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Before You Bake: Is Your Heating Element Healthy?

. Posted by in • Austin

Check your oven’s health before the holiday season

Austin families are preparing for the holiday season, which often means cooking and baking for parties and family gatherings. Before you head into the kitchen this winter, it pays to be sure that you have all of the ingredients you’ll need to make dazzling cakes, cookies, and party foods. Of course, it’s also important to be sure that your major appliances are doing their part in your holiday preparations.

Is Your Oven’s Heating Element Causing Baking Woes?

There’s no doubt that baking is a science. After all, it takes the perfect combination of ingredients to make stellar baked goods. Excelling as a baker also means having the right appliances. While many professional bakers swear by convection ovens, most homeowners still use standard electric or gas ranges in their homes. Thankfully, you can still get great results with these types of ovens.

However, you do need to … Read Full Post »

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Simple Tips to Control Home Energy Use This Winter

. Posted by in • San Antonio

Stay warm while keeping your heating bills under control

It’s the same scenario every winter: you get your first heating bill and nearly fall over when you see the total. Make it different this year with these tips to save energy and reduce heat loss around your home.

Assess and Address Air Leaks

Any problem that’s allowing air to escape from your home should be addressed immediately. Check for duct leaks, and gaps around windows and doors. Assess the amount of insulation in areas such as the attic, basement, and crawl spaces. A home energy audit can give you the most comprehensive picture of where heat is going. If necessary, use weather stripping, caulking, or extra insulation to close gaps.

Be Smart With Windows

Windows are another big source of heat loss. One of the most inexpensive ways to control this is to seal them with a plastic window covering kit. Put the storm windows … Read Full Post »

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As Temperatures Cool, Rodents Get Ready to Move In

. Posted by in • San Antonio

Winter rodent control tips for a pest-free home

No home is immune from the presence of rodents, and winter brings the highest potential for infestation.

Colder temperatures mean that animals are looking for a cozy place to bed down, and from their perspective, a safe, warm house is just the right choice.

Cold Weather, Unwanted Houseguests

Since rats and mice don’t hibernate, they’re looking for a place where they can get everything they need throughout the season. Any cold, hungry pest is going to seek a spot where heat and food can be found. Your home has both of these things along with insulation and other materials that can be used for nesting. Crawl spaces, attics, empty areas inside walls, garages and sheds are all potential rodent hideouts.

Wintertime Rodent Control

Inspecting your home for places where rats and mice can get in is the first step in making sure they don’t turn your home … Read Full Post »

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As Temperatures Cool, Rodents Move In

. Posted by in • Dallas-Fort Worth

Rodent Control Tips for Dallas Area Homeowners

Winter gives Dallas residents some much-needed respite from the brutal heat of summer time, but cooler temperatures invite rodent issues that need to be proactively addressed. After all, rats, mice and other rodents are just as interested in surviving the winter as you are, so it makes sense for them to seek out a warm, dry shelter such as your attic or interior walls. Fortunately, there are some steps that you can take to prevent rodent wintering from becoming a problem on your property.

How Can I Protect My Home?

The first thing that you need to do is inspect your property for any holes or gaps that’ll invite rodents to move into your house for the winter. This inspection needs to include the entire exterior of your home, your closets, drains, cabinets and all areas where your walls and floors join together. Make sure that … Read Full Post »

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Add Some Seasonal Glow With Holiday Lighting

. Posted by in • San Antonio

Make your home sparkle this season with creative light displays

The holidays are coming up fast. Are you ready to hang your seasonal lighting? Get started with these tips for creating a display that adds a little flair to your San Antonio neighborhood.

Pick a Theme

Start by deciding what you want to convey with your display. Do you prefer simple and elegant, or would you rather go all out with every holiday decoration you can think of? Are you aiming for a colorful look or basic white accented with accessories such as wreaths? What you choose will determine the type and quantity of lights you’ll need as well as any additional pieces such as frames or stakes.

Draw Up a Plan

Once you’ve decided on a theme, sit down and sketch it out. Decide where you want to hang lights and how you want them to look. Generally, lights are used to outline the … Read Full Post »

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Deck Out Your Landscaping for the Holidays

. Posted by in • Austin

Let your great outdoors celebrate the season

Austin knows how to turn Christmas into a dazzling season, so why not put a special glow in your landscape this holiday season? Think beyond inflatable snowmen this year and turn your front yard into a holiday fantasy land.

Wrap the Trees

Threading lights through the trees always adds seasonal cheer to the front yard, but why stop at a few strings? Simple silhouettes of trunks and branches come alive when you wrap trees with brilliant strands of LED lights. Bottom-to-top trimming takes a little time, so you might opt for the easier effect of glittering icicles created from drapes of fairy lights. These tiny LED cousins are the size of rice grains, and their sway on an evening breeze brings magical life to the smallest saplings. Give tall evergreens and pines the full treatment with big, beautiful bulbs.

Trim the Shrubs

Shrubs might be short, but don’t … Read Full Post »

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ABC and Dietz Memorial Team Up to Help Grieving Family

. Posted by in • Austin

When Tragedy Is Compounded by Opportunism

Every week, hundreds of Austin-area families welcome a new child into the world. The vast majority of these families experience unbridled joy at the occasion. Unfortunately, one family’s birth story recently ended in tragedy. After the death of Jessica Rodriguez, a young mother with deep roots in the area, her husband and extended family experienced a second pang of heartbreak when a scam artist made off with thousands of dollars in donations for a memorial to Jessica.

The Rodriguezes’ Story

Recently, an optimistic Austin family – the Rodriguezes – welcomed a beautiful baby into the world. Although the baby was healthy and vivacious, the young mother fell ill and died from complications of childbirth shortly after the delivery. Determined to persevere, the surviving family members banded together to raise funds for a memorial in her honor.

The Rodriguezes turned to Fallon Mouton, a local woman, to assist them … Read Full Post »

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When Ants Fight, Are You the Winner?

. Posted by in , • Dallas-Fort Worth

Figuring the odds on fire vs. crazy

When you first heard about their amazing ability to kick the stuffing out of fearsome fire ants, you were probably impressed with crazy ants. Since the early 2000s, this invasive new species has established its own ferocious reputation, and homeowners from Houston to Dallas are caught in the middle. Should you take sides?

Different Nesting Tactics

Both ant species hitchhiked here from South America where they were already mortal enemies. Perhaps the rivalry began over homebuilding styles. Fire ants take a traditional approach by constructing large mounds in backyards. As their population grows, they branch out with those familiar dirt piles that mean trouble for bare human feet. Crazy ants start out in the lawn, but they aren’t satisfied with life outside. These deranged pests push their colonies into home interiors by nesting in walls and crawl spaces, and they enjoy setting up house in electrical … Read Full Post »

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4 Popular Hardscaping Features

. Posted by in • San Antonio

Landscaping Improvements That Work For You

Lawns need mowing, gardens love edging, and weeds deserve whacking. Yard chores aren’t fun, but they add up to a beautiful home landscape. What if you could improve the scenery with features that don’t demand special attention? Here are four great hardscaping ideas for homeowners who like to relax on the weekend.

1. Retaining Walls Have Purpose

Whether they’re built with concrete block or native field stone, well-placed retaining walls minimize erosion from pouring rains and help control storm flooding. They shade delicate gardens from sizzling Texas summers and provide welcome wind breaks when winter storms blow through. If your lawn mower bounces over uneven terrain, consider the shorter cousins of these functional walls. Terracing tames the wildest slopes in San Antonio yards.

2. Pathways Work Around Problems

Towering shade trees thin the lawn under their branches, and family foot traffic wears ruts along favorite home trails. Win this … Read Full Post »

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Are Ants Stealing Your Pet’s Dinner?

. Posted by in , • Bryan-College Station

Texas is home to a variety of pesky ant species that thrive in our year-round warm climate. Ask the professionals how to protect your home from ongoing invasions and chances are they’ll tell you to watch where your crumbs fall. While a lot of other variables – moisture levels, landscaping, and location – come into play when ants look for new spots to settle, food waste is a major source of infestations. Keeping food off the ground is generally great advice, but what if you share your home with a hungry pet? When a food bowl is a permanent fixture on your kitchen floor, following the tips below can make all the difference.

Get to Know Your Enemy

They may look similar, but different ant species behave in very different ways. For example, carpenter ants are nocturnal, while look-alike acrobat ants are active during the day. The more you know about the … Read Full Post »

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