If you have curtains or draperies in your home that feel a little drab or generic, don't despair. With a bit of creativity and items easily found around your home or in local stores, you can make tiebacks and swags to lend your window treatments a personal and artistic touch. Nautical Design Nautical decor never goes out of style, whether you live seaside, or smack dab in the middle of the country.

As a new homeowner, you find yourself overwhelmed with all of your newfound maintenance tasks and responsibilities. Some tasks are obvious and necessary, like roof maintenance and lawn care. However, some may be accidentally overlooked and/or neglected because they are easily ignored or just unpleasant to perform. Maintaining and caring for your chimney can be one such task that is inadvertently overlooked and forgotten. After all, you only really think about using your fireplace or chimney when the weather turns cold, and do not concern yourself with it for the rest of the year.

Keeping your home cool is more than just turning on the air conditioner. It is about making adjustments to your home and way of thinking. Energy costs can eat up your budget during the summer months and leave you regretting the use of your air conditioner. Here are nine great ways to keep your home cool without raising your bills. Install awnings. An awning installed by professionals, such as Lehman Awning Co, in front of the windows in your home that the sun beats down on can keep the heat away.