House Remodeling for You

Have you ever thought to remodel or renew the design of your home? Maybe you’re feeling bored and tired to see the design of your house’s that looks the same everyday. Of course you want to change it to look more attractive and beautiful don’t you? It is quite common as experienced by almost every person inhabiting the same house for a long time. They often feel bored with the state of their home, and felt the need to make small changes here and there. They intended to do that so that they get a new atmosphere and a new passion in their homes.

For those of you who are interested to redecorate your house must know that there are a lot of factors that must be taken into account. For those of you who have had experience in redecorating the house, of course this will not be a significant problem. But what about you who do not know anything about home decoration? If you do it carelessly, you certainly will not be getting the most of it right? It could make your house doesn’t look nice, but even more ugly and weird; therefore, you need a good reference in decorating the house well and correctly. For those of you who are looking for a great reference in decorating your house can see what is offered by capecodhouseremodeling.com

This site offers a variety of choices in home remodeling that is very interesting for you to use as a benchmark in redecorating your home later. So you’ll have many choices in your home decor.

SAMPLE GARDEN PLAN:

The site measures 12.19 m X 21.94 m which includes a very simple house consisting of a front verandah, central bed, sitting room and a small kitchen in the rear. The bath is detached, as in many low income group residences.

The area occupied by greater portion of the garden is on the level ground, except at two positions. The raised law near the left of the path leading to the house and the raised on its right are 7.6 cm high from the surrounding ground level. The terrace is paved with flag-stones. It could be as well of bricks or sand. The square and rectangular beds contain colourful foliage plants, whereas the round bed holds a specimen shrub. The foundation planting at the base of the raised terrace is planted with a trailing perennial. The open garden area is covered with soft gravel, whereas the lawn on the right side of the building is flanked with a long flower-bed planted with seasonal annuals.

The low flowering shrubs acts as a cover to the exposed and the bare stems of the flowering climbers which cover the fence. The different kind of shrubs break the garden area into compartments or act as screens against ugly and undesirable structures. The little trimmed hedge separates the lawn and the informal backyard plantings, which include a large and spreading flowering tree and a pair of trees with straight and tall habit.

FLOWER-BED FRAMES:

Flower-beds, like a painting or drawing, should be suitably framed.

Beds of flowers are living pictures, composed of various hues and forms. Like good pictures, they are attractive, and if they are framed with the edge-green or otherwise the composition of the flower-beds i greatly improved. With a good presentation, unruly flowering plants assume an orderly appearance.

In the thoughtfully planned gardens, edges of brick, stone, cement blocks, small rocks, pebbles, shells and tiles are made good use of for the front of the beds. But the charm of a live green edge, consisting of flowering or non-flowering plants trimmed nearly to suitable height and thickness, or left in its natural state if the plant does not stand severe cutting, is incomparable.

A green edge means extra work by way of digging, planting, watering and trimming, but the labour is amply rewarded by the entire garden in its neatness, presenting a picturesque sight when the flowering season is in full swing.

The edging plant should be very low. It should be quickly propagated and easily cultivated, if possible all the year round.it must be hardly so that it can grow in exposed areas, sunny situations and under shade, too, if necessary. The edging plant must be adaptable to any soil or climatic condition, and should stand a great amount of trimming and clipping. Lastly it must be attractive with or without flowers.

FERTILIZING AND WHITE-ANTS

Fertilizing the lawn twice a year maintains it in a good 0.975 green colour and keeps the soil enriched. Applying a fertilizer like ammonium sulphate at the rate of 0.785 to 0.975 kg per 100 square meter or urea at the rate of 0.488 kg per 100 square meter at the beginning of the rains. Besides fertilizing and watering, occasional wedding should not be neglected.

Hand wedding is best, but now-a-days selective weed-killers area available in the market. Similarly, standard preparations containing mercury bichloride are also available to treat fungal infections of the lawn. In many places, lawns appear to be infested with moss, which can be controlled by one or two applications of weak solutions of potassium permanganate after the lawn is mowed.

White-ants sometimes damage the turf. To kill without disturbing the turf, a few holes 0.90 to 1.20m deep should be bored with a crowbar where ant-kills appear and 28 g of petrol poured in each of the holes, which should then be plugged with wet cow dung or earth mixture. The fumes of the petrol will kill the insect. If the ant-hills reappear, this treatment may be repeated.

The common red-ant or black-ant, as well as the grubs and larvae of some other pests, can be effectively controlled with chemical insecticides based on chlordane.

WATERING

After the ‘hariali’ seed has been sown, the lawn should be watered daily in a fine spray just enough to keep the soil moist. A fine ‘rose’ in the case of small areas and hose pipe with a fine spray attachment for larger areas can be used.sown areas should not be flooded. Otherwise the seeds float to the surface or drift to one side.

In four to six weeks the seeds germinate. When the grass is about 5 cm high, it should be cut with a pair of garden shears. The trimmed grass may be left on the garden surface to decay.before using the lawn-mower for the first time, a light rolling may be given if watering as disturbed the surface. The cut of the lawn-mower should be adjusted to about 4.3 cm. The mower should be used as often as required to maintain a springy grass surface. After the lawn is established, watering can be done once every few days. A good type of water sprinkler that can distribute water fully should always be used.

WEEDS, A PROBLEM

Weeds will always be a problem in the lawn. It is difficult to examine the lawn minutely for lurking weeds. Certain varieties of ‘hairali’ which have long nodes and thick leaves and firm coarse clumps make the job more difficult. Half the battle is won if one can obtain the true ‘hairali’.

Experience shows that showing the true ‘hairali’ or ‘doob’ grass seed is the best and least expensive method. Before sowing the seed is the best and least expensive method. Before sowing the seed on a lightly rolled ground, it is better to mark out areas of 93 square meter with coir strings tied to wooden pegs.this ensures uniform seeding.

Up to 1.36 kg of fresh lawn seed mixture for every 93 square meter of the area will ensure a thick lawn. The seeds are sown evenly and a light roller moved over to cover the seed and make the area compact .After this no rolling is required unless extra soil is added to fill up depressions caused by the settling of soil patches.

LOCAL FACTORS

The method of preparing the lawn depends on many local factors. If a weed-free turf is available on a river bank or in a low lying moist place, it can be used. The turf is cut by a spade into suitable rectangular slabs, say 30 cm X 60 cm and up to 10 cm thick. These turf slabs can be rolled up and laid on the prepared ground as soon as possible. When the whole lawn is turfed in this manner, it is rolled with a heavy roller and watered immediately. On steeply sleeping grounds and embankments this method of covering the top soil is most desirable.

Where turf sods are not available, the lawn can be planted with ‘doob’ grass uprooted and collected from the roadside or river banks.The ‘hariali’ or ‘doob’ is dug out and small pieces up to 5 cm, having at least two nodes in each, are cut. These are mixed with liquid cow dung or a thin soil paste. This lawn spread is spread evenly and thickly on the prepared ground. Subsequently the entire area is watered.

Some prefer to plant ‘hariali’ along with its roots, and plant small clumps of the grass a few inches apart in the ground. A thin layer of the sol is then evenly spread over the area and rolled. Owing to uniform pressure on the soil, the grass roots get a firm hold.

SUNSHINE

A lawn requires sunshine practically throughout the day. A tree or two on the lawn or at its farther end would help in breaking monotony. But the branches of such trees keep away sunlight from the lawn and the tree roots feed on the food which the grass requires. Hence the low branch of the trees should be cut without disfiguring the tree so that the lawn underneath gets sunlight for at least a few hours in the day.

The thick side roots coming out of the tree trunk should be removed or the soil should be raised in a gentle slope 15 to 22 cm high all around the tree trunk, so that the lawn grass can be grown.

Digging for a lawn should start in summer. When the ground is dug up and prepared, well decayed farmyard manure should be added at the rate of 95 to 145 cartloads per hectare and mixed well with the soil. After the entire area is levelled, it should be rolled and watered thoroughly for three or four days. The moisture will force the weed seeds to germinate. These then should be dug out and the soil should be raked. Once again the ground should be watered for two or three days and any more weeds germinating should be removed. The operation may be repeated three or four times.

Many a times, instead of farmyard manure a concentrated fertilizer, organic or chemical is used. This is mostly done to get over weed trouble. The practice is good, provided the soil has been brought into good condition by mixing enough leaf mould and humus.

SMALL LAWNS

Small lawns can be laid out on a level surface. Larger lawns should have a gently raised area in the centre to help the water run out quickly. All pits uneven ground and low lying areas should be filled up and the land given a regular slope. The general practice is to spread and dig in a 7.6 cm layer of the farmyard manure on the soil for making a lawn. The manure should be at least two seasons old, otherwise it will bring in a lot of trouble from weeds. The worst weed in a lawn is the nut-grass.

To provide a suitable ground for the lawn and keep down weeds, the area should be dug to the depth of 23 cm or more. If the area is large, frequent ploughings will be needed. The nut-grass, along with the big and small underground nuts and any other deep rooted weed stalks, should be picked out from the exposed soil. This is an important step. If neglected, there will be hardly any hope of good lawn. Stones big and small, and any other foreign material, pieces of broken tiles and roots should also be removed.

THE LAWN

A lawn cannot be made on any ground. It is necessary to examine the nature of the soil and subsoil. If the area of the lawn is large, as in a playground, underground and surface drainage should be taken into account. For aamall area, surface drainage can be maintained if the lawn is made a little higher than the surrounding area.

For a good lawn, a minimum of 15 cm of rich loamy soil with coarse gravel underneath is required.it would be ideal to have 30 cm of good soil. if there is a hard pan, unbroken rock or heavy clay underneath, it will be necessary to provide deep drains laid according to the slope of the land.China-clay pipes can be laid at the bottom of the drains. They may be arranged end to end without cementing the joints. Over the clay pipes, coarse rubble, clinker, broken brickbats or any other suitable porous material, including coarse sand, can be used for filling, leaving about 30 cm of space for filing up with good soil. The underground drain should have a sufficient discharge opening at a low level so that the water may not stagnate during the rainy season. If a closed drain is expensive, any open, shallow storm-water will serve the purpose.

After the ground is chosen, the surface of the lawn should be well prepared. Where the soil is not suitable, a good soil from outside may be used. Where this is not possible, the existing soil should be brought to good condition by mixing enough humus or leaf-mould. A sandy soil ill require more humus and silt from a tank or pond to make it more retentive of moisture.

In all cases the physical condition of the surface soil should be improved to a depth of 15 to 30 cm.