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Every house is unique in its own way, especially when it comes to interior design. Homeowners often select design styles that are influenced by what is popular in their part of the world. Joybird took a look at the styles most searched by state using Google Trends.

The most popular design choice across the nation is the industrial aesthetic. As the dominant design trend in Illinois, this style takes influence from old factories and other industrial spaces with features like weathered wood, exposed brick, metal appliances, and concrete flooring. Industrial chic incorporates the open layouts of cities and lofts so homeowners can achieve a “warehouse” feel with a modern twist.

Traditional was the next most searched style and is largely popular in Texas. With the goal of creating an atmosphere of antiquity, this style is old fashioned and romantic, according to Small Design Ideas. It requires natural materials like wood and fabrics as well as artificially aged furniture and decor to reflect the fashion of decades past.

The shabby chic style is big in Massachusetts and places emphasis on the appearance of an aged space with distressed furniture and mismatched decor. It can also feature natural elements like plants and clay or perhaps stone accessories, according to Freshome.com.

Homeowners in Georgia gravitate toward the traditional interior design style which is defined as a rough, aged and casual aesthetic based on natural inspirations according to a Housebeautiful.com article. Materials like unfinished wood as well as stones and burlap fabrics characterize this style that aims to use organic materials in their most natural state.

California’s beaches inspire the coastal design that’s the most popular trend in the state. In this aesthetic, natural light and soothing colors produce a natural and calm atmosphere. A simplistic layout, mix of various textures, and abundance of cushions put the completing touches on this seaside theme.

Do you consider great fences make great neighbors? Or are you with Gene Autry, looking for large open country? If you reside in close quarters with your neighbors, you’re probably in the previous camp — whether or not it’s a fence to keep a dog at home, an aluminum wall around your pool for safety or a privacy fence to shield naked sunbathing, there are a lot of choices and local fence contractors to choose from. And just like light fixtures, backsplash tile and color schemes, fence is subject to trends.

Melissa and Jerry Haley founded their company, Backyard Fence, in 1997. Back then, wood ruled the day, both the spaced pickets that call Tom Sawyer to mind, and the panels that create both a wall and a privacy shield. Melissa Haley said she rarely quoted vinyl in those days because it was so expensive, contrasted to spruce and cedar choices. Now, the contrary is true. Vinyl has come down in price, Haley said, and the price of wood has skyrocketed because of supply issues when it comes to importing lumber. Wood and vinyl are frequently close in price, and clients often go with vinyl because it is low-maintenance and long-lasting, Haley said, and the material now comes in a variety of colors, not just white.

“There are places where only wood will do, because the property is greatly wooded and vinyl would look out of place,” Haley said.

Fencing falls into four categories — in order of cost, it’s chain link, aluminum, vinyl and wood. Installation labor costs depend on location, Haley said — the digging is easy in Rotterdam, where it’s sandy, but trickier in Altamont or Cohoes, where the soil is various.

Although chain link is cheapest, you can spend as much as a new car on elegant fence choices — vinyl with aluminum on top to create a decorative element or aluminum fence with decorative panel inserts. Haley said a combination of styles is popular — at her house, she has chain link around the backyard and decorative vinyl in the front facing the street.

whether or not you’re a San Antonio newcomer, returning visitor, or original resident, there is much to see, do, and experience in the city. From strolls together the River Walk to museum-hopping across the ’09, San Antonio’s vibrant skyline is better viewed when you share it with a friend or two or 20.

However, preparing a group outing is easier said than done.

Not to worry. Here are a few tips to consider before preparing your next San Antonio group trip:

Plan the transportation well in advance
No matter what attracts your group out and about in San Antonio, you will need a safe and secure group transportation plan to get out there. Rather than arranging multiple carpools or relying on last-minute rideshare programs, group travel veterans recommend reserving a private transportation service.

Local services like Longhorn Charter Bus San Antonio offer a variety of custom rental plans that allow for group trips of all shapes and sizes, from short-term corporate minibus shuttles to full-sized charter buses for out-of-state sightseers.

The around the clock Longhorn reservation team are able to assemble a private fleet in as little as two hours. However, to ensure the best rate and motorcoaches for your plans, reserve your ride at least three months in advance if you plan to travel during the tourist off-season, and six to nine months in advance if your travels fall within the summer months.

Get to know who’s on board, ASAP
Early in the preparation process, you’ll need to get a crude headcount. Not just will acquiring an early estimate establish one of many group travel factors and allow you to focus on other aspects of your group trip, but it will also help filter out which transportation choices, destinations, and restaurants can accommodate a group of your size.

Beyond the number of attendees, put some thought into the makeup of your party of travelers and what interests them. Are they movers and shakers who like constant involvement and entertainment? Are they looking to unwind after a long day at work? Are they coming in from out of town or are they locals? Are they students? Art enthusiasts? Sports fans?

The sooner you have a handle on your group’s size, vibe, and expectations, the sooner you can craft a travel plan that checks all the boxes of what they consider a perfect San Antonio trip.

LYNDHURST – It’s pouring cats and dogs at the domestic animal shelter. The Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center is at capacity and is looking for people to adopt.

Worried about adoption fees? Don’t.

The Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center will be holding a free adoption for cats and dogs over six several months old Aug. 17. Dog training is also provided.

The center is participating in Clear the Shelters event this year, which is a across the country initiative to help shelter animals get adopted.

The shelter is relinquishing all adoption fees for dogs or cats over six months old — there are still fees for puppies ($125) and kittens ($55 or a two for one at $55). The shelter is also taking applications prior to the event if there are particular animals someone is considering in.

“We are currently at capacity and would enjoy to see our animals in loving homes rather than at the shelter,” Jennifer Jones, office assistant at the shelter said. “As the municipal shelter for all of Augusta County, and the just open intake shelter in the county, we get full very quickly.”

The shelter serves Staunton, Augusta County and Waynesboro and is an open admissions animal shelter. It takes in all strays, abandoned animals and owner surrenders.

It offers 56 kennels for canines and 106 cages for cats in the facility. Currently, the shelter has 140 cats, kittens and dogs in foster homes — some of those are foster to adopt, according to Jones.

In 2016, the shelter expanded its footprint by adding six additional large pet kennels, moving the cat intake and isolation room into a different space and adding a total of eight small kennels and 20 cat cages. The expansion was funded by all localities.

The shelter also has four cats at PetSmart as part of Waynesboro up for adoption and six at Petco in Staunton.

Euthanizing animals is a last approach at the shelter. The Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center began operation in September of 2011 and since beginning, the shelter has worked to lower the euthanasia rates in the community. The current save rate is 82.3% for cats and 91.5% for dogs — which includes animals that died in the shelter’s care, not just euthanasia.

The shelter participated in the Clear the Shelters event last year.

“We had a decent turn out, but we are hoping for better this year,” Jones said.

Need some power tools, a guitar, a TV or a paintball gun? What about a $15,000 mummy?

If you are in the marketplace for something unusual and perhaps practical, then San Bernardino’s antique stores and pawn shops may be the place for you.

One of the most enduring, has been open since 1950. The shop holds mainstays like precious jewelry, knives and cameras, but also finds such as an MTV tunes award, vintage prosthetic limbs, safari gear and even taxidermy creatures – including a purported chupacabra.

Dave’s owner Larry Baron, son of its president, said the myriad comes from the are lacking of hard and fast guidelines about what is or isn’t valuable to customers. He’s been working the counter since he was a kid, and there is always something that surprises him. Someone once brought in a 20-carat diamond, for example, though he didn’t have the hordes in cash needed to buy it, he said.

San Bernardino is also home to some pawn shop chains, including First Cash and Cash America Pawn with more than 10 locations each.

An assistant manager of a Cash America Pawn at 700 N. Piedras, said the pawn business isn’t really like the popular TV show Pawn Stars – though this doesn’t mean he doesn’t get the occasional unexpected item. A customer once brought in an massive mounted moose head. It sold the same day it was put out for sale.

If pawn shops aren’t your style, San Bernardino also has many packed-full antique stores.

Mesa Street Antique Mall, 6545 N. Mesa, which has been open for 25 years, has a little bit of everything. But owner Nancy Walker said the store is known for its antique furniture and collectibles such as vintage glassware and straight razors.

The expansive Whoopie Bowl on the far Westside at 9010 N. Desert, is packed with the wares of more than 40 dealers. As co-owners Terry and Al Knoch said, anything goes when it comes to the merchandise they sell, but they do try to keep the quality high.

“A great portion of everything we have is unusual,” Al Knoch said. “Younger people have likely never seen some of this stuff before.”

For some truly unique and bizarre items, curio-seekers should look no further than San Bernardino Oddities inside Tooth and Veil at the corner of Mesa and Montana streets.

The store boasts a collection of macabre items such as skulls and strange art. Owner Sarah Gutierrez said her husband has been making jewelry out of antique silverware for more than 30 years, which are sold at the store.

If you’re like me, you’ve looked at a paper coffee cup or an empty tube of tooth paste and thought, “Is this recyclable?” before tossing it in the recycling bin, hoping someone, somewhere, would sort it out. People in the waste management industry call this habit “wishcycling.” According to Marian Chertow, director of the Solid Waste Policy program at Yale University, “a wishcycler wants to do the right thing and feels that the more that he or she can recycle, the better.”

Well, my partner and I hate to break it to you, but this well-intentioned reflex is doing more damage than great. Not only that, but wishcycling is playing a big role in the current international recycling meltdown.

This well-intentioned reflex is doing more damage than great.
Initial, the most bit about in the process. When my recycling is scooped up by a truck every few days, it goes to a materials recovery facility (MRF) run by a company called Recology. After the goods travel through the facility’s jungle of conveyor belts and sorting machinery, they are shipped as bales to buyers in the United States and abroad, who turn that material into products like cereal boxes and aluminum cans.

However in an effort to get more people recycling, companies including Recology have become victims of their own success. In in the early 2000s, many neighborhoods switched from a dual-stream method, where plastic materials and glass, and paper and cardboard, each had their own bins, to single-stream, in which all recyclables go into one bin and the sorting is done at the MRF. But when “we decided to put all the things together, we decided to create a contaminated system,” says Darby Hoover, a senior resource specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. It’s nearly impossible, for example, to put paper in a bin with refreshment containers without the paper getting wet, which makes it unrecyclable.

Food, clothing as well as a roof over your head most would concur are basic needs. We’re two out of three at our home. The soggy realization that our roof was kaput soaked in a few weeks ago.

“Uhhh, Honey?” I said, looking up from the kitchen dining table toward a brown splotch forming on the white ceiling.

DC followed my glance to the new, saucer-sized water stain and said something I cannot print in a family newspaper.

And the phone calls began. Two inspections, one insurance claim and four roofing quotes confirmed:

This was not a patch task. We needed a whole brand new roof.
Insurance coverage would cover the interior harm (drywall and paint) but the roofing was on us, which was fair though unfortunate.
Given the cost, we pretty a lot would not be able to take a vacation again until humans live on Mars.
The roofers’ quotes were all close in cost and established that we weren’t getting out of this for less than the cost of a Honda Civic, a nice wedding or 35,568 cans of soup, which is what we’ll be eating. We won’t even talk about my dashed dream of new fall landscaping for the backyard.

Cue “Taps” on the bugle.

However, if I must be developed up about this, which I resent, the roof news wasn’t a complete surprise. When we bought the happier yellow home two years ago, the home inspector said the roof had only a few good years left. Asphalt shingle roofs in Florida’s hot, humid, hurricane-ridden climate typically last 15 to twenty years. Ours had been broiling now for 16.

My partner and I looked for the silver tarp in all this. “Maybe we can improve our home’s curb appeal,” I said to DC hopefully. “I mean, we could get something besides boring gray asphalt shingles.”

DC didn’t answer. He was too busy staring into his Scotch trying to find definition in the ice cubes.

As the fresh wet ceiling ring swelled over my head like a cloud of doom, I examined my choices.

The roofers were consentaneous in their opinion: Stick with concrete shingles.

The most popular roofing material in the United States, asphalt tiles are economical, practical and work together with a lot of traditional home styles. Tile, steel or slate roofs, though they last longer, cost a lot more and are hefty; many homes (including ours) aren’t built to support them. Wood shingles, a good fit for ranch or rustic homes, can develop algae in moist climates.

Though I couldn’t mix the type of shake, I could still mix the color. I surveyed the sample board’s 18 choices to see what may best number one off our home. The many grays ranged in value from mist white to charcoal black. In between were bold color choices like atlantic blue, hunter green and cottage red. Hmmm. I felt my knees providing way and called my brother.

A serious landscaping industry trade group has revealed what it believes will be the top 3 landscape design trends this fall.

“Move over mums and classic orange and yellow color schemes,” National Association of Landscape Professionals Vice President Missy Henriksen said in a statement. This fall we expect to see a challenge to classic fall plantings with an increasing number of distinctive plantings and jewel toned hues debuting in backyards across America. These newer participants complimenting traditional mainstays of autumn will be joined by comfortable outdoor living designs and quests for lush lawns this season.”

NALP predicts the following four trends will influence outdoor spaces around the country this fall:

Rich, Textured Plantings: Fall offers the opportunity to refresh garden beds and container home gardens. Before relying on the comfort of traditional mums, specialists recommend consideration of ornamental kales, cabbage and peppers, as well as snapdragons, pansies and grasses to add rich color and texture. Homeowners should also texture with their indoor greenery. Succulents can add life to a garden bed or apartment terrace during the warmer months and add a trendy, textured vibe during the fall and winter months.
Pops of Jewel Tones: standard fall colors like red, yellowish and orange will seek rival from crisp jewel shades this season. Sapphire bluish, emerald green green, amethyst purple, ruby red and citrine yellow all bring warmth to fall landscape design. Experts recommend adding pops of jewel tones to outdoor living spaces with unique container gardens, ornamental furnishings and accessories, eye-catching sculptures and seasonal plantings such as pansies, celosia, dianthus and black-eyed Susan.
Cozy, Outdoor Living: After enjoying sweet summertime, fall allows property owners to transition their landscapes and make use of features that are not really always top-of-mind during warmer months. Fire features continue to rise in popularity. From one-touch natural gas or propane ignition to traditional wood-burning fire features, homeowners can heat up chilly fall nights with ease and ambiance.

Discovering mold inside your structures would be a shock for any self-storage operator. It won’t only ruin tenants’ goods, it poses a serious health risk. Although it’s best to prevent mold from growing in the first place, here’s what to do if you find it.
Judy Olsen | Aug 26, 2019

Owning a self-storage company comes with risk. Tenants anticipate their belongings to be safe Although in storage. If they confirm their objects and see some have been hurt in one way or another, you can expect a complaint at the very least, or a lawsuit at the worst.

So many regrettable things can happen to a storage unit, from a break-in towards a vermin invasion to fire or flood. Then there’s mold, a nightmare infestation that won’t just damage belongings but presents a potential health risk. Of course, it’s best to prevent mold from ever sprouting at your storage facility; but if it does, here’s some guidance on what to do.

Identifying the Problem
Mold forms and thrives anywhere there’s excess moisture. There are different types of mold, and their appearance may range from fuzzy to slimy. They also come in different colors, including black, green, white, orange and purple.

If there’s water buildup in your storage building due to the fact of a leaky roof, wrong plumbing, overflowing gutters or humid air, mold will likely develop slowly over time and eventually wreak havoc on items made of paper, wood, fabric and upholstery. Worse, mold spores can trigger sensitive reactions and respiratory issues among other complications in workers and tenants. If you find mold structures in any of your structures, you must deal together with the problem as shortly as possible.

Always check out your buildings following a storm. The roof could have a leak, allowing rainwater to seep inside, which could create mold. Regularly check the walls for patches or spots. If you catch a musty odor in your building, it could be an indication of mold.

DIY (Do It Yourself) Clean-Up
If you or a tenant finds out mold inside a building, it’s important to act swiftly. If you plan to remove it yourself, take the following steps.

Identify the source of the moisture. Prior to you start removing the mold, you must track down the source of the wetness causing it. It could be a leaky roof, broken plumbing or too a lot humidity in the air. You need to determine where all that excess moisture came from so you can address it and prevent further mold damage.

Remove the mold. Wear protective equipment such as rubber mitts, goggles and work clothes that can be dumped into the trash when the job’s done. As for materials, you’re going to need rags, a pail, a scrub brush, non-ammonia soap or detergent, bleach, and an electric fan. Here’s what to do once you’ve gathered it all:

The divorce rates in California have been growing at a speed in line with the nationwide divorce level of the U.S. Perhaps this is the cause every League City family lawyer is busy defending a party every day.

The divorce process is extremely aggravating, one that can definitely bring out the worse in someone. In fact, some people who look for divorce see it as a way to get back at their ex by seizing all their assets and money.

Divorce can leave you with a broken heart and a lot of other difficulties that you must face alone. It can also leave you with nothing to spend if you don’t know your rights.

So before you think of divorce, check these four tips from divorce attorneys to help protect your valuable assets from your spouse.

Make All The Big Purchases Before Filing Divorce

If you’ve been after that new car or a brand new house to live for the rest of your life, then you must make this purchase before you file a divorce. Most states give an automatic financial restraining order that prohibits men and women from making any huge purchases after the divorce has been filed.

So if you are ready to file a divorce, think once more, make the big purchase, and then go for it.

Don’t Try to Hide Your Assets

It is only natural that you would want to hide your assets from an angered spouse who is after them. You may be able to fool your spouse by hiding them, but you cannot do the same to the law.

If something you are concealing is discovered during the divorce process, you will lose trustworthiness in the court. This could mean stiff penalty charges which sometimes also include monetary sanctions. So in your best interest, declare all your assets straight away.

Upgrade Your Education

If you are completely supported by your spouse, you may want to consider getting a job training or upgrading your education before you file a divorce. Even if you get some kind of support, the judge will still expect you to work for your kids, especially if you’re not aged or disabled.

So make sure to start shopping for ways to upgrade your education, learn new skills, and even seek a new job before you file a divorce.

Take Free Legal Advice

Did you know that most lawyers in California offer free consultations? Make sure to take advantage of this and bring some insight into how divorce cases work in the court. This will also help you find a great lawyer.

Before you employ a lawyer to protect you in the court, make sure to consult with at least 3 to four lawyers. The outcome of your divorce depends a lot on the experience and quality of your legal partner, so make sure you always pair up with a great one.

Occasionally it is also a great idea to get recommendations from your buddies and family before choosing the right attorney.