Stained Glass Restoration Methods Are Not All The Same

Stained glass is an amazing thing. When you see the colorful elements in a window, you can appreciate the work and colors that are in place. However, over time, these are going to start to warp, decay, and weaken. When that happens, your beautiful artistry could very well go away if you don’t fix it. Restoring stained glass solutions is not simple. You cannot just go with any solution to fix this, nor replace it. If you’re thinking about restoring stained glass, it’s important that you choose the right solution to get this process done.

The Problem With Certain Restoration Methods

The biggest issue that you’re going to find with restoring stained glass is the location and methods. Most often, experts try to work with options that are set in place. That means trying to fix things without taking them out, or moving them. Sagging, disruptive windows are fixed and stretched in place. This method is very difficult to manage, and often can cause shatters.

Conservation methods usually take the windows out and take them apart. Then new pieces are put into place, or weight elements are used to ease stress points and stretch out glass particles. Rebuilding in this manner takes precision, time, but can be cost effective considering the lasting effects. Keep in mind that restoration in place, without removal, is just a band aid.

Replacing Lead Elements

Experts agree on lead replacement. Lead can be the one strength in restoring and conserving windows overall. Because this is pliable, it can help with strengthening glass, as well as bring sagging elements back up. It also can be sealed over with elements such as plexiglass or polycarbonate solutions that will help stand up against Mother Nature.

Phases May Be Necessary

It’s important to understand that cost is going to be a factor. All restoration and conservation methods cost money because of the use of the glass elements. Stained glass repair takes a special set of skills to do properly, and will not be able to get done by just anyone. Furthermore, getting the right pieces, re-leading, and conserving for the future can be difficult to process which is why many have to work in phases.

If cost is a factor, you may want to look into re-leading in pieces. By going in quadrants, sagging areas can be improved, restoration can slowly begin, and the glass can improve in time. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to understand that there are several options to consider when needing to restore stained glass.

Restore your glass https://stanleywindowcare.com/glass-restoration.php

Combining A Nanny and A Housekeeper – Good Idea or Bad Idea

Parents are pulled across all sectors. They are asked to do a lot more with the same amount of time other people get. Within the 24 hours a day an individual has, they have to worry about kids, work, and much more. To help alleviate the pressure and schedule overall, people often hire nannies, and housekeepers to help with some of the household issues and childcare as well. But what if you were to combine the jobs? Could having one person fill both roles be a good plan of action? There are a few things you may want to consider about this before you move forward with either solution. 

Consider Your Needs

The first major thing that you should do is simple, consider whether or not you need one or the other more? Consider whether you really want a double duty individual, or if you want one solution over another. You may find that you need one service more than the other, and while you may want both, you may not need both. There’s a different set of candidates that are going to be able to perform with a dual role. This is going to cost you a bit more than just hiring an individual to do one and not the other. Doing two jobs will require a substantial increase in your costs. 

Time And Finances

How long will the tasks you need done take. Think about how long a person will be babysitting versus how long they are going to be cleaning up the home. By knowing this simple scheduling element, you’ll be able to determine your budget and how to move forward. Ask candidates about how they work out their days and what an average day looks like. By doing this, you’ll have a better understanding of what they can do and whether it’s worth spending extra. 

Testing The Waters 

If you decide hiring a nanny that also plays housekeeper, make sure that you test the waters. This means that you should test the option out and see how it works out after a couple of weeks. You should have a clearly defined testing period to see if this is advantageous to you and your family. An individual will understand this, and will also give you a report of whether or not they can divide their days properly within the confines of doing both jobs. 

Remember, don’t rush through the hiring process. Take into consideration if you definitely need a nanny or a housekeeper. Which is more important to your family? Do you really need both? If you do in fact need both, you can consolidate, just take your time during the hiring process. 

Learn more about housekeeping at https://www.maidbrigade.com/ca/orange-county/

Cleaning Up Nightmare Messes With These Simple Tips

Cleaning up your home may be difficult. In fact, many face off against big messes and dread doing it again. If you have found that cleaning up is becoming hectic, perhaps it’s time to learn how to work smarter, not harder. With that in mind, consider the following helpful ideas to make difficult tasks a bit easier overall. These will pay off dividends, no doubt.

Microwave Problems

Use water to help clean up the microwave. What you’ll need to do is steam water, about 2 cups, and a little vinegar. Heat this up for 5 minutes and when it’s all over, you’ll have an easy cleanup project. Wipe away the inside of your microwave after this, and you’ll get everything 100% free and clear, clean and neat without a fuss.

Garbage Disposal Smell

When you’re constantly using your garbage disposal, you’re going to end up with smells. There’s no real way to avoid this. But there are ways to clean and deodorize. The best way to do this is to look no further than baking soda and vinegar. Use half a cup of each item and toss it into your sink. Then run hot water, and turn on your disposal. The combination will clean and deodorize with relative ease.

Collecting Pet Hair With Gloves

Did you know that a pair of rubber gloves can help you clear pet hair? What you’ll need is a pair of gloves and a little water. Wet the gloves a bit and just glide over surfaces where your pets hang out. Doing so will collect small fibers and will help you clear up any area that you have in place. It’s going to be a great solution, without having to vacuum, etc.

Getting Rid of Mold 

This is a secret most will not believe. To clean grout that has become moldy, use cotton balls or coils. Soak them in bleach and put them on the tiles where the mold is and leave them there overnight. Done right, you’ll find that the mold will lift and you’ll have clean tiles yet again. Make sure that your bathroom’s fan is on so that you can get some ventilation, and be careful whenever using bleach.

Cleaning Blinds

Lastly, if you want to clean blinds, use a little dish soap and water. Mix this up and then put them in a squirt bottle. Use the mix to spray along the sides of the blinds, and then close and open them, and wipe away the dirt and grime with ease. You’ll find that this can be done every few months and you’ll have clean and clear blinds.

Free House Cleaning Estimates by Maid Brigade

Security Tips You Most Likely Didn’t Think About

When it comes to home protecting, you may find that there are some common elements you go through. Locking your doors, and putting in motion sensors can be a good start. However, that’s just the beginning of what you should be thinking about overall. There are a lot of different security elements that you should consider, especially when it comes to modern protection. Much like security systems have evolved, so have the tactics that criminals use to break into homes. The following tips can help you get a leg up on some of the things you can do to protect your home against modern issues.

Don’t Let Anyone Know 

One of the worst things that you can do when leaving for vacation is simple, tell everyone. Many people make announcements on their social media pages, and many tell a lot of people about upcoming vacations. Don’t do that. You never know who can be hearing you talk and who may be following you on social networks. The last thing you want to tell people is that your home is going to be empty and ready for breaking into.

Clean Up Your Tools and Lock Sheds

If you keep gardening tools in your shed, or you leave them out in the open, you’re letting criminals have options for breaking and entering your home. Cleaning up and putting away tools is a good starting point, but also make sure that you lock your shed tight. The last thing you want is to find out that a criminal broke in using tools that you left out.

Purchase A Home Security System

In today’s internet age, you’ll find that home security systems can piggy back off of your wireless internet connection. You can also connect to your smartphone, and even get informed about all the elements that are going on in your house. You can keep a bird’s eye view of everything and ensure that you’re protected against nefarious characters. There are a variety of options that you can explore in this regards, many of which are inexpensive. Oh, and if you go this route, you can save money on renters and home insurance.

Change Your Locks

Perhaps the best tip that you can take with you today is simple, change your locks. When purchasing a house or moving into a new condo, change the locks. You don’t want to have the same key sets that a previous tenant had, and you don’t want to let anyone from the past in. Changing your locks will help you gain peace of mind in regards to locking up your home.

Home Security by http://astrolocks.com/

Getting Rid of Cat Pee Smell

You may love your cat, and you may give them a lot of love. They will return the favor when they use their litter box by cleaning up a little. Keeping this clean will help you avoid any smells, and your kitty will love you even more. But here’s the thing, they may sometimes miss the box. Whether it’s because you missed cleaning up or because they just couldn’t make it all into the box, you may find that a little dribble outside of their area can cause a bad smell. If you want to get rid of this smell, there are a few things that you should keep in mind moving forward.

Is Your Cat Sick? 

Before we get to the cleaning aspect, first determine whether or not your cat is sick. If they are not hitting the litter box, or they seem to be having a problem with peeing, they may have an issue in your home. Whether it’s because there’s another cat around, or they are dealing with a real sickness, you will need to get the opinion of a vet to figure this out. Sometimes, this is a sign that your cat is sick and needs help. If you’ve determined that this is not the issue, then you will no doubt want to get to the cleaning, which can be simple.

Fabric Options

If you have pee smell on any fabrics, including cushions, you should look into cleaning things up with simple detergent. You can clean up with baking soda, or just use a regular laundry detergent that can help you get the smell and stain out with ease. This is not complex in most cases as cats don’t really pee a great deal when they use their litter box, or don’t, rather.

Carpeting Options

If you have an issue in the carpet, you will need to clean things up by first spotting the wetness up with a towel. You can even use paper towels if you need to, and blot the area to get things cleaned up with relative ease. One you do this, you will want to add a little baking soda to your carpet and let it settle. After about 20 minutes, use a vacuum to clean it up. That alone will clean up the smell and will give you clear carpeting.

Hard Wood Surfaces

Moving forward with the next step, you’ll want to look into cleaning up with your normal cleaner. There’s a variety of hard wood cleaners that work here, and the smell is not going to penetrate deep into this.

At the end of the day, you’re going to find that the scent of pee will be easy to clean, if you don’t use any ammonia based cleaners. That’s your one caveat, which will help you get to this fast.

Cleaning Tips by https://www.maidbrigade.com/ca/orange-county/

Cleaning Windows With Professional Tips

As the weather goes from cold to warm again, you’ll no doubt want to get some Spring cleaning done. One of the aspects of this is to get to your windows. Cleaning windows can be a tough job if you don’t do it properly. Many people think that this is all easy, but then they get to the task and run into a variety of problems. The following tips are tried and true, and are some of the same things that professional window cleaners utilize on a regular basis.

The Vinegar Cleaner

The first thing that you should know about cleaning windows is that you have a powerful element in your home. If you have white vinegar at home, then you have the secret ingredient to cleaning windows. Mix this with two parts water and use a spray bottle to get started. Spray this on your windows and wipe it away, that’s it. Well that’s the starting point anyway.

Clear Dry Dirt First

Before you start the cleaning of your windows, make sure that you wipe away dirt and dust first. Use a microfiber cloth to clear off these issues. By doing this, you’re going to avoid having to wipe and clean up over and over again. While cleansers do work, the effort that you will have to put in to get things clear will be double or triple. Just wipe things down first, it will pay off.

Dry Things Well

To avoid streaks, you’ll want to make sure that you dry things very well after you spray and wipe with a squeegee. If there’s any moisture left on your windows, you’ll see streaks. Also, make sure that you clean after the sun has finished hitting the areas that you want to clean. That’s going to cause the liquid to dry too fast, and could cause streaks to show up.

Cleaning Screens

If you’re going to clean windows, you might as well clean screens as well. If you don’t do this, you’ll have dirt and grime come back onto your glass. To clean screens use a large bucket of water with a little dish soap. Then use this mixture to clean the screens efficiently. Before putting them back up, make sure that you let them dry naturally.

For Deeper Cleaning

One last thing to remember about cleaning is that you may need additional support. For instance, if you have to deal with rust, you’ll need to get a cleanser that can help with this. Also, look into picking up products like CLR if you need to remove stains beyond just dirt and grime.

Stanley Window Care specializes in OC window cleaning http://www.stanleywindowcare.com/

A Quick Look At Low-VOC Paint

Paint is one of the best things that you can invest in. Whether you have a home or you are leasing, you can always add a little bit of paint and make things stand out. You can make any space your own by just throwing a little color around. There are a lot of paint options that you can explore in this regards, but there’s an argument brewing in regards to safety. When you have children, their safety becomes paramount and that means that you will want to consider what type of paint, fumes, and other issues can end up being let out when home improvement projects start. With that in mind, you may hear about low-voc paint, and the safety that it has.

What is VOC? 

VOC is found in paint and usually is found with organic elements. These elements can evaporate quickly, but when there’s a high concentration of them in paint, it can actually cause problems. The problems associated with paints of this type include irritable eyes, headaches, nausea, and much more. Long term exposure to this can even cause liver damage and issues with the nervous system, which is definitely not good. As a way to fight back against this, the industry has put out low-VOC options that can help avoid these medical problems.

For Pregnant Women

Perhaps the biggest jump in safety is in regards to pregnant women. Pregnant women will find that low-VOC paint is safe for those that are pregnant and are doing home improvement projects. Of course, ventilation is an important thing, but aside from that, this type of paint is not going to be a problem in terms of medical issues.

How To Identify Low-VOC Options

Most hardware stores today have this type of option in their paint department. When in doubt, ask the people at the counter in regards to this solution. You’ll find that paint companies that are providing this type of option will label their canisters with zero-VOC or low-VOC as well as “green” solutions. This will help you purchase the right solution to ensure that you’re getting a new look and feel in your home with safety in mind.

It should be noted that there are still risks involved with these options. However, they will be greatly reduced versus regular paint options. Your best bet is to look around for safe options, and still have a well aired room when painting just about anything in your home.

House Cleaning Tips by https://www.maidbrigade.com/ca/orange-county/