If you own a home you know that at some point you’re going to be faced with a leak somewhere in the home. If you or your partner are very handy then you might be able to find that leak and fix it before it ends up becoming an emergency situation. Or you’ll do the smart thing and call a professional plumbing service when you first notice a leak. Neither myself or my husband are handy, and we did not do the smart thing. So we ended up with a funny story to tell and a lot of damage that had to be fixed by actual professionals. Here’s the story:
When I putting my daughter to bed one night I noticed a small dark stain on her ceiling. Since the third floor master bathroom is above her bedroom after I put her to bed I told my husband we must have a leak in the master bathroom and asked him to see if he could find it. He brushed me off and told me it was probably just a shadow. So the next day while she was at school I got a stepladder and got up on it to inspect the stain. It was not a shadow, and it was damp to the touch. It was a leak. I told my husband that when he got home from work. He went into our daughter’s room, looked as the stain, which was bigger now, and told me I was worrying over nothing but he’d look in the bathroom to see if he could find a leak. He “looked” but didn’t find anything. The stain didn’t get any bigger so I put it out of my mind and forgot about it. Until the morning when I went into my daughter’s room to put some laundry away and saw some paint flecks on her bedspread. I looked up. They weren’t paint flecks, they were small pieces of the ceiling. Just as I realized that I heard a noise and instinctively stepped back as the entire corner of the ceiling came fluttering down onto her bed. There was a leak. Caused by a hairline crack in the pipe going to the bathroom sink. And that hairline crack became a major crack that burst the pipe. I immediately called a professional plumbing service. The techs who came to the house were very nice but there was no denying that if we had called earlier they would have been able to fix the hairline crack before it caused the pipe to burst. A simple and inexpensive service call would have saved us a lot of time and money. So now I know that if I suspect there is a leak in the plumbing I need to call professional plumbers immediately and not wait for my husband to do nothing. If you suspect that there’s a leak in your plumbing don’t do what we did. Don’t wait for the leak to become an emergency. Call a professional plumbing service and get it fixed quickly.
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My wife has been on my case for awhile to fix up the outside of the house. And she’s right, it could use a spruce. The siding is looking a little worn and after the winter weather and the hot sun beating down on it the summer the house could definitely use a pick me up. So I decided it would be a good time to paint the exterior. But I’ve never taken on a job like this before. I wanted to do it myself so I watched some YouTube videos and read some DIY blogs to get pro tips on painting the outside of the house. I figured I’d go to the home improvement store, pick up a few cans of paint and some brushes, and get to work.
I was very wrong. I had no idea how many different kinds of exterior paints there are. There are also primers, trims and other things to deal with. I quickly realized I was in over my head. I figured the home improvement store staff would be able to help me figure out what paint to use and what colors would go well together but when I got to the store there wasn’t even anyone working in the paint department. After waiting for an hour for some help I just left. I passed a small local paint store on the way to the home improvement store so on the way home I pulled in there just to see what they had. I was really surprised by how many different kinds of paint they had in stock. They had design books and a computer to help you pick colors that went well together. And they had project books that gave advice and instructions for DIY painting jobs. I was happy to see that they had one for painting the exterior of the house. They had a computer set up where you put in information about your house, like the size of the house and what the exterior is made out of. After you put in all the information the computer prints out a sheet telling you what kind of paint is the best paint to use on your home’s materials and it tells you how much paint you’ll need. Genius! It made picking my paint a lot easier and I was able to get all the paint I would need so that I wouldn’t have to stop in the middle of painting and run out for more paint. They had some excellent designer colors. So I texted my wife photos of their color cards so that she could tell me which colors she wanted me to get. Ultimately she chose a warm beige for the siding and a nice deep red for the trim. I picked up some paint in the same red color for the front door. Getting all the prep work done was a breeze thanks to all the helpful information I got from the paint store. Now the house is painted and looks fantastic. Take my advice – skip the home improvement store and head to the paint store when you want to paint your home. I decided to do something different when it was time to repaint my building and I’m so glad I did. I have a small shop in a family oriented neighborhood. My customers are mainly people in the neighborhood who stop in for a newspaper, bread and milk and small things. They’re the bulk of my customer base. So a few months ago when I noticed that my building was looking a little drab and needed to be repainted I decided to do something very different. I decided instead of repainting the building a different color I’d have a large mural painted all around the building. I had recently seen a stunning mural on a business in the city and I loved the way it made the business stand out. And I loved the way that it made the building a real landmark. Everyone knew “the mural building” in the area around it.
So I did some research and I found a local company that specializes in painting murals. I had no idea what kind of art to put into a mural. But I called them to ask for an estimate and to get some ideas. When I called they set up a consultation for me with their art team. The artist and design team came to my building to look at it. Then they sat down with me for about half an hour and we talked about the design for a mural. A few days later they sent me an estimate that included help getting the permits I would need for the mural. The estimate was very fair. Once I agreed and signed all the paperwork the design team and I had a phone call to talk more about ideas. I told them they could have free reign in terms of art and color because I had no idea what would look good. Well when they sent me the proof to approve I was blown away. The art team had a designed an amazing mural depicting scenes from the neighborhood with kids playing and parents working and shopping. And at the heart of it was my store and my business name. It was so much better than I imagined it would be. I couldn’t wait for them to get started. As soon as they started painting the mural my store became the focal point of the neighborhood. People would stop by each day to see how the mural was coming along, and they’d buy some things too when they stopped by. When the mural was finished I think the whole neighborhood came out to see it. Some of the residents thanked me for adding some bright colorful art to the neighborhood. I just wanted to make my building stand out, but I ended up starting a movement. Now the businesses nearby are starting to do their own murals after seeing how much the local residents loved mine. My business almost doubled and my business now has the full support of the community, all because of a mural. It was the best business decision I’ve ever made. |
AuthorLover of all things home ownership. I have dreamed my whole life of owning my own home and now it's a reality! ArchivesCategories |