Living in a small apartment doesn't offer many options for elaborate holiday decor. With a little ingenuity, however, I've created a lovely holiday-themed apartment. A miniature lighted Christmas tree carefully placed on my side table greets visitors as they enter my home. Making good use of my front room window, I have adorned it with decor, using tinsel and garland, as well as miniature stockings hung with suction cups. As a festive alternative, you might try hanging shiny ornaments on the window in much the same way. If your apartment is designed with a staircase, decorate the banister. Use garland, tinsel, holly or even holiday greeting cards. Finally, if your apartment is furnished with a fireplace, decorate the mantel. I've placed a two-foot tall animated and musical Santa on my mantel. I hope my blog gives you some fun decorating ideas for your small home.
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If you have found a piece of land you want to build a house on and you aren't sure what it's going to cost you to prep the land, you want to have a land survey performed. The survey from a company like Krause & Gantzer can tell you a lot about how ideal for building the property is, and about what is in the soil.
A land survey contractor will do the survey, and can talk with you about the results and how it affects the potential home you want to build. Here are a few things that the land survey can help you determine before you build, or before you buy the property.
A Well or City Water
The land survey with a soil sample will show what type of sediment and minerals are in the soil. This is important information if you're considering putting a well in, instead of having city water. The soil sampling will let you know what type of problems you could have in the water, what minerals will have to be filtrated out, and how difficult it will be to filter the water. After the soil sample you may decide city water is easier than a well.
Grading Expenses
The land survey lets you know if you need to bring in soil to make the house level with the road, or at the level it needs to be at. If you find out that you have to bring in tons of soil to put the house up in the proper position, you may want to entertain building a pond or a swimming pool right away, so you don't have to pay for soil.
Flood Risks
The survey will report what type of flood risks you're going to encounter, which may alter if you want to put a basement in. You may decide to do a slab, and to create a bonus room or add square footage somewhere else in the home.
If you are looking at property and you wonder if it's going to be good to build a house on, get a survey done before you move forward with the purchase. The cost to hire a surveyor is well worth the expense, especially if you find out that you would have to pay thousands of dollars to grade the land when you want to build a home. You can save and make a smart building decision after you have the survey completed.
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