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It can be easy to quickly fill your vehicle and blow your budget at seasonal greenhouses when spring fever fuels visions of a dream garden. According to its annual survey, the National Gardening Association reports the average household spends $503 on gardening. Twenty-nine percent of gardeners are in the 18- to 34-year-old range, peak years for when it’s important to pinch pennies. Fortunately, gardening can be one of the most budget-friendly hobbies if you plan well, have patience and do a little networking....

Zbynek Pospisil/Getty Images Common Vegetable Garden Mistakes You’re likely to err when you take your first stab at vegetable gardening. As a brilliant individual once said, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” Not that we advocate making preventable errors. After all, gardening blunders cost you time and money. So with that in mind, we asked Bill Rein, a horticulturist at W. Atlee Burpee & Co....

Four years after buying her first home with her future husband, Lindsay Bjerke embarked on a career as a real-estate agent, helping first-time buyers in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Bjerke recently began flipping homes. “I was able to do that because we had equity in our first home,” she says. She has four investment properties: two vacation rentals, a triplex and a single-family home. “We’re also on our third house now,” she says....

Home improvement shortcuts usually lead to trouble. But not always. Fifteen years ago, I tore out most of my crumbling plaster walls and replaced them with drywall. By the time I got to the dining room, I just couldn’t face another day of dust and rubble. So I took an easier path: I patched the worst cracks with mesh tape and joint compound and primed the walls. Then I covered the walls with “wall liner....

With people increasingly relying on portable generators for backup power, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a warning: Gasoline-powered portable generators create a risk of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning that can kill in minutes. The warning comes in the midst of record-breaking summer heat waves that fuel wildfires and intensify demand for electricity to run air conditioners. It applies year-round. Report’s Generator-Linked Carbon Monoxide Findings Using data collected from 2017 to 2019, the CPSC report states that “about 85 consumers die in the U....

Bathroom mold is an unsightly and unhealthy problem that should be addressed as soon as you spot it. The most common places to find mold are tile grout, caulk and painted or wallpapered walls. “Bathroom mold occurs primarily because mold loves damp, dark, isolated spaces,” says Larry Vetter of Vetter Environmental Services in Smithtown, N.Y. “Typically, a bathtub, shower, or entire bathroom remains damp enough for mold growth just from showering or bathing....

With more people spending more time outdoors as they practice social distancing, many homeowners are beginning to see the value in an outdoor shower. This attainable amenity is ideal for washing off outdoor grime, rinsing off before a dip in a pool, or simply cooling off from the summer heat. It’s also a perfect place to rinse off your dog! And an outdoor shower can increase a home’s value. According to a report from Realtor Magazine, “those trying to get the biggest return on their investment should have an outdoor shower installed ASAP....

Frantisek Dulik/Shutterstock Bed bugs—just the thought of them makes you itchy, doesn’t it? These tiny critters feed on human blood and love to hide in and around the cracks and corners of our beds. And even though they don’t carry disease, bed bug bites do cause a red, itchy rash. When Were the First Bed Bugs Recorded? These bugs have been around for thousands of years. Scientists have fossilized bugs that are more than 3,500 years old....

If you own one or are planning to buy land you’ve probably wondered where your property line falls in relation to the street, you’re not alone! Because of the wide variety of ways to define property lines and setbacks, there are almost as many different definitions for these terms as there are municipalities and counties that determine them. Different Definitions In some places the property line extends right up to the curb, but has a wide setback for potential public use....

Brought to you by Getting your home organized is a great feeling, but figuring out where to start can be overwhelming. Keep the process simple by zeroing in on these 8 principles of organizing, which can be applied to any space, anytime. Get to know active vs. passive zones. Active zones are the spots in your home that you pass or touch daily (usually multiple times a day), and include the entryway, top drawers and eye-level shelves and cabinets....

Lisa Schaetzle/Getty Images Think it’s safe to crawl under your vehicle while it’s resting on a car jack? Think again. You don’t have to spend a fortune to get the right equipment to protect your life and make the job easier, but you do have to know what to look for. Floor jacks for the do-it-yourselfer come in two price ranges: economy ($30 to $40) and semi-professional ($65 to $99). We don’t recommend economy jacks, even for occasional use....

Three Key Factors: Price, Maintenance and Appearance When a sample of a kitchen countertop made from 60 percent paper recently crossed my desk, I realized tops could be, and are, made out of anything and everything. Wood, plastic, granite, metal, concrete, tile, acrylic—they’re all used. Seventy-five years ago, stone and wood were the primary countertop choices; 25 years ago, laminate was clearly king of the hill. But today’s kitchens and inexpensive countertops are used for more than just cooking....

Jimmy phu Huynh/shutterstock Do You Know These Fascinating Facts About Hummingbirds? Learn the fascinating traits that make hummingbirds the special creatures that they are: Large eyes pick up as many colors as human eyes do, plus ultraviolet light; Lead edges of wings create tornado-like vortexes to help with hovering; Tongues act as thin pumps that contract to draw in nectar; Dainty feet for perching only, since hummingbirds don’t walk or hop; Sturdy tail feathers used like rudders to make hairpin turns; A rufous hummingbird sips nectar from a Pride of Madeira bloom....

After several years of soaring growth and sustained sales, the housing market in the United States is officially starting to cool off. In the latest Housing Market Index (HMI) from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), builder confidence plunged to its lowest levels since May 2020. The HMI fell 12 points to a score of 55, the seventh consecutive month of decline. (The HMI ranges from 0 to 100; it began the year at 83....

DedeDian/Shutterstock You know, there are a lot of strange things that can end up in your toilet. Most people feel that you can flush pretty much anything down the toilet, but in all actuality, there really isn’t much that should go down those pipes (especially these 12 things you should never flush down the toilet). But the strangest of all that you wouldn’t expect? Snakes. Maybe snakes slithering up your toilet aren’t as much of a big deal for you, since toilet snakes are actually a geographical issue....

via standardtoilet.net How to choose a toilet — The Basics Whatever you call it, the bathroom toilet is one of the most important items in your house. While the color and cost matter, how much water it uses and how well it flushes matter more. A good one conserves water and generates enough power to clean the bowl in a single flush. (A bad one can be a 20-year pain in the butt....

Hannamariah/Shutterstock Front door paint is one of the quickest, easiest and most affordable ways to add instant curb appeal. And good news: A successful front door makeover can be done in one weekend, tops. Start here: Choose the Best Color for the Front Door How you choose the best paint color depends on personal taste and your home’s character. If you typically shy away from bright colors, remember, a door is a smaller commitment, why not experiment with a shade that wows?...

luanateutzi/Shutterstock Most people agree that clutter is stressful. But despite your best efforts to keep things tidy, what you buy often leads to more unforeseen clutter. Some people seek to declutter to alleviate this stress and build up their feelings of accomplishment. Others like the feeling of freeing up extra space in the home. Whatever the motivation, decluttering is energizing, an anxiety reducer, can reduce relationship and family tension and more according to Psychology Today....

Tiny houses have been around awhile, most famously Henry David Thoreau’s self-built 150-sq.-ft. cabin that inspired his ode to simple living, Walden. Today’s tiny house movement, which kicked off in earnest in the late 1990s, boasts an estimated 10,000 tiny houses in the U.S. But is tiny house living right for you? Read on to find out. What Is a Tiny House? The basic definition of a tiny house is a dwelling with 400 sq....

Using a Robot Vacuum in Your Home It’s probably not news to any Roomba owner or anyone who uses a smart device but they’re collecting data every time they’re in use. The Roomba collects data about your home so it knows where to go to vacuum up those potato chip crumbs and dust. Plus, take a look at what to consider before buying a robot vacuum. Is Your Data at Risk With a Roomba?...