Harnessing the
Sun! Solar House
A Sustainable Makes Its Home At New Tellus Museum
pg. 12
4 Wa y s
to Avoid Foreclosure
Take your future into your own hands!
pg. 10
Little Home Repairs That Give a Big
pg. 8
Backyard BBQ Grilling Rules To Remember pg. 11
Bang for Your Buck!
Published by New Hope Publishing, LLC Office 404-629-0446 bjdavie@bellsouth.net www.HomeAndYouMagazine.com
a nhp publication
publisher / Editor in chief
Linda Davie
Managing editor
Marketing / Sales Director
Art Director
Benjamin Davie
Malcolm Davie
Justin Davie
Articles by: Rachel Paxton Lee Dobbins Neil Terc Jim Stevens Tonya Williams Robin Ware distribution / Readership Print Distribution: 6,000 Quarterly Print Magazines Digital Magazine Distribution: 1,500 Quarterly Total Estimated Readership: Approximately 15,000 people. Serving communities in South Metro Atlanta. Print magazine distributed through 200 local storefront locations where people mix and shop.
Submittals Readers are invited to submit articles, news, and information that they would like to share with the community. Include photos when applicable. Submitted articles for publication are not paid. The publishers/editors reserve the right to edit any submittal for style or length, and to determine, at their sole discretion, when, or whether, any submittal is published. Comments are welcomed.
Disclaimer The purpose of this magazine is to provide articles and tips concerning the upkeep of your home, remodeling, decor and design, as well as sell space for display of commercial advertising. The publishers/editors do not assume responsibility for the opinions of the authors of articles, nor recommend or endorse or imply recommendation or endorsement for any product or service advertised herein.
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June - JULY - AugUST 2009
Table of Contents
volume 8, issue 6
Page 13
p.14
HED:Green Habitat Foundation’s “Solar D House” Attracts Crowds at Tellus Museum Pg.12 Features
4
Budget Bathroom Makeover Ideas by Rachel Paxton All it takes is a few changes and updates!
6-7 What to do About Household Ants How to keep these pesky insects out of your house 8 Little Repairs That Give a Big Bang for Your Buck by Tonya M. Williams Simple maintenance is one of the most important and financially rewarding activities for a homeowner
to perform on their home.
10
4 Ways to Avoid Foreclosure by Neil Terc
11
Grilling Rules to Remember by Jim Stevens
14
7 tips to Keep Your Lawn in Tip-Top Condition
15
Advertiser’s Directory
Take your future into your own hands! A foreclosure is a sticky situation you want to avoid at all costs.
Follow these safety rules in order to keep your family and yourself safe from accidents.
Make your lawn the envy of the neighborhood.
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Home Remodeling
Budget Bathroom Makeover Ideas By Rachel Paxton I recently gave my bathroom a complete makeover. It was much easier than I expected, and only took a few days to complete. All for less than $200! The first thing I did was choose some paint. I started out with bare white walls. I chose Kilz brand paint. The color is called “Garden Glove� (a cheerful spring green), and a gallon cost about $15 at Walmart. One gallon was plenty to paint the entire bathroom. Just painting the bathroom gave it whole new look. I also bought a small can of white paint to touch up the paint around the doorways.
extra storage space, we purchased a cabinet that stands over the toilet. It has four shelves and a cupboard and cost about $100 at Home Depot. I recently saw that Walmart had some similar cabinets for between $50 and $75. We have two windows in our bathroom so I thought plants would really brighten up the room. I bought some pretty solid color flower pots from Walmart
for a couple of dollars and some matching spring primroses (less than $2 each). I set the pots on top of the new cabinet. The finishing touch will be a couple of ferns to hang above the garden bathtub, in front of the windows. I love my new bathroom. It looks like a completely different room. Just a few simple changes can update and rejuvenate your bathroom too!
Because our master bathroom is not very well lit, we decided to change the light fixture. For only $40 (including bulbs) at Home Depot, we installed a vanity light fixture over the mirror behind the sinks. It only took a few minutes to install, and it looks great. The bathroom is much brighter now than it was before. To gain some
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Cosmetic Dentistry • Bleaching General Dentistry • Crown and Bridge Root Canal Treatment • Oral Surgery Pediatric Dentistry • Periodontics Emergencies Welcome Custom Dentures, Partials and Repairs
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All instrumentation is meticulously sterilized for maximum infection control. Medicaid and Peach Care Welcome
Dr. Gina Geiger is a member of the Southwest community, and is excited to be a part of the change and progress that is taking place. PLUS ONE DENTAL is here to offer quality dental care in a clean, gentle, and friendly environment.
(404) 758-1055 We reach out to and provide special services for the underserved children of our community; including group homes and children in foster care and we look forward to providing complete dental care for your entire family.
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Summer class and camp schedules now available Home & You Magazine
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The Little Gym of SW Atlanta 5370 Campbellton-Fairburn Road Suite 200 Fairburn, GA 30213 770-774-0771 www.tlgswatlantaga.com
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Managing the Challenges of Daily Living Counseling/Coaching • • •
Blessed are they who mourn... for they shall be Comforted.
– Matthew 5:4
Life Changes Relationship Issues Pre-Marital/Marital
Accepting Health Plans Employee Assistance Programs (EPA) Dr. Ruth J. Beard LCSW
No words can express the pain of losing a loved one. But there is comfort in celebrating their memories.
Funeral Programs • Thank You Notes
(404) 771-1950 www.ruthjb.com
New Hope Publishing • (404) 349-1959
What To Do About Household Ants! www.extension.umn.edu/
Trying to discourage ants from invading the home can be frustrating. Proper food storage and waste management will reduce the food that often attracts workers indoors. Clean all kitchen surfaces, vacuum daily, and rinse recyclable containers before storage. Ant trails can be temporarily disrupted with a mild solution of vinegar and water. Sticky barriers using commercially available materials, such as Tanglefoot or Stickem, or water moats containing soapy water, can be used to prevent ants from reaching plants or
Home & You Magazine
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other items. Caulk cracks that ants are using to enter the home. Many ants enter homes from outside nests as they forage for food. To find their nest, follow the ants. You can encourage foraging by setting out attractive food. Ants usually take regular routes to and from their nest and the food source by establishing a chemical (pheromone) trail. The nest may be found by watching where the ants go; for some ants, such as carpenter ants, this works best at night. If the nest is discovered, it can be treated
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or removed (in the case of rotted wood). In cases where the nest is not found, ants can be kept out of the house by applying an insecticide barrier around the exterior of the building. Careful observation may reveal the ants are entering only through one area of the house; this would allow a spot treatment of that area. If it is not clear where the ants are entering, then treat a 2 4 foot wide area around the entire building. This control method is temporary and retreatments may be necessary.
Using water to flood nests is usually not effective. Use of gasoline also is ineffective and dangerous and causes environmental pollution. Repeated drenchings of a nest with an insecticidal soap solution is sometimes effective in forcing an ant colony to relocate. There is no scientific evidence that spearmint gum, red pepper, orange
peels, or various herbs repel ants effectively. Remember you must kill or relocate the queen to manage an ant colony.
www.extension.umn.edu/
Outdoor nests can be very difficult to eliminate without chemicals. Home & You Magazine
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Home Remodeling
Little Repairs That Give A Big
BANG
For Your
Buck!
By: Tonya M. Williams
S
imple Maintenance is one of the most important and financially rewarding activities a homeowner can perform on their home. Simple maintenance consists of completing all minor repairs around the home or yard. Correction of these items, keep the home from being a scratch n’ dent purchase. Potential home buyers view properties with an unforgiving eye. The more ‘scratches and dents’ a home displays, the deeper the price discount on the bottom line. Remember, simple maintenance items often seem more significant to prospective buyers than to the homeowner. Every defect a potential home buyer sees, whether real or imagined, becomes a deduction from the sellers’ asking price. Homeowners reading this article should take a moment to list the simple maintenance tasks around their home. Include the leaky garden hose, the blown bulb and missing light cover in the master bath, missing outlet covers, the unsightly clump of cables --that should be inside the wall-- presently dangling like a tail below a wall mounted flat screen TV, any missing or damaged window screens. Simple maintenance items are minor in nature and have a “20/20 rule”: items take less than 20 minutes to correct and cost less than 20
Home & You Magazine
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dollars total. Homeowners should take a few minutes to decide which items on the list are within their scope of knowledge and which ones will require help to correct. Review the list for accuracy and make sure the correct tools are available to perform the repairs. There is a plethora of do-it-yourself information available via the internet, local Home Improvement stores and on HGTV. Homeowners who are unfamiliar with the required skill set or tools, it’s a great idea to take the time to investigate. The question comes to mind whether or not all this fussing and fixing is warranted. Does simple maintenance make a difference? Is this a waste of time and money? Remember, the value of addressing simple maintenance items before putting a home on the market will be positively reflected in the bottom line when the house sells. Tonya M. Williams is Home & Garden Television’s (HGTV) Real Estate Expert on “Designed to Sell” Atlanta edition; she owns a Décor & Staging Firm and has been a top producing Realtor in Atlanta for almost 10 years. Visit her online at www.tonyaMwilliams.tv or you can email: tonya5000@gmail.com
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STOP Circling I-285
Searching for Your Quality Full Lace Unit
Bodywave
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Exit #2 off I-285 and continue to , Suite #430
Camp Creek Marketplace (3 Doors down from DSW Shoes)
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Real-Estate
4 Ways to Avoid
Foreclosure So many people wait until it’s too late. Do you know that you can protect yourself?
by: Neil Terc
I
n the foreseeable future, experts estimate nearly three to four million people will be unable to avoid foreclosure and will lose their homes due to the current recession. Could today’s homeowners, if prepared with the right kind of knowledge, avoid foreclosure? Below are four services that home mortgage lenders and institutions routinely offer to their clients. 1. Refinance - This is one of the most common activities to avoid foreclosure in the mortgage industry in which the homeowner tries to decrease his interest rate by paying off the actual balance on the mortgage. 2. Loan Modification - This happens when home mortgage lenders change the interest rate or the balance on the mortgage in
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Home & You Magazine
order to decrease the amount of the monthly payment. 3. Repayment Plan - This service is only offered by home mortgage lenders to homeowners who are delinquent on their monthly payments. With this process, home mortgage lenders will add a portion of the past due balance on the mortgage to the monthly payment in order to pay off that late balance in a shorter period of time without paying extra interest. 4. Short Sale - With this process, home mortgage lenders and homeowners agree on selling the house for less than the balance on the mortgage in order to pay off the debt and avoid foreclosure.
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Have a Plan in Place! Take your future into your own hands! A foreclosure is a sticky situation you want to avoid at all costs. It remains on your credit report years down the road and can significantly harm your credit score to the point where it may be difficult to purchase a house ever again. Your lending institution wants to help you avoid foreclosure, keep your home, and for you to stay in it. Be proactive and, above all, be armed with the necessary knowledge to save your home and property! Neil A. Terc is the president of www. YourKasa.com, a unique, interactive website that lists real estate properties from both realtors and homeowners.
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Home Lifestyle
So You Think You Can Grill?
Grilling Rules To Remember Submitted by Jim Stevens
W
armer weather is finally here and it is barbecue season. Unfortunately, most of us forget the safety rules when it comes to grilling. Many people are more concerned about preparations and inviting guest more than anything else. Even though it is nice to have a BBQ Grill on a spring or summer day, it is highly recommended to follow the safety rules in order to keep your family and yourself safe from any sort of accidents which may happen. Gases such as Liquid Petroleum and propane are used it is highly inflammable. A small careless little mistake could end up with a huge loss or severe injury.
Negligence of many people working over barbeque grills has led to many grill accidents. Leaving a grill idle for a long period of time is not recommended as it has much possibilities of causing a grill accident. There are some cases where a grill accident has taken place when a person refilled or reattached a gas container of a barbeque grill. This may result in property damage or loss of life. Important things to remember when grilling this season: Checking the air tubes and food Greece blockage is important, especially when cook outdoors on a deck or on your
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lawn. Checking the hoses of the grill and searching for cracks, brittle surfaces or cracks within the grills is also very important. Remember, placing spare gas containers or other inflammable substances can cause grill accidents – so, be aware of that. With charcoal grilling, burning charcoal is considered a poisonous gas which is known as Carbon Monoxide. So, to reduce the risk of CO poisoning - avoid burning charcoal inside close places like indoors. Don’t forget to replace barbecue grill parts when needed. For further information on buying barbeque grill parts and supplies, visit www.IBuyGrillParts.com.
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Smart Homes of the Future
HED:Green Habitat Foundation’s “Solar D House” Attracts Crowds at Tellus Museum BY: Robyn Ware
S
ummers in Atlanta may be renowned for thermometer melting temperatures but locals know that it is also a time when ceaseless options for indoor and outdoor activities are at our fingertips. Among the most anticipated activities this summer, is the brand new, fully operational “Solar D House” exhibit, at Tellus: Northwest Georgia Science Museum, in Cartersville, GA.
Sustainable Solar House Makes Its Home At New Tellus Museum
The house was originally designed and built by Engineering and Architecture students at GA Tech for an international competition, in which it placed sixth. Green Habitats Foundation (www.GreenHabitats.org) took over stewardship of the House in December 2008, and decided Tellus museum was an ideal location because of its estimated high volumes of traffic and heavy focus on the sciences. The 120,000 sq ft museum has already experienced upwards of 70,000 visitors since opening in January of this year and is expected to see up to 180,000 more before 2010 is upon us. With Green Habitats Foundation as its steward, the EarthCraft
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Home & You Magazine
Certified Solar D House employs some of the most advanced sustainable technology and resources available on the market today. Aside from its modern aesthetic and livable design elements, the real educational value is in the technology it utilizes, which virtually any homeowner can install in their own home to save precious resources and substantial money on utility bills. A few energy saving highlights include: 39 solar panels, insulating polyurethane base, and water capture and reclamation system. The exhibit is intended to fulfill Green Habitats’ ultimate mission of promoting sustainable building, supporting research and educational programs to design
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and build housing that conserves water and energy. “If we can implement eco-consciousness at the design stage,” Green Habitats founder, John Lie-Nielsen explains, “the builders will follow these designs.” With exhibits like the Solar D House educating and inspiring people of all ages on how easy and stylish sustainable living really can be, Green Habitats believes that builders and engineers will follow suit to meet that demand. To learn more about Green Habitats Foundation, visit: www. GreenHabitats.org. For hours and admission prices to Tellus Museum, visit www.TellusMuseum.org or call: (770) 606-5700.
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Home Garden
7 Tips To Keep Your Lawn In Tip Top Condition A Lawn That Is The Envy Of The Neighborhood by: www.nurturelab.com
A
healthy and attractive lawn is one feature of a home that most people value almost as much as the house itself. Let us take a look at seven helpful lawn-care tips to keeping your yard in immaculate condition throughout the year. Tip #1: Mow the grass properly. The first item of lawn care is, of course, the grass. Try not to cut more that one-third of the blade during a mowing. It is also important to mow grass when it is dry as opposed to wet. Tip #2 Give your grass adequate water. During the hot summer months, watering is obviously more important than the wintertime. Choose the early morning for watering if possible, as this will minimize wasting water and evaporation. Try not to water your lawn at night, as this promotes fungus and insect problems. Tip #3 Use the right fertilizers. Weed killer should be used in lawn care, especially during early spring and fall. Weeds are an unavoidable part of maintaining your lawn, so choosing a good weed product is very important to the health and beauty of your yard. Tip #4 Aerate your lawn for renewed vigor. Machine aeration can be done annually in the spring and fall to let your lawn breath. When aerating, you do not want your soil to be too wet
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Home & You Magazine
or dry, but just moist. Tip #5 Rake your lawn.Raking your lawn also allows you to feel the crisp grass underneath the thatch that accumulates on top. Tip #6 Trim the edges of your yard. Lawn care involves trimming around the edges and corners of your yard gives it a clean and well-kept appearance year-round.
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Tip #7 Never just let it go. It is much easier to continue maintaining your lawn than to let it go for a while in between care. Once the yard begins to grow up and shrubs begin to become bushy, it is much more of a hassle to get it back into tip-top shape. By following these simple guidelines, you can actually enjoy lawn care and have the yard of your dreams in no time!
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Attorneys at Law
Investments
The Cuffie Law Firm www.cuffielawfirm.com
Appanage Investments www.appanageinvestments.com
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Automobile Repair
Marketing Services____
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Marketing Cafe www.atlantamarketingcafe.com
3761 Campbellton Rd. (404) 344-9770
Book Publishing New Hope Publishing, LLC
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Mental Health Counseling, Psychotherapy Dr. Ruth J. Beard LCSW 404-771-1950 www.ruthjb.com
Car Sales
Piano Lessons
1st Atlanta Auto Sales
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Dentists
Henry Family & Sports Chiropractic www.greenbriarchiro.com
Family & Children’s Dentistry 2440 Fairburn Rd. SW, Suite 301 (404) 349-7777
Plus One Dental Service
2380 Benjamin E. Mays Drive, Suite 1 (404) 758-1055
Florists Marie’s Florist & Garden www.mariesflorist.net
2365 Benjamin E. Mays Dr. SW (404) 753-1111
Funeral Programs New Hope Publishing, LLC
Contact: Linda Davie / Benjamin Davie Email: nhpub@bellsouth.net (404) 349-1959 / Fax: (404) 629-0446
Hair Care____________ Andrea’s Lace Affair www.andreaslaceaffair.com Camp Creek Marketplace 3755 Carmia Drive, Suite 430 (404) 349-1564 www.andreaslaceaffair.com
Health & Fitness The Little Gym www.tlgswatlantaga.com
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Volume 3 – Issue 6
June 2004
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Schools/Summer Camps Legacy Academy www.legacyacademy.com
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Tax Services_________ Colbert/Ball 3755 Carmia Drive, Suite 450 (404)629-1414
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