Just staged: 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath home in Burbank, 1022 Grinell Dr.

Beautiful home on one of the best streets in Burbank

3 bedroom, 2 bath home in the hillsides of Burbank

Design by Marla has just finished staging a wonderful home in Burbank. This home is located on one of the best streets in Burbank. It is conveniently located near downtown Burbank with plenty of shopping and dining options. It is close to the De Bell golf course and Stough Park and Nature center.

All the work has been done for you.  New paint inside and out! New granite countertop in Kitchen! Hardwood floors refinished throughout house!

The house is 1825 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths.

 It has a formal living room with a fireplace and a formal dining room.

 It has a large, open family room and kitchen. The kitchen has granite countertops.

The master bedroom and bathroom are spacious with lots of closet space. The master bedroom has sliders to a deck and overlooks the pool and backyard.

Address: 1022 Grinnell Dr., Burbank, CA 91501
Asking price: $699,900
MLS# F11034634

Listed with Mike McDonald of Re-Max. 818-500-0057 www.mikemcdonald.com

Photos by Tom Queally, Tom Queally Photography. 818-585-1956  www.tomqueally.com

Staged by Design by Marla. 818-606-2172 www.designbymarla.com

It's coming.  Like it or not, the holiday season is here.  We've made it through Halloween, on its heels is Thanksgiving and then with a blink of the eye , we have Hanukkah and Christmas.  It always seems that we pack about 3 or 4 months of effort and activities into about 2 months.

 We have a solution.  Hire someone to help with your holiday decorating!

 Announcing--Holiday Design by Marla-- We will work with you to design the perfect holiday decoration plan for your business or home.  We focus on interior Christmas trees but we can add wreaths, garlands, centerpieces or other decor that will enhance the festive holiday atmosphere of your space.

 All of are trees are custom and unique.  You will not find the same tree anywhere else.  These are some of the trees we have done:

 •¨      Simple Elegance- decorated in shades of bronze and chocolate and accented with cream-colored Magnolia blossoms.

•¨      Victorian Tree- decorated with roses, doilies, hydrangeas, red and gold ornaments.  The result is a very traditional tree, reminiscent of the Victorian era with a modern twist.

•¨      Woodland Tree- inspired by the beauty of nature found in pinecones, berries and floral.

•¨      Retro-modern tree- decorated with "funky" ornaments in turquoise, lime green and dynamic blues.

Our tree decorations are available for sale or for rent.  We will place the decorations on your tree or you can rent a tree from us!

Never thought about renting a tree?  These are a few of the benefits of rental:

•¨      Someone else does all of the work of set up and take down.

•¨      You don't have to find a space to store it for the remainder of the year.

•¨      You can change your look from year to year.

•¨      You are guaranteed a professional result.

Wouldn't it be great to have that stress-free holiday season that you have always dreamed about?  Call us if we can help.

Holiday Design by Marla

818-606-2172

The world today is stressful- politics, finances, real estate!?!?!

In this world of chaos and financially challenging times we all need to remember to relax.  At the very least, find something relaxing to do every day.  At the end of the day, my favorite relaxation is to sit down to dinner with my husband, listen to some nice music, enjoy wine with dinner and unwind.  A majority of the year, we are lucky to sit outside on our patio where we can, also, watch the sunset.

To step it up a notch on the relaxation scale, take a weekend getaway or a daytrip.  Those trips are almost worth the same in relaxation credits as a full vacation.  We often take a weekend trip to Palm Springs.  For us, it is less than a 2 hour drive from our home in the Los Angeles area.  I couldn't have said it better than Priscilla Presley said in a recent article in Architectural Digest, "That was our getaway house.  Once we started driving into Palm Springs, there was a calmness that took over".  There is something about the desert air and the city that just forces you to relax.  For another weekend relaxation idea, see my blog on our trip to Ojai, Ca. ( http://activerain.com/blogsview/417653/Wine-trip-to-Ojai ).

However, the ultimate in relaxation is a cruise!  My husband and I just returned from a cruise on the Princess Cruise line.  This was a unique cruise (they only do it two times per year) called the repositioning cruise.  In this case, they were moving the boat from the Summer Alaska cruises to the Fall/Winter cruising in Mexico.  Our cruise consisted of 7 glorious days of relaxation and siteseeing on our way from Vancouver, BC to Los Angeles, Ca.  Our ports of call were Naniamo, BC, Victoria, BC, San Francisco, Catalina Island, San Diego then home to Los Angeles.  I would highly recommend it.  They are generally, less expensive yet they have the same great entertainment and food that the other cruises have.

On a cruise you can do as much or as little as you want.  You can find a deck chair and read a book or you can join in a ping pong tournament.  Once on shore, you can go on a shore excursion to a Cranberry Farm or hike to the top of a mountain or you can plop down on a barstool and watch the world go by!  The great thing is once you are done on shore, you walk up the gangway onto a 4 star hotel with great food and a comfortable bed and you didn't have to pack up your bags to move to the next destination.

Now that I am home, I'm rejuvenated and I have new found energy to work on my business, Design by Marla, deal with the housing market, the financial trauma and the election politics!  Remember-- take time for yourself and do something everyday that is relaxing to you.

Spring is in the air.  There seems to be a new vitality for living about this time every year- even in Southern California.  The home improvement stores seem more crowded with people buying outdoor furniture and plants.  Even the birds seem to chirp more.

I wrote a blog a couple of months ago titled "We are so blind".  I talked about my inability to see the "flaws" in my front porch.  I ended with a promise to show you the after pictures.  Well, I spent this week visiting the home improvement stores and working on my front porch.  Here are the pictures.

                                                                                       BEFORE:

AFTER:

My mailbox is not new but it is cleaned up.

My doorbell sports a new faux finish.

I painted the front door and bought new door hardware.

I am planting new flowers.

I invested in a new doormat.

I bought a new exterior light fixture.

I changed out the old wicker settee for a bistro table.

Remember, 1^st impressions are important.  Many people see the exterior of your home and form an opinion about your home before seeing the inside.  If you are selling your home, you may be turning away a potential buyer.  Whether you are selling or staying in your home, take some time and look at your front porch.  If it suffers from being ignored (as mine did), pay attention to it.  It doesn't take a lot of time or money to improve that 1^st impression.

Marla

http://designbymarla.com

Wine trip to Ojai, Ca.

My husband and I decided to take a mini-getaway to celebrate our 17^th wedding anniversary.  We thought about going to Temecula to do a couple of our favorite things- wine tasting and golf.  However, we decided to go north from L.A., instead, to Ojai (pronounced "Oh-hi").  We left midday on this past Saturday in March.  The weather was beautiful- in the high 70's.

Our 1^st stop was the Old Creek Ranch Winery (www.oldcreekranch.com) in Oak View (just outside of Ojai on Hwy. 33).  It is a little tough to find because they are not allowed to have a sign on the highway.  Apparently, people are not having any trouble finding the tasting room because when we arrived, shortly after noon, the place was packed.  This is the second time we have been to the tasting room.  We weren't disappointed either time.  The staff was friendly, the tastings are free and the wines are well made and tasty.  I understand that they will be charging for their tastings in the near future, but, for now, they are free.  They have a nice selection of red and white.  Personally, I prefer red wine and my favorites were the Petite Sirah and the Pinot Noir.  I brought a picnic lunch with us and was hoping that we could enjoy lunch at the winery under the Oak trees.  Unfortunately, the place was so busy that all of the tables were filled.

We ended up enjoying our lunch on the balcony of our motel room at "The Capri".  The motel is a wanna-be "boutique" hotel.  The rooms have some nice touches like the 42" plasma hanging on the wall and the retro white "leather" lounge (very comfortable).  However, I was disappointed that they have not been able to follow through with their vision for the motel. The upgrades like paint and crown molding were poorly done.  The carpet and drapes didn't match the updated modern lighting and color of the walls.  With a little work,  this place could be a really great place to stay.  The pool area looked very nice although we ran out of time and didn't get the chance to enjoy it.

For dinner, we went to the Auberge at Ojai.  We had  a superior dining experience.  It is located above street level in a converted house.  We sat outside on the heated, wrap-around porch.  It felt like we were in a treehouse.  The service was excellent.  They have a limited menu that changes monthly.  Their wine list has something for every budget and taste.  The food was excellent.  When they found out it was our anniversary,  they brought us a crème brulee for dessert.

After dinner, we stopped at the Movino Wine Bar and Art Gallery.  They have a nice tapas menu, a wonderful selection of wine by the glass and live music.  It is a popular place for locals and tourists with a very friendly atmosphere.

Sunday, we got up and drove across the street to the Soule Park golf course.  This golf course has been renovated in '05-'06.  It's a municipal course but we enjoy the course and the layout.  It has a lot of interesting holes.  The one down side was the pace of play.  We started about 20 minutes late and it seemed like we waited on just about every hole.

Overall, we had a very nice mini-getaway, wine tasting in Ojai, Ca. for our anniversary weekend.  When you are in the Ventura/ Santa Barbara area, you should visit Ojai.  Next time we visit Ojai, we want to check out the shopping, antique stores, and art galleries.

In this slower real estate market, agents and buyers are trying hard to make their homes stand out from the rest.  A few (I'm glad to say this is not a trend.) are accentuating the negative, instead of the positive!

An agent in Columbus, MO. advertised a listing in this way:

 "It's not pretty.  It's not clean.  It doesn't smell good.  But it's really cheap." 

The MLS did not want to post the listing.  They asked the agent to re-write it.  After some discussion, they eventually accepted the listing as originally written.  The real estate agent said her plan worked and she got a lot of calls from people looking for fixers.

I guess if you are willing to price your home under the market value, this may be a strategy to get attention and hopefully, get a quick sale.  Personally, I would rather spend a few bucks so that I could accentuate the positive and not have to price my home under market value.

A professional home stager can view your home or listing with an objective eye and give you suggestions for improvement so you do not have to accentuate the negative!!

Marla

Design by Marla

I was recently talking to a man from Sweden.  He asked me what I did and I told him I was a Home Stager and gave him my "30 second elevator speech".  He said in Sweden they are called "stylists". 

Do they call them stylists anywhere else?  I like the name.  The name has a more creative feel than home stager.  To me, "Home Stager" has a "work horse" feel to it.  Stylist implies creative transformation but home stager implies furniture mover/rearranger.

Don't get me wrong?  I understand all of the different hats that "stagers" have to wear.  I'm looking at the public perspective.

Here are the definitions according to Webster:

Main Entry:

styl·ist

Pronunciation:

\ˈstī-list\

Function:

noun

Date:

1795

1 a: a master or model of style; especially : a writer or speaker who is eminent in matters of style b: a person (as a writer or singer) noted for a distinctive style2 a: a person who develops, designs, or advises on styles b: hairstylist

 Now, I did not touch-up these definitions- these are the from the dictionary.  I think that the Webster definition of "stylist"  is a better example of what we do?  What do you think?  Should "home stagers" try a new name?

Marla

Design by Marla

I'm sorry to say that the home stager wasn't Design by Marla but I'm still glad that we are getting positive exposure.

I got a call last week from a woman at KCAL (local)/ CBS news.  She wanted to do a feature on Home Staging and the importance of it in today's real estate environment.  I wasn't able to help her but I recommended my new Active Rain friend, Michelle Minch.

By the time Michelle was able to connect, they already had found someone, Carolyn Walter of "Sold on Design".  I don't know her but she is a fellow HSR graduate.

The news spot aired yesterday and here is the link:

http://cbs2.com/video/?id=58379@kcbs.dayport.com

I understand that home staging is still not as prevalent as it is in other areas of the country, so I'm really glad that we got this free advertising.

Stagers are the most passionate group of people I know.  We truly believe in the industry and the benefits we provide to home sellers.  Just look at our blogs to see the passion that we feel.

marla@designbymarla.com

www.designbymarla.com

We are so blind...

We look but we don't see.

How many times per week do we walk up to the front door of our house?  Do we really see how it looks?  Probably not.

I will take my own front entry as an example.  I started to repaint the front door- oh, about 5 years ago.  The door is 80% green, 15% brown (the original color) and 5% white (primer).  The door knob is tarnished and dirty.  The doorbell is rusty.  The "Welcome" mat is missing and the flowers are almost dead.

 Is that the 1^st impression I would like my neighbors to have about my home?  No.  In fact, some of my neighbors may never see the inside of my lovely, well decorated and sometimes clean home.  They do, however, get to see my front porch all the time.

Whether you are planning to sell or stay in your lovely home.  Really look at your front porch.  Does it match the interior of your home?  Is it a good preview that makes you want to view the inside of the house?  Or like mine, does it make you want to run away?

Here are a few helpful tips to spruce up the curb appeal of your home:

1. Paint the front door. 
2. Plant some beautiful flowers or get flower bowls.
3. Buy a new doormat- preferably not one with a cute saying or picture.
4. Check out your door hardware and doorbell.  Clean it up, if possible.  If not, replace them.
5. Powerwash your driveway.
6. Inspect the mailbox and exterior lights.  They are exposed to the elements and tend to get dirty and worn out quicker than interior items.

Stay tuned!  After writing this blog, I'm inspired to spruce up my front porch and improve my 1^st impression!  I'll post the after pictures.

http://www.designbymarla.com/

marla@designbymarla.com

Many of today's buyers and real estate agents use the MLS listing online to preview homes.  Your homes first impression is created when someone looks at its pictures.  The decision of whether or not to view the home is made at that point.  For me, the biggest turn-offs are MLS listings with no pictures, vacant home pictures, and pictures of "tired" homes.

Let's talk first about no pictures.  If there are no pictures, I move on.  If there are no pictures then I assume that there is something to hide or nothing to offer!

Vacant homes- the pictures are boring.  I see a floor, blank walls and maybe, a window.  I do not get an idea of the space or size of the room.

Tired homes- the impression I get varies from depressed, stressed, "forced sale", on the verge of bankruptcy, deferred maintenance, etc.  You get the idea.

But before you can take those great photos you need to have a great subject.  Spend some time and effort to make your home the best it can be.  A professional home stager can help you with that process.  We can view your home with an objective eye and make suggestions that we feel will maximize the appeal of your home to the largest number of potential buyer.  We want to highlight the positive aspects of the home and update it without spending a lot of cash.  There are little things that can be done to create a big effect.

For a vacant home, we can help by finding the right furnishing and accessories that will maximize the appeal of your home.  I'm sure you know that new homes sell because of their models.  Potential buyers visualize themselves living that lifestyle.

Once the home is staged, dramatic pictures of the updated home are given to the realtor so that they can be uploaded to the internet.   With a little time and effort, the first impression of your home can be a positive one.  In today's real estate market, there is a lot of competition and you want your home noticed and sold quickly.  That means putting the best foot forward.   You would not sell your car without detailing it first.  Why would you put your home on the market without professionally staging it first?

The cost of home staging is most often less than the first price reduction.  In the case of a vacant home staging, the owner needs to consider the monthly cost of the mortgage and the other carrying costs.  Did you know that the cost of staging could be a tax write-off?

Home staging is an investment in your home.  Call your local professional stager to help transform your house into a warm and inviting home!

http://www.designbymarla.com/

marla@designbymarla.com