MY JOURNEY - Our move over the pond.

My name is Seth Paul, I spent most of my life in chesterfield England. I was a high school teach and driving instructor there for almost 10 years. Early 2019, my wife and  I decided to make a change and move to Texas. She had a job opportunity over there and I figured I could find work. That is why my blog's domain name is Gloucester driving lessons. I decided to keep it and build my personal blog on this domain since many of my students and customers already knew about it. I just want to share my adventures here, and my journey now living in the states. I will continue to add new posts about what we are doing, businesses we discover, things we learn, and great places to eat. I hope you check back often and some of what I share you find helpful.

My Blog Posts

We made it to Texas and we are loving it!

We got to Austin Texas on January 21, and got moved into our new house that week. The weather has been nice here, but I'm worried the summer is gonna kill us since we are not used to the heat and humid weather. My wife Karen started her new job and is loving it. We have met several friends and have enjoyed the food scene here in Austin. I'm really loving the TexMex food. We are excited to checkout the swimming holes and pools around the area as it starts to warm up.

We have also checked out the music scene and found several cool bands that we have enjoyed. I believe we are going to like living here for several years. my new home is in need of some repairs, so I am going to try and blog about some of the work I do on the property.

-Seth




Central Texas Trees

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Central Texas, home to multifarious landscapes and soils hosts picturesque and distinctive flora & fauna. Ergo, the
trees growing here become a unique feature of its diverse geography.  Having these denizens of Central Texas in your backyard, to enhance the decorative quotient of your home, is class! 


Here are some of them to vow for- 

1- Lacey Oak (Real Texas Lady)

Type- Deciduous

USDA zone- 7

Nicknamed as the real Texas lady, the Lacey Oak is native to the Edwards Plateau, and Northeastern Mexico. Sartorial elegance, stout & stocky trunk, many hued leaf color; it has a great tolerance for drought, heat and Ph levels of soil. Ideally 30-35 ft, it is resistant to wilt/diseases, etc. and require less maintenance (adaptive to well drained clay soils, slowly growing best on limestone soils). This small/medium sized ornamental shady tree is a catch for your personal verdure. 

2- Live Oak (Southern Live Oak/Escarpment Oak)

Type- Evergreen

USDA zone- 6

Having a number of species and names, the Live oak tree is an evergreen, moderately growing tree with an average height of 25-50 ft. The South-central and Southeastern parts of America host these species on sandy, clayey or loamy soil. Its large spread (about 50 feet) is a multipurpose asset.

3- Texas Red Oak (Buckley Oak)

Type- Deciduous

USDA zone- 8

The foliage of this Southern great plains flowering tree displays bright shades of vivid red and orange in autumn with its dark gray/ black bark. It has many hybrids and makes your garden don the semblance of an ethereal masterpiece because of its height (30-50 ft) and ostentatious appearance.

4- Bur Oak (Mossycup White Oak)

Type- Deciduous

USDA zone- 3-8

Large and tasty acorns (for the wild), this rapid growing prairie tree is an unparallel flora in longevity (200-300 yr lifespan). Also, its massive shape and size (50-100ft) are a plus apart from the various soils (alkaline, clayey, loamy) it grows on. Good luck hiding a message for future generations in it.

5- Bald Cypress

Type- Deciduous Conifer

USDA zone- 4-9

When you have a wet garden area all the time, this conifer saves the day. But clean the leaf-mess in winters as it goes bald. Slow growing, medium height (30-35), this tree displays the chilly feel of winters, cinematically.


6- Anacua (Sandpaper tree)

Type-Partial Evergreen

USDA zone- 8-9
This South Central medium sized tree, basically a shrub, has edible drupes. Reaching a good height (25-40ft), it is quite a thing when talking about exceptions (its leaves are fun to touch).

7- Cedar Elm

Type- Deciduous

USDA zone- 6-9

Requiring very little care, Cedar is a darling. Cool shade, drought resistant, and surviving wet areas, it’s an important tree for public places. Spread of 40-60 ft at maturity and ideal height (50-70ft), Cedar elm’s seeds from the food of wild turkeys, pheasants, quail, squirrels, deer and songbirds alike.

Avoid pruning sessions from Feb - June and paint the tree wounds regardless of the season, to prevent infection. Albeit, these trees require very less care, make sure trimming and pruning if part of your routine for caring for the plants.

If you would like to learn more about the tree's in Central Texas, please contact our friends at 

http://treeserviceaustintx.net they are knowledgeable about all the tree's in the area, and highly trained arborists. They also specialize in tree trimming and have one of Austin's best tree services.

-Seth



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Home Remodeling and the costs.

Remodeling doesn't only add beauty to your building, but it ensures that your building is made of modern-day materials and designs which will wow anyone that sees it.

What's Home remodeling  

Home remodeling is act of upgrading your building to a more beautiful and comfortable one by adding modern-day or contemporary furniture and materials to it.  

Remodeling doesn't stop at adding just materials, it also includes changing the structure of your rooms to a more advanced and sophisticated appearance; repairing any damages to the wall and other parts of the room.

How Much does Home Remodeling Cost

Remodeling your home is a bit expensive, though, it all depend on the type of structure and quality you want for your house.  

If you're willing to change many of your furniture, appliances, doors, deck and other important parts of the building to a more advanced one, then, you should also ready to spend big.  

It was revealed that over $34Billion was spent on  home remodeling in the US last year. This is a confirmation that remodeling your home -- to make it look new and beautiful -- requires a bit of spending. 

However, you need not to worry because the more you spend in renovating your home, the more its financial value increases. This means you have a lot to gain whenever you decide to place your building on sale.

Effects of Home Remodeling on Your Home and Financial Status

There are many effects of home remodeling, but we're set to uncover some of these effects this process could have on your financial status.  

* It adds more beauty to your home  

This is one of the benefits of remodeling your home. The beauty of your building increases as soon as you add some new features to it. New feature like doors and garage deck will enhance the attractiveness of your home.  

* It Increases the financial value of your home and your financial status  

It is believed that every new thing attracts higher financial worth; therefore, your home is destined to increase financially, whenever you renovate it. 

Experts revealed that for every renovation made on any room of your building, at least there will be 20 percent increase to its overall financial value.

 If you are in Central Texas and needing work done, give Handyman Austin a call for your project. They do all types or repairs and remodeling projects, big or small.

Experts further confirmed that changing your door to a garage door will increase the financial value of your home by 18 percent. 

It's also said that adding a Garage wood deck to your building increases the financial value of your home by 17.7 percent; the list goes on and on.

 

It won't be out of place to say that remodeling your house pays more than the price you spent while renovating as long as you take your time to map out your renovation plans.  

You mustn't be carried away by the profits involved in home remodeling, you must be very careful with the type of renovation you choose for your house to avoid losing at the end of the process.  

This is why you must know some tips about home remodeling before you're engaged in the process. These tips will prevent you from making  wrong renovating decisions. They will equally help you end up recovering all of the money you spent, should you decide to put your house on sale.

Best Three Home Remodeling Tips

* Set a budget for the process  

It is important you set a budget whenever you want to renovate your home, as it will help you monitor and control your expenses. Having a budget that controls your spending will help your realize more profits at the end of the process.

 

In addition, it's mandatory that you set 15% of your budget on unexpected expenses as this will prevent you from being stranded whenever there are urgent materials to buy.  

* Don't Replace all Appliances with new Ones 

Many believe that remodeling a building means replacing every old appliances with new ones. This is far from the truth  because you will end up spending more money.  

As far as old appliances are still in good condition, you don't need to change them. All you need to do is repaint them with attractive and eye-catching colors.  

* Don't over-remodel your home  

As much as it's good to see that every angles of the building wear a new look, it is also important you know that over-remodel will have adverse effects on your building and on your budget.  

Hence, you must be straightforward and precise with the apartment or room you want to renovate.

 - Seth




Home Plumbing Tips

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Have you ever been at home and suddenly you have a sink or toilet stopped up won’t drain and you don’t know what to do? Well in this article I’m gonna give you some tips and tricks to talk a little bit about plumbing so that maybe next time you are in this situation you can solve it without having to call a professional plumber. However, many times a plumbing issue will require a professional to come out and evaluate it and fix the problem. Some plumbing tasks are just too complicated or require special tools that homeowners cannot do on their own.


If you have a stopped up sink and you cannot get it to drain often times going under the sink and opening up the P-trap by unscrewing the pipe will allow you to remove the obstruction, and get the sink draining again.


I have even had luck at using a metal clothes hanger straighten it out and running it down the sink drain to pull out a build up of hair and gunk that often gets stuck and causes the water to back up over time.


Clogs in the toilet can be more complicated because you’re only real way of unclogging this is with a plunger, you will want to flush the toilet and as the water rises above the plunger you create a seal against the bottom of the toilet and perform small hard thrusts to build a suction and hopefully remove the clog.


If that technique does not work you can purchase snacks and water balloon like fittings that go on the end of water hose at your home improvement store. But often for these type of drains you will have to call in a professional plumber.


If you have a pipe that’s leaking many times just tightening up the joints and thread will solve the problem however if this does not work then you might want to unscrew the pipe apply Teflon tape around the threads, and then re-screw the pipe back together tightly this will often fix leaky faucet’s and pipe connections.


I hope these tips will help you with some of your home plumbing fixes in the future and once again if this does not work be sure and call up your local plumber and get the job done by a professional.  If you are in the west Texas area, we know there are some Plumbers Midland TX residents prefer to call on. Our friends out there at Permian Basin Plumbing are one of the best plumbing companies we know of.  I hope these tips will help you with some of your repairs in the future.

-Seth