If your offer is under asking price or significantly lower than other offers, a letter probably won’t be enough to sway the seller in your favor. If there are multiple equal offers, though, and if your Realtor agrees that a letter might help give your offer a leg up on the competition, here’s what you should include as you put pen to paper. How a Letter to the Home-Seller Can Help Letters can plead a case to sellers, make an emotional appeal, and clear up any confusion....

Editor’s Tip: If you suspect your bathroom has black mold, known as Stachybotrys chartarum, seek a professional to test it, as you may have a larger problem at hand. If the results indicate other common household molds, move forward with our cleaning tips. Best Cleaning Products for Bathroom Mold With any cleaning product for bathroom mold, you should use gloves and work in a well-ventilated area. Wearing a mask is recommended as cleaning mold can cause the release of mold spores into the air....

‘Night Sky’ petunias will upend every preconceived notion you might have about petunias. Their vivid purple petals are speckled with white, giving them a dappled, otherworldly appearance. At first, you might not even believe they’re petunias, since they probably look like nothing you’ve ever seen at a garden center. Solid purple varieties do exist, but these belong in a whole other category. The starry effect of the white spots on the ‘Night Sky’ flower is completely mesmerizing....

Colorful Combinations In both foliage and flower, perennial geraniums offer a variety of colors to choose from. One of its common names, cranesbill, comes from the seedpods of these plants, which resemble the beak of a crane. The blooms come in shades of pink, purple, and even blue. A few offer starry white flowers, too. Along with the many shades, the blooms often have deeper colored veins radiating from the center like hand-painted whiskers....

Perhaps the most common board-and-batten arrangement uses 1x10 boards and 1x2 or 1x3 batten. You can also use 1x8 or 1x12 boards and 1x4 battens. To seal out moisture, the boards should be in sound condition and free of any open knots—the battens themselves should lap at least 3/4 inch onto the boards on both sides. Cedar is a good lumber of choice because it’s soft; harder wood, such as pressure-treated pine, will not seal as well and is more likely to crack after installation....

Supplies Required 18-inch-diameter, 8-inch-deep pot Cactus mix potting soil, small bag Five fist-size rocks Dwarf Euphorbia milii (half gallon) 25 succulent cuttings, assorted Crushed black lava rock White pumice (to go under blue tumbled glass) Light blue tumbled glass Step 1: Prep Pot Fill the pot nearly to the top with cactus mix potting soil—it provides the amount of drainage succulents need. You can find a cactus mix sold at any nursery or garden center....

If you haven’t worked much with felt before, here’s a tip: Use freezer paper to make cutting crisp felt shapes possible. Felt tends to slip while being cut, but by using an iron to temporarily adhere freezer paper to the felt sheet before cutting, you can stabilize the fibers and make it much easier to get clean, crisp pattern pieces. So download our free Christmas ornament pattern now and get started on your poinsettia decorations today....

The process of creating a muffin batter is quite simple. Using two bowls, combine your dry ingredients in one bowl and your wet ingredients in another, then add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix only until the batter comes together. In culinary terms, this mixing process is called the Muffin Method (yes, that is the technical term!). The process is fast and easy; However, the common downfall is that the batter can quickly become overmixed, resulting in a tough, coarse texture....

Duranta Color Combinations With its brilliant blue chains of flowers, duranta is a stand-alone knockout. Each individual five-petaled bloom most commonly is a vibrant blue shade, often edged in white. There are also other varieties in lighter shades of violet-blue, and even some in bright white. Many varieties can bloom throughout the year where they are hardy. When used as an annual in more temperate climates, their largest display of blooms is in midsummer....

If you’re planning to refinish an existing floor, pull up a floor register to make sure you have enough wood for another sanding. Standard hardwood strip flooring can be sanded several times, but if your floor is only slightly more than 1/2 inch thick, consult a professional. The same goes for engineered flooring. It can be refinished, but its top layer is quite thin. Take inventory of the existing floor, and mark and repair popped nails and damaged areas....

1. Grow New Lettuce Leaves from Roots You could head to the grocery every time you need a new head—or you could grow lettuce straight from your kitchen. Go ahead and eat your store-bought batch, but leave the central part of the vegetable untouched, since this section possesses the power for producing new growth. Cut the leaves about an inch from the bottom of the lettuce bunch. Place the lettuce stem in a shallow dish of water....

After the moldings are out of the way, the next step is to remove the drywall or plaster from the wall. Before you start smashing the wall with a hammer, find out if there are any pipes, ducts, or wiring inside the walls. This is a messy job, so work carefully to avoid creating excessive debris and dust. Remove drywall in large pieces. Start near the top of the wall and work down, prying the drywall free of its fasteners as you go....

In most cases, having a local hardware store or glass specialist cut the glass for you is best. Unless the pane is very small, order double-thick glass; single-thick glass breaks easily. Order shatter-resistant glass for a door, sidelight, or other high-traffic areas. Be sure to wear thick gloves, long clothing, and protective eyewear when handling shattered glass. Tiny, nearly invisible splinters can cause injury. To seal the window, apply traditional glazing putty (also called glazing compound) with a putty knife....

Here you’ll find our most basic recipe, so you can make a whole roast chicken in five easy steps, with five (or fewer) ingredients. Prepare the Chicken Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure to note how much your bird weighs, as this determines how long it should be in the oven. Set it in a shallow roasting pan, breast side up. Tie the drumsticks together with cooking twine, so the chicken keeps its shape and to ensure even cooking without the limbs over-drying....

We stand by our Test Kitchen’s Classic Roast Chicken method that requires just a bit of butter, broth, salt, pepper. But when we’re crunched for time or are aiming to max out the golden brown, seasoned bits, we swear by the spatchcock chicken. Ahead, your complete guide to how to spatchcock a chicken, including what that term means in the first place, reasons why we adore this easy method, plus we’ll dish up a few of our favorite spatchcock chicken recipes for you to try at home....

Easy Seeds to Start Indoors If it’s your first time starting seeds indoors in winter, it’s best to go small. Pick just one or two types that are easy to grow from seed like these favorite flowering annuals: Container Options Plastic seed trays ($16, The Home Depot) and seed-starter kits ($16, Etsy) are super easy for growing seeds indoors. But you can dig through your recycling bin, too. Just remember to punch a drainage hole in each container before planting....