I finally took the courage to buy the Wagner steam cleaner I’ve been reading about since last year. I hesitated a lot because I wasn’t sure the 1500W power would be enough to clean the grout between the kitchen floor tiles. Now I’m happy I bought it, because it does a wonderful job. The grout comes out clean and disinfected. Well, I know it’s not the original color, and it probably won’t be again like new, but it looks much better than it used to when I cleaned it with a regular mop.

So, I’m happy and I can’t wait to host my Super Bowl party!

When my friend told me that one can cook a low fat omelet, she really made me laugh, because everybody knows that eggs contain fat. After she explained to me what she had in mind, I got the message: she was using only the whites to make the omelet. Well, this is not exactly my favorite type of food, because egg whites don’t have too much of a taste. Yolks are the best part of the egg, so I’d rather not cook omelets, if I have to make them white. Of course one can add spices, but I believe that if you need to stay on a low-fat diet, you’d better stick to vegetables and fruits and leave aside eggs, meat and such things that taste good only when they are fat.

What do you think?

Apartment rental is one of the solutions for young families to start a life together, apart from their parents or other relatives. This doesn’t apply only to Romania, as nowhere in the world very young people are paid as much as to afford buying their own home within their first years of work. Renting a home doesn’t come cheap. In fact, the monthly rent is more or less equal with a mortgage loan installment. This makes people think that it would be better to take a loan and repay it within 15-20 years time, instead of just paying rent and getting nothing in the end, but only the fact that you had a place to live in for all those years. However, in order to be proved for such a loan, one has to meet certain personal income criteria. Additionally, a minimum advance payment is required, and most young people simply didn’t work for long enough time to accumulate such savings. This is how it comes that people around 20 – 25 years of age find it very hard to buy their own apartment or to build a house for them and their family.

Here are a few tips for people who want to rent an apartment:

- Do a calculation before you commit into anything, in order to see how much can you afford to pay on a monthly basis. It’s always tempting to say yes to an offer which looks appealing and to think that you can pay the extra 50 Euro required, only to find yourself one year later in impossibility to pay your rent anymore. If you can’t afford two rooms, you may want to rent a one-room apartment, but for this, you’ll have to search for “inchirieri garsoniere Ploiesti” in the local classifieds newspapers.

- Think long term, but be sure you have a way out earlier if needed. It’s true that many times you can get additional discounts if you sign a long term agreement, however it would be best to be free to break it any given time, without major financial consequences for you. You never know what life brings, so you may wish to leave much sooner than expected.

- Hire a real estate agency to search for your apartment, like “Imobiliare Ploiesti“. The commission is usually half of the first month’s rent, but if you think at the advantages of having somebody else to do all that time consuming search, you’ll see it’s worth paying it

- Have a priorities list: you may have multiple demands from your apartment. However, you have to bear in mind that it’s possible you can’t find the ideal place within your desired time frame, so you’d better define your absolute must-haves and the things you’d like to have but you can live without if you can’t find them

Last but not least, never let yourself dragged into not making a written agreement with the owner. There are still people who may want to save some money by not paying taxes on their rental income. You don’t want that, because if something goes wrong, you’re not covered by any document to prove you’re right. It’s better to have everything legal, even if this means you’d have to pay a bit more.

If you ever wanted to buy arch window blinds, you may have noticed that their price is way higher than the price of normal, rectangular blinds and shades. You might have felt frustrated that you had to pay more, but there are a few reasons why this is happening:

First of all, we are talking about custom blinds, hence expenses that need to be covered by producing fewer units. In case of mass production, such common costs are lower per piece. Rectangular windows are pretty much the standard, therefore rectangular blinds are also very common. The more pieces a manufacturer makes, the lower the production cost.

Then, here it comes the psychological factor: people who afford home improvements customization will have higher purchasing power, so they will be ready to pay more than regular guys and even feel better for that. It’s great to be able to tell your friends how much you paid for your arched top bamboo blinds, isn’t it? Price makes them special. It’s like in case of expensive cars that are as good as cheaper ones, but perceived as luxury items because of their price.

So, it seems that even expensive blinds for arches or curved windows have their customers.

If you’re paying too much for heating your home in winter, maybe it’s time to consider installing some nice thermal insulated curtains at your windows. They are maybe the cheapest way of insulating your rooms, because the fabric they are made of is not so expensive and you can make them yourself if you know how to sew two pieces of fabric together.

The main action a thermal curtain has is that it stops the cold air from advancing towards the center of the room. Yes, there’s a layer of cold air onto the glass surface of your windows, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed that. As cold air is attracted to move towards hot air, this movement will create those air drafts that can be so embarrassing. A think, insulating curtain will stop them, because cold air and hot air won’t mix together anymore.

For the thermal curtain to work at its maximum efficient, you’ll have to secure it against the wall on all four sides. Some magnets and metallic tracks would do the trick. Another idea is to use Velcro tape: stick one strip on the wall and sew the other strip on the curtain edge. The effect is guaranteed.

One of my big favorite foods of all time are stuffed pork chops. They are much better than grilled steaks or baked chops because they don’t necessarily need a side dish. You can eat them just as they are, with no potatoes nor any other vegetables. If you think stuffed chops are difficult to prepare, you’re wrong. Actually, almost any stuffing would do, from cheese to ham leftovers (this is one of the best leftover ham recipes, great to be used after holidays) or mushrooms, or even shredded chicken breast leftovers.

Preparing stuffed pork chops requires only a bit of imagination. You’ll see that you can find all required ingredients in your pantry, because if something misses, it can easily be replaced with something else. The only mush-have are the pork chops, of course. The second condition is that they are thick enough to allow cutting those pockets that are going to be stuffed with the other goodies.

Have you ever cooked such recipes? If you did and you care to share your tips with us, feel free to do it in the comments section.