Perhaps you’ve just started getting back into working out and want to dedicate space in your home to your new endeavor. Maybe you find your current gym’s hours inconvenient. Or perhaps, you would prefer not to have to wait for your turn on the elliptical on busy days at your workout facility.
No matter the reason for adding one to your house, a home gym is a great way to get you motivated to exercise and to help you meet your fitness goals. But where do you begin when planning to add one?
Here are three tips to help get you started:
Pick your space. When choosing a room for your home gym, it’s best to choose a space that is out of the way, with plenty of room to store your equipment and to move around as you’re exercising. In addition, it’s helpful if this room is on a lower level, so that any noise from your workouts won’t reverberate through the home.
Among seasoned grillers and rookies alike, one of the most hotly debated and frequently discussed topics is the matchup between charcoal and gas grills.
While some are fans of the smoky flavor charcoal provides, others are big proponents of the heat control to be had with a gas grill. Still, others have the attitude that each grill has its own time and place, and perhaps they even own one of each for a variety of occasions.
Perhaps you’ve seen a DirectBuy commercial on television, or maybe you have gotten the chance to meet with representatives from your local DirectBuy at a trade show or other event. You’ve probably heard that members of DirectBuy are offered excellent service, incredible selection and unbelievable savings on just about anything they could possibly want for their homes. But if you have yet to set up a visit to your local showroom, you may be wondering, “How does DirectBuy work?”
Next, set up an Open House visit at your local DirectBuy location. There, you’ll be taken through a 45-minute membership introduction, after which you will have the opportunity to become a member.
Once you’ve become a member of DirectBuy, you can begin to compare the confidential DirectBuy prices to the retail costs, and the shopping can get underway! Choose the items you’d like for your home, place your order and bask in the glory of saving an average of 35 percent off retail markup!
After this, all that’s left is to choose a method of delivery — to your home or to the DirectBuy showroom — and set up installation, if necessary. DirectBuy can help with this last step, too; your local showroom can connect you with a preferred contractor in your area.
For more information on how DirectBuy works, be sure to check out this helpful infographic:
Spring has sprung, and with summer just on the horizon, now’s your opportunity to start taking advantage of the relaxing peacefulness that your backyard provides. If, however, your backyard needs a little more work to go from “OK” to “Oasis,” that’s quite all right! We’ve got you covered with these seven tips for transforming your backyard into an outdoor oasis:
1. Focus on seating. Will you be hosting lots of guests in your backyard oasis, or will it be more of a private getaway? Whatever your preferred approach, prepare for adequate seating in durable materials such as wood, all-weather wicker or metal. Add comfort to your seating with some outdoor pillows and cushions. And, for the true lounging experience, consider mounting a hammock in your oasis space.
2. Plan for meals. A huge element of outdoor entertaining and enjoyment includes food — from a quiet brunch on the patio with your immediate family, to s’mores around the fire pit after sunset, to a full-blown cookout with dozens of friends and family members on Independence Day. Assemble the necessary items to suit your needs, such as table space, a grill and accessories, outdoor dinnerware and more.
3. Consider the lighting. Add a beautiful ambience and a calm mood to your backyard space by carefully selecting your lighting. Consider such choices as hanging string lights, paper lanterns, a fire pit and/or outdoor candles.
4. Add greenery. Plant life in your backyard adds beauty and a shroud of privacy, not to mention more fresh air, to your space.
Purchasing a beach vacation home is incredibly exciting; furnishing that second home, however, can be a bit intimidating.
To streamline the furnishing process, get organized by following these tips:
Focus on functional. Before you worry about which artwork to hang on the walls or which decorative soaps to place in your bathroom, make sure you’ve got your functional bases covered. Some of the questions you should be asking yourself include:
Are there enough dedicated places to hang up wet, sandy beach towels?
Do I have enough drinkware and dinnerware to accommodate guests?
Have I purchased enough towels and other linens that are sturdy enough to stand up to many washings?
Are there enough ceiling fans in the home to get air circulating throughout the home?
Have I got a place outdoors to hose off or a good space near an entry for storing sandy shoes?
Last month, Eric and Pam Thomas of DirectBuy Edison were announced the winners of DirectBuy’s Home Makeover Giveaway Contest! They were awarded $50,000 toward DirectBuy products.
“We couldn’t believe it!” Pam Thomas said. “My husband and I didn’t think it was real until we showed up to the showroom, and everyone was congratulating us and handed us a giant check in our name.”
Pam and Eric are new homeowners in Sweetwater, N.J., and are looking into making the home their own. One of the personal touches they plan on adding in time is a movie room for the whole family to enjoy.
The first purchase the Thomas family plans on making, however, is new kitchen countertops. They look forward to doing a full kitchen remodel that includes new flooring and top-of-the-line appliances.
DirectBuy has allowed the members of the Thomas family to do things to their home that they didn’t think would be possible for another 15 years.
“We weren’t planning on doing renovations to our home until our daughter was out of college,” Pam said.
“We were adamant about joining DirectBuy at first, but DirectBuy has allowed us to choose exactly what we want for the best prices out there,” Pam said. “It was definitely worth it!”
A chandelier can be a great focal point in your home and can add sparkle, shine and ambience to any living room, dining room, foyer or hallway … that is, if the chandelier is clean.
Due to a chandelier’s out-of-the-way location and large number of components, it can be a bit more of a challenge to clean than, say, simply vacuuming a rug. Here are a few tips to help your next chandelier cleaning go quickly and smoothly:
Turn off the chandelier. Before you can do anything else, you must turn off the chandelier and let its components — light bulbs, shades, crystals, etc. — cool down completely. Tape the switch down if you’re worried about someone in the home accidentally flipping it on as you’re working.
Gather cleaning supplies. The supplies you’ll need include a ladder, a mild glass cleaner, white gloves/soft cloths and a drop cloth (optional).
When homeowners are considering upgrades that will add the most value to their space, a kitchen update is almost always one of the top priorities suggested by experts. Just because a kitchen re-do is a “sure thing” in terms of smart investment doesn’t mean, however, that any investment is a good investment when it comes to upgrading this area; renovators need to settle on the appropriate budget, in relation to their home’s value, to make a big kitchen renovation pay off upon resale.
Perhaps you’ve just started getting back into working out and want to dedicate space in your home to your new endeavor. Maybe you find your current gym’s hours inconvenient. Or perhaps, you would prefer not to have to wait for your turn on the elliptical on busy days at your workout facility.
