Maintaining and improving your home enhances both your living style and your long-term investment. The money you spend on fixing up your property today will pay for itself in profits when you decide to sell. Painting your home indoors, and outdoors, is the fastest and easiest way to create the look you want, without spending a bundle.
The following tips will help you to get the job done faster, and smarter:
Shake Things Up
The first step to a great finish is to fully stir the paint before you begin. Even though paints are professionally mixed when you buy them, the colors can separate during storage and transportation. If you fail to completely stir the paint you can end up with an uneven finish. Using a stir stick can be tiresome, and your portable or electric drill offers a great alternative.
Cut a plastic clothes hanger into a long "J" shape and insert it into the end of your drill. This handy tool provides a time-saving and energy-conserving means of mixing the paint to perfection.
Avoid Drips
When painting with a brush, most people try to get rid of excess paint by scraping it against the rim of the can. Paint is wasted as it drips down the side of the can. Instead, try tapping or slapping the brush. More paint will remain at the end of the brush where it's needed, and the excess will fall back into the can. You'll be able to cover more area between dips, which is particularly important if you're making trips up and down the ladder.
Code Red or Code Blue?
Before you invest the time and expense painting the exterior of your home, make sure that you're aware of any building codes or restrictions in your area. Don't go to all the trouble of painting your stucco home a nice bright color if your neighborhood holds restrictions allowing only neutral tones. The height, size and color of fences and other outdoor appointments may also be held under code. Always check before painting, or all of your hard work may be in vain.
Get the Lead Out
In the United States alone, hundreds of thousands of children have been poisoned by the lead found in residential paints. Lead poisoning has been linked to health conditions including learning difficulties. One major cause is the old, peeling lead-based paints found in many homes. It's important that you strip and replace any deteriorating paint in your home.
Prime Yourself
Making sure that you're properly prepared for a painting job can help you to save money in the long run. A good primer coat will result in less time and paint needed for the finishing coat or coats.
There are other ways to save money by performing primary tasks yourself. For example, try beveling your fence posts to create a new look, rather than purchasing a whole new fence. With a radial saw and some basic geometry knowledge, you can cut perfect angles for your new picket fence.
Painting your home really is an easy way to create more equity, and greater profit when you're ready to sell. Follow these steps and you'll get maximum payoff for minimum investment.
Debt consolidation was designed to help individuals who are drowning in debt to regain control of their financial lives. Consolidating debt gives individuals the chance combine their various monthly payments into a single monthly payment that is usually lower than the sum of the individual monthly payments on the same debt. Payments on consolidated debt are also quite often at a lower interest rate than the rates offered by the individual lenders.
Warning Signs
If one or more of the following applies to you, debt consolidation may be in order:
* you pay for normal living expenses with credit;
* you transfer balances around from one credit card to another;
* you can only afford the minimum monthly payments on your credit cards, and no more;
* you have maxed out one or more credit cards;
* you find yourself spending more than half your income to pay your monthly credit card payments;
* you're looking to open yet another line of credit in order to better manage your current debt, expenses, and lifestyle;
The following is a breakdown of some of the best and most common ways to consolidate debt:
Debt Consolidation Loans
The traditional way to consolidate debt is to take out a debt consolidation loan. This is a personal loan that is unsecured, and therefore considered riskier other types of loans. Lenders therefore will usually charge higher interest rates for these loans, the advantage to getting such a loan being the single (and hopefully smaller) monthly payment. People with lots of debt may find they have difficulty getting a lender to give them a debt consolidation loan, however, and may need to look further to find a viable debt consolidation solution.
Debt Settlement
Debt settlement agencies help you resolve debt by becoming the intermediary between you and your creditors, You stop paying your various creditors and instead make a single payment to the debt settlement agency. The agency then becomes the one your creditors contact rather than you. They negotiate new payment and settlement terms, typically for half (or less) of the total balance you owe. Your credit rating does not go unmarred with this solution, however you will be able to get out of debt in just a couple of years this way. You'll just have a little difficulty in obtaining future credit for a while afterwards. But not nearly as much as if you had to declare bankruptcy.
Home Equity Loan or Line of Credit
By taking out a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit, you can borrow money against the value of your home (minus the amount of money you still owe on the home) to pay down other, higher interest debt, such as your credit cards.
Cash-Out Refinance
Another way to utilize the asset of your home to help you climb out of debt is to refinance your current mortgage and borrow more than the amount you currently owe on the home. This extra money will be delivered to you in the form of cash that you can then spend on whatever you want (hopefully, to pay down your other debt).
Key Points on Consolidating Debt
Whichever option you choose to consolidate debt, just be sure that the new debt is cheaper than your current debt. In other words, after fees and finance charges are taken into account, will you be paying less to borrow the same amount of money through debt consolidation than you currently do with your debt dispersed as it is.
Once you've gotten a handle on your debt, the next step to financial freedom (and to keep you from winding up in the same position again), take the money you've freed and start building up an emergency fund.
Both Sadie Bedgegood & Daniel Riley are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.