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Quick Tips: Simple ways to make your heating system run more efficiently

• Pay attention to the thermostat. Keeping the temperature a few degrees cooler can lower your heating bill and you can still be comfortable. It's a matter of personal preference, but setting your thermostat to 68°F can help you save energy.
  
  
•  Check forced-air furnace filters regularly and clean or replace them as often as once a month during the heating season. Shake reusable filters outside or spray them with a garden hose. Be sure they're dry before replacing.
  
  
• Drapes can add an extra layer of insulation. Blinds also can insulate, but they aren't as effective. Keep your drapes closed at night, and during the day if it's particularly cold.
  
  
• Keep drapes and furniture clear of heaters and vents.
  
  
• Don't block registers, baseboards, radiators or cold air returns. Air must circulate through and around them for maximum efficiency.

Long-term Solutions: Winterize your home now, save energy later

Installing energy-saving measures in your home can reduce your energy use during colder weather.

Insulation

• Add more insulation in the attic if it has less than six inches.
• Check crawlspaces, and replace any damaged or loose insulation; or add more if needed.

Air sealing

• Seal air leaks around doors with weather stripping.
• Caulk and seal air leaks around windows, recessed lighting, ceiling fans, attic access hatches and where utilities enter the house.

Heating system

• Have your heating system tuned up for maximum efficiency.
• Consider installing a programmable thermostat that can be set back automatically at night and while you're away from home during the day.
• Seal heating ducts and insulate ducts that run through unheated spaces

Carrie takes care of her family through her real estate practice and loves the community that she lives in.

"Raven, a small town facing economic ruin and a dwindling population, is the home of Carrie Hammons, a single mother striving to provide for her family. With the help of a friend and lawyer whose role in her future evolves into a romantic interest, Carrie struggles through this difficult transition.
Following a chain of missing person's cases in the area, Carrie experiences supernatural visits from an entity. She exits the initial contacts with a change of character and a motivation to increase the number of Raven's inhabitants. Her transformation nearly costs her the respect of her children and newfound love, though she learns in time the true nature of her visitor.
Carrie soon confronts the spirit in a life-and-death struggle waged on a mystical battlefield. The plan is simple yet dangerous - free Raven of the entity without jeopardizing the lives of innocent residents. The result is a climactic encounter involving the forces of self-survival and human compassion." Can be purchased at lulu.com

The coming of summer means longer days and higher temperatures, as well as higher energy costs as we try to keep our homes comfortably cool. Don't sweat it. Here are some tips for beating the heat without running the air conditioner 24/7. Most of these cost little or nothing.

Get the most from your air conditioning

• Open windows and use portable or ceiling fans instead of operating your air conditioner. Even mild air movement of 1 mph can make you feel three or four degrees cooler. Make sure your ceiling fan is turned for summer -- you should feel the air blown downward. If you live in a relatively dry climate, a bowl or tray of ice in front of a box fan can cool you as it evaporates.
  
  
• Use a fan with your window air conditioner to spread the cool air through your home.
  
  
• Without blocking air flow, shade your outside compressor. Change air filters monthly during the summer.
  
  
• Use a programmable thermostat with your air conditioner to adjust the setting at night or when no one is home.
  
  
• Don't place lamps or TVs near your air conditioning thermostat. The heat from these appliances will cause the air conditioner to run longer.
  
  
• Consider installing a whole house fan or evaporative cooler (a "swamp cooler") if appropriate for your climate. Attics trap fierce amounts of heat; a well-placed and -sized whole-house fan pulls air through open windows on the bottom floors and exhausts it through the roof, lowering the inside temperature and reducing energy use by as much as third compared with an air conditioner. Cost is between $200 and $400 if you install it yourself. An evaporative cooler pulls air over pads soaked in cold water and uses a quarter the energy of refrigerated air, but they're useful only in low-humidity areas. Cost is $200 to $600.
  
  
• Install white window shades, drapes, or blinds to reflect heat away from the house. Close curtains on south- and west-facing windows during the day.
  
  
• Install awnings on south-facing windows. Because of the angle of the sun, trees, a trellis, or a fence will best shade west-facing windows. Apply sun-control or other reflective films on south-facing windows.
  
  
• Plant trees or shrubs to shade air conditioning units, but not block the airflow. A unit operating in the shade uses less electricity.
  
  
• Grown on trellises, vines such as ivy or grapevines can shade windows or the whole side of a house.
  
  
• Avoid landscaping with lots of unshaded rock, cement, or asphalt on the south or west sides. It increases the temperature around the house and radiates heat to the house after the sun has set.
  
  
• Deciduous trees planted on the south and west sides will keep your house cool in the summer. Just three trees, properly placed around a house, can save a few hundred dollars in annual cooling and heating costs. In summer, daytime air temperatures can be 3 degrees to 6 degrees cooler in tree-shaded neighborhoods.
  
  

Little things mean a lot

• Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents; they produce the same light but use a fifth the energy and heat
  
  
• Air-dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher's drying cycle.
  
  
• Use a microwave oven instead of a conventional electric range or oven.
  
  
• Turn off your computer and monitor when not in use.
  
  
• Plug home electronics, such as TVs and VCRs, into power strips, and turn power strips off when equipment is not in use.
  
  
• Lower the thermostat on your water heater; 115° is comfortable for most uses.
  
  
• Take showers instead of baths to reduce hot water use.
  
  
• Wash only full loads of dishes and clothes.
  
  

Don't air-condition the whole neighborhood

• Caulking and weatherstripping will keep cool air in during the summer.
  
  
• If you see holes or separated joints in your ducts, hire a professional to repair them.
  
  
• Add insulation around air conditioning ducts when they are located in unconditioned spaces such as attics, crawl spaces, and garages; do the same for whole-house fans where they open to the exterior or to the attic.
  
  
• Check to see that your fireplace damper is tightly closed.
  
  

Plan ahead

More costly but effective cooling measures are available as your home undergoes normal upgrades and repairs.

• A 10-year-old air conditioner, for example, is only half as efficient as a new one. A quick check of your air conditioner's efficiency can help you decide whether to call in a service professional. Use a household thermometer to measure the temperature of the discharge air from the register and the temperature of the return air at the return-air grill. (Keep the thermometer in place for five minutes to get a steady temperature.) The difference should be from 14 to 20 degrees, experts say. An air conditioner that's not cooling to those levels could be low on refrigerant or have leaks. A unit cooling more than 20 degrees could have a severe blockage.
  
  
• Using light shingles on a new roof can cut the amount of heat the house absorbs. Repainting in a light color, especially south- and west-facing exterior areas, helps as well.
  
  
• Upgraded insulation in the attic and double-paned windows all around, complete with tinting to reflect sunlight, are good ideas, too.
  
  

Source: These tips (and more) come from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Savers Web site .

 

Our listing just went under contract that day. I had just filled out the paperwork and handed it into my office when I received this call. "Hi Debbie...my name is Kit Bate. I am the Loan officer for the buyer. I just wanted to introduce myself and see if you had any questions." I fainted right there in my office. It took the office staff 10 minutes to revive me. Just kidding. But I was shocked. In all my years in Real Estate this was a first.

Through out the whole transaction Kit answered and returned calls, kept me informed, and from our conversation got the buyer an amazing deal and did not use all the closing costs, so my sellers got more money back then anticipated!!!! It was the best service that I have seen in a long time. So while part of me wants to keep him a secret another part of me wants to see him in business for a LONG time. So here is his contact info. He is with Wells Fargo and his number is 801-304-4823.

Just tell him that I sent you, because of course, the greatest compliment we call can receive is a referral from another.

The Gateway in Salt Lake is what all other new developments in Utah compare themselves to. "It will be just like the Gateway" they say. What is the Gateway????? It is mixed use on steroids. It is a mall turned inside out. It is like main street with one way traffic.  What does the Gateway have to offer???

The Best Restaurants

The Best Shopping

Entertainment Galore...for all ages. Important here.

You can live here, work here, play here and of course shop here.

Plus two of my favorite guys are there.....Ben and Jerry.

http://www.downtownslc.org/shopping-gateway.htm

 

The FrontRunner Grand Opening April 26, 2008

FrontRunner commuter rail from Salt Lake City to Ogden. There are stops in Bountiful, Farmington, Layton(where I started), Clearfield, Roy and Ogden. The stop in Pleasant View will be open at a later date.

There were FREE public rides that begun at every station at approximately 2 p.m. and continued all day Monday, April 28, through Wednesday, April 30. Regular ticketed service begins on Thursday, May 1.

She looks sweet!! Huh! There is a double deck of seats and some of them have tables. There is internet capability. But really from Layton the ride only took 30 min into SLC.

 Remember Dan Nix from this mornings post??? He was there. Weird. I spoke loudly across the people between us. "I blogged about you today!!!" He said "You did?" "Yes" I said "Google me." That doesn't sound good either. Dan is a great agent. It was fun to be in his office.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am excited that we now have a transit system into the city. Hopefully it will cut down on traffic tremendously. I know I will want to take Front Runner to go shopping and to go to Jazz Games. Go Jazz!!!

The train was full coming and going. Hopefully it is a sign of what is to come.

 

Yes in the BASS PRO SHOP Las Vegas.

 

This photo was taken at the Bass Pro Shop in Las Vegas. Check out those sting rays!!!! Their barbs have been trimmed.They also had a feeding of the stingrays. The stingrays would get the fish and roll it under themselves until it reached it mouth. This aquarium has mermaids come to visit and wave to people out side. I have some cute video clips that as soon as I figure out how to get them here I will post them. The kids were completely captivated just by the fish themselves. Very interesting..

If all our sellers had garden's like Bellagio what a world this would be.

Agents would beg to see our listings!!!! Buyers would compete against each other!! Sellers would get mulitple offers. Title companies would require that they visit the house before they insure it. Lenders would come and see the property too and of course appraisers would spend all day there. Or would they??

Have you ever had a listing so great that many people clamored to see it...even if they could not buy it???

I just got this letter yesterday and this was the headline. Did I want to read it? Yes!!! Not because I think my life sucks. It doesn't. But I want to know why this person thought my life sucks. I am struck by the directness of this advertising and captured at the same time.

 So do you want to know why your life sucks?????

Ok I tell you what they told me, but I am not going to give you all the reasoning why. It will be too long of a blog. If that anticipation gets to you let me know and I will email the whole letter to you.

"The #1 Reason that your life sucks- Your pretending that you don't have control over your life.

The #2 Reason that your life sucks- You chronically and unconsciously focus on what you don't want.

The #3 Reason that your life sucks-You believe what you parents taught you about who you have to be in order to be ok.

The #4 Reason that your life sucks- You aren't willing to examine your beliefs and premises- about the world, life, other people, or yourself.

The #5 Reason that your life sucks- Fearing Failure, you don't act.

The #6 Reason that your life sucks- Your focused on yourself and are mostly (or entirely) unaware of the needs-- or perspective- of other people.

The #7 Reason that your life sucks- You're waiting for everything to be okay before you can be happy." I hate to be the one to break it to you but everything is never going to be ok. Your human with humans. ;)

So what is for sale???? It actually is quite fitting for their advertising. This letter is from Bill Harris. He was one of the people in the movie "The Secret" He has a company called Centerpointe and they use Holosync. Which is a way to meditate like Zen masters with out all the time and hassle. Truly it is amazing. I am only on the first level, but I love meditation it gives me the calm I need in this REal EsTate STOrm!!!.

http://www.centerpointe.com/about/

So the point of my blog is really this. HAVE you ever advertised like this?????

Ten Reasons why your house sucks and it is time to up grade. UGHHH!!! Possible? I am not so sure..

This is the New Meez I created to show how tough I am and So that you know that I can handle all of your Real Estate Issues. If you can't tell by my muscles...you'll just have to call me and give me a try. You can build your own meez at www.meez.com. So far I haven't spent a dime. It has been fun changing my look according to my moods. Does it look like me?