Curb Appeal

The ten ways to make your home more desirable to buyers.  Curbside Appeal will draw them in.

Front door decorated with simple Fall Leaves- curbside appeal

Fresh Coat of Paint and a Little Handmade whimsy. This Fall decoration on an ordinary Tract Door in an Orange County Condominium complex says "welcome." The owners collected leaves, tied with twine and hung above.

urns at garden entrance

Art is in the eye of the beholder but what you are looking for as a homeowner is - How will a buyer see my entrance from the curb? Symmetry works with these urns in Laguna Beach. The balance and repetition works nicely with the glossy painted black gate. You don't need to be a professional landscape architect or designer to use repetition to appear well put together.

fun crates recycled

I'm fond of home made and funky. I love this arrangement of birdhouses, wine crates and old windows from Laguna Niguel. The owner took out the broken window panes and attached the chipped wooden frame to mirrors to reflect the yard landscaping.  All the items in the photograph were found for free. The ladder above is hung with heavy twine. Even though all the artifacts are older, the balance again of using two windows framing both sides works well. Also you will notice everything is painted in muted browns and a darker barn red, thus pulling everything together while still saying: unique, homey, and loved

picket fence

House in Ladera Ranch with a gorgeous use of white wisteria and white picket fence. Notice the white bird houses on the fence that lead you to the door.

contrasting colors for curb appeal

Here is another style of picket fence. Isn't this Laguna Beach home just charming? The terra cotta pots with golden flowers lead your eye to want to bring them the newspaper in the mailbox on the left. Owners used broken pieces of concrete and dug a trench about five inches deep, filled with sand and seeded the grass right over the stepping stones. Simple, Cheap and charming front entrance.

roses blooming at the curb

Flowers add excitement if you take care of them. This climbing rose around the mailbox and picket fence are multiple shades of corals and yellow. Roses require trimming after booming and like some fertilizer to keep blooming. Choose a cultivar that blooms more than once a year for the front and that is suitable for your climate.

This trellis entrance is very beautiful.

lush tropicals at the curb

This Laguna Beach home has the most fabulous arrangement of bromeliads, orchids, ferns and exotic plants right at the curb. They have used recycled concrete pieces, found local stone and gravel back filling the walls that act as planters. The loose construction feels relaxed and is barely noticeable among the lush green variety. Don't you want to enter this gate and see the secret garden and tree house?

white gate

At the top of Laguna Beach a homeowner added a gate with a Dutch door. The light sconces are especially well done in this arrangement. For my taste it is a little too cold, needs annuals with reds in pots on both sides.

The cheapest ways to improve the curbside appeal of your home:

1. New Paint

2. Annual Color in pots

3. Scrub and clean hardware, clean windows

4. Trim plants not in balls but in natural lacy shapes to see the house

5. Clean up weeds and much beds to look neat

6. Add some personal touches

7. Use balance and color to create a theme

Being on a budget doesn't mean ugly. Go take pictures of other homes with similar bones to yours. If you have brick façade- find houses that feel good and inviting from the curb with the same brick. If you have clapboards hunt around your neighborhood -Laguna Niguel  and Newport Beach are pretty restrictive about paint palettes, so look to Laguna Beach for more whimsy. You won't need to get a new mortgage to finance these suggestions.

Favorite Paint Colors: White

Clunch Farrow and Ball a warm sunny not yellow white Floral White Benjamin Moore a slight hint of creamy rose Swiss Coffee Benjamin Moore

Rent or Buy?

Is it time to buy or rent?


Timing is everything.

The choice should be a business decision not an emotional one. If the bank tells you your ratios are too high, take it as a blessing that this is not a sound selection at this time.

Pros:

Buying a house is a tax deduction (assuming you need a deduction).

Owning a house gives you the freedom to stay as long as you like and do what you want.

Cons:

If you are thinking employment promotion or moves upward- you will be stuck with location.

Often you can rent cheaper, but with a limited palette and expect increases.

Solutions:

Buy less than you think you can afford which allows breathing room.

Put as little down payment as you might and let the insurers’ bear the worry.

Shop very carefully for a deal.

Take your time. Do not fall in love with a house it is just a thing.

Enlist expert representation and investigate everything.

Everything in the universe falls apart- have a budget for those older items in the house.

Link for $25 off items not shipping at CSN

Twenty five dollar free gift certificate : “modern furniture” to http://www.allmodern.com/



CSN stores has some wonderful prices and selection on hardwood and stone flooring. Since you are most likely the same as myself, we can’t sell so be happy in your home there has been no better time in the past twenty years to complete home improvement projects.

At this time of year, when contractors are hungry for work I can recommend an excellent Flooring contractor: Terry Schleede (949) 433-3282

I purchased these barstools from CSN for less than $75 and saw them at Restoration Hardware for $ 198 X 2 = $396each and on Ballard Designs for $ 129 each =$259.
I promise you that just a little winter after Christmas sprucing up your Orange County Home will feel joyful and bring prosperity this New Year. God Bless and let us all plan for a profitable 2011!

Re-Think the Open House Concept

Rethink a new kind of open house. Get the seller ready before you start the listing:

1. A pre-appraisal is good. The seller might benefit from a bank style appraisal which is the standard they will be held to close a deal. Only list a home where the Seller is realistic about their home and their market.

2. Empty the garage, half the closets, sell or donate it all. Remove

religious, personal, smelly items, unique art, and make it more vanilla.

3. Paint neutral. Stage if they can afford it.

4. Wholesale flower planting. Supply the pots and the wholesale

Annuals arrive in a truck. One solid block of color.

5. Scrub clean every surface.

In Laguna Beach Realtors still drive together and visit open houses on preview. I believe I have seen the inside of every home on my “paper route.” Be cooperative and helpful to other agents and let the deals flow your way. This gives me an advantage not only in knowing the neighborhood, what the planning commission might approve, what the traffic is like on school mornings, but an edge above the others.

If City/HOA ordinance does not allow signage – get a dancing teen in a house costume twirling a sign. Get your lender, your title representative to review the last details before the open house, before the listing is in the MLS. Market outside of the box. Invest the time and attend the open house.

Have 200 people to walk through the open house. Start the buzz about that amazing Realtor and that great listing. Sell the home the first three weeks.  I am not saying serve cookies. Serve yourself and add some new spice to the idea of foot traffic.

Welcome Home Marines

Marines are Coming Home.

I live close to Camp Pendelton. After seven years in combat in Iraq men and women need our support. This war we didn't see them come home in boxes on the news. This war we didn't hold our hands on our heart when they left. They are coming home to families and we need to say thank you every time we see them. It doesn't matter if you don't believe in this cause or you are seeing hard times yourself I am asking you to find some simple things they need to get back to normal.

They need gently used furniture to make new civilian homes.They need your car seats and diapers because many have small children and the family lives on a small budget. They most of all need us to welcome them. We need to let them know that being a soldier was a vocation that we appreciate.


Don't give to the Red Cross call Camp Pendleton, go on their website and give something to an individual. So you don't have money to give, perhaps you are good at writing a resume for someone?

Furniture Items Needed

Several military families are in need of furniture items. Families just starting or who have just moved to the area often need living room, dining room and bedroom furniture. We also have families currently waiting for washers and dryers. Your gently used furniture items can help a service member and their family feel at home!

If you would like to assist with this need, please reference client case number: SCal041410


Southern California

http://www.operationhomefront.net/socal/currentneeds.aspx

Natural Ways to Get Rid of Bees and Territorial Wasps

Yellow jacket

yellow jacket

Certain varieties of bees and wasps are aggressive in preserving their nests. These guys can be a danger to those allergic and attract other pests with the remaining smell of honey or dead insects for years to come. Observing your pest with double layered clothing and gloves will lead you to their homes were you want to remove them later at night. A local Bee Keeper will take the queen for free and her workers will follow. No one will remove wasps for free,  and their methods will be to use poisons that you may not want in your garden. 

Wear thick clothing such as: old sweat pants, thick long sleeved shirt, hat, neck scarf and gloves are necessary. Do not swat them. Do not wear perfume.

I don't want to remove my flowers fountains and pool that these unwelcome guests enjoy. My daughter is allergic so they must go.

Wasps that have mud nests in the ground can be killed off by pouring a pot of boiling water on the entrance of the nest while they sleep.

Another slower but effective method is to create a wasp feeder for them. This really is not a "feeder" like one you might have for hummingbirds because this is war. Take an empty green two liter plastic soda bottle and cut the top 1/3 off with a box cutter. (Green is better  because it provides some sun screen and visual distraction but clear are fine.)  The top piece is used inverted into the bottom 2/3 of the bottle. Staple the two together. (This project so reminds me of the bottle rockets we made for science but that's another story). You can poke two large holes through to be able to tie a heavy string through the bottle on opposite sides which will enable you to hang the bottle near to where the wasps currently forage during the day.

Fill the bottle with apple juice or seven up or any sweet smelling sugar juice and spill a little around to attract the wasps. You can even decorate your bottle with colors - flower colors are useful ( but don't use paint that smells). The wasps will enter and they either drown or are too drunk to figure out how to get out of the inverted cup. They starve and die in a day or so. The "feeder" will need to be cleaned when you see it with a number of dead guys or moldy because soon as it smells bad the wasps lose interest in entering what they now smell as a death trap.

Oil of citronella, orange oil, peppermint oil, and eucalyptus oil can be used on patio furniture, doors and humans to repel bees and wasps. Wasps do not like wormwood and eucalyptus but there really is no plant excepting oleander that bees do not care for. Learn to tolerate them for their good properties but move them away from your home. Plant cucumbers and use the peels and juice- bees don't care for the smell.

 I don't suggest smoking them out as it might be just as easy to have a pile of newspaper burning get out of control and burn your house but not the bees. Hairspray is works on their wings as it makes them too heavy to fly, but in order to get the purple can of Aquanet close enough, you will need protective clothing.

My favorite tool is my power washer, my now fourteen year old son has the same curiosity with spraying the eves of our two story house to remove spiders. Keeping the bees away from starting a colony in my walls is the best way to avoid them from returning. Encourage them to move on, the first days they swarm before they build a mess in your walls.

leaf cutter bee

If you have no luck finding a bee keeper who will relocate the bees for free or minimal cost here are some natural ways that don't require pesticides:

Bowl of sugar water with with dawn soap.

1 cup water 1/2 cup sugar teaspoon dawn 

The bees are attracted to the sugar - they think it is honey.

Use a colorful bowl or float some flowers.

The bees will drown. If they fly off the soap is sticky on

their wings. This will reduce the worker population in a nest.

 Windex and Spray Nine have outdoor window washing bottles that attach to a normal hose.

You can use the bottle with water and 1/4 cup dawn dish soap. Wear protective clothing and

wash the nest. You must remove all the wax, dead bees and honey or the nest will rot and smell

to high heaven, thus attracting ants and more bees.



brown recluse spider very nasty... that's another post about organic ways to avoid stinging, biting and icky

Revolutionary Green Home and Office

     Revolutionary Green Ideas for Office and Home aren't that difficult or costly. I’m thinking about oil/ OPEC/Crude spilling in the Gulf and the best answer to being greener today is to cut our consumption by forty percent. I don’t just mean gasoline; I am talking about cutting our electric, gas, trash and water usage.

   My local water company (Moulton Niguel Water in Lguna Niguel) asked residents and businesses to cut water usage by 20% during a severe water shortage. My household cut our water down by thirty eight percent, and I have several teenagers at home. My father used to make us take "military showers", there were so many of us if you didn’t the small house water heater would never have regenerated enough hot water. This sounded crazy to my children who are accustomed to relaxing in the hot shower until the tank runs out. A military shower was defined as, ten second rinse and soap the washcloth; turn off the water and lather and shampoo then 2-minute rinse in hot.  That was unreasonable considering I had established a trend and belief that taking a long shower was somehow a luxury that they deserved.

   I used a kitchen timer with a buzzer, and if they take a shower in less than five minutes they get a dollar. I know a bribe, but it worked and changed their concept of hot water relax. If they want to be leisurely they take a bath in less than 3 inches and sit until they are pruney.

   I installed displacement toilet dams in toilet reservoirs. Placing one or two plastic containers filled with stones (not bricks you will have a rusty colored toilet) in the toilet's reservoir will displace about 4 liters of water per flush. I am not a big supporter of low flow toilets because in California they are required but many users end up flushing multiple times to accomplish the goal. I may not be so prudy and will refrain from the 1980’s slogan about it being yellow.

   I love to garden. The idea of not having spring flowers everywhere was a sacrifice I wasn’t willing to cut. I compromised and mulched more and turned the sprinklers on the grass areas off and only water the flowers and pots. I recycle much water from household use and only use a spray cut off nozzle for any cleaning. Our water bill went down $380 a month, even with the dollar bribes I'm ahead because I'm an ATM machine anyways isn't every parent?

So how do we apply the concept larger? Just don’t buy as much. Don’t buy products with large part only packaging. This saves time, space, and clutter.

   In the office it is more difficult to convince a team to cut back for the good of being “green”.  There are a couple simple tips that can make a business not only save money, save in trash and perhaps benefit the whole.

   When you leave your desk Turn off equipment when it's not being used. This can reduce the energy used by 25 percent; turning off the computers at the end of the day can save an additional 50 percent.

   Communicate by email, and read email messages onscreen most can be saved in folders without the need to print them. Organizing the folders by project can allow you to access information at the keyboard without sorting through junk.

   Reduce fax-related paper waste by using a fax-modem and by using a fax cover sheet only when necessary. Many Fax-modems are free and allow documents to be sent directly from a computer, never requiring a printed hard copy.

   Produce double-sided documents.

   Do not leave taps dripping; always turn off tightly. (One drop wasted per second wastes 10,000 liters per year.)

   Be a hero. Don’t make a pot of coffee only for you, be friendly and generous and ask if others want a cup.

Being green does not require huge time or cash, just awareness that we are all responsible.