Imagine your perfect summer barbeque in your backyard. Friends, family, burgers,
hot dogs, corn on the cob, the smell of charcoal filling the air, a game of croquet or
volleyball in the yard, and lots of sunshine are probably some images that come to
mind. Now imagine all that in a barren, lifeless, and empty backyard. Doesn’t seem so
appealing does it? Having a nice backyard space is just as essential as the food, people,
and entertainment that make the summer months so special. Here are ways to prepare
your yard for summer entertaining!

Make sure there is a safe and fun place to keep the kids entertained. Sandboxes
are relatively easy to build and kids can let their imaginations go wild in the sandbox.
You can also have a jungle gym or play set installed if your kids are old enough to take
advantage. If you don’t want to spend a ton on these ideas, you could also just stock
your yard with plenty of yard games like frisbee, horseshoes, capture the flag, soccer, or
softball.

Decorate your yard by adding as much color as you can. Lush and full garden beds
not only create aesthetically pleasing visual elements, they’ll attract more life into your
backyard. From butterflies, to birds, to friends who enjoy relaxing amongst color and
flowers, you’ll have plenty of guests in the summer months. Perennials are the flowers
that will grow back each year and require less maintenance. These need to be planted
[Read more…]

As your family grows and expands, you may start feeling a little strapped for storage
space in your house. Don’t run out and buy a bigger house just yet, though. Instead, use
your space more effectively. With the tips listed below, you’ll find there’s plenty of room
to store your stuff without sacrificing living space.

Start by organizing. If you store things in every single nook and cranny available,
clean them out and decide what you actually need to keep. Then do the same to your
storage rooms. The better organized your storage rooms are, the more space you’ll have
for storage. Disorganization takes up a lot more room than you might think. The same
applies to your garage. If you just throw everything you don’t want to deal with right now
out there, that stuff will start taking over. Go crazy with plastic storage bins and a label
maker to keep yourself organized. If you have shelves and predetermined areas for
everything, your house will stay clutter-free.

One option if you just don’t have enough room in the house for everything is to buy
a small shed or storage unit that you can put in your backyard. It would be a great place
to store that stuff you don’t need very often, like holiday decorations and keepsakes.
They come in wood and metal composites and in every size you could need. Sheds
are relatively inexpensive and there are ones that would fit most budgets with prices
anywhere from about $500 to $1,500. This would be a quick and easy way to provide
more storage with little effort.

Don’t [Read more…]

<align=”top”>So maybe you don’t live in an actual palace- that doesn’t mean your home can’t be inspired by one!
After all, “A home is a man’s castle,” so why not give your home the royal treatment?

<align=”right”>We may not all have the landscape to command
the grandeur of the fountains in the gardens of the French palace known for opulence, Versailles, but choosing an
exterior fountain is all about proportion, perspective, and design.

Proportion involves choosing a fountain that is relative in size to the size of your home. It sounds complicated
and mathematically involved but it’s really quite simple: a three-tier fountain is too large for a single-story home,
and a single-tier fountain is probably too small for a three-story home. You want to fountain to be noticeable,
[Read more…]

The following is a guest post from Patric Seeley.

If you’ve ever gone bed shopping with a Brit, you might have noticed a lot of going back and forth about
a certain manufacturer or a certain model. Among all online shoppers, Brits tend to be more scrutinizing
of product descriptions and specifications than others. This is why most online bed and mattress
retailers who cater to UK buyers do take the time to make their website as detailed as informative as
they possible.

But what exactly motivates the English to be rather picky about their beds? A research commissioned by
the National Sleep Council a few years ago had some rather revealing answers, while we provided the
humor and conjecture.

Compared to the rest of the world, the British are less likely to take sleeping pills. About 7%
of British people pop sleep aids while about 18% of people from other countries resort to
pharmaceuticals if they are having trouble with sleep. This means that for the most part, the
British will have less tolerance for an uncomfortable bed or mattress because they need to be
comfy in order to get in the right mood for sleeping.

The British are also more likely to go to bed without anything on. As you could probably
imagine, scratchy bed linens and bare skin don’t mix well together. It can be expected that
people who sleep in the buff would find beddings with high thread counts to be a worthy
investment, especially during the summer, when an estimated 51% of adults wear their birthday
suits and nothing else.

About 39% of adults perceive “relations” to be an effective sleeping aid. (Incidentally, this may also
explain the relatively lower reliance on sleeping pills.) And for people who have err.. more
trouble sleeping than most, sturdy bed frames and supportive mattresses do earn their [Read more…]