0 comments | Print

Home and garden checklist: Take a home tour without leaving the house

By Debbie Arrington
The Sacramento Bee
Published: Saturday, May. 26, 2012 - 12:00 am | Page 9CALIFORNIA LIFE
Last Modified: Sunday, May. 27, 2012 - 2:51 pm

Take a Sacramento home remodeling tour without leaving your house.

Local homeowners looking for fresh ideas can view projects online via the Virtual Home Tour produced by Sacramento area members of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry.

Featured on this spring tour are examples of several whole-house remodels, a room addition, a kitchen and a bathroom.

"We chose the format of a Virtual Home Tour as a way to showcase some of the top-quality work produced by NARI remodeling professionals and as a way for homeowners to view projects from the comfort of their homes without the restraints and traveling that a home tour usually entails," said chapter president Susan Broderick. "There is no cost to the public and all they need do is go to www.narisacto.org and click on the Virtual Home Tour button. Homeowners can then look at each of the projects at their leisure."

Viewers also can listen to clients describe the remodeling process and what it was like working with a NARI contractor. Subcontractors and designers share how they work with individual contractors to turn ideas into finished projects.

In addition, consumers can request NARI's brochure, "How To Select a Remodeling Professional" or the association's free home improvement and remodeling guide.

Call (800) 611-6274 or visit www.narisacto.org.

Garden

• Want fresh home-grown vegetables this summer? There's still time to plant a vegetable garden – but do it now! Choose varieties that need the least time to mature, preferably under 75 days.

• From seed, plant beans, radishes, corn, pumpkins and squash (both summer and winter). Also plant basil and other annual herbs.

• To speed up your garden's production, plant seedlings for cucumber, pepper, eggplant and tomatoes.

• Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena. Plant seeds for sunflowers, asters, cosmos, salvia and zinnias.

• As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

• Remove spent blooms from rose bushes to encourage more flowers. After watering, feed with a rose fertilizer.

• Don't forget your indoor plants. Feed them with a slow-release fertilizer.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

• Read more articles by Debbie Arrington



About Comments

Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.

What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com

Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)

Here are some rules of the road:

• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.

• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.

• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.

• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.

• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.

• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.

• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.

• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.

You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.

hide comments
Sacramento Bee Job listing powered by Careerbuilder.com
Quick Job Search
Advanced Job Search | Search by Category
Sacramento Bee Jobs »
Buy
Used Cars
Dealer and private-party ads
Make:

Model:

Price Range:
to
Search within:
miles of ZIP

Search used

Advanced Search | 1982 & Older



Find 'n' Save Daily DealGet the Deal!

Local Deals

Find more great deals!
findnsave.sacbee.com