Monthly Archives: February 2009

The professional way for defects in a home’s structure, systems, components, and even features is with a home inspection. These inspections are carried out by experts that are required to follow strict regulations and industry standards, provincially, nationally, and internationally. Inspectors are either certified or licensed and highly beneficial for buyers, sellers, real estate agents/brokers, and even banks and other lending institutions. The information identified reveals a realistic condition of the property.

Obviously, of all investments that people make, real estate is the biggest so having the home inspected by a professional is imperative. For people interested in buying a home, the inspection provides a sense of confidence, knowing their financial investment and safety would be protected. With this, potential buyers can decide what repairs they might be willing to make outside of what the loan requires.

Then for the seller, the inspection reveals things that need to be repaired prior to putting the home on the market, which means having the opportunity to make changes so the home is in the best possible condition to sell quickly and at the asking price. Additionally, sellers in a hurry to sell might choose to reveal defects to potential buyers, negotiating price, and closing based on how much they have time to do opposed to what buyers would be interested in taking on.

A good home inspection would involve very specific tasks for both buyer and seller, which includes the following:

* The inspection would reveal wood rot, termites, or other problems specific to wood. While a termite inspection would be focused on termites and damage only, the inspection would show termites, as well as wood rot, and even things such as a broken beam in the attic.

* A home inspection would also look at chimneys to make sure smoke filters property, that no bricks or rock is crumbling, and that older chimneys do not have a flue liner.

* The electrical portion of the home inspection would determine the type and age of the electrical box, checking that it follows current city code. If a new electrical box is required, a licensed electrician could make suggestions as to brand and cost of replacement.

* The home’s furnace would also be inspected, which involves taking various components apart to look at the heat exchanger for cracks or malfunction. If a problem were identified, a licensed HVAC specialist would be able to provide details as to exact problem, components needing to be replaced, and any associated costs.

* If the home is older, the home inspection may also look for lead-based paint. If this were found, it would need to be removed by an abatement contractor, someone licensed and with experience removing dangerous chemicals. Lead paint is very dangerous and needs to be considered seriously.

* Another service provided by most home inspectors is to verify public records of the property, making comparisons so inaccuracies pertaining to square footage could be identified and then corrected. If the home inspection does not cover this service, an appraiser could assist or the calculations could be done by you.

* Even the type of foundation on which the home is built would be identified, raised or slab. If necessary, a foundation engineer could also be hired to determine any damage or defects such as sliding or cracking of the foundation.

* Another area that most inspectors cover is the roof, looking at the number of layers, year of the roof, and condition. This is actually a very important part of the home inspection not just from the roof perspective, but also because the structure of the room involves the chimney and plumbing. Typically, minor defects will appear on a roof between six and nine years of age although standard life of a quality roof is up to 30 years.

* The plumbing and water systems of the home would also be inspected. In this case, if problems were identified, a plumber would come in to look at the extent of the problem and if necessary, unclog or replace old pipes.

* Another important aspect of the home inspection is looking for the presence of mold, which contain airborne particulates that can be dangerous. Using special equipment, the air quality would be tested in and around the property.

Remember, these are just the primary services of a home inspector but a good inspection can reveal so much more. Whether you are the buyer or seller, it would be to your advantage to know current and potential risks rather than waiting shortly before buying or selling and only having the transaction delayed.

If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, and installing a door is a sticking point for you, you now have no more reason to fear. Figuring out how to do this will open up an entire new window of opportunity for you. The reason being that a new door can change the whole overall look and style to any room, as well as enhance the exterior of your home. Plus, and many people love this, by sealing more tightly shut can help decrease your heating bill.

Basically there are three kinds of doors. There are doors that act, as the entry to your home, there are interior doors such as for bedrooms and the all important bathroom door, and the combo storm/screen door. Replacing a door involves a few steps that must be taken, and I’ll go over those for you now.

The most difficult door is probably the entry door and once you’ve mastered this type of door all the others are pretty much a simplified process, since the locks are usually either much more simple or not even included.

Changing a combination storm/screen door will usually follow the same procedure of the entry door, though sometimes it’s a bit more complicated. If you’re unsure how to do it, look at your manufacturer’s information for more instructions, or call up and talk to a representative of the manufacturer, or the store that sold it to you.
Remove the old door.

You have to remove the old door obviously to replace it. You’ll have to open the door, and stick a wedge under the outer corner so as to take weight off the hinges. Usually, the door will have a hinge that contains a pin that you have to pop out. Sometimes after years of paint or rust this is a bit difficult. You’ll need something to tap it out upward to release it. After the hinges have been taken off, you can take the door off the frame.

You can either leave and reuse the same hinges or else take them off and use new ones. If you use new hinges, just ensure that they’re the same size as the old ones.

You may have to trim the door down to fit. You’ll want to cut along the bottom using the old door as a pattern, or else just leave a 1/8” clearance along the bottom and 1/16th along the sides and top. If it’s going to be over carpet you’ll want to go a bit more on the bottom like ¾” using a fine toothed saw, or a block or jack plane.
Prepare new door for hinges.

To replace the door put the new door in the frame, put the top and bottom pins into the hinges. Hopefully it will fit in nicely and now you’ve got yourself a new door. If need be you’ll have to install a new lock set to your door. Now you’ve put in a new door, aren’t you proud of yourself?

We all know that the most popular to time for buyers to look for a home is in the Spring and Summer. Children are out of school, it’s warm outside, and there just aren’t a bunch of commitments to work around. However, when buyers choose to look for a home during the holidays, it might mean they are serious buyers and they don’t want to waste any time. You can compare these home buyers to holiday shoppers on a mission to get those perfect gifts for family and friends in a timely manner.

If you have your home listed during the holidays, you need to keep in mind that your home is on the market-which means it is now a commodity. It must appeal to any buyer that walks through the door. Nashville, TN is a desirable city to live in. Whether a buyer is already a resident of Nashville or if they are new to Music City, you never know when they might be looking at homes for sale in Nashville with the intentions to buy quickly. Your home might just be the one!

Keep your holiday decorations simple. You do not want to overwhelm buyers. Remember it is about showing the house, not your decorations.

Keep your home clean and tidy. Anytime a home is on the market for sale, it should be kept as clean as possible. You can get a call for a showing at anytime and sometimes it can be last minute. By keeping your home clean and tidy all the time, you can be ready for that otherwise inconvenient phone call.

Be flexible. Sometimes it is not easy to schedule showings that work for seller and buyer, but if you are flexible and easy to work with, it just may pay off.

Warm it up. “Baby, it’s cold outside!” Immediately upon walking in the door, a buyer should feel warm and cozy. The emotions they feel will determine whether your home will be a consideration or not. Leave a few candles burning or through some logs on the fire.

Bake cookies and leave apple cider simmering on the stove. The smell of hot apple cider and baked goods scream “feels like home”.

Although some might tell you it’s best to wait until after the holidays to put your home on the market, you might just be able to get a head start on the competition.

If you are getting ready to remodel your kitchen, how would you like to make decisions that not only make it look better now, but keep it looking better and easier to clean in the months to come. Most people love this idea, but wonder just how they can do that while making simple decorating decisions. Well the key is in the kitchen pull selections you make.

Think about what you touch most often in your kitchen. Other than the appliances, not much gets more hands on time than the kitchen pull and knobs. You are always yanking on a kitchen pull or knob when you need to get into a drawer to get silverware or get into the pantry cabinets to get the ingredients for a great meal. Sometimes you are even getting into these cabinets and drawers when you are already in the midst of making a meal, meaning your hands are dirty, grimy and spreading that dirt and grime to the kitchen pull or knob.

While you may not change your dirty hand habits, you can change how each kitchen pull and knob deals with your dirty hands. There are all kinds of materials out there that cabinet hardware is made out of. Some of it deals better with dirt and grime than others. The more you know up front before you make a purchase, the better your chance to have cabinet hardware that looks great for a long time.

Do Your Research

The first thing you need to do is really get to know the materials that go into the kitchen pull or cabinet knob you are considering purchasing. You can find hardware made in anything from glass to wood, metal, plastic, stone and porcelain. Each one reacts differently to the environment around it.

For example, raw wood will suck in any liquids that you may get on them with your hands. So unless wood is painted or stained and sealed it may end up turning the color of that spaghetti sauce that was on your hand when you opened the cabinet.

Plastic, while many people think it is easy to clean, it is also easy to stain. Think about what happens if you pour some old colored sauces into a plastic bowl in the refrigerator for storage. Once you eat the sauce it seems that color never comes out of the plastic, does it? Well that can also be the impact on your kitchen pull.

Other materials have other problems. Metal can corrode with acidic items touching it. Porcelain can break with quick changes in temperature and can also absorb some things that come in contact with it.

All materials have their pros and cons. The key is to get to know what you are buying and how you often are in your kitchen. Know what you will put the hardware through before making a selection. Also learn how to clean it and make sure you do so regularly. Often if you wash up any dirt or grime right away it will not have time to impact the hardware and you can enjoy that hardware looking like new much longer.

With all this talk about alternative energy and the steady rising prices of fuel, there is a lot of interest in the cost of solar panels.

Now first off, solar power can be expensive – especially commercial solar arrays. It’s expensive to manufacture these and complicated engineering procedures are required. There are also very few companies that produce solar technology and this means there is less competition. As such, the cost of solar power technology is much higher because this.

But as the government and the public begin to show more interest into solar power technology, this technology is becoming cheaper.

One popular way to save money on solar panels are what’s called do it yourself panels. Basically, you can easily assemble your own solar panel arrays from kits. You can sometimes save 40 to 60 percent on the cost of solar panel technology by using these kits.

Getting solar panel technology affordable has always been one of the problems with solar technology. But prices are expected to drop steeply over the next few years.

As per the actual solar technology prices, you can expect to pay about 500 bucks for each panel. Prices can vary somewhat, but this figure includes the various electrical accessories you need with each panel. Hiring someone to install your panels will also add to the cost, unless you opt to do it yourself. With do-it-yourself solar power technology, you can probably pay about 200 to 300 per panel.

Depending on the size of your household, you will pay between 10k to 30k to convert your entire house to solar power. However, if you just want to supplement some of your power needs, you can do that in a fraction of the time.