Michelle Millikin

With spring winds and showers and a long hot summer coming, now is the time to perform a thorough spring maintenance to keep your home safe, beautiful, and at its highest possible value.

As you go through your regular maintenance routine, be sure to include checks of these five trouble areas.

Gutters

Debris-choked gutters are a leading cause of water damage. Even a single clog of leaves can redirect water out of gutters and into your home’s walls. Be sure to follow proper safety precautions when inspecting your gutters, and when you’re in doubt, hire a professional.

Plumbing

Cold winters can be brutal on pipes. Get into the basement and check your plumbingwhile washing the dishes, watering the lawn, or taking a shower–any time you’re pushing a large amount of water for an extended time. Look for leaks, drips, or even surface moisture. A small leak is an easy fix that will save on your water bill, but if a leak grows and floods, pipe repair will be the least of your problems. Recheck the pipes an hour later for signs of dampness and slow leaks.

Foundation

Runoff and freezing temperatures can cause cracks in your foundation. Be sure to seal these cracks as you find them, and consult a pro if you have any questions about hidden damage or any impact on your home’s structural integrity. Pay special attention to any areas where water might pool against the foundation, often caused by lost soil.

Air Conditioning / Ventilation

Your AC unit will get a workout over the summer, so be sure your vents are free of debris and your filters are new. If you use window-mounted units, ensure that window seals are tight and wall-mounted supports are securely fastened.

Seals

Heat and cold are both hard on rubber seals and caulking. Replacing seals around your doors and windows can pay for itself in just a month and requires very little effort, so there’s no reason to avoid it.

It is important to maintain possibly the biggest investment within your lifetime, avoiding costly repairs or reduction in value. If you need assistance with these or any home projects, I have a wonderful team of professionals I am happy to refer. Call me!

The main crisis facing our housing market is the fact that more than 20 percent of homeowners are upside down on their mortgage.  This causes foreclosures, prevents home owners from selling and stifles overall consumer spending.  According to CoreLogic, as of June 2011, underwater home owners owed $709 billion more on their mortgages than their homes were worth. Now add two more facts:  Banks have a massive shadow inventory of homes not yet released to the market and the push for buyer-assistance programs has fallen drastically short.

Principal reduction would essentially require the banks to reduce the amount owed on a property to be reflective of the property’s current value and adjust the interest charged to a current rate.  This would create a positive effect:  Mortgage payments would go down, families would stay within their homes, neighborhoods/communities would remain vibtrant, consumer spending would increase.  As consumer demand grew, so would construction, job creation and economic growth.

Banks should be incentivized by this idea.  They have an estimated 5-10 million in shadow inventory to protect.  If another wave of defaults comes through, this inventory will lose even more value.

This program would need to be limited to only households facing imminent foreclosure or other serious financial hardship.

I am in support of investigating this proposal further.  Many of these lending institutions contributed to this problem with their securitization schemes and yet were rescued with trillions of taxpayer-funded bailout money.  According to St. Louis Fed, the banks currently have 1.64 trillion in the Federal Reserve accounts that could be allocated to such a program.

Home decor is like fashion:  ever-changing and fun!  There are some easy and inexpensive ways to update your home to keep it within the trends of the times – whether remaining within your home or preparing for a sale.

Mother Earth Inspired:  Popular color palettes are reminiscent of natural elements – reds found in the earth and soil, blues of the ocean, greens of the forest and neutrals in a textured look of eggs, sea shells and sand.  These natural tones are being paired with color accents (my favorite!) such as tangerine.  Pantone Color Institute named Tangerine Tango as their color of the year.

Accessories found to incorporate natural elements may be a thick woven blanket, woven baskets, leather stools and use of cotton textiles.

1. Animal print:  Still but use sparingly.  I recommend only one use in a room at a time.
2. Digital Fabrics:  Have become a new work of art.  Frame a digital fabric with a natural theme such as leaves or branches.
3. Don’t throw out old peices:  Vintage is Vogue.  Use old asian rugs or art peices as a focal point of your room – drawing off of its color palette for paint colors and other accessories.
4. Mix your textures:  Matchy-Matchy chromatics is a thing of the past.  Mix wood species and upholstery fabrics.  Silk with suede, furniture with large studs, shiny/modern with vintage.
5. Reflection and Light:  Very key element within a living space, especially in our climate which is filled with cold and overcast days.  Reflective white, blue and silver objects help lift a room.  Mirrors have a magical way of making a room look much larger and refract light to areas that may need some help.

Have fun and make your home your own.  The typical rule in staging a home for sale id to strip it to neutral.  If it is gawdy, I tentd to agree but I also watch Buyer’s eyes light up when introduced to a home with class, taste and imagination appropriately displayed.  It can be inspiring to see what can be done within a space.

Give me call to set an appointment for some updating and easy ideas!