A Fun Way to Track and Share Your Home Improvement Adventures

Remodels, new editions, and building a new home can be stressful, Are you preparing to embark on a home improvement journey?  Consider creating a blog to chronicle your progress. 

Blogging has many professional benefits, but consider the personal benefits for your family of posting photos, videos, updates, sharing family stories, and posing questions to the blogging community to make your experience interactive.  Share your progress with family and friends, or use it as a learning tool for yourself and your family to get into the world of online publishing. 

Many mistakenly believe a blog takes alot of work or technological savvy, but in reality a blog takes about five minutes to set up, and the Blogger interface is very simple.  A typical blog post can take as little as ten minutes to create and post online for all to see.

A great perk of this idea is that if you're planning to sell your home, you now have somewhere online to show potential buyers the before and after progress of your improvements!

Here are a few examples of great home improvement blogs, from the simple to the elegant:

http://www.younghouselove.com/
http://www.remodelaholic.com/
http://ourcastlereno.blogspot.com/

Let's Get Social

Rockyedge Enterprises stays connected to our clients, vendors, friends and family on various social networks.  Find us on Twitter (@RockyEdgeBuilds), Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ to get the latest home improvement and constructions tips/tricks/updates. 

Giving Back with Habitat for Humanity

Rockyedge Enterprises is gearing up to participate in its first ever Summer Service Project with sister company EMR Consulting, Inc.  We will be helping Habitat for Humanity of Greater Indianapolis (HFHGI) finish up a construction project for a needy family, and thought it might be a good time to offer our blog subscribers some info about the organization. 

Here are some of the wonderful things HFHGI is doing in Indianapolis:

• Cultivating and educating first-time, low-income home buyers
• Working with potential homeowners to prepare for the long-term, sustainable success of their household with 6 months of education and preparation
• Partnering with hired contractors, volunteers, and future homeowners to build or rehab their homes
• Facilitating the ability for families to help themselves by providing no-profit, no-interest mortgage loans

Visit their website to learn more, contribute, or volunteer.

Cut Back on Water Usage During the Worst Drought in 25 years

As homeowners and business owners, we are naturally cautious and conservative when it comes to utility usage.  The Midwest is experiencing the worst drought conditions in the past 25 years.  Meanwhile, Indianapolis has managed to set a new record for water usage, pumping up to 231 million gallons per day, according to Citizens Water via AP.

Needless to say, Indiana is one of the biggest agriculture producers in the country, and our corn and soybean crops are suffering.  What can we do?  Eartheasy.com offers 25 ways to conserve water below.

 

From Wowo.com:  Our crops are in trouble.

1.  Check faucets and pipes for leaks.
2.  Don't use toilets as an ashtray or wastebasket.  Five to seven gallons of water is used for every flush.
3.  Check toilets for leaks.  Put a little food coloring in your tank, without flushing if the color begins to appear in the bowl within 30 minutes, you have a leak that needs attention.
4.  Use your water meter to check for hidden leaks
5.  Install water-saving shower heads and low-flow faucet aerators.
6. Put plastic bottles or floaters in your toilet tank to cut down on water usage.
7. Insulate water pipes.
8. Take shorter showers.
9. Turn off the faucet when you brush your teeth.
10. Rinse your razor in the sink in a few inches of warm water.
11. Use your dishwasher and clothes washer only for full loads.
12. Minimize use of kitchen sink garbage disposal.
13. Don't leave the water running while washing dishes by hand.
14. Don't leave the water running when you clean vegetables.
15. Keep a bottle of drinking water in the fridge.
16. Plan drought-resistant lawns, shrubs, and plants, and avoid watering during a drought.
17. Put a layer of mulch around trees and plants to slow evaporation.
18. Don't water the gutter (check the positioning of sprinklers), and never water on windy days.
19. Water your lawn only when necessary.
20. Deep-soak your lawn when you do water.
21. Water early in the day.
22. Add organic matter and use efficient watering systems for plants.
23. Don't run the hose while washing your car, use a bucket.
24. Use a broom, not a hose, to clean driveways and sidewalks.
25. Check for leaks in hoses and couplings.

The Biggest Investment of Your Life: Making it Count

Home improvement is not just for the garage, kitchen, and bathroom.  Homeowners know what it means to pour heart and soul into a property to make it your very own.  Financially, homeownership is the biggest investment in the lives of most, so it pays to add value to your home. 

Here are some brilliant ways from HGTV to add value to your home:

• Spring for a sunroom.  Your family will enjoy summer after summer with a custom sunroom, and it certainly will raise your home's value.
• Spruce up your workspace with a home office remodel.
• Is your Master Suite just another bedroom?  Find out how Rockyedge can change that, it may be simpler than you think.
• What would your family do with a little more space?  Add a wide-open family room to bring them together.
• New windows are a simple way to improve the look of a home dramatically.

Visit HGTV for more ideas.