Asha Anujeeva

Guest post written by Cheryl Hunt

One of the things that I wanted to do before my husband went back to work after the holidays was to organize our home. Well, I think I’ve basically run out of time to get his help on that, but I’m just going to move forward and try to tackle all of this on my own. I thought a good starting place would be the kids’ playroom. That’s one area that’s always messy, so I thought it might be good to get that worst room out of the way first. Plus, my kids will get to start enjoying it more again that way.

I looked online to find some tips about that and while I was looking, I ran across some info on new doors. Our front door looks so beat up and awful that I decided to use that site to get it replaced.

I’ve already started sorting through the kids’ toys, which is kind of just where you have to start out with this. It’s going much easier than I expected and I just hope that it keeps going that smoothly!

Thanks for the post, Vernon Lowe

Our neighbors down the street contracted out their own upgrades and renovations to their home last year. They kept telling us how much money they saved and how proud they were that they were able to do everything on their own. When were ready to do a few things to our own home, we met our neighbors for dinner so that they could share their “secrets” with us. They suggested for our home alarm system that we use www.HomeSecuritySystems.com . They gave us the name of an inexpensive painter and also the company they used to put in their new sprinkler system. They make self-contracting sound so easy. We have started checking into our plans and our first update is scheduled for next week. We are excited and have saved up a long time until we felt we were financially ready to update our home. I just hope that self-contracting is the right decision. Our friends have offered to help us a long the way. I’m glad they are because I need all the help I can get!

I have an island type counter in my kitchen that I dearly love, but it is poorly illuminated.  I need to buy a light  to put above it to help me see what I’m doing, but I want something that is really nice looking; not simply functional.  I’ve found a nice website dedicated to decorating with lights called lightingandliving.com that has hundreds of different types of island lights to choose from, but what I especially like about the website is how easy it is to narrow down what you are interested in.  You can type in your specifications into their search function and it filters out all of the ones that would not fit your specs.

With all of the high wind storms we’ve been having around here lately, I’m beginning to think that the next time I think about buying a house that I should just build my own, and just put a bunker in the side of a cliff. It seems that every time we get a storm we lose our electricity and that gets really old really fast. I wish that all of our utilities were underground so a little wind wouldn’t shut us down!

It is almost time for that dreaded annual event – bathing suit shopping. This year my bathing suit is going to be even more important than last year. Two of my friends have bought above ground pools and are planning on having pool parties all summer long, and I am expected to be there. I may have to buy two bathing suits.

I was not familiar with above ground pools until I moved here. I have always thought a pool in your backyard meant a “cement pond,” like you see in the movies of homes in Beverly Hills. I would think that installing an in ground pool would be very expensive and take a long time. You have to excavte the hole, frame it out, pour the concrete, install the plumbing, finish or paint the walls and decking, and then fill it with water. This could esily take 2 or 3 weeks to do. But an a pool that sits above ground requires much less work, materials and time to complete.

I cannot wait to go to my first pool party at each of my friend’s houses with their new pools. I just have to be careful to not favor one friend over the other in my visits this summer.