Tips to allergy-proof your home this Spring

As blogged on the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Spring is coming and with it come seasonal pollens. If you suffer from allergies or asthma, this time of year can be miserable. Allergens can also lurk in your home in the form of dust mite droppings, mold, pet dander, smoke and chemicals, leaving you with allergy symptoms year-round.

Fortunately, decreasing the amount of allergens in your home can lead to less severe allergies. Here’s how to do it through household cleaning.

To read these tips, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jFOOM

Spring Cleaning: Don't forget about the appliances and electronics in your home

As blogged on LJWorld.com, here are some appliances and electronics to put on your checklist, with tips on how to clean them yourself.

To read more, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jDF7S

Tips for removing mould and mildew from your home

As blogged on Philly.com, from mildew on shower grout to whole house mold problems caused by water damage, we've published some very helpful articles on preventing and removing mold from your house. Learn how to solve the problem at its root, and why mold removal is important for your health.

To read these articles, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jDC2z

Electrical safety check list for homeowners

As reported on Chron.com, even seasoned homeowners need to give their home the occasional electrical “checkup” to assure that wiring, circuit breakers, outlets and plugs are in good working order — and, above all, used safely.

"Electricity is a tool, and like any tool must be handled carefully," says Dave Borowski, spokesperson for Direct Energy. "We think of electricity as our servant, but it’s very powerful and we need to have a deep abiding respect for that power."

So here are simple tips — plus a list of what to double-check — to assure your home is wired for safety:

To read these tips, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jDAF2

AlbertaHomeOwner - April 2013 Update

Welcome to the April 2013 update for AlbertaHomeOwner.com – the regional website for Alberta home owners.

We thank everyone for their continued patronage and support on our journey of being the number one business to consumer websites for Canadian homeowners.

Online Business Directory

To list your company in the AlbertaHomeOwner.com business directory – Click Here

We welcome the below companies that have listed their businesses in our regional directories over the past 30 days:

• Alberta Mechanical & Salvaged Recycling Ltd.
• Bin Bros Recycling and Disposal
• Calgary Roofing Div. of GRS
• Condo Leo
• Downsizing Diva
• Home Renovations Inc.
• Janet Chilas, RE/MAX LifeStyles Realty
• Kim Taylor REALTOR - Royal LePage Northshore
• Larry Cunliffe - Keller Williams VIP Realty
• Luc Crawford Design Inc.
• MyHaven Greenvision Homes Ltd
• Patricia Wright, Notary Public
• Peak Ventures General Contracting

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News items posted over the past 30 days

To read any of these articles – Click Here for links

• The 10 don'ts of home decor
• Tips to revive your lawn this Spring
• Hottest home interior design trends in 2013
• Landscaping Tips for the First-Time Homebuyer
• Get off your wallet and invest in the current hottest real estate markets in the world
• After Four Years Is B.C. Home Inspection Licensing a Failure?
• Five tips to upgrade your outdoor living space for summer
• Banks pushing low mortgage rates in branches despite wishes of Flaherty
• Home Builders Across Canada Support PBIBC and Accredited Training in BC
• RBC: Home buying intentions plummet in Canada
• 10 Ways to Save Money on Used Furniture
• 5 Smart Home Technologies That Will Save You Money
• Tips for cleaning the exterior of your home with a pressure washer
• Energy Efficiency Building Envelope Retrofits for Your House
• Fed: Low-interest-rate policies are helping to boost growth around the world
• How secure is your home? Test it by pretending you’re locked out
• Nose Staging: Scents that make your home more appealing to buyers
• Where are the most expensive cities for real estate in the world?
• Google Glass could allow users to control household appliances
• The Top 5 Easiest Ways to Stage Your Home
• Survey: Cleaning your home may lead to a romantic rendezvous
• Free E-Book: 106 Tips about Mold: Remediation, Removal, Testing and Prevention
• 17 Bizarre Real Estate Listing Photos
• Federal budget changes to introduce some limits on the use of mortgage insurance
• Nearly one quarter of Vancouver's condos are empty
• Let market decide, Conservative minister tells Flaherty on mortgage rates
• A look at some low-cost prefabricated offices for your "home office"
• Why Jim Flaherty can't tame the household-debt dragon
• DIY tips to build a sunroom addition to your home for $1000
• Scotiabank Report: Housing market slowing down due to less demand, tougher mortgage rules
• Indicators of structural problems in your home
• Chinese officials claim that Ikea is selling unsafe kids furniture
• CREA Update: Canadian housing market outlook cools as sales plunge
• Spring cleaning tips to keep your home clean and clutter free
• Home contractor rips off Slave Lake fire victims
• Provincial budget forces 50% tax hike to Chestermere homeowners
• Opinion: Manitoba's new home warranty plan is weak
• Rogers launches Smart Home Monitoring in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe
• Aluminum siding vs stucco siding - Which is the best option for your home?
• Basement waterproofing - superficial vs. legitimate solutions
• 20 Home office organization tips
• Need new lights for your home? Why not make your own? 20 DIY light fixtures
• Statistics Canada - New Housing Index for January 2013
• Winnipeg family blames 2 builders for house problems
• Tips to improve your home’s insulation
• A look at the Ube WiFi Smart Light Dimmer
• DIY home staging tips to help you sell your home faster
• 20 decorating ideas to add some "spring" into your home office
• Steam cleaning is not only for cleaning carpets in today's home
• China's housing bubble to rival U.S. bust
• TD Economists: Home prices to gain just 2% annually over decade
• 10 Spring cleaning chores for your home
• Province's tax reforms will have little immediate impact to Edmonton home owners
• Red flags that your homeowners insurance needs updating
• New affordable seniors residence opens in Burnaby
• Home staging "on the cheap" DIY tips
• Where are the best places to find cheap real estate in the United States?
• CHMC: Canadian housing starts up in February
• The top 5 eco-friendly building materials
• How Nanotechnology is used by the furniture industry to become more efficient
• Tips for buying high-quality, low-priced furniture
• BOC: Interest rates will continue to hold at record low levels
• Fires in multi-suite residential dwellings studied
• Are household appliances getting too complicated for us homeowners?
• Regina home builder fined for failing to file taxes
• 8 Tips to help you set up an organized and productive home office
• How Facebook Graph Search will change real estate
• Canadian home sales slip further, but signs of traction emerge
• Kelowna Real Estate Sales Update for March 2013
• Flaherty urges ‘prudent’ mortgage lending
• Looking for a new home? Home hunting tips to help you find the right one
• The 10 commandments of used furniture
• BC condo owners lawsuit over Travelers home warranty going to trial
• 8 home gadgets and appliances that are going extinct
• 5 bonus perks of having a home security system

To read any of these articles – Click Here for links

Resources Centre

We offer our home owner visitors a comprehensive list of resource links –Click Hereto access

Events Calendar

Want to find an upcoming event that pertains to home ownership in your local area?Click Here

Final Comments

We encourage your feedback and suggestions to help make our websites even more user friendly for both our homeowner visitors as well as the businesses that advertise on our website and in our directories. You can contact us anytime by Clicking Here.

Thank you for being part of our success. We look forward to your next visit in the very near future.

Best Regards,

Arnie Gess

The 10 don'ts of home decor

As blogged on NewYork.MetroMix.com, whether you're a diva, a country girl or a beach bum, it's important to make your personality shine through in your living space.

But let's be honest: Achieving your ideal look isn't as easy as it appears on some television design shows. Those hosts are professional decorators. But regular people? We make mistakes.

Part of the problem is that many of us start the decorating process without mapping out a strategy.

"If you don't have a plan, your style can go off in another direction or you'll buy things that don't fit the room," says interior designer Taniya Nayak of HGTV's Billion Dollar Block and Food Network's Restaurant: Impossible. "You go all mish-mash and spend a lot more money than you need to."

But that stops here. Three interior designers clue us in to the biggest blunders people make when decorating their homes and tell us how to do things right-the first time-to create a happy space without wasting time or money.

Here are their top 10 Décor Don'ts:

To read these tips, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jBHGy

Tips to revive your lawn this Spring

As blogged on PopularMechanics.com, the most important part of a lawn isn't the grass. It's the soil underneath. If the soil is in bad shape, no amount of fertilizer or pesticide will save it. Late winter and early spring are the right time to get started if your soil needs attention, you need to reseed, or you want to rethink having a lawn at all. Wait until summer and you'll end up having to use a lot of water trying to save struggling plants from the heat. Here are a few ways to assess and respond to your lawn's needs:

To read these tips, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jBHeA

Hottest home interior design trends in 2013

Ginny Snook Scott blogs on HuffingtonPost.ca about the hottest interior design trends for your home.

To read Ginny’s blog, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jAQo6

Landscaping Tips for the First-Time Homebuyer

As blogged on RealEstate.com, buying your first home is both frightening and exciting, and that’s understandable. It should be. Your home is most likely the biggest purchase you will ever make. Whether or not you’re a first-time homebuyer, chances are there was something about the house or property that made you feel like this was a place to call “home.”

For many people, moving into a house, as opposed to a condominium, means the opportunity to have enough space for letting the dog run around, playing catch with your children, or hosting big barbeque parties. In other words, it means having a backyard, and having a backyard brings a whole new set of responsibilities.

If you’re like most potential homebuyers, you’re concentrating on the house, not the landscape, when viewing a home for sale. As you shop for your new home, the following landscaping tips will hopefully help you avoid expensive problems in the future.

To read these tips, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jAPGz

Get off your wallet and invest in the current hottest real estate markets in the world

As blogged on Forbes.com, where are the current hottest locations in the world to buy real estate?

To find out, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jAOZQ

Five tips to upgrade your outdoor living space for summer

As blogged on palatkadailynews.com, from grilling and dining to simply relaxing, your home’s deck is frequently the center of family life during warm weather months. That’s why there’s no better time to give your outdoor living space the upgrade it deserves.

Whether you’re building a dream deck from scratch – or sprucing up an existing space – here are five tips for do-it-yourselfers who want to start turning their outdoor living aspirations into reality this weekend.

To read these tips, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jxSSB

Banks pushing low mortgage rates in branches despite wishes of Flaherty

As reported on BNN.ca, a sign in a Toronto Bank of Montreal branch promoting a five-year fixed mortgage rate of 2.89 percent Wednesday is just one indication that Canada's Finance Minister has his work cut if he wants to stop banks from offering ultra-low rates.

The big banks are generally toeing the line by keeping their posted - or nationally advertised - rates at higher levels after Finance Minister Jim Flaherty scolded lenders over recent rate cuts, fearing they would stoke the housing market. However, bank staff and brokers are competing hard for customers and rates below 3 percent are now the norm for five-year fixed-rate mortgages. And analysts who cover the sector say that, if anything, rates are likely to fall further.

To read more, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jxRyz

RBC: Home buying intentions plummet in Canada

As reported on BNN.ca, only 15 percent of Canadians say they're likely to buy a home in the next two years, according to a poll by RBC. That's a 27-percent drop from last year, marking the sharpest decline in the survey's 20-year history. RBC economist Paul Ferley explains what's behind the drop.

To watch this BNN video, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jr6K0

10 Ways to Save Money on Used Furniture

As blogged on BillCutterz.com, if you, like most of us out there are feeling the pinch, finding that currency just doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, you’re probably interested in knowing how to buy furniture on the cheap. We look at where to find good furniture deals that will help you create a beautiful home without busting your budget. Here are 10 ways to save money on used furniture.

To read more, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jr5JM

5 Smart Home Technologies That Will Save You Money

As blogged on Freshome.com, swapping out old home appliances and replacing them with new “smart” technologies and systems can be a good move by opening up the door to saving a substantial amount of money on utilities. Each household will be different and will require a unique look into the needs and uses of these potential technologies. Not every solution listed here will benefit every household equally. For example, small homes which don’t use very much electricity might not benefit from installing solar panels like a large home. The future looks bright for energy conservation and smart gadgets are entering the market for consumers at an ever increasing rate.

To read more, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jr2Jx

Tips for cleaning the exterior of your home with a pressure washer

As blogged on PressureWashingHickoryNC.com, if you plan on using a pressure washer on your home for some spring cleaning, I recommend you read this article so the task is done properly.

To read, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jqZfM

Energy Efficiency Building Envelope Retrofits for Your House

As blogged on the CMHC website, homeowners are becoming increasingly interested in improving the energy efficiency of their house to reduce costs, improve comfort and help protect the environment. Many older Canadian houses are relatively drafty and lightly insulated, and this can result in higher heat losses and energy bills — even in those built more recently, between the 1950s and the 1980s. These houses likely use at least 25 per cent more space heating energy than houses built after 2010, because increased insulation and airtightness levels have been included in more recent building codes.

In Canada, space heating accounts for over 60 per cent of residential energy use and, therefore, makes up a good proportion of your overall energy bill. Fortunately, there are several options that you, as a homeowner, can consider for reducing heat loss, including adding, or retrofitting, insulation to your house. A well-insulated and well-sealed house needs less heating in the winter (and less cooling in the summer), protects you from increasing energy prices, uses resources more efficiently, has less environmental impact, and is more comfortable to live in.

Choosing how much insulation to add to your house can be confusing and will be influenced by the space heating energy savings you wish to achieve, the way your house is constructed, and your budget. This About Your House provides general guidance for achieving varying degrees of space heating energy savings by better insulating and air sealing your house.

To read more, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jqW7r

Fed: Low-interest-rate policies are helping to boost growth around the world

As reported on CanadianBusiness.com, Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday that the Federal Reserve’s low-interest-rate policies are helping to boost growth around the world and have created markets for products made in developing nations.

In a speech at the London School of Economics, Bernanke staunchly defended the Fed’s policies and similar stimulus efforts pursued by other central banks since the 2008 financial crisis.

To read more, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jqMEZ

How secure is your home? Test it by pretending you’re locked out

As blogged on WindsorStar.com, it’s not what you’ve done that threatens your home’s security, it’s what you haven’t done. Try thinking like a burglar; it may provide the best answers to your home-security deficiencies. And if you’re the type of person who can’t get into that mindset, then try pretending you’re locked outside your home.

To read more, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jn6AV

Nose Staging: Scents that make your home more appealing to buyers

As blogged on RealtyPin.com, most home sellers know the basics of attracting buyers, but in the past few years, people have gotten even more creative by using special scents in their home. That way, they can leave a lasting impression and generate positive feelings about their home from potential buyers. In recent years, realtors have encouraged sellers to burn nice-smelling candles or even to bake a pie before their homes were going to be shown so that people would get a warm and happy feeling when checking out homes. In this case, the nose knows best! Luckily, you don’t have to go to the trouble of baking anymore, but you should certainly consider one of these top five scents for your home to make your home more appealing:

To read more, click on the link below:

http://ow.ly/jlEhf