Update Your Home With an Outdoor Sconce

With the sluggish housing market you need to do everything you can to up the curb appeal of your home. If it is going to sell, it needs to look sharp. One often overlooked way to update your home is by replacing the outdoor wall lights. If you are like the average home owner you have given no thought to the exterior lighting that graces your home. Well, now it is time to start thinking! There are three ways to punch up the exterior of your house with outdoor sconces.

1. Use outdoor sconces to replace your overhead or single front door light.
As you drive up to your home today, stop across the street and look at your house with fresh eyes. What do you see? Do you see a house in need of a fresh coat of paint? Do the trees need trimming? As your eyes move past those things, what do you think about the outdoor lighting fixtures? Are they up to date? Are they up to code? Do they compliment the house? If the answer is no to any of these, then you should replace the fixtures. The good news is that replacing an existing light fixture is one of the easiest home improvement projects you can do. It will take you about 15 minutes and it will transform the space.

If you are using outdoor sconces to replace the glare of an overhead porch light, you will need a professional to cap the wiring and remove the old fixture. You may decide, however to update the swag and add some low wattage sconces to the door area. It is important to give good illumination at the front door, both for guests and for you and your family. Shadows are going to make it difficult to identify strangers at the door and make it difficult to use your keys after dark. Generally sconces are lower wattage, so having two matching sconces will be perfect to greet your guests. Sconces should be at least five and a half feet from the flooring and no more than six and a half feet high.

2. Use an outdoor wall sconce to enhance your patio area to highlight the advantages of this outdoor room.
What sort of outdoor entertainment area do you have now? These days everyone wants to take advantage of outdoor rooms like patios and decks. If your home has one (or both!), this will be a main selling feature. These areas must be well illuminated for safety, as well as style. For a patio, the outdoor sconce solution is perfect. Strategically placed, these wall units will give plenty of light for eating or other activities without being so overpowering as to render the space harsh. No one wants to sip a drink and socialize by the light of a 100 watt flood light, so consider the design of the patio when buying your light fixtures.

Decks are a little more problematic. If the deck has wiring already, your work just became a whole lot easier and cheaper! Replacing existing outdoor lighting with fresh, updated fixtures is, again, a simple project. If, on the other hand, you need wiring to the deck and brand new fixtures installed, you will want to call in an electrician. This is one home improvement project you do not want to get wrong. Once you have the wiring to the deck, consider using outdoor lanterns for illumination. You could also look at outdoor string lights or some combination of lighting choices. The important part is that the lighting is warm and inviting while providing adequate light for your guests to move around safely.

3. Use outdoor lanterns to give a homey feel to driveway or backyard illumination. Once you are away from the front doorway or the back patio, you still need some light. Outdoor lanterns or lamp posts might be the solution here. Again, assess your front area. How far is the walk from driveway to front door? Is it shadowy and perhaps a bit unsafe? A lamp post stationed near the bottom of the driveway could solve your problems in one stroke. For the back garden area, you may consider hanging a few electric lanterns. They will give good strong light while, in the daytime, they are attractive and blend in to the decor. The last thing that you want is to have your lighting fixtures be a focal point! They are there to enhance, not to stand out.

While the housing market is not at its best, houses do sell every day and yours can be one of them! With just a little time, money and effort, you can update the look of your home and be one of the lucky homeowners who has sold their house for market value.

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Using Facebook for Your Dog Business

If you want to have a steady stream of clients for your dog business, you need to constantly and consistently promote it. Today, one of the best methods of promoting both large and small businesses is through social media or social networking sites like Facebook. Facebook now has over 1 billion users. With that massive number of members, you can be assured that there are hundreds of households using Facebook in your dog business’ target market or location. There are several reasons why you should consider creating a Facebook page for your dog business. Among these include the following:

– You can extend your search for prospective clients. Aside from visiting homes and dog centers, creating a Facebook page could provide that opportunity to extend your market. With Facebook, you can introduce your dog-related services to your friends, the friends of your friends, and also the strangers who will find your services or Facebook page interesting. It’s one of the keys towards servicing clients not only at your business’ location but at other nearby towns or cities as well. If you are providing quality services, you might be surprised that your business could become popular almost instantly.

– Facebook is a free form of advertisement for your dog business. Advertising your business on the television, radio, or newspaper could be expensive. And it’s not that practical if your business is small. Creating a Facebook account or page is a form of advertisement where there are no costs involved except the time you devote in managing it.

– Your Facebook page could serve as your business portfolio. To convince your prospective clients to hire you for your services, you have to show them evidence of your topnotch work. This could only be done by compiling pictures that would serve as your portfolio. In the dog business, there are specific niches where a portfolio is very important. The best example would be the washing and grooming service. Your Facebook page can serve as the place where you could post and compile an album of your work or service samples.

– Facebook lets you interact or communicate with your customers. One of the most important elements of business is customer service. The best customer service does not only require you to provide your usual dog-related service but you should also have that professional yet friendly attitude towards customers. Another essential element of customer service is the accessibility of communication with you, the business owner or service provider. Facebook is just one of the perfect venues for you to entertain and interact with your customers. Interested people could address their questions directly on your Facebook page, chat with you on the details of your service, etc. In your Facebook page, you could also make all your business announcements.

– Facebook is a good tool you can use to compete. The good thing about these social media and social networking sites is that they provide an opportunity for you to compete even against the large and long established dog businesses. As long as you have effectively used Facebook in promoting your services, you can always achieve that high volume of clients that other businesses enjoy.