Homes by Brian

08/11/2025

Don’t let your dining room collect dust. The right choices will transform your space from forbidding to inviting.

Once upon a time, dining rooms tended to be on the stuffy side, with a table and matching set of chairs, and a china cabinet chockful of fine dishes. But today’s more casual lifestyles are changing dining rooms from formal and forbidding to inviting and eclectic. If your dining room is stuck in a ...

08/09/2025

Are your old family pictures and videos tucked away for safekeeping? Free up space and rescue them from deterioration by converting to digital media. Here’s how.

Your children’s precious years are preserved on tape and in photo albums. Or are they? Old video tape degrades over time. Photos turn yellow. Here’s how to rescue those memories for the digital age. Preserving photographs. Purchasing a scanner is a great first step to preserving photos. Choose o...

08/08/2025

The right kind of landscape can transform your yard into a paradise for native birds.

With just the right mix of trees, bushes and flowering plants, an ordinary yard can be transformed into a miniature bird sanctuary. Want to know how? Learn your native species. Consult local university websites, agricultural extension offices and other online sources for birds indigenous to your are...

08/06/2025

Put the social back in social media to help connect with your new neighbors. Here’s how.

Thanks to social media, it’s easier than ever to loan your neighbor a tool, buy cookies from the Girl Scout nextdoor or help a family down the street with an aging parent. Here are three avenues, among the many that exist, to bring you closer to your neighbors. Facebook. The giant social media sit...

08/05/2025

Hometown Heroes has helped heroes like you to save thousands. I'd love to help you do the same. Reach out to me today!

08/04/2025

Is your beautiful home sitting on an ugly lot? Dress up the look of your property with these design ideas.

Landscaping an unusually shaped property can be difficult, but not impossible. With a little design help, the right plants and some hard work, an unconventional yard can be transformed into a yard with gorgeous curb appeal. The trick is to draw the viewer’s eye away from the lot’s weaknesses to ...

08/02/2025

Don’t invite criminals into your home with an unsecured wifi network. Here’s what every homeowner needs to know to stay cyber safe.

Protecting your home wifi network is a must for every homeowner. Guard your personal and financial information with these five easy steps.

08/01/2025

If you own a dog or cat, you’ll want to bookmark this article that lists poisonous and pet-friendly plants.

Although dogs and cats are carnivores, they sometimes munch on potentially hazardous plants. Here’s a list of some common indoor and outdoor plants that are dangerous to pets and a second list of pet-friendly plants. Plants that can be hazardous to pets Azalea can cause vomiting, diarrhea, droolin...

07/30/2025

It’s time for the final “walk through” on your newly built home. How should you prepare for it?

After months of watching your new home being built, it’s time for the “walk through” with your builder. This is your opportunity to make sure things are fixed before closing. Here’s a walk through of the walk-through process. Bring blue tape and a keen eye. If your builder is amenable, do an...

07/29/2025

With a servant’s heart, Hometown Heroes and their partners are committed to giving back to the men and women who serve our country and our communities. In appreciation of our heroes, they want to reward the men and women making a difference in our community with valued savings and benefits. Contact me today and let's get started!

07/28/2025

When ants, bats, termites or bed bugs come calling... It pays to know when it’s time to call a professional.

When it comes to pest control, prevention is crucial to a homeowner’s peace of mind. But once you’ve had an invasion, it may be time to call in the experts. Pests are inevitable. Crawling in through the smallest openings, ants and other insects are looking for food and water. In the case of rode...

07/26/2025

No central air conditioning? No problem. Here’s the latest on an old standby: the window unit.

If you find yourself living in a house or apartment without central air conditioning, it’s time to go shopping for a window unit. Here’s what to look for and how to properly maintain it. It’s a matter of BTUs. Shopping for a window air conditioner isn’t complicated. The main thing to look fo...