Rosie on the House: Top home improvement topics, part 2

Last week we reviewed the top one through five topics Rosie found most interesting this year. Here are his top six through 10.

6. Native plants and wildlife

Part of what makes living in Arizona, so alluring is the abundance of wildlife that our native trees, plants and cacti attract. Each of the examples below are water-efficient, easy to maintain, and will add beautiful color and dimension to your landscape. No need for multiple bird feeders to attract birds and butterflies to your property. There will be no shortage of visitors with these trees, plants and cacti.

Desert ironwood

(Olneya tesota)

The Ironwood is a perennial tree that can grow to 30 feet tall by 30 feet wide. Its gray-green leaves and half-inch lavender flowers bloom in the early spring. An excellent bird sanctuary, it produces pods containing dark seeds that are 2 inches long and one-half to one-fourth inches across. The protein-rich seeds attract insects, who are then sought after by birds. The ironwood’s dense canopy has been utilized by nearly 150 bird species, and the shade underneath it can shelter cacti for nesting and wildflowers for foraging. It creates little litter.

Read more at tucne.ws/1m98.

7. Fixes for an aging house

When you moved into your house 10 years ago, you promised yourself you’d update the place. But like most homeowners, the longer you live there, the less you notice the 40-year-old light fixtures, the wallpaper from the 1970s, and the sunken living room.

Even if you feel comfortable in your current home, when it comes time to sell, you could have some big problems. Here are five fixes you may have to make and some suggestions on how they can be repaired. But do them now so you can enjoy the improvements before you sell your home.

Fill in the sunken living room

Sunken living rooms were all the rage in the 1950s and 1960s; to some extent they are popular today with some folks. But they do present some problems. Most of them take up a whole living space that can be a step of from 6 to 8 inches down from another room. That can be a hazard for aging baby boomers and small children.

But you can raise the level of the floor to fill in the sunken room. After you empty the living room of furniture and remove any flooring covering the concrete slab, have a termite inspection. Get the area treated for termites to avoid future problems. Then you have to remove all of the wood pieces surrounding the old floor, including baseboards and stairs.

Read more at tucne.ws/1m99.

8. PFAS in drinking water

We have covered the abundance of minerals in Arizona’s water in depth. But there is something else in our water and the water all over the planet that is also concerning.

PFAS (Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances), also known as the “forever chemicals,” are a large chemical family of more than 9,000 highly persistent chemicals that don’t occur in nature. These are manufactured chemicals.

CHEMTrust reports that PFAS are the most persistent synthetic chemicals to date. They hardly degrade in the natural environment and have been found in the blood and breast milk of people and wildlife around the world.

PFAS are used in a wide range of consumer products due to their ability to repel both grease and water, including:

paper and cardboard food packaging

non-stick cookware

textiles

cosmetics

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electronics

We are exposed to hundreds of PFAS simultaneously via some of the products we use every day, as well as via environmental routes such as drinking water and certain foods. Because it is extremely challenging for water treatment plants to remove PFAS from water, contamination of drinking water with PFAS is a rising issue.

Read more at tucne.ws/1m9a.

9. Carport conversion

If you own a home that was built in the 1950s, you may have a carport instead of a garage attached to your house.

So that could be why one of the top 10 most popular DIY Q&A’s on the Rosie on the House radio show and website is: How do I convert my carport into a garage?

It may look so easy to do. Just slap up some walls all the way around the concrete slab of your carport and suddenly you have a garage. But it’s not that simple to do right and avoid future complications.

This job definitely requires a city or county building permit and maybe permission from your homeowners association. The planning department can even help with your design and give suggestions if you want to make this a do-it-yourself project. If you hire a licensed and insured contractor to do the job, in 2016 it was estimated to cost $20,000-plus to create that single-car garage.

Here are seven basic suggestions for creating the perfect — and legal and safe — garage for your home, based on a garage conversion done recently for a Phoenix area homeowner.

Read more at tucne.ws/1m9c.

10. Arizona newcomers

Living in Arizona is unlike living anywhere else.

Where else can you wander amongst the saguaros and within four hours, cruise through the pinions, up to the pines, and to the most amazing geological spectacle on Earth? Arizona.

Where else can you go skiing and an hour later soak up the warm sun and go swimming all on the same day? Tucson.

Where else can you see the original London Bridge without going to London? Lake Havasu.

Maybe that is why since 2010, according to Census.gov, 759,485 people moved to Arizona between 2010 and 2020. That’s an 11% increase in population.

Are you one of Arizona’s newbies? If so, welcome! Being new to the Grand Canyon State there are some important things you need to know.

Stupid Motorist Law

Yeah, we have a law called “The Stupid Motorist Law.”

Why? Contrary to popular belief, it does rain in Arizona. Sometimes the rain is so abundant that our hard soil can’t quickly soak it up, therefore we experience flash floods. Every time we experience heavy rainfall, the washes flood. Despite barricades being placed at flood zones with signs stating, “DO NOT CROSS,” inevitably, people ignore them, try to cross, and need to be rescued. Thus, the term and law.

Read more at tucne.ws/1m9d.