Adding new items or updating the look of your home can add value, and these changes can be a lot of fun for your family. Involving your family in the process can create an enjoyable atmosphere, and in some cases, you can save a lot of money on the cost of improvements. Here are a few things that can be done to improve the look and function of your home:

Room Renovations: Renovating a room or two is a wise decision, and it can be a lot of fun to involve the family in the process. Sometimes all that is needed is small repairs, painting, new window coverings to renovate a room. Choosing the right color combinations is the biggest hurdle. After this hurdle is accomplished, work together for the common goal of renovating a drab room into something truly beautiful. Before long, everyone will be enjoying the process of the renovation.

New Furniture: Even the nicest renovations can appear to be lackluster with old, worn out or damaged furniture inside of it. Buying new furniture can be enjoyable for the entire family. Getting them all together to assist in choosing new furniture can be quite fun, and it will improve the look of your nicely renovated rooms. Choose furniture that is well constructed and functional. For instance, inspect items of furniture for strength; make sure that it looks like it will hold up to regular use. Don’t choose something that just looks pretty; it must look good, and it must be durable for everyday use in your home.

Appliances: New appliances will add convenience and value to your home. They can also save money on utility bills by purchasing energy efficient models. Choose appliances that match the decor of your kitchen or laundry room. Stainless steel models are a bit more expensive than the other colors, but they are a very popular item in modern kitchens. Some of these appliances have great features that are time and energy savers for a family. For instance, consider buying a refrigerator that have pull-out drawers that can hold beverages for the little ones. These features can save time and money because children don’t have to hold the main door of the refrigerator open for extended periods while they search for refreshments. The repeated action of holding the door open can significantly raise your utility bill.

If you are thinking about making your home a nicer place, consider the above tips to help you with ideas on how to get started. Getting started can be the hardest part, but you will be glad that you made the effort once you begin to see the results. For more information on this topic, Click here.

**THIS POST WAS WRITTEN FOR AND PROVIDED TO LOOK WHAT MOM FOUND…AND DAD TOO!**

Anybody who knows anything about owning a house knows how difficult it is to find a carpet cleaner that can do the job right. You really can never tell about a carpet cleaning company until they actually come in and clean your carpet, and if they do not do a good job, by then it is too late.

I am telling you right now that you do not have to worry about this with Green Choice Carpet. If you have a carpet that needs to be cleaned immediately, I definitely recommend that you give them a ring as soon as you possibly can.

However, there is another reason to pick Green Choice Carpet even if you have another carpet cleaning company that can do the job. You will find that Green Choice Carpet gets their name from their environmentally safe cleaning methods, which actually turned out to be much more efficient than the more antiquated methods that other carpet cleaning company use. This means that you do not even have to choose between protecting the environment and protecting your carpet anymore!

If you are looking for the best carpet cleaning NYC company that is ahead of the curve in service and in social standing, then you need to go with Green Choice Carpet. They can definitely get the job done for you and save you a couple of bucks in the process (along with the environment).

**This post was written and provided to Look What Mom Found…and Dad too!**

Image provide by Hangout Lifestyle via Flickr

Set a schedule and stay on it!

One of the major benefits of working from home is that should a situation arise you can be flexible. That said, it is best to set up a schedule and timetable, just like you would do in the office. One of the greatest difficulties of working from home is telling yourself to stop working. Therefore, it is best to define when the work day starts and finishes.  This will give you, your work colleagues and your family structure to your day and ensure that you have enough time to dedicate to both work and play.

Call in reinforcements

It really helps to have a supportive partner. My wife is a teacher, so she needs to do a lot of home work as well! So to make sure we are both able to work and look after the kids we take it in turns to work at the computer while the other looks after the children. Alternatively take the kids out the house, take them to a park, or read to them, while your partner does some work.

Make yourself  a dedicated work space

If you’re working from home , it is best to have a dedicated space just for your work. You don’t need to spend a lot of money renovating your garage into an office, but you should have some kind of desk space. This space should be in a place where you can concentrate, whether for work or phone calls.  You should see this as an occasion to make an office you could really work at. You can do this quite cost effectively by searching through sites like eBay or Craigslist with online transportation websites, i.e.  uShip, who always have dependable transporters looking for good courier jobs.

Kit your home out with the best WiFi

When it comes to working remotely, reliance on your internet connection is of absolute importance. While some internet providers might promise the world when it comes to their internet speeds and connectivity, the reality is often very different.

That’s why it’s important to shop around for internet providers and to compare them both in price and performance. You can easily find internet availability by address in order to find the best and most responsive option for you and your home’s needs.

Use naptimes effectually

Get the most significant work done and out the way when the house is quiet because your children are sleeping. Try to work right through nap times. You can also get a major amount done if you wake up an hour before your kids and work or if the idea of waking up early sounds too nasty, work for an hour after they go to bed.

Know the other places in your area – and leave the house!

We all need a change of scenery occasionally. Chances are there are a good number of great secondary places where you can get your work done beside your house so make a conscious effort to get out and work someplace else. Your local library or coffee shop will likely have free wireless and space for you to spend some time and work undisturbed.

Complete separation of work and life is ineffective. Working from home can be a good change allowing you to spend more time with your family but also more time “at work.” In order to manage personal and professional commitments however, you do need to be hands-on in your approach.

**The post was written for Look What Mom Found…and Dad too! by Amar Patel from uship.com**

Melinda and I are coming up on our 11th wedding anniversary on July 20th and we meet when Sabreena was four years old. It’s hard to think about what my life would have been had I not meet Melinda or Sabreena. I am very happy to have Melinda as my wife and Sabreena as my daughter.

The one thing that I haven’t done but want to do is officially adopt Sabreena. I know she considers me her dad and I consider her my daughter but I want it on paper just in case she needs it later on in life. I am not really sure why I haven’t done this as of yet but I have looked into it and it is a time consuming process for sure. You need to find an firm like Weinberger Law Group to help you with all of the paperwork and court stuff that needs to take place before it is 100% official. The adoption process takes between three to six months which seems like a long time but in reality it’s nothing in the scheme of things.

Sabreena is sixteen now so sometimes I feel like I missed my window of opportunity but I am sure Sabreena wouldn’t mind if I really wanted to get it done. I just don’t ever want her to run into any problems if anything was to ever happen to me because she didn’t have a piece of paper saying she was my daughter. I don’t see in any other way but if push ever came to shove I know the law would and I don’t want her to ever have to deal with that.

Melinda and I are addicted to magazines and when I say addicted I am not kidding. Between the two of us we probably get at least 10 magazines a month and those are just the ones that get delivered to the house. That number doesn’t include the one off magazine we buy when we take a trip to Barnes and Noble or Target.

There was a time when we were easily getting 20 magazines on a weekly and monthly basis but once we starting blogging we cut back on our subscriptions because there was just too much to read.

Recently I was told about a place called All Magazine Prices where you can go to compare magazines. At first I thought it was a website where I could buy magazines at a discount but it is strictly a compare site. Considering we read a TON of magazines this will be a site that I will be visiting first so that I can be sure I am getting the best subscription price available.

Even though you can buy most magazines via a digital format I still prefer a magazine that I can hold in my hand. I am not sure why because I read books on my iPad but for some reason magazines are just different. The kids are just like me and prefer the old fashion magazine to the digital version and when you buy Shaun or Shae a magazine they look at it about a hundred times before recycling it. LOL.

Do you read a lot of magazines? What are a few of your favorites?

There’s a lot of talk around buying home gym and fitness equipment rather then joining a health club and paying the big monthly fee. After all times are tight, unemployment is still high and every dollar saved can go towards other expenses right?

I want to outline a few fitness products you can purchase online and won’t break the bank but will help keep you fit. Also I’ll introduce you to the place I go to seek out discounts and promotions on products I’m interested in buying and how you can search on your own.

Bodylastics

Home gym machines were popular in the eighties and early nineties. However many of those old machines are now nothing but glorified close hangers. Today you can get resistance and body weight training devices like the Bodylastics home gym system or TRX suspension training device for a fraction of the cost but still enjoy a full body workout.

As a secondary benefit these devices take up next to no space in your home and even travel well so you’ve got no excuse to ever miss a workout.

The Flex Belt

To target those abs, The Flex Belt is an excellent choice. This electronic muscle stimulation device flexes your abs and obliques more then 100 times during a 20-30 minute session. The design allows you to use this belt any where and any time. The price point is a bit steep at $200, but you can find a flex belt coupon to cut that price down to about $170 shipping included.

Running Shoes

A pair of good runners is all you need to take care of your cardiovascular needs and even burn some belly fat.

Wether it’s Asics, Saucony, Nike or Adidas, every brand has a budget price point shoe. Also if you know where to look you can find some fantastic discount and coupon codes for popular online retailers that sell running shoes such as: Amazon, Running Warehouse and Zappos.com.

Where to Find Discounts Codes and Promotions?

There are no shortages on coupon websites online, but most of them target every product and shopping category under the sun. Trying to find discounts and coupons for health and fitness products specifically can be a bit more difficult.

My first stop when ever I’m looking for a discount or promo code is RetailMeNot.com. They seem to have the most up to date listing of working coupons for just about every retailer you can think of.

Want to save on buying a BoFlex? They’ve got a coupon for that.

How about 10% off those new Asic running shoes? You’ll be able to find coupons for REI, RunningWarehouse, Zappos and even Amazon.

What if they don’t have a product or brand listed that you’re interested in?

Sometimes it  can take a bit more work to find a promotional offer, but it’s worth the time to get the savings.

I usually start with my favorite search engine (Bing or Google) and do a search for “product name” or “brand name” plus the word “coupon”.

So if I wanted to find a discount on a NordicTrack product I’d type in a search for “NordicTrack coupons” (you don’t need to  use the quotes).

Taking a few minutes to do this before you make a big purchase can save you $50-$100 or more.

 ***THIS POST WAS WRITTEN FOR LOOK WHAT MOM FOUND…AND DAD TOO!***

Melinda and I were at Wal-Mart last week and I am not sure why but a poster caught my eye which made me take a closer look.  Looking through all of the posters took me back to a time when I was a lot younger and was really into posters and I can remember all of my walls and ceiling being covered.

I remember going to the mall with my friends during the weekend and the first place we would hit would be Spenser’s to check out the newest posters and also the black light posters.  I love posters to this day and I could see putting a couple up in the house but would want them to look nice and that is where a frame comes in.

Someone recently told me about a place that sells wholesale poster frames and that is what would be needed so that I would be able to turn an inexpensive poster into a really nice piece of art that I would be happy putting on the walls with our other artwork.  Don’t get me wrong when I say artwork I am not talking about Picasso or anything like that but for us it’s very nice and we are always up for adding more if appropriate and tasteful.

Shaun recently became interested in posters as well but his collection is a little more diverse as they includes sports, motocross and bakugan.  Not that there is anything wrong with that collection because I remember having all kinds of different posters and not really having any sort of theme when I was younger but now that I am older I do try to stick to a theme and make sure everything melds together but I am always open to new inexpensive art forms.

Did you ever collect posters? Do you still?

If you live anywhere in the US you know that this summer has been record setting hot and it has been extremely hard to keep cool.

We are in Delaware and it seems like it has been in the high 90’s with a real feel of over 100 degrees for the past two weeks if not longer.  We do have a baby pool on our deck that Shae uses to keep cool and while Shae is in the pool you can usually find Melinda under the patio umbrella.  The patio umbrella provides a decent amount of shade depending on the time of the day but I would really like to have a sun awning so that our whole deck would be shaded all day long. If I really had my choice I would get a retractable sun awning so that when it isn’t in use or in the winter I could store it.  If we wanted the deck uncovered we would have that option but if the weather and sun were too much we would have the option to cover the deck.  Having the option to store it would help preserve it allowing it to last longer since it would be protected from the wind, rain and snow.

We were just at the beach yesterday and just about every house we saw had a sun awning and I am assuming that is to help combat the sunshine during the summer.  I also like the look that an awning provides because we saw one house that didn’t have one and it stuck out like a sore thumb.

I am not sure if I will ever get one but it would be cool to have one.

I Want These!

I look through the circulars every single week looking at new washers and dryers and I totally have appliance envy.

I know it may sound weird to hear a man say that but I do 80-90% of the laundry in our house so it would be really nice to have a brand spanking new washer and dryer that could make an already daunting task a little more bearable.  Don’t get me wrong a new washer and dryer will not make life awesome because I still need to do laundry but it would make me feel better if I was able to be a little more eco-friendly. Our current washer probably uses 40-50 gallons of water per load of laundry and I do about 3-5 loads a week so when you add that up on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis that is a lot of water being used.  I have read that new front load washers use about 10 gallons of water per load of laundry so that a quarter of the water that I currently use per load.  It’s crazy to think how wasteful I am being but at the same time a new energy efficient washer and dryer would set us back a decent penny.

I am very thankful we have a washing machine and dryer in our home because I know a lot of people don’t so I am thankful for that but I just wish the set we had was better.  Not only are we wasting water but also electricity because our current dryer takes about 90 minutes or longer to dry a load of towels. A new tumble dryer would not only save on our electric bill but it might also save me a few dollars in my pocket.

Not sure if and when we will get a new washer or dryer but I do like to go circular shopping every Sunday to see what kind of new ones are available just in case we are able to buy a new set.   

I want to see if I am the minority or majority, LOL. Do you have a new washer and dryer or an old pair like us?

Mark Kelly, from UK retailer Appliances Direct, is completely behind these technological improvements and said “anything that an everyday appliance can do to make people’s lives easier must be a good thing and it shows how new technologies and innovations can help improve existing pieces of household technology or equipment”

This is NOT My Garage

Do you partake in any spring/summer time cleaning rituals?  We do and it usually involves a few days of cleaning.

Usually twice a year we do a huge cleaning and reorganization of the garage and this year we have expanded that to the downstairs coat closet.  I never realized how jam packed our coat closet was with coats and vacuum cleaners not to mention that in the garage there are also a few additional vacuum cleaners as well as gloves, scarfs and hats.  In total we have four vacuum cleaners but I want to add another one to our collection.  I recently stumbled onto the Miele vacuums and I must admit they are pretty sweet.  I am not sure why I am into vacuum cleaners considering I may vacuum once or twice a month.  Even when I clean my own car I don’t even use the vacuums at home I use the one at the car wash.  I guess I just want Sabreena to have the best vacuum available, LOL.

Anyway about three week ago was when our garage cleaning went down and it was huge because we got a new fridge so the one in the kitchen moved to the garage as overflow but by doing so I needed to totally rearrange so that the fridge would fit.  Making room for the fridge caused me all kinds of extra work because I needed to move everything around just so I could place it close to a water source because I need to hook the ice and water up. The only good thing that came from this was I got an opportunity to get rid of old stuff that I was saving for some weird reason which is a whole other post for another time, LOL.

Ever go to do one simple task and do a total cleaning/rearrange project?  I do all of the time and it kills Melinda when I do.