Home Decorating Tips

Furniture Placement

• What your mom told you about making a good first impression is true, even with inanimate objects.  If the view from a doorway includes looking at the backs of chairs and dressers, or rows of uninviting furniture pushed up against the walls, a visitor won’t feel welcomed in.
• Use balance to bring a designed feel to a room.  To achieve balance, draw an imaginary line through the room and balance the furniture placed in each half.
• The traffic pattern is probably the most important factor to consider in furniture placement.  You should be able to enter and move about the room, getting to and from the most used items with ease.
• If you have the space, furniture moved to the middle of the room, instead of against the walls can create a great traffic pattern, as well as being warm an inviting.
• Allow 24 to 30 inches between furnishings for walking, (18 inches between sofa and coffee table) and be careful not to obstruct doors or windows.  Keep chairs and sofas no more than 8 feet apart for easy conversing.
• Rooms are more inviting if they are not overfilled with furniture.  If you have a piece that is too large, or is seldom used, consider moving it to another room, storing it, or selling it.

Focal Points

• A room should have a focal point.  It can be a fixed element, like a fireplace or a picture window, or a non-fixed element, like a favorite piece of art or furniture.  If you have a room with two or more things that compete for attention, such as a bedroom with a fireplace, you may choose to pick one and downplay the other.  If you want to highlight the fireplace, even though the bed is larger and more imposing, you can dress the bed simply while placing an eye-catching arrangement on the mantel.
• If a room lacks an obvious focal point, create one.  Choose to showcase your collectibles, a quilt or piece of art.  Add an artificial fireplace or a mirror.  Accent this focal point with lighting and anchor it with a piece of furniture such as a table, sofa, or a bookcase.
• Live in a great setting?  Create a focal point of your view by leaving a window free of heavy window treatments.

Color

• If you have patterned furniture, a rug, or large piece of artwork, pick colors you like from the pattern.  Choose a neutral wall color from the pattern’s lighter colors and secondary accents from the rest.
• Choose colors that you love.  Take a look at your closet for inspiration.  What colors do you wear the most often?  Even if your favorite is too bright for a wall color, pick a complimentary neutral for the wall and accent in the bright shade.  In contrast, don’t choose colors you don’t look good in, or you won’t want to spend time in the room.
• An accent color is a color that stands apart from any of the other colors within a room. Accent colors appear less frequently in a color scheme but, as a result, often have the greatest effect. Used wisely, they are excellent for highlighting architecture and furnishings within a space.
• Try the 60-30-10 concept.  Use 60% of the main color, 30% of a secondary color, and 10% of an accent color when decorating your room.
• Add accent colors in layers by using accessories like a sofa throw, tablecloth, china, pillows, or a lampshade.
• A light flooring color will draw the floor up to the eye, while a darker floor tone will drop it away from your eye. If you have low ceilings or want to increase the visual height of your room, add a deeper floor color.

Above All, Make Your Own Statement

Remember that your home is an expression of who you are and your personality should shine through.  Don’t just copy pictures from magazines or the latest look from a TV home show.  If you design rooms with your lifestyle in mind, that you will be comfortable living in, you can’t go wrong!

Planning the Perfect Living Space

Planning the Perfect Living Space - For You!

The cold and rainy weather is here and we are going to be spending more and more time indoors. After being outside so much during the warmer months sometimes at this time of the year I can feel trapped inside. If your home is feeling like it’s closing in on you, it might just need a little kick to give it some life. Check out the tips below on space planning and use the complimentary tool from Outrageous Interiors to create your ideal floorplan. Arranging your existing furniture, art and accessories in a new way can make a tired old room feel brand new!

Ready for Change

First, really think about how the area is used and the activities that take place in the room. You may have a formal living room with gorgeous exotic hardwoods, but if your children spend a lot of time in it on the floor playing games, you may want to move a rug from another part of the house to give them a soft place to sit (and to prevent wear and tear on your floors!) At this point you will also want to take a look at the current room and take notes about what is working and what you would like to improve. Do you continually find yourself moving chairs from one room to another to accommodate guests? Maybe you need more seating in one area and less in another, or the areas need to be repurposed to better fit your needs.

For Good Measure

You’ll want to work from a floor plan that is scaled to the correct dimensions of your room, so take measurements of the walls and all the structural features such as doors, windows, entranceways, closets, etc… Click the floorplan icon for a space planning tool compliments of Outrageous Interiors that lets you easily enter the measurements of the room, add and arrange furniture and accessories and save and print your plans.

Taking Inventory

Once you have your scaled floor plan set up and an idea in your mind of how the room needs to function, look around your entire house for items that you may want to use in the room and take their measurements.

Check out your storage areas for items like Aunt Beth’s dresser that you really love but never used because it didn’t match your bedroom furnishings. It might be the perfect place to store CD’s, DVD’s and games in your den. And remember, you aren’t really moving the heavy furniture at this point so don’t be stingy, it is better to have more than you need to choose from than not enough.

You’re Virtually Done

Look at the “blank slate” of the scaled floor plan as it is now in the space planning program and visualize the traffic pattern of the room. You will want to enter and move about the room with ease. Consider often overlooked things like windows you like to open, as well as the room’s entrances and closets. Using the software, create icons for your potential furnishings from the list you made earlier. Make sure that you resize the items to match their measurements. Move the icons around to find which placements work best for you, making sure that traffic can flow around all the items in the room. With this software, you can save multiple versions of the same room so that you can compare printouts side by side.

While your personal style and taste will ultimately determine the arrangement of your rooms, there are many guidelines the experts say you may want to consider.  Click Here for some tips from the “design” side of space planning.

Let’s Talk Toilets!

Toilets account for almost 30% of residential indoor water use in the United States.

Toilets are also a major source of wasted water due to leaks and inefficiency. In a home that was built prior to 1993 it is most likely that the toilet uses 3.5 gallons or more for every single flush (in Dekalb County alone, approx. 165,000 homes were built prior to 1993 – there are approx. 1 Mio. Homes in the Greater Atlanta area that still have old, inefficient toilets in use). Experts say that the minimum needed to meet the basic human needs of drinking, cooking and hygiene is five gallons of clean water per person per day. It’s far from enough to ensure health and well-being-just enough to get by. Do we really need to flush down that much each time we go “Number One”?

In the beginning of modern toilets there was the seven-gallon flushing porcelain lavatory. Then there was the low-flush toilet. And by the time you’d flushed several times the bowl was “clear” and you had flushed more water than you did with the faithful lavatory.

Then there was the new and improved low-flush toilet, which was better but still not what always got the job done. And finally, the High-Efficiency toilet arrived; you now have your choice of flushing as little as .8 gallons with dual flush toilets. The best part is that they really work!

What Are High-Efficiency Toilets?

Under federal law, toilets must not exceed 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf). High-efficiency toilets (HETs) go beyond the standard and use less than 1.3 gpf. The WaterSense label will be used on HETs that are certified by independent laboratory testing to meet rigorous criteria for both performance and efficiency. Only HETs that complete the third-party certification process can earn the WaterSense label.

Do High Efficiency Toilets Work?

Everyone is concerned about the performance of low-flow toilets. Do they clear the bowl and leave it clean? Do they stop up frequently? Unlike the first 1.6 gallon / flush toilets, WaterSense HETs combine high efficiency with high performance. Advances in toilet design permit WaterSense HETs to save water without loss of flushing power. In fact, many perform better than standard toilets in consumer testing.

How Much Water and Money Do HETs Save?

High efficiency toilets save you money by reducing your water and wastewater costs. Over the course of a lifetime, an average person flushes the toilet nearly 140,000 times. If you install a WaterSense HET, you can save 4,000 gallons per year and your children can each save about a third of a million gallons during their lifetime. If a family of four replaces one 3.5 gpf toilet made between 1980 and 1994 with a WaterSense toilet, they can save $2,000 over the lifetime of the toilet. If the toilet being replaced was made before 1980, it uses 5 gallons per flush so the savings will be much greater. If you’d like to calculate how much water you can save try the water savings calculator on www.ecotransitions.com.

With these savings, new high-efficiency toilets can pay for themselves in only a few years. Even better, many local utilities offer substantial rebates for replacing old toilets with HETs. Detailed information on the rebates available in Georgia can be found here Rebates in Georgia.

What are Dual Flush toilets?

Dual flush toilets offer a patented dual flush technology consisting of a 0.8 Gal flush for liquid waste and a 1.6 Gal flush for solids. They can save up to 40% (approx. 4600 gallons) compared to today’s standard 1.6-gallon single flush toilets. On an average of 4/1 uses a day, Dual Flush toilets have the lowest water consumption of all – 0.96 Gallons per flush. Caroma, an Australian manufacturer that invented the Dual Flush technology manufactures award winning toilets that are both user friendly and, with a full 4″ trap way, virtually blockage-free! Wouldn’t that be nice to be able to finally kiss the plunger good bye? Beware of some products reducing the amount of water flushed to use with your existing toilet. Existing bowls are not designed to perform with reduced amounts of water, so the likelihood of clogging your toilet while you are trying to flush paper and solid waste increases drastically.

Select a WaterSense Labeled High-Efficiency Toilet!

Whether you are remodeling a bathroom, beginning construction of a new house, or just want to replace an old, leaky toilet, a WaterSense labeled HET is your best bet. Look for the WaterSense label on any toilet you buy. If every home in the United States replaced just one old toilet with a new HET, we would save almost one trillion (spelled with a T) gallons of water per year, equal to more than two weeks of the water flowing over Niagara Falls!

Note that some manufacturers offer high-efficiency and ordinary models with very similar names, so be sure and look for the WaterSense label. A list of WaterSense labeled High-Efficiency Toilets can be found here List of WaterSense labeled HET’s published by the EPA.

Where can I find a HET?To find WaterSense partners and resources in your area, please follow the link and click on your state below or choose from the list that follows. EPA - Where you live

For a watersavings calculator and more information on Dual Flush toilets please visit www.ecotransitions.com.

Stop Flushing Money Down the Toilet

Do something good for yourself.  With the economy slowing and gas prices increasing it is time to look at your current situation and identify ways that you can save money by cutting your current expenses.  One way to do this is by switching out your old toilets with new water conserving toilets.

Following Dekalb County’s Plumbing Retrofit Law, the City of Roswell in partnership with the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, is now participating in the Toilet Rebate Program.  The program allows Roswell residential water consumers the opportunity to apply for a rebate on the purchase of new water-saving toilets to replace older inefficient toilets.

Roswell residential water consumers are eligible to receive a toilet rebate if the following is met:

1. Have an individual residential account with a participating water utility in the District and be up to date on your billing payments.
2. Own or rent a single-family residential home built in 1993 or earlier (this will be verified).
3. Purchase an approved toilet after September 28, 2007 to replace an older toilet using greater than 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf)
4. Agree to an installation verification visit to ensure your efficient toilets have been installed.
5. Agree to complete a program participation survey.

Who is NOT eligible:

1. Customers who have already received a rebate from a District water utility.
2. Customers of utilities who are not participating in the program.
3. Customers who own or rent a single-family home built after 1993.
4. Customers who purchased a toilet before September 28, 2007.
5. Customers who currently have a 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf) or less toilet.
6. Customers living in a multi-family residence or non-residential customers.

There are two rebate options, and a limit of two toilet rebates per household.  Toilets that fit into option 1 are eligible for a $50.00 rebate and toilets listed in option 2 qualify for a $100.00 rebate.

For more information view the Residential Toilet Rebate Program’s website.

What do you think? Is this a program you would take advantage of in Roswell?

Spring Cleaning: Pressure Washing & Gardening

I bought my first house this past December. The house I bought was a foreclosure in Terramont Subdivision in Roswell. The house needed mostly cosmetic work and I have been working diligently to rehab and “modernize” it. The inside of the house is nearly complete and with the warm weather I have begun to focus on projects outside of the house.

A few weeks ago I rented a pressure washer from the Home Depot, just down the road from me on Holcomb Bridge Road in Roswell…the cost including supplies was right around $100 for the day. I had enough time to pressure wash the concrete around the pool as well as the covered deck. I had to return the pressure washer before I incurred any additional charges so I was unable to get to the driveway, front sidewalk, or the house itself. Looking back it would have made sense to buy vs rent because you can get a pressure washer new for around $200-$300…I probably have a day or two worth of washing still to do.

Check out the before and after shots of the concrete around the pool below:

Last week my girlfriend Elika and I spent the weekend moving clay from the backyard to the front, filling a hole that was a result of building material waste from when the house was originally built. We purchased 35, 44lb bags of topsoil from Home Depot to mix in with (using a roto-tiller we bought, not rented) the remaining clay in the backyard to prepare for new landscaping. We still have three sides of the pool left to get ready, but we completed the biggest section.

I don’t want to have to pay a landscaper to do the work to my landscape, but I also don’t know where to begin. Neither Elika nor I know much about gardening so I sent an email to a few agents in our Keller Williams Realty - First Atlanta office asking if anyone could suggest a “master gardener” local to Roswell who could help us create design plans that we could then follow and do the work ourselves. My email led me to Tara Dillard who has quite the extensive and impressive resume. She has written five books, hosted various gardening television programs, written for magazines, served as an instructor and speaker for various groups, and the list continues.

For reasonable professional fees Tara has agreed to meet with me at my house in Terramont to create my landscape plan. The plan will incorporate plants, such as azaleas, camellias, and hydrangeas to ensure something is blooming everyday…something that if I attempted on my own I most likely wouldn’t achieve.

I’ll be sure to follow up with additional blog posts and pictures as I work on this project.

Newly Installed Landscape Watering Restrictions for Roswell

Residents of the city of Roswell may get a one-time 30-day exemption for watering newly installed landscaping to allow watering from midnight to 10 a.m. for three days a week by obtaining a certificate through the EPD Outdoor Water Use Registration Program.

There are three ways to obtain your certificate. Each requires you to view a presentation and pass a quiz.

• At your County Extension Office.

• At a retail garden center.

• Online.

All newly installed landscapes must be registered online through the EPD Outdoor Water Use Registration Program. They must also be registered on the city’s Outdoor Water Registry and post the permit issued.

Do I Need a Permit When Finishing Off My Basement?

Recently one of my client’s posed this question to me…”Do I need to get a permit from the county when I finish off my basement?” When getting bids from contractors, most were pushing back on this as it creates so much of a hassle for the contractor and adds delays and expense to the process. My client was concerned about whether not getting a permit would impact them when it came time to sell their house.

Here has been my experience with basement permits….rarely have I seen it come up as a question from a potential buyer as to whether or not the remodeling was permitted….especially if it is professionally completed.

It was also implied in the original client’s email to me that the contractor(s) thought not obtaining a permit could impact the square footage calculation upon resale of the home. That was news to me, so I also called an appraiser/past client of mine to get his take. He confirmed that they never take into consideration whether or not a basement has been permitted when assessing a home’s value on an appraisal. At the same time, finishing a home’s basement may not carry the same value as the main living spaces of the home…it all depends on the quality of the finishes.

However, the one person that would take permitting and square footage into account is the tax assessor…which is why people often do not get permits, they don’t want to increase their tax base because their s.f. has increased.

I think the more important thing to do is ensure that any contractors that are hired to finish your basement are qualified guys that will build to code. Should you go to sell, there is a question on the Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement that asks if there was any work done that was not permitted. You disclose it there and just indicate that you used professional contractors that built to code (I have not really seen this typically questioned by buyers even if disclosed as such…again, if it looks professional). If the Buyer still has questions, they can conduct their own general inspection as part of the normal home buying process to ease their concerns.

Ultimately, the decision is yours as to whether or not you require permits and the amount of risk/expense that creates for you as a result. In my real estate experience the only time I have seen the question of permits come up has been when there is a poor quality of construction (like on an older home that was remodeled) or perhaps a deck that was built near a flood plain or something like that.