how to: Avoid These Mistakes When Flipping a Home - 01/31/10 06:02 PM
Experienced home flippers know that there are pitfalls to any promising piece of property, and avoid the most obvious ones. You can, too. Learning from others' mistakes can result in huge rewards if you find you are ready to start a home flipping business.
The following are pitfalls and mistakes to avoid and how to work some of the situations to your advantage.
1. If your financial situation is not healthy, don't start flipping just yet.
If you do not have the following necessities in place, put flipping on the back burner for now:
* Full-time job.
* Income that allows … (3 comments)

how to: Tips for Dating on a Budget - 10/03/08 11:53 PM
Relationships and dating are hard enough without any added stress, but in difficult economic times, it's hard to avoid the added pressure of wooing your partner on a minimal budget. New couples are the hardest hit, as it may seem too soon to forego a night out on the town in favor of dinner and a movie at home (well, at least not every night). Even couples who have relationships that are well established feel the crunch of limited spending abilities. But reduced budgets don't have to put a damper on the romance of a relationship, new or long-standing. There are … (8 comments)

how to: Putting In A Flowerbed - 05/05/08 08:56 PM
Putting in a flowerbed is a great way to add a splash of color and charm to your lawn, and turn an ordinary yard into a place to stop and smell the roses. All it takes is a little dirt work and a weekend afternoon, and you’ll be ready to plant azaleas and daisies to your heart’s content.
The first step is to decide the “where and how big?” question. There are a few things to keep in mind when making these choices, such as proximity to a water faucet (Or whether you need to buy a new, longer hose), … (3 comments)

how to: Home Improvement Tips : Bathroom Renovations - 04/28/08 10:17 PM
One of the most popular areas of a house to renovate is the bathroom. There are many different ways to renovate a bathroom, from small surface changes to completely gutting the room. With some forethought and elbow grease, there are renovating techniques the do-it-yourselfer can accomplish, while saving money at the same time.
The first rule in any renovation is to start with a budget, and stick to it. After a budget is set, one must decide on how serious of a project the renovation will be. Surface alterations can be done fairly quickly and cheaply, while rearranging the layout … (3 comments)

how to: How to Refinish Hardwood Floors - 04/16/08 10:14 PM
Several homes, especially centrally located homes, have hardwood flooring. A pristine hardwood floor is beautiful, but to restore one back to its original 60 year old elegance, the floor will need to be refinished.
Refinishing hardwood floors can be a challenging job for the do-it-yourselfer, but with some preparation and research, it can be done without the help of a professional.
Many older homes have gone through fads, and one that became a norm was wall to wall carpeting. If wood floors hide under a carpet, it will have to be removed. After all furniture has been removed, pull … (1 comments)

how to: Synthesizer Fundamentals - 04/07/08 11:09 PM
So I usually write about real estate. But every so often I get burned out on real estate and write about something a little bit different.
While many timbres, like those which come from bowed strings and woodwinds, are readily recreated with synthesizers, percussive instruments are some of the most tricky to create convincing emulations of. Piano and harpsichord are most easily dealt with through sampled instruments, but the enharmonic qualities of bells and xylophone instruments are relatively easier to create. In this context, enharmonic refers to the relative balance of harmonics in a given audio source being unrelated to … (1 comments)

how to: How to Reduce Your Heating Bill - 03/06/08 08:27 AM
While Austin is known for its warm sunny weather, there are those few months where every year, when the temperature drops, it begins to get cold and we watch our heating bills rise. During the winter season, nearly two-thirds or your electricity (or gas) bill is devoted to heating spaces, often during times that they are not being used. Austin is a city that is turning green and though most of the efforts are concentrated on reducing energy consumption and our carbon footprint during the peak summer months, there are several easy and relatively inexpensive things you can do to lower … (1 comments)

how to: How to Fix a Hole in a Wall - 02/28/08 06:19 PM
Perhaps the most common home repair is fixing a hole in the wall. When I was young, my grandfather would baby sit my brothers and I while mom and dad were of earning a living. What our parents called child care, my grandfather interpreted as napping and most afternoons we had the run of the house. Now on more than one occasion, something was said and something was thrown, and some how we ended up with a hole in the wall. It happens to the best of us. Not wanting to risk losing our afternoons of freedom or our grandfather’s reputation, … (3 comments)

how to: Cabinet Installation - It's Easier Than You Think! - 02/04/08 09:20 AM
You've just moved into a wonderful new home and you cannot wait to start making it your own. One of the easiest home improvements the first time home owner may encounter is installing new cabinets. While the thought of such a major addition to a room may at first seem daunting to all of us who have never consider ourselves carpenters, installing a brand new set of cabinets is easy enough for almost anyone with a few tools to accomplish in a very short amount of time.
You want to start out by making sure that you have all the … (0 comments)

how to: Synthesizer Fundamentals: Classic 80's Brass - 01/12/08 08:39 AM
I post about real estate alot. Every so often I want to mix it up with other stuff. Espically when I am getting burned out over constant real estate stuff.
Pop music is often described in cycles: retro music becomes cool, then gets reprocessed and digested by listeners, until the next big thing comes along. While the 80's are (some would say thankfully) long behind us, the sounds from classic records from the era have likewise experienced a reincarnation. The second installment in this series aims to show how to most easily recreate a classic sound heard on many famous … (0 comments)