For many people, getting ready for the New Year involves setting up a calendar. Whether you use Outlook or another computer-based system, or prefer the classic print calendars, now is the time to prepare for next year by inserting key birthdays, anniversaries, and other personal holidays and events.

While planning your new year, how about including your house? Your home requires a number of annual maintenance events, and now is a great time to schedule them.

Do you have wood floors that need a new coat of wax or stone floors that need sealing? Are your granite countertops due for another coat of sealant this spring? When did you last have your heating and air conditioning system checked? How often do you have your carpets cleaned?

To make your life even easier, add in the phone numbers of any contacts you need for each project right in your calendar so you’re ready to make arrangements as each event comes up this next year.

Instead of counting on your memory or reminders from others, take a few extra minutes as you set up your calendar and plan your home’s care requirements for 2011. Then relax and have a happy New Year!

Are you someone who makes resolutions every year? Many people do – lose that extra 20 pounds, exercise regularly, keep your temper when the dog makes you crazy. But while you’re making personal ones, how about adding in a few to make your home safer for you and your family?

Here are a few ideas that can make a difference.

Read Safety Instructions: Every product manufacturer provides safety instructions to go with installation or use manuals. Take the time to read them. You may find that some of your assumptions of safety measures are misguided or outdated.

Bath Safety: Consider installing safety bars in your showers or baths. For children, older people, or anyone at any age, the bars can help avoid accidents on wet slippery floors. Make sure they are drilled into the studs, so that they stay where they’re supposed to when you use them.

Fire Safety: It’s tempting to burn those after holiday stacks of boxes and gift wrap in the fireplace, but sparks and an overheated fire can create real safety problems. Stick with standard fireplace fare and put boxes in recycling instead.

DIY Safety: When working with tools, always use safety glasses. Make sure your tool box also includes a first-aid kit, work gloves and ear protection gear. Depending on the project, you may also need a dust mask or respirator. Read instructions and plan for safety when you plan to do it yourself.

When you’re making your resolutions, include one or more designed to keep your home and family safe and secure. And have a happy 2011!

Are you ready to wrap up the holiday season? The following tips will help you start the next year right, and prepare you for the next holiday.

Check the lights: Both your indoor and outdoor lights are designed for limited life. Check your lights for frayed wires, cracked sockets, or burned out bulbs. Discard the doubtful strings, and use the original packaging or purchased light holders to keep them from tangling before packing them away. You may want to consider buying replacements at after-holiday sales. The new LED lights have beautiful colors and are much more energy efficient.

Plan your post-holiday pack up: Are your ornaments packed safely? Are your holiday candles protected from the summer’s heat? Also, pack backwards based on how you want to unpack your decorations next year, and label the boxes. Now is the time to discard any decorations that you no longer want, so you don’t waste storage space.

Read installation and safety instructions: Did you receive any exciting electronic or other gifts that have installation or use instructions? Take the time to read the safety information, and make sure you follow installation directions closely. Set any electronic equipment up immediately – you generally only have about two weeks to return them directly to the store if there is a problem.

Don’t take a chance on that HDTV: If you want to wall-mount a television, hire a professional or purchase a special mounting system and follow the instructions carefully.

Keep the rest of your holidays happy by taking care of the details and keeping your home and family safe, and have a wonderful 2011!

We love receiving testimonials and letters of thanks from home owners! We received this note and wanted to share it with you.

“We would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to Geneva Estates Salseman Tom Lacher and Customer Care Superintendant John Martin for their courtesy, kindness and professionalism in helping and advising us with any and all questions and or problems.”

Have you had an experience with Fulton that you would like to share? We’d love to hear from you!

In the deep midwinter, warmth comes from more than your furnace. Walk into this room and your first inclination is to snuggle into the chair of your choice and light the fire in the fireplace.

This room is made for chilly winter days, so ignore the summer trees outside and let’s take a look at why this room makes you feel so cozy.

Despite the sunshine coming in the window, the room has a soft dark feel. The mid-tone blue walls – in a color called sage blue – are warm with enough richness to add comfort.

The furniture is also soft and dark, with a mostly print-on-print approach that invites an echo of a country feel. The quilt and coffee table also say country, but the more formal needlepoint pillow and straightforward curtains keep the space from getting too fluffy.

The cream colored ceiling and the warm light russet carpet reflect each other, picking up the warm browns in the quilt and the main floral print. With this style, wood floors might be the expected choice, but carpet keeps up the theme of warmth and comfort.

Does the design of your living room, bedroom or den keep you feeling warmer at this time of year? Think about adding some soft, dark elements to cozy up your space when the snow falls.

Are you ready to decorate for the holidays? If you want to have your home feel designed as well as decorated, a few steps can help you reach your goal.

Adding decorations requires completely re-thinking your space. Do you have a tree that crowds the room? Consider what you can remove to make space for what is actually another piece of furniture for the duration of the holidays. You may even want to rearrange the room to allow the tree to be a focal point.

The same approach of removing before adding applies to accessories. Take as many of your everyday accessories out of the space as possible. If storage is limited, you may want to temporarily pack them in your holiday storage boxes. Decorations tend to be vivid and sparkling. Too many other items in the space can make it feel cluttered and overwhelming.

When you decorate your space, don’t feel obligated to throw holiday at every spot in the room. Instead, build tableaus using your decorations combined with natural elements such as holly and pine boughs. Do you have a collection of snow globes? Instead of scattering them, group them together to create an appealing display. Add a few shiny round ornaments or some tinsel, and you have an inviting holiday element.

Finally, find consistent elements to pull your holiday decorations together. Maybe you can pick up several bunches of two-color holly at a florist and use that to connect your holiday décor. Possibly staying with a few colors or a style will help your decorations feel like they are planned rather than random. Don’t be afraid to use contrast to make things interesting. Take a look at how the photo combines rustic natural elements with classic white and gold decorations – that took courage but it works.

Remember, you get to start over every year – experiment and have fun, and your home will be an inviting place for you and all of your holiday guests.

Preparing properly for the carpet cleaners is part one of the full carpet cleaning process. Now that we’re facing winter weather, part two is even more important – drying your carpeting. If you let your carpet dry slowly and naturally over a few days, you run the risk of mold in your home. It’s best to make sure your carpeting is dry within 24 hours.

The drying process is straightforward. The most important step is turning the fan on your heating system from auto to on (you will find this switch on your thermostat). You may also want to turn the heat up a few degrees to speed drying. It will help to turn on any other ventilation fans you have in your home, such as bathroom and oven vents, and possibly open a few windows if it’s warm enough.

Do you have any ceiling fans? They will dry the carpet quite quickly when turned on high. For corners and fan-free rooms, use portable fans, or rent a professional blower from your carpet cleaner. Move these around to ensure that every space has a chance to dry. Check for dampness by pressing the carpet hard with your hands.

Be sure to double-check any transitions from carpeting to hard flooring surfaces. Residual water can make those thresholds slippery. Dry them off and watch out when walking because the soles of your shoes can be damp. If you have pets, damp paws can be addressed by covering any pet-friendly furniture with towels until everything and everyone is dry.

This may sound complex, but with a few hours of effort, your carpeting will be dry and beautiful, ready for your holiday entertaining.

Do you love your Fulton home? If you do, shoot a 30-60 second video (use your phone, a flip or any camera) telling us why you love your Fulton home. Then upload to our Facebook page www.facebook.com/FultonHomes and you could win  a GE Profile Harmony Electric Washer and Dryer in Platinum that talk to each other.  ($2000 retail value.) Contest ends 1-11-11. Here are more details about the prize.

GE Profile Harmony High-Efficiency Top-Loading Washer

With this GE washer, you get a King-size, 4.0 cu. ft. stainless steel wash basket — one of the largest-capacity washers available — for washing up to 24 bath towels or 50 T-shirts in a single load. Plus, the GE Harmony washing machine uses as little as 17 gallons of water for a small load and 24 gallons for an average-size load. **Please leave a comment if you need help uploading the video to our Facebook page. Good luck!