How to Dress Your Child For Indoor Ice Skating

February 21, 2023December 6, 2022 - by Sergio Torian

Most indoor ice skating rinks maintain a temperature between 45 and 60 degrees, depending on the temperature outside. When you are dressing your child for ice skating lessons or free skating at the ice rink, your first challenge will be warmth.

Skaters will be exercising strenuously, so it is important to dress your child in thin layers that can be removed easily as their bodies warm up. Avoid dressing your child in a bulky winter coat, as heavy coats make it difficult to move freely. A warm turtleneck under a warm, close-fitting sweater will keep your child warmer than a winter coat, and will permit free movement.

Many girls want to wear a skating dress. If you plan to have your daughter take lessons, then a simple skating dress and tights may be a good investment. However, if she is simply going to skate recreationally now and then, this might not be an investment you want to make.

Close fitting sweat pants or zipped wind pants are good choices for both boys and girls. Jeans do not have much ability to stretch, they easily absorb moisture, and they are very slow to dry, which makes them a less optimum choice for skating.

One of the most important parts of your skater’s wardrobe should be a comfortable pair of thin, seamless socks. A sock with seams can rub against the foot and cause blisters. Because skate boots are designed to be tight, thick socks can squeeze the foot and reduce circulation, …

Home Store

Open House Tips for Realtors

February 21, 2023December 6, 2022 - by Sergio Torian

1. Advertise! A study conducted by the National Association of Realtors revealed that 92% of buyers use the internet to house hunt. Make sure your open house dates are available through Zillow. With over 130 million visits per month, Zillow is a great place to start.

2. Invite neighbors to a appetizers or a wine and cheese party at your open house. It’s a great way to network and prospect. Socialize and have fun.

3. Everyone who visited your open house is a potential buyer so create an automated nurturing email marketing campaign to stay in touch. Make sure to also follow up within a few days so you can reconnect and help with their home buying search.

4. Be strategic with open house signage. Sandwich boards are great, but also mix it up with signage that is legible from a distance of at least 30 to 50 feet. Place directional signs to advertise in a five block radius ro reach a wider audience. Add helium filled balloons to attract attention.

5. Depersonalize the property. Remove family photos, diplomas, awards and anything else in the home before the open house. By removing personal items, the home doesn’t belong to any particular group of people and visitors can see themselves in the home.

6. Clean and organize closets and other storage spaces. Buyers will open closets, drawers and anything else with a handle. Instead of an avalanche of boxes when they open the storage closet, make sure closets are clean and …

Indoor Garden

Check Out Benefits of Hiring an Exterior House Painter in Tucker

February 20, 2023December 6, 2022 - by Sergio Torian

If you think that your house is looking outdated from outside, then it can happen due to the old and outdated walls. The people who want a makeover of their home at reasonable prices should decide to go for exterior painting. It is a great way to bring a new look to your home and it won’t also cost you much. You should make sure that you always focus on looking for the best painting services from where you can get the best quality of exterior painting done. Here are the reasons due to which you should hire professional exterior house painter for your home:

Best painting suggestions

When you will hire the best exterior painter in Tucker, then you will be able to get the best painting suggestions for your home. The painter can discuss with you before the painting project begins. You can also give some of your ideas to the painter so that he can work on it. The final painting plan will be executed by the painter and that should be decided along with you. You should also remember to discuss the costs and overhead expenses of the painting project. To avoid any difficulties later, you should make sure that you decide the final costs during the discussion with the painter.

Quality results

The best thing about hiring a well-known and trusted painter is that you will be able to get quality results. The painter will make sure that the customer can get 100% satisfaction. There …

Indoor Garden

Vinyl Exterior Shutters Add Style

February 18, 2023December 6, 2022 - by Sergio Torian

Our new home in North Carolina was truly beautiful but for some reason I kept thinking that it was missing something… The home was all stone in the front and I realized it had no shutters. My husband and I decided to go with vinyl exterior shutters in a deep merlot color. That particular color worked really well with the stonework on the house. In the past the only type of shutters that we had ever had were wooden and they were hard to care for. It felt like the paint was always peeling or there was some type of mold or wood rot on them. We knew that vinyl exterior shutters were virtually free from any type of upkeep and they looked great and would last.

The style of vinyl exterior shutters we chose were raised panel because I really liked the way they sort of popped of the house. When you looked at the home the vinyl shutters really stood out and added color and definition to the windows. Vinyl exterior shutters come in many different styles and they can be painted if needed. Most companies that carry vinyl exterior shutters will offer them in around 20 colors but sometimes painting them is necessary because they may need to match an existing color on the home. We were very lucky with the deep merlot color because it matched some of the stone perfectly.

Having the option of using vinyl exterior shutters was not only good for improving the …

Under Construction

New Construction – Building Your New Home

February 17, 2023December 6, 2022 - by Sergio Torian

When you’re building your new home you need to be sure that the construction plan is not only sound but that you’re getting a good deal. Building a new home can easily be turned into a remarkable deal with high investment potential. You want to be sure that the new construction is done well and that if you decide to sell the home, you’ll get the most out of your initial investment as soon as possible.

There are various home construction companies that offer competitive pricing. Check with each individual company and discuss their overall time-table for completing the project. While you definitely want time-lines, but be wary of companies that give you an unrealistic time frame for completing your new home. Ask for references and look at the properties that they have built in the past. It’s important that you find out exactly how long the company has been offering residential construction and then ask to see some of their earliest properties. This gives you a general idea about how well their construction will hold up over time, especially when you compare multiple companies.

Be willing to make compromises on your new home construction if necessary. Sometimes even really great design ideas are not really practical to fit into a realistic construction plan. If the contractor feels that a part of the home’s design is going to cause instability or is likely to become unstable during a storm or under the weight of snow then you have two choices. …

Inchin Bamboo Garden

Japanese Bamboo Fountain – Discover the Cultural Secrets of Japanese Bamboo Fountains

February 16, 2023December 6, 2022 - by Sergio Torian

Japanese culture places special significance on water fountains. There are two main types of Japanese fountains: Tsukubai fountain, Shishi-Odoshi Fountain. Both of these fountains have rich cultural history.

Tsukubai is a Japanese term which translates as “To squat or crouch” in English. Tsukubai fountain is a Japanese fountain usually found outside the Buddhist temples and Japanese tea gardens. Visitors are needed to “squat or crouch” i.e. to bend down, and go through the cleansing ritual before entering the temple. This cleansing ritual is conceptually similar to the ablutions ritual performed in Christian churches. This Tsukubai cleansing ritual involves hand washing and mouth rinsing. This cleansing ritual is performed prior to entering the Buddhist temples for tea ceremonies.

A Tsukubai fountain is usually made out of stone basin, known as chozubachi. The most prominent element of Tsukubai is a bamboo pipe also known as kakei. A small bamboo scoop is placed on top of the basin, ready to use for performing the cleansing ritual. Tsukubai fountains are usually found outside the Japanese tea gardens or in Japanese themed homes.

A stone lantern, also known as ishidoro, is placed near the tsukubai to provide light during the evening tea ceremonies. Arrangement of stones around the Tsukubai is critically important when it is designed. Green floras and bamboo plants make a great compliment to the area surrounding Tsukubai.

Simplistic in design, a tsukubai is beautiful addition to your garden or tea-house to increase it’s Zen-appeal and add cultural history to intrigue your guests …

Month: February 2023