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Bathroom condensation: damp walls in the bathroom are perfect breeding grounds for bacterial mould. Mould (also called mildew) is an unsightly fungus that develops on top of walls, as well as burrowing beneath a wall’s surface, often causing a structure to crumble, or paint and wallpaper to peel. Health issues, such as respiratory infections, allergies and asthma, can also arise as a result of mould, with babies, children and elderly people being most susceptible.

How does bathroom condensation occur?

Bathroom condensation is the result of hot air colliding with cold walls.

It’s common to notice dripping walls after taking a hot shower or bath, but most cases occur in the wintertime when we ramp up the central heating to counteract the chill our homes suffer from the cold winds and temperatures outside.

How to prevent bathroom condensation

There are a number of preventative measures that you can take to reduce condensation forming in your bathroom, including:

Repaint walls with specialist, low-moisture paint.

When running a bath, run the cold tap first. This will dilute the hot water so it won’t sit around heating up your bathroom for too long.

Keep your bathroom window open for as long as possible before, during and after your bath or shower.

Install an extractor fan to get rid of steam.

Try to maintain a constant temperature inside your home to avoid the erratic mixture of cold and warm air.

When it gets misty, wipe down your radiators and towel heaters to bring more drying heat in to your bathroom.

Use an old towel to dry your walls whenever condensation occurs.

Don’t dry wet clothes on your radiators or towel warmers because this will circulate moist air around the room.

Leave a small gap between any furniture and your walls so as not to trap warm air in the spaces.

Check that your guttering and down pipes are not damaged or blocked, thus prevented from carrying water away.

If these tips do not reduce condensation, a bathroom repair may be necessary. Under such circumstances, always enlist the assistance of a plumbing professional to prevent putting your safety at risk, or causing further damage.

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Even though temperatures have cooled dramatically this weekend, the heatwave is set to return with a vengeance this week as temperatures climb back up to 30º C this Friday. Experts are predicting higher than normal temperatures over autumn, its more important than ever that we look after ourselves while it’s super hot. In Britain, homes are designed to keep us warm, so we have to take extra care to avoid health risks.

Stay hydrated in the heatwave

The first and most important, is to stay hydrated during the heatwave. It may seem obvious but you’ll be sweating a lot and all that water lost needs to be replaced. Especially when travelling on the tube, make sure you carry a refillable bottle of water with you that you can take sips from throughout the day. Avoid single use plastic bottles – they’re harmful to the environment.

Buy a fan

Whether hand held, table or standing, investing in a fan may actually come in handy over the long term. It’s no secret, the earth is heating up, so it’s likely heatwaves may become the new norm. For extra cool in the air, but a bowl full of ice in front of the fan while it’s on.

Wear Sunscreen, it’s a heatwave!

While this might seem like an extra thing to do before leaving your house in the morning, keep your factor 50 because you’ll be needing it a lot more. It’s been the hottest summer since 1976 so far. While it’s fun to hang around in the sun, heat stroke and sunburn aren’t any fun, so take care of yourself.

Stay out of the sun

While we can complain about the “nanny state” in the UK for telling us last week to “stay out of the sun”. But there is a point to it. There’s a reason warmer countries like Spain have siestas. High temperatures in this heatwave can be particularly dangerous for older people, the young and those with long term health conditions. On particularly hot days, stay out of the sun between 11am and 3pm, when the sun is at its highest point.

Heatwave cooldown

Buy a cooling Pillow

Yes, they exist. Ever flipped your pillow over for that “aahhhh” feeling during a hot summer’s night? Then this is just right for you. They’re available on amazon.

Eat foods with a high water content

Eating ice cream on a hot day might seem like the obvious thing to do. But it may actually make you feel worse afterwards. Your body gives off a lot of heat while it’s working hard to break down rich foods like ice cream. Refreshing options are things like cucumbers, strawberries, watermelons, sweet bell peppers and celery.

The point is, enjoy yourself, but keep things cool.

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Things to consider:

Whether your turn your boiler off in the summer or not depends entirely on what you normally use your boiler for throughout the colder months. It may be a good way to save on your bills, but is it worth it practically?

According to this article from boilerguide, there are a few things to consider:

– If your shower is electric, you won’t need your boiler for hot water.

– Your appliances and white goods e.g dishwasher and washing machine need to be cold fill.
This means that they generate their own hot water.

– Make sure you get your boiler serviced regularly, especially if you plan to turn it off.

The full article can be found on boilerguide.co.uk.

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Dusty pink or else called “millennial pink” or “rose quartz” was the colour of the year for 2017, 2016 or as far back as 2014 depending on who you ask. No doubt this colour has been about for a while. Even though it’s reached its peak in 2018, what happens to all of us who went out and bought dusty pink furniture, painted our walls pink, or changed all our bed linen to some variation of dusty freakin’ pink? We’ve collected pics from all over the web showing different ways to update your use of pink throughout your home.

Dusty Pink and Grey Bedroom

dusty pink bedding

Source: Doctor Kish

This bedroom uses pink to contrast the main white and grey colours. Pink doesn’t necessarily have to be overwhelming. Just a touch of it can go a long way. Here, a blanket is enough.

Dusty Pink and Grey Living Room

dusty pink living room

Source: Styleroom.se

This living room is another great example of a style that uses touches of pink, rather than making it the main colour. There are also hints of metallic rose gold, which achieves the same effect, with a different spin.

Pink and Grey Art

Dusty Pink Art

Source: Living Room Ideas

Sometimes art is all you need to introduce this colour into your living room’s style.

Pink Bathrooms

Pink Bathroom

Source: House Beautiful

This all pink room does the business. It’s a great idea for a guest bathroom, where the loud but not overwhelming colours can be a nice surprise, an escape even. Using different shades of the same colour achieves this effect.

Dusty Pink and Teal

Source: The Spruce

Here a delicate balance is achieved using grey, pink and teal.

Dusty Pink Furniture and Walls

dusty pink furniture

Source: Brissi


Pink table

Source: Circal Lighting

Finally, this simple, modern design uses varying shades of pink to bring the room together

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If it’s disruptive to you, imagine what it’s like for your neighbours.

neighbours

You chose to get your house renovated, and at the end of it you get a nice new bathroom. Or a nice new kitchen, or a nice new kitchen, or a toasty new boiler. Your neighbours get nothing but noise, loud builders and ugly scaffolding for the length of your project.

We’ve collected tips from everywhere on how you can avoid being an annoying neighbour when renovating carrying out building work on any part of your home.

Inform your neighbours first.

Depending on how disruptive the work is, this informative process could be anything from a polite note through the door to a knock on the door, to an invite to tea.

Take pictures of everything before and after.

Especially if you and the work may affect your neighbours. Consider this particularly if you have adjoining walls. There’s nothing like before and after pictures to establish responsibility over things that could go wrong.

Give regular updates.

If anything changes, make sure to let your neighbour know. If some work was meant to take 2 weeks and you find it will overrun, let your neighbours know.

Not just the one next door.

Yeah, it’s easy to forget, but the people who live behind and across the street from you are your neighbours too. So include them when you think about your neighbours.

neighbours 2

If you’re the new guy/gal, be diplomatic.

Remember that your neighbour doesn’t know you and you don’t know them. They have no reason to give you the benefit of the doubt and they don’t care that your house will look better when this is all over. In these instance, remember that the diplomacy and just being thoughtful can go a long way.

The basic summary of this article is this – if you want to avoid drama with your neighbours, being thoughtful is key. A simple invite for tea and keeping everyone informed can go a long way to helping you avoid added agro you don’t need while running your renovation.

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Tips for luxury Living

Luxury is less about what you spend than how you feel. You can make you living room feel more like a luxury hotel with these 9 simple tips.

Make Luxury Statements

Centre Pieces 

Choose a statement coffee table that looks expensive. It may look expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s amazing what you can find if you wander through thrift shops and Saturday markets. You can find re – purposed or vintage furniture that

tips for luxury

Source: Pottery Barn

Statement Wall

A statement wall will also do the job of making your living room look insanely expensive. Statement walls are designed to draw the eye, and they’ll make you feel like your home was styled by an artist! Make statements using art, mirrors or even plants.

Tips for luxury

Standing lamps and study or reading corners make a statement about how you live. A corner to relax in can actually in itself be relaxing and luixrious.

luxury tip 3

Use Metallics

Metallics are in style right now. Adding copper or gold touches to your living room can give a feeling of luxury chic.

Go Retro

Key retro pieces can also make a serious luxury statement. They say that you’re clued up and confident in your own style.

Mix Textures

Luxury is all about comfort. But too often when it comes to cushions, we focus on picking different colours. Use a mix of patterns, colours and textures to change things up. It will go a long way towards that warm, comfortable home that’s worth living in.

Add Plants

We’ve talked extensively about plants and how they make a difference to the feel of your home.

Add Culture

Travelled recently? Picked up a sculpture or two from a market in Casablanca or an art fair in Accra?  Don’t leave them in your loft or storage cupboard, add them to your living room strategically to help you go down luxury lane  from time to time.

tips for luxury 5

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Small spaces look big when you do these 7 things:

Storage space galore!

You can use storage boxes, baskets and containers to increase the amount of space in your cupboards. If you have open shelving, colour coordinate your boxes to create a cohesive, unified look. Also, don’t ignore the awkward space above your cabinet. Put items you don’t use often in baskets and boxes and stash them up there.

Only keep things you need

small spaces look big - worktops

Now this should be intuitive, but its amazing how much stuff we collect over time. Obviously, clutter equas less space. You’d think we bare that in mind while collecting mounts of stuff we don’t need. Make a habit of regularly clearing out your stuff.

Rent a storage space

It’s increasingly popular to store some of your things in rented storage boxes or spaces . Particularly in cities like London, where having extra space is a luxury to say the least. This strategy is useful for seasonal items – for example, store your winter coats in summer and store your hot pants in winter. Now there’s an idea.

Keep your kitchen and work surfaces clutter free as much as possible, it’ll make the small spaces look big. Store some of your appliances in cupboards and only keep out the ones you use regularly.

small spaces look big - Stock

Having said that, take advantage of the space you do have. Try hanging up pots and pans in your kitchen, or taking advantage of the space above your cupboards.

make small spaces look big - stock image

Harmonise your furniture and accessories by decorating with white. light bounces of white walls, creating the illusion of space. Using white to decorate will always make your space look  and feel big and airy, a trick similar to using mirrors.

small spaces look big - design chaser

Source: The Design Chaser

Finally, organise, organise, organise! We can’t say it enough. Most people think that organising your cupboards or closet spaces is a one time affair, but the reality is you have to do it regularly.

small space look big - house beautiful

Source: House Beautiful

Because you’re alive, you will collect stuff. That means a constant pruning of the things you gather into your house simply because you’re alive. You have to be brutal. Prioritise having space if it’s really that important to you.

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Toolbox Essentials

toolbox essentials

A tool box may be a small investment, but it can save you an incredible amount of money by allowing you to address and troubleshoot basic problems yourself, before needing to call in the professionals.

Toolbox essentials: the basics

Screwdrivers

You can fix almost anything with a set of proper screwdrivers. Use them to tighten loose screws, set up flat pack furniture and for any basic installation project. You can get flat head screwdriver heads for slot headed nails and phillips head (cross head) screwdriver sets too.

toolbox essentials: screwdrivers

Tape measure

Keep it on hand to measure anything from the wall area for a paint project to the thickness of lumber at the home center—where you’ll learn that a 2×4 is not exactly 2 by 4 inches.

Toolbox

Keeping your tools – drivers, screws, and bolts in an easy-to-carry toolbox keeps you organised and tidy. The big box (or bag) has a single metal latch that closes tightly. A removable tray is great for assorted fasteners.

toolbox essentials

Hammer

Of course, a hammer is essential. A 16-ounce smooth-faced claw hammer has a nice mix of heft and versatility for driving nails into walls to hang pictures, knocking together ready-to-assemble furniture, and building birdhouses. The curved claw is useful for pulling out the nails that inevitably get bent.

Pliers

You can use them to straighten bent plugs, replace old shower heads, cut wires and grip nails so you can pull them out.

Utility Knife

You’ll be using this to open delivery boxes, sharpen pencils, mark mortises, and shave wood. Spend a little more upfront for one with a comfortable rubber-covered handle and built-in blade storage. Then you’re more likely to pop in a fresh blade rather than forcing a dull one, which isn’t safe.

Adjustable Wrench

toolbox essentials: wrench

You need one, trust us. It’s jaws can be used to tighten nuts and bolts when assembling things like a backyard swing or when installing a new tap.

We hope this helps, at the very least its a start to getting you DIY ready for all kinds of odd jobs, plumbing emergencies and flat pack assembly situations.

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How to be Warm: The Perfect Comfort Food

How to be warm 1

How to be Warm: Whiskey Apple Crumble Pie

It’s cold and rainy outside, but you don’t have to stay grey and miserable because of it! Take this chance to bake something warm and delicious, that’ll also cheer you up. Warmth doesn’t only come from boilers and radiators.

Ingredients

For the Crumble:

3/4 cup of flour
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 cup of crushed pecans
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
6 tablespoon of butter

Filling:

2 pounds of tart,
Crisp apples
2 tablespoons of whiskey or bourbon
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup of light brown sugar
3 tablespoons of melted butter
3 tablespoons of flour


be warm 2

Instructions

Make the pastry, form the crust and chill it in the refrigerator.

Preheat your oven to 240 degrees C.

The Pecan Crumble:

Put all the crumble ingredients (except the nuts) in a food processor and blend until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Or, if you prefer to make the crumble by hand, cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter and finish by rubbing in the butter with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs.

Then, stir in the sugar and everything else. Add the nuts and chill the crumble until needed.

Peel and remove the apple cores. Slice the apples thinly, about a 1/4 inch. Lightly sauté the fruit in butter to avoid making a dried up pie.

Add all the ingredients for the filling on top of the apples and toss gently until everything is coated evenly.

Fill the pastry crust with the apple mixture.


How to be warm 3

Then sprinkle on the Pecan crumble.

Bake the pie on a lipped cookie tray for 10 minutes or until the crust looks dry, blistered, and blonde. Turn the oven down to 180 degrees C, and bake at until the crumble browns and the apples yield when pierced with a knife, and the juice is bubbling thick at the edge of the pie—approximately an hour.

Cool completely before cutting, at least a few hours.

Cool it for at least a couple of hours before cutting it to serve. Serve at room temperature.

Store it uncovered so that the pastry can breathe at room temperature for up to two days.

We discovered this on vogue.com. Enjoy this warming recipe before you reach for your thermostat to turn the heating up!

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Some of us believe that turning up the thermostat makes our homes heat up quicker and that the temperature dropping outside automatically means we should turn up the thermostat.

Most of us believe we know how to keep warm. Turn the thermostat up, draw the curtains and reach for a blanket. But a survey from the Energy Savings Trust showed that although 4 out of 5 British consumers believe they understand their heating controls, up to half of us misuse energy by simply turning up our thermostats when it’s cold outside.  On day 16 of our advent calendar, we’re bringing you 16 tips on getting through the turkey, having family over, Christmas decorations and the *really* cold snap without throwing money at the wind too.


Keep your heating on. If you’re going away for Christmas, make sure your you keep your programmer/ timer on. Set it to come on less frequently than usual, but to come on. While you will have some energy costs, this will help you avoid the more expensive problem of frozen pipes when you get back. If you’re a landlord, make sure your tenants do the same.

Draught proof your windows and doors. It could save you about £35 over the year.

Don’t leave your devices on standby. More than 75% of us admit to leaving at least two of our devices on stand by regularly. Your set top box left on standby for 20 hours in the day can cost you £20 a year. This Christmas, turn your TV and games consoles off standby and you could save up to £30 a year. Particularly when you’ve got guests over, there’s no need for your tv to be left on as background noise when you’re not watching it.

Get your heating system checked before your guests arrive. Book a boiler check with your gas engineer to make sure everything’s in order before the festivities begin. The last thing you want is for us to get that long anticipated white Christmas while your home feels like an ice box.


Check the opening and closing times of your local gas engineer and plumber over the Christmas period. The last thing you want is to wake up over the holidays and face a heating emergency with no idea who to call. Incidentally, we’ve got some tips on how to troubleshoot heating emergencies if you find yourself stuck in a rut.

Get a plumber to do a winter check on your pipes. Again, make sure blockages are cleared, none of your pipes are frozen and there’s no chance of a plumbing emergency over the break.

Turn your thermostat down. It may sound like the opposite of what you should do, but it really won’t make a difference to how warm you feel. Dropping a degree or two on your thermostat could save you money this year.

Use LED Christmas lights. LED Christmas lights use up to 90% less energy than normal Christmas lights. If everyone in the UK used LED lights, collectively we could save up to £13 million during the twelve days of Christmas.


Or use solar powered fairy lights. They’re free to use, as they’re charged by the sun during the day.

Christmas is a good time to light candles. Create an atmospheric or victorian theme in your home by simply using candles instead of flicking the switch. Read our post on the origins of advent calendars or the Swedish tradition of Lucia to see how candles featured very heavily in Christmas traditions.

Wear that ugly jumper. Very simply, you won’t have to turn the thermostat up.

Use your tablet or phone instead of your laptop to power that Netflix binge you’ve been looking forward to. Tablets use 70% less energy than a laptop.


When cooking, make sure to cook with the lids on and use the right size pots for your hobs to avoid wasting energy.

Cook multiple things in the oven at once, to avoid having to turn the oven on multiple times during the day.

Over Christmas dinner, when everyone’s gathered together in the same room, it’s a great opportunity to turn the heating down, or even off. The shared body heat will keep everyone warm, and you can save money while you’re at it.

On the same note, have an engineer install thermostatic radiator valves in different rooms. This will allow you to control the temperature in rooms that no-one is in, or warm up bedrooms just before everyone goes to bed.

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