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If you’re getting ready to install new carpet or you’re considering purchasing new carpet then you should prepare a plan for preventative maintenance. This ensures that once the new carpet goes in it will last much longer than your old carpet and will hold its luster despite heavy traffic and use. Here are tips for keeping your new carpet fresh (or taking care of the carpet you currently have).

1. At every entrance of the home you should put down protective mats. A walk-off mat will collect the majority of debris and moisture before it spreads to the carpet. As long as you regularly clean your matts outside the home you can keep the debris from building up and becoming a source of dirt themselves.

2. If you’re installing new carpet you need to opt for the better quality padding. If your home has stairs then higher quality padding is a must in these high traffic areas. A good durable carpet-pad provides better durability and will improve the longevity of your carpet. Keep in mind also that padding plays a role in your carpet warranty, and some manufacturers have minimum standards for pad quality in order to maintain a warranty.

3. When you’re cleaning your home, move your furniture on a regular basis. Rearrange if you’re home and household is up for the task. At the very least, moving furniture while cleaning gives your carpet time to breathe and for the pile to recover. If you leave heavy furniture for too long you can wind up with excessive pile crushing. For heavy furniture, consider using coasters to distribute the weight on the legs.

4. For heavy furniture with wheels such as buffets, pianos and other wheeled furniture like a large entertainment center, make sure you put down cardboard of wood sheets when moving furniture you avoid damaging the carpet when you roll it.

5. Area rugs look great in just about any home environment and they can really accent the dcor of your living space, but you need to lift and remove them regularly to clean not only the rug but the carpet underneath. Give the carpet time to breathe and give the pile time to recover. If you clean the carpet underneath, make sure the carpet is completely dry before replacing the area rugs.

6. Having a lot of natural sunlight in your home because of strategic window placement is a great bonus. Kudos if you had the benefit of a smart home designer. The downside is that a lot of natural sunlight on your carpet can reduce its longevity and bleach the color from the fibers. Make sure each of your windows has the appropriate covering to protect your carpet such as awnings, shades, blinds or some form of black out or light-reducing curtains.

Lastly, carpets that are treated with stain-resistant chemicals and coatings only improve your ability to clean up spills and messes – they do not prevent stains. You would be hard pressed to find a carpet that is actually stain proof. No matter the carpet you choose or what you have in your home, regular maintenance is required to keep it attractive, plush and comfortable for years to come.

Home decoration can come in lots of forms. Decorations typically come in the form of art, sculpture and wall hangings or other knick knacks. You can also decorate with pieces of furniture, rugs and window treatments. Did you know that light can also be decorative? The choices you make about your indoor lighting options will tell visitors a lot about you. Gone are the days when you are forced to simply deal with overhead lights and table top lamps. Today there are more lighting options than there are buyers. How do you know which lighting options you should choose?

Which room(s) needs some extra lighting? Different rooms need different types of light. This is the first thing you will do when you sit down to decide your indoor lighting options. Take written notes about the intended purpose of each room. A bedroom, for example will benefit with different types of lighting than your lavatory, kitchen or even your family room. When you know precisely what each room will be utilized for, you can begin determining how you want to illuminate them. Putting together a list will help you to remain within your budget and stay on point.

Small rooms do not need as much light as large rooms. A small room (like a 10×10) only usually needs a single lamp. A larger room, especially one that you want to light completely, will need more than one source of light. If your only concern is a small area, you can simply use a focal light. If you want to light the whole room you could choose to use some overhead lights or some very powerful floor lamps.

Don’t forget to make space in your lighting budget for taking care of the lights in your kitchen. You are no longer limited to incandescent of fluorescent bulbs in your kitchen. Track lighting is becoming more and more popular for kitchen lighting schemes. Track lighting is friendlier on the eyes and still lights up your kitchen really well. It’s pretty easy to install track lighting if you want to save money in your budget. Why should you settle for something ugly when there are better options available? There are simply too many other (better) interior lighting options.

Luckily, if you take the time to do some research and are careful to make smart decisions, figuring out all of your options shouldn’t be that hard. The more thought you put into your decisions before you start shopping, the easier it will be for you to figure out a lighting scheme. Before too long you should be able to put together a lovely lighting scheme for every room in your house.

My teenage sons got hooked on those Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games a few years ago. Not long after, they started begging for real instruments. One wanted to play guitar and the other wanted to play drums. I’m all for allowing and encouraging creative, artistic expression, so I decided to buy the gear and pay for lessons. Unfortunately, the neighboring houses are pretty close, which meant that noise would likely be a problem. That’s why I read about soundproofing with acoustic foam insulation prior to getting those instruments.

There are many different ways to soundproof a room. Some ways are quite exotic and expensive, while others are more affordable but less effective. I think using acoustic foam insulation is a middle of the road approach as far as residential projects are concerned. I liked the price and the ease of installation, so that’s the route I decided to take.

Anyway, acoustic foam insulation is that material that looks like the inside of an egg carton. You just put it up on the walls of whatever room you want to soundproof, and the stuff works immediately to absorb sound, prevent vibrations and keep things relatively quiet. There are different thicknesses and grades of acoustic foam insulation available, so you can choose the material that best suits your needs. Obviously the thicker stuff will cost a lot more. If you’re looking to do something like that, you should expect to spend several thousand dollars to insulate a single room. The total cost will depend on how big your room is, of course, but even a small room can cost thousands.

If you want to check out the different kinds of acoustic foam insulation available, I recommend spending some time on the Internet. You can find all the information you need to get started and can even order acoustic foam insulation online. In addition, you’ll be able to look at a few of the more popular alternatives, including do-it-yourself solutions such as nailing carpeting over your walls or making the walls thicker by putting up additional sheetrock. These alternatives are certainly cheaper and might work for some applications, but I felt neither of them would be good enough for a music room. Just remember to consider your own purposes and choose the alternative that will actually work. There’s no sense in going through the motions only to find out that your actions had no effect at all.

The bottom line is acoustic foam insulation worked for my family. It doesn’t block the noise out completely, but it dampens things enough so that we only hear very dull sounds coming out from the basement. Best of all, the neighbors haven’t complained even once — and that was what we were really worried about.