Home & Garden

It would be difficult to imagine a landscaped garden without roses.  With ample sun, average water, and good air circulation, roses can be enjoyed by almost anyone.
Roses have excellent landscape value.  Ground cover varieties blanket gentle slopes and open areas.  Hedge type roses require less maintenance than other roses, and provide walls of color.  Other rose varieties can add accent color to the garden, and provide armfuls of blossoms for cutting.

Making home improvements will get you the most in a buyer’s market, or it will extend the economic life of your home.
The question is how to pay for it?  There are conventional loans, but you need 65 percent equity for a second mortgage, or strong enough credit, income and savings to refinance.  But make sure to refinance enough to pay the fees and the remodeling cost.  What’s good right now is that interest rates are low so you can come out ahead by lowering your monthly payments.

Most homeowners spend hours contemplating room makeovers for the kitchen, bathrooms and living areas.  Unfortunately, the garage or “extra room” makeover, which was intended to create space for “him” is low on the priority list.  However, with March Madness and spring training well underway, it is time to move the “man cave” makeover to the top of the list and create a room where the man of the house is truly king of the world. 

The greatest energy use in California homes is for central air conditioning and heating.  Most homes with central air conditioning and heating systems have ducts that were never properly sealed.  The average home’s ducts leak around 30 percent of the conditioned air outside the home.  These leaks are taking money straight out of your pocket. 

Effective April 23, 2010, all contractors who perform work on pre-1978 buildings must be Certified Firms.  Failure to take the eight-hour class and pass the test could result in a fine from the EPA in the amount of $37,500.  EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule (40 CFR 745).
The dust created from work performed on homes, schools and children’s day care center buildings that are older than 1978 could poison both the inhabitants and workers from lead in the paints used during the years before 1978.

I can transform just about any outdoor space into a patio retreat.  In fact, it is quickly becoming one of my highest requested design services!
Why do you want a patio retreat?  Living in a mild climate as we do in southern California, you can literally increase the usable square footage of your home by creating an outdoor living room!  However, if your patio consists of a concrete slab, there is nothing to beckon you outside. 

As winter is edged out by spring, many homeowners are eager to refresh their homes while being mindful of their budgets.  The good news is homeowners don’t need to break the bank to spruce up the place and there are many budget-conscious things homeowners can do to polish the look of their homes.

Enertek is a family business located in San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County.  We have been serving our customer’s heating and cooling needs for over 26 years.  We strive to provide quality and professionalism at very competitive prices.  We have the highest (AAA) Better Business Bureau rating.

It’s that time of year again.  Time to start getting ready to plant your garden.  With all of the rain that we have had, the soil is good and moist, but full of weeds.  We spent last weekend pulling weeds.  Next, we will add amendments to the soil and mix it in.

Spring is in the air and it is time to start thinking about updating our homes.  What are the trends that will stay in vogue for years to come?  What should I think about doing first?  Any project can be overwhelming if you do not have an expert to help you along the way.  When deciding to remodel your kitchen, bathroom or updating your floor or counter-top with granite there are many questions a homeowners should ask first; the same goes when purchasing hardwood or carpet. 

The installation of automatic water softeners—the kind that use rock salt or potassium chloride pellets—has been banned in the Santa Clarita Valley since 2003.  Automatic water softeners discharge a salty waste into the sewer system that is treated by a process that does not remove salt and is released into the Santa Clara River.  According to the Los Angeles County Sanitation District too much salt in the river may potentially harm downstream agricultural crops.

Remodeling fever is sweeping across America, even in the middle of a not-so-great economy.  Why?  Instead of moving to bigger or newer houses, homeowners are loving the ones they’re in and making some much-needed improvements.  The bathroom is one of the most popular living spaces targeted for remodel: here are some of the top trends for 2010.

With rising costs on everything, any time you can spend a little to save a lot is a good thing!  One simple solution for homeowners to avoid paying the high cost increases for energy is to install energy efficient windows.  New windows can be a key component in saving you money while keeping your home bright and comfortable year-round.  

Dear Molly Maid Inc.,
My 75 year-old father, Bob Goodman, has consistently received outstanding service from his Santa Clarita Molly Maid team, but this month, the team’s performance far exceeded our expectations.
During their recent visit, Teresa and Veronica noticed that my father, Bob, had been in bed during their entire visit.  

It’s the perfect time to begin your dream back yard.  Your new swimming pool can be ready for you and your family by this spring.  Perfect timing for the hot weather quickly approaching. 

This spring, Carrier is offering consumers an incentive to purchase and install a new heating and cooling system in their home—the better the system, the bigger the rebate!  On qualifying products, consumers can receive up to a $1,200 rebate on a Carrier system.  The new Cool Choices program from Carrier gives you the opportunity to redeem your $1200 rebate for Cash, Travel, or Merchandise.  That’s right, you are in control of your reward!

With the first warm days of spring, most residents of Santa Clarita find themselves driven to the great outdoors.  Thoughts of home-grown tomatoes and peppers offer encouragement to get out and prepare the vegetable garden.
If your yard does not have an area designated for a vegetable garden, consider creating one from a section of lawn or an unused side yard.  All that is needed is soil and a sunny area.  Even large containers set on a sunny patio will serve to grow many vegetables.

Last month I addressed water hardness and the difference in a dissolved and a suspended solid.  Now that we know water hardness is a dissolved solid and generally cannot be removed by filtration, what can a whole house filter do for us?
An effective whole house filter should be effective at reducing sediment, pharmaceuticals, chlorine or chloramines, trace elements of heavy metals and odors.  The ability to backwash itself is an absolute must.