How to Lower Your Heating and Cooling Costs When temperatures drop below freezing or rise to the point of sweltering, does it seem like your wallet develops leaks? If keeping your home comfortable year-round taxes your budget or tempts you to forgo comfort, you need to find a better way. Try implementing simple methods to lower your heating and cooling bills. Save on Air Conditioning If you didn't have to heat or cool your home, you could easily cut your energy bills in half, as the Department of Energy points out. Few people want to return to the days … (2 comments)
sanibel homes: Greater Fort Myers Area Design Tip #5.
- 09/09/14 12:59 AM
Design Tips for Your Children's Playroom When designing a playroom for your children, there are some key factors to consider. This is a room where your children will learn, grow and flourish both physically and socially. It's important to craft an inspirational, fun and safe environment. Combine these elements to create a playful, carefree environment in your home. Color & Theme Consider your child's personality and preferences – and embrace them! Use vivid and bold colors such as red, blue, green, pink or yellow. Use them as your primary wall color, or go with a more neutral shade and accent with these hues. … (11 comments)
sanibel homes: Houseboats and Floating Homes: Pros and Cons of Living on the Water
- 08/20/14 05:30 AM
Houseboats and Floating Homes: Pros and Cons of Living on the Water Singer Otis Redding sat on the dock of the bay, wrote a song about it, and made millions of dollars. What his song didn't tell us, however, is that he was sitting on a docked houseboat in Sausalito, Calif., and the "bay" is Richardson Bay. Houseboat living was definitely the inspiration for the singer's all-time biggest hit. People all over the world live on boats - from fishing trawlers to yachts - but the houseboats most popular in the United States are flat-bottomed and "designed to be floating cottages," according to … (1 comments)
The most important letter you'll submit to a home seller is the one you'll get from your lender stating that you are preapproved for a mortgage. Savvy listing agents will counsel their clients to refuse offers from unapproved buyers, so all the flowery prose of a home-offer letter will mean nothing without loan preapproval. Assuming you have your lender's letter, whether or not you also submit a home-offer letter depends a great deal on the type of market in which you're buying and the competition.
Social media facts I took from reputable sites: • On average, in the course of a year, we will share 415 pieces of content on Facebook; we’ll spend an average of about 23 minutes a day on Twitter, tweeting a total of around 15,795 tweets; we’ll check in 563 times on Foursquare; upload 196 hours of video on YouTube, and send countless emails. • Facebook now has over 1 billion active users. That means that one out of every seven people in the world has a presence … (1 comments)
sanibel homes: How to Create a Butterfly Garden Behind Your Florida Home.
- 07/08/14 12:34 AM
How to Create a Butterfly Garden Who doesn't love a butterfly? Most people think of aesthetic value when they consider the benefits of butterflies. But beyond their good looks, butterflies are an important link in the ecosystem. The adult insects and their larvae are critical to the food chain and provide nutrition for many birds, bats, and insect-eating animals. When butterflies start to disappear, the health of the rest of the ecosystem is drawn into question. On a very small scale, your butterfly garden can help piece together their fragmented habitat. What Can Gardeners Do to Protect Butterflies? If you want … (0 comments)
Recently, I decide to try to grow my company so I thought that I would pursue some fresh new digital content. Up to this point I made my own and created a YouTube Channel to house the media items. From there I could post on Facebook, ActiveRain, LinkedIn, etc. First I needed to find an affordable souce. I surveyed YouTube looking for good examples and finally discovered a small local company that fit my budget. Here are 3 pieces that were made for me at a cost of $4500 total. The project took two weeks and I … (2 comments)
sanibel homes: Can Pets Hurt a Home Sale?
- 07/02/14 12:58 AM
Can Pets Hurt a Home Sale? Dogs do the darndest things when they're bored. Take Squishy, for instance. Lauren came home late one night from her job as a nurse to find that Squishy –her usually well-mannered dog – had torn her sofa to shreds, right down to the woody skeleton. Wading through the chunks of foam and scraps of distressed leather, she noticed something else: Squishy had enough time to not only disassemble the sofa but also to chew up the living room baseboards. While a ruined sofa won't impact a home's value, gnarled-on baseboards most definitely will.
Americans … (1 comments)
sanibel homes: How to Give Your Bathroom a Spa-Like Feel
- 06/05/14 05:10 AM
How to Give Your Bathroom a Spa-Like Feel Nothing epitomizes pure relaxation more than the serenity and ambiance of a spa setting. The smells and sounds alone are enough to immediately calm the body and soul. Unfortunately, enjoying these luxuries isn't exactly a common occurrence. However, below are some great tips to help you modify your bathroom for a personal spa experience. Get ready to enjoy hours of escape and rejuvenation.
The Calm Color Palette When selecting a color scheme, think nature, earthy and calming. Lighter color schemes provide a more airy, natural and relaxing feel. Neutral shades of light … (2 comments)
sanibel homes: Creating a Garden Your Kids Will Love
- 06/02/14 02:25 AM
Creating a Garden Your Kids Will Love Gardens don't have to be off-limits to children. In fact, creating a designated garden area for your kids can provide hours of fun as well as opportunities for learning. If you have limited space, allocating even a small garden bed for your child to care for can give him a sense of accomplishment and an ongoing project that changes with the seasons. Here are some tips for creating a garden space that works for children and grown-ups alike.
Make the Garden Interactive A garden space for kids is not something to be admired … (7 comments)
Most real estate agents have tales of clients who just can't seem to look beyond a home's minor flaws, be they ratty floors or sagging screens. Then, there are those clients who can envision the possibilities of a house that's seemingly being held up by a prayer. If you fall into the latter category but are short on cash, here's a solution: a government-backed loan that covers not only the purchase price of the home, but the cost to rehab it as well. It's a loan provided by … (4 comments)
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Conventional FHA Alternatives The changes in FHA-backed financing have many homebuyers seeking an alternative and, although it's been around since 2006, Fannie Mae's My Community Mortgage Program's time has come. This is a conventional loan product, ideal for first-time homebuyers lacking a large down payment and with limited credit histories. With flexible underwriting and a 3 percent down payment requirement, My Community Mortgage is a lower-cost alternative to FHA in many instances. "Say you want to buy a $180,000 house and you don't have much cash for a down payment," hypothesizes George Souto, … (0 comments)
sanibel homes: Chemical Free Weed Prevention?
- 05/19/14 04:24 AM
Chemical-Free Weed Prevention Tactics If there's one thing all gardeners hate, it is weeds. Fortunately, there are a number of chemical-free tactics you can use to control weeds in your garden. And in the long run, most of them will be cheaper than spending money on toxic, synthetic chemical weed controls. A weed, by definition, is any plant that grows in a place where it's not wanted. With that thought in mind, let's discuss some weed prevention tactics.
Prevent Weeds Naturally With Other Plants If you want chemical-free weed control, plant other plants. That's right. Plant the plants that you … (3 comments)
sanibel homes: Good Credit but No Down Payment? There's a Loan for That!
- 05/19/14 04:01 AM
So, Warren Buffet spends more on dinner than you make in a month, and you've never required the services of an investment banker, but you have good credit and you long to own your own home. What if we told you that there is a mortgage loan program out there for people just like you and (here's the best part) it requires no down payment? Despite what you may have been hearing in the media about lenders tightening their belts and mortgage requirements becoming more stringent, the USDA offers a zero-down mortgage for folks who don't make gobs of money.
… (2 comments)
sanibel homes: Tips for Decorating Small Spaces
- 05/18/14 11:58 PM
City dwellers, college students, retirees and many others often choose to live in condos, apartments, lofts, or small homes. The key to maximizing these living quarters is to take advantage of the space that is available, making it functional while utilizing the right décor to create a roomier, airy feel. Here are some tips to help make this happen, wherever your small space might be. Choosing a Color Palette Choosing the proper color scheme is absolutely critical to small interior décor. Although obviously still a matter of personal preference, it's best to go with light colors throughout. It's not uncommon to see an … (2 comments)
sanibel homes: Confused About VA Loans? Find Out What Veterans Should Know
- 04/07/14 03:08 AM
Fans of late-night TV will recall the infomercials of a few years ago, hawking zero-down loans. Those loans, along with loans requiring no documentation, were being handed out like candy to anyone who applied, and were largely blamed for the mortgage industry implosion. In the wake of that mess, mortgage lenders tightened standards. Lenders began demanding that homebuyers needed some skin in the game - a healthy down payment - to make them think twice about defaulting on the loan. Zero-down loans became a memory. Today, you have three choices if you're seeking a mortgage without a down payment: Navy Federal … (0 comments)
sanibel homes: 4 Things to Consider Before Becoming a Landlord
- 04/07/14 02:53 AM
4 Things to Consider Before Becoming a Landlord When considering whether or not to buy investment property, searching for good advice can lead to even more frustration. After all, there is a lot more to consider than the simple messages you find on many websites, like: "Home prices are at rock bottom and interest rates are at historic lows!" Your best bet, when considering whether or not to become a landlord, is to solicit the advice of your financial advisor and your real estate agent. Let's take a look at some of the research you'll need to perform in order to … (0 comments)
sanibel homes: Hummingbirds behind your house is nice.
- 03/13/14 10:06 PM
Hummingbird Plants in the Garden With wings that beat up to 200 times per second and the ability to hover straight up and down, sideways, backwards, and even upside down, hummingbirds need a lot of energy. Although hummingbirds will eat insects, most of that energy comes from the nectar of flowers, and you can invite these guests to dine in your garden by planting known hummingbird plants. Hummingbirds Everywhere There are 320 hummingbird species in North, Central, and South America, so chances are you will find at least a species or two that call your region of the country home. Many … (0 comments)
sanibel homes: Scoping Out a Neighborhood in Cape Coral or Fort Myers.
- 03/13/14 09:41 PM
Scoping Out a Neighborhood Homebuyers enter the process with one of two mindsets. There are those who know what kind of house they want – the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the type of kitchen and maybe whether or not they want a yard. Then there are those who knowwhere they want to live, such as a specific school district or neighborhood, but haven't completed a wish list of home features. Seldom does a homebuyer tell her real estate agent that she wants a "three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a gourmet kitchen, a fireplace and a pool in the backyard, located on J Street … (1 comments)
sanibel homes: Growing the perfect herb garden for the perfect house.
- 03/06/14 11:11 PM
Tips for Growing an Herb Garden Herbs are some of the easiest, most versatile and useful plants to grow. If you're going to start a garden for the first time, try growing herbs. Many of them grow with very little care, and if you live in a condominium or townhome with limited space, herbs can easily be grown in containers. Whether you've got acres of land or just a few pots on a patio, here are a few tips for growing a successful herb garden.
Tip #1: Grow Herbs You'll Eat There's no sense in growing herbs you won't eat. … (0 comments)
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