The Lawhead Team would like to share the following tips to keep you and your family safe at home.

Bedroom – Fire

• Since smoke can further hinder visibility, keep a rechargeable flashlight plugged in by your bedside to light your way or to signal firefighters.
• Place space heaters at least one yard from anything flammable. Turn them off when you’re not in the room.
• If you live in a two-story dwelling, a rescue ladder that can attach to your windowsill adds another escape route during a fire.
• Make sure security bars on windows have quick-release mechanisms.

Childproofing

• Install window guards. They aren’t a substitute for parental supervision, but they do provide reassurance.
• Check the crib. Make sure it meets safety standards. (Request a list of recalled products from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission at cpsc.gov.)
• Keep cords away from the crib.
• Keep the crib away from windows, if possible.

Bathroom – Slips, Trips, Falls

• For extra support getting in and out of a slippery shower, attach a grab bar to your shower wall installing it into studs.
• If your tub has a slippery bottom, add nonskid decals. Make sure your bath mats are nonslip, with rubber backings.
• If standing in the shower is difficult, use a handheld shower and a shower seat to prevent injuries.

Shocks

• Keep portable heaters out of the bathroom. Water and electricity don’t mix.
• Disconnect appliances like hair dryers and curling irons after use, and stow them away only when they’re cool.

Kitchen – Fire

• Don’t leave pots unattended on the stovetop.
• Turn the handles of pots and pans inward so you’ll be less likely to knock simmering food off the stove.
• Keep a lid close to the stove to snuff out cooking fires. Don’t use water, which can spread burning grease around the kitchen.
• Keep pot holders, towels, and other flammable items away from burners.
• Use only dry oven mitts―wet ones are a scalding danger.
• In case of an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the oven door closed. If there’s a microwave fire, keep the door closed and unplug the microwave.

Click here to read the entire article from Real Simple for more tips to keep your home safe.

The Lawhead Team would like to share some safety tips for the Halloween season for your home:

• Use LED or battery operated candles instead of candles with a live flame. These are much safer however you should still make sure they don’t come into contact with paper, cloth or any other flammable items.
• Many Halloween decorations like straw and dried flowers are flammable. Keep them away from all open flames and heat sources such as light bulbs to prevent fires.
• For Halloween lights, make sure all electric cords are safely out of the way of children and pets. If your Halloween lights say “indoors only”, follow their advice!
• On the night of Halloween, make sure your path to your door is well lit and free of clutter. You should also make sure the path is free of any obstacles that could cause someone to trip or fall.
• Don’t let your children handle sharp carving knives and keep an eye on them while you’re carving. If possible, purchase specific tools that are geared just for pumpkin carving (for your safety, too!). If the kids really want to participate in the carving, you can let them make the pattern or poke the pumpkin flesh in after you’ve done the carving.
• Never leave a candle anywhere unattended, and never leave burning candles where children (or people who act like children) can reach them or accidentally knock them over.
• Make sure that all Halloween props hanging, dangling, draped, staked, or set are steadily secured. Where there will be foot traffic, tape down loose wires with duct tape. You don’t want people to trip. And check these places often during the course of the evening for any loose edges that need retaping.
• And above all else, make sure to stay safe and have fun during the Halloween season!

Our hearts go out to those on the East Coast affected by Hurricane Sandy. If you have friends or family who have been affected by the Hurricane, please share this article with them.

This article is from the Red Cross and contains helpful tips for Hurricane victims safety.

• Continue listening to a NOAA Weather Radio or the local news for the latest updates about the hurricane.
• Stay alert for extended rainfall and subsequent flooding even after the hurricane or tropical storm has ended.
• If you evacuated, return home only when officials say it is safe.
• Drive only if necessary and avoid flooded roads and washed-out bridges.
• Keep away from loose or dangling power lines and report them immediately to the power company.
• Stay out of any building that has water around it.
• Use flashlights in the dark. Do not use candles.
• Avoid drinking or preparing food with tap water until you’re sure it’s not contaminated.
• Check refrigerated food for spoilage after a hurricane. If in doubt, throw it out.
• Wear protective clothing and be cautious when cleaning up to avoid injury.
• Use the telephone only for emergency calls.
• Watch your animals closely and keep them under your direct control.
• Inspect your home for damage. Take pictures of damage, both of the building and its contents, for insurance purposes.
• If your community has experienced a hurricane, or any disaster, register on the American Red Cross Safe and Well website available through RedCross.org/SafeandWell to let your family and friends know about your welfare. If you don’t have Internet access, call 1-866-GET-INFO (1-866-438-4636) to register yourself and your family.

Furthermore, flooding is a serious aftermath of a hurricane. The following are the things you and your family can do for any hurricane-related floods.

• Listen to area radio and television stations and a NOAA Weather Radio for possible flood warnings and reports of flooding in progress or other critical information from the National Weather Service (NWS).
• Be prepared to evacuate at a moment’s notice.
• When a flood or flash flood warning is issued for your area, head for higher ground and stay there.
• Stay away from flood waters after a hurricane. Six inches of swiftly moving water can sweep you off of your feet.
• If you come upon a flooded road while driving, turn around and go another way. If you’re caught on a flooded road and waters are rising rapidly around you, get out of the car quickly and move to higher ground.
• Keep children out of the water. They are curious and often lack judgement about running water and contaminated water.
• Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize flood danger.
• Standard homeowner’s insurance usually doesn’t cover flooding. If you need more information on flood insurance, please visit the National Flood Insurance Program website at www.FloodSmart.gov.

Please feel free to share this very helpful information (via Twitter, Facebook, or email) to all of your family, relatives, friends and neighbors who may be affected by hurricane Sandy.

Do it yourself projects are a great way to spruce up your house here and there.  The Lawhead Team would like to share some do it yourself tips to make sure the job gets done correctly – all disasters avoided.

Some of us figure out our talents early in life; others take longer. But for the majority of us, those talents have nothing whatsoever to do with the construction sciences, so to speak. Nonetheless, tight budgets and hours of home improvement television watching, shelter magazine perusing and Pinterest board-fixating have stirred up the jones to do-it-yourself in many a homeowner. The widespread perceptions that contractors charge exorbitant amounts and are difficult to manage have only increased the sense that doing home improvement projects ourselves seem like the way to go.

The fact is, there are many home projects that are fun and smart for a home owner to try their hand at. But do it yourself project veterans can attest: do it yourself is by no means the no-brainer way to get every type of home project checked off your to-do list. In fact, a bad project can turn your experience of your home from an exciting project to a mortifying money-pit in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, whether your home improvement project goes swimmingly or scarily is well within your control from the very beginning – and hinges largely on making the right decision for a given project about whether to hire a contractor or go it on your own.

Here are seven questions to ask yourself as part of that decision-making process, in order to avoid a do it yourself disaster:

1.  What’s the project?  Define the do it yourself project, in writing, as completely as possible. This will equip you from the very start to outsource some or all of a project that is beyond your skill set, rather than running to a contractor in a panic in the middle of a project (when you’d certainly be charged a panic premium price). Depending on your aptitude level and the time you have, what seems at first glance to be a highly DIY-able room refresh with paint and new wood floors can snowball beyond the realm of reasonable DIY-dom if you add in a lighting or plumbing project.

To do this, sit with your project, your magazines or your Pinboards for a few days, weeks or even months, keeping a running list of the things you want included in your project as you live in your house and your desired post-project lifestyle changes come to mind.

2.  Does your do it yourself project require permits?  Generally speaking, electrical, plumbing, major renovations, erecting new walls and structures and adding square footage are all projects highly likely to require permits. Hint: if you use the word “gut” when describing what you’re planning to your friends and relatives, chances are good you’ll need a permit. If you’re not sure, a quick website visit or phone call to your City’s Building Services or Building Permits Division should clear things up.

Building code requirements can be exceedingly arcane, and the process of applying for and obtaining permits if you’re not well versed in them can be tedious, stressful and time-consuming. It can also be full of unsuspected pitfalls, like doing one home improvement that triggers a City requirement to add a slew of new outlets or a new sewer line.

Call the city and/or talk to a couple of licensed contractors as soon as you’ve fully defined your do it yourself project – but before you’ve started any work – and get a good sense for whether it will require permits to stay in good graces with the City.

Cities are required to grant permits to homeowners, but the more complicated the permitting process gets for a given project, the more sensible it becomes to have a professional contractor or at least a professional permit expediter involved to avoid running afoul of the city, incurring penalties for unpermitted work and to maximize your ability to get an increased resale value for your home as a result of the upgrades.

3.  Are there health and safety issues?  High decks (i.e., decks, balconies and similar structures that are tall enough that a collapse would cause injuries to those standing on it), additions and gas/electrical work are things home owners should rarely do on their own. Now, it doesn’t mean you can’t install track lights or change a light switch to a dimmer. Rather, if you’re doing work in these categories beyond that level, calling a contractor can avoid a disastrous outcome.

4.  What are the relative hard costs? Just because you can do a project do it yourself, doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the smart thing to do. It also doesn’t mean that the hard, financial costs of doing it yourself are necessarily much cheaper than hiring a professional.

Don’t automatically assume that doing a job yourself is the cheap route to go, or that it will save you scads of cash. Until you’ve actually gotten 3 bids from reputable contractors or vendors, based on the full scope of the job, and have compared that with the cash you’d spend to do it yourself, you cannot know for certain which is the less expensive way to go. They might qualify for bulk discounts on materials that you can’t get, and you might have to rent a truck, equipment or tools that they already own. In any event, calling contractors out can be educational in terms of understanding every element of the job and troubleshooting things you might not otherwise have anticipated.

So, unless you’re uber-handy and just love to do projects, or know for certain the project will be uber-cheap for you to do, get a few pros to come out and give you real bids for what it would cost (including supplies, labor, any subcontracting, permits – soup-to-nuts), and compare that to your own do it yourself cost estimate.

5.  What are the relative soft costs? Cash is just the beginning of the resources required to get a home improvement project done. They also take time – which some might see as opportunity costs. Ask yourself the question: what could I do with the time I’ll have to spend on this project?

There are also the energetic and emotional resources involved.  Some people simply have sharp mechanical and logistical aptitudes, have the spare time and love to use it bettering their homes and have infinite patience for figuring out workarounds when the project doesn’t go as planned.

6.  Is it really DIY-able? Remember, the ‘Y’ in do it yourself stands for YOURself.  The decision whether to do it yourself or call a contractor in for a job is not based on whether your Dad, your neighbor down the street or Bob Vila made a similar project look simple. Rather, it needs to be made based on your own, personal:

• skill and experience level
• aptitude for whatever sort of work you’re completing
• patience level
• frustrate-ability
• spare time available for the job, etc.

If you’re not excited about the prospect of doing the project, and you can afford to have someone else do it, don’t let the wanna-be handypeople in your life talk you into biting off more than you can chew.

7. What could go wrong?  If your project is uber-simple, like replacing a toilet or painting a wall, there are a limited number of worst-case scenarios which might be annoying and inconvenient, but are far from the end of the world. The kitty-cat wallpaper might be harder to get off than you thought – that sort of thing. But as the project grows larger in scope or more complex, the more potentially disastrous your worst-case scenarios are – and the more costly calling someone in to fix a DIY-gone-wrong will be.

When it comes to home improvement projects, the many moving pieces and relative inexperience of the average home owner suggest that an abundance of caution is just plain old smart. If your project’s do it yourself worst-case scenarios conjure up visions of bodily harm to your family members, buckets catching the rain or virtually anything caving in think long and hard before you take it on yourself, versus calling in a pro.