Home & Garden

Since the economy has found itself in a recession mode and housing starts are down 34 percent in the home-building industry, now might be the best time to improve your living standards. There are plenty of both unemployed and barely employed construction workers in the residential trades. Prices have fallen in both the construction materials category and construction-skilled labor markets.

The cool, short days of winter usher in the bare-root planting season.  Bare-root plants have been tended in commercial growing fields for several years, then dug and supplied to retailers with their roots bare of soil, but kept moist enough to prevent dehydration.

The recent election has made it very clear that Automatic Water Softeners must be removed from throughout the Santa Clarita Valley.  Over the next several months, over 5,000 homeowners must make a decision as to how and when to remove them and how they can replace the benefits they have enjoyed with softened water for bathing, laundry, cleaning and scale protection purposes.  When making a decision regarding these issues DuPure International suggests you consider the following:

My family and I were at our all time favorite breakfast place, Starlite Café in Newhall, the weekend of the Sarye fire.  We were in kind of a hurry so seeing people in line ahead of us was discouraging at that particular moment. 

The new federal law was enacted to help prevent suction entrapment injuries and became effective December 19, 2008.  The requirements for public swimming pools, spas and wading pools are summarized below and must be met before these facilities can be operated after that date.

As winter approaches and the days grow shorter we are likely to spend much less time winter gardening - there aren’t so many tasks to be done, and staying warm and cozy indoors seems a much more attractive prospect. Similarly, the wildlife in a winter garden is searching out food and shelter to help survive the winter, and there’s a lot we can do to help them in their quest for survival.

A swimming pool needs to have various safety components to prevent accidents happening in and around them.  These can be perimeter fencing, pool-surrounding fences and adult supervision.  Pool covers are also one such safety component.  Safety is the most important and foremost virtue of a swimming pool cover.  However, it also saves water that will otherwise be lost to evaporation.

Your preparations for winter should be well underway or finished, but if you have not made any improvements to your home or purchased the items that will give you a warm winter, do not delay! If you start now, there’s still time to get yourself squared away.

Are you looking for a way to decorate your home inexpensively and give it a warm and inviting feeling?  Displaying photos of family and friends around your home immediately invites people to get a glimpse of what is important to you. It also helps to make them feel welcome in your home.

Do you need a clean home for the holidays?  Between shopping and preparing for guests during the holiday season, it’s sometimes difficult to find time to clean. 

All Angelinos and Southern Californians love to relish in our sweet sunshine.  However, too much light within the context of our homes can become both bothersome and even threatening to delicate fabrics, upholsteries, and electronics within our beloved California homes.  The key is working the natural light through draperies, blinds, and other techniques to ensure that you can continue to let the light shine in!

Many individuals love the approach of the holidays. There are many different reasons for this, but one of the most popular reasons are the decorations! If you want to decorate your home for the holidays, there are many different ways that you can do so. The whole point of holiday home decoration is to spread the pure and simple joy associated with the holidays and to make your home look and feel great! Here, you will learn some simple steps on easy home decorating methods for the holidays.

Join local runners and hikers Saturday, December 13 for the second annual holiday scaling of The Beast to benefit the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry.  The Beast is a dirt-and-gravel fire road that begins at the park-and-ride where San Fernando Road dead-ends just east of Highway 14.

Is your mother’s or grandmother’s jewelry box a treasure trove of elegant baubles?  Ask her to donate some trinkets to your cause then use them to decorate a picture frame for a sentimental sister or cousin.  Want to get down to brass tacks instead?  Make a treasure box with little pieces of hardware scavenged from Grandpa’s tool chest.

“Deck the halls with boughs of holly. . .”   Christmas carols inspire us to begin our preparations for this holiday season.  It is these preparations that envelope our families and loved ones with the spirit of the season.

Fresh Xpress recently compared the cost of its service to three local supermarkets and found it saves its customers about 40 percent on average. 

It appears most of our questions concerning the election results are just about all answered.  Of particular interest to us in the Santa Clarita Valley would be measure S.  Measure S addresses the environmental issues related to the use of automatic water softeners.  It passed easily and is a statement in itself on how we feel about protection or resources for our future generations.  The impact is as follows.

Soon the holidays will be over and another year ended.  We often take stock of the past year analyzing what worked and what didn’t work in our personal and professional lives and we make New Year’s Resolutions to improve our lives in the coming year.   We see a lot of information about losing weight, quitting smoking and “getting organized” in the media because these are the most popular resolutions Americans make.