Home EV Charging Stations: The Basics

Electric vehicles are increasingly popular, and many EV owners enjoy the fact that they don’t have to hit the gas station every week to stay on the road. These cars still need fuel, however, and that means that access to a charging station is very important. While there are adapters available that let you charge an EV using a standard outlet, the charge takes a significant amount of time because the adapters provide current at the lowest level that the cars are able to accept.

Because of this, an increasing number of EV owners are installing their own charging stations in their homes. This allows for a much faster charge, getting them back on the road sooner and making it much easier to top off a charge in between trips to town. If you own an electric vehicle or are even considering one for the future, it’s important that you understand the potential benefits of a home charging station to determine if one is right for you and your home.

Home Charging Basics

Unlike the standard outlet adapter that you would use to charge your EV from existing electrical receptacles, a home charging station contains a specialized charging cable and the technology that’s needed to perform a quick charge of your vehicle. Depending on the vehicle you have, the charging station may have a generic EV connector on the charging cable or might have a specialty connector designed for a specific make or model of vehicle. When choosing a charging unit, it’s important to consult your vehicle’s documentation to find a unit that will charge at the highest possible speed for your EV.

In most cases, home charging units are installed in the garage and connected to the home’s electrical wiring. This allows you to park your car, plug it in, and have it ready to go without worrying about weather or other issues that might affect your charging connection. For homeowners who don’t have a garage or who have other vehicles or items within their garage space, charging units connected to the side of the home are also somewhat common.

Solar-Powered Charging

An increasingly popular option for homeowners with electric vehicles is to set up a solar-powered charging station by installing solar panels and batteries that connect to the charging unit directly. This keeps the EV from running up the electric bill while still ensuring that there’s plenty of juice available to top off your car when the charge is running low. Even homeowners with no other solar equipment on the home sometimes opt for this sort of charging, installing the solar panels on the garage roof and mounting the solar battery units on an interior wall of the garage.

This can also be a good starting point if you are interested in cutting down your overall dependence on the electrical grid and shifting to solar. Once you set up a solar system to power the EV charging unit, it can be expanded to provide additional power to the house as well. When doing this, it’s typically best to set up separate home batteries to ensure that your home and EV aren’t competing against each other for power.

Charging Station Installation

In order to make sure that a home charging station is properly installed so that it won’t damage your home or your vehicle, it’s important that you bring in professional help to get the unit connected to power and set up. This is especially true if you plan on using solar energy to power the charging station, since the solar system will also need to be set up and connected to the charging station. Finding an electrician who’s experienced with charging station installation can make a big difference in getting a unit installed quickly and correctly.

 

Getting Ready for a Bathroom Remodel?

When it comes to redoing the various rooms in your home, the bathroom is often overlooked. Some homeowners won’t even touch the bathroom unless a leak or some other problem makes it necessary. This is a really poor way to look at it, however, especially given how much time we spend in the bathroom, between bathing, getting ready to face the day, and a few other things. Your bathroom is just as deserving of attention as any other room in your home.

Of course, the why doesn’t really matter; whether you’re remodeling your bathroom because you want to change its look or you’re doing it because you’re already making repairs, the time to start is almost here. The question is, how do you get ready to remodel your bathroom? Here are some things that you should keep in mind before the remodel actually starts.

Prepping for the Remodel

The first thing that you need to do is get the bathroom ready for the remodel. This means getting all of your stuff out, and that may end up being a lot more than you expect. Set aside all the things that you use daily, then start packing up less-common items and organizing them by category. This way all your makeup, your hair care products, your bathing products, and everything else that you use in the bathroom will all be kept together so that you can put everything back up more easily when the remodel is done.

This is also the time when you should make plans for what you’re going to do while the bathroom is inaccessible. If you have another bathroom in the house then you can obviously use it, but if you don’t, then you might have to talk with a neighbor about using their bathroom, or even rent a portable toilet until the remodel is finished. Not all bathroom remodels will make the room completely inaccessible, of course, but it’s good to keep in mind just in case your plans will take the bathroom offline for a day or two.

A Clear Remodel Plan

Once you’ve packed everything up and done any contingency planning that you require, double check your remodel plan to make sure it’s all in order before the work starts. This includes choosing paint colors, showerheads and fixtures, countertops, and anything else that might be needed for the remodel. The last thing you want is to have to spend even more time halfway through because you realized that no one had decided whether to replace the bathroom wallpaper or not.

This is also when you should decide if you want any construction changes or bathroom additions so that they can be planned for accordingly. This can include anything from new cabinets or additional closet shelving to built-in shower nooks or other accents that will be built directly into the walls. These items generally aren’t that big of a deal if you plan for them in advance, but deciding that you want to make big changes to your bathroom closet halfway through the job can be a major inconvenience.

Remodeling Your Bathroom

Depending on the specific plans you have for your remodel, there’s a good chance that you’re going to need some help. Maybe you’ll require a plumber to implement your plans, or need to get a contractor involved because you want to make major changes to the interior. You might even need an electrician to help change up the lighting in your bathroom and make sure that all of the wiring is safe for a more humid environment. No matter who you need, HomeKeepr is here to help.

 

Curb Appeal That Lasts Through the Winter

When most people talk about curb appeal, at least part of what they’re talking about involves landscaping and other greenery to make your home look inviting. That’s great during the spring and summer, and even the fall to an extent. What happens when the icy winds of winter sneak in, though, and a lot of that greenery is taken out of the equation until spring rolls around again? For some reason, it seems acceptable to just abandon curb appeal and making your home look inviting once the days grow short and the temperature drops.

This doesn’t have to be the case, of course. There are ways to make your home seem warm and appealing throughout the year, making it look like a place that friends and family really want to visit. If you want to increase your home’s curb appeal throughout the winter months, here are a few things to keep in mind that should help you accomplish your goal.

Make Your Porch Stand Out

One way to increase your curb appeal during the winter is to find ways to make your porch stand out and really draw the attention of visitors. There are several ways to accomplish this, with one of the most basic being a good use of color. Add some red to your front door, either by painting the entire door or by adding red trim or decorations, as red really draws the eyes and puts a visitor’s focus on the entry to your home. Tasteful, colorful statues or other decorations on the porch will also help to draw the eyes and make your home stand out from the rest as well. Adding a colorful wreath during the holiday season, a season-appropriate decorative flag, or some similar decorative piece can make a big impact.

Replacing your old worn house number (or adding a house number if you previously didn’t have one on your home itself) can also make a big impact. Use large, easy-to-read numbers to make the biggest impact. Opt for numbers that are 6 inches tall or larger, and ideally use plastic or metal numbers instead of stickers or decals to give them some depth. Be sure to place the number near enough to a light source to make it easy to read.

Good Use of Decorations

There are multiple holidays that come during the winter months, so you should have plenty of opportunities to decorate around your home. Keep your decorations tasteful and avoid clutter, but be sure to always have something that will create a visually appealing look for your home. Avoid overly large decorations that will block the view of your porch, and choose lighting and decoration options that complement the colors that you use on your porch. Add some garland around your door or other matching decorations on the porch itself to really tie everything together.

If you don’t feel like decorating for various holidays, there are still options available to you. Add large, mirrored orbs or other reflective ornaments in spaces where your greenery might have previously stood out, creating some visual appeal even without the lush greens that you were used to using. Other decorations such as decorative lamp posts and lighting, tasteful statues, or even a revamped modern-styled mailbox can all help to carry the weight of curb appeal until the greenery comes back in the spring.

Winter Curb Appeal

Maximizing your curb appeal during the winter is a challenge, but it’s not insurmountable with a bit of planning. If you aren’t sure exactly how to tackle it, consider consulting a landscaping or decorating pro to help answer any questions you might have. HomeKeepr can help you find one to give you the assist you need.

 

Do More With Your Corner Cabinets

A good set of cabinets is all but essential in the kitchen. Not only do they keep your plates, bowls, and assorted other implements organized, but they can also provide easy access to dry goods and other items that you need to use frequently while cooking. The more cabinet space you have, the less clutter you’ll have in the kitchen itself, because you can store your various kitchen gadgets until they’re needed while still having them close at hand.

Corner cabinets can be a bit of a problem, however. While these cabinets tend to provide the most interior space, a lot of this space isn’t easy to access because of the narrow opening that the corner cabinet provides. Fortunately, this isn’t an issue that you just have to accept. There are a few different ways to address this problem so you can make better use of all that space without having to contort yourself in the process.

Install a Lazy Susan System

One of the most popular ways to make better use of corner cabinets is to install a multi-tiered Lazy Susan system inside the cabinet. You’ve likely seen one of these before as they’ve enjoyed significant popularity over the years. The assembly is made up of two or three large round platforms connected by a central spindle around which the platforms can easily rotate. You place items on the platform, turn it, then fill it up all the way around; when you need something, you simply turn the platform until it becomes available.

A lot of these systems use two platforms, one at the bottom of the cabinet and one near the center of the cabinet’s height. You may occasionally see Lazy Susan systems that have three platforms, however, or possibly different configurations as well. Keep in mind that there’s a trade-off as you add more platforms; while you have more storage space with each platform that’s added, the amount of vertical space you have available for your items decreases with each addition.

Add Pull-Out Shelving

Another option that’s increasingly popular is pull-out shelving. These shelves either pull out straight or rotate out from within the cabinet on tracks, letting you gain full access to the shelf’s contents and then slide it back into your cabinet space while done. Some may even feature complex sets of hinges and tracks to maximize the amount of shelf space that you can have in the cabinet; these setups typically have one shelf attached directly to the door and others being pulled along after it for easy access.

Regardless of the specific configuration of the shelves, the idea is to bring the shelves to you instead of making you reach into the cabinet to try and access items at the backs of the shelves. This makes using the entire space within your corner cabinet much more convenient, since the shelves can fill up that space when not in use, then be easily pulled out when you need them.

Revitalizing Your Cabinets

There are other ways that you can make use of corner cabinet space, including replacing your existing cabinets with new cabinets that have corner cabinets with an angled interior for easier access or a set of L-shaped drawers that make better use of the available space than a standard cabinet might. You might even consider eliminating the corner cabinets altogether and adding a floor-to-ceiling corner pantry instead. Depending on the layout of your kitchen, there may be other corner options available to you as well.

 

The Color of the Year Has Been Announced!

You may not be aware of it, but many paint and pigment companies choose colors that they think will be hot in the coming year. Shades of green seem to be an overwhelming favorite for 2022, with almost every company choosing some green hue as either their top pick, or part of their overall range of choices. In fact, green is so well-represented this year that there’s really only one company that seems to be bucking the green trend entirely, but it’s a big one.

Pantone Color Institute, the company that actually manages color standards, broke from the pack with a significantly different choice for color of the year. Before we get to what that choice actually is, though, let’s take a moment to consider the rest of the color of the year choices from other companies. This will help you to appreciate just how big of a break with industry trends the Pantone choice really is.

Something in a Shade of Green

Usually, different paint companies offer up a pretty wide range of shades when it comes to choosing color of the year options. For 2022, however, there’s a pretty rare consensus among most of the big players in the industry that neutral shades of green are where it’s at. This isn’t just a couple of companies, either; take a look at some of these selections:

• Benjamin Moore: October Mist, a light green with touches of grey and yellow
• Sherwin-Williams: Evergreen Fog, a soft green close to olive
• PPG: Olive Sprig, another soft green with a hint of yellow
• Behr: Breezeway, a soft, light green
• Dutch Boy: Cypress Garden, a somewhat stronger green
• Glidden: Guacamole, another strong green with a hint of yellow undertone

Other popular companies such as Valspar and Dunn-Edwards offered up multiple color of the year choices, and green shades were included in the offerings of both.

Pantone’s Color of the Year

With green being so well represented by other companies, you might expect Pantone to have chosen something similar. That’s not the case, however, as Pantone’s selection for 2022 is a periwinkle blue offering known as Very Peri. It’s a pretty well-rounded periwinkle shade, falling in between blue and purple without being overwhelmingly either. Looking at it, it’s pretty easy to see why Pantone believes the color is really going to take off in the coming months.

According to Pantone, the color was chosen because of how well it reflects the changes that the world is currently going through. Pantone Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman stated that the classic blue color with violet-red undertones “displays a spritely, joyous attitude and dynamic presence that encourages courageous creativity and imaginative expression.” It’s a cool, calming color and could see use in just about any room in the home as well as the exterior.

Using These Choices in Your Home

Whether you’re going with one of the green options offered up by the paint companies or Pantone’s choice of Very Peri, there are a number of ways that you can use these colors in your home. They can be used as accents in bedrooms, living rooms, or kitchens, as door and shutter colors to accent your home, or even coatings for islands or other large wooden furniture pieces to really make them pop. They may need other colors or some strong woodgrains to add some warmth or contrast, but if you put in the work to find the right shades, then you’ll have color combos that will leave people talking.

 

Give Your Fireplace a Facelift!

If you have a fireplace in your house, it’s going to draw the attention of anyone who walks into the room where it’s located. This is fine if you want your fireplace to be a focal point, but if it’s less than impressive, you might want your guests looking pretty much anywhere else. Even if there aren’t any significant issues with your fireplace, you may not like the way that it fits in with the rest of your furnishings. Is there anything that you can do?

Yes, actually, there are several ways that you can spruce up your fireplace and get it in the sort of shape that will have you wanting to show it off. While some options may depend on the type of fireplace you have and how you decorate the surrounding room, you should be able to find some way to improve the look of your fireplace that fits your specific situation.

Updating Your Surround

One way that you can really change the look of your fireplace is to make changes to the surrounding materials to update the overall look of the fireplace area. Many fireplaces have a brick surround immediately around the opening, and this brickwork can be covered with tile to significantly change the appearance of your fireplace. Textured and patterned tiles are especially useful when trying to change the look of your fireplace surround. Updates can be made to the tile inside the fireplace as well, so long as appropriately heat-safe and fire-safe materials are used.

Wood molding and other decorative accents can be placed around the surround as well to further change the look of the fireplace exterior. These can help contain the look of the surround and better blend it with the overall look of your room. These accents can also be used to give the fireplace a mantle or other decorative flourishes that it was missing before.

Revitalizing the Room

Making changes to the area immediately around your fireplace isn’t the only way to bring the fireplace front and center in the room. Changes can be made to the rest of the room, which helps to blend the fireplace with the overall decorative design, bringing out colors and textures that might otherwise have seemed out of place. Furniture and decorative items can also be shifted to make them focus more on the fireplace as a central point in the room, allowing guests to face the fireplace and bask in its glow instead of it being hidden in the apparent back of the room.

Other changes can also make a big difference in how well your fireplace fits into the room. Placing a large painting or other decorative item in the wall space above the fireplace helps to make the fireplace seem like a decorative choice. Upgrading your fireplace screen to be more appealing (or adding a decorative screen if you don’t have one) can have a similar effect, while also providing an important measure of safety during periods when your fireplace is in use.

Total Fireplace Makeovers

The suggestions thus far largely assume that your fireplace is in good condition and simply needs some touching up to better fit in. If your fireplace has damaged bricks or tiles, faulty hardware, or is otherwise in need of maintenance, a bit more work is required to revitalize it. Many of the same considerations apply, though, and while you’re getting it repaired, you can make choices that will improve its overall aesthetic while also making it safe.

 

Tips for Flexible Spaces for Kids

Whether you’re looking to design a bedroom, a nursery, or a playroom, creating a unique space for your children is usually a bigger job than you expect. This is especially true if you want to come up with something that will stand the test of time. The wants and needs of your children will change as they get bigger, and if you don’t account for this, then sooner or later that “perfect” room you designed for your little one will be outdated and possibly even unwanted. Is there anything that you can do other than completely redesign your kids’ rooms every few years?

Fortunately, the answer is yes. By taking the way that children’s needs change over time into account, you can come up with more flexible designs that are easier to adapt even as your child’s interests shift. There will still be periodic changes that have to be made, of course, but this will keep you from having to start from the ground up each time. Here are a few things to keep in mind to help you create some of these more flexible spaces for your kids.

Start Simple

When coming up with the initial design for your child’s bedroom or playroom, it’s a good idea to take something of a minimalist approach to your design. Try to figure out what the absolute essentials are, then see if there is an age-agnostic way to approach them. Add color to the room, but skew a bit more toward light or neutral shades instead of going with brighter or more extreme colors that your child may grow to dislike.

Invest in a few key furniture items that can be repurposed over time instead of buying specialty pieces that will only be used for a short while. Use colored rugs and other removable accents instead of going for changing the carpeting. Your goal is to create a simple space that has a lot of potential, so that as your child’s interests change, you’ll have a base to move back toward and adapt the room from.

Customize the Little Things

Once you have a base design for your child’s room, it’s time to start customizing it to make it appear much more in line with their interests. This is where you can get creative and really try to match the room to your child. Lamps, posters, decorative items, and more can go a long way toward customizing the space while still being relatively easy to remove and replace if your child loses interest over time.

This is also a good time to consider painting furniture items such as desks and dressers. While this may not always be an option, most of the time it’s not that big of a deal to add a coat of paint to simple furniture items to help them better match the look of a room. By painting these accent pieces to match the overall layout of the room, you can make a notable change to the space that can be redone or updated in the future as needed.

Designing with Kids

As your children grow, be sure to get their input periodically so that you can make additional changes that actually align with their interests. This doesn’t mean that you have to rush out and buy everything that your child wants, of course; use these periodic chats to gauge how happy they are with their room, what sort of changes they might be interested in, and if there are any pieces of furniture or decorations that they seem to be outgrowing. The nature of their room is going to change over time, so make sure that they are a part of the conversation on how it needs to change.