The Best Time Saving Painting Tip

So my Dad and Step-mom came over to help us move, somehow they ended up also helping us paint, put up lighting fixtures, buy some great new gadgets and giving us all kinds of tips!  The best painting tip my Step-mom taught me was this:

Instead of Cleaning out your paint tray and your roller every night, wrap them up and plastic and they will stay wet!  I am not sure if you have ever tried to clean a paint tray or a paint roller, however it is almost impossible.  First you wrap the handle of the roller with a grocery bag, so it does not get covered in paint.  Then cover the roller and tray with a trash bag and close it tightly, so no air can get inside.  When you are ready for you second coat of paint the next day (even lasts a few days if needed), just open the trash bag, remove the grocery bag from the handle, add new paint and you are ready to go.  So Easy!

Great Service by Meyer Heating and Cooling!!

I met the owner of Meyer Heating and Cooling in St. Louis in a past job with a telecommunications company.  What a great guy; I really respect the way he runs his business with integrity.  It took awhile for me to actually be in need of the services, however we have now used them three times.  The first time was when the air conditioning quit working in our condo on one of the hottest days of the year!  Uhhh! It was so horrible.  I called up Meyer Heating and Cooling and they had someone out to fix it the next day!

The second time we used Meyer Heating and Cooling was earlier this year.  We had been dealing with a heater that the pilot light was not wanting to start on the first try.  Then it was not starting after two or three tries.  Then finally it was not lighting what so ever.  So after dealing with this for awhile, we decided it was time to call Meyer Heating and Cooling again.  The sent out a service guy, Mike, the next day!  He showed up in the expected time period too! He tested out the heater and had it fixed in a very short period of time.  We should have called them sooner!!  What great service!!

The most recent call to Meyer Heating and Cooling was just last weekend.  Rob and I just moved into our new house and as it is a foreclosure, everything is as is.  Rob and his Dad lit the pilot light on the water heater on Friday night.  After working a lot around the house, Rob and I decided to head to the basement to watch a little TV before heading to bed and it just so happened my Mom called about the same time.  I went to the other part of our basement, so I wouldn't bother Rob.  As soon as I got off the phone I noticed this water sound.

I went to the room with the water heater and it was pouring out water!!  Everywhere!!!

I called for Rob, he turned off the water and the gas to the water heater and then I reached out to Meyer Heating and Cooling on Facebook.  They told me to call first thing in the morning and they would send someone out.  They sent out Mike again (the same guy as they sent with our heater issue.)  Of course he is always super nice.  He determined we had a calcium buildup and it blew our pressure valve and then he fixed it!  He did not only stop there, he also showed and explained how to drain our water heater to help prevent the build up.  He told us we should do it about once a year.  Wow!! What great service!!!  I highly recommend Meyer Heating and Cooling!!!

Here is the contact information:
Meyer Heating and Cooling, LLC
11040 Lin Valle Ste F, St. Louis, MO 63123 (314) 845-1929 ‎ meyerhvac.com

Important tip(s) picking out new home door locks

As we were signing our paperwork for our house last Thursday our lovely real estate agent reminded us that it is important to change all the locks on house.  It was also mentioned that the previous owner was still in the area and not happy about their housebeing foreclosed upon (which I am not sure who would be- I feel horrible for them).  Then our notary told us a story how a family didn't change their locks when they moved into their house.  One night some random drunken guy was in their living room.  Apparently it was a brother in law of the previous family (who still had a key) and had not realized they had moved.

So, Rob and I head to Home Depot on our quest to pick out locks.  We figured this would be an easy task...  Were we wrong.  The first trip, we realized we didn't know exactly what types we needed, so we went back home and drew pictures of each of our lock styles. We then picked out all of our locks and asked if we could have them re-keyed to the same key.  Well since we had picked out 3 different name brands, we had to go back to drawing board...  To have the same key for all locks you also have to have the brand.  So we went back to the locks and reselected our choices.  We purchased the locks and they had them re-keyed in about 30 minutes (if you pick out Smart Key version for all your locks, it is much faster).

After you have hurt your pocket book with the purchase of new locks, the true fun begins...  A sneak preview of the things we ran into, Can you tell what is wrong with this lock?