Advice

Want summer comfort but hate the AC? Follow these tips on how to keep your house cool without frosty air conditioning.

These tips will help you cool a house without AC, which will save energy (and avoid AC wars with your family).

How to Cool a Room Without AC

When sunlight enters your house, it turns into heat. You’ll keep your house cooler if you reduce solar heat gain by keeping sunlight out.

Close the drapes: Line them with light-colored fabric that reflects the sun, and close them during the hottest part of the day. Let them pillow onto the floor to block air movement.

Add awnings: Install them on south- and west-facing windows to reduce solar heat gain by up to 77%, says the U.S. Department of Energy. Make your own by tacking up sheets

Here’s how to price your home to sell fast.

Your home is more than just a bunch of rooms under a roof. It’s the space where you watched your daughter take her first steps, hosted Super Bowl parties, and celebrated holidays. Those memories are priceless. But when sell your house, the warm and fuzzies can't factor into the question: What is the value of my home?

You aren’t selling your memories; you’re selling a house.

This is where an agent can help. You’re the one who will set your listing price, but your agent has the expertise and local knowledge to advise on how to price your house so it doesn't languish on the market.

#1 Don’t Go High Out of the Gate

You think your house is great. The problem is sellers often think their house

Don’t open the windows. That spring breeze is no help at all.

Once there's even a glimmer of spring, you're ready to throw open your windows and let the breeze blow away the winter funk. Well, you might want to rethink that spring cleaning ritual this year.

If you're an allergy sufferer (and who isn't?), that's the last thing you want to do, says Dr. Neeta Ogden, a spokesperson for the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. "It will allow pollen to settle in your home."

If you really can't skip that spring breeze, avoid opening windows in the morning, when pollen counts are highest. They decrease late in the day and at night.

That's not the only common spring-cleaning mistake homeowners make. Here are eight more to avoid:

#1

Battle bugs before they bite (or sting!) you — and check the attic for problems.

Tackling five simple tasks now gives you a head start on spring. That leaves you plenty of worry-free time to enjoy the warmer weather.

#1 Tell Insects to Bug Off

Early spring warmth awakens insects, so start to protect your home now. Seal openings in eaves, decks, and other structures to keep out carpenter bees.

Nix mosquitoes by eliminating standing water or treating it with larvicide. Call a pro to destroy wasp and yellow jacket nests, unless you're experienced enough to engage in a bee battle.

#2 Prep Tools for Lawn Care

Ladies and gentlemen, start your mowers. April's the month to get this vital piece of equipment ready to roll. An unmaintained machine

So, turns out the right kind of fence can actually make your yard feel bigger.

We'll just come out and say it: Privacy fencing can come off as a little rude. Oh sure, there are occasions for it — to block out traffic or corral an Olympic jumper of a dog.

But for most yards in most neighborhoods, we're all about a more neighborly boundary. We call it the anti-privacy fence. It comes in many forms — like glass, cable, and aluminum — that you can see through, but each one does the job of a legit fence without turning your home into a compound.

Here's why we love it.

#1 It Lets the Breezes Blow

A solid privacy fence not only blocks neighbors' wandering eyes, but also air flow. That's something to consider, especially if your house or garage

Learn how to clean 7 tough stains off your walls — and ensure a lasting paint job.

You can't wait to cover up that nasty beige on your walls, but as you take a close look at all the areas you're gonna have to prep you see a lot of grime, gunk, and stuff that looks too stubborn for your standard vinegar wash.

Any cleaning rookie can wipe off dust and cobwebs. But it takes a cleaning pro to scour grease stains, watermarks, and kids’ crayon and ink wall art.

Kitchen Grease on Walls

Grease is an occupational hazard of cooking. If only it wouldn't ind it's way onto your walls and cabinets, trapping all kinds of gunk. Yuck!

Good news. Any decent dish soap can remove grease stains on walls.

For small stains, mix: 1/4 teaspoon of soap in a cup

There are no dumb questions to ask a real estate agent.

Home buying seems simple enough: Find a house you like that’s close to work or school, tell someone you want to buy it, and move in.

But there's more to it than that. You’ll have to find and get approved by a lender who will let you borrow a few hundred thousand dollars, lock in a mortgage rate, figure out how much house you can afford, put in an offer that will entice the seller, get an inspection and an appraisal, pay closing costs and sign a whole bunch of paperwork.

Phew! We need a break just thinking about all the questions to ask when buying a house.

Your real estate agent can help you understand the process. But if you don’t ask questions or get your agent to clarify something you

Check out the video below!

Planning your next home improvement project? Consider one of these high ROI upgrades. More like this.

Like this easy hack: coat paint brushes in fabric softener to keep bristles soft.

A DIY painting job doesn't have to equal crooked lines, besmirched floors, and ceramic sinks speckled with robin's egg blue.

Use these easy painting hacks, to make the process faster and less messy — and ensure a fresh, modern look for your home.

#1 Soak Brushes in Fabric Softener to Keep Brushes Soft

Every DIY painter has been privy to the horrors of a day-old brush with stiff bristles that makes round two nearly impossible. Try this painting hack instead:

To keep paint brushes soft:

1. Rinse thoroughly (no soap).
2. Mix half a cup of fabric softener with a gallon of warm water
3. Swish brushes in the mixture for 10 seconds or so.
4. Lay them flat or hang

Finding drainage problems when they’re smaller and easier to fix can save you thousands of dollars and plenty of headaches down the line.

You don’t have to be a geophysicist to know that puddles in the basement or a lake on the front lawn are signs of drainage problems.

But many drainage problems aren’t so obvious. Here’s how the pros read some of the more subtle signs of bad drainage, and why you’ll save big bucks if you tackle these problems now instead of later.

Sign #1: Gushing Gutters

A mini Niagara over the edge of your gutter means dead leaves and debris are blocking the flow. But you don’t need a live gusher to tell you you’ve got problems: Vertical streaks of dirt on the outside of gutters, mud spattered on siding, or paint peeling