Small Business Saturday

Do you remember when you were young and all the businesses around town were locally owned and operated? The ice cream shop at the corner, was owned by your friend’s father. The hardware store was owned by your neighbor. The pizza parlor at the train station was owned by your father’s best friend. And every single small shop in our downtown area knew everyone’s name. As far as we’ve come in life, losing stuff like this in our town makes me sad. I love knowing everyone around town.

Bigger and Better. They introduced us to bigger stores and better deals. The bigger stores carry everything you need at half the price. It all seemed great at first, until all the smaller stores and small businesses started going out of business. Not only did it hurt the stores, it hurt the people we knew. They had to move to other towns to find work. It broke up friendships and unity.

Bigger isn’t always better. Instead of using manufacturer in America, they are taking all these jobs overseas. Factory, after factory have had to close because they lost all their jobs to companies overseas. The reason everything is cheaper is because it costs them pennies to make. I’ve read and watched documentaries on what it’s like for people overseas who work at these factories. They’re barely making a few dollars a day. They must live in the dormitory owned by the company they work for, which in turn they must pay rent to the same company. Basically, since they can’t live outside the factory’s community, all the money they are making at these factories is taken back to pay for their stay. It’s sad.

We all want to save a few dollars when we purchase something. We need to learn of the repercussion of choosing larger stores, over a locally owned business. There are statistics of how the money spent locally, 63% stays local. Money spent on non-local business, only 43% stays local. Wouldn’t you rather help your community? You can’t blame it on anybody else, when the value of your community starts going down, when the value of your home starts depreciating. Have you driven down your main street? Or your downtown in your town? Are there a lot of empty store fronts? Is it too late to start helping the businesses in your community before they are all gone?

Small Business Saturday was started by American Express. It is the Saturday right after Thanksgiving. American Express realized the importance of small businesses and they knew how much power they had, so they decided to put it to good use. Small Businesses across America are grateful for the attention American Express has brought to all these locally owned stores. I might not be as big as American Express, but I will make a difference by spending my money at restaurants, shops, and stores that are locally owned in my community.

I love my community! I love the town I live in!

DIY THANKSGIVING DECORATIONS

Thanksgiving is crammed between Halloween and Christmas and hardly gets the attention it deserves. Décor often switches from cobwebs and pumpkins to garlands and Christmas trees, giving no thought to the holiday that lies in between. In reality, it’s impractical to spend lots of money on decorations that can only be used for a few weeks out of the year. Luckily there are a variety of things that can be done to reuse some of the decorations you already have (even ones you might not be aware of). There’s an abundance of unique, creative ideas floating around cyberspace, but we’ve saved you the hassle of searching by compiling this list of our top seven.

1.    Festive Candle Holders
Hollow out the center of your small pumpkins or apples (it’s done easiest with a drill). Use them to make candle holders, and embellish the base of the candle with leaves, berries, mini pine cones or whatever else you find lying around. Try grouping a few together and using them as a centerpiece for your big feast.

2.    Candy Corn Flower Pot
Fill a glass jar or trifle dish with a bag of candy corn, and use it as a base to arrange several flowers. The corn is a festive tribute to the Indians, and the plant will add a little greenery. Be creative when you plant selection – add some fall leaves, fresh flowers, or even an arrangement of twigs.

3.    Fall Leaf Lantern
Add a little ambiance to your room by creating a lantern with leaves you’ve gathered from outside. Start by pressing the leaves, to get them nice and flat.   Then glue them to a clean, glass jar using Modge Podge. Wait 20 minutes for it to dry and then layer another coat of Modge Podge on top of the leaves to seal them. Lastly, place a candle in the jar and your lantern is complete. Adding a variety of leaf colors looks best and adds a subtle, warm glow to any room.

 4.    Metallic Pumpkins and Gourds
Give all your pumpkins, squash, and gourds a makeover by coating them in metallic or glitter spray paint. Shades of gold, bronze, and sunset orange are perfect for Thanksgiving, and the sparkly luster adds a regal air.   Arrange your finished beauties in a large glass tumbler, apothecary jar, or atop a cake stand to complete the look. If you’d like to take it a step further, paint pumpkin stems brown to really make them pop.

5.         Colored Pine Cones
Nothing says fall quite like pine cones, and they can be a stunning decorative piece when given a coat of paint. A selection of contrasting fall-hued colors look beautiful on an entry table. Pick up a combination of small spray paint cans in maroon, gold, dark brown, sunset orange, mustard yellow, mossy green, or cream, and color pine cones to your heart’s content. Be creative with color combinations – you can’t go wrong! Cones can be displayed in a large bowl, glass vase, or even strung as a garland.

6.    Pressed Leaf Art
Display the beauty of the outdoors by creating focal pieces with colorful fall leaves. Press leaves between books, and wait until leaves are fully dry. Place the pressed leaves between double sided glass frames to accentuate their silhouettes and bold colors. The simplicity of this decoration creates a tranquil, relaxing environment.

 7.    Corn Wreath
There are a couple different options for corn wreaths, depending on the look you’re going for and the amount of money you want to spend. You can make your wreath out of candy corn or Indian corn.   The candy corn wreath is simply a Styrofoam wreath covered in black duct tape with candy corn attached by a hot glue gun. Hang the wreath with a giant brown or red ribbon to give a Thanksgiving vibe.   The Indian corn wreath is even easier. Purchase a straw wreath and hot glue the corn to a straw wreath with the husks pointing outward.

Decorating for Thanksgiving can be easy and frugal when you take advantage of items you already have around the house or the yard. What better way to celebrate the season of thanks than the beauty of the outdoors? So open your mind, take a walk around the block, and visualize what you can create.

Guest Contributor,

Article By Anastasiya Johnson
Anastasiya is an interior designer and smart home planner for http://hdhomeautomationsystems.com/. When she is not planning out smart homes she is spending time with her husband and two kids.

If you enjoyed this blog post, please visit our Blog for more posts.
www.KevinSzaboJrPlumbing.net

19 STEPS TO GETTING YOUR HOME READY FOR YOUR THANKSGIVING GUESTS

Getting Your Home Ready for Thanksgiving

Are you having family and friends over for Thanksgiving? Did you forget to include cleaning in your schedule? Let me guess, you’ve been busy looking all over for perfect recipes. That is fine, we all do that. But, somewhere between now and Thursday morning, you need to clean your house from top to bottom. It’s not easy when you have kids, a husband who thinks everything magically cleans itself, and a puppy who is too busy barking at everyone that passes by your house (yes, my puppy sits on her throne by the window and barks at anything and everything).

I completely understand where you’re coming from. After working all day, it’s hard to have any energy left to tend to your home. Nobody is judging, I’m here to help.

Just to scare you, a made you a calendar of where we are today, and how quickly Thanksgiving is approaching.

Look around, how dirty is your house?

If you only have 30 minutes to Clean.

1.       Clean your main bathroom

2.       Clean your kitchen

3.       Clean your dining room

4.       Turn a few candles on

IF YOU ONLY HAVE 2 HOURS TO CLEAN.

1.       Clean your main bathroom and a guest bathroom

2.       Clean your kitchen

3.       Clean your dining room

4.       Clean your living room

5.       Clean your fridge

6.       Turn candles on

IF YOU HAVE 6 HOURS TO CLEAN.

1. Clean all your bathrooms
2. Clean your kitchen
3. Make sure you scrub your oven, inside and out
4. Clean the inside of your fridge
5. Clean your dining room, make it inviting.
6. Clean and dust off your living room. Make sure you dust everything. Your mother-in-law sure loves to check that mantel
7. Clean the fire place
8. Clean the bar area
9. Clean the kids room
10. Clean the bed rooms
11. Clean the guest room
12. Clean your office
13. Walk around your house and dust off every curtain
14. Clean the ceiling fans
15. Clean the kids play area
16. Clean the front and back of the outside of the house
17. Add Holiday decorations
18. Add fresh cut flowers throughout the house
19. Add candles in every common area

You did everything you could. Don’t worry, it looks great.

---

DON’T FORGET TO MAKE A LITTLE BAR AREA.

Holiday Bar Cart

• Wine, red and white
• Champagne, please chill
• Vodka
• Whiskey
• Scotch
• Rum
• Soda Water
• Tonic
• Coke/Diet Coke
• Ginger Ale
• Lemon wedges
• Cherries
• Orange Wedges
•  Ice
•  Wine Glasses
•  Champagne Flute
•  Rocks Glasses

Turn on some holiday music for ambiance.

If you have Comcast, it’s channel 741. They also have holiday music on On Demand. Or, turn on your Pandora for great Holiday tunes. Zero excuse for not having Holiday Tunes playing in the background.

If everything goes to plan, everyone will be having too much fun to notice anything you forgot or didn’t get to clean in time.

Now go enjoy yourself.

Happy Thanksgiving

-Your Local Plumber

How Do You Choose Lighting For Your Bathroom?

You need light in your bathroom. Unless you have a skylight in your bathroom and tons of windows, you need great lighting. Where do you place the lighting is the question?

Over the Sink

Both sides of the mirror.

Over the tub.

In the shower.

What type of Light Fixtures do you install?

It all depends on your style. What kind of person are you? What do you see yourself surrounded around? What colors do you love to decorate with? If you had a choice where would you live? What’s your favorite type of restaurant?

How you answered the questions above, is your Design Style. If you don’t understand your answers here is a link to help you choose.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/25171951/list/houzz-quiz-whats-your-decorating-style

• Modern
• Contemporary
• Traditional
• Funky
• Shabby Chic
• Southwestern
• Industrial
• Tuscan
• Medieval
• French
• Asian
• Zen

If you have the extra money to add windows for natural lighting in your bathroom, that’s a Home Run. Natural lighting in your bathroom is always great. You could do a lot by placing and installing the perfect fixtures, but having a large window or two in your bathroom could give you the perfect Natural Light everyone desires. Before you begin your project sit down and plan out what exactly you want to do in your bathroom. After you have thought about what you have in mind, plan out the perfect spots to install lighting. Let your electrician and or remodeler know. They will be more than glad to work with your design idea. 

Please visit our website for more information 

www.KevinSzaboJrPlumbing.net

How To Rebuild A RPZ Valve

SHOP LOCAL: SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ECONOMY

Small Businesses Are Important To Our Community

It is our responsibility to support the community. We can't wait for the government to come help us. When people spend their money locally, most of it stays in that community. I hear a lot of people talking about how businesses in their town are going out of business, or how there isn't enough money in the town. It is your responsibility to spend your money in that town. The more you take care of your local businesses the more they take care of your town. Small business owners love to support the community they serve in. It is their duty to give back to the town they belong to. 
I'm not going to lie, we do shop at big box stores here and there, because a good deal is hard to pass when you're on a budget. But, no matter what deals we get at big box stores, we always make it a point to stop at locally owned businesses to purchase a few items. Take care of those small business so they could keep taking care of your community. Remember, it's never to early to teach your children to support local businesses. 

Stop Flushing Wipes Down The Toilet

Wipes Don't Belong In The Toilet

I have a giant problem with all these baby wipe companies still putting "flushable" and "sewer and septic safe" on their packages. Let me express to you how much we love baby wipes in our household. We have a child and a puppy who love to make messes all over the house. Not only are baby wipes great when we change his diaper. They are great to clean up his face, his hands, and where ever else he loves to get peanut butter/chocolate/jelly/cheese/etc. on himself.

It's simple, you grab a wipe and clean up the mess. Toss it in the garbage and it's done. Simple as that. Well, toilet paper and paper towel companies wanted to jump in on the baby wipe success. They are doing very well for themselves. They have created several types of bathroom "flushable" wipes. The only problem is these wipes ARE flushable, but will not dissolve. 

They sit in your pipes, get stuck on other stuff and clog up your pipes. Yes, it creates more jobs for plumbers but it's ruining our sewer pipes. How is it that they are allowed to print "flushable" and "sewer/septic safe" on their packages? Some of them are even printing "biodegradable". In their terms, yes they are biodegradable, but not for another 1000 years. 

Until someone does something about these companies printing "flushable" on wipes, please stop flushing wipes down the toilet. It will cost you hundreds, even thousands of dollars to fix. You should only flush toilet paper. 

What I Love To Use Baby Wipes On:

• When I change my baby's diaper.
• After my kid eats.
• My puppy's bum.
• When my husband spills food/drinks/whatever else he is eating on his clothes.
• The table.
• The floor.
• My kitchen cabinets.
• The make up off my face.
• When I get make up on my fingers.
• After I do my hair in the bathroom(it's so easy to pick up the hair off the floor).
• Cleaning inside the car.
• Cleaning leather seats. 
• Getting deodorant off of clothing.
• Wiping down shoes. 
• Wiping down exercise equipment.
• And the million other things that I wipe down with baby wipes. 

Maybe, I should look into buying stock in baby wipe companies. Moral of the story, baby wipes are amazing, just don't flush them down the toilet. 

Kevinszabojrplumbing@yahoo.com

www.kevinszabojrplumbing.net