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Terry Bordeleau 636-397-7378 [email protected] http://www.terrybordeleau.com Berkshire Hathaway Alliance Real Estate 251 Salt Lick Road Saint Peters, MO 63376

Sometimes accidents or disasters can strike no matter how far you've gone to prevent them. Being prepared for the unexpected can help protect your family and your home. Here are a couple of good items to keep on hand in your home. Fire extinguisher. Keep one on every floor of your home, and an extra one in the kitchen, which is where the majority of fires start. Some insurance policies will give you a discount on your premium for having extinguishers in your home A multipurpose ABC extinguishers works on three types of fires: ordinary combustibles, flammable liquids, and electrical. Check the pressure gauges on your extinguishers when you check your smoke alarms and have them recharged when the pressure drops. Battery-powered smoke detector. Supplement your hard-wired smoke detectors (if you have them) with at least one battery-powered smoke detector per floor, especially in the kitchen and by the bedrooms. Pick up a model that has a sealed-in, 10-year lithium battery. This will help avoid frequent battery changes and middle of the night chirping. Carbon monoxide alarm. Choose one that is a separate CO alarm, not one combined with a smoke detector. Place one on every level of the home and outside each sleeping area. Check your state laws on requirements for CO alarms. Automatic water heater shutoff valve. An automatic shutoff valve for the water heater cuts off the supply to the device as soon as it senses a leak of any kind.

Compost is organic material that can be added to soil that will help plants grow. Food scraps and yard clippings make up to 30% of what we throw away, yet could be composted instead. Having a composting system keeps these materials out of the landfills. All composting requires three basic ingredients: Browns - Materials such as dead leaves, branches, and twigs Greens - Grass clippings, vegetable waste, fruit scraps, and coffee grounds Water - Having the right amount of water is important for compost development To compost, you should have an equal amount of browns to greens, alternate layers of organic materials. The brown materials provide carbon for your compost, the green materials provide nitrogen, and the water provides moisture to help break down the organic matter. Click here to read more.

Home gyms are growing in popularity and are becoming a staple in many homes. Thinking of converting your spare room into a home gym? Here are some ideas to get you started.

Energize that space with a couple of bold colors. Orange, blue, and lime green are colors that will wake you up and get you moving.

Have a fitness mantra? Paint it on your wall so you have it there to look at while working out.

Add a ceiling fan to circulate the air while you work out. Just be sure to measure ceiling height, fan depth, and the height you will be while on your fitness equipment.

Don't let your resistance bands and jump rope get tangled up on the floor, hang them up on pegs or garment hooks.

Flooring is important while you work out because it can have an impact on your feet and knees. A good choice for home gym flooring is cork. It's tough but resilient. Another option is carpet tiles, which are easy to install yourself.

Step 1: Lay out the fence post. Use a powered chalk or spray paint as a guide to design your layout. Be sure to position a fence post every 6-8 feet in the area where you want your fence to stand. Step 2: Dig the holes. Dig a hole about three times wider than the post, and half as deep as the post is tall. For example, if the fence will be four feet high, make the hole two feet. Step 3: Add concrete and gravel. Pour 4-6 inches of gravel in the base of the hole to allow for drainage. After the gravel is compact in the hole, add 6-8 inches of concrete mix. Put the post in the middle of the concrete mix and plumb with a level. Allow two to three days for the concrete to cure. Step 4: Attach rails or panels to the posts. Once the concrete has cured, you can begin attaching the rails to support your fencing to your post. Once rails are in place, attach pickets or fencing. Step 5: To give your fence a finished look, attach the post caps to the posts. Tap each cap lightly with a rubber mallet until each one fits tightly onto the post.

Ingredients 2 bottles red Spanish table wine 1 cup brandy 1/2 cup triple sec 1 cup orange juice 1 cup pomegranate juice 1/2 cup simple syrup, or more to taste (equal parts sugar and water, heated until sugar dissolves, cooled) Orange slices Apple slices Blackberries Pomegranate seeds Directions Mix all ingredients together and let stand in a tightly sealed container or pitcher for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator before serving. Recipe courtesy Bobby Flay Click here to read more.

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Terry Bordeleau 636-397-7378 [email protected] http://www.terrybordeleau.com Berkshire Hathaway Alliance Real Estate 251 Salt Lick Road Saint Peters, MO 63376

We've all been there, where you have walked into a room and felt overwhelmed by the floral print wallpaper that was popular 30 years ago. It's been said by many realtors, to look past the wallpaper. Are you ready to tackle that project? It can be done! Follow these steps to get the best results.

Run a scoring tool in overlapping circles over the entire surface of the wallpapered

Make a solution of two gallons of warm water and two ounces of wallpaper stripping solution

While wearing rubber gloves, soak wallpaper-removing fabric in the bucket of stripper solution, wring out the fabric, and press the wet fabric on the wall

Smooth out the fabric and continue to apply sheets of wet fabric until the whole wall is covered

Using a small pump sprayer, apply more stripping solution to the fabric on the wall

After 20 minutes, pull the fabric sheets off the wall and back into the bucket for the next wall

Then you can begin to peel the wallpaper from the wall, if it doesn't release cleanly, spray more solution onto the wallpaper

After wallpaper is removed, scrub the walls with a scouring sponge soaked in the solution to remove any sticky residue

Recycling saves energy, landfill space and natural resources. Recycling at home requires little time, and offers significant benefit to the homeowner and the environment. According to the EPA, the national recycling rate in the US is only 30%. If that number were to increase to 60%, it could save the equivalent of 315 million barrels of oil per year. Recycling is a great way individuals can make a difference, both in their community and on a global level. Start recycling in your home today! Here are some tips:

Visit your local recycling center and find out what materials they accept for recycling. To find the recycling center nearest you, call: 1 800-CLEANUP.

Get storage bins. The success to home recycling is the storage bin setup. After you know which materials to recycle, set up a storage bin system. Once your system is set up, recycling is easy!

Buy products with the highest percentage of "post-consumer" recycled content.

Clean your bottles and cans before putting them in the recycling bin. This prevents flies both at home and the recycling station.

Put a 'no junk mail' sticker on your mailbox.

Do you have a small bathroom or powder room that seems too small to do anything with it? With a couple changes you can make that small bathroom feeling disappear. Help your petite bathroom feel larger with a wall-mounted sink. This will free up floor space and add a unique feature to your bathroom. Hang your shower curtain from your ceiling in order to visually elongate the shower/tub section of the bathroom. Use the window ledge to display your bath salts, bubble bath, and other fun bath accessories. Lastly, maximize your storage without using up floor space with shelving and wall hung storage units to store towels and toiletries.

When you aerating your lawn it breaks the soil surface by punching holes into the ground. A plug aerator will remove clumps (plugs) of soil out of the ground, while spiked aerators simply push holes into the soil. The benefits to aerating are:

Oxygen and water are better able enter the soil

Rainwater won't just run off

Earthworms and other bugs will have more room to live

Your fertilizer will reach the roots

These benefits lead to healthier grass, which means fewer weeds.

Ingredients 6 cups shredded cabbage 1 cup shredded carrot 1 cup mayonnaise 1/4 cup white wine vinegar 1 teaspoon celery seed 1/4 cup sugar Salt and pepper Directions In a large bowl, combine cabbage and carrots. In a smaller bowl, make dressing by combining mayonnaise, vinegar, celery seed, sugar, salt and pepper. Toss dressing into cabbage mixture and let chill. Serve in a family style bowl. Copyright 2006, Robert Irvine, All Rights Reserved Click here to read more.