Month: April 2022

April 30, 2022 Fireplaces

House Plants That Clean Air With Little Sunshine

A lot of plants cultivated inside also replenish the air, filtering out pollutants and increasing the oxygen content in the building. Choosing widely available plants well suited to indoor lighting will help to make sure that every plant maintains its attractive look and achieves its full air-purifying potential.

Dracaena

A variety of species and cultivars of dracaena including the dragon tree (Dracaena marginata), “Janet Craig” dracaeana and “Warneck” dracaena can withstand low light and relatively dry air. Dracaenas are precious for their strap-like foliage, which is often variegated and shiny, and sometimes rises atop vertical stems. These plants can remove pollutants like benzene, formaldehyde and trichlorpethylene.

English Ivy

English ivy (Hedera helix) has a vining habit which makes it suitable for hanging baskets or indoor areas in which it can climb without damaging any underlying surface. This shade-tolerant plant removes benzene from the air, contains appealing, sometimes variegated leaves and prefers mild temperatures, suffering in warm areas of the home.

Golden Pothos

Golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum), or devil’s ivy, is among the easiest houseplants to cultivate successfully and rises relatively fast. This specimen features heart-shaped green leaves tinged with cream or gold which develop to a vining stem that is either allowed to hang or educated to climb. Golden pothos filters out formaldehyde and carbon monoxide.

Passion Lily

The peace lily (Spathiphyllum sp.) , sometimes also known as white flag, is among the few houseplants which will produce flowers in low light conditions while also filtering trichloroethylene and benzene from the air. The peace lily includes large, dark green leaves and attractive white spathes that appear above the foliage on stalks. Direct sunlight can burn peace lily leaves, which are broad and have a tendency to collect dust, requiring regular wiping.

Spider Plants

Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum), sometimes called airplane plants, which are low-maintenance and perfect for use in hanging baskets. These plants have long, thin, arching and sometimes variegated leaves, and sometimes create small flowers on prolonged aerial runners. Spider plants can absorb chemicals like benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and xylene from the air. They are easy to spread with all the plantlets that readily appear at the end of aerial runners.

Added Houseplants

A handful of additional houseplants also purify the air, can survive in relatively low light and are readily available. Formaldehyde-removing philodendron, often mistaken for pothos, features comparable leaf along with a vining habit which allows the plant stems to hang down or climb when given adequate support. Lily turf, Kimberly queen fern, schefflera and diffenbachia are also valuable in low-light insides due to their varying skills to capture the common indoor air pollutants benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene. Kimberly queen fern also improves air quality by releasing moisture to the air.

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April 24, 2022 Fireplaces

Mothballs Produced on Apple or Peach Trees

Apple and peach trees would be the target of many damaging insects that may assault the trees and ruin the fruit. The use of synthetic or organic pesticides eliminates a breeding place and protects all trees in the area. But pesticides are registered with the Environmental Protection Agency in the USA. Using a registered pesticide in a manner not given on the label is illegal.

Common Pests

There are lots of common apple and peach tree pests that could be controlled with the right pesticides. Aphids, moths, worms, maggots and mites all assault apple trees in most areas. Peach trees are also attacked by borers, moths and tiny insects known as scales that sit down on leaves and stems. Applying pesticides for some of these pests begins before the leaf buds break and continues in various types up to 21 days before harvest.

Mothballs

Mothballs are made with registered pesticides, either napthalene or paradichlorobenzene. They evaporate to a poisonous gas that will kill moths and fabric-eating insects when concentrated in air-tight containers. The tag on mothballs specifies that they must only be used in tightly closed containers where people will not have permanent exposure. The limitations on the tag mean it is illegal to use mothballs outdoors in purple or apple trees, where they could contaminate soil and harm children interested in their scent and shape.

Paradichlorobenzene Flakes

Some pesticide products specified for peach tree borers do contain paradichlorobenzene flakes. These otherwise labeled products can be used to control insects in coral trees, but shouldn’t be substituted with mothballs. The crystals are applied to the ground around the back of this tree to fumigate the insects as soon as they have drilled to the tree. A constant circle of crystals across the back can be applied 2 inches wide and 1 inch away from the bark. A maximum of 6 tablespoons should be used on big trees, but only 1 or 2 tablespoons on a tree within its initial two years. The dirt where the crystals are applied should be eliminated after 3 weeks.

Pest Control

Regular spraying of apple and peach trees at the house garden is recommended. Complete management of diseases and insects requires as many as seven or eight distinct sprays at distinct stages of fruit and budding development. Preemptive action can be taken against insects like removing dead wood from the tree, clearing dropped or diseased fruit and thinning fruit therefore that adult fruit do not touch each other. Integrated responses such as introducing ladybugs can also assist. Non-toxic alternatives to controlling deer and mammal pests include tying little bars of soap produced of tallow around the tree or using mint oils mixed with garlic and pepper.

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April 20, 2022 Eclectic Homes

How to Replace the Galvanized Pipes Reducing the Sink in the Bathroom Wall

If yours is an older home, you may have galvanized steel water pipes in the walls, and if you do, your water system may not be functioning optimally. Galvanized pipes have a tendency to corrode from inside, and as the rust builds, it also restricts water flow. The result is that you have less water pressure at the point of usage than you need to have. If you have isolated some issue pipes behind the sink, it is not difficult to replace them with copper. You just have to put in a dielectric union at every joint where the dissimilar metals match to prevent corrosion.

Shut the water off to the sink. The most expedient way to do this is usually to close off the main water valve to your home.

Unscrew the water supply hoses from the faucet with adjustable pliers and disconnect the P-trap by unscrewing the nuts which connect it to the sink tailpiece and the drain. If you can, disconnect the sink from the wall and move it out of the way.

Make a hole in the wall large enough to expose the pipes that you want to replace. If the wall is covered only with drywall, cut a bigger hole than you need with a masonry saw. It will not be any more difficult to repair than a smaller hole and will make replacing the pipes simpler.

Cut out the part of pipe that you want to replace using a hacksaw. Make 1 cut 2 inches from the fitting at one end of the department and another cut the exact same distance from the fitting at the other end. Pull out the department and unscrew the cut tubes from the fittings using a pipe wrench.

Replace each of the pipes you eliminate using a 4- to 6-inch Nail nipple. Wrap pipes tape to the threads of this nipple, then tighten it as much as you can by hand and use a pipe wrench to tighten it the rest of the way.

Expand the galvanized half of a dielectric marriage onto each nipple. Leave the marriages assembled as you dry-fit a method of copper pipes and fittings involving them to replace the galvanized pipes you eliminated.

Disassemble the marriages and solder all the joints in the pipe meeting using a torch and lead-free solder. When the pipes have cooled, then assemble the marriages again and tighten the central nuts using a pipe wrench.

Turn on the water and check for leaks before you patch the wall, using appropriate materials, and replace the sink. Hook up the P-trap and connect the faucet supply seams to fill out the repair.

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April 16, 2022 Fireplaces

How to Care for a Golden Privet

Golden privet (Ligustrum x vicaryi) deserves a high ranking on the list of attention-grabbing ornamentals. Hardy at U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 8, the 8- to 12-foot-tall, vase-shaped evergreen tree gold privet brightens sunny spots with its dense stems of golden-yellow leaves. The dramatic leaf highlights clusters of white, butterfly-attracting spring blooms and blue-black, summer berries. In mild-winter climates, gold privet retains its leaves all year. Its salt-tolerance makes the shrub a good choice for coastal gardens.

Water gold privet weekly or as soon as the top 3 inches of soil are dry. A gold privet along the cool, humid shore needs less watering than one at a warm waterfront atmosphere.

Feed gold privet in early spring, midsummer and early fall with a natural, slow-release 5-3-3 fertilizer. Sprinkle the fertilizer evenly over the root zone of the plant, beginning two inches from its trunk and extending just past its erect leaves. Apply the fertilizer at the rate specified on the tag for the size of the shrub. Water well to dissolve the food into the ground.

Watch the shrub for thrips, gold privet’s most serious insect pest. Measuring less than 1/20 inch long, the slender insects might be white, yellow, gray or black. Thrips larvae, or nymphs, resemble the adults except for their lack of fringed wings. These insects consume leaf tissue, leaving the leaf stippled and speckled with dark excrement. They usually infest new development. Remove light thrips infestations by blasting the insects with water from your garden hose. Spraying the shrub with narrow-range oil or insecticidal soap at the very first indication of damage additionally controls thrips. Always employ chemical sprays based on the manufacturer’s specifications.

Check regularly for dropping leaves or discolored blotches on the shrub’s older foliage, symptoms of leaf spot fungal infection. Golden privet tolerates mild leaf spot infection with no harm. Prevent the fungus from spreading, even if necessary, by spraying a contaminated tree using copper-based fungicide.

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April 14, 2022 Fireplaces

Instructions for Paper Woven Chair Bottoms

Woven chair seats evoke pioneer times and state living, a time in which easy, homemade furnishings, fashioned from whatever was at hand, were life’s luxuries. Today, a woven chair seat is a lavish. That wrapped-around and crisscrossed web of grasses or rushes can be more expensive than the original chair. Thus, if your seat underside has seen a few too many seams, contemplate paper as the stealth choice to give the chair fresh life. Paper rush is fiber created from twisted strands of paper — cellulose with all the strength of a mighty tree — however a price tag almost as lightweight as tissue.

Pick the basic wrap-around weave for the first effort. Chair seat patterns are classic, whether you use reed, seagrass or paper rush. For a seat seat more rectangular than square, then adjust the design to cover the whole frame.

Start at the left front corner in front of you as you face the seat. Catch a 3- to 4-inch end dangling and wrap a ball above the front rail, around, under and over to the left rail, around and under. Run that strand throughout the front of the seat, next to the front rail, to this corner of the ideal rail.

Pull the ball above, around and below the ideal rail and upwards over also the front rail. Then run the strand along the ideal rail to the back rail and repeat the wrap pattern at the corner.

Continue around and about the seat seat framework, tightly packing the strands along with the flat end of a screwdriver to maintain the seat strong and snug.

Stuff crumpled paper or corrugated cardboard triangles into the space formed between the lower and upper strands. A tight weave doesn’t need this reinforcement, so it is generally a matter of personal preference.

Fill in the open middle section left when your seat isn’t square, as the shorter rails or side dowels are packed using strands and the more rails have a difference. Fix it by weaving a string of paper rush over a rail, to the middle of this gap, and below the perpendicular strands. Just take the active ball from the center to the opposite rail underneath up over that contrary rail back to the middle, and under the cross grasses to the first rail.

Keep running the ball above, under, around, above, etc. until the whole long rail of the seat frame is covered, and there’s a tight woven center to the seat seat. Tack, tie off or glue the raw ends of the grasses to the bottom side of the seat frame.

Be sure long life for all your hard work by painting or spraying the paper rush seat with a protective clear coat. Refresh this clear coat from time to time, depending on the amount of work with the seat gets, and also the seat may outlast the weaver.

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April 10, 2022 Eclectic Homes

The very best Chip-Resistant Dinner Plates

Chip-resistant dinner plates come in a variety of materials, giving you style and budget choices. A basic set of white serving pieces lets you mix and match more colorful patterns on the dinner plates and bowls. Your family’s lifestyle must help determine the best chip-resistant plates for your property.

High-End Dinnerware

Although they may seem fragile, some dinner plates made of fine china and porcelain are actually durable and chip resistant. Bone china and porcelain dishes are double glazed and fired at high temperatures, giving them a glossy, translucent glass-like finish. Porcelain plates tolerate extreme temperature changes, from warm to cold and vice versa, without splitting. Porcelain also has insulating properties that help food retain its temperature. Porcelain dinner plates are usually microwave and dishwasher safe. You must hand wash bone china plates with metallic gold or platinum banding across the rims, and they should not be utilised in the microwave. Despite their durability, fine china and porcelain plates could be too pricey for everyday use by big families.

Sturdy Stoneware

Stoneware, a kind of ceramic dinnerware, can also be fired at high temperatures, making it nonporous without being glazed. Stoneware is extremely durable and both scratch and chip resistant. A more budget-friendly option than porcelain and fine china, stoneware delivers the same natural, artisan look like earthenware dinner plates, yet stands up better to everyday use. Unlike fragile earthenware, which readily chips and is usually not dishwasher safe, stoneware is both dishwasher and microwave safe.

Vitrelle Tempered Glass

Dinner plates made from a kind of tempered glass called Vitrelle are both scratch and chip resistant. The substance can chip or break if it lands and falls in just the right approach to incur damage, but it is uncommon. Thermally bonded laminated layers create tempered glass plates really strong, and they’re often thinner and lighter than other dinnerware. Tempered glass plates are microwave and dishwasher safe, making them an excellent choice for every day. Vitrelle is fabricated by Corelle, a title that’s been around for generations, you can find dinner plates with timeless patterns that have stayed in fashion for decades.

Hard-Wearing Melamine

Among the cheapest and durable types of dinner plates accessible are made of melamine, a lightweight, tough plastic. Melamine dinnerware works nicely for families with children since it is not as prone to shatter when dropped on a tough surface or chip when chucked in the sink. It’s also ideal for outdoor fun. A strong note of caution however — melamine plates aren’t safe to use in the microwave because large heat can produce havoc with the leaf. On the other hand, the FDA deems the substance safe to consume on whether it isn’t exposed to heat. The plates can be washed in the dishwasher, but put them around the top rack, away from the heating element in the bottom.

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April 5, 2022 Decorating Guides

Privacy Options for Sliding Doors

Choose a remedy for your own sliding glass doors with a privacy level that fits together with the way you live. From light-filtering sheers to opaque draperies, slider treatments are intended to suit varied privacy needs and needs. If you prefer solitude that’s coupled with an unobstructed view of the outside, install a one-way-view slider covering which permits you to see out, but blocks others from prying indoors.

Install Blinds

Vertical blinds function with one control that rotates the slats and another device that slides the whole blind shut or open, letting you change the privacy level in your home. Alternately, panel-track blinds hang against your sliding glass door in big flat-panel sections which glide back-and-forth in channels to attractively cover as much of this sliding door as you desire. Vertical cellular shades provide a double vertical door covering option. They’re constructed with a honeycomb-shaped substance that’s typically semi-transparent.

Select the ideal Fabrics

Draperies include a soft texture to your own room and a vast range of privacy levels. For partial solitude, choose loose-weave or sheer fabric drapes which allow light to permeate the material. Heavyweight fabrics, like tapestry, velvet or suede, provide a more opaque barrier between your slider and the world outside. Choose lined drapes in a thick fabric to create black-out conditions, which is ideal if you want to sleep during the daytime.

Apply Tinted Film

Not just is window film available in a huge array of transparency levels, but you can cut it to match any sliding glass door. Silver, mirror-like films impart a one-time view in the interior of the home to the outside, supplying a good deal of solitude. Light-tinted window movies impair outsiders from seeing clearly within your home and lower the sunlight’s intensity from streaming inside. Decorative window film in various designs give you the scale of solitude you desire, while incorporating a layout flair to the room.

Produce Layers

By layering two or more treatments to your sliders, you can readily alter the privacy level inside your home. For example, when you install black-out drapes over sheer curtains, you may produce partial solitude by pulling open the drapes to a side and leaving the sheers intact to cover the sliding doors. For a frequently used sliding door, then apply tinted window film in lieu of this sheers for simple in-and-out access. Hang natural-woven blinds on your own tinted sliders for an earthy semi-translucent covering.

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