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Make your own autumn wreath
Preparing your garden for fall
Local business uses “dustless blasting”
What does your door say about you?
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Page 2
Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013
DIY Autumn Wreath By AMBROSIA NELDON ambrosia.neldon@leaderpub.com
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As fall approaches, homeowners begin to get into decorating fever, in anticipation for the winter holidays. This can be expected, I suppose, after looking at Christmas decorations for as many as two to three months in some retail stores. The problem, however, is that those same retails stores tend to head straight into the money-making Christmas decorations and skip over the scarecrows and cornstalks and all those other warm-colored festive fall treats that make up my favorite season. I was not entirely unsuccessful on my mission to find decorations for fall weather this weekend, though. However, as these things usually go, items high in demand and low in availabity tend to be on the expensive side. I saw this one sweater-looking wreath that I simply could not do without, but I also couldn’t afford the $50 price-tag. So I made it myself, and you can to. This autumn wreath is easy and inexpensive to make. I made mine in under one hour and for less than $10. Here’s how: 1. Cut off a piece of yarn in a manageable size What You’ll Need (about 2 feet or • Yarn (any kind you want, but less). thicker yarns provide the 2. Tie the yarn in a “sweater” look, and make the knot around the process go more quickly.) Styrofoam • Styrofoam wreath of any size (I w re at h , a ny used an 8” wreath.) where on the wreath. • Tacky glue (You won’t need 3. Wrap the yarn much) tightly around the wreath until • Embellishments (fake leaves, you have about stickers, felt, monogram letters, etc.) an inch left of yarn. 4. Cut another section of yarn. Tie the new piece of yarn to the old piece of yarn. 5. Continue wrapping. 6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the wreath is completely covered in yarn. I found that it was easier to use shorter pieces of yarn so the yarn does not get tangled. 7. Glue on whatever embellishments you like. 8. Hang and enjoy!
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Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013
Local business uses “dustless blasting” on more than cars By JOHN EBY john.eby@leaderpub.com If you think body shops sit around waiting for vehicles to hit deer so they can bump out crumpled fenders, think again. Don Bonomo at Bonomo’s Collision Center, 58209 M-51, south of Dowagiac, north of Niles and adjacent to Pokagon Band Tribal Police near Four Winds Dowagiac casino, last spring invested $35,000 in a Texas-made Dustless Blasting machine. He mounted the bright green machine in a panel truck with a larger air compressor, creating a mobile unit with hoses and a nozzle which resembles firefighting apparatus. His motivation in acquiring the first such machine in this area was keeping closer to home typical sandblasting he outsourced to South Haven. While the Dustless Blasting truck serves as a roaming billboard advertising the service, its applications seem endless. It can remove graffiti from brick, mold and stains from residences and clean grime from boats. He’s experimenting with it on a rental house he owns and preparing to apply its abrasion to the sidewalk across the front of the business and has applied it to transform the appearance of old barn siding. “Doing body work, we fix up two or three old cars a year,” Bonomo said. “Especially on older cars, they need to be stripped to bare metal to do them right. I thought having one here myself would be ideal rather than having to take it to someone else. One of my vendors told me he knew someone who bought one this summer near Cleveland. I saw one guy using one this summer at a house on the St. Joseph River. It cost a lot of money, but I’ve been wanting one, and when I saw all the other things it can do, it sounded like the one to go with. It can go anywhere, where a lot of sandblasting and sodablasting operations need to be in confined buildings because of the dust plume.” In sodablasting, sodium bicarbonate is applied against a surface using compressed air. An early use in the late 1980s restored the Statue of Liberty.
“Dustless” mixes the blast material, pulverized recycled glass instead of sand, with water. “That’s the key to the whole thing,” Bonomo said. “Water vapor keeps dust to nothing. You can keep it clean even doing it in someone’s yard because sand’s not bouncing back at you.” Gauges allow Bonomo to regulate air pressure, or PSIs (pounds per square inch). “If you want to knock scale off stuff or on a house or cement or graffiti from a building, you turn the pressure down,” he said. “If you want to do a rusty, nasty ol’ trailer, you crank the pressure up to like 150 PSI and it strips it like that. Doing a fiberglass boat, you’d want to turn it way down. Sand can warp sheet metal easily and destroy it.” Bonomo’s Collision Center has been in business for more than 10 years — 6 1/2 years at its present location, the former J.R. Martin. It has more than 30 years experience serving all makes and models of cars, trucks and SUVs and offers a variety of services, including auto body repairs, custom paint, auto glass and full restorations, plus sells used cars.
Leader Photos/JOHN EBY
Page 4
Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013
How to prepare your garden for winter By AMBROSIA NELDON ambrosia.neldon@leaderpub.com Many home owners spend their summers spending time and money on landscaping their yards. As winter approaches, gardeners grow worried about the effects of the winter weather on their plants. Jill Blankert, certified master gardener and a manager at Shelton’s Greenhouse in Niles, says the key to preserving plants is knowing when and what to cut back, what to pull out and what to mulch. Blankert said once the days and evenings are both consistently cold, it’s time to trim back your plants. “Unless you have winter growth — pretty plumes — on your
ef re r a
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ornamental grasses, now is the time to cut those down,” she said. Blankert added that you should never trim more than onethird of the plant’s height back on anything, and if growers miss the fall cutting season, they should cut their plants back in very early spring, as soon as the weather breaks, around March. Next, gardeners should be sure to rake leaves out of their garden. She said that decomposing leaves can be good for the plants, but if too many leaves are left on top of the plants, mold could grow on top of them, which is very detrimental to plants’ health. Gardeners should also clip back perennials and shrubs with any diseased leaves and be sure to remove the clipping from the garden. Finally, gardeners should be sure to take extra care of any newly planted trees and shrubs. She said all new shrubs should be mulched. Mulching trees and shrubs helps to keep moisture in the root system, which helps the plants survive the winter and thrive in the spring. “Be careful not to mulch too close to the trunk of the shrub, though,” Blankert notes. “The mulch should be at least four inches away from the trunk in order to prevent mold growth that causes mice to chew at the bark.”
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Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013
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Page 6
Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013
What does your door say about you? By JOHN EBY john.eby @leaderpub.com Our front door’s purple. Since it was my wife’s idea, it reveals Sue as a “free-spirited” person comfortable taking risks, thinking differently and dreaming big. “An entry door painted a bold shade of orange says, ‘I’m friendly, funloving and enjoy getting together with people,’ so that’s the color for an extrovert and perhaps not the best choice for someone who has a more reserved personality,” according to Kate Smith, a national color expert. She says you should try to match the color of your entry door with your personality to give guests a “preview” of the owner residing inside. An introvert with an orange front door?
You could be a diehard Dowagiac Chieftain fan sending mixed messages to your friends and neighbors. “Since the front door is the key feature on a house that offers homeowners the most flexibility in color choice, this is a good place for people to let their personality shine through,” says Smith, president of Sensational Color. Smith’s desire to put colors together goes back to when she could satisfy it with a big box of stillin-the-wrapper, factoryperfect Crayola crayons. As a young girl she arranged and rearranged the many colors into combinations she found pleasing. Other times, she grouped them by color, then from light to dark. She even came up with what she thought was the
So, what color should your door be? • White — you prefer things organized, neat and clean. Even if your home isn’t always this way, you wish it was. • Green — You have traditional values and enjoy being a member of the community. • Black — You’re consistent, conservative and reserved in your manner as well as your approach to color. A black door says your design style is timeless rather than trendy. • Blue — You are naturally at ease in most situations. People are attracted to your easygoing personality. • Yellow — A personality similar to green, but a bit less traditional. You’re most likely a leader or organizer of a group.
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Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013
perfect way to arrange them in the box, oblivious there was any theory behind what she did naturally with her intuition about color. Loving color led her to pursue a fine arts degree, but even during university studies, Smith often found herself more interested in colors’ interaction than in perfecting drawing or painting techniques. She began her career
in product development and marketing and worked her way into the executive ranks of several Fortune 500 companies, learning to predict color trends in an arena where the correct direction carries significant financial impact. In 2001, Smith traded her corporate office for a home office. In 2005, she launched the first blog devoted solely to exploring all as-
pects of color. She works with many national companies as a consultant, media personality and spokesperson and is also retained as an inspirat iona l speaker and seminar leader, giving talks that weave in color theory and psychology. Smith suggests homeowners purchase smooth, paintable doors for their homes so they can select and add the
color that best reflects their personality. “I love Classic-Craft Canvas Collection fiberglass entry doors from Therma-Tru,” founded in 1962 in Maumee, Ohio, Smith says. “You can paint these doors any hue you wish to express yourself while quickly adding a colorful accent to your home.” “Homeowners should remember they don’t always have to go ‘bright
and bold’ with color on their front doors to make a positive impression,” Smith says. “Muted colors like sage green, colonial blue and copper sunset are all striking colors that enhance a home while showing your true colors. “In my mind, the really terrific thing about having a paintable front door is the ability to change your door’s color over time. You may start
out with a conservative black door, but transition over the years to more of a hunter green or ocean blue. Having the ability to paint your entry door allows you to update your home’s exterior while sharing your evolving personality with the neighborhood.” Smith has a 17-page FRESH Exterior Colors Guide to help select “top down” colors for home exteriors.
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Page 8
Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013
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Page 9
Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013
Tips to cut home utility bills and improve comfort and energy efficiency as Great Stuff Insulating Foam Sealant, to tackle a series of sealing projects around the home. • Two Hours: It only takes a couple of hours to seal all those gaps and cracks that cause drafts in your home. Doing so will permanently increase the comfort, performance and energy-efficiency of your house. For a complete home sealing project checklist, visit www.GreatStuff.dow. com/pdfs/checklist. pdf. • Three Locations: Three key locations will be impacted the most by air sealing projects -- the attic, basement and central living space. So where should you start looking? An easy trick to remember is the ABC’s of air sealing: • A is for Attic: The attic is one of the main places in the home you’re likely to lose heat. So in addition to adding insulation, seal around the attic door to help keep air from escaping. You’ll keep heat inside your living space and make your All you need to get family comfortable year-round by sealing started is: the attic tightly to pre• One sealant: An in- vent drafts. • B is for Basement: expensive product can do the trick. Opt for a It’s damp, dark and versatile sealant, such cold, and often one of (StatePoint) Having trouble keeping your home comfor table year-round? You’re not alone. The average mid-size U.S. home has a staggering half mile of gaps and cracks that outside air, including dust and allergens, can infiltrate and that inside, conditioned air can leak out of, according to the Air Barrier Association of America. Just as you wouldn’t want to leave a window open in winter or summer, you don’t want to let gaps and small holes around windows, doors, plumbing penetrations and electrical outlets go unaddressed. By doing some straightforward air sealing and insulating projects around the home, homeowners can typically save up to 30 percent on home energy costs, according to the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET). Even if you’re not that handy, you’re in luck. Sealing your home is as simple as knowing your 1,2,3’s and ABC’s.
the largest air leakage culprits in the home. It’s also the most accessible, making it an excellent place to start sealing to prevent cooler air from seeping into the rest of your house. • C is for Central Living Areas: Don’t neglect the most trafficked areas of your house where you eat, sleep, watch TV and hang out. Fill the gaps and cracks in your living spaces -- including around electrical outlets and plumbing penetrations -- to prevent drafts throughout the year that directly impact the comfort of the home. By sealing plumbing penetrations with sealants like Great Stuff Insulating Foam Sealants, homeowners can begin to see financial returns after less than half a month, saving $45 annually, according to a recent study conducted by Dow Building Solutions and DR Nelson & Associates. By following easy steps to seal your home, you can put a little extra spending money in your pocket and increase the overall comfort, performance and energy efficiency of your home.
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Page 10
Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013
Five signs you need to insulate your home this winter (StatePoint) The average family spends more than $1000 annually -- nearly half a home’s total energy bill -- on heating and cooling costs, according to the U.S. government’s Energy Star program. Unfortunately, a large portion of those expenses are wasted due to poor home insulation. Homeowners prepping for winter can stop the energy waste cycle by taking a closer look at their insulation. As one of the fastest and most cost-efficient ways to reduce energy waste and lower bills, insulation traps warm air inside a home’s walls -- similar to how a fleece sweater does for the body -- to regulate a home’s temperature. But how do you know if your home is properly insulated? “Fortunately, there are telltale signs that can alert any homeowner that it’s time to add to or replace their home’s insulation -- before the temperature plunges and the energy bill rises,” says Mike Benetti, segment manager at Roxul, a leading manufacturer of stone wool insulation. The experts at Roxul advise any homeowner with a do-it-yourself mentality to run through the following checklist to determine whether their home has adequate insulation: • Vintage home: Prior to consistent building codes, most homes built before 1980 were not insulated. If your home has no materials trapping heat, energy conservation is an uphill bat-
tle. Walls, ceilings and floors are the most important areas to add insulation for an immediate, positive impact on a home’s energy usage and bills. • Non-stop furnace: Does your furnace seem to run non-stop in the winter? Adequate insulation leads to less maintenance on your heating system, as it lasts longer, runs less and will require less maintenance for long-term cost savings.
Page 11
Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013
• Temperature inconsistency: If you feel cold spots coming from the walls or attic, or one room of your home is drafty and another one warm, you may need to beef up your insulation. The fireplace, walls and attic are prime spots for drafts. Look for insulation that can fit snugly in rafters and other tight areas. For example, Roxul ComfortBatt insulation made from recycled stone, can be cut with a serrated blade for an exact fit. • Roof hot spots: If your shingles are exposed after a recent snowfall, chances are these “hot spots” are indicative of warm air escaping. Check your attic for adequate insulation. If you can easily see your floor joists, you should add more. Use insulation, such as stone wool, that won’t sag or lose density over time. • Mold Growth: Mold in the corners of ceilings could mean your current insulation slumps and holds moisture. If this occurs, it’s time to replace your insulation with one that does not store or transfer moisture and is completely resistant to mold, mildew, rot and bacterial growth, such as Roxul ComfortBatt. More information about properly insulating your home can be found at www.Roxul.com. Don’t let cool weather take you by surprise. With proper insulation, you can improve the comfort of your home significantly and enjoy energy savings.
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Page 12
Fall Home Improvement • September 22, 2013