2022 Spring Home and Garden

Page 20 2022 Spring Home and Garden LINCOLN DAILY NEWS April / May 2022 2022 Spring Home and Garden LINCOLN DAILY NEWS April / May 2022 Page 21 Improve the space under your feet with paint A fresh coat of ceiling paint can brighten a room making it look bigger, while a little color on the walls can transform a room into an oasis the whole family will love. Paint can also do wonders for the service under your feet. A little paint on the worn out wood, boring concrete, or faded vinyl flooring can reflect a touch of personality pretty inexpensively. Of course, painting a floor is not always a quick fix and if not done properly won’t last long. But, if you’re willing to do the research and roll up your sleeves, painting the floor leaves you with limitless possibilities for adding beauty to your home. There are a few things to consider before you decide to paint a floor: 1. How long will it take to paint the floor? Painting a floor is not a quick project. The prep work alone can take hours, even days. Cleaning, sanding, and repairing damaged flooring may take awhile, but will be totally worth it once the floor is ready to paint. Several thin layers of paint applied every couple of hours will make for a better finish than a heavy coat applied once or twice. 2. Is the area a high traffic area? High traffic areas may need a little extra TLC before painting. Consult your paint dealer, there maybe clear top coatings that provided added protection. For some painting high traffic areas is not a good idea because no matter how careful you are, wear and tear will break down the paint and maintenance will be necessary to keep the floors looking nice. S pring is here and many homeowners are eagerly anticipating the warmer weather so they can open their windows and spruce up their home after a long winter. Remodeling, however, can be labor intensive and frustrating if you don’t know what you’re doing, not to mention expensive. One of the cheapest ways to smarten up a home is with paint. CONTINUED u of your programmable thermostat with your smart phone. You can sit on the couch and say, “Alexa, what is the temperature in the living room,” and Alexa will speak the current living room temperature, or you can say to Google Home, “Google, increase the temperature in the bedroom one degree.” Google Home will say OK and kick the temp up a notch. (Now if we can only get Alexa and Google to clean the house and make the beds....). Installing a programmable thermostat is probably a job for an HVAC professional. Most of the brands of programmable thermostats have a compatibility guide on their website so you can get the right model for your HVAC situation. Most of the brands have well illustrated instruction guides for easy installation, helping you to identify what you have (such as a forced air furnace or a boiler and air handler etc.), and how to identify the colored wires and hook them up correctly. Installation is complicated enough that you probably want to have a professional install your new thermostat. Most HVAC professionals will only charge about $75 to install a programmable thermostat, get it communicating with your phone and Alexa, and it is well worth avoiding wrong installation, which might keep your heat from working, and the possible frustrations of DIY. With the scheduling and automation features of a programmable thermostat, you can reduce your heating and air conditioning costs up to 30%. Getting a free programmable thermostat from Ameren can set you on the path to better affordability with your home energy costs. [Jim Youngquist]