Patio Furniture & Accessories

Geez...Water Heater on the Fritz?

If your water heater is on the fritz and you're not sure what to do, then Troubleshooting a Tank Type Water Heater is what you want to read. From problems such as not enough hot water to a leaking water heater, it's covered.

Hot water virtually on-demand is a luxury we've come to take for granted. But like anything else, it takes energy to run. So in the tutorial Water Heater Tips for Saving Energy and Operating Costs I'll explain how to easily save water, energy and money in your monthly utility bills.

And when it's time to replace that old water heater with a nice new, energy efficient unit, you'll just love it. And it's really not that hard to do. In the tutorial Replacing a Water Heater I'll walk you through the process, step-by-step. Doesn't matter if it's a gas or electric water heater. I'll show you how.

Geez...Water Heater on the Fritz? originally appeared on About.com Home Repair on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 13:14:58.

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Gardening TV is Back

I see that many of us are still in withdrawal from gardening TV shows. I can't begin to fathom why HGTV would ignore a large segment of their viewing audience, but I hope everyone read my earlier post about our favorite Gardener Guy setting up shop online. He's able to chat freely in his blog and there's the wonderful GGTV - yes, that's Gardener Guy TV. We can still get advice and a few laughs watching new episodes of GGTV.

There's another internet television station I've mentioned before and I'm sure you'll want to check out. Garden World Report launched last fall and it's catching on big time. It's the brain child of the always ebullient Shirley Bovshow, she of "Garden Police" and "Edenmaker" fame, and she's pulled in a tech crew of HGTV, DIY, Discovery and network pros. Shirley and her far flung contributors span the globe bringing us news of plants, design, products, break through - just everything you'd expect a garden obsessed girl to talk about. No spokespersons here - these are diehard, hands in the dirt people. Why in the first episode, we get a Latin lesson from Nicholas Staddon of Monrovia Nursery, tips on spring and winter gardening, a review of hand-blown garden glass ornaments, a Hollywood party with Garden Design magazine , video tips from our own Yolanda Vanveen and a tour of Australian TV gardening expert Trevor Cochrane's own garden, with a vegetable garden to die for.

The show is still evolving and I hope many of you will tune in and consider sending some video clips from your own gardening corner of the world. I hope this is the beginning of a new trend.

Photo: © Marie Iannott

Gardening TV is Back originally appeared on About.com Gardening on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 01:01:53.

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Frugal Ideas for Container Gardens

"You can spend a ridiculous amount of money container gardening" begins this article by Kerry Michaels, About.com's Guide to Container Gardening. How do you counter that tendency? Kerry offers a number of frugal ideas for container gardens, such as starting plants from seed or buying smaller plants.

Being the inveterate cheapskate that I am, I'm very much on the same page with her. But let's play devil's advocate to explore the possible reasons why some aficionados of container gardens might choose not to explore frugal options.

The big spender may object: "Frugality doesn't come cheap." That may sound nonsensical, at first. But it makes perfect sense if you factor in the time (and energy) it takes to practice frugality, adhering to the old maxim, "Time is money."

My response to that argument would be that, when you're expending the time on something you love doing, your reward is in your work; any monetary savings accrued thereby is actually a bonus!

Immediate gratification is another issue the big spender may raise. Buying big plants eliminates having to wait for them to mature.

In certain contexts, I would yield to the big spender on this point. For example, if you are landscaping to raise the real estate value of your home (with an eye to showing it to potential buyers), waiting isn't an option.

Outside of such extraordinary circumstances, however, such "quick fixes" shouldn't be necessary. If you have planned your landscape so as to achieve four-season interest, there should be sufficient color in the yard most of the year to satisfy your basic needs. You can then build on that color -- including with container gardens -- at your leisure, rather than out of desperation and blowing a lot of money.

Related resource: Cheap Landscaping

Frugal Ideas for Container Gardens originally appeared on About.com Landscaping on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 08:00:54.

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How to Dispose of Remodeling Waste?

Before almost any kind of home remodeling can happen, you need to get rid of the waste.  Few remodeling projects begin without a tear-out or demo of at least some of the existing materials.

And the tear-out for complete kitchen or bath remodel can be significant.  What are your options?

I have broken down the topic of how to dispose of remodeling waste into 5 areas:  haul it yourself, rolloff, hauler, residential waste, Bagster.

Yet, residential cans are not appropriate for remodeling waste, so you can bring that number down to four.  Bagster, while a novel concept, is nothing more than an advanced form of hiring a hauling company.

So, you can get rid of remodeling waste in three ways:

Image Public Domain; City of Fremont CA

How to Dispose of Remodeling Waste? originally appeared on About.com Home Renovations on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 03:00:56.

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