CA Real Estate Group | Caliber Real Estate Group

👩🏻 Christine Almarines @christine_almarines or @carealestategroup
Realtor DRE# 01412944 | 714-476-4637
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👩🏻 Anaid Bautista @wealthwithanaid
Realtor DRE# 02179675 | 949-391-8266
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Choice Home Warranty | Jan 15, 2016

Valentine’s Day is a great day to show your appreciation for the one you love. Often, it’s through greeting cards, romantic dates, flowers, and gifts. But for some couples, the key to a loved one’s heart just might be in a few framed wedding photos around your home or a new fireplace for a cozy night. And better yet, your Valentine home improvement projects can be enjoyed for years rather than just a few moments or days. Start now on these home improvement projects to show you care for Valentine’s Day.

1. Add a couple rocking chairs to your porch: Whether you have space on your front porch or out back, make your outdoor areas more couple friendly with a pair of chairs you can enjoy together.
2. Update your lighting: Swap out harsh lighting for something softer and more flattering. Install dimmer switches to set the mood, update outdated fixtures with a new, more romantic design, and put in new bulbs with softer light.
3. Install a wine fridge: Love to share wine together? Enjoy an even better experience with a new wine fridge for your kitchen.
4. Hang an outdoor swing: Get ready for the spring and summer seasons with a cozy outdoor swing or hammock that you can enjoy together.
5. Frame your bathroom mirror: Update the look of your bathroom quickly — and remind your loved one of your hard work and caring in completing this projct every morning when they look in the mirror. Reveal your finished project with a love note on the mirror.
6. Organize kitchen cabinets: It hardly sounds romantic, but ask any harried home chef with messy cabinets, and they’ll tell you this gesture would win their hearts over. Invest in organizational tools such as divided storage, hangers, and even drawers for cabinets, and wow your loved one with kitchen storage they’ll enjoy using.
7. Build a piece of furniture: Nothing says love more than spending the time to create a quality handcrafted piece of furniture made with the recipient in mind. Build a bookshelf for a book lover, a jewelry hanger, or even a practical storage solution for your entryway.
8. Hang photos on your walls: Chances are, you have plenty of photos of you and your significant other together. But do you have them framed and hung in a place of honor? Show your loved one that you care and cherish your relationship by taking the time to print, frame, and hang photos of them or the both of you together on your walls at home. Need ideas? Look for photos from your wedding day, honeymoon, favorite vacation, or early days in your relationship to make them (and you) feel nostalgic.
9. Upgrade bath fixtures: Turn your master bathroom into a more romantic haven with updated fixtures. Add a new fixture for faucets and put in new fixtures in your shower and tub for a new, more inviting look. Then plan a big reveal with a bubble bath.
10. Plant a flower garden: Cut flowers are a nice gesture, but in the right climate, a garden of flowers that will last for weeks or months is a more enduring reminder of your love. Or, plant rose bushes for something more permanent. Plus, you can select flowers from your garden or rose bush for a home made bouquet.
11. Buy new bedding: Refresh your bedroom and make your bed more enticing with fresh, new sheets. Take it a step further with a new bedspread or even a new headboard.
12. Put in a fireplace: Nothing says cozy and romantic like a fireplace at home. But even if your home doesn’t already have one, it is possible to get one installed. Freestanding units can be purchased and enjoyed within moments, and local installers can add one to your home as well. Rather take it outside? An outdoor fire pit is romantic, too.
13. Carve out a ladies’ retreat or man cave: Have a space in your home that you’re not really using? Clear out the junk and make it a place for your loved one to enjoy instead. Add furniture and touches that you know they’ll enjoy, such as wall paint in their favorite color, or the perfect storage solution for their favorite collection.
14. Just fix it: Practically every couple has a project or two on their honey do list that gets overlooked. Think about the project that your loved one has been wanting to see done and make it happen.

 

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Oaklane Home Staging | Jul 12, 2021

How To Get Rid of Cold Winter Drafts

RuralMom.com | Jan 7, 2019

Doors and windows are two of the biggest energy wasting areas of the house. In the summer, they may allow cool air to escape, and in the winter, they allow heat to do the same. They also allow cold winter drafts to permeate the interior of the house, making rooms cold and uncomfortable.

Normally, you can tell if your door is the source of a cold draft by simply running your hand around the perimeter of the frame, and along the bottom. Older doors that emit winter drafts may have shifted over time. This causes gaps along the openings and insulation loss. Sometimes, doors are simply not installed tightly in the first place. There are plenty of companies out there that also offers replacement doors. Kelly Window & Door is a replacement window and door installation company that can help in these circumstances to make sure the heat stays out but can also look at the windows to see if there are small cracks or gaps letting air and heat out.

If it is not possible to replace the door with one that is more energy efficient, that fits tightly into the frame, there are other ways to eliminate some of the problem.

Weather Stripping

Felt or rubber weather stripping is available everywhere, from home improvement stores to discount chains. This insulating material, that has one sticky side and one softer, pliable side, is available in various lengths and widths to fit any frame. It is also easy to cut to length.

Attach stripping to the frame, so that when the door closes, the gaps that allowed the cold air in seal. The thickness of this insulation depends chiefly on the amount of space you have to work with. Using an insulation that is too thin will not produce the desired results.  Insulation that is too thick will not allow the door to close properly.

Door Sweep

A gap beneath the door is usally the cause of the cold air that travels across the floor of a room. Correct this by adding a door sweep.

You can purchase door sweeps any width door. They are also custom made to fit. Attach by screwing the sweep onto the bottom of the door.  Or, in some instances, fitting the sweep over the bottom by pushing it in place starting at one edge of the door. Sweeps can be either metal with a rubber edge, foam, or rubber.

Draft Guards

If there is still a noticeable draft beneath the door, or for a quick fix, add draft guards. You can also make your own as they are made from material. Sew material into a tube shape. Stuff with fiberfill or some other material. Then, lay draft guard against the bottom edge of the door keeping the cold air to a minimum.

Once you have insulated around your doors, you should see an improvement, not only in the temperature of the room, but eventually in the cost of heating and cooling your home.

30 Ways to Stay Warm Without Power

Here’s an ingenious “30 Ways to Stay Warm Without Power” by The Survival Mom:

Use Low-tech Equipment

1. Set up a tent in a room that connects with a bathroom and spend time/sleep inside the tent. No tent? Drape blankets over a table for a similar effect.
2. Make a Buddy Burner for light and a small amount of heat. Be sure to vent the room to allow fumes to escape to the outside and not accumulate inside your home.
3. Keep hand and feet warmers inside pockets, gloves, and/or shoes. Read this post for some high-tech ideas to help hands and feet stay warm.
4. Use an indoor-safe portable stove for cooking small meals. Hot food helps boost morale.
5. If you have a fireplace, maintain a good-sized fire throughout the day and night. If you can’t use your fireplace, be sure the damper is closed tightly to block cold air from entering your home. Also, invest in a carbon monoxide detector with battery backup.
6. Make an alcohol stove from an Altoids tin to keep hands warm.
7. Wrap yourself in one or more blankets. To help you stay warm while moving about, wrap fleece blankets around your waist or under your arms and pin them. Blanket scarves are also good options for this technique. Just don’t overload to the point you excessively sweat because that actually pulls heat AWAY from the body.
8. If you have a gas range, boil/heat water and then pour it into a hot water bottle. (Learn how to start your gas range’s pilot light.)
9. Make an Apple Box Stove to cook food and as an off-grid method for staying warm without electricity.
10. Spend the day inside the warmest sleeping bag you own.
11. Put bricks or large rocks in your fireplace, heat them, remove safely using tongs, and then wrap them in blankets to warm beds and bodies.

Wear Appropriate Clothing

1. Wear fleece-lined pants and/or fleece-lined tights. It’s amazing how this one strategy will help you stay warm without electricity. These are the pants I own and love.
2. Wear wool socks and a wool cap throughout the day and night.
3. Wear layers of clothes, including long underwear. Learn more about my own clothing layers during our camping trip in Iceland.
4. Wear socks and shoes in the house, and never stand or rest your feet on a bare floor (tile, concrete, etc.) Either wear socks or place your feet on a rug or blanket. This minimizes conductive cooling. If you have bare floors and not enough rugs, put blankets or even towels on the floor in areas where you’ll be walking and spending time.
5. Shop now for cold-weather clothing in second-hand clothing stores as well as from outdoors/sporting goods stores and, of course, online.

Keep your house warm without power

1. Cover uninsulated vinyl or hardwood floors with throw rugs or blankets. The estimated heat loss through floors is about 10%.
2. Hang heavy blankets over windows and exterior doors, especially glass sliding doors.
3. Spend most of the day and night inside the warmest room, closed off to the rest of the house. Learn how to live in just one room here.
4. Cover windows with bubble wrap as an insulator.
5. Block drafts under doors by cutting the legs off of a pair of tights and stuffing socks into it. Lay at the base of any door you feel cold air coming through. Or plan ahead and order them.
6. Avoid pipe freezes by wrapping vulnerable pipes with a heating cable.
7. Heat rises. If possible, spend most of your time upstairs as long as it’s also well-insulated.
8. Invest in an indoor safe radiant propane heater like Mr. Heater Big Buddy Portable Heater, which has an Oxygen Depletion Sensor and accidental tip-over safety shut-off. Add propane and a carbon monoxide detector.

Change Locations

1. Sit in your car with the heater on. NOTE: This is a short-term solution and should only be done with your car parked in a well-ventilated garage or in an otherwise open area. This also allows you time to charge your phones and electronics.
2. In a dire emergency, check with your town/city to see if any public warming sites are available.

Other Ways to Stay Warm Without Power

1. Cuddle up with your cats and/or dogs.
2. Keep babies and toddlers warm with your body heat by carrying them in a sling or other baby carrier.
3. Do a moderate workout to a YouTube video or make up your own routine to increase body heat but not to the point of sweating a lot, which is counterproductive.
4. Prepare a hot beverage or a cup of soup stew using your off-grid cooking method. It will warm you from within.

Record Searchlight | Dec 6, 2023

Doorbell cameras are “super helpful” at stopping or catching porch pirates, said Amber Orrey, outreach coordinator at the Mount Shasta Police Department. However, people who get home deliveries — and even those who pick up orders at Amazon lockers or retail stores — should take precautions, she said.

While not a guarantee you won’t be the victim of a theft, you can make it harder for porch pirates to pilfer parcels.

“Check tracking notices. Have more expensive items sent to a locker or schedule a delivery time for when you’re going to be home,” Orrey said.

The Better Business Bureau offers these tips for thwarting package thieves:

• Don’t leave packages unattended for long periods and schedule deliveries for times you’ll be home.
• Ship merchandise to a physical store for pick up.
• Require a signature for delivery if someone is home to sign for it.
• Use a locker. Some retailers, including Amazon.com, offer secure package-receiving locations. You can access a locker with a key or code.
• Take precautionary measures, like installing motion-sensitive lights or a door camera. In some cases, this equipment can discourage package thieves.
• Call the police if you see someone stealing packages from a neighbor.
• If you’ll be out of town during the holidays, ask a trusted neighbor to check your porch for deliveries daily.

If you ask for a neighbor’s help, give them a signed note with permission to come on your property and take your packages, just in case another neighbor spots them and calls the police.

And dole out some gratitude. Make sure you thank people afterwards and volunteer “to return the favor” when they’re away, according to etiquette specialist Emily Post’s Neighborly Manners guide.

The famous Christmas carol tell us that this is “the most wonderful time of the year!”  However, a lot can go wrong over the holidays.

This infographic from Iron Security advises us what to be aware of. There are safety hazards, such as frayed electrical cords, holiday theft, and fire hazards, such as when frying turkeys or burning holiday candles.  Establish these practical safety measures (even throughout the year) and make this holiday season the most wonderful time of year!