#move-in/move-out cleaning services in Statesville | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

prolistsite · 7 years ago

Text

A Noticeable Shortcut to Keeping My White Rug Clean

This post is sponsored by Spot Shot® Instant Carpet Stain Remover

Question: what do you get when you cross a very active dog like Charlie with a very white rug? Unless you’re a neat freak with a lot of time on your hands to bathe the dog every day (which I am noticeably not), the answer is a rug that needs the occasional cleanup. I knew when I bought my new living room rug that I was probably going to have to step up my cleaning game, so I have streamlined the living room with three new items that are going to make things a little faster. The little bugger can’t even stay out of my staged shots. Case in point:

Preventing & Treating Rug Stains

1. Charlie’s new toy basket

Remember how I mentioned my source for inexpensive (but pretty) storage baskets? I tend to pick them up in sets so I know that they are all the same size, but on my last trip, I found one on steep clearance but wasn’t sure if I had any others to match the same height/storage size. At first I thought I’d use it in the guest bathroom, but when it proved to be just a little too tall for the vanity, it found a new home in the corner of my living room for Charlie’s many stuffed, not-yet-fully-gutted toys.

While Charlie will happily drag out all of her toys whenever the mood suits her, it’s nice to have a place to quickly corral them (and keep slobber-soaked toys off the rug).

2. Pre-treating with a stain preventer

Most of the first floor in my house has laminate flooring, so I don’t often have to use rug cleaner (vacuum bags and cleaning sprays? you betcha). But since buying the new rug and the new sectional, I’ve got that obnoxious buyer behavior where I’m trying to keep everything pristine for as long as possible (because hello, I’ve waited long enough to have them!). I like to call it “New Car Syndrome” because I behaved pretty much the same way when I bought my SUV and flipped out the first time I found a ding from another driver’s door on the side. Not a great day for me.

Anyway, I first did what I could to make sure that if something falls on the carpet or Charlie tracks in muck, it won’t get as much opportunity to set in thanks to a spray-on stain preventer. It seems to have done a really good job so far, but I know it won’t be 100% fool proof and stains are bound to happen. Which is why I’ve added…

3. An easy rug cleaner stored directly in the living room

If avoiding cleaning were a sport, I could probably win the gold at the Olympics — I’m only going to do as little work as I possibly can. That’s how I wound up figuring out that if I just store my carpet cleaner in the living room instead of in the kitchen or closet, I will take care of the mess right away instead of getting sidetracked (and letting a stain sink in is kind of the opposite of what I’m trying to do).

I know that probably sounds ridiculous to those of you who are masters at cleaning, but 1. I really am that lazy sometimes if I’m working on a DIY project and 2. Knowing myself enough to focus on overcoming those simple details that have thwarted me in the past is how I came to have a well-organized entryway closet and a clean laundry room�� so I know that it works for me. The bright colored cans aren’t necessarily a decorator’s favorite aesthetically, so I place them in a storage ottoman much like I did with detergents and other products in the laundry room (when I add the built-ins to the wall that separates the living room and dining room, it will be moved to the shelves and stored there).

What I like specifically about Spot Shot® Instant Carpet Stain Remover is that it doesn’t need scrubbing. You spray it on and let it sit for a minute or two and dab it off with a clean towel (repeat if necessary, but I usually only have to do that if it’s something like spaghetti sauce). The cleaner also has stain preventer in it, so I won’t have to pretreat again.

random dirt & spaghetti sauce stains

My boyfriend saw me using it the other day and was surprised; not only because holy crap she’s actually cleaning, but apparently when he used to work as a project manager for a construction company, this was the product they would use to remove Georgia red clay (notoriously frustrating in the southeast) from carpets before they would turn the property over to the new owner. Good to know, since I’m also tracking a lot of dirt into the kitchen with some of the back yard’s garden improvements.

And that — short and sweet — is how Charlie and the new rug are cohabitating without much fuss.

Click here to get a coupon for $1 off Spot Shot and here to locate a nearby retailer where you can purchase it. For more cleaning and organizing tips, follow Spot Shot on Facebook via the Stain Fighting Community.

P.S. Mental note: at the end of this month, Spot Shot (and other goodies) will be in a bundled giveaway, so make a note to keep an eye out for that! Or if it works better for you, subscribe here and you’ll get the email notification when the giveaway goes live.

The post A Noticeable Shortcut to Keeping My White Rug Clean appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

Website // Subscribe // Advertise // Twitter // Facebook // Google+

Read more http://ift.tt/2uJGGzv Areas served: Winston-Salem, High Point, Yadkinville, Mocksville, Advance, Clemmons, Kernersville, Greensboro, Walnut Cove, Statesville, NC, North Carolina Services: House painting, roofing, deck building, landscaping, Carpentry, Flooring, tile, hardwood, remodeling, home improvement, interior, exterior

0 notes

prokred · 7 years ago

Text

Alliance for Positive Change seeks to help homeless with fundraiser for <b>home improvement</b> kits

The nonprofit Alliance for Positive Change has launched a fundraising effort to purchase 50 home improvement kits for people who are moving out of shelters and into their own apartments. The kits include basics such as linens, pots and pans, toiletries and cleaning supplies — items that may have ... Read more http://ift.tt/2AbJYg9 Areas served: Winston-Salem, High Point, Yadkinville, Mocksville, Advance, Clemmons, Kernersville, Greensboro, Walnut Cove, Statesville, NC, North Carolina Services: House painting, roofing, deck building, landscaping, Carpentry, Flooring, tile, hardwood, remodeling, home improvement, interior, exterior

0 notes

prokred · 7 years ago

Text

The Saddest Little Guest Bedroom, Probably Ever (and Video!)

Hi. My name is Sarah, and I have a sad guest bedroom. Possibly, the saddest little guest bedroom of all time.

Even though other rooms in this house have been easy contenders for Longest Room Renovation Of All Time, the guest bedroom IS THE WINNER, in my opinion. Not because there aren’t still other rooms that need to be finished with a capital F, but because it’s never been functional. Other rooms have managed to still serve their purposes (somewhat) as I’ve worked on them, leaving my guest bedroom as my dark little secret. It has mostly served as a dumping ground for all of the things I have never had a place for (also things I intended to haul away to Goodwill, miscellaneous electronics, dog stuff, etc.), and to be honest, I haven’t really cared about it for very selfish reasons. Who could blame me, though? When you’re remodeling, you don’t invite people over. It’s too embarrassing and easier just to hide behind a closed door. So, with no guests invited, there were no guests to need their own bedroom… just extra space to “temporarily” put all of my Christmas decorations so I didn’t have to look at them anymore.

As luck would have it, I was visiting my pals in North Carolina recently while my boyfriend decided it was the perfect time to surprise me with cleaning it out. One, because he’s a neat freak and simply couldn’t take it anymore; two, because I was already taking out the Christmas decor and needing it for the holidays; and three, not having to clean something is totally one of my love languages.

I have been talking to K about remodeling the guest bedroom for the last few months. With the main level of the house now clean and remodeled enough to regularly invite friends over for dinner, the option of also having a nice guest bedroom seems like the next logical step when I consider the overall guest-friendliness of my home (Atlanta is a driving city as are most of the suburbs, so it always means someone needs to be DD or pay for rideshare if alcohol is involved, and I most definitely ply my friends and family with booze in my role as host… fire pits are just more fun that way!).

So, as far as guest bedroom friendliness goes… I have plenty of room to step up my game, here. With the recent cleanup, I also got an opportunity to take these before photos (I’ve learned just to shoot the room in lots of different angles just in case the before and after looks especially good from one side).

There are a few ideas I’ve been kicking around that I really think could do well in here, and I’d LOVE to get your thoughts on this blank space too, since there are a lot of decisions to be made:

“The Saddest Guest Bedroom” Improvement Plan (ish):

Paint… I’m not sure if I want to repaint or not. Or maybe add cool molding? This is a variation of a common color I’ve used throughout the house, but this particular version looks great on two walls and really terrible on the other two because of the light from the window and overhead light.

Speaking of overhead lighting, I think a ceiling fan would do best in here, but I hate the look of most ceiling fans. It will probably take a while to find the right fit.

In terms of my romantic life (and life in general), there are more people and dogs in it. Charlie has had a monopoly on this room as “hers” for a really long time (not planned, of course, but it also explains why she was curious about me being in the room in the video below). So, I’d like to make this room more friendly for K’s needs given how much time he spends over at my house now. Similar to how I work around the clock and on weekends, it’s not unusual for him to bring his work and computer over. The guest bedroom is the easiest space to use for this, since I work virtually everywhere else.

Even though the room is a “guest bedroom”, the actual need for it to be used as a bedroom is a much smaller piece of the room utility pie. So, if the bed itself could be tucked away somehow when not in use (such as a really awesome Murphy bed build like The DIY Village did below), that would be great. Even better if we could make the underside a couch when not in use. It would be a VERY ambitious project, but a perfect thing to try to figure out as winter limits my outdoor shed-building activities.

Adding in bookshelves on either side of the bed would also be great for displaying K’s vintage camera collection, my vintage maps, and photos from travels (how cool would that look???).

As many of you know, I run on a semi-regular basis with a group of my friends and would love to have a designated spot indoors for my related workouts. I think a foldaway area right in the corner (behind the door, so the least likely area you’d see when you walked in) would be perfect for a small set of shelves for the workout gear and yoga mat.

Finally, the remaining wall/corner could be a shelf/desk combo option where one of the shelves might slide/flip out at desk level to have double-duty but not stick out when not in use. Another DIY custom build idea, but another idea that makes my power tool arm itch with anticipation.

So… totally likely to happen quickly, right? Ha. It’ll inch by as my room realities always do, but if part of the issue with having a blank slate of a room like this is having a plan and the desire to get it done, I’d say I at least have that now!

“The Saddest Guest Bedroom” Video Tour

Since I’ve been trying to make good on my promise to do more video as I move along with these rooms and projects, here’s a quick “before” guest bedroom tour so you can take in all of its blandness. Charlie makes a cameo, of course (because whenever I make a video, she is curious why I’m talking by myself and assumes I must be doing something she needs to investigate). This is my first time embedding this particular video type into one of my posts, so if it doesn’t play or you aren’t seeing it in your feed, be sure to click over to the post or to Youtube if you have trouble and let me know!

youtube

Got any of your own thoughts on this room? I’d love to hear it!

The post The Saddest Little Guest Bedroom, Probably Ever (and Video!) appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

Read more http://ift.tt/2AZGEC8 Areas served: Winston-Salem, High Point, Yadkinville, Mocksville, Advance, Clemmons, Kernersville, Greensboro, Walnut Cove, Statesville, NC, North Carolina Services: House painting, roofing, deck building, landscaping, Carpentry, Flooring, tile, hardwood, remodeling, home improvement, interior, exterior

0 notes

nchomeimprovement · 7 years ago

Text

Planning the Pub Shed!

I’ve been hinting at this for a while, but I have enough of the plan* together to finally share: I’m building a pub shed!

*As much as anyone would call something I do a “plan”

The “Shed” Part

The idea for this has been in my head for a while (and on a paper for a shorter while), but let’s face it: I need more DIY space — especially for tools and garden storage. The one-car garage I have is packed full all the time with the mower, gardening materials, woodworking tools, paint, and more. Even though I try as best I can to keep it organized(ish… meh) by cleaning it out once a year, that still means I spend a lot of time looking for the things I need in a very tight space (you would think losing things in a smaller space would be less frequent, but… nope).

As you can probably imagine — someone who blogs about DIY as much as I do — this is a less than ideal situation. Even adding better storage solutions like my DIY pegboard wall and (coughcough) temporary lumber rack have improved, but not solved, this conundrum.

It is increasingly difficult to find room for stuff like this.

The “Pub” Part

The “pub” part of these pub plans is a relatively new concept. Originally, I was thinking I’d add a small pop-out window to one side of my shed as a small greenhouse-type area: cover it in glass, place it on a side that gets a lot of sun, and use it to start seedlings or propagating my hydrangeas. But, after one of my regular lunches with Dad, he passed along a copy of Family Handyman that included this project, and it included a shed with one side for entertaining!

via Family Handyman

The second I saw the idea, I wanted to make something like that for my own — especially since I’m planning on upgrading my seating space near the house (a platform deck next to the smaller concrete one, that also creates a flow to the new fire pit) and adding string lights that connect the various different “zones”…

This is a really insane sketch, but it includes basically all the stuff you’ve seen me working on this year: the garden beds, the corner garden, the hedge along the back, the fire pit, and more on the way!

While the shed I’m planning on building isn’t nearly as big as the one FH published (nor will it include quite as many extra windows and such), I love the idea of a counter and seating area that can be used for any number of things (from potting bench to serving area).

The DIY Part

I’ve always wanted to learn more about woodworking. Learn framing. Be better at picturing the insides of the walls I’m always messing with. Overall, I want to also increase my knowledge on the kinds of tools I don’t really use as much for interior DIYs (like a roofing nailer?!?! BRING IT ON!). I learned a little by volunteering in Habitat for Humanity events, but I know that there is still so much more fun stuff I could be doing and learning. So, after months of trying to think of where best to put it, what it might look like, the hoops I might have to jump through to get it, I’m going for it! I am building it from scratch (not using a shed-building kit), and I will share as I go, warts and all (and I’m sure, a few mistakes).

This is one of the bigger (and more costly) DIYs I’ve ever wanted to do, so I’m going to have some first-time learning curves ahead. Also, obviously, it’s something I’ve had to save up for. If you’ve noticed the increase in my sponsored projects on the site over the last few months, this is one of the main reasons I’ve taken them on (the summer is usually when I wind up working with more sponsors, so I wanted to funnel some of that to immediately start planning for this!). I’ve already seen what the kinds of costs are to have one custom built by ordering, so I’m hoping the DIY is also going to be more budget-friendly.

Since this is going to be a much bigger project, it will be isolated as its own series (look for “Pub Shed” as the category on posts for updates). As you guys might have seen in some of my Instagram shares or updates about the back yard, I’ve already begun the process to try to make it into a reality. More specific details (now that I’ve actually announced the first round of plans with this post) will be upcoming, including building the base (it’s not fully “in” yet, so that will have its own post when it is).

The bearded dude (I feel like maybe he needs a nickname by now) has been a big help on it so far — he’s mainly the one with the previous construction skills and does this kind of 3D rendering all the time for his day job as an engineer, so you might be seeing glimpses of his help as well as we go through the build process:

Planning (changes to plans, such as how to accommodate the bar area with extending the roof OR making its own overhang, whether the opening should create windows or a completely closed space, etc.)

Building and leveling the foundation (I decided against a concrete slab like I did with the trash bins)

Framing

Roofing

Adding the exterior finishes

Building/installing the door

All the pub-related and entertaining area details

Gardening around the exterior

Interior finishes (TBD)

But anyway, I’m excited. Thrilled. All of the happy emojis. Charlie’s excited too — she keeps sniffing all the stuff we’re digging up and moving around! More soon, friends! Building anything lately?

P.S. Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irma hit my area and knocked out power, downed a few trees, (one fell on a neighbor��s car down the street!), blocked my neighborhood’s entrance, etc. but the UDH was thankfully fine (I just have a few extra downed limbs to chop up for the new fire pit). I hope those of you impacted are, above all, safe — including your pets. And I’ll be saying a prayer for those who weren’t as lucky. Thanks for those of you who have sent comments my way via social media.

The post Planning the Pub Shed! appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

Website // Subscribe // Advertise // Twitter // Facebook // Google+

Read more http://ift.tt/2xwFEI0 Areas served: Winston-Salem, High Point, Yadkinville, Mocksville, Advance, Clemmons, Kernersville, Greensboro, Walnut Cove, Statesville, NC, North Carolina Services: House painting, roofing, deck building, landscaping, Carpentry, Flooring, tile, hardwood, remodeling, home improvement, interior, exterior

0 notes