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Analyzing The Benefit Of Spray Foam Over Fiberglass Batt Insulation

Dec 16

Posted by Joe S. Iaderosa in home improvement | Comments off

There are many reasons why a homeowner may consider insulation. It could be a case of replacing old insulation, adding an extra room to a house, or adding insulation that was never there. Whatever the background story, those looking for insulation will very quickly become familiar with fiberglass batt and its increasingly popular counterpart called spray foam insulation. Although the more commonly used form appears to be fiberglass batt the use of spray foam insulation is fast becoming the insulation of choice and with good reason. Here is some of the benefit of spray foam over fiberglass batt insulation.

In the chaos of everyday living, time is sometimes all we have. If something can be done to equal or better effect in less time, there is no reason to spend more time on a task in order to produce a result that isn’t as good. Fiberglass batt installation does not begin at the point where the workers are placing it in the room. Instead it starts at the very beginning where time-consuming measurements are taken in order for the batt to be cut to the exact dimensions of the room. It is a very taxing way to install insulation.

Spray foam is able to greatly reduce installation time since the installation is simple once the machine has been brought over. The spray foam is so easy to install that it can even be placed beneath spray foam.

To acquire the same amount of coverage with fiberglass batt would require the help of professionals as well as many days of preparation followed by more time spend installing. The protection that spray foam gives is beneficial in other respects. This barrier will be worth more than its price when the lower utility bills come in month after month.

Fiberglass would take a working professional many a patiently spent day to achieve the same coverage. This blanket insulation will really come in handy when the colder months come as it aids in lessening the cost of heating bills.

Although fiberglass batt has a long life, it cannot last as long as spray foam while producing the same effect. The fact that spray foam does not soak in water and takes up the room that is available in the middle of two walls, give it a distinct advantage over batt. The reason for this is that these qualities have uses beyond that of making sure the house stays at a reasonable temperature.

Rat and bug infestations are less likely to happen because the spaces between walls are no longer available to them. Spray foam and its inability to take in water aids in protecting the house from mold and the problems associated with its growth in homes. Spray foam is consequently going to take longer to decay and will be able to give blanket insulation for many years without compromising the health of homeowners. This form of insulation is an excellent choice for those who do not wish to change the insulation too soon after installing it.

There are many options available to those trying to decide on a type of insulation and it is not easy to always choose. Prices aside, it is important to think about other factors. In the case of installation difficulty, spray foam insulation has an advantage over fiberglass due to its lessened preparation requirements and the ease of the actually placement of the foam. In the area of results, spray foam will last for a longer time than fiberglass batt while providing blanket coverage that has advantages beyond cold protection. The benefit of spray foam over fiberglass batt insulation can be found in these factors and in the financial savings that come from using it.

There are many advantages for using spray foam insulation in your home. You can get all the information and details you need when you top two experienced and knowledgeable fiberglass insulation professionals.

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Hardie Board Siding is by Far Your Safest and Most Resilient Residence Siding Option

Dec 12

Posted by Lilian Ford in home improvement | Comments off

Latest and exotic diseases like swine flu are normally portrayed by the media as some sort of a devastating curse from God. Whilst there’s no denying that exotic illnesses have the capability to cause huge suffering and damage if appropriate precautions are not taken in time, the media even now tends to over-hype the complete affair.

You can find some other things which cause more damage and suffering to Americans than swine flu. You have, for instance, about 3,000 individuals whose lives are lost to flames damages annually. Relating to the CDC, deaths from fires are the fifth most common reason of accidental injury deaths in the US. Flames damages are in fact measured as the third top reason of deadly home harm. And the huge majority of fire damages occur in residential structures.

Perhaps the major reason why residential houses are prone to fire damages is that most are constructed from highly flammable stuff like wood. While it is not possible to eliminate wood from our homes, you might have the opportunity to minimize the presence of these flames-prone material from your residence.

One thing you can do is substitute your wooden siding with a a lot safer material, such as hardie plank siding.

What exactly is Hardie board Siding?

A quite new kind of siding material, hardie board is by far the most safe alternative siding option for homeowners searching to replace their wood siding. It is a mixture of natural and synthetic fabrics. It is made from cellulose fibers and cement.

Benefits of Hardie board Siding

Flames Resistant:

When it comes to safety, this siding outranks traditional textures like wood. Though it is not totally fire-resistant, it is, nevertheless, a fabric that doesn’t easily caught flames. During unintentional fire incidence, a not so combustible material like hardie plank can buy a homeowner some precious time to react to the accident.

Green material:

Considering the current status of Mother Nature, most of us really consider a precise fabric previous to purchasing it. Is it green fabric? With hardie board siding, the respond to that could be a huge YES. Nature-loving homeowners need not worry about the basis of this siding’s cellulose fibers because it is entirely designed from wood varieties that are not endangered. Moreover, this fabric doesn’t have toxic materials.

Permanence:

When getting a product, the primary thing that will probably come into our minds is permanence. That can be quite right when deciding on a siding material. Nobody would like to get some lousy siding material that may crumble after several years. What we would like is a hard fabric that would resist the elements for a long, long period. One such siding material is hardie plank. When durability is concerned, it’s going to outperform a large amount siding materials. How long will it endure? Well, it isn’t 10, 20, or 30 years, but a whooping 50 years of sure safety.

Hardie board is thick as wood and could withstand serious impacts that would harm usual siding textures. Though these have cellulose fibers, bugs and vermin wouldn’t consider munching at hardie board siding.

Find out more about hardie siding. Visit Miriam Rea’s site where you can find out all about cutting hardie boards and the best way to use it.

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The greatest Basement Remodel Floor Solutions

Dec 11

Posted by Lilian Ford in home improvement | Comments off

The basement remodel is a hugely trendy project undertaken by thousands of people yearly. A well completed basement can be changed into practically anything a homeowner can dream up from an extra guestroom suite to a full scale gaming and entertainment room.

With all the flooring choices offered, buying a floor is already a not easy procedure. Selecting basement floor covering is often even more complicated as it more often than not represents a humidity problem that may render some floor options unavailable.

Removing as much of moisture from a basement as possible is naturally a most important part of any basement redesigning plan. The best method to find the wetness level of your current basement floor area is to get a non-absorbent textile-a simple black trash bag works well-and seal the fabric with tape to a several various places around your basement floor. Wait for 24 hours and then test underneath the textile. In case you can feel any condensation build up, you ought to get your moisture problem taken care of first.

Once you have determined that your basement is relatively dried out you could start searching at the various types of floor area that work good in a basement. Here’s the lowdown on the most popular:

Engineered Hardwood floor area – This is a floor area material that is constructed purposely to withstand a great deal more moisture than traditional natural hardwood floor covering. It is also generally thinner than hardwood permitting for the set up of extra insulation, something that numerous basements will benefit from in the long term.

Laminate floor covering – In a relatively dry basement putting laminate is a good way to bring the look of hardwood into the room for less. Though some laminates just do not do in a good way in settings where there exists even a small extra moisture in the air so you should certainly discuss with a floor specialist concerning the right laminates to install before you get as damaged laminate floor covering is almost impossible to repair.

Ceramic Tile – An excellent choice for the basement as long as the subfloor is dry adequate to hold the glue. So a little more attention has to be paid to subfloor grounding ahead of the tile is placed than you could in some other rooms.

Flooring alternatives that might not work Properly – Justifying the cost (and risk) concerned in setting solid hardwood floor area in a below grade installation is hard to do. Engineered hardwood actually is the smarter way to go below ground and the results are every bit as beautiful.

Carpet in the basement can be risky also. Even the driest of basements usually have more moisture than the rest of the residence and wholly flooring an whole basement could be an invitation to mold and yeast (and ruined carpeting.) In case you really wish the comfort of carpeting to be a feature in your reworked basement though it’s simple to achieve with a little well-placed area carpets.

Discover more on basement floors . Come to George Parker’s site where you can discover about seal basement flooring and the best way to use it.

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Debating Insulation Type For Your Home: The Benefits Of Using Spray Foam Insulation

Dec 9

Posted by Joe S. Iaderosa in home improvement | Comments off

Houses are able to be warm during winter and cool in summer largely due to insulation. Those who have done work with houses are aware that the use of insulation is never in doubt. The debate is on what type of insulation to use. Spray foam insulation is an option that is growing in popularity. In the past, this form of insulation required a professional machine to install it. Today although you’re still generally better off with a professional, do-it-yourself homeowners are now able to do the installation. Here are a few of the benefits of using spray foam insulation:

Lack of Defined Shape

With other forms of insulation such as fiberglass, installers must be prepared to do a lot of work. There is a lot of painstaking work involved with cutting exact shapes that takes a lot of precision and patience. Spray foam is much faster due to the use of machines that blow it into the house. Foam adapts to the shape of its container which allows it to form a barrier that has no seams. A worker would take a very long time to try and get seamless coverage with fiberglass. Another advantage is that foam is able to stick to anything. It can even be used to provide insulation beneath floors.

Prevention of Mold and Pest Infestation

One of the biggest problems, particularly in older houses, is the gradual infiltration of mold. Because the foam does not absorb water, homeowners have nothing to worry about on this front. Due to the fact that spray foam insulation provides blanket coverage, a home that is insulated with spray foam does not run the risk of mold in other places. The coverage offered by spray foam protects the house from unwanted bug and rat infestations. Due to the fact that the foam fills in everything between walls, bugs will have a lot of difficulty entering the house.

Environmentally Friendly

When the prices associated with foam insulation come up, homeowners may become unsure of buying in and using it. Foam insulation is actually a money-saver when the money saved on yearly heat and cooling bills are counted and compared to previous years. In the long term, homeowners pay more by using cheaper upfront insulation. Homeowners are able to save substantially while requiring the use of fossil fuels less and less. This way spray foam insulation becomes both a cheaper long-term investment as well as a way to be more environmentally friendly. These reduced costs serve also to make an excellent argument for raising the sale price of a house should the time come to sell.

The primary purpose of having insulation is to ensure that a house can maintain desired temperatures at reduced cost to the homeowners. Spray foam insulation allows them to do exactly with greater returns in the form of lower heating bills, which is just one of the benefits of using spray foam insulation. This form of insulation is not toxic and thus there is no risk in running into it. With the ease of installation that is not seen in other types of insulation it is no surprise that spray foam insulation continues to grow in popularity.

Get complete details and information about the advantages of using spray foam insulation for your office. When you work with the knowledgeable and experienced Ottawa insulation contractors, your project will be completed easily and quickly.

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Blackout Blinds – The Advantages and Disadvantages of Both shade Kind

Dec 9

Posted by Lilian Ford in home improvement | Comments off

Taking a look at the different types of shutters accessible, they all have a blackout choice to a different degree. Some only meet that explanation in the sense that it blocks out a percentage of the daylight coming in the room. Let’s search at the several types of blinds and judge the performance of every.

Vertical shutters are the least likely of any shade to cause a significant reduction of light in the room. The cause being is the way they’re made. Let’s look at a windowpane about 100cm * 100cm with a slat dimension of 89mm. There will usually be 14 slats of fabric on a vertical blind that dimension, each slat overlaps the slat next to it enabling a particular amount of light to reach through. Taking into account there are 14 slats, daylight will be coming through the shades at each overlap. Hardly the best choice even if the material itself is sun blocking.

Venetian shutters and Wooden Venetian blinds encounter a similar problem; there are essentially a number of slats overlapping the one next to it, allowing for daylight to come through. Although the standard venetians close tighter to the slat next to it than even the vertical blinds, it’s not tight enough to stop light coming through. Wooden Venetian are perhaps the worst slat type shade to block out daylight due to the thickness of the wood producing the gap to the slat next to it not intended to be tight closing.

Roman shades are in my opinion the next right option for a sun blocking shade. These are the most stylish giving you the choice of style along with function. The lining used on the back of the main material gives the sun blocking function, therefore not interfering with the design. These even fit the tightest in the recess where the shade is fitted, stopping hardly any daylight coming in at the sides.

Roller shade ranges usually offer the biggest choice of material option but yet again as a result of their design allow too much daylight into the room. The dimension of the brackets utilized hold the blind up results in the width of the fabric being around 33mm narrower than the width of the shutter counting its brackets, therefore permitting light in through that 33mm of the windowpane recess.

In the end, the finest option is a Cassette Roller shade. A roller shutter is fitted inside a generally white powder covered aluminum frame. The border fits cozily in the window recess and the fabric providing the blocking out of any light. As the border prevent any daylight coming through the sides, top or bottom of the shutter, it provides you the complete solution for a blackout shade.

Find out more concerning sun blocking blinds.Visit Samantha Green’s site where you can find out all on blackout shades and what it can do for you.

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Your Kitchen: Find the Right Remodeling Recipe

Dec 8

Posted by Sara Jane Marcum in home improvement | Comments off

Many improvements and upgrade options are out there to help bring beauty and performance to your home but when it comes to increasing your home’s value, there is no better room to updated than your kitchen. Updating and enhancing your kitchen is one of the best as well as one of the most popular ways to approve your home’s appearance while making it more efficient and bringing value to it. Whether your opting for low-budget kitchen upgrades, high-end kitchen upgrades or more energy efficient Eco-friendly upgrades, there are kitchen remodeling projects out there that will not only fit every homeowner’s wallet but his or her lifestyle and taste as well.

Low-Budget Kitchen Updates. Let’s face it: many of us are simply not able to spend a ton of money on high-end kitchen upgrades. Fortunately, there are many small, inexpensive projects that can make a world of difference in just about any kitchen space! If you have tile counters, floors, or back-splashes, a simple re-grouting job can go a long way for a very meager investment. Another popular low-budget kitchen upgrade is painting or staining cabinetry; while it won’t do wonders for how your kitchen functions, a little sanding and a fresh coat of stain or paint can breathe new life into nearly any kitchen!

Making energy efficient upgrades to your kitchen. Energy efficient kitchen upgrades typically focus on replacing old appliances with new Eco-friendly appliances. Doing this can very in cost. The good news is that even if Eco-friendly upgrades are more expensive upfront they are money-savers in the long run. Eco-friendly appliances tend to be nicer on your utility bill then your old stove, dishwasher and refrigerator. Although buying new Eco-friendly appliances (preferably appliances that carry the government’s Energy Star label) will often times set you back initially, much of the additional costs can be made up in the form of lowered monthly bills.

High-End updates to kitchens. Most of us are very careful about stretching every dollar we spend on home improvement projects to the full extent. However, if there was ever a place to splurge on in your home it would definitely be your kitchen. Although there is never a 100% guarantee research data shows that kitchens are the place where higher-end materials are most likely to bring the best resale value to your home.

Of course, if the rest of your house is strictly mid-range, installing a built-in refrigerator, a professional cook-top, and finishing the room off with marble floors is probably going to look out of place and do more harm than good if your house goes on the market. However, when placed a little higher than the price range of the materials in the rest of the house, your cabinetry, counters, and flooring will hardly seem out of place and will do wonders for appearances, performance, and resale value should your home ever go on the market!

Want to find out more about kitchen remodeling, then visit ASI Plumbing’s site on how to choose the best plumbing service for your kitchen remodeling project.

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All the Things You Can Do With Lighting Fixtures

Dec 7

Posted by Cole Peterson in home improvement | Comments off

Properly chosen home lighting in your house can do wonders, especially if you have limited space, or you just want to decorate your home. Why lighting? Because we perceive with our eyes. And our eyes use light to visualize. Light is a magicians way of creating illusions and light fixtures are your way of altering your home. Together with mirrors, lights can also simulate depth for houses with small rooms. Here are the top ten ways to use lights to enhance the aesthetics.

Home Lighting Tips: Top 10

10. Use dim lighting. You could, for instance, use pendant lighting that could hang midway from the ceiling. On either side of the fireplace, for instance. This would make your fireplace room larger and would reflect objects around the room.

9. You might want to have table lamps in the windows. Focused lighting adds depth.

8. You could also install lighting to enhance wall blemishes. This would also save you refinishing costs. Instead of spending fortunes on repainting and refurnishing that part of the wall is uneven, celebrate the natural look and accentuate it with lighting that would increase the shadows and make it look like it was one on purpose.

7. There are also movable lighting that you could use. You could move the lighting – like floor lamps, from time to time to have a different view of the house. That will give your home a new look and fire it up a little.

6. Focused track lighting is also a good alternative to cherry pick what you want to highlight. An area with aromatic candles could be given extra prominence if reflected on a mirror.

5. Mirrored screens combined with LED lights can illuminate a dark corners. You do not have to put bulbs or lights in every part of your house, thanks to lighting. This would save you electricity costs.

4. There are also outdoor sconces that are on dimmers.

3. Enhance your ceiling space with Chandeliers on the ceiling create a skylight effect that is diffused and easy on the eyes.

2. Kitchens should also be lit well, use easy to clean flush mount lighting – this makes it easy to clean

1. Rooms can also be redesigned with new lights to infuse new energy. Even pantry or cabinet ceilings could also be placed with lighting. Putting lighting on these ceilings would enable you to see the contents of the upper shelves.

Lighting Essentials: You could also have basement lighting that could illuminate things happening in the ground level. It could also reflect what is happening in your yard above. Putting big lighting in rooms, especially which have limited spaces, can provide bright and spacious feel. Putting some little plants or shrubs in places where lighting could reflect on them. Putting some greenery will give the room an uplifting and relaxing ambiance. Add mirrors to the mix and this can also put personality into one?s room. The lighting, for example, in the master bedroom could be more formal; while lighting in the children?s bedroom can be decorative and fun to look at.

Decorative lighting will do a lot more than just look pretty on its own. It will end up displaying your personality as well. In addition they also give the illusion of width, length, and height. Decorative lighting could be combined with wall pictures, with contrasting colors.

While it is also good to use frame lighting over a sideboard or mantle since that is the traditional kind of mirror, you might want to consider other creative approaches such as putting large-scale lighting on a floor leaning against the wall.

Another beautiful way of adding shimmer to your light fixtures is to an place them near mirrored table toppers or walls. You could ask a professional glass and electrician to make you some furniture using lighting as embellishments.

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If You Have Proper Shower Faucets, You will Enjoy A Great Shower Experience Daily

Dec 4

Posted by Lilian Ford in home improvement | Comments off

Every residence, and particularly, each bathroom and lavatory require shower faucets. There are a number of varieties of such faucets available in the market. They are constructed with many materials like polished chrome, antiques and brass. Even polished and stained nickel and gold, acrylic, brass, stainless steel, copper and other combination-materials are also used for making them. You need to make your choice built on your taste, the costs you have in your mind and your other preferences. However, make sure you never compromise on the quality side because you can otherwise face frequent troubles with the faucets. It is better if you select types that are good in regulating temperatures and that are corrosion-resistant. It is best to choose the types which are both enduring and stylish. They ought to give the right solutions to your desires.

Basically, consumers give more preference to aesthetics than to some other aspects when they buy shower faucets. Although, you might be advised not to neglect the utility and functionality elements. Although you might want to enjoy your shower in the wonderful environment furnished by such an aesthetic faucet, if it suddenly fails to function, the bliss of your knowledge might be disrupted abruptly. Hence, you ought to make sure to have a faucet which fulfills your performance expectations too.

Also, the faucets you take should fit the lavatory also. Experts advise that a 4″ center lavatory faucet can be good because an 8″ center lavatory faucet is complicated to clean. Today, almost all the faucets are washer-less. Previously, faucets with washers were only accessible and these washers lacked durability.

It is prudent when you buy all your plumbing fixtures from the same hardware shop so that if these do not match well, you could request the shop people for exchanging them with new appropriate fixtures. These equipment shops contain plumbers of their own and you might talk to them also at the same time as paying for your shower faucets. However, you mustn’t ever compromise on your taste and other preferences when you take them. You ought to grant importance to the models, kinds and other helpfulness elements you prefer.

One more modern category of faucets which are accessible in the marketplace are the Accordion-folding shower doors. They are very useful and can be fixed easily also. Practically all the plumbers and specialists opine that these are vastly long-lasting, simply replaceable and safer than glass. They could also be simply maintained and their looks are also fantastic. You might get them in nearly all the equipment stores. If you would liketo do research and know extra about designs, kinds and other facets of these faucets, you can take a look on the Internet. You could check hundreds of dealers and manufacturers and you can search on their online pages. You could measure the features, expenses, styles and additional features and select the ones that suit your requirements rightly. You might make online purchases as well.

Find out more about cheap faucets. Stop by Miranda Cox’s site where you can discover regarding kohler faucet and how it can help you.

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Outdoor Wall Lighting With Memories

Dec 4

Posted by Cole Peterson in home improvement | Comments off

An outdoor area to relax after dinner, or on a mild summer’s afternoon, or even perhaps on a brisk winter’s evening is a luxury that everyone can experience – when the put their mind to it. Everyone has a porch. A deck would be ideal. Otherwise, that’s fine too. As long as you have a place to put a reclining chair or even a hammock, we are good to go.

The key element that does make the space is the type of light fixtures you use to illuminate the area. How does this make sense? Well lets think about it for a second. First, the times that you will most likely use the porch is during the evening and this means that the time you wish to most extract its ambiance is at that time. Also consider that in the evenings there are other factors to take into account. Like for example, have you realized, that in the evening when you turn on the lights, your porch is on display for everyone to see. And finally, think about this, more people see the outside of your home, then the do the inside.

Keep this at the back of your mind as you embark on this quest. Integrate the design and effect by looking at the whole picture with the lighting such as the outdoor pendant. The things that need to go together are the lights, the fans and the furniture. Why fan, after all this is the porch? Well, the times you will spend most on the porch are still, summer evenings, the out door fans will help cool the air and distract mosquitoes as well – for good measure get a citronella bucket candle. The fan will help disperse the active ingredient.

Once you have an idea of what it is you want to accomplish, tie the furniture together. For example, an outdoor fan, heavy oak recliners with cushions and wall sconces will keep your porch looking very colonial. Pay close attention to your home lighting, the outdoor sconces because it will be what is most visible from a distance.

So how does that porch or backyard feel now? Think of it as a backyard retreat filled with laughter and sun – that continues on past dusk. Just you and a bunch of friends enjoying the sunset with cool cocktails. You smile as you sink into your wrought iron bench with the outdoor sconce lighting the smile beaming from your friends face after having a great evening on your deck.

There are bursts of your lush green foliage wafting in the light of your outdoor wall sconce in the garden, rustic furniture to laze in, and the warm summer breeze accentuated by your outdoor fan. That is what summer is all about.

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The Online Extravaganza of Outdoor Pendant Products

Dec 3

Posted by Cole Peterson in home improvement | Comments off

My porch leads straight to my deck overlooking the garden and then from there you can see the outer banks of Cape Hatteras. My grandparents built this home when they got married and it has been in my family ever since. From the time I was a kid, as far back as I can recall, we always came here for Thanksgiving, the odd thing was that I recall always seeing new furniture, sometimes even the deck would be new and, new light fixtures and sometime even new plants outside. For a kid, this was just a magical place.

It wasn’t till I grew a little older when I realized my grandparent’s place – well my place, now, was in the path of the summer hurricanes that tear through North Carolina every year. It finally occurred to me why every year a lot of things would be new, because the summer before the time we visited at least one of the hurricanes would have torn through and ripped the house. My grandparents’ would then spend the entire fall, fixing it up and replacing a bunch of things.

What always got damaged by the storm were the lights, the plants and the deck ? which invariable would all be replaced by the time we got there. After my grandparents passed, my father inherited the place and decided to convert it to a summer home ? hurricane season. My brothers and I were so psyched and helped my father do all the renovation work. I did the garden, while my older brother did the pendant lighting. I think it was my mom’s idea to do pendant lighting at ten-foot intervals along the side of the house.

It was a fantastic stroke of genius. That first night after my brother installed it, the out door pendant lighting looked fabulous. It was so fabulous that it resulted in unintended consequences. It created a family area outside that became quite cozy, that sometime, my brothers and I would pitch tents and sleep outside.

The later we stayed the cooler the breeze got, we could tell what time it was with how brisk the wind would get and how much the lights would start swinging. The outdoor pendant had to be replaced after this years hurricane and is now replaced with outdoor wall sconce. I was hesitant to take it down because all these lights have so much memories with them.

So my wife an d I decided to refurbish these weather beaten outdoor pendant and hang them in the enclosed patio out back.

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