Found 79 blog entries tagged as Tips For Maintaining Your Home.

As a seller preparing to sell your Santa Cruz home, you may be busily emptying closets and painting walls, but don't forget about the outside of your house. Home buying is emotional and, like many emotional reactions, it can be heavily impacted by first impressions.

Here are some suggestions on how to encourage love at first sight by increasing the curb appeal of your Santa Cruz home:

• Tidy up – You may be so used to seeing the crumbling stack of firewood by the garbage cans and the old paint cans by the shed that they fade into the landscape, but potential homeowners see the mess.  As you look at the outside of your house, think about what you can throw away or put out of sight. The broken swing on the tree actually takes away from the grandeur of…

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If you notice a musty or dusty smell when you turn on the furnace, you should look into having your air ducts cleaned. People with allergies or respiratory issues are especially vulnerable to the circulation of dirt and mold spores that accumulate in the HVAC system.

To help you determine if it’s time to clean the air ducts in your Santa Cruz home, here are answers to some frequently asked questions:

• Why should I have my ducts cleaned? Particulates in the air ducts become airborne throughout your Santa Cruz home whenever the blower goes on. In addition, contaminant buildup can reduce the efficiency of the heating system.

• How often should my ducts be cleaned? Even if your heating system has a good, effective filter, some experts believe your…

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Few things are as unsettling as the suspicion that termites are attacking your Santa Cruz home. This is one thing you do not want to stay in denial about. Here are some steps to help you face the possibility and prevent problems:

• Don't let any wooden parts of your Santa Cruz home touch soil directly.  As always, the best solution is prevention. If wooden parts of your house are touching the soil directly, a professional can remedy it by installing metal shields and re-grading the soil along the foundation to improve drainage and create a gap between soil and wooden structures.

• Determine whether you do have termites. Subterranean termites build characteristic mud tubes for movement between nests. The appearance of these tubes is often the first…

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All things must pass. No matter how the gardening at your Santa Cruz home went this year, it’s getting time to move on and change with the seasons. Here are some tips to help you:

• Dig those sweet potatoes. Harvest sweet potatoes before the first frost, or they will be ruined. If you wake up and find the frost has hit before you had the chance, run out there immediately and at least cut the vines off at the base of the plants. This may stop damage to the roots, but you still need to dig your sweets before the next frost. After digging, cure them by keeping them in a warm, dark place like the attic of your Santa Cruz home. This sweetens them up and gets them ready for storage. After curing, store them somewhere that never goes below 40 degrees; they…

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Halloween is a fun and exciting time, especially for children. To ensure that youngsters and your Santa Cruz home make it safely through the festivities this year, follow these Halloween safety tips:

1. Eliminate trip hazards. Remove bikes, toys and garden hoses from your Santa Cruz home’s front yard and porch. Sweep and rake leaves.

2. Replace burned out lights. Trick-or-treaters have a hard enough time seeing through their masks; don’t increase the danger by keeping them in the dark.

3. Restrain pets. You don’t want your pet to jump on a trick-or-treater, or even worse, bite someone.

4. Use a flashlight or glow stick to illuminate your carved pumpkin. Lit candles are dangerous, especially around small children or crowds of people.

5. …

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Maybe your vegetable garden has been neglected lately. Take heart, fall will be here before you know it, and all things can be renewed! Here are some tips to get the garden at your Santa Cruz home reinvigorated.

• Pick a cool morning. Don’t try going out there on a hot, sticky afternoon. Watch the weather and plan ahead. Be ready to get out there early.

• Make an evaluation. First things first. Do you have harvested corn stalks that need to be removed to make room for late short-season crops? Do the tomatoes need some compost? Need to replenish mulch? Make an inventory of tasks and prioritize.

• Tackle those weeds.  If you’re like most of us, chances are there are some weed problems in your Santa Cruz home garden this time of year.  Don’t try to…

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Do you need to be convinced that it would be nice to spend less time mowing your lawn? Think of all the fun things you could be doing instead of burning all that gas, making all that noise and sweating in the sun! Here are some ways to free up your valuable time and improve your Santa Cruz real estate at the same time.

• Stop watering and fertilizing. Many people make more work for themselves by encouraging lush growth of their lawn. This is a waste of water and encourages problems with fungus. Using chemical fungicides creates a toxic cycle. You especially don’t want to use pesticides where your kids and pets roll around.

• Plant more trees. Trees are a priceless addition to your Santa Cruz real estate. They provide shade, habitat for birds, a…

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Have you ever thought about what your Santa Cruz home for sale looks like at night?  You should, because potential buyers certainly do.

Imagine a potential buyer driving by your home after sunset.  What will they see - a beautifully lit walkway leading to a welcoming front door - or a house that’s dark and dreary?

Many potential buyers want a home that looks lovely both day and night.  Why do they care what it looks like in the dark?  They entertain primarily at night, they frequently come home from a long day at work after dark, and they want the added level of security provided by a well-lit home.

Here are some ideas to light the night to help your Santa Cruz home sell faster:

• Add landscape lighting.  Create a gentle moon-glow lighting…

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It’s no secret: mold thrives where there is moisture. If you have moisture problems in your Santa Cruz home, you can expect mold. Check in your closet and find that old pair of leather boots you haven’t worn in ages. See anything growing on them?  Check wooden baseboards, and the legs of wooden furniture. If you see mold, act now.

• Carefully check guttering. If your gutters are old and leaky, or simply clogged with leaves, they can overflow and cause water damage to the roof, or allow water to run towards the foundation, eventually admitting water into your Santa Cruz home. Keep gutters clean and repaired.

• Vent moist air to the outside.  When you take a shower or cook, you’re releasing a lot of moisture into the home. Use exhaust fans during…

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