Most of us remember the scenes of devastation from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Those of us who went to New Orleans for the 2006 NAR Conference saw how much the city was still a scene of devastation. Unfortunatly, most of the Lower Ninth Ward remains devasted. I will be doanting 1% fr
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12/25/2008
This is the season that makes me remember how grateful I am for container gardening. Fresh herbs and salads can be a real splurge at this time of the year but if you have a sunny spot and a few pots or other containers it is a simple and gratifying task to grow your own. Nothing is fresher or tas
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12/23/2008
I heard an interview on the radio this afternoon with a gentleman in Miami-Dade County. He is involved with an organization that helps find housing for homeless families. He has come up with an interesting approach to the foreclosure mess. There are a number of possible reactions to this approach
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12/19/2008
This cought my eye because it is a well worded version of what I wanted to say. I love it when someone else writes my blog for me!There is no doubt that recycling is key to an environmentally conscious lifestyle, but the critical first step has to be waste reduction. If you ask a majority of peo
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12/12/2008
Now and then I write a blog about remodeling and reuse of existing space. Sometimes it is just too true that a picture is worth a thousand words. I subscribe to a blog called the Web Urbanist and sometimes the pictures tell the story that no words can. This is a picture of an abandoned nursing h
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12/07/2008
Studs Terkel would have made a great Realtor. He was a master interviewer, drawing from people the distilled essence of what was important to them, using their own words to tell their stories and powerfully weaving those stories together to pain unforgettable portraits of amazing power. I reread
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12/04/2008
John Brown is a registered architect, a real estate broker and a professor of architecture at the University of Calgary. He is also the founder of what he calls the Slow Home Movement. The idea is a shelter based version of the Slow Food Movement. While slow food aims to increase our awareness of
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11/30/2008
The quality of our indoor air has declined to the point that poor air quality is fourth on a list of 31 environmental threats in the US, according to the EPA. "It is estimated that nearly 25% of US residents are affected by poor indoor air quality, either at the workplace or the home. Indoor air
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11/14/2008
Carbon offsets represent investments that reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon offsets typically include investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects. They are one way to begin to make a difference in influencing climate change. Personally, I am not a huge fan
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10/26/2008
The first step should be to make sure that you have adequate insulation and weather stripping in place. That low cost improvement can save an amazing amount of utility money by itself. It may take a bite out of your savings, but upgrading your HVAC system can be a no-brainer from a financial sta
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10/23/2008
