Daily Archives: November 13, 2013

10 Ways to Prepare Your Home for Winter | Chappaqua NY Homes

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By the time fall rolls around, most of us are ready to say ‘goodbye’ to the  summer heat, and hello to a few months of cool weather. However, autumn is more  than just a time to enjoy the changing color of the leaves and the dropping of  the mercury in the thermometer; it’s a time to prepare your home for the coming  ravages of winter. After all, if you don’t take care of potential problems now,  before they actually happen, you could find yourself stuck with some major  repair work right in the middle of the Holiday Season. Here’s a quick list of  things you need to do to prepare your home for the coldest months of the  year.

1. Prune back your hedges, shrubs, and branches.

When it comes to being covered in snow, the plants with less surface area are  less likely to get damaged. Trimming back your outdoor plants will help keep  them safe, and will give them a nice fresh start to grow from once spring  arrives.

2. Check around your doors and windows.

With the cold fast approaching, now’s the time to locate any areas of your  home through which heat could escape. Make sure that the caulking around you  windows is solid and free from cracks, and check around your doors to make sure  that they shut securely without leaving gaps.

3. Give the heater a test run.

Replace your furnace filter, open your vents, and kick the heater into high  gear, because you’ll want to make sure that your heater works before you get  trapped inside during a blizzard. If you notice any problems, call a repairman  and get it sorted out quickly.

4. Clean and cover the AC outdoor condensing unit.

This is good idea especially if your area drops into low temperatures or has  heavy snowfall. Use a high pressure hose to clean any debris out of the condensing unit, and then cover  it up for the winter. If left open, the harsh winter weather could damage your  system, leaving you without a cooling system once things begin to heat up  again.

5. Clean out your gutters.

If you have any trees near your house, then chances are that once all the  leaves have fallen, you’ll have rain gutters that are absolutely full of debris. Clean these  out before the weather starts to get any worse, otherwise you could have to deal  with water buildup and ice damage.

6. Check the roof.

If you have any missing or damaged shingles, you should hurry to get them  replaced before winter arrives. Also check to see if you have any significant  air leaks coming up through the roof, and have them repaired if you do.

 

 

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-homes/prepare-home-winter-zbcz1310.aspx#ixzz2kXN8svX7

Ancient and New Tell a Story in San Francisco | Armonk NY Homes

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A home should tell the story of its owner,” says interior designer Antonio Martins, the grateful second owner of this 1896 house in San Francisco’s historic Dogpatch neighborhood. Before he moved in, members of one family had lived in this house for nearly all of its 117 years, collectively adding to its character. Now Martins is adding his imprint through cherished finds from his travels, gifts from family and playful mixes of the very old and the very new.
Houzz at a Glance Who lives here: Interior designer Antonio Martins Location: San Francisco Size: 1,700 square feet Cost to remodel: About $200,000

“This neighborhood was full of Irish and Italian immigrants who worked the nearby shipyards and canning factory. The last resident, a man who lived alone, was born in this house,” says Martins, a Brazilian who lived in Hong Kong before settling in California.
By the time he found it, the house was in disrepair, and nothing had been renovated in the last 70 to 80 years, he says. But the home’s good bones were still there.
Martins moved forward with his professional hat on to stretch his budget as far as he could to rehabilitate this old Victorian and start a new chapter.
A 17th-century Italian statue from his mom welcomes guests in the long entryway. Scott Adkins of ProFab Metal Designs made the floating metal shelf, as well as other metal shelves throughout the house.
Martins collected the three metal designs hanging on the wall, created by Yutaka Toyota, years ago. “Toyota was big in Brazil in the 1970s and is making a comeback today as people are wanting to revisit that era,” Martins says. “I’m not interested in the trend; I simply love mixing different eras together.”
The living room is “my life’s story,” Martins says. The small white sofa in front of the bay window was a pickup in Hong Kong, where it furnished the compact apartment he lived in for 10 years. Flanking the sofa are two industrial benches used as petite end tables.
His grandmother’s traveling trunk now serves as a handsome coffee table around which two reproduction French chairs sit. The recamier is from France and was bought by Martins at an auction, as was the Chinese 18th-century side table. “It’s not about designing with what’s fashionable,” says Martins. “This room as well as the entire home is about what’s me — where I’ve been, who I am.”