Gen X Design

Design & Business

Design

What Home Improvements Should Landlords Make Between Tenants

While tenant turnover can be stressful, this transition is also an opportunity to make necessary changes around your rental property. Whether your former tenant left the apartment in pristine condition or caused some wear and tear, the unit needs to look its best for the next occupant. This will keep your new tenant happy and show that you are an attentive landlord.

Once you screen your new tenant with an online program such as Turbo Tenant and complete the lease signing, it’s time to get ready for the apartment move-in. The following are some essential improvements that you should make to restore the property and give your tenant a fresh start.

Thoroughly clean the property

Even if your former tenant was generally clean, you want the rental property to be spotless when the new renter moves in. Be sure to clean the fridge, oven, microwave, and inside all of the cabinets. Scrub the bathroom and ensure that all of the floors are clean. Rent a carpet cleaner or hire a professional to shampoo the carpets, which is especially important if the former tenant had pets. Move appliances and clean underneath. If you don’t have time to completely clean the property, consider hiring a professional to do so.

Paint the walls

Never underestimate the power of a fresh coat of paint. Painting all the walls in the unit can refresh every room, cover any scuff marks, and make the entire apartment look brighter. Keep in mind that some cities, such as New York City, require landlords to repaint units between tenants. So, be sure to look into your local laws.

Make repairs

Walk through the apartment and note which repairs you need to make, even if the former tenant didn’t report any issues. Pay particular attention to any health and safety concerns. These might include broken locks, windows that don’t open properly, outlets that don’t function, holes in the wall, and leaks. Remember that it’s your job as a landlord to provide a healthy and safe living environment, so you should take care of all of these issues before your new tenant moves in. You might need to call a professional such as residential electrical services to do this.

Replace old appliances

If the stove, refrigerator, and other appliances in the unit are outdated or require frequent repairs, this is a great time to replace them. Schedule delivery and installation as soon as possible, because it may take a few days. You want everything to be in place and fully functioning when your new tenant moves in. They will appreciate your making the effort to update the appliances, and this gesture will start your relationship on a positive note.

Schedule an inspection

It can be difficult to spot all of the issues in your apartment at face value. Unless you’re an expert, you may want to schedule a home inspection. The home inspector will check the electrical, home exterior, plumbing, and other fixtures that you might not think to inspect yourself. You want to ensure that the home is safe and in top condition before a new tenant moves into your apartment. Again, be sure to leave enough time for this inspection to take place. You want to give yourself enough wiggle room to make any repairs or hire a professional to do so before the new tenant starts their lease.

By taking the time to make repairs, clean the apartment, and update any appliances, you will provide your new tenant with a positive living experience. You will also ensure that you’re compliant with local housing laws. Just be sure to keep your tenant updated on this work, so they know what changes are being made.

To read more on topics like this, check out the design category.

Simple Ways to Perfect a Room

The ways how you decorate the rooms of your home have a profound impact on how you experience those spaces. From the color of the paint of the walls to the comfort and appearance of the couches, chairs, and beds, every design choice that you make a room matters. That’s why you’ve worked hard to make sure that your rooms are decorated cleanly and cleverly, and in compliance with all of those interior design “rules” that you found in books and online. You’ve really done your best.

Something’s missing, though. When you’re standing in a room that’s only nearly perfect, it’s frustrating. You know that you’re close, but you feel that the room needs a finishing touch. That’s why you should check out some of the best ways to perfect a well-decorated room. That final flair or all-important choice can take your room from “just okay” to “perfect.”

Add a custom canvas print

Wall hangings are among the trickiest things to get right in home decor. You’ll want to mix up mediums and textures, and you’ll want to get things hung up at the right height. There are only so many cool things to put up on walls, though, and it’s easy to run out of ideas or default to kitschy wall hangings that aren’t unique to your home.

Have you considered a custom canvas print? Stretched canvas is a classy choice for wall decor and it’s all the rage right now. Also, art-quality canvas isn’t just for professional art; it’s also a material that you can use to display your own personal photographs and memories. Just head over to a website that offers custom canvas printing and turn your favorite vacation photo or instagram post into a piece that is worthy of a place of honor on your wall.

Control the natural light

Rooms don’t exist in isolation. We enter and leave them from other spaces. So, crucially, does the sun! Sunlight (or lack thereof) can transform the look of a room and everything in it. Bright sun can be glaring and harsh or glittering and joyful, and it all depends on the room.

But sunlight isn’t totally beyond your control when you’re indoors. You can and should control the way that your room uses sun by investing in things like curtains or blinds. Using these things wisely can help you shift the look and feel of your room. Plus, these are interior design opportunities in and of themselves. Roman shades, venitian blinds, blackout curtains, and other options all have different looks and different uses. Which one will perfect your room?

Accessorize, accessorize

When you’re wrestling with big interior design choices, you’re generally deciding on things related to the largest and most visible things in your room. What color will the walls be? What should the big couch that goes in the middle of the room look like? What sort of comforter or duvet should be on the bed?

But the little things matter, too. If you’re still feeling like your room is a little bit off after you’ve chosen the perfect piece of furniture or the right art for the walls, then take a tip from the experts and think about accessories.

Knick-knacks for the shelves, plants for the windowsills, that one extra source of lighting: These are the sorts of things that can take a room over the top. A finishing touch doesn’t have to be big and in-your-face to transform a room. Accessories have an outsized role in determining the feel and style of a room, so choose wisely and make your room perfect.

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Mootools vs Jquery: Everything you need to know

To learn some of the major differences between Mootools and Jquery, simply continue reading to discover when to use Mootools and when to use Jquery.

Mootools vs Jquery: Everything you need to know

When to use Jquery:

If you’re looking to make it a lot easier to use Javascript on your website, it’s well worth utilizing Jquery. What exactly is Jquery? Jquery is a free, relatively easy to use Javascript library, which was designed in order to simplify HTML DOM tree manipulation and traversal as well as events, CSS animation, and Ajax. Jquery is free to use as it was created under a permissive Massachusetts Institute of Technology open source license.

How can Jquery make designing and managing websites an easier process?

If you learn how to effectively use Jquery to your advantage, you’ll be able to spend less time writing code. As you’ll be able to wrap several lines of code in a single line, which will save you valuable time and energy.

What do you need to know in order to effectively use Jquery?

Before you start planning to use Jquery, to lighten your load as a web designer, make sure that you understand the basics of HTML, Javascript, and CSS.

How popular is Jquery:

Most of the most highly regarded technology companies use Jquery. Examples of which include Google, IBM, Netflix, and Microsoft.

What is Mootools?

While Jquery can be used by all levels of web designers who are able to understand the basics of HTML, Javascript, and CSS, Mootools is marketed towards intermediate to expert web developers. So if you see yourself as a novice web designer or developer, you’ll be far better off starting off with using Jquery instead of Mootools.

What are some of the benefits associated with utilizing Mootools?

Firstly, like Jquery Mootools is a free to use system which was licensed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which happens to be the number one technology-focused university in the world. So you can be sure of Mootools quality.

Secondly, Mootools will allow you to write powerful yet easy to read code. So if you’re sick of trying to decipher hard to read code, it’s well worth experimenting with Mootools.

Thirdly as Mootools is so easy to read, if you plan on maintaining and editing your website’s code with another individual or a group, it’s well worth utilizing Mootools as your colleagues won’t have any trouble deciphering the code which you’ve written!

What is Aptana Jaxer?

If you’re looking for detailed information on Mootools and Jquery, chances are high that you’re also interested in finding out more information about Aptana Jaxer.

What is Aptana Jaxer? Simply put it’s a Javascript server, which will allow you to execute Javascript on your website. So if you plan on incorporating a lot of Javascript into your future websites, it’s well worth using Aptana Jaxer to your advantage.

Hopefully, after reading this handy guide to understanding the differences between Mootools and Jquery, you’re now confident about whether you should use Mootools or Jquery!

4 Different Types of Web Codes

Whether you’re interested in designing your own website from scratch or are simply interested in web codes in order to edit and maintain a website, simply continue reading to discover a few of the most commonly used types of web code.

4 Different types of web code:

1. HTML

HTML, which stands for Hypertext Markup Language, is one of the first widely used web codes and has been around since 1990. If you’re looking to learn the basics of developing a website, you may want to start off by learning the basics of HTML.

One of the key reasons why you may want to learn HTML is that HTML is one of the simplest web codes to learn and within a few hours of experimenting with simple HTML codes, you’ll be able to create a simple, rudimentary website. That features colored text, headings of various sizes, links, photos, videos and a navigation bar.

2. Java

Java is a popular web code which was first used in 1996 and which was designed to help programmers design functional, efficient software programs for a wide variety of operating systems such as Windows, Mac, and Linux.

However, while Java was first designed to design computer programs, Java is also commonly used to design, edit and maintain web pages. If you haven’t heard of Java, you may know Java by its secondary name C++.

So if you’re looking to learn a web code that can be used for a variety of different purposes, you may be interested in learning the basics of Java.

3. Javascript

Javascript is a separate web code to Java and is advanced, high-level web code and was originally launched back in 1995. Javascript is also commonly referred to by the simple abbreviation JS.

Most websites utilize Javascript as Javascript is responsible for the creation of modern, interactive websites and web applications. However, you can’t design an entire website, just using Javascript, as Javascript does not boast its own storage facilities, graphics facilities or networking facilities. So if you plan on embedding Javascript code in your website, you’ll also need to utilize another web code such as HTML or CSS.

4. CSS

Chances are high that you’ve heard of CSS as CSS is the second most recognized web code, after HTML. CSS was originally released in 1996. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and is a document based markup language which is regarded as a cornerstone of the internet, along with HTML and Javascript. Both of which were mentioned above.

If you’d love to be able to design a stylish, highly customized website and want to learn about selecting the right layout and color scheme for your website, it’s well worth taking a few online CSS courses or tutorials. As if you care about the aesthetic of your website and your website’s overall look, you’ll be best off learning CSS, rather than Javascript, C++ or HTML.

So whether your primary reason for learning a new web code is to be able to design a professional looking website or you’re simply interested in coding, it’s well worth learning at least one of the primary web codes listed above.

Invaluable Web Design Tips

If you’re unsure of how to go about designing a professional looking website, simply continue reading to discover a handy guide to developing a great website.

Invaluable Web Design Tips:

1. Make sure to use professional, easy to read fonts that will give visitors a professional impression of your business

Many individuals make the mistake of choosing fonts which are nearly impossible to read or fonts which are too childish such as Comic Sans. So when it comes time to select fonts for your website, make sure to choose professional looking fonts which can be easily read.

2. Ensure that your website looks professional and will reflect positively on your business

Remember that the look of your website will determine whether or not visitors see your business as a professional website. As your website will influence each visitor who loads your website. Especially if your business doesn’t have a traditional brick and mortar premises.

Alternatively, if you’re looking to design websites for businesses, it’s also a great idea to ensure that each website which you produce looks professionally designed.

2. Make sure that all the images which feature on your website are professionally shot

Make sure to take your time when it comes to selecting photos and images to place on your website. As just as poorly selected fonts will reflect poorly on your business, poorly chosen images will also give your business an amateur vibe.

3. Invest in getting a professional logo designed for your business

If your business doesn’t already have a professional logo, it’s a great idea to invest in having a professional logo designed for your business, which you’ll then be able to use on your business’ social media accounts as well as your business’ website.

4. Make sure that the colors which you select for your website show up well on your screen

While you may be tempted to use yellow text or to use a pale blue background for your website, it pays to ensure that all the colors which you select for your website, show up well on your screen. As visitors to your site won’t have the patience to try and decipher unclear text or images and will simply opt to visit one of your business’ competitors websites.

5. Make sure that your navigation bar helps your visitors easily navigate your site

Not only does a site have to look as professional as possible but a great website should also be a breeze to navigate. The easiest way for your potential customers to navigate your website is to carefully title the different pages on your website as part of your website’s navigation bar. As an example, you may want to label one link “About us” and another link “Shop”.

5. Get a trusted friend or family member to test out your new website before you publish it

Make sure to get a third party such as a trusted friend or family member to test out your new website before it goes live. As if you stare at your website all day long, you may not be able to see any simple flaws which should be staring you straight in the face.

If you keep the 5 design principles listed above in mind, you should have no difficulty creating a proffesional website.