Fencing Part 3: Materials

If You’ve made it through part one and two of this series I assume you’re committed to this project. So, since we’re doing this here’s a guide to the materials and types of fencing that might be available to you.

Component Fence

Pre-assembled Panel Fence

This type of fencing is assembled piece by piece or more specifically board by board by rail by rail. It’s fencing that comes in individual pieces. This kind of fence is more flexible, as in it can more closely hug the perimeter of whatever you’re fencing off.  This type of fence will take more time to assemble and are most commonly wood although you may be able to find other material to make this type of fence.

This type of fencing comes in panels instead of individual pieces. This type of fencing is not nearly as adjustable as component fencing but it is easier to assemble and can be assembled more quickly. However, if the landscape your fencing isn’t level you will need to do some finagling to make it work. This type of fencing had come in a wider variety of materials such as Metal, vinyl and sometimes wood panels.

Vinyl	Vinyl fencing, if you don’t know what vinyl is, is a study of the sturdy plastic material. This type of fencing looks very uniform and comes in a large variety of styles. Vinyl fencing is low maintenance and requires little to no upkeep besides a good washing and occasional rising. Because it comes in a wide variety that means you have to choose between a wide variety of styles. Solid panels create solid blocks of privacy and can visually and physically block off the entirety of the area you are fencing. While shadowbox panels also allow air circulation and don't completely block your view. Picket fencing is good for containing anything too big or not flexible enough to slip in between the spaces. They usually come between 4 to 6ft tall.
Chain Link	Chain link fencing isn’t usually chosen for it’s aesthetic. It comes in a mesh material a mesh in 3 to 12 feet in height and in 10- or 50-foot length rolls. This kind of fencing is meant to keep things in or out. The mesh comes in different sizes with the spaces being bigger or smaller. You can get the mesh in either the plain metal weave or with the weather resistant coating. The coating can come in a variety of colors but is most readily available in that playground green color or black.
Decorative Metal	This type of fencing is all about aesthetics. It’s meant to draw the eye to it and most of the styles it comes in don’t obscure much so if that’s what you’re going for probably don’t get this. It comes in a wide variety of styles and metals and adds a bit of formality to the overall aesthetic. This style of fencing tends to be durable and needs very little maintenance. Usually, 4 to 5 feet in height, ease of installation varies.
Wood Fencing	Comes in panel fencing, picket fencing, split-rail fencing, and shadowbox panels. Is good for privacy, keeping animals in or out, and being decorative. Anything vinyl fencing can do, wood can do also, there is, however, a little more maintenance inherent in the upkeep of wood being outside instead of vinyl.

Keeping the House Cool.

It’s the last leg of summer.  Meaning that if you also live in Georgia it’s like mid-September and it won’t get cold until the tail end of October and honestly, we’re all sick of it. We all wanted summer to start so we could stop shivering at the slightest breeze but that’s only because we forgot how old the heat and humidity gets almost immediately. There’s nothing quite like breathing in the sweltering water we call oxygen in the Georgia heat. I pray to god for your own sake that you have A/C, if you don’t... some of this will help you too. However, at this point you’re A/C has been doing a lot. They’ve front-loaded all the work keeping you cool this summer. So here are a few things that can help you stay cool until the end of the season. gumming up the workings of your unit.

Cut down on things that actively fight the work you’re A/C is doing. Thus, your windows. No matter how good windows are, no matter how thick the glass is, no matter how well insulated they are, they are going to radiate heat. Especially during times of the day when the sun is focused directly on the glass. Cover them up during the warmest part of the day. I suggest Blackout curtains; blackout curtains are pretty straightforward they block light and are readily available (you can pick some up at Walmart).

Piggybacking from there, use fans to support your A/C. If you have ceiling fans turning them specifically counter clockwise pushes the air downwards and chills the air while having it turned clockwise in the winter pulls the cool air upwards and forces the warm air downward. Having the fan on will also keep the air moving in the room, this keeps the air from getting stagnant and stuffy in the room. You can also keep the air moving with regular oscillating fans, these will also artificially cool the air.

 One more item on not fighting the A/C. Do as many of your heat-generating activities at night when it’s already cooler. Such as preparatory cooking, running unnecessary appliances, running your dryer, etc. We all know that’s not really practical to say to only do your cooking and chores at night, however, minimizing activities like the oven running mid-day will make at least the kitchen area significantly cooler.

Something you can do to help you’re A/C unit out is keeping it clean. Keeping the immediate area clear of weeds and assorted debris. Keep things from clogging up your unit. Which also means hosing it down once in a blue moon. You don’t need to take soap to it or anything, just spray it down with a garden hose to gently knock any dirt

One last thing that could help out your A/C unit is KEEP IT COOL! Yes, it doesn’t want to be hot either. Find a way to get your unit some shade. Some of the specific components in your unit get overheated, such as the refrigerant coil which then is counterproductive to the A/C unit function.

Building a Fence Part 2

The concept of building a fence isn’t all that foreign to us. It’s something that people would talk about on tv, and in cartoons, or sometimes characters in a book will build a one to fence out their annoying neighbors or keep pesky wildlife out of their gardens or something. How many of us know what goes into building an actual fence? Where would you even start? In the last article, we went over a lot of the paperwork side of building a fence. Yes, there’s a lot of paperwork. If you were unaware go back and read part one. Unfortunately, you shouldn’t skip that part. You may want to, but you shouldn’t.

So, material, what do you want to use and how much do you need? Well, let’s start with your personal needs and preferences, or the guidelines set laid out for you by either your neighborhood or local government; whichever is applicable in this case. Why are you getting the fence, is it for privacy? For your pets? Keeping wildlife out of your goddamn vegetable garden! You need to have that in mind when you're picking out your materials. We’ll be covering your choices of materials in part three of this series.

After you know what you're going to use. It’s time do a little more physical planning before you can go out and buy anything. Meaning, planning post position. How far apart do you want the posts to be? How wide do you want them to be? How many are you going to need to actualize that vision? We do this so we don’t end up with weird to far apart gaps or a janky section at the end where you needed one more post but the spacing wasn’t quite right, so you had to saw one down. No, you can’t just eyeball and guesstimate and have the product that you wanted.

Next, it’s time to dig. You need to make sure you have the proper height for your post you’re going to need because your posts need to go pretty deep into the ground to be relatively sturdy. Up to 30 inches into the ground, yes, over 2 feet depending on the stiffness of the type of soil you have. With the posts planned, it’s time to dig. You may also need to backfill the hole with something strong to keep the posts from moving, something like gravel. Take a break after that, apparently, your posts need to settle or whatever that means.

Final steps, put up your horizontal cross rails.  The side you put them on depends on preference or government-based guidelines. I don’t know.

Fall Is Coming – Is Your Home Ready

Part 3

Glad to see you back. I hope you found the first 2 parts informative. Now onto the yard, gardens and trees/shrubs. All the things I’m not fond of. I had my fill when I was a kid. If you’re an outdoors kind of person, you’ll probably find this really rewarding, but for the rest of us, we just have to bair and grin it.

Yard Maintenance

Inspect trees. Trees can cause lots of damage if not cared for. Some of the things to check for are damaged limbs. These could break causing damage to homes, automobiles and worse yet people. While inspecting remember to look around for limbs to close to the power lines and the roof. If these are an issue, contact a professional to avoid any accidents.

Trim landscaping. Time to move on to the landscaping that you’ve probably invested time and money into; so don’t slack now. You’ll need to cut back bushes, shrubs, and flowers as recommended for your climate zone. Add any additional mulch if needed to provide an additional layer of warmth.

Have flowerpots. If you keep plants or flower in pots year-round, bring them inside. The cooler seasons can be devastating on them. For the pots having annual plants (those you replace each year), you should empty, clean, dry out and store them till spring.

Plant bulbs. For everyone with a green thumb, fall is the time to plant your bulbs for spring.  Get them in the ground now and see the fruits of your labor in spring.

Leaf removal. Personally, I raked to many leaves growing up, so I hate this one for sure. But get the kids involved if inclined to do so. It’s always fun jumping in the piles a few times. Once the leaves are raked you can place them in your compost pile if you have one. Alternatively, you can bag them in your garbage bags and leave at the curb for community pick up. You will need to check with your local city or town for requirements and pick up schedules.

Fertilize lawn. Fall fertilization is important to help prevent winter damage and spring weeds. Believe me, I know this all to well. Visit your local garden center or check online to find out which type of fertilizer you need and when to apply it. If you have a lawn service, they should do this for you.

Put away seasonal furniture. Your nice outdoor furniture will last much longer if taken care for during the offseason. The task here is to clean and store the seasonal outdoor furniture. Remove and clean cushions. Wash and dry they furniture and store it in a dry place over winter.

Close the pool. Yes, fall is here and it’s time to close that pool. Hopefully, you’ve had many great days splashing around. You can either have a professional close the pool for you or visit your pool supply store and they’ll be able to assist with all the products necessary to close it.

Organize the shed. Well, your shed is filling up with summer items. You have a couple of options here. You can rotate the winter items to the front and the summer items to the back. The other option that may work is to designate a side of the shed to winter and the other side to summer. However you decide, the purpose is to make sure the stored items are easily accessible. Also, don’t forget to remove any liquids that will freeze.

I hope you found this series very informative. Check out our other topics and visit The Cotton Home Team on YouTube for quick tips related to real estate.

Building A Fence Part 1

The concept of building a fence isn’t all that foreign to us. It’s something that people would talk about on tv, and in cartoons, or sometimes characters in a book will build one to fence out their annoying neighbors or keep pesky wildlife out of their gardens or something. How many of us knows what goes into building an actual fence? Where would you even start? Think about it, take a second this is an article online the words will wait. Did you think of anything, if so you were further along than I was when I first started researching this topic.

First things first, can you build a fence? I’m not talking about your physical ability to do it. You’ll need to access that for yourself. I mean is building a fence within the rules and guidelines of your neighborhood or neighborhood association? Depending on your neighborhood there might be restrictions that you agreed to in the terms and conditions contract you signed when you moved in. This agreement could control everything about your fencing possibilities such as parameters of said fence or if you can have one at all. You should have a copy of that contract somewhere, hopefully somewhere it is easily found. If you didn’t sign any agreement when you moved in, then your probably fine to start thinking about building a fence without the fear of fines and forced removal of said fence. Unless your cities planning, and zoning department wants a say in the parameters of your hypothetical fence too… it might, you may need to look it up.

Your next step would be something equally exciting. Getting a permit. You may need a permit, to build a fence,

IN. YOUR. OWN. YARD! So far this process is seeing how many organizations feel the need to be knee deep in your business. You may not need a permit but once again you’ll probably need to check. You’ll probably be approved and after you’ve actually built the fence one more person, an inspector, is going to get in your business one more time to make sure it’s up to standards. It’s been three paragraphs and we’ve not gotten around to the actual building of the fence… which I’ll leave for another article Part Two. What can I say I got tired and we haven’t even chosen materials yet!

What I hope this impresses upon you is the time commitment of building a fence. Even if you pay for it to be built for you, you’re going to need to do the steps in this article beforehand. Good luck, and I hope you still have enough energy to follow me to part 2!

Fall Is Coming – Is Your Home Ready

Part 2

So you’ve stuck with us through part 1; welcome to part 2 of preparing your home as fall approaches. Some of the exterior items you may want to hire a professional to handle. For me, many on the list I’m personally going to have a professional do. I don’t know about you but I’m not getting on a ladder and cleaning gutters. That’s not to say that you can’t. Heights just aren’t my thing. Remember to stay tuned to part 3.

Exterior Maintenance

Check your roof. There are a few ways to check your roof. First, you can use binoculars, if you have a drone you can use that, or you can contact a roofing professional. Many roofing professionals will come out and do a visual inspection for a low cost or possibly free. Just make sure to use a reputable company. During your inspection, you’re looking for missing, damaged, or loose shingles. If you’re not sure what this looks like, you can search on YouTube.

Chimney and fireplace. Wood burning fireplaces are great and provide lots of heat. However, they do need to be maintained. So, keep your family and home safe by having your chimney cleaned and inspected by a professional. Not only do you want to make sure the structure is sound, but you want to make sure it’s clean. The cleanings cut down on chimney fires and you make sure it’s free of wildlife. Yes, I did say wildlife. It’s a great place for vermin to take up residence.

Firewood. If you heat with firewood make sure to order enough firewood for the season. No matter if you gather your own or purchase it, make sure it’s dry and ready. It’s best to cover the firewood and store it away from the house for safety reasons.

Inspect siding. The siding of your home is going to take a beating no matter where you live. You have heat in the summer as well as rain, hail and wind just to mention a few. Plus don’t forget about wildlife that’s native to your area. So, you’re going to be looking for any cracks, holes and any type of damage that may have developed. If you find damage, you may be able to repair them yourself or hire a professional. Just determine if it’s something you can tackle.

Clean the gutters. Hire a service to clear your gutters or do it yourself, but stay safe if you decide to tackle it yourself. During the cleaning process, remove leaves, nests, and debris from gutters and check for leaks.

Check the water drainage. Water draining away from the home and foundations is very important. Make sure all rainwater downspouts are clear of obstructions and direct water away from foundations, walkways, and driveways. Add extensions to downspouts if necessary.

Reinforce windows and doors. For homes that have storm windows and doors, you’re going to remove screens and install your storm windows and doors if you use them. Check the caulk and seals around all doors and windows, repair if needed.

Turn off faucets and store hoses. During the off-season, your not going to need your garden hoses. Disconnect them from the outside spigots and drain. Shut off exterior faucets, and if you have an older home, you may need to turn off the valve inside your home. If you’ve never done this before, no worries, YouTube is there for you. It has everything as you probably know. Now, you’re probably saying what about these hoses, just store them in a dry place so any residual water won’t freeze.

Service sprinklers and irrigation system. For properties with these systems, they may need to be drained and checked depending on your climate. Have a professional perform any necessary repairs and mark sprinkler heads near snow removal areas.

Delana Cotton servers the northeast Atlanta region that includes Dacula, Winder, Lawrenceville, Buford, Snellville, Conyers and surrounding areas. Delana treats every transaction as if she were you, the buyer or seller. If you have a real estate transaction on the horizon, meet Delana for a no pressure chat over coffee.

Simple Gardening: Native Plants

Have you always dreamed of having a beautiful garden? Did you always think that once you got your new house you would go out into your brand-new yard and create some floral masterpiece; the likes no one has seen since Victorian era floral gardens? Did you then look up from Pinterest and realize you neither had the time or the inclination to not only set that up but also that you neither have the skill or the theoretical know how to pull it off? Did I mention upkeep? Do you know how to maintain a garden like that? No? Cool, we’re all on the same page.

That brings me to the point native plants. No, I’m not telling you to go plant dandelions. I’m talking plants indigenous to America. I’m talking about gorgeous orange Butterfly Weed, Dainty looking Arkansas Bluestar that you can get in the palest blues and vibrant yellows and oranges. I’m talking about beautiful, (this is a weird thing to say about flowers) natural looking flowers. Flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds… a little bit of wildlife. On top of all that, they’re easy to take care of.

Since native plants are NATIVE they’re good for the ecosystem, there’s nothing invasive about them. You won’t have to do much in the way of soil adaptation if they’re from the same landscape. You won’t need to water them as much because they’re used to the climate and the amount of water, they would usually get from just the groundwater and the rain. It would eliminate seasonal maintenance because they’re natural cycle would be synched up to the seasons and would die or hibernate and come back by itself without much interference.

The care of these plants would be minimal. The brunt of the work would be arranging location and putting the plants into the ground. You need to think about how sun loving the plants may or may not be. If they’re meant to be in the shade, full sun or half and half you need to plan to plant them under a tree or on the side of your house that gets sun half of the day and is in shade the other half.  Young plants or freshly moved plants tend to need more water. You need to either remember to water young plants regularly for a year or set up a system especially for the hotter, drier summer months. Then put down mulch, mulch will cut down weeds which will mean cutting down on weeding.

So,  there it is! I always suggest you go to a local nursery. The people there will be able to answer your questions and help you figure out what you want. They should know the difference between native and exotic plants. Also, the plants from a nursery should come with all the plants general information. Good luck!

Fall Is Coming – Is Your Home Ready

Part 1

With fall fast approaching, there are steps that homeowners should take in order to prepare their home. Some of these are interior and others are exterior. You may be a new homeowner and have no idea what these are. Or you may be a seasoned homeowner and just need a refresher course or a checklist. Either way, we have you covered. Personally, I’m a checklist type of person. Let's cover interior maintenance items. In part 2 we’ll cover exterior items

Interior Maintenance

Check for drafts. You’d be amazed how much air comes in or escapes through drafty window and doors. So it’s time to get those hands and fingers out people. No, you won’t be getting them dirty, just checking for drafts. It’s easy, just feel for drafts around the edges of windows and doors. If that doesn’t work, you can use a lit candle. If there are drafts, you’ll see the flame flicker. If necessary, replace seals and repair caulking around window and door frames. For additional draft prevention, consider buying heavier or insulated drapery for especially drafty windows. No worries, if you're not handy, you can have a handyman/person assist you or check out YouTube videos.

Furnace inspection. Your heating and cooling system has been working faithfully for you all summer. So now you should reward it with good servicing by a professional. Yup, that means to hire an HVAC professional to test for leaks, check heating efficiency, and change the filter. Yes, I know you can change that filter yourself, but don’t forget about the other things your furnace tune-up entails. Many times if you plan ahead, you can get a better price, so don’t wait for the heating season starts.

Winterize air conditioner. For homeowners with central air, consult with your heating and air professional to determine if you If your air conditioner needs to be covered during the off-season. Now don’t forget about window air conditioning units, they need to be prepared for the off-season as well; remove them or cover to prevent air leaks.

Programmable thermostat. So you think you’re tech-savvy, just how savvy are you? If you currently don’t have a programmable thermostat, you may want to have your current one(s) switched out for new technologies. There’s many out there, so do your research for what’s the best for your situation. What this means for your budget, is savings every season.

Test home safety devices. Don’t forget safety is important. Replace the batteries in all smoke detectors and carbon monoxide devices and test to make sure they’re working properly. If you currently don’t have these devices, they can be purchased online or from your local hardware store. Always do your research for what’s going to work best for your situation.

Delana Cotton servers the north east Atlanta region that includes Dacula, Winder, Lawrenceville, Buford, Snellville, Conyers and surrounding areas. Delana treats every transaction as if she were you, the buyer or seller. If you have a real estate transaction on the horizon, meet Delana for a no pressure chat over coffee.

Want to Plant Trees?

When you were a kid did you ever eat an apple and saved seeds, later planting them in a jar or your yard? Did you ever get much further than a sprout? Do you ever look at the seeds now and wonder what would happen now as an adult and thought about trying again? Why not, you have a much longer attention span, you don’t necessarily have more knowledge about growing trees but you do have more resources to figure it out? Am I telling you that I can walk you through growing a tree from a seed? No. I don’t know how to do that, but I can give you a couple tips.

Maybe don’t start from a seed: Again, I don’t know how to help you with that. Growing a tree is a strangely delicate process. It needs to be in the right climate (people don’t usually grow apples in Georgia), the soil needs to be right (Georgia clay is not very hospitable), The roots need the proper room to grow, etc. and so forth there’s a lot to think about. Thus, starting from a seed would be even more tenuous. However, if you buy a sapling you have a higher margin for success.  If you go to a local plant nursery they likely are only selling trees that are capable of surviving in your climate. Besides, at least there would knowledgeable or semi-knowledgeable people in there you could ask.

Look at Plant Parameters: Is the type of tree your looking at sun loving? Do they need shade? Will your yard support them? For some reason, people forget that trees… are big. I know that sounds weird to say out loud but you get a sapling around four feet tall and when you’ve stopped paying attention it’s reached fifteen feet and it’s still not done growing. While we’re talking about things that grow let’s talk about the roots. Think of a tree like a glacier, big and mighty above ground, bigger and mightier and more destructive below. Tree roots can damage the foundation of your house. Think about keeping your tree around fifteen ft. out from anything solid like your house, your mailbox, the sidewalk, your fence, you know anything solid. Fifteen ft. is not the rule for every tree, you’ll need to check the spacing requirement for that species. Again, maybe go to a nursery where you’ll be able to get that kind of information with the tree or from a worker. Trees are also fragile in the beginning. When you first plant a tree, it’ll need a lot of attention. You’ll have to water it frequently. You’re going to need to at least look up the maintenance for your specific species of tree.

So, there you go! Go plant a seed or something. I can’t make any promises about the outcome but at least now you have a better idea about the type of commitment a tree is and what you’ll need before you start. Now go do some gardening!