#NeverAgain: 9 Home Renovation Don’ts and Other Decorating Mistakes to Avoid

House

 

House

Home design magazine features and TV shows make renovation look easy—even though it’s not.

Renovations, whether small or large-scale is an investment in your happiness. For most people, it is a once-in-a-lifetime task that needs to have careful planning and keen attention to detail. Little mistakes go a long way; causing bigger problems that may cost you thousands of dollars.

Working with architects and draftsmen, I’ve seen them help countless of clients in transforming their spaces. For every work they’ve done, I realised what a homeowner should do when facing a home renovation project:

 

Don’t let clutter win

During a remodelling project, some people are excited to fill their homes with brand new things in addition to what they already have. There’s nothing wrong with shopping—it’s a part of a new beginning that you want for your home. The problem comes when you keep too many stuff and have a hard time letting go the redundant or unneeded items.

Decluttering is an integral part of a renovation. It is the first thing that you should do before anyone builds or knocks a wall in your house. Release those items that no longer makes sense to your life. Celebrate negative space for it allows you to move around the house without any confusion.

 

Don’t hesitate to trim the design down

Overdesigning can happen in pursuit of perfection. People can get consumed with the transformation of their homes and only focusing on what they want to see. They tend to forget the effect of their decision decisions to the rest of their home.

A renovation is a tough, tiring, and hard process for you too. But no matter what happens, don’t let the process get in your head. Think of all the design decisions you make and if it’s too much to handle, downgrade the design. Like what we see in interior design shows, simplify things to achieve the perfect look.

 

Don’t stop experimenting with colour

White interiors became popular—white kitchen, bedroom, dining room, living area, so on and so forth. But white isn’t everything. Play with colours! Daub a fresh coat of paint to create a lively new wall. It’s a quick, low-cost, and easy way to refresh your interior design. Feel free to change it as often as you like, as long as you follow a colour palette that’s not too painful to look at.

 

Don’t fear monochromatic interiors

Designing a monochromatic room might look intimidating, but it provides an awesome aesthetic. It doesn’t have to be the exact same shade repeated over and over. Take a single colour or hue, run through its tints, tones, and shades, and use it as your colour palette.

Sticking to monochrome palettes is a good design move if you like simple and harmonious rooms. It lets you see the contrast between areas, which is beneficial when you’re balancing your interiors.

 

Don’t get comfortable in the Dark

When we renovate dark multipurpose rooms or attics to become livable spaces, we ensure that they are properly lit. Good design involves a strategic lighting plan. You may install pendant lights, chandeliers, wall sconces, or a new window (if possible).

 

Don’t forget the ceilings

Never forget to look up. Changing the look of your ceiling can deliver an entirely different vibe in the room. If you have an ordinary ceiling design and have the budget for a renovation, try making your ceiling as the focal point of a space. But if you have a working ceiling tray installed above you, it may be best to repaint it. These types of ceiling are costly, time-consuming, and hard to remove.

 

Don’t neglect your cabinets

Kitchen cabinets can increase your home’s market value. Hence, avoid having predictable and dull cabinets if you have plans to sell your home in the future. Most home buyers are impressed with stunning cabinetry. A cabinetry work is expensive but it shows more return.

Employ unique ideas, styles, and design features which add personality to your millworks. You have a wide range of choices from wood to laminate surfaces. Avoid construction and material costs by keeping the body of the cabinets and refacing the doors and drawers.

 

Don’t underestimate the power of a wallpaper

Whether you choose a subtle or bold design, wallpapers create a style statement that’s greater than paint. This is a unique design solution that can be dramatic or surprising when done properly. As our designers have said before, wallpaper can do so much, you can’t underestimate it.

 

Don’t just focus on the bigger rooms

If you’re not planning the design of your foyer, walkway, or stairwell, you are committing the most underrated renovation mistake of all. Give transition spaces the same attention you will give to destination spaces. It doesn’t need much but that doesn’t mean it should be boring. The design must be enough to entertain the people passing through and make sure that your design doesn’t block their way.

 

Never hesitate to ask for help

As mentioned earlier, your home renovation is an investment. If you’re facing a serious renovation, hire an architect or a designer. Having an architect and designer helps streamline and ensure the outcome the project. DIY is great but it can be a little stressful for someone with no building experience.

Take time to do your research or ask your peers for referrals. Get a quote from three or four professionals and compare their prices and portfolios. Through this, you’ll be able to survive your home renovation, without committing any design mistake.

 

Everything You Need To Know About Traditional Cigarettes

 

ecigs

Millions of people light up a cigarette every minute of the day. While this seems like a harmless hobby, it can leave devastating long-term effects on your body and brain. Many people have smoked cigarettes for so long that they do not give it much thought, leaving themselves at high risks of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. If you are considering starting smoking, you should definitely think again, because this nasty habit can shorten your lifespan and complicate your lifestyle.

 

Coronary Artery Disease

Heart disease is classified as the leading cause of death, affecting both males and females. This disease causes plaque to build up inside of the arteries. The plaque will become so thick that it will block the blood from reaching the heart and lungs. When this happens, it puts the victim at risk of a heart attack. If you are lucky enough to get medical treatment within the first 15 minutes of the attack, your chances of survival will be much higher than compared to a 30 or 45-minute wait.

 

Cerebrovascular Accident

Another condition linked to smoking is developing a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or stroke. This condition occurs when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted. A blocked artery is often the culprit, but a leaky or busted blood vessel can also be the cause. One of the common causes of strokes is smoking, followed by high blood pressure and age. Smokers are always going to be at a higher risk for a stroke and the only prevention, in this case, is smoking cessation.

If you are a smoker, you should definitely consider getting educated on strokes. If you are having difficulty quitting smoking, you should invest in nicotine patches and gum.

 

Teeth Decay

While millions of people all around the world continue to smoke, the risks of doing so are astronomical. In fact, smoking can alter your appearance and leave you with a majorly decrease self-esteem. Generally, this will come in the form of tooth decay. The nicotine in the teeth will badly damage the smoker’s teeth and cause them to turn yellow. If you continue to smoke for a prolonged period, the teeth may even take on a black color. At the same time, the smoke can cause the enamel to weaken. In return, this will eventually lead to tooth loss and decay.

Unless you’re happy with wearing dentures at 30 years old, you should stop smoking as soon as possible. It is widely believed that vaporizers and eliquid do far less harm to the teeth, so that is something you may want to consider checking out

Eye Problems

While many people do not realize it, smoking can directly impact your eyes and your vision. In fact, it is widely believed that smoking can increase the risks of developing cataracts. This is even worse when you consider the fact that cataracts are the leading cause of blindness. Also, smoking can cause macular degeneration and that could impact the center of the retina. This could eventually lead to the smoker developing blind spots or suffering from severely impacted central vision.

How does the Lemonade Diet Work?

The Lemonade Diet is a weight-loss fast in which you only drink a special lemonade drink for about 10 days and also flush the body with a salt water mixture.  Some people also take herbal laxative teas during the Lemonade Diet as well. As simple as the Lemonade Diet is, there are still some steps you will need to follow to make sure you are fasting safely.  Here are the three phases of the Lemonade Diet.

 

Pre-Fasting Phase

Before you start the Lemonade Diet, you should prepare your body for the fast.  Many people choose to skip this phase but it will be easier on your body if you do some simple preparation first.  In particular, you won’t feel as hungry during the actual Lemonade Diet fasting phase.

The pre-fasting phase should last at least 2 days but can be stretched out to longer periods of time.  During the first day/s of the pre-fast phase, you should eat only uncooked, vegan (no animal products) foods. Try to have some fun with the diet by eating delicious fruits like mangos and vegetables with interesting textures, like tomatoes.  However, make sure that you are getting more vegetables than fruits because fruits have high levels of sugar.

During the second day/s of the pre-fasting phase of the Lemonade Diet, you should consume only liquid foods.  While this may seem limiting at first, there are a lot of great liquid foods you can make, like smoothies, fresh juices, soups and broth.  Some people add a third step to the pre-fasting phase of the lemonade diet during which they only consume orange juice with a bit of maple syrup.

 

The Lemonade Diet Phase

During the Lemonade Diet phase, you will only consume a lemonade drink, an herbal laxative and (optional) a salt water flush.

You can start the Lemonade Diet with the salt water flush (SWF).  The salt water flush should be one liter of pure warm water (distilled water is best) combined with 1-2 teaspoons of salt.  The salt should be organic sea salt without iodine added to it.  The purpose of the SWF is to cleanse out your bowels and detoxify yourself.  Your body cannot absorb the salt water so it will almost immediately be expelled through your bowels.  When it is expelled, it will take with it any buildup in your bowels. A word of caution: you should have a bathroom nearby when you do the SWF!   The SWF should always be done on an empty stomach right when you wake up.  You can drink it all at once or take your time, just don’t drink the lemonade until you have finished the flush and had a bowel movement.

 

After the SWF, you can start drinking the lemonade mixture.  It should consist of 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of organic maple syrup grade B, 1/10teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and 10 ounces of pure (filtered or distilled) water.  Freshness is key to the Lemonade Diet!  Don’t make too much of the lemonade drink ahead of time because the active enzymes in the concoction will die if it sits around.  You should drink a minimum of 6 servings of the lemonade drink.  However, you can drink much more.  The more you consume, the easier it will be to combat hunger.  You can also drink pure water throughout the day.

While the salt water flush is not required as part of the Lemonade Diet, using a nightly laxative is a must.  All of the detoxification and weight loss with the Lemonade Diet occurs through bowel movements so you can expect to visit the bathroom frequently.  At night, just take an herbal laxative.  It can be a tea or pills depending on your preference.  Some people have the bowel movement at night whereas others have it in the morning when they wake up.

 

Post-Fasting Phase

After 4-12 days of the Lemonade Diet, you will be ready to ease out of the fast.  You cannot just start eating normally though or your body will go into shock.  Instead, you need to ease yourself back into solid foods. The post-fasting phase is basically the reverse of the pre-fasting phase.  On the first day, you will want to drink orange juice with some maple syrup.  By the second day, you can start consuming some liquid foods like juices, smoothies, and soups.  On the third day, you can eat live foods like vegetables and fruits.

How to lose weight by lemon is highly effective in reducing the number of natural balance. However, this method still requires you to be very patient and perform regularly.