All the inspiration you need to make your home a more organized, colorful and beautiful place to live in the new year.

 

Come January 1, you might be thinking of ways to achieve your health, fitness, and financial goals for the year, but there’s another important aspect of your life that’s worth adding to your list of New Year’s resolutions — your home. Now more than ever, it’s the place where you rest and recharge, enjoy quality time with family, cook your favorite recipes, and so much more, so we strongly believe it’s a place that should bring you as much joy as possible design-wise, too.

 

That’s why we’re offering up this list of achievable home improvement resolutions you’ll actually want to keep, to help you create a more chic, well-organized, and comfortable abode in the year ahead.

 

 

 

1. Upgrade your mudroom.

 

Make your mudroom a focal point rather than an eyesore with a few simple upgrades, like a bold paint color, a pegboard for your kids’ latest artwork, and hidden storage for coats and shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Create a cozier bedroom.

 

To design the bedroom retreat of your dreams, introduce strategic lighting, more greenery, and upgraded bedding. Not sure where to start? An upholstered headboard can set the foundation for your design scheme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Crave out a workspace.

 

 

If you don’t have the luxury of dedicating an entire room to an office setup, a simple nook can get the job done. Pair a high stool with a compact tabletop and use a mirror, art, and a small floral arrangement to really make the space your own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Style your bookshelf.

 

Design pros know not to let books take over shelves without weaving in a few stylish decor accents. Think ceramics, glass vases, framed photos, and woven baskets to corral toys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Decorate with plants.

 

One of the best ways to boost your mood and add personality to your space is with greenery. Go for an oversized plant, like a Parlor Palm or Yucca, to make a huge impact.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Start Layering Patterns.

 

Sometimes all it takes is an energetic pattern to transform a space. Mix prints within the same color family for a trendy, Instagram-worthy look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Embrace clever organization tools.

 

You can bring function and organization to just about any space in your home. The perfect example? Add a chalkboard panel to the side of your refrigerator to keep track of your weekly grocery list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Keep your pantry organized.

 

A combination of baskets and clear containers with lids can easily make your open pantry look more polished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Experiment with color.

 

If you’re reluctant to try a bold color all over a room, settle for an accent wall. A pop of color, like this bathroom’s olive green wall, never fails to pull a space together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. Craft a relaxing bathroom.

 

If you’re committed to making self-care a priority this year, start off on the right foot by hanging bunches of eucalyptus in your shower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. Maximize natural light.

 

It’s no surprise that natural light can do wonders for a room as well as your mood. Enjoy its benefits by positioning your living room seating near the window and choosing window treatments that allow light to easily pour into your space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. Use labels to find what you need easily.

 

Labels don’t just make it easy to find exactly what you need — they’re a surefire way to give shelves full of baskets a cohesive feel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13. Make your laundry room stand out.

 

From graphic wallpaper to baskets on wheels, washing clothes won’t ever feel like a chore if you give your laundry room the design attention it deserves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14. Ban Clutter from bathroom shelves.

 

Maintain orderly bathroom shelves by placing makeup brushes, hair tools, and smaller items in containers and purging any unwanted products.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15. Show off your style with color.

 

If you live for daring looks, consider revamping your kitchen with a new patterned backsplash in a bold hue. If you don’t have the money for a renovation job, try colorful kitchen accessories or dinnerware for a playful touch instead.

 

 

 

 

 

This article was originally sourced from GoodHouseKeeping.com, to read the original content images and links click here.

 

 

 

Extreme winter weather can leave neighborhoods and communities without power or other public services for long periods of time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warns.

 

With the risk of damage to your property or personal injury, it’s a smart idea to prepare your home for such winter weather emergencies as well as cold weather throughout the season that can cause minor issues or even evolve into larger problems.

 

Whether it’s for your primary residence or a second home you’re leaving vacant, here are tips for winterizing your house:

• Clean out gutters and clear the roof
• Insulate the attic
• Have your heating system serviced
• Adjust your thermostat
• Prepare your plumbing
• Call a chimney sweep
• Check for drafts
• Keep rodents out
• Have a friend on call
• Move plants elsewhere

 

Clean Out Gutters and Clear the Roof

Leaves, sticks and other bits of nature make their way onto your roof and into your gutters during the fall. Before the first heavy snowfall, be sure to clear debris from your roof and gutters to prevent a buildup of ice and snow, also known as an ice dam, that can get under shingles and cause leaks and water damage inside your house.

 

“If they don’t have their roof cleared off, that’s typically where stoppage and backup issues happen,” says Mike Gulla, director of underwriting for Hippo Insurance, based in Palo Alto, California.

 

If the house is vacant: Clear as much debris as you can before you close up the house for the winter, but you may need to have a local friend or contractor finish the job when you’re away.

 

 

Insulate the Attic

Another way to reduce the chances of an ice dam forming is to insulate your attic floor. This helps keep the living areas of your house warmer, explains Anne Cope, chief engineer at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety in Richburg, South Carolina.

 

Cope recommends going up to your attic before the winter weather sets in to examine attic vents, check for leaks and get a look at the insulation. “If your insulation looks terrible, now is a great time of year to get that taken care of,” she says.

 

If the house is vacant: Insulation will help you avoid hefty heating bills during the months that you’re not staying in the house. Good insulation that leads to lower heating and cooling bills can also be a plus when you sell the house.

 

 

Have Your Heating System Serviced

Have your heating and ventilation system checked and cleaned before the weather gets too cold. If you wait until the first cold snap or snowstorm of the season, many service professionals will be overbooked.

 

Beyond keeping you warm, a functioning HVAC during the coldest days of the year is key to avoiding frozen pipes, which can burst inside your walls and cause significant damage.

 

If the house is vacant: Having your HVAC system serviced before you leave for the season is important so cold temperatures don’t cause a bigger issue like a burst pipe. “That’s typically the reason that someone has a frozen pipe – it’s not usually a faulty pipe but because the HVAC stops working. … If it’s 20 degrees outside and you have no heat in the house for a few days, you can expect the pipes to freeze,” Gulla says.

 

You may be tempted to turn off utilities like gas, power and water if you plan to be away for months at a time. However, a home left to the elements can sustain a lot of damage that you may not see right away. If any water is left in the plumbing, for example, it can easily freeze and cause problems when you return to the home and turn on the utilities.

 

 

Adjust Your Thermostat

The cost of your heating and cooling bills often plays a part in the temperature you stick with during summer and winter – in summer, you may be willing to keep your house at 72 degrees or higher, while in winter you may lower the target temperature to 68 degrees. However, make sure the interior of your home doesn’t get too cold as exterior temperatures drop – at the very minimum, the heat should kick on before it dips to 50 degrees Fahrenheit inside.

 

If the house is vacant: It’s important to keep a vacant house at a temperature well above freezing; the standard is between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

 

Prepare Your Plumbing

Ensure your plumbing is set up to withstand the cold, and consider utilizing sensors to let you know when there’s a problem.

 

In Northern states where freezing temperatures are expected during a portion of the year, housing codes require insulation and for pipes to be properly protected from the cold. Places that don’t see regular frost, however, won’t always have a basement for plumbing to stay warmer or effective insulation to keep heat from escaping. As a result, a day or week of freezing temperatures in parts of North Carolina, Georgia and even Texas can cause a lot of damage, Cope says.

 

If your plumbing runs through a crawl space, consider insulating the pipes or the crawl space itself. “It can be a do-it-yourself project, or it can be a hire-a-handyman project,” Cope says.

 

Gulla recommends getting both water-leak and pipe-temperature sensors. The former will let you know if pressure inside the pipe suddenly decreases, indicating a burst pipe, while the latter will notify you of dangerously cold pipes so you can prevent a burst pipe.

 

Additionally, automatic water shutoff valves are becoming more popular in homes. They stop the flow of water should a pipe freeze and burst to reduce the amount of damage to the home.

 

If the house is vacant: Gulla stresses the importance of having sensors and a remote water shutoff valve option to prevent damage in the house before you can get there.

 

 

Call a Chimney Sweep

Whether you have a wood-burning or gas fireplace, make an appointment for your chimney to be inspected annually to see if cleaning or repairs are necessary, according to the Chimney Safety Institute of America. In wood-burning fireplaces, a professional will clean out creosote buildup, which comes from burning wood and can cause a fire hazard inside the chimney if it’s not cleaned. In any fireplace, it’s important to clear animal nests that might be blocking the chimney and to check for issues in the masonry.

 

Gulla warns that a blocked chimney “can also cause carbon monoxide to back up into the house, which can obviously be life-threatening to anyone in the house.”

 

If the house is vacant: Be sure to close the chimney flue as well as any hearth doors. That way you’ll keep cold drafts from making your furnace work harder and prevent animals from entering through the chimney and getting into other parts of the house.

 

 

Check for Drafts

As the weather cools, walk around the house and check for drafts or air leakage, particularly around windows and doors. Use caulk to seal cracks and weatherstripping to help insulate around door and window frames.

 

If the house is vacant: Checking for drafts and leakage will help cut down on the work your furnace has to do by keeping cold air out.

 

 

Keep Rodents Out

The National Pest Management Association reports that rodents get into an estimated 21 million U.S. homes each winter. Your work to seal holes and weatherstrip around doors and windows will also help eliminate points of entry for small animals or insects.

 

Move any upholstered furniture from your patio or garage into the house to keep them from becoming rodent nests. Firewood should be kept elevated and away from the exterior walls of your home.

 

If your house is vacant: Be sure you’ve removed all food from your pantry before vacating the place, so pests don’t have something to feed on if they do get inside. If you have a friend or hired help checking on the property while you’re gone, he or she should check for signs of pests inside your home during visits and contact an exterminator if any are found.

 

 

Have a Friend on Call

If you go away for vacation or on a business trip, it’s good to have a friend, relative or neighbor on call for your temporarily vacant house. Especially if a winter storm occurs while you’re gone, this person can make sure your power stays on and even shovel the sidewalk to prevent slipping hazards.

 

If the house is vacant: Your HVAC may be in perfect condition with everything insulated, but you still shouldn’t leave the house unchecked for the entire winter.

 

“I wouldn’t want someone to think that a property can sit vacant for months at a time without someone coming to check on it. You wouldn’t do that with your car,” Cope says.

 

If you have friends or relatives nearby who can check on the house every few weeks, ask them to do so. Otherwise, hire a local handyman to regularly check in and ensure the heat continues to work, the power stays on and no critters manage to break their way into the living space. Even if you have security cameras and sensors, line up someone who can come by on short notice.

 

 

Move Plants Elsewhere

If you have outdoor potted plants, fall is a good time to bring them inside if you want to keep them alive during the colder months.

 

If the house is vacant: Any houseplants you want to keep alive should come with you, unless you’re planning to have someone visit the house often enough to water them.

 

This post was sourced from USnews.com. Please click here to read the original article.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the best ways prospective home buyers can empower themselves when purchasing a home is to improve their buying power. The numbers may seem daunting but identifying ways to strengthen your financial standing will help you each step of the way.

 

When visualizing your dream home, it’s common for buyers to focus on the physical characteristics. But to mortgage lenders, a home is a numbers game. The following categories related to your buying power demonstrate how lenders identify your financial standing and determine your eligibility for a home purchase. Improvements in these areas will increase your buying power, propelling the strength of your offer when you’re ready to put it on the table.

 

Increase savings for your down payment

 

As the saying goes, cash is king. The down payment—often 20% of the home’s sale price—can sometimes be the deciding factor between competing offers for a particular home.

 

Try stashing away a little of each paycheck to build up your savings over time. Set a savings goal, commit a dedicated amount to each pay period, and watch the savings build as time goes on. If you prefer to keep your money separate, open a new account to which you can dedicate the added savings. Another way to save for your down payment is to generate additional income. If you have interest or experience in an area outside of your current job, explore opportunities for part-time work and dedicate the income earned to your down payment savings.

 

There are numerous benefits to offering a serious down payment. Putting 20% or more down can help your offer stand out, it may allow you to negotiate a lower interest rate on your mortgage and could remove the need for private mortgage insurance (PMI).

 

Improve your credit score

 

Plain and simple—a better credit score leads to better interest rate on your mortgage. Your payment history, amounts owed, length of credit history, credit mix, and new credit all factor into your credit score. Although improving it will not happen overnight, a higher credit score will pay dividends in the long run.

 

To improve your credit score, focus on paying down your credit cards, especially those with high interest. Refrain from opening new lines of credit that aren’t necessary and stay away from large purchases leading up to the time when you are preparing to make an offer. Keep in mind that student loans factor into your financial picture. Paying them off consistently will improve your financial standing in the eyes of lenders.

 

Stabilize your debt to increase buying power

 

When assessing what you can afford, banks will examine your debt-to-income ratio. Lenders want to know that you’ll be able to pay your mortgage on top of your remaining debt.

 

They do this by looking at your housing ratio, or front-end ratio, to determine what portion of your income will go to paying your mortgage. Your front-end ratio is calculated by taking your monthly mortgage payment and dividing by your monthly gross income. The higher the ratio, the higher risk of default.

 

Next, your back-end ratio, or debt-to-income ratio, is used to determine how much of your monthly income goes toward paying your debts. Your back-end ratio is calculated by taking your monthly debt expense (the principal, interest, taxes, and insurance of your mortgage payments, credit card payments, student loans, and any other loan payments), and dividing it by your gross monthly income.

 

Similar to your credit score, paying off credit cards, and making steady, consistent progress on your loans will help to decrease your debt and improve your debt-to-income ratios, which will increase your buying power.

 

Although these aspects of your finances don’t cover everything that goes into the purchase of a home, they do play a significant role in how lenders assess your financial standing and thereby eligibility for approval. Increasing your buying power takes time and strategy. Plan accordingly so that when you find your dream home, you’re in the best position possible to buy it.

 

 

 

 

VA loans provide a path toward homeownership for active service and veteran personnel and their families. The following serves as a guide to understanding what they are, who they are available to, and what types of loans are available to them.

VA loans can be confusing, so talk with your Windermere agent as you prepare to discuss your options with your lender. “Even people in the military have misconceptions about (VA loans),” said Windermere agent and Veteran Gervon Simon in a recent episode of our “Ask An Agent” series.

 

What are VA Loans?

The VA loan program was established by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to help active service members, veterans, and surviving spouses become homeowners. VA loans are backed by the federal government yet provided by private lenders such as banks and mortgage companies. VA loans can be used to buy, build, or improve a home, or to refinance a current home loan

 

How do VA Loans work?

VA loans have appealing characteristics for homeowners including lower-than-average mortgage rates, zero down payment on the purchase price, no-prepayment penalties, limited closing costs, and no Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). They are typically easier to qualify for than standard home loans. With VA-backed loans, they guarantee a portion of the loan from a private lender. This means less risk for the lender, often resulting in more favorable terms for the homeowner. You do not have to be a first-time homebuyer to receive a VA loan. VA loan limits vary by county, so be sure to work with your Windermere agent to determine the limit in your area.

 

Which loans are available?

 

Purchase Loan

• VA-backed purchase loans may be used to buy a single-family home, condo, manufactured home, or land. They also may be used to make energy-efficient changes to your home. Additionally, you can use a purchase loan to build a new home.
• They offer no down payment, as long as the home’s sales price does not exceed its appraised value.
• There is no need for PMI or mortgage insurance premiums (MIP).

 

Native American Direct Loan (NADL)

• For Veterans who are either Native American or have a Native American spouse, the NADL can help to buy, build, or improve a home on federal trust land.

Beyond basic requirements of eligibility and credit standards, to be considered for the loan your tribal government must have an agreement—or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)—with the VA. For more information on MOUs, visit this page: MOU Info

 

Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan (IRRRL)

• The IRRRL is a refinancing tool for those with VA-backed home loans that are looking to reduce their monthly mortgage payments.
• The IRRRL replaces a current loan, giving homeowners the ability to stabilize their repayment plans.
• A VA funding fee may be required. Loan interest and closing fees will be charged by your lender but including these costs in your IRRRL will help you avoid paying the costs upfront.

 

Cash-out refinance loan:

• The cash-out refinance loan allows homeowners to take cash out of their home equity or refinance a non-VA loan into a VA-backed loan.
• In addition to your Certificate of Eligibility (COE), you’ll need to provide additional federal income tax information to your lender.
• A home appraisal will be ordered by your lender. Similar to an IRRRL, a VA funding fee may be charged at closing. Follow their closing process and pay all closing costs.

 

For more information on the different types of VA Loans, eligibility, and more, visit the Veterans Affairs website here: VA Loans

This blog post was originally posted at our Windermere blog. To see it click here.

 

 

 

The coronavirus pandemic is already shaping home design trends, with special-function rooms and products that serve needs particular to the pandemic rising in popularity, according to a recent survey by the American Institute of Architects.

 

Every year, the institute surveys about 425 individual architects or firms in the business of custom-home building or renovation. Participants are asked to indicate whether requests for certain types of rooms and products are increasing, decreasing or stable. Trends are identified by noting the increases and offsetting them by the decreases. This year’s results were gathered in July.

 

“I won’t say it was unexpected,” said Kermit Baker, the organization’s chief economist and a senior research fellow at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. “I’d say surprising in the sense that the pandemic response was happening faster than we might have expected.”

 

In this year’s survey, 68 percent of respondents cited increasing client requests for home offices, and none reported a decrease. Compare that with the 2019 results, which showed a 33 percent increase and 4 percent decrease. A related feature, enhanced or “task” lighting, also gained popularity.

 

Specifically, there were more requests for sunrooms or three-season porches (rooms that bring nature indoors) and mud rooms or “drop zones” (areas to isolate contaminated items from the house at large). Tellingly, in the midst of a pandemic caused by an airborne virus, products for improving indoor air quality were newly popular: 41 percent of respondents cited an increase for such requests, while 2 percent indicated they were on the decline, compared with 27 percent increasing and 2 percent decreasing last year.

 

Other new trends included exercise or yoga rooms and flexible spaces for home-schooling or other needs. Other special-function rooms (outdoor living spaces among them) maintained their popularity or edged up, as did products that were low maintenance and energy efficient.

 

This week’s chart shows which home features were the most popular and how requests for them rose or fell in 2019 and 2020.

 

 

This article was originally posted on nytimes.com on October 22nd 2020. To view the post click here.

 

 

 

REGIONAL ECONOMIC OVERVIEW

 

 

CONCLUSIONS