow itself to expand or compress when the need arises.
Also, microbes that specialize in living in these type of materials can deteriorate the health of your roof even more significantly. Coating it with specially formulated roof coats, where it can prevent dirt and stain from seeping through, can prevent all these.
Conclusion
There are many ways to take care of your roof and determining the best type of coating can make or break it – literally. Coating of high-end concoction will ensure your roof remains and retains it health – withstanding the extremes of chemical reactions. Your roof is an essential component of your home. Without a sturdy and healthy roof, your home wouldn’t be a home at all. Taking good care of it means taking good care of your family.
Floods cause massive damage, and there is a lot of confusion surrounding the things that are allowed and not allowed during the restoration expenses of damages caused by floods. For this reason, FEMA made a memo which lists all of the major pointers that all restorers should be aware of before making use of a standard flood insurance policy (SFIP) to claim flood loss potential.
The major points that a restorer should be aware of are listed below. Knowing them provides credibility and establishes trust and reliability. You should know what benefits you can gain from a flood insurance policy.
- SFIP does not include extraction of water from a wet carpet. If the estimate lists you have made include water extraction, it will be removed from the coverage. A general assumption is that the extraction cost is listed in the removal cost of the wet carpet; therefore, restorers must take extra care when listing items.
- Restorers should provide a complete log of daily dryings along with the invoice. This should include the readings of non-affected and affected areas, material readings, equipment outputs, and documentations of the drying procedure. In a case where the drying logs seem to be incomplete or vague, flood adjusters will only pay reasonable costs through calculations provided by FEMA.
- Since damage by water is considered as a category three, SFIP does not pay for the claims related to those dry building components that are removed. For example, the removal of drywall and carpet that has been affected by flood water. All the wet materials should be removed before drying equipment is installed otherwise equipment charges will not be approved.
- SFIP does not permit ozone machines or air scrubbers.
- The charges for content manipulations are only allowed in the case where the owner possesses contents coverage.
- SFIP does not permit the cleaning costs of equipment.
- SFIP does not authorize the charges of equipment for personal protection and air filtering, generators, and air movers. Such costs are included in the removal charges.
- If the claim lists the drying of an item that is salvageable, the money to apply a preservative or a sealer on the item is not permitted unless the owner has documents that prove that a preservative or sealer had been applied before the damage.
- If the electrical system of a building isn’t operable, then charges to rent a generator to power equipment for drying are not permitted.
- Make sure that you fully understand that SFIP only includes costs of such contents and structures that are damaged directly by floods. It does not include any secondary damage unless access to the affected property has been restricted for an extended period.
- In such a case where the services or the charges are deemed excessive, then the invoice is sent to an auditing company. This third party, after reviewing the claim determines the fair costs to cover damages. For this reason, it is vital that restorers adopt appropriate techniques, and that they adjust the price keeping the rules in mind.
Knowing these important rules helps a restorer not face complications during a claim, and makes them come across as competent.