Design Elements That Elevate Your Guest Bedroom and Make It a Hotel-Quality Experience

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Hosting family or friends under one roof can seem like a stressful idea, especially when you worry about making your guest space comfortable for other people. Regardless of whether you have a dedicated guest room or an inflatable mattress in the family room, you can make your guests comfortable. However, there are some simple things you can do to create a hotel-quality experience. 

Scents

Choose scented candles, diffuser oils, and sprays that are refreshing and do not overwhelm the room. Fill small mesh bags with scented dried flowers and place them in drawers in the guest room. Arrange candles around the room so that your guests can choose how many to light and how much scent they would prefer. Vanilla, lavender, and chamomile are good choices to create a relaxing atmosphere. Just remember not to add too many scents to a small space. This can have the opposite effect and could even give more sensitive guests headaches.

Bedding

Step up your bedding game. Choose crisp, soft sheets and provide plenty of layers. Provide quilts of various weights in addition to a duvet cover and a light blanket underneath. Quilt weights can be varied from light to heavy depending on the season. Lighter quilts can be used in warmer months and heavier weighted quilts can be provided for colder months. Remember, visit a few mattress stores and make sure you have a comfy option for your guests as no bedding in the world can save an uncomfortable mattress!

Necessities and Decor

Think about things that your guests might have forgotten when packing for their stay. Provide extras like soap, shampoo, and toothbrushes. Throw in some extras such as bath bombs or bath oils and a comfy bathrobe. Choose plush, oversized towels and washcloths. Consider tucking these bonus items into a basket or organizing them on a decorative tray. Faux flowers and small pots of faux green plants provide a hypoallergenic way to bring a touch of color and the outdoors to the room. Finally, choose blackout curtains or shades, and add plenty of easily accessed lighting options around the room.

Water, Tea, Coffee

Give your guests the option to have tea, coffee, and a water carafe in their room similar to what many hotels provide. Create a station on a small table. Provide an assortment of different tea bags, single packets of sugar and creamer, and even single packets of coffee. Finish the spread with a few decent sized mugs and spoons for stirring.

With just a few simple things, you can make your guests feel like they’ve walked into a lavish hotel room. Hosting guests does not have to bring feelings of panic and dread. Your guests will be comfortable and enjoy the serene atmosphere that you have provided.

Need to Patch Your Roof? How to Make the Repair Last

Damages on your roof are the last thing you will want to experience. There are severe damages that can result from a damaged roof. For instance, leaks and cracks on your asphalt shingles can lead to a moist attic and the growth of mold and moss in your home. The latter can cause health effects, more so when you are allergic. Top-quality roofing products will guarantee long-lasting roofs. Therefore, this article outlines some of the effective ways to make your roof last longer.

Preventive Measures

Eliminating the causes of damages on your roof will save you significantly. Being aware of these would guarantee a long life to the roof. Moisture is one of the enemies of asphalt shingles, a leading material used for roofing. Therefore, you can eliminate moisture by ensuring that the attic is adequately insulated. It will maintain a suitable temperature and leads to less formation of humidity. Besides, you will want to ensure that there is maximum ventilation to reduce the accumulation of moisture. Lastly, you will ensure that you prune overgrowing tree branched over your roof. When left uncut, they can fall on the roof and damage it.

Ensure a Maintenance Routine

Now that you have ensured that your roof is patched and in good shape, do not allow for consequential damages. Therefore, appropriate maintenance is necessary for it to last longer. Each season comes with a different weather condition; consequently, it is essential to prepare for each. Ensuring that you check on the roof at the beginning of fall and spring is ideal. It will prepare the roof for the heavy rains during the summer and winter falls. When doing maintenance, sweep away leaves and debris on the roof, power wash to avoid mold growth, and clear the gutters.

Hire Professionals

The roof is an essential component of the house. Without proper care, severe damages can results. Therefore, when you are not sure of the activities that need to be done on the roof, consider hiring residential roofing companies. Depending on the company you choose, they can either specialize in repair or maintenance, or both. Ensure that you choose a reputable option for maximum benefits. Ask friends for referrals and look for reviews for such companies before you conclude.

The roof should always be in good condition to last longer. Effective repairs and maintenance on the roof will guarantee longevity. However, considering skills from roofing experts would guarantee top-notch services.

Pro Hacks For House Moves With A Baby

If you need to get a house move going but you have a baby with you, chances are you’re stressed out about all the implications. After all, a house move in itself can become extremely stressful, and it’s frightening to think about how such a life transition can affect an infant throughout the months of the moving process. Sometimes, it’s reasonable for parents to feel a bit overwhelmed and just think about stopping the house move in its entirety. However, it’s actually completely possible to push through with a house with the right approach and the right kind of planning. Here are some important steps to remember:

• Secure the necessary medical requirements and supplies you might need. One of the first things you should do first when deciding to move houses is to secure all the medical documentation you might need from the pediatrican for your baby. For instance, you need to take note if there are any particular allergy medications they need to take for the trip, or if they are due for any vaccines. If the move is happening during a pandemic, it’s also important to know safety precautions to keep the baby safe. It’s at this time that it helps to assemble a baby kit, too, containing all the child’s essentials to carry during moving day so there’s no need to rummage through packaging boxes. 

• Secure your requirements and documentation as soon as possible. Another thing you need to settle once you start the move is securing the requirements and documents you might need to submit to local offices and other places. These include documents for your utilities or even requirements for your homeownership. If you need to secure requirements for movers near Manhattan or other special area certification for the people you plan on hiring, now is also a good time to accomplish these. Doing these things as soon as possible can help you secure these things as soon as possible and avoid any potential hassles in the future. 

• Organize your inventory in the most efficient way possible. After you finalized the things you need for your move, it helps to start organizing your inventory in the most efficient way possible. Instead of relying on a ledger or a notebook, try using a spreadsheet in order to stay on top of everything you own through your mobile phone or gadget you own. Moreover, you can use your spreadsheet to keep track of relevant information such as things you want to keep, sell, or even throw away. This can greatly help you stay on top of what you need to pack without the hassle of thinking about everything as you go.

• Streamline your schedule and your moving process. Instead of outright prioritizing your moving process once you’ve decided with it, a more efficient way to do things would be streamlining your regular routine with what you need for your move. For instance, you can use the same calendar to keep track of things you need to do for the household, at work, and then use the available free time you have for your moving obligations. That way, you’re sure that you’re not compromising your household obligations, your work deadlines, and other necessary things for your move.

• Ask relatives to look after your child during moving day. In order to avoid any health risks and stress elements for your baby during the move, you may want to ask for assistance from your relatives to look after your child for the moving process. That way, you’re sure that your child won’t experience stressors such as noise pollution in traffic, air pollution in dust and smoke, and even the hassles of many moving things around them. 

• Hire professionals to handle the logistics and the heavy lifting. If you feel a bit overwhelmed with all the processes you need to do throughout the move, it’s important to remember that you can actually hire professionals such as moving companies to be able to help you out. Their expertise, skillset, and manpower may be enough to help you deal with the heavy aspects of the move such as packing and unpacking, transportation, and storage. Meanwhile, they may also have enough equipment and supplies prepared to help you transport other fragile items such as your baby’s furniture.

Moving With A Baby: Make It The Best Trip For Your Child

With the above tips in mind, it's important to remember that your baby’s comfort still takes priority within a house move. And while house moves can get naturally stressful, it’s still within your reach and resources to be able to help your baby have a good time throughout the rest of the trip. Thankfully, the above tips can help you capitalize on your existing resources and plans to help ensure that you can streamline the house move to accommodate your baby’s needs and give them a comfortable time while they adjust to their new environment. 

10 Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Home

Selling your family home is not only an exciting experience but it can also be stressful, especially if it’s your first time. There can be many reasons to sell your home, regardless, you can fall into many different common mistakes, which can make your selling experience unpleasant. Here are the top 10 mistakes to avoid when selling your home. 

1.     Underestimating the Cost of Selling Your House

While selling your home should overall be profitable for you in the long run, many sellers forget the costs associated with selling your home. To begin, you have to budget the total cost of the real estate commission costs for both the buying and selling agents which can amount to around 5 or 6 percent in most cases. Along with the real estate commission costs, buyers can negotiate concessions into the agreement that can include you paying closing costs and more.

2.     Not Budgeting for Your Move

When moving you have a couple different options. You can either do it yourself or hire a moving company. There are pros and cons to both. If you’re not willing or able to do it yourself, moving companies can cost a lot of money but there are perks to this option. Moving companies will take your stuff from your current residence and move it to the new home along with unpacking your belongings in some cases. If you’re too busy to move yourself or you just don’t want to do it, there are plenty of benefits to hiring out a moving company.

3.     Ignoring major repairs and making costly renovations

Before you put your home on the market you should highly consider making any major repairs to your home before spending on renovations. Buyers will be more willing to do renovation work themselves, but when you fail an inspection or they notice large repairs that need to be done, that can be a quick deal breaker. Almost all buyers require an inspection before closing, the worst thing that you could let happen before an inspection is a failed inspection. So try and hire a professional to see where work needs to be done and then get it completed, it will pay off in the end.

4.     Selling to Unqualified Buyers

Before selling to a potential buyer, it’s reasonable to expect a buyer to bring a pre-approval letter from a mortgage company or cash home buyers showing you proof of funds to verify that they have the cash necessary to buy your home. When selling, sometimes you’ll get a binding contingency offer which means that you won’t be able to close unless the buyer’s home also sells. That can put you in a pickle if you need to close by a certain date and the buyer’s home hasn’t sold yet.

5.     Not Staging Your Home for A Quick Sale

Before selling your home you should highly consider staging it. Staging is meant to show the buyer what it could look like if they were living in it, this is not for you anymore. If you move out before selling, you don’t want them to be walking around an empty home, having staging furniture can really show the true potential of your home. Not only is staging your home great to show potential to home buyers, it can raise the value of your home up to 10% in most cases. If you still live in your home, consider taking your family portraits down, rearranging the furniture, decluttering, and minimizing your unique and personal style touches.

6.     Forgoing Professional Real Estate Photos

As much as you love your iPhone photos, that doesn’t qualify you to be a professional real estate photographer. I know that the pictures you took last weekend could certainly be featured in the latest edition of Home & Garden, however, those photos are still not going to throw as big of a punch as having a trained professional handle your photos for you. Real estate photographers not only have top of the line equipment that far outshine regular camera phone photography, they also are able to stage your home in a certain way that sells and also take the angles that they know sell. 

Now that it’s 2021, it’s almost essential to show off aerial photos of your home through drone photography. Drone views are unique, show your entire property, and can give vision to your unique views or even just show off the neighborhood. You’d be surprised how inexpensive drone photography is too! Like I said before, it’s 2021, give it a shot!

7.     Not Cleaning Your House Before Trying to Sell It

Before selling your home, please make sure that it’s as clean as the day that you moved into it. Buyers hate nothing more than walking into a home that isn’t so clean that they could lick ice cream off the floor. You might think your home is clean right now, but there are picky buyers out there, go through and give it an extra scrub and find the lingering dust. If you don’t have time to clean your home, it’s worth hiring a professional cleaning company to make your home look spotless! It’s inexpensive and well worth the cost.

8.     Not Addressing the Exterior of Your House

The exterior of your home can take a beating from the elements over the years. Give the exterior of your home a look over and if it needed paint 5 years ago, it’d probably be a wise idea to get that paint job you’ve been putting off done. Another exterior element that can make or break a sale is the quality of your deck/patio area or the condition of your back and front yards. Curb appeal matters, so get out there and make sure that your entire property looks great.

9.     Choosing the wrong agent or the wrong way to sell

When deciding on how to sell your home, most people decide on selling with a Realtor, some like to go the For Sale By Owner option. If you decide to list with a real estate agent, you will be presented with either a flat rate or a percentage of the sale of your home. Sometimes the commission can be negotiated so don’t forget to try your hand at negotiating! Before choosing a real estate agent make sure you interview multiple agents and see if they have the proper experience in selling your area and price point. Some questions you might ask are:

• Marketing plans for your home

• If they require a contract to work together and how long is the contract for

• What negotiating style do they have

• What does communication look like? How often will you be communicating?

• Do they currently have competing listings that could interfere with yours

10.       Lingering During A Home Tour

Please do not be present at your home during home tours. There is nothing more uncomfortable for a potential buyer than knowing that the homeowner is present. When you don’t leave your home the buyers can feel awkward about talking about their likes and dislikes of the home and put them off buying your home at all. This also presents a problem for the buying agent because they are then unable to do their job effectively. You can go run errands, grocery shop, go to a friend’s home, and there are lots of places you can be other than your home for the tour!