How to Protect Your Home From Rain Water

Your house is the only thing that protects you from all kinds of weather conditions, especially rain. We can call your home, your shield. Especially during rainy seasons, you should take extra care of your house exteriors.

When you are sitting in your home clean and dry, your house is more susceptible to the water damage. Hence, you should always take some safety measures to protect your home during monsoon seasons if you want to increase your property's life span.

Protect your home

Sturdy roofing: If you install worn out or missing roofing materials for your home, the water will easily seep in and damage your house structure. Therefore, always consult with professionals for any roofing related services. Also, you should inspect your roofing twice every year, but if there is any severe storm you should always check your roofing. Look for molds or any water marks underneath your roof.

Exterior Paints: Run a quick check on your exterior paintings because heavy rainfalls are very dangerous for. If you find bubbling, cracking or peeling in your exterior paints, repaint the affected area with quality paint that has the tendency to resist water.

Foundation: Again, run a quick check the foundation. Repair all the cracks to avoid water from leaking into your home. First concentrate in the large cracks. They need immediate attention and repairing.

Basement: Now the next thing you need to inspect is the basement. If there is a water leakage, you will find signs of water seepage. Check your carpets for any wet spots. Don't forget the corners. You can also sniff your walls for molds and mildews behind your walls. Take appropriate steps to remove all these unwanted things from your wall. Hire a professional if the problem is serious. Molds and mildews feed on your walls, and if they get inside your house, it can cause health problems. Call a professional pressure washing company to clean each and every corner of your house exteriors.

Gutters: You should always clean your gutters to eliminate any dirt or debris. Or else, the rain water will back up and damage your house again. Window ledge, decomposed boards and water leaking into your foundation or your basement are some of the common problems you will face with clogged gutters.

Downspouts: Lastly, check your downspouts to see where the water is being dumped. If your downspout is dumping water 5 feet, then use gutter damage to dump it further.

When taking care of your house in the raining season, do not ignore the damp on your outside walls otherwise, it will seep inside. Also, if you want to get your exteriors painted for before the monsoons, go for modified paints with silicon because they repel water and you can enjoy the weather worrying about your walls at least.

Five Ways to Not Get Buyers Interested in Your House

Tired of serious buyers traipsing through your house after you put it on the market? Offering you that pesky money for your house? Here's a surefire way to ensure that no one at all expresses any interest in buying your home with tips seen in real online listings.

1. Firstly, don't clean your house. Preferably, don't clean anything for months before taking the pictures. Your pictures should highlight just what kind of dire need your house has for a good thorough washing. Make sure to include as many cobwebs in your pictures as possible. If you can't get your house good and dirty, try taking the pictures in poor light so that people can't really see the rooms clearly.

2. Next, leave all kinds of belongings out in the open, scattered around is best though stacks of things like old newspapers works well here as well. If you can, pile so much stuff in each room that you're taking a picture of that you can't really discern what the room is supposed to be used for. Showcase just how many pieces of furniture that you can get in each room. Don't restrict yourself to items that belong in that room either, the more random the better. Don't give anyone a hint as to what the room is actually used for by the contents.

3. Take only pictures that highlight areas that require repair, poorly designed elements, or if you don't have any of those, shots that show expanses of blank walls. Don't allow any of the interesting elements of your home to show at all. Only show the least intesting angles of your yard as well or that pile of garden debris or junk that you cleaned out of the garage you're going to take to the dump.

4. Whenever possible take your photos from odd angles or even with a fisheye lens. Photos taken from close to the ceiling will make all your rooms look like only a hobbit could live in them while shots taken from near the floor will make all your furniture seem to loom over you. Distortion is the name of the game here, don't be afraid to take shots down staircases to show just how treacherous they might really be, even if they aren't.

5. Make sure that when you have all your pictures, you write up your listing with misspelled words, using poor punctuation, and either no capitals or ALL capitals. Nothing says "I'm not a professional" like a lack of proof reading.

All joking aside, when you decide to put up your home for sale, you will want to make sure that the pictures show a clean home that is free from clutter. A buyer is likely to think that if a seller can't be bothered to clean and tidy their house for something as important as putting it on the market it is likely to have not been maintained well either. The text that accompanies your pictures should be clear and concise and proof-read for mistakes. For even better results, consult a professional real estate agent in your area for expert advice and tips on selling your home.

Book now: our latest Style Safari

Good news: we're holding another of our popular Style Safaris - a day of design-store tours and expert briefings guided by HOME editor Jeremy Hansen - on October 18.

The all-day Style Safari experience includes visits to five Auckland design stores, briefings on the latest international design trends at each destination, and lunch at Cibo. 

The October 18 Style Safari includes briefings on new furniture arrivals from the teams at Studio Italia, Simon James Design, Matisse, Backhouse Interiors and Corporate Culture. 

You'll be transported between each destination in luxurious vehicles provided by our event partner Mercedes-Benz. It's a hassle-free way for you to get ahead on all the latest design developments and to see what's in stock and on order in Auckland's best design showrooms.

Numbers on the Style Safari are limited to 50, and our last event sold out quickly, so purchase your tickets now. They're available for $95 from Eventopia - click here to reserve your place! 

Our new cover: Fashion Houses

Behold! Our new cover, which New Zealand subscribers should receive today and which will hit newsstands on Monday. We hope you like it. It's a photograph by Sharrin Rees of a beautiful Sydney home designed by expat New Zealand architects Chris Adams and Bianco Pohio (who are also, as you'll see, experts at creating beautiful, calm interiors).

In the photo, the blue 'Clip' chairs are by Lorenz Kaz for Bedont, and the '91' table is by Alvar Aalto (who also designed the teaware on the shelf behind). The blue vase is by Bitossi. 

This issue is our annual focus on the connections between fashion, architecture and interior design. Some of the homes we've selected for it are owned by people in the fashion biz, and others were chosen because we think they say interesting things about the directions architecture and interior design are heading today. 

We're really pleased with the issue and hope you like it too. Thanks to photographer Sharrin and to Chris and Bianca for helping us create such an arresting cover. 

We'll preview more of the issue's content for you in our posts next week. Have a great weekend.