Real Home ImprovementThe Home Improvement Blog with real advice

When you get round to finishing off the refurbishment of your home,  making a decision on what fireplace to purchase can be a huge decision, because fires genuinely are the focal point of your home. Your fireplace can set the scene for an entire room (or even home!). When choosing your fire, a key question will undoubtedly cross your mind; should I go gas or electric?

Well that question above is very important to get right first time. I recommend personally always window shopping and talking to professionals in the industry before you go off and buy a new fireplace. Genuinely, Gas fires are the more attractive of the two (electric being the two, ).

I read a great article one which said;

The beauty of an open flame, even if it is behind glass is enchanting and electric fire has yet managed to replicate the effect yet, but that does come with drawbacks. Because it is producing heat it must be ventilated somewhere that isn’t your room so some ventilation will be required (this varies wildly on the type of fire you are having placed in your home.) So some building work may have to be carried out on your home depending on your circumstances.

This text above stands out for me in two ways. Firstly, it screams all the right points. And secondly, leaves electric fires to me. Electric Fires are fireplaces which generally can be instered anywhere within ones home without the need to modify anything before or during installation,

Both of these fireplaces have their upsides, however if we were going to choose, gas fires would definitely be our choice.

Are you bored of the existing style of your home? Do you want to add something special to your house? Then you can try for new designs of conservatories that will go perfect with your home interior designs. Over a long period, people are experimenting with their home décor in a certain way.

Rather than spending heavy amounts on the reconstruction of a  house, spend your useful amount on building conservatory in house. This is the popular way to utilize your extra space within the boundaries of your property by constructing a conservatory. UPVC conservatories are famous nowadays, which give a facility to make value for your existing property and utilizing it with best resources.

This technology extension can provide you with added benefits like keeping your house warm and cosy. Enjoy weather conditions by just sitting inside your conservatories. UPVC is not good in insulation but also keeps hot air inside your house thereby saving your energy bills.

With the installation of UPVC conservatories, you can add to your home and spend pleasurable time with your family and friends. Make your home stylish by installing conservatories that can be fitted in kitchens, halls, rooms and dining hall.

It goes perfect when you transform your conservatory in greenhouse by growing various types of plants, which are seasonal and can be nurtured inside a conservatory. Adequate amount of sunlight and heat will help in growing of plants. It will definitely look decorative with plants.

You can also make a conservatory in dining hall where you can enjoy your meals under bright light of sun and cool nights under moon. UPVC conservatries are made of UPVC doors and windows, which are cheaper and look great. UPVC doors and windows are the best things installed in your conservatory. They are durable and work for years, as they are made up of low maintenance materials. These can bear any type of weather conditions and weight. Design your own conservatory software easily available online.

Enlighten your living room with a conservatory, fill it with beautiful paintings, flooring and comfortable couches that makes it look lively. Spend time with guests in conservatory that is appealing and made up of UPVC material. If you are getting excessive heat in summers than add beautiful blinds for your doors and windows that will protect from high temperatures.

DIY conservatories are one of the best ways to style your house with new décor and look great as a part of construction. Enjoy the view of sky by lying on a couch under your conservatory. This is the best way to modernize your house with a conservatory with added facilities. Invest your money in making UPVC conservatories and you can sell your property in high amounts. A newly built conservatory can change the complete look of your house and you can make it more spacious with high roof and huge doors and windows. Design yourself or you can hire a professional interior designer who will design one depending on the extra space and area of house.

With the iPhone marketplace and technology growing fast it should come as no surprise that there are quite a few iPhone and iPod touch apps which can help during home improvement projects. Having tested a lot of home improvement apps, and in the process drawing out the very best ones, here is Real Home Improvement’s recommended home improvement apps for your iPhone and iPod Touch.

1) My Measures Lite (iPhone only)

My Measures Lite is a fantastic tool for anybody within an industry trade and also a fantastic app for anybody carrying out a home improvement project. Quite simply put, My Measures Lite allows you to take a photo of any object building or wall and then add dimensions afterwards – a little bit like a photo editor. With this app, you will never mis-measure anything again!

2) Ben Color Capture (iPhone only)

Ben Color Capture allows you to take a picture of any colour or any surface colour and match to to over 3300 hues which can be re-created in store. Very simple to use, highly intuitive and also completely free, Ben Color Capture is a fantastic app which could save you a lot of time when trying to find that perfect shade of paint!

3) Tapemeasure!

Tapemeasure! does exactly what is says on the tin. The app itself starts up straight away with no load time, and displays a vertical and horizontal ruler in either inches or centimentres. The only draw back to this app is that the maximum length the ruler / tapemeasure displays is 7 cm, or rather 3 inches, which can be toggled through a simple shake. A nice app for a quick measure.

4) Advanced Bubble Level Free

Advanced Bubble Level Free is a pretty handy app for the home improvement fiend in you as it does exactly what is says on the tin. It provides a rather accurate level guide when your iPhone / iPod Touch is placed in a flat surface and lets you see if anything needs tweeking or changing. It also loads up fast and has a quick download time.

5 ) Drywall Calculator ($0.99)

Okay admittedly this app is not free, but this application assists you in easily figuring out square footage of a room. Whether you want to calculate just the walls, ceiling or a slope (triangle), or any combination of the previous you would like to figure. This is a good app which does its simple purpose well.

So there we have it! Five (almost) free home improvement apps for those of you who have an iPhone and are going through a home improvement project .

There are many designs that you can put your home through – but one question always comes up within home improvement and home redesigns > Paint vs Wallpaper: Which suits your home best?

Of course there are many rooms in one house, with bathrooms obviously opting for paint over wallpaper for water damage reasons, but exactly what are the advantages and disadvantages of both materials and what can you do with them both?

Wallpaper Advantages

Wallpaper offers a huge variety of patterns to choose from as well as a huge selection of textures and colors which can be picked up at any home improvement shop or megastore. Plus, textured wallpaper can add more oomph to your walls which paints cannot offer (unless you get a professional painter which can be costly). Some new wallpapers even have beading, sequins, lace and ribbons that add more drama and style to a bare wall.

One of the main advantages to wallpaper is that it can easily hide holes in a wall or deep scratches which could have been caused from a variety of reasons. Also, if you are selling your home and have cracks in your plaster walls from general heating and cooling, a wallpaper session  can add new value to your sell.

Wallpaper is also your only option for fire damaged walls, unless the fire damage is light or you have arms of steel to get the soot off.

Wallpaper Disadvantages

The main disadvantage to all wallpapers is that they are horrible to clean and maintain as they (unless special wallpaper) soak up grease and stains quite easily. So if you have kids armed with crayons and chocolate covered hands your once beatiful wallpaper will quite simply become a mess.

Wallpaper can also be expensive, and the actual ‘putting it on’ time consuming if never done before. Wallpapaer generally also has a lower shelf life as they can fade under sun light.

Paint Advantages

Paint is a low maintenance, cheap and easy-to-apply interior treatment – Having painted walls means that you need not be so worried about maintaining and cleaning your walls. Most kinds of dirt and stains can easily be cleaned of a painted wall or when the stain does not come off completely, you can easily paint that area in the wall the same color to cover up the stain. While cover up stains and fixing unsightly marks on wallpaper can be quite difficult and expensive since you might have to remove one entire panel of wallpaper and replace it just because of a small stain.

Paint has a huge shelf life once applied, and if well maintained will last for years (ceiling paint excluded if you smoke as it will discolour due to nicotine stains).

Paint Disadvantages

Paint doesn’t really offer much texture or design and unlike wallpaper which can instantly create illusions, designs and texture where there are none, using paint to achieve the same effect can be a difficult task. If you want walls with flower designs without using wallpaper, you have to paint the flowers yourself which would take a lot of time and effort and usually only look crap anyway. You can also use stencils to paint designs although these designs would not be as detailed and flawless as those in printed wallpapers.

So which suits your home best? You now know the advantages and disadvantages to paint and wallpaper so take your pick . To be honest a mix of the two is always nice, and if you have a bedroom perhaps paint all round apart from the wall your beds headrest is on would be a good option.

All comments welcome.

Energy saving lightbulbs are slowly becoming the norm within houses with newer versions and revised editions becoming better and brighter. Although energy saving lightbulbs aren’t applicable in every room of your house – with really dark areas needing proper lighting, energy saving lightbulbs are one of the best ways to kick start a new greener life < and also save money in the process.

The phasing out of inefficient tungsten filament bulbs started well back in 2006, with bulbs over 100 watts being discontinued to make way for more efficient ones. The Next light bulbs to be phased out will be the standard shaped bulbs (usually called A-shaped) that are used in most homes, which require a fair bit of packaging and a lot of emissions in the production process.

Energy saving light bulbs fit in ordinary light fittings – and if you have a dimmer switch you can buy special dimming energy saving light bulbs. There are a few types of energy saving lightbulb to choose from, these are listed below;

Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs): these are the most common energy saving light bulbs and come in stick shape, candle shape, small or medium screw and bayonet fittings – they are also the cheapest and regularly, dependant upon manufacturer, last the longest too.

Energy saving halogen light bulbs: Halogen energy saving lightbulbs are a good option if you have halogen lights in your home. They consume around 30% less electricity than standard halogen bulbs, and are also brighter than CFLS.

LED lights: LED lighting has been used within industry and the military for years – they have progressed rapidly in recent years and can now be used to replace existing halogen spotlights. LED Lighting can also be used in design, and if you are in for a spot of home improvement then LED lighting is a fantastic way to make your home more modern.

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