If you are looking to replace the glass in your double glazed windows, rather than replacing the whole unit which can be a costly thing to do, then I have just used a great outfit called the Glass Shop. Continue reading Ipswich Double Glazing Glass Replacement
Category Archives: Home & Garden
Missing Cats in Ipswich
There has been a massive increase in cats that have gone missing in the Ipswich area in recent months, and the rate at which they are disappearing does not seem to be slowing. Continue reading Missing Cats in Ipswich
Painting Furniture with Chalk Paint
There is a trend right now for painting old furniture to give a shabby chic effect. There are many people out there doing this professionally but if you want to you can also get similar results on your own old and worn furniture.
The way to paint old furniture is to use chalk paint. There are two main manufacturers of this kind of paint – Annie Sloan, which seems to be the most popular make at the moment, and Autentico which is slightly lagging behind. Both paints come in a range of colours so that you have a great choice of matching in your revamped furniture.
One thing you do need to look out for though is the possibility that you might need to put an undercoat on the furniture you are painting. One of the misconceptions of painting with chalk paint is that you can paint on anything. Well, some dark wood furniture in particular will bleed through if you just paint on top of it. Both manufacturers also have an undercoat/sealant that you can use but you can also try using something like PVA. A lot of painting furniture is to do with trial and error, so try and paint a hidden part of the furniture you have first to see if it needs sealing.
You should not need to sand the furniture beforehand as the whole point of the chalk paint is so that you can just paint it straight on. If you do sand down the furniture first then you could just use a standard primer and paint and that will save you a lot of money.
Once you have applied the chalk paint to the furniture you will also need to seal it with some wax and again the 2 manufacturers supply their own wax products. If you want an ‘aged’ look to your furniture then apply a dark wax over a light coloured paint.
Annie Sloan paints are generally only available from appointed suppliers, some of which sell it online but Autentico paint can be bought from Amazon:
How to Freshen Up Feather Pillows
So I recently moved house and I had to store a load of stuff in my garage for a few months after moving, due to lots of renovation work being done in the house itself. A fair bit of this stuff I didn’t really want to keep in there due to the fact that it might get damp, but as the garage was watertight and it wasn’t going to be for too long I figured it might be OK.
Unfortunately when I brought the spare pillows back into the house they had a bit of a musty smell about them. As they were not that old I didn’t really want to throw them away so went hunting online for a solution to freshen them up. Most posts that I found (in fact pretty much all of them) said to put the pillows into the tumble dryer with a new tennis ball (sure of the significance of that!) but the problem was that I don’t actually have a tumble dryer!
Also I think that if the pillows had been filled with foam or other similar material I could have put them in the washing machine, but of course the ones I had were feather down.
I think most of the issue is that they just need airing. If it had been summer then I would have tried to hang them out on the washing line for a few days to see if that would do the trick. I might still do that again once summer is here. But in the end I just decided to lean them against a radiator. I kept turning them round so that both sides would get an airing and after a few days I did find that the pillows had lost that musty smell. I might also try spraying some fabric freshener on them but at the moment the radiator seems to be doing the trick.
Cheap Property Inventory
Renting Property in the UK
If you are renting out property in the UK then there are quite a number of things that you need to do and rules that you need to comply with before you can rent out your house or your buy to let property.
Although you do not actually have to have a property inventory carried out, it is a good idea to do so to protect not only yourself but also the tenant.
If you have a letting agent managing your property then they will likely either have a company that will carry out the property inventory for you or be able to do it themselves. However, this can be quite expensive and can cost in the region of around £100 or more to carry out a property inventory when the tenant moves in.
If you are looking to maximise your profit then it is possible to carry out your owncheap property inventory.
Why Do You Need A Property Inventory?
Under the current rules you must place the tenants deposit in a registered deposit scheme. Under the rules of this scheme, if you want to claim back any money from the tenant after they have vacated the property, for example if they have caused any damage or removed any of your property, then you must have proof of why you want to claim the money from them.
The best way to do this is to have a fully completed property inventory that is signed off by both the landlord and the tenant when the tenant moves in.
Not only should the property inventory include any property, fixtures and fittings etc that are left in the property, it should also include a condition report stating (preferably with pictures) the condition of the property in the event of any dispute about damage.
Cheap Property Inventory
So, if you want to save some money then you can do the property inventory yourself. However, it is good to go through a standard format to make sure that you cover everything that you need to and make the property inventory thorough and one that will stand up to any queries that may arise when the tenant vacates.
So you can find a cheap property inventory at shops like WH Smith. They have them available for around £20 together with other forms for landlords. Or you can find them for less than £10 on Amazon. There are currently a couple on offer so check out this cheap property inventory for starters. It includes templates for the property inventory plus guidance notes for the correct way of completing that and the statement of condition of the property.
