Home and Garden Chatter

Top 5 Home Improvements for 2009

Prompted by the downturn in the housing market many people are now choosing to fix up their existing homes rather than sell up and move. A popular womens magazine asked their reader what home improvement they would carry out to enhance their homes.

Here are the top five:

1) A swimming pool or hot tub in the garden
Not really a surprise. A swimming pool or hot tub in the back garden came in at number 1. Many readers said that this would compensate for not taking a holiday in the sun this year.

2) Home Extension
One of the main reasons many people move house is to get more room for growing families. A home extension can provide that much needed extra space without the expense of moving.

3) New Kitchen
Another popular choice was a complete kitchen makeover with new units, a modern cooker and work surfaces.

4) New Bathroom
A high number of those surveyed said that they wanted a new bathroom with a complete new set of bathroom fittings.

5) Loft Conversion
Loft conversions were all the rage some years ago but haven’t been so fashionable for a while. Looks like they could be back in favour.

So, given the choice, what would you do to your abode rather than sell up and move?

Enjoy Your Garden Through Binoculars

If you, like me, have a small back garden you will probably enjoy watching the birds that may come to visit. I like to entice them with some fat balls and bird feed.

I’ve recently bought myself a really nice pair of binoculars and now I think I really am making the most of my little garden and the wildlife that it attracts. I keep my binoculars right by the window, easily within reach when I spot something that I want to look at more closely.

I’ve been lucky enough to have a sparrowhawk visit recently and my little patch regularly attracts several pairs of Collared Doves, Dunnocks, Sparrows and my favourite, Robins.

If you have a garden you will certainly appreciate a pair of binoculars handily located near your window.

MFI Furniture Stupidity

It is not good to see how MFI are treating their customers like dirt. But to be fair the big sheds that shift furniture really do not see customers as people, it is just a numbers game. I say well done to Shahana Ahmad for having the guts to go down to her local MFI in Cambridge and commence a sit-in.

The fact she had to go these levels to get anyone from MFI to see sense beggars belief. If only more people had the vision to take the fight to a major retailer like this, then perhaps the retail sector would not be in the bad shakes it is now.

Personally I prefer to buy furniture from small businesses who care about what I am after and listen to my requirements and who do not fob me off.

MFI you are stupid for treating your customers in this disdainful way. Have a look at a furniture retailer I have used previously. The furniture they supply is not cheap, but then again, it lasts and it comes pre-built and within a two-hour time slot.

Not all furniture retailers are the same such as New England Lifestyle where I brought a cracking set of white bedside tables which unlike Shahana Ahmad’s furniture arrived on time.