Georgia Mountain Home Tips Category
Is Your Mountain Home “Show Ready?”
Guest Post by Professional Home Stager and Friend Tonia Mosteller.
“Is your home “Show Ready”? These 5 low cost tips will get you started on turning your house into a “show home”. This is critical because if you want to get the most money for your home and sell more quickly, you need potential buyers (and their agents) to feel it’s a “hot property”. Staging is not the same as creating a usable space that you will enjoy. Instead, staging is the art of making your home appealing to the masses (or as many people as possible) instead of for you.
It is a valuable tool and the statistics show that in today’s market and economy, staging your house would help to sell it faster and for more money! The investment of staging in your property is less than a price reduction on your property.
True home staging doesn’t address the issues of comfort and usability…instead, it address the best way to make the rooms look the largest by increasing the open floor plan.
Whether it is elimination of extra furniture (ie.. side tables, floor pillows, large bulky furniture and replacing them with smaller furniture and larger art work, mirrors (to enlarge rooms) and wall decor. By picking items up off the floor and making the walls tell the story the rooms visually are larger and more open.
Creating an atmosphere void of overly-dramatic details (deep colored walls, etc.) can help more people imagine themselves living in the space and helps them to avoid the feeling that there is much work (painting, repairs) that would have to be done before they move in. These changes equal $$$$ and that decreases potential offer prices should an offer be made.
Going On Vacation? Don’t Tell The Burglars!
Want to help keep your home safe from burglars while on vacation? One smart way is to refrain from announcing your plans on various social networks such as facebook.
There’s other common-sense tips, too, as shared in this 4-minute video from NBC’s The Today Show.
Drawing from a series of interview with former convicts, you’ll learn that there’s more to keeping your home safe than just locking the doors and windows, and setting the alarm system for “away”. You’ll also want to make sure your home looks “lived in”.
And some of these tricks you may have never thought of.
For example, while on vacation:
- Make sure a neighbor is picking up your mail and newspapers daily
- If it snows, have a friend drive tracks in your driveway, or shovel it clean
- Set inside lights to a timer, giving the appearance someone being home
In addition, if you don’t have a safe for valuables, consider moving them to a child’s room. It’s among the last places a burglar looks.
You can’t make your home 100% safe from intruders but you can make your home a tougher target. Just use some common sense and follow the tips in the video.
Home Remodeling Projects That You Should Skip
Home remodeling is back in vogue.
With contractors dropping prices in most U.S. markets, and a resurgence in confidence among homeowners, home remodeling projects are expected to top $125 billion this quarter.
Not all renovations will be “worth it”, according to Remodeling Magazine’s 2011 Cost vs Value report, but some projects should never be started — especially when said projects render a home somewhat un-sellable.
For example, if installing a new toilet requires that the discharge pipes run along the living room ceiling, the project should be re-engineered, or skipped entirely.
A recent renovation article on CNNMoney.com listed several others “never do” projects.
- Don’t add a 4th/5th bedroom to a home with just one bathroom.
- Don’t build a bedroom with no closet space.
- Don’t make common rooms disproportionately large or small to one another.
And, for all projects, no matter what the details, try to keep the home’s traffic flow intact. Nobody likes to walk through bedrooms to get from the kitchen to the living room.
Home remodeling can be a less expensive alternative to moving, and can improve a property’s resale value. But keep in mind — just because a project is featured on HGTV, for example, that doesn’t make it a Do-It-Yourself. Some projects can be handled on your own, but most should not.
With the help of a professional, you’ll be sure the job is done properly.
If you need the name of a local contractor or specialist, please reach out anytime. I am happy to help you with a referral.
Keep Foods From Burning And Pots From Scorching
It doesn’t take much effort to stand over a pot and “stir continuously”, as called for in some recipes. It can be tedious, though, and once a chef stops stirring or leaves a pot unattended, the recipe is sure to ruin.
Enter the automatic stirrer.
With its self-adjusting, self-centering blades, the Ardenté Gourmet Stirrer latches on to the side of most kitchen bowls, and does that stirring for you. The machine’s constant blade-turning protects your milk-based recipes from burning; your sauce-based recipes from charring; and your temperate-sensitive sugars from caramelizing.
While it does its job, you’re freed up to tend to other tasks in the kitchen, or to spend time with family around the house.
It protects your pots from scorching, too.
The Ardenté Gourmet Stirrer runs on 4 C batteries and can be run continuously, or intermittently. Its blades run at different heights to promote consistency, and are dishwasher-safe for easy clean-up.
You can buy the automatic stirrer in white or black on Ardenté’s website, or on Amazon. It retails for $59.95.
Georgia’s Largest Ground Mounted Solar System
If your power bill was as much as mine for the month of December, then you are probably thinking exactly what I was thinking when I came across this article. ESA Renewables, LLC. is a turnkey solar system provider.
I have passed by this project showing property on the Old Blue Ridge Highway many times over the past several months, and customers and clients have been asking, “what is that?” Well after reading the article above, I can now tell them that Blairsville, GA. is now home to the Largest Ground Mounted Solar Photovoltaic System is the entire state of Georgia.
Jeffery Burkett, President of ESA Renewables, LLC. is quoted in the article stating “Solar is gaining momentum in the US and we believe our global expertise and resources in providing turnkey PV projects add exceptional value. Meanwhile we are supporting various sectors of the solar industry while creating new job opportunities for the local economy.”
So, if you are driving down the Old Blue Ridge Highway and wonder to yourself, “Look at that, I wonder what that is…” you will now know. I don’t know about you, but I want one!
