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Homeowners insurance companies routinely review policies to decide whether to renew or cancel them. Your insurer could decide to cancel your policy for several reasons, but you might be able to convince it to reconsider.

Too Many Claims
A homeowners insurance company might cancel a policy if a homeowner filed several claims in a short period of time and the company paid out more than it collected in premiums. If the claims were related to a common problem, you might be able to persuade the company to keep you as a customer if you made changes or repairs to address the underlying issue and prevent future claims. The company might also be willing switch you to a policy that excluded that specific peril or that had a higher deductible.

Unsafe Conditions
If you put off maintenance for so long that your house is dangerous, the insurance company might be unwilling to cover you. The risk of damage to the house, its contents and people could simply be too great for the company to accept, unless you offered to make major repairs to make the house safe.

Change in Risk
Perhaps you made a change to your property that increased the risk of an accident. For example, if you installed a swimming pool, a child could drown, which could result in a liability claim against the insurance company. The company might be willing to continue to insure your home if you installed a fence with a locked gate and alarm around the pool.

Missed Payments
If you havent paid your premiums on time, the insurance company might decide to cancel your policy. If you lost your job or had an unforeseen medical problem that left you unable to work, the insurer might be willing to work out a payment plan and keep you as a customer.

Illegal Conduct
An insurance company also considers the behavior of policyholders. If you have a criminal record, the company might be concerned about damage or liability related to future illegal acts that you might commit on the property. If you caused intentional damage to your home to file an insurance claim and got caught, the company could cancel your policy.

Risky Location
Sometimes an insurance company makes individual policy decisions by looking at characteristics of a wider area. For example, if your home and others in the neighborhood were burglarized recently, the insurance company might consider the entire area too risky to insure. It might be willing to keep you as a customer, however, if you installed a home security system.

Talk to Your Insurer
If your homeowners insurance company has notified you that your policy will be canceled, call and discuss the reason for the impending cancellation and find out if theres anything you can do to change the companys decision. If not, youll need to start looking for coverage with another company before your current policy ends.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

If theres one part of a home where you can cut loose and have fun, its the game room. Whether youre a pool shark or board game enthusiast, having a designated area to spend leisure time with friends and family is a luxury that cannot be overlooked. While these recreation spaces can be a challenge to design, here are a few helpful tips that will have you on your way to hosting the ultimate game night!

Identify Your Space
A large, open area tends to work best for a game room because it allows you to set up distinct spaces for different activities and is conducive to entertaining. For this reason, game rooms are often located in finished basements or converted attics, but they can really be located in any part of the house depending on your needs.

Consider the Games
Once you know the area and layout of the space, the next step is to assess how you plan to use it. Will you need room for billiards or a ping pong table? Maybe a felted card table or a board game area? Whatever it is your family enjoys, try to make the most of the room and have something that everyone will have fun playing together.

Pick a Theme
Having a theme will set the mood for your game room and make it an exciting place to entertain friends. You can go wild with your imagination and recreate a vintage arcade from your childhood that the kids are sure to love, or go for more of grown-up vibe with a sports bar or casino theme.

Functional Decor
Because game rooms are often used as a multipurpose space, its ideal to have furniture that can swivel or be moved around the room easily to accommodate groups of all sizes. Ample shelving and storage space are also important since therell likely be lots of odds and ends piling up, like ping pong paddles, poker chips, board games and more.

Refreshment Area
Whether its a wet bar or a kitchenette, having some sort of refreshment area is a major bonus thatll come in handy when youre hosting game night. After all, you dont want to miss your turn just because you had to run all the way back to the kitchen to make a cocktail for one of your guests!

Published with permission from RISMedia.

These days, homeowners are embracing the future and fitting their abodes with an array of smart home technology, including smart faucets. And there are more benefits to a high-tech, hands-free faucet than you might think.

Following are just a few of the reasons to upgrade your home with smart faucets.

Hands-Free Control
The motion-activated faucet has been around for a while, and those who have one can agree that its a lifesaver when your hands are covered in grease but you dont want to get the sink dirty in order to wash them. These days, smart sinks can sync up with your smart home assistant, so you can use voice commands to turn it on, off, and even heat up the water when your hands are full.

Precise Dispensing
When the recipe calls for two cups of water, you can forget about pulling out the measuring cup. All you have to do is say the amount you need and its as easy as that. You can also give custom commands to make your daily routine easier, such as filling the kettle or coffee pot, meaning that your sink becomes your own virtual assistant in the kitchen.

Monitor Usage
Theres the added bonus of being able to see exactly how much water youre using. Some smart faucets, like the Kohler Sensate, utilize a sensor on the valve to monitor usage and leaks, which is then displayed on an app. If any unusual usage is detected, youll receive an alert on your smartphone.

No Fingerprints and Smudges
Hands-free control, whether youre using voice commands or motion sensors, means your kitchen sink stays cleaner. For those who cant stand a dirty kitchen, those fingerprints and smudges on the faucet can be a real pet peeve. With a smart faucet, you can rest assured your sink will never lose its luster regardless of how much use it sees.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

Though it may be a luxury thats often overlooked, an outdoor bathing area adds heaps of appeal to any home. If youre looking to add one to your house, heres all the inspiration youll need to design a dream-worthy outdoor shower.

Tropical Sanctuary
For complete immersion in nature, you can create a tropical garden theme with lush plantings that offer the utmost privacy and relaxation. Try using plants that feel exotic, like hibiscus and bird of paradise, and youll have your own little refuge that feels like a Caribbean resort.

Rustic Appeal
If your home lends itself to more of a farmhouse aesthetic, then you can try designing the shower area with a stone wall for a rural feel. Exposed copper piping furthers the rustic ambiance and makes for an idyllic place to wash all your stress away.

In the Open
Rather than enclosing the shower, another option is to keep it open. This simple solution makes it easy to take a quick rinse after getting out of the pool or spending a day at the beach. All it takes is a luxurious showerhead along the backside of the house and you have everything youll need.

Zen Garden
When you need to get away and relax the mind, an enclosed pebble garden with a stone path leading to your outdoor shower is just the place to escape to. You can even include a seating area for quiet reflection or, even better, an outdoor bathtub.

Modern
For a distinctly modern look, try using materials like cedar cladding and concrete along with a sleek showerhead. Add a pergola with plants up above and youll have the perfect place to take your morning shower throughout the summer months.

Published with permission from RISMedia.

Decades ago”pre-1980″a great deal of the paint that was utilized in homes contained lead. Over the ensuing years, that paint would chip or crumble and the resulting dust could cause serious health problems, especially for children and pregnant women.

Using lead paint was the norm. It was used both inside and outside, particularly on windows, baseboards, trim and doors. Unfortunately, layers of lead-based paint have been disturbed through the years during remodeling or home repair.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a devastating report revealing that lead can affect childrens brains and developing nervous systems, resulting in reduced intelligence, learning disabilities and behavioral problems. In 2019, its absolutely necessary for anyone selling a home to be aware of the dangers of lead paint and know if their house will be a problem.

And it impacts a lot of homes. The Department of Health revealed that approximately 75 percent of all homes built 40 years or more ago contain some lead-based paint. Furthermore, its estimated that more than 30 million homes in the U.S. still contain lead paint.

Unlike in the past, real estate professionals and their sellers are required to disclose any presence of known lead paint and lead hazards during the sale or rental of a home.

For homeowners who are unsure about their homes, sometimes its easier to replace windows, doors, or woodwork than it is to remove the lead-based paint. This way, all traces of any paint will have been removed from the home.

Federal law requires that before being obligated under a contract to buy housing built prior to 1978, buyers must receive the following from the home seller:

1. An EPA-approved information pamphlet on identifying and controlling lead-based paint hazards titledProtect Your Family From Lead In Your Home
2. Any known information concerning the presence of lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards in the home or building.
3. An attachment to the contract, or language inserted in the contract, that includes a Lead Warning Statement and confirms that the seller has complied with all notification requirements.
4. A 10-day period to conduct a paint inspection or risk assessment for lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards.

If you have an older home and you can say for certain that there is no lead paint, it can also attract a higher price.

Published with permission from RISMedia.