Summer is a season with many advantages and disadvantages. The weather warms up and the flowers bloom. It’s a great time for outdoor activities. Unfortunately, it’s also the time of year when insects, rodents, and other pests come out to test your patience.

Like other unwanted pests, summer is also the season for home-improvement scammers. They go door-to-door, usually targeting the elderly offering services that range from roof repair work to driveway sealing and everything in between. They use high pressure sales tactics to get homeowners to sign bad contracts. Even worse they might take money and leave and do very little, if any work at all. Here are a few tips homeowners can follow to avoid these kinds of home improvement scams.

Initiate the search

Most professional, qualified contractors keep pretty busy handling projects they were hired to do. They don’t typically go out door-to-door looking for work. A good rule of thumb is to initiate the search for a contractor. If they’re coming to you telling you that you need to have certain work done, that’s a red flag.
Every now and then, during a slow period, a reputable business may send people door-to-door. Look for a company logo on their vehicle or clothing then check to see if they have a brick and mortar location and an established reputation in the community.

Research the contractor

You can always do a little investigative work on your own. Ask the contractor for references and check them out. Use online resources like Angie’s List and the Better Business Bureau to see if they have a good track record. Verify that they are licensed to do the work and that they have insurance.

Never pay cash up front

Reputable contractors will never ask for 100% up-front payment. If a contractor insists on you paying up front, especially if they insist on cash, don’t agree to it. Typically, paying a third up front, another third during, and the final third upon satisfactory completion of the project is a good way to protect yourself. Pay with credit cards or checks rather than cash if possible.

Beware of contractor financing

If the work you’re having done does need to be financed, secure your own financing. Often, when contractors suggest a certain lender, it’s because they get some kind of kickback in return for getting you to borrow from them. There are usually better financing options than what the contractor recommends.

Insist on a written contract

Never settle for a handshake and a verbal agreement. Always get a contract in writing and look over it carefully before signing and agreeing to any work. Make sure that the contract details which materials will be used, when the project is set to begin and end, and what it’s expected to cost.

Interior Decorating and Remodeling News brought to you by ezbaseboardheatercovers.com
Source: islandpacket.com/2015/07/16/3839021/money-tips-be-on-the-lookout-for.html

Yo! I;ve been away or a while, Black Friday and other stuff has got me to busy but I've been keeping up with you guys but also the gaming scene.

So get this Pixlbit, I just realized that Thanksgiving is next week. Next freaking week. Oh the excitement is building because once Thanksgiving Dinner is over, Christmas Music is in full swing, and I will check out Black Friday deals. There is no way I’m going when the stores open because there will be yahoos fighting over $3 DVDs, so I’ll wait an hour or two, and besides the Target and Walmart by the house will be opened early so I will be happy to find a $20 game. How was your weekend Pixlbit? Anything fun, good, or exciting? My weekend was spent on “The 10” (you odd folks who don’t live in Southern California just refer to the freeway number) Wikipedia even has an entry for it. Who knew?

Well Hello Pixlbit World, the weekend is over and it is time to get back to the fun of the week. One of my favorite shows is back

I hate giving up on a game when I just start them, but I rarley have regrets when I do. Some games I never finished that I think were good games were Resonance of Fate, and Valkyria Chronicles. With Resonance of Fate there were long sections where you had to survive before reaching the boss at the end, a dungeon if you will. Dying half way and having to restart was very frustrating, but probably meant that I didn't understand the combat well enough. This is more likely true. Valkyria Chronicles, which is like an anime XCOM had long campaigns where you could end your game after an hour over a dumb mistake. Again, it probably means I didn't understand the game mechanics well enough to keep going. They are both really good games in my opinion, but with so many games to play out there, I don't feel like investing time to learn new systems all the time. I need to cut down to one or two games a month, instead of every week. 

Well hello and Happy Friday Pixlbit nation! The crazy weather is staring me in the face and I don’t want to go outside. The temperature in my little part of Sunny Southern California a couple of days ago. It's more of the same currently

The week is here; I’m ready to enjoy the weekend…and small doses of the triple digit heat. How are you Pixlbit? Are you ready for the weekend? For some reason short weeks always seem the longest. Of course my short week started off with me waking up freaking out that I forgot to take the trashcans to the curb, only to remember that the trash guys were going to be skipping the day after Memorial Day and show up on Wednesday. Since it is Friday its another edition of Quick Hits with Chris. For today I’m adding a new show I want to talk about, stuff that has been going on, and of course pickups! Sound good? Well let’s get started!

It's the perfect excuse to make a chocolate bunny bong. 

Most people have a top 10 or top 5 favorite games list. Most people have games that they'll replay over and over and over. I have enjoyed many games in my 15+ years of gaming. But these are my top 5 in no particular order. These are games I will always go back to.

So today I decided I'd go and talk about a little hobby of mine. Most people do different hobbies. Some people collect stamps or coins. Some people knit. Me...I like to buy and play bad Wii games. Now this is a  very odd hobby. I mean there are tons of shovelware titles for Wii...and I do mean a ton. These games can vary from lazy mini game compilations such as Carnival Games or licensed scholck such as Barbie and the Three Musketeers. If you've ever wondered what type of reaction you get when you buy a Barbie game in a store as a grown man...well I wouldn't know....I bought mine online to hide away my shame in the privacy of my home.

Todays blog will be fairly uneventful. I just have too much  of a headache today. So I'm feeling really lousy and tired. So um I guess I could go ahead and enjoy pictures of cats

For my new friends here on PixlBit, I do these kind of blogs every year.  I've been doing them since 2007 back on 1UP.com.  I started doing these blogs to show off my collection of games and to try curving my game buying addiction that has grown over the years.  Buying games wouldn't be so bad if I actually played most of the games I bought.  My backlog is ridiculous.  On top on that, I have a growing family to take care of.  My wife & I had our 5th child this year.   One bonus I didn't account for, from doing these blogs, is that they help me keep track of the games I buy.  You wouldn't believe the number of times I'm thinking about buying a game I really want and I go back to one of my old Game Purchases blogs and find out I already own the damn thing.   It doesn't happen often, but this year I double bought 3 games.  I don't sell games, so I'm thinking about giving them away or maybe if someone has a game I don't have is willing to do a trade.   

Happy Friday Pixlbits…and you new PS4 owners, Congrats! Oh new console time is always fun, there is going to be a ton of blog posts here about the new consoles, games, and opinions, and I can’t wait to read them…just remember no spoilers for us few who didn’t buy the consoles on launch. Again congrats and around January or February I will be joining your ranks.

So I'm at the point where I have my Pokemon team fully figured out. You know what that means- it's time to see which guys I've been traveling around Kalos with. So here it is, my Pokemon Y team!

Something I decided to do before the Fourth of July, out of the classiness of my own heart. I think my material was weak. I actually recorded this one, though. I try to remember a bad masturbation joke for a good first chunk of it, then make other "jokes" that are really just stories that go nowhere and get no laughs, and for the most part fuck up even those out of nerves, cause the guy before me was good and went on for a while, so if you hate me and want to feel better about yourself, you can listen to this trainwreck, but I'm certainly not fucking going to.

This is more then likely a more updates then a buys one because I havent bought a whole lot since Injustices release. I actually have only bought one game and preordered a few things so ya. PS4 wise Sony is still being quiet as a mouse and only one new game as been added to the list for it. Its an RPG called Lord of the Fallen. Thats all I know about it right now but with the name and the genre its gonna be in, Im gonna keep my out for info for it. I know pretty much now tyhough that E3 is most likely when a huge chunk of games will be announced and I cant help but feel thats when the consoles design will be revealed as well as when it can pre ordered. This as also prolly been  passed around a lot by now but Microsoft plans to unveil the next gen Xbox on May 21st. Im happy the date is set so the rumors can finally be put to rest whether true or false. On another note Im also back to keeping up with Nintendo stuff because on June 9th I shall have a 3DS again. Im quite excited for that since I was missing a lot of the games I had had at one time. I also watched the Nintendo Direct and some of what they anounnced def as me interested like Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, and Yoshi's Island 3D. I have played games from all 3 series so Im quite excited for them. The one im most excited for though.....Animal Crossing!!!! I bet ya didnt see that one coming...okay maybe you did.

So some of you may remember a week or so ago I had fired up the N64 and found that Donkey Kong 64 and 1080 Snowboarding would glitch after a few minutes of playing. I mentioned that I had been fiddling with the A/V cables (now that I remember red goes in the middle, there should be a lot less of that in the future) and turning the console on/off several times trying to get it to work, as well as the fact for some reason I always seem to have to turn the DVD player on then off to get full image and sound... I actually don't think that's entirely true, and next time without any A/V cable troubleshooting, I don't think that'll be the case. I need to work on getting my color-coded wires down before I fail to diffuse a bomb and kill myself. After that stunt I pulled on my neighbors with the HAL 3000 two blogs ago, It's only a matter of time, really.

Tiger Woods 2014 is a golf sim plain and simple, and is developed by EA Tiburon and EA published the game for the 360 and the ps3 in North America on March 26 2013.

Well a lot's been going on at the moment, my wife and I have just moved to Australia which is exactly the other side of the world and my dear old ma is not too happy about it, but hey a guy can only take so much bad weather which England has in spades! We decided on Perth (WA) and its absolutely amazing out here. It's fast approaching winter but the temperature is well into the thirties and the sun makes for a ultra relaxed attitude, though the price of stuff will take some getting used too, it works out to be about £10 ($15 Aus dollars) for a pint of beer! Great incentive to cut down though.