Delete a Space - You can now remove a Space from your home.  Be aware that all subordinate information such as projects, facts and maintenance items for that Space will also be removed.

Date Formatting - While not comprehensive, our European users will appreciate the ability to select DD/MM/YYYY as their preferred date format.  This setting is found on the My Account page.

iCal feed - You can now subscribe to an iCal feed of your HomeSpot reminder and project calendar.  Using this feed will allow you to have your HomeSpot reminders be displayed in your Google calendar, Outlook, Apple iCal, or any other calendar app that supports viewing iCal feeds.  This setting is found on the Reminders tab on the My Account page.

Improved UI – We made several changes to the HomeSpot user interface, most notably rearranging the Edit views for Projects, Reminders and Facts.  We also improved some feedback messages, icons, and other behaviors.

While these are all things we’ve added, there are a few items we took away.

Removed Banner Ads - For the time being, we’ve suspended our banner ad placement while we work on an upcoming feature called the HomeSpot Marketplace.

Removed the Shopping List page - We’re not abandoning this concept altogether, but we realized there was some overlap with the Weekend Planner, and frankly, the Shopping List page left a lot to be desired.  We’ll be working with our user community to refine the shopping page and reintroduce it in a future release.

I think that about covers it.  Please keep making suggestions for how we can continue to improve HomeSpot and make organizing, managing and maintaining your home even easier.

Oxmoor House recalled 951,000 home-improvement books for do-it-yourselfers because of errors in technical diagrams and instructions for electrical wiring that could cause people to be shocked or to create a fire hazard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/us/09brfs-RECALLOFDOIT_BRF.html

Here are a few items we’re planning for 2010:

• HomeSpot RealtorPro – if you are a real estate professional, HomeSpot RealtorPro will allow you to leverage the HomeSpot HQ platform as a unique marketing and communications tool.
• New Project and Maintenance Templates – we’ve been collecting dozens of home improvement and home maintenance how-to tips, tutorials and guidance, and we’ll be incorporating this content into the HomeSpot HQ application.
• HomeSpot HQ premium subscriptions – in 2010 we’ll be adding additional subscription options for HomeSpot, with even more features to help you organize, manage and maintain your home.
• HomeSpot Mobile – we’re also planning to release mobile versions of HomeSpot, so you can take all the information about your home with you to the hardware store.

With your help, 2010 will be a year full of new ways that HomeSpot can help you save time, money and effort while maintaining the investment in your home.  Now, time to get to work!

http://lifehacker.com/5428889/how-can-i-remember-annual-maintenance-chores-around-the-house

We look forward to continuing to help Lisa and other homeowners organize, manage and maintain their homes.

From here forward, every time we reach another 100 users, that lucky person will receive a HomeSpot “Welcome Home!” prize package and (if they so choose) recognition here on the HomeSpot HQ blog.

You can help us reach these goals faster – and maybe help your friends win a prize, but using the ‘Tell a Neighbor’ feature in HomeSpot to introduce HomeSpot to your friends, family and neighbors.

All of our users are important to us.  If you have joined the HomeSpot community recently, we look forward to hearing from you.

The next morning, I went to give the mower a tune up and replace the blade, only to discover that the 22″ long blade I had bought wouldn’t fit on the 21″ mower.  Even despite having a great tool that I could use to look up the part number, I had made the simple mistake of buying the wrong item.

Live and learn, but I can assure you that I’ll double check next time around.

1. Install a rain barrel. Collecting and reusing rainwater to irrigate your garden and landscape is a simple way to help take advantage of one of our Earth’s freely available resources.  You can easily install a rain barrel in a day, but you’ll benefit from reduced water bills for the entire year. You’ll find a wide selection of styles and sizes to blend in to your home’s landscaping. Here are just a couple options.

2. Do an Energy Audit. If you are serious about ‘greening’ up your home, it’s helpful to know just how much energy you are consuming. A simple audit of your home will help provide a baseline for reducing energy and water consumption. Take a look at the last 6 or 12 months of your electricity, gas, and water utility bills, which should indicate the total amount of each resource you paid for. You can also use a monitoring device like the Kill A Watt Meter to determine just how much electricity an appliance, computer or television is using. Once you know what the highest consumers are, you can make a plan to replace or reduce your usage of those items.

3. Plant a tree. Trees are a simple way to beautify your landscape while helping reduce your home’s energy consumption.  Strategically positioned trees will help regulate your home’s heating and cooling cycles by shading your home and reducing cool winds.  For all you’d every want to know about the benefits of trees and the right trees for your part of the country, check out the Arbor Day Foundation.

4. Replace your furnance and air conditioning filters. Just like if you tried to breath through a sock, your furnace or central air system has to work harder to circulate air through a dirty air filter.  Replacement filters in nearly every size can be found through online vendors like FiltersFast.com.  Not only will this reduce the energy consumption of your HVAC system, but will also prolong it’s life, saving you from a more costly repair.

All of us at HomeSpot hope you have a great holiday weekend, whether you’re working around the house, enjoying the beach or lake, or having a cookout with friends.

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The coupons can be retrieved and printed from https://www.duke-energy.com/north-carolina/savings/cfl-coupon.asp

The coupons expire on 8/11/2009.

If you are not a Duke Energy customer, check with your local electric utility to see if they have any similar promotions.

Over the past few years, we’ve tried numerous deer-repellent products and techniques, both commercial and otherwise. Still, the deer come right in to the yard and munch away. We finally made the decision to put up a deer fence along our back yard to try to keep them out, and the follow is a summary of what we did.

The product we ended up going with is called Deer-X, and while it’s marketed as temporary, many of the reviews we read indicated it is durable enough for multiple seasons. Plus, by comparison to more robust products, it is very affordable.  We bought two 7′ x 100′ rolls.  Total paid: $49.00.

Since the Deer-X is so lightweight, we were able to use inexpensive T-posts rather than the kind of fence posts you might see on a chain-link fence.  To span the width of our back yard required 15 posts spaced about 12′ to 15′ apart.  The T-posts measure 7′ tall, but have an effective height of about 6′ after you pound them in to the ground.  I simply used a light sledge hammer to pound them in, though T-post drivers do exist.  Total paid: $5.69 each x 15 = $85.00.

In order to support the Deer-X netting between the posts, I followed a recommendation I found to string a thin wire between the posts, then zip-tie the mesh to the wire.  The wire I used was 18-gauge flexible steel wire that I actually found in the picture-hanging department.  It is sturdy enough that it can be pulled tight and not sag, but flexible enough that I can twist it on itself and not need additional hardward to secure it.  I got two 110′ spools for about $4.00 each.  I also got about 200 4″ zip ties.  Total paid: $14.00.

The bottom of the mesh is staked to the ground to keep the deer from pushing underneath the netting.  For this I purchased a bag of landscape fabric pins which are U-shaped and about 6″ long.  I had anywhere from 12-14″ of extra netting at the bottom so I gathered it all up and put it in the stake in to the ground.  I got a bag of 75 pins for $9.97, and I put them about every 18″.  Total paid: $10.00.

The process of pounding in the posts, stringing the top wire, then attaching the netting took about 8 hours to do over 2 days.  I ended up have to cut back some of the brush at the edge of the woods to get a clear path for the fence.

On a whole I am very pleased with how this project turned out.  While you can see the green fence posts, the netting itself is hard to see at all when you’re more than 10 feet away.  And it seems just enough of a deterrant to keep the deer away…though we’ll have to see if that is indeed true after a couple weeks.

Total time spent: 8 hours

Total cost of project: About $160.00 for a span approximately 180 feet long.