Archives for January 2012

Could Buyers Be Ready To Get Off the Sidelines?

January 24, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Falling home prices have sent many would-be buyers to the sidelines. In many cases, record low interest rates and rising rents may prompt some of them to take a second look at buying.

Much of the decision to buy a house still depends on your personal finances and preferences, your career or family life, or level of financial security. But if you’re comparing just the cost of owning and renting, buying a house may soon be the better choice.

Until recently, home ownership was no bargain compared to renting, according to his analysis. A 33 percent drop fall in home prices, a plunge in mortgage rates and 15 percent rise in rents since the housing crash has evened the scales. Today, the median monthly mortgage payment of about $700 has fallen to about the level of a median monthly rent check. If mortgage rates keep falling and rents keep rising, the equation will tip even further toward owning.

But that analysis doesn’t include the total cost of owning versus renting. A full accounting includes closing costs, maintenance, insurance and property taxes, tax savings from mortgage deductions, gains or losses from home equity, among other factors. Renters have to think about broker fees and future rent hikes. Both have to make assumptions about future trends in housing prices and rents.

When you take those factors into account — someone who plans on staying put for seven years would come out ahead by about $9,000 if they bought a median-priced home rather than being a tenant in a median-priced rental, assuming that rents keep rising by about 3 percent a year and that house prices stay flat in 2012 and 2013 and begin rising in 2014 at about 3 percent a year.

If you would like to investigate this more, shoot me an email or call 206-713-3244

Filed Under: Blog, Real Estate Tagged With: buyer's market, buying a home, buying a house, buying real estate

Music Review: Peter Gabriel – New Blood

January 23, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

In Peter Gabriel latest LP New Blood, the singer/songwriter has decided to cover himself… orchestrally. Incorporating selections from all corners of Gabriel’s solo songbook, New Blood offers familiar compositions in new arrangements (orchestrated by regular Gabriel collaborator John Metcalfe) where rock instrumentation is replaced by orchestral strings, woodwinds, and brass, with piano making occasional appearances. With Ben Foster conducting the 46-member-strong New Blood Orchestra, this enterprise lends itself most suitably to touching ballads and sweeping emotional gestures, so don’t be surprised that certain, more energetic Gabriel staples such as “Sledgehammer” and “Shock the Monkey” didn’t make it onto this tracklist.

New Blood often trades in high drama, inundating much of the record in epic symphonic dread. “Rhythm of the Heat” is dominated by ebbing, thrusting strings that might bring to mind an impending battle upon the plains of Middle-Earth. Later on, “Darkness” is characterized by an ominous march rhythm and pulse-pounding performance by Gabriel that adds hearty slices of danger to its fairy tale vibe.

The melodrama can be overbearing in places, and Metcalfe’s approach threatens to rob many of the songs of their individuality by making them conform to the album’s game plan. Other reworkings simply do not pan out. The record’s overblown reinterpretation of “In Your Eyes” , doesn’t stand a chance of living up to the immortal original. Instead of the sighing, stirring beauty of the studio version, the New Blood Orchestra offers up a rendition that sounds like intro music to a National Geographic TV special, gazelles galloping across the savannah and all. On the duet “Don’t Give Up”, Ane Brun’s choked, mousey groaning are not an adequate substitute for the aching faerie swoon of the song’s archetypal other half, Kate Bush. At the end of the record, the listener is offered “A Quiet Moment”, an entire track of barely audible bird chirps and flowing water that is at best a curious diversion.

Don’t think that all this grousing means that New Blood is totally flawed, though. There are indeed instances where the orchestral overhauls suit the material quite nicely, like on the already-foreboding “Intruder” (sans the Phil Collins drum track) and the majestic sweep of “Red Rain”. On “San Jacinto”, a steady pitter-patter of woodwinds builds up to a chesty body-elevating surge that subsides to a relaxed calm by the track’s end. Although a bonus track, the Orchestra’s take on Gabriel’s first solo single “Solsbury Hill” might well be the LP’s standout; the jaunty upbeat tone of the song is a welcome contrast to the somberness that populates the rest of the record.

Warm-voiced, soulful, and precise at slipping into his higher falsetto range at the right moments, Gabriel’s performances on New Blood are faultless—in fact, the man sounds better than ever. Hearing Gabriel at full power at the emotional high-point midway through “Don’t Give Up” is a monumentally satisfying experience. On “Darkness”, he offers of demonstration of his range as a performer, switching from his normal voice to a hoarse, scary growl like some progressive rock Jekyll and Hyde.

There’s no denying that voice, though—histrionic backing or not, the man proves once again that he can still handle himself quite capably in front of a microphone more than 40 years since he began his career as a member of Genesis. Though not everyone’s cup of tea, New Blood features many fine performances, and there’s room for the record to prove the true depth of its merits upon further listens.

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: new blood, orchestra rock, orchestral, peter gabriel

100 Tips About Life, People, and Happiness

January 23, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte 1 Comment

1. True wisdom and insight is always free.

2. Give your power over to no one.

3. Going into the unknown is how you expand what is known.

4. Get a library card.

5. Spend more time around people that both challenge and respect you.

6. Remain skeptical forever.

7. Fight for what matters.

8. There is a method that works. Find it.

9. Join a movement.

10. Drink your coffee black.

11. Never let anyone Photoshop a picture of you. It creates a false sense of self-confidence.

12. Read more. Especially things you disagree with.

13. Get used to feeling stupid. It’s a sign of growth.

14. It’s easy for people to talk a good game, so watch how they behave instead.

15. Learn something from everyone.

16. Find things that inspire you and pursue them, even if there’s no money in it.

17. Starve if you have to, for as long as you need to.

18. Survive on a little just to prove you can do it.

19. Get one big success at an early age. It’ll help build your confidence for bigger things.

20. Do what you say you’ll do. No one is reliable anymore.

21. Be comfortable with abandonment, even of parts of your identity.

22. Learn a new language.

23. Eat more protein.

24. Keep people around you that will tell you the truth.

25. Genius gets you nowhere. Execution is everything.

26. If given the choice of equity or cash, always take cash.

27. Meet new people as often as possible. Offer to help them.

28. Don’t discriminate. Connect anyone in your network to anyone else.

29. If you can’t do a pull-up, you have a problem.

30. Nobody likes a know-it-all.

31. Get a passport. Fill it up with stamps no one has ever seen.

32. Quit your horrible job.

33. Read biographies. It’s like having access to the best mentors in history.

34. Go to bed, and wake up, early. No one will bother you, letting your best work emerge.

35. Scare yourself a little bit every day. It will expand your inner map.

36. Learn to climb trees.

37. Don’t buy a lot of stuff, and only buy the stuff you really love.

38. Be humble and curious.

39. Twitter followers don’t keep you warm at night.

40. Be as useful as you can in as many circumstances as possible.

41. Show up.

42. Repeat people’s names when you meet them.

43. Turn internet access off your phone. Wifi is fine.

44. Get a deck of Oblique Strategies cards. Use them.

45. Make your home a place where you feel safe.

46. Take people up on bets. Make more bets yourself.

47. Take cold showers. They’re better than coffee.

48. Learn to enjoy hunger.

49. Make everything either shorter, or longer, than it needs to be.

50. Always remember those who helped you. Deliver two or three times as much value back.

51. But also, help people who have never helped you, and can’t.

52. When you know that pain is temporary, it affects all of your decisions.

53. Get a tattoo. Don’t worry about regret.

54. Commit to things, regularly, that are far beyond your ability.

55. Meet with friends more often than you think you have to.

56. Learn to meditate. Go on a retreat if you have to.

57. Your stories are both more and less interesting than you think.

58. Learn to really listen.

59. Walk more.

60. Ugly is just a step on the way to beautiful.

61. Get to know your neighbors.

62. Don’t take anything personally, ever.

63. Consider avoiding school. Go to lots of conferences instead.

64. As soon as you can, buy some art.

65. Apologize more than you need to.

66. Find out if there will be food there.

67. A good haircut changes everything.

68. Read Man’s Search For Meaning.

69. Say no to projects you don’t care about.

70. Do things that are uncool. Later on, they usually end up becoming cool anyway.

71. Find your voice.

72. Have some manners.

73. Learn to play chess, go, and bridge. They’ll keep you from going senile.

74. Learn about the Tetrapharmakos.

75. Find ways to cheat the system– just don’t cheat people.

76. Be like Jesus, not like his followers. (This applies to all of them.)

77. At least once, date someone that’s out of your league.

78. Examine your jealousy. You’ll learn a lot about yourself.

79. Good connections are about people, not social networks.

80. Address small problems. They will become big problems.

81. Dress like a cooler version of yourself.

82. Yes, there is such a thing as bad press.

83. Add “adventurer” to your Twitter bio. Then, become one.

84. If the internet is the best thing in your life, you have a serious problem.

85. Give away your best work for free.

86. Find mentors. Just don’t call them that.

87. Actually write on your blog. Nobody cares if it’s hard.

88. Download Freedom. Use it for an hour every day.

89. Join a gym. Lift the heaviest you can. (This applies to girls too.)

90. Do some free writing. It helps you think things through.

91. When you’re having supper with rich people, pick up the cheque.

92. Learn how to speak in public.

93. If you see someone who needs help, stop asking yourself if they need help. Instead, just help.

94. Bring a bottle of wine.

95. The best conversations are had side by side, not one in front of the other.

96. Protect your hearing. Trust me.

97. Do what’s most important first thing in the morning, before you check email.

98. Everyone feels like they’re not good enough. It’s not just you.

99. Courage is a learned skill.

100. Go to Iceland. It’s worth it.

Filed Under: Random Thoughts Tagged With: happiness

Pro Secrets for Painting Kitchen Cabinets

January 22, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Photo: Brian Wilder

If your kitchen cabinets are solid but dated and dark, a fresh coat of paint can go a long way toward transforming the space without draining your bank account. You can hire a pro to spray-paint them for a thousand dollars or more, but there’s a less costly, and less messy, alternative to consider: Use a brush and paint the cabinets yourself.

"You don’t need to spray to get a smooth finish," says painting contractor John Dee, who has worked on a number of This Old House TV projects. He often brush-paints cabinets anyway because it gives him more control and avoids the risk of paint spray ending up where it’s not wanted. (Surface prep is the same whether you spray or brush.) Brushing is time-consuming, he warns, and could take up to a couple of weeks to complete. But the result is a durable, glass-smooth finish that’s the equal of anything from a spray gun. "You just need to use the best materials and take the time to sand and do the brushwork right," Dee says.

before photo of kitchen with dark wood cabinets, inset of John Dee sanding a cabinet door

Photo: Brian Wilder

1. Prep the room

Before starting a kitchen paint job, empty the cabinets, clear off the counters, and remove freestanding appliances. Relocate tables and other furniture to another room. Tape rosin paper over the countertops and flooring, and tape plastic sheeting over the backsplash, windows, fixed appliances, and interior doorways (to protect the rest of the house from dust and fumes). Mask off the wall around the cabinets. Finally, set up a worktable for painting doors, drawers, and shelves.

Pro Tip: In kitchens the key to a good paint job is surface prep. "Old cabinets are covered with everything from hand oils to greasy smoke residue to petrified gravy," says Dee. "You’ve got to get all that off or the paint won’t stick."

Photo: Brian Wilder

2. Remove doors, drawers, and shelves
Back out the hinge screws from the cabinet frame and remove the doors. Working methodically from left to right, top to bottom, label each one with a numbered piece of tape. Also, number the ends of cabinet shelves and the bottoms of drawers. Set aside the shelf-hanging hardware. At your worktable, remove the pulls and hinges and save what’s being reused. On the doors, transfer the number from the tape to the exposed wood under one hinge. Cover it with fresh tape.

Continue reading here at ThisOldHouse.com

Filed Under: Home Care, Home Remodel Tagged With: painting kitchen cabinets

Decoding The ZIP: America’s Cheapest vs. Most Expensive Homes

January 21, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

As of January 2012, the U.S. was home to 41,861 ZIP codes. These ZIP codes boast a wild variance in median home values, with the top and bottom illustrating a disparity of epic proportions. The median home value in the most expensive ZIP code, in Alpine, NJ, is more than 712 times that of the median home value in Detroit, MI, the cheapest ZIP code in the U.S. We dug a little deeper into each area to compare the average household size, which homes are occupied by renters vs. owners, and the percentage of homes that are vacant vs. occupied.

Surprisingly, the percentage of vacant homes were highest in the most expensive ZIP codes –due primarily to the fact that many homes in these areas are strictly vacation or short-term rental homes.

Click on the arrow to enter our interactive app, then hover over each area’s ZIP code circles and click on each state for more details.

Filed Under: Real Estate, Real Estate Updates Tagged With: zip codes

Insuring the world's most famous homes

January 21, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

click image for larger view

Filed Under: Home Care Tagged With: home insurance

Appearing Act: Island Rises Triggered by iPhone

January 21, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte Leave a Comment

Kitchen space is among the most valuable real estate in any house. You need room to work, but you also need space to move around. Where is the happy medium? Maybe it can be found in Tim Thaler‘s motorized kitchen island.

Thaler wanted the maximum possible amount of floor space in his kitchen, but he also wanted some extra storage and surface area.

He went about solving his problem in a unique way: by installing a kitchen island that stores under the floor, rising when summoned by a touch of a button on his iPhone.

The island’s top surface is (wisely, we think) covered with protective carpet squares when it is hidden, keeping the countertop from being marred with footprints and other unsavory detritus.

Although this is not a kitchen solution we can all afford (or one that all of us would know how to implement), the concept is so inspiring that it encourages us to think of other seemingly-impossible storage fixes in areas that seem cluttered beyond hope.

Filed Under: Architecture, Home Remodel Tagged With: kitchen design, kitchen island

28 Ways to Refresh Your Bath on a Budget

January 18, 2012 By EmmanuelFonte 3 Comments

By: STAN WILLIAMS, This Old House magazine

Photo: Ryan Kurtz

1. Coordinate Accents

Give your bath a designer touch with matching accessories. Here, the medicine cabinet’s silvery frame is echoed by the decorative metal outlet covers.

Similar to shown: Kohler 20-inch Recessed Medicine Cabinet, about $178, and Betsy Fields Design Brushed Satin Pewter standard wall plates, about $7 each; lowes.com

Photo: Ryan Kurtz

2. Tile the Countertop

An alternative to a stone slab, a tiled counter resists water but costs a lot less and is easy for DIYers to install. This terra-cotta top has white-painted wood edging to go with the vanity below. A bead of clear caulk keeps water away from the wood.

Similar to shown: Merola Tile Augusta 4-inch tile, about $8 per square foot;homedepot.com

Read the remaining 26 here at ThisOldHouse.com

Filed Under: Home Care, Home Remodel Tagged With: home refresh, home remodel