Below, find some of our top picks to help you prepare for the season.

A hotel in Lexington, Kentucky, the Elwood Hotel & Suites, is hoping you will. They are the world’s first “plant-friendly” hotel. “Elwood opened late 2021 and we wanted to differentiate ourselves from other boutique hotels,” says Barbara Jean Josey, Director of Business Development and Hospitality Sales at Elwood Hotel & Suites. “While many hotels are pet-friendly (we are too), we noticed that plant parenthood was booming.” So the team at Elwood decided to offer a plant-friendly hotel experience....

Versatile Vinyl Price: $0.50–$4 per square foot; $7 per square foot for luxury vinyl planks Vinyl is one of the most versatile and cheapest ways to cover a bedroom floor. Composed of thin resilient sheets, vinyl is a synthetic material that is resistant to stains, rips, tears, damage, and water penetration. It can be printed with a nearly endless variety of patterns and colors, and it can even be made to resemble natural materials, such as stone and hardwood....

We talked with Jamie about the entire process—from discovering structural issues to putting the finishing touches on the space. It’s been a true labor of love, she said. ‘New Build’ Does Not Mean ‘No Problems’ “We purchased a new build and I think there needs to be more information out there about what to look for when you’re buying a new home,” said Jamie. “We had someone come to the house who was very reputable in terms of checking out the house for insurance and he missed so much stuff....

Owner: Francesca Grace, home stager, interior designer, and star of HGTV’s Fix My Flip Location: Silver Lake Hills, California A Vibrant Local Community Grace’s home is located in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles and is a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom, 1100-square-foot Craftsman-style home. “The neighborhood is surrounded by hills where so many beautiful homes sit atop of, including my own,” Grace shares with us. “Local shops and restaurants are within a 5-minute walk, and there is a great sense of community in the area....

Here’s what you need to know about how electricity flows. How Generators Work What sends the electrons into motion? The physics are complicated, but in essence, electrical flow in circuit wires is made possible by a utility generator (a turbine powered by wind, water, an atomic reactor, or burning fossil fuels). In 1831, Michael Faraday discovered that electrical charges were created when a material that conducts electricity (metal wire) is moved within a magnetic field....

For something to be upcycled, you don’t need to change the function. For instance, you don’t need to turn a tire into a planter. All you need to do is upgrade the look and feel of an item and enhance it in some way. Sometimes this means changing the function, but other times this means simply giving an item a much needed makeover. These upcycling projects range from complex to simple and incorporate a wide variety of materials....

Burlap Weed Fabric Weed fabric made from polypropylene geotextile is a mainstay at hardware stores. However, these landscaping fabrics have some disadvantages. They never break down in the soil, so after a few seasons, weeds can germinate on top of the fabric, anchoring it to the ground. Furthermore, geotextile weed fabric does nothing to enrich the soil. Natural burlap is an alternative to synthetic weed fabric. It prevents weed seeds from coming into contact with the soil where they can germinate, but its high permeability allows water to penetrate easily....

Tub drain assemblies are commonly made from one of three different pipe materials: brass, ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastic, or PVC (polyvinyl chloride plastic). Tub drain assemblies can be joined with slip fittings (brass, ABS, or PVC), or with solvent-glued fittings (ABS or PVC only). When using ABS or PVC that will be joined with solvent-glued fittings, make sure to stick with the same type of plastic found in the rest of the drain system....

What Vinyl and Wood Windows Are Vinyl Windows Vinyl windows are made largely of high-quality extruded polyvinyl chloride (PVC) Some metal and other types of plastics are used for the sash mechanism. Wood Windows Wood windows are usually wood on the inside (typically pine or Douglas Fir). Exteriors are wood covered with extruded aluminum, PVC, or fiberglass. Colors and Finishes Vinyl Windows Most vinyl windows are white. Rich, dark colors that do not fade have traditionally been hard for manufacturers to achieve....

Like a lot of kitchen decisions, there is not necessarily a right or wrong answer here, and there are certainly pros and cons to each option, it all comes down to your cooking habits, your space, and your budget. You may not need much oven space. or, you may be an avid cook or baker who entertains weekly. Whichever the case, let’s dig into the specific pros and cons of each choice....

Insects, especially wood-boring insects, grubs, spiders, and ants Tree sap Nuts Seeds Berries and fruit, including juice from broken fruit Flower nectar Understanding what woodpeckers eat can help birders provide the best woodpecker food at their feeders, and can help birders in the field know how to find feeding woodpeckers to observe. Drumming and Eating Many novice birders and non-birders mistakenly assume that woodpecker drumming is related to feeding and that woodpeckers may even eat the wood or sawdust they peck....

How to RSVP Invitations requiring an RSVP will have instructions on how to respond. A formal invitation, such as a wedding invitation, will have an enclosed response card that you can return in its provided envelope. Informal invitations, on the other hand, may have a telephone number, email address, texting address, or social media method to reply, with instructions. Electronic RSVP requests make it easy to respond by either email or links to a site with buttons to accept or decline....

This style of toilet has an airtight plastic tank inside the porcelain tank where the water is stored. The toilet uses both water and pressurized air to increase the velocity of the flushing water. It generates a powerful flush, while only using about 1.1 to 1.4 GPF. Additionally, the increased velocity of the water helps to break up any larger waste so the toilet doesn’t require a larger trapway to function effectively....

How Weevils Get in Your Food Like other pantry pests, weevils will infest and feed on grains, nuts, beans, cereals, seeds, corn, and other foods. But unlike beetles that live and feed on foods, weevils live and feed inside the food item. The female chews a hole into a seed or grain kernel and deposits an egg inside. Then, she seals up the opening, leaving the egg behind. When the egg hatches (inside the grain or seed), the larva feeds on the food item until it is fully grown....

Uses For Contact Paper There are countless creative and practical uses for contact paper; it’s an inexpensive and non-permanent way to update your home, a good way to protect surfaces and a fun decorative touch that’ll revive old furniture. Get the Look For Less You may have noticed the popularity of marble contact paper in recent years — it has been used to cover everything from coffee table and nightstand tops to old bathroom vanities and kitchen countertops....

Many seeds of both flowers and vegetables can be started outdoors, at the start of the growing season. Starting seeds indoors may give you a head start, but some plants don’t like being transplanted and will grow better if you seed them in the bed where they will be grown without disturbance. This is especially true of plants that have long tap roots, such as butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), Oriental poppies, (Papaver orientale), dill, and parsley....

Sharing many characteristics with Spanish Colonial architecture, Spanish architecture, and Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, hacienda architecture has a long history in countries like Spain and Mexico but made its way to the United States between the 1600s and the mid-1800s. Although hacienda-style homes have been popular in the United States for nearly four hundred years, today’s hacienda architecture has retained many of the original elements. Read on to learn more about hacienda architecture, including its history and must-have architectural elements....