AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog/media/feedlogo.gif AOL Real Estate - Blog http://realestate.aol.com/blog en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/10 Home Fixes That Require a Prohttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/03/30/10-home-fixes-that-require-a-pro/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/03/30/10-home-fixes-that-require-a-pro/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/03/30/10-home-fixes-that-require-a-pro/#commentsFiled under: , ,



By Lisa Frederick

We're all for empowering homeowners to take on their own house improvements. You save money, gain confidence and get the satisfaction of custom tailoring your home with your own hands. But when it comes to certain tasks -- plumbing, for instance -- we draw the line. Although these 10 jobs might be within the scope of a very experienced owner, for most of us, they require help from someone who handles them for a living.

1. Foundation repair. If your foundation is in trouble, so is the rest of your house. Wall cracks, sagging ceilings or floors, lopsided doorways and other red flags add up to one solution: a call to a foundation contractor. It's worth investing in professional help to ensure your house remains on sure footing.

2. Electrical wiring. We haven't yet met a builder who thinks that wiring is a DIY job. That doesn't mean you can't replace an old ceiling fan or install a garage door opener -- we're talking about serious, behind-the-walls electrical work. Not only do you need thorough knowledge of the most updated building codes, but the worst-case scenarios are really, really bad (house fire, injury, death). Hire a licensed electrician for your own safety and peace of mind.

3. Removal of a load-bearing wall. Knocking out a wall sounds simple, right? Well, if it's load bearing, meaning it carries and distributes weight, things get a lot more complicated. Eliminating such a wall wipes out support for the ceilings, floors and other structural elements that rest on it -- and that can have disastrous consequences for the entire home. Plus, the wall could contain wiring or ductwork that you don't want to disturb. Leave this tricky and time-consuming job to a remodeling contractor.

4. Major plumbing. Two words: water damage. You can probably install a new faucet, a showerhead or even a toilet, but when it comes to the bigger stuff, pro is the way to go. Pipe connections and other trouble spots can spring leaks that may cost you dearly in the long run. Here's a good rule of thumb: If it involves work behind the walls, don't try to handle it on your own.

5. Natural gas lines. Remember the worst-case scenarios with electrical work? Same with gas. It may sound simple to run a gas line directly to your grill or fire pit, but it isn't. Call the gas company and thank us later.

6. Tile and tub resurfacing. Although this is an affordable alternative to ripping out and replacing dated tile or an old bathtub, don't be tempted to save even more by trying it yourself. From the chemicals used to strip off the old finish to the delicate technique of applying a new one, it's a specialized job that calls for specialized help.

7. Roofing. Besides the fact that roof goofs can wreak costly havoc if they leak, balancing on a steep slope of shingles with a toolbox is dangerous, especially if you're not properly trained. Hire a roofing pro to be sure that the job gets done right and that you won't face a treacherous fall.

8. Tree removal. Smaller trees (say, 10 or 15 feet high) are OK to cut down on your own, but anything larger should have you speed-dialing the tree service. First, amateurs and chainsaws rarely mix well. Then there's the art of gauging where the tree will fall -- miss the mark, and it could hit a power line or crush a wing of your house. And trying to balance up high while you saw off limbs is an ER visit waiting to happen.

9. Stripping old paint. Don't take a chance with this one. Paint that dates from the late 1970s or earlier could contain lead, and breathing in the dust as you scrape it off may lead to health problems. Protect yourself and your family by turning the job over to a licensed lead-abatement contractor.

10. Wood-burning stove or fireplace installation. Fire safety is the biggest concern, but this also is an extremely complex job that requires an understanding of special considerations beyond the fireplace itself, such as insulation. Attempt it yourself, and you're literally playing with fire. And you know what they say about that!

See the original story over at Houzz.

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Houzz News: Remodeling Heats Up
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Home Improvement Project Preparation Tips

 

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]]>electrical wiring repairfoundation repairhome fixes for professionalshome fixes require prohome fixes that need professionalshome repairs for professionalsplumbing repairremoving load bearing wallroof repairrunning gas linesstripping old paint.tile tub resurfacingtree removalWood-burning stove fireplace installationHouzz2012-03-30T12:50:00+00:009 Unconventional Ways to Remodel Your Homehttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/03/23/9-unconventional-ways-to-improve-your-home/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/03/23/9-unconventional-ways-to-improve-your-home/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/03/23/9-unconventional-ways-to-improve-your-home/#commentsFiled under: ,

By Richard Taylor

Conventional wisdom, as it relates to houses, is often too much convention and not enough wisdom.

Every year, somebody publishes a list of which conventional home improvements will give you the best (or the worst) return on your remodeling investment: Remodel a bathroom. Replace your siding. Don't build a swimming pool. Paint everything neutral colors.

If "return on investment" (ROI) is why you bought a home, or why you're remodeling one, you can stop reading now. Because the rest of this article isn't for you.

Three, two, one ... still here?

You invest in your home to improve livability first, not value. If you get more value in the process, consider it a bonus, but don't make ROI your prime directive.

Let me rephrase the remodeling-ROI question this way: What are some cost-effective ways to improve the livability of your house?

Here's my short list:

1. Walk-in pantry instead of kitchen cabinets.

Kitchen cabinets are expensive. Half of them are up high on the wall where they're hard to reach, and the wall space they take up could be better used for windows. A pantry takes up less space, stores a lot more, is much easier to use, and costs less to build.

2. Comfortable shower instead of big bathtub.

My firm does a lot of work in late-70s/early-80s neighborhoods that are loaded with huge tubs. We're taking them all out, one at a time, and replacing them with comfortably-sized showers (not the racquetball-court sized ones you see in home shows) that people actually use every day.

A shower takes up less space, uses less hot water, and is far more sanitary than a big tub.

3. Group windows together facing best views instead of scattering them around the house.

Got a great view somewhere? Bring it into the house with lots of glass. Take excess windows from bedrooms and baths and use them to connect the inside of the house with the outside.

We once remodeled a house on the coast of Lake Erie that had one window -- one -- facing the lake. Hey pal, did ya notice the Great Lake in your backyard?

4. Keep ceiling heights reasonable for the room size.

"Volume" ceilings do not automatically make better rooms. They just make taller rooms. Rooms that are harder to decorate and more expensive to heat and cool. Instead, focus attention on a view, a large fireplace, or other element and away from the ceiling height. Use wall trim and multiple paint colors to break up the volume of the room and create the illusion of height.

5. Spend more time planning, and less money building.

I toured a client's existing home before we began designing the new one. "Of course," she said as we peeked in on the kids' rooms, "these bedrooms are way too small." Really? I thought. The smallest was probably 14-by-15 feet. But each bedroom had at least one door or one window on each wall. Pretty, but the design left little room for furniture.

I suggested we more carefully design the new bedrooms -- keeping the furniture placement in mind. In the end, we were able to easily accommodate each child's bedroom furniture comfortably in smaller bedrooms than what they'd had before.

6. Consider the simple elegance of the box-form house.

Subtlety and restraint used to be virtues in home design. These days, far too often, inexperienced designers attempt to attract attention to their homes by adding more stuff --more gables, more materials, more bays, etc. Others know that proper proportion, scale and details are what turn heads.

The simple box house is a classic American form that's survived 150 years of stylistic changes. Greek Revival, American Four-Square, Tidewater Georgian -- all simple boxes. Great proportions, great details -- done.

And here's a bonus -- the box form is easier and cheaper to build, and because it encloses a larger volume in less perimeter, it's less expensive to heat, cool and maintain.

7. Share part of the master bath.

This isn't for everyone, but it really tightens up the budget and the floor plan. Make the toilet and a sink in the master bath accessible to the rest of the house, instead of building a separate half bath -- it won't be used much by you during the day, and rarely by guests at night.

Why have two baths when one will do?

8. Spend it when you have it, not before.

Sure, it'd be great to have those granite countertops now, but your budget's tight and granite is 10 times the cost of laminate tops. So how about putting in nice laminate tops now, and replacing them with granite in five years when you have the cash? You can easily do the same with light fixtures, flooring, window treatments.

9. Compartmentalized bathrooms -- two baths in the space of one and a half.

Each kid doesn't need his/her own bath, but they do need privacy and room to share. A compartmentalized bath puts two sinks in one room and the toilet and tub/shower in another -- so three kids can use the bath at once and keep a little more harmony in the family home.

I doubt any of these ideas will ever make a magazine's list of "Best Remodeling ROI" projects. But every one saves you money over a more "conventional" design strategy, and every one increases the livability of your home.

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]]>bathroom additionsbudget remodelscompartmentalized bathroomsgaining bedroom spaceshowers vs bathtubsthrifty home improvementthrifty remodelunconventional home improvementunconventional remodelswalkin pantrywindow placementZillow2012-03-23T17:00:00+00:00Ice's Advice: What Vanilla Ice Wants Homeowners to Knowhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/01/19/ices-advice-what-vanilla-ice-wants-homeowners-to-know/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/01/19/ices-advice-what-vanilla-ice-wants-homeowners-to-know/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/01/19/ices-advice-what-vanilla-ice-wants-homeowners-to-know/#commentsFiled under: ,



Robert Van Winkle, better known as the rapper Vanilla Ice, shot to fame in the early 1990s with his hit single, "Ice, Ice Baby" -- the first hip-hop single ever to top the Billboard charts. Fast forward two decades later, and Van Winkle is making headlines again thanks to his completely, er, renovated career.

The former bad boy has traded his microphone for a power drill, tattoos for a tool belt (though he still boasts some from his rapper days) and instead of destroying property, he is building, renovating and flipping them. And he couldn't be happier.

And neither can his new set of fans, apparently. His hit reality television show, "The Vanilla Ice Project," was renewed for a second season that's set to premiere this Saturday, Jan. 21 on the DIY Network. The weekly series, which first aired in October 2010, documents his skills as a handyman and follows him and a team of workers as they renovate a foreclosed and abandoned home in Palm Beach, Fla.

Though many were originally cynical of the ex-rapper's expertise in the field of home renovation, Van Winkle proved to be anything but a neophyte. In fact, during an in-depth interview with AOL Real Estate, the rapper-turned-renovator shared his long-time passion for real estate and his extensive knowledge about home-flipping.

"I've been doing this for a long time, I just never put a camera to it! I began buying houses when I was 19 years old," Van Winkle said of his early forays into the real estate market.

"From Star Island, to Laurel Canyon in California. Even on Bleecker Street in New York. I remember first bringing a decorator into my own 15,000-square-foot mansion at the time and that was the coolest thing that could ever happen to a young person. I'd walk in and I had these purple rooms, green rooms and yellow carpet. Totally discotheque. Soon I got sick of it all and thought I'd re-do the whole thing myself. And so I did."

That was over 15 years ago. Since then, Van Winkle has been practicing renovation on his own homes ("because nobody lets you practice on theirs," he jokes) and has become a savvy house flipper, thanks to a great eye, some formal training and a very hands-on approach to home renovations.

And his efforts have been paying off remarkably. Despite launching "The Vanilla Ice Project" in the midst of a depressed housing market, the renovated home from the show's first season -- a tax-lien property bought for $400,000 outright -- was sold almost immediately after the final episode aired for more than double the original price, at $875,000 ("with no haggles!" Van Winkle said).

The same, if not better, is expected from the second season's property. Van Winkle nabbed the foreclosed property, also in Florida, for $500,000. (Despite being in shambles, it was appraised at $850,000 at the time.) Though he says that he spent over $1 million in renovations to the home, Van Winkle is already receiving offers from $2 million to $2.3 million ("incredible for the market we're in right now," he admits) -- though the show hasn't even officially aired. Unlike the first season, however, he is refusing to sell. Instead, he wants to showcase the home and "let it marinate" for a while.




Ice's Advice to Regular Joes

Though the renovated mansions featured in "The Vanilla Ice Project" are a far cry from your average American home, Van Winkle still believes that the lessons learned from his show can be applied by anyone to any property -- no matter how much, or little, money is involved.

"It's all about inspiring people," Van Winkle told AOL Real Estate. "Even during an uncertain economy, it's about inspiring people to get out there and get to work and make their houses a real home. Even though they may not get the money back out of the house or flip the house, [the show] motivates them to live that dream of having your own home and fixing it up, and it's a great feeling."

And with more and more homeowners turning to remodeling their homes and investing money in their property despite plunging home values, the advice dispensed by DIY reality shows is welcomed and highly valuable. When we asked Van Winkle what his No. 1 piece of advice was for homeowners wanting to spruce up their own homes, Van Winkle barely stopped to think.

"Re-do your kitchens," he said. "It's the most cost-efficient improvement you can make and you're always going to feel better if you spend money in your kitchen first. The kitchen is the main focus of the house; 80 percent of everybody always migrates to the kitchen at all times. So Formica's gotta go. I'm sorry, it's gotta go -- the '70s aren't coming back like that."

Van Winkle adds that if you don't have enough money to do an entire renovation of your kitchen, there are subtle changes that you can do, such as painting kitchen cabinets, replacing Formica with granite or materials such as limestone, or replacing your counter tops.

For the serious renovators and flippers out there, however, Van Winkle warns not to "go crazy" as over-customizing your home can hurt the home's resale value.

"You gotta keep it open for the buyer to think 'I can add this, I can add that.' " But you don't want to under-do it either so that they don't think there's too much work to be done. And stay within your appraised value. Know what your budget is!"

Season 2 of "The Vanilla Ice Project" kicks off on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 10 p.m. EST on the DIY Network.



Also see:
FHA Says 'Flippers' Free to Play Through 2012
Messy Yard Brings Jail Time for SC Woman, Then Help

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]]>home improvementhouse flippingremodeling ideasremodeling older homesremodeling on a budgetVanilla IceVanilla Ice projectKrisanne Alcantara2012-01-19T13:35:00+00:00Habitats: 'Earthships' Take Off in New Mexico Deserthttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/30/habitats-earthships-take-off-in-new-mexico-desert/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/30/habitats-earthships-take-off-in-new-mexico-desert/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/30/habitats-earthships-take-off-in-new-mexico-desert/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

earthships New Mexico desert

Natural disasters like Hurricane Irene, which left millions without electricity and caused billions of dollars in damage, always remind us of two things: the fragility of our infrastructure and the tremendous potency of nature.

It's enough to make some of us wonder: What if we could be immune to such disturbances? What if gale-force winds, falling trees and torrential downpours were powerless against the conveniences we take for granted?

Earthship Michael Reynolds Well, as it turns out, one group of tight-knit environmentalists can tell you precisely what it's like. The Greater World Earthship Community, led by visionary Michael Reynolds (pictured at left), acted on the reality of infrastructural vulnerability more than 20 years ago when its founding members moved completely "off the grid," to live in self-sustaining homes built of scavenged material and known as "earthships."

"A house is a shelter box that nuclear power plants and sewage systems come in and out of," Reynolds says of the the places most of us call home. "[The earthship] is a machine that does all that; it's an independent cellular vessel."

As it has since its inception, the earthship community, situated in the New Mexico desert, continues to stand as a shining city on a hill of self-sufficiency, a paradigm of sustainable living that, as fuel costs rise, Mother Nature rages, and economies falter, more and more are looking to as a model for the future.

"We're seeing a swell in interest again," said Kirsten Jacobsen, education director of Earthship Biotecture, a company Reynolds founded that builds and teaches the design of earthships. "Over the past year or so, traffic on the website has been growing exponentially. There's more people that want to buy these homes."



The Greater World Earthship Community, situated 10 miles outside Taos, N.M., in the sun-scorched desert, boasts members of all ages and includes more than 100 earthships. Sixty of the ships are permanently occupied, while the remainder are rented to open-minded tourists.

In addition to homes clustered at the community site, at least a hundred more dot Taos' perimeter, reflecting the community's 40-year influence. Beyond their concentration in New Mexico, earthships are scattered across the globe, with Reynolds, who says interest in earthships is reaching a "crescendo," putting the total number on Earth at about 1,000.

The earthship, Reynolds says, "is really a machine to take the place of housing and infrastructure for the future" built to "sail on the seas of tomorrow."

Click on the pictures below to see some earthships for sale near Taos, N.M.:



Partially hollowed into the ground, the structures are built largely from refuse such as tires, beer cans and bottles. They cost, on average, $200 per square foot. (Earthship Biotecture's cheapest design, dubbed the "Survival Model," costs $10,000).

The recycled materials do less to hinder aesthetics than you'd think: Variegated glass bottle ends nestle into mud walls to create rainbow-colored designs, while three sides of floor-to-ceiling glass flood the homes with natural light.

Earthships' unconventional materials are not their most impressive trait, however. That honor goes to their self-sustainable power and recycling systems, which render the homes completely independent.

Solar heat drawn through windows and cool air emanating from earthen walls interact to maintain comfortable room temperatures year-round, while rooftop solar panels and wind turbines harvest power from natural sources and store it in batteries. The homes also catch rain and snowmelt for cooking and sanitation, which treatment cells later recycle.

Reynolds says that members of the community, like other earthship owners around the world, "share a belief that we need to find a better way for ourselves." But, he adds, political orientations are not as uniform as you might think.

"Everybody is trying to save their own ass," he says. "There's no Sufi dancing or anything like that."

According to Reynolds, who serves on the board that governs the community, more than half of its members work at Earthship Biotecture, while others have online jobs -- yes, the community has WiFi -- or make the trek to Taos for work there.

Beyond saving themselves from dependence on what they see as paper-thin macro-systems, earthship owners also save something else: money.

Community members report spending no more than $100 in energy costs per year, mostly to pay for propane used for cooking.

But perhaps the greatest draw of earthships, members say, is the sense of community that the structures stir inside their owners.

"It was like moving into some kind of living organism," muses Ron Sciarrillo, who subcontracts for Reynolds' company but also builds earthships independently. "[We] go back to the way it used to be. It's more like hunters and gatherers."

Sciarrillo is an active member of the community's "commando team," a group that descends on parts of the world ravaged by natural disasters in order to pitch the earthship.

The team traveled to Haiti shortly after the country's devastating earthquake to show Haitians an alternative to corrugated-metal shacks. Currently, the commandos are trying to raise $60,000 so that hey can return to Haiti to build more "easily replicable" features of the earthship.

See a video of the model earthship that the commando team constructed in Haiti:



Future projects for Earthship Biotecture include constructing an eight-room school in Sierra Leone, a monastery in Prague and, possibly, a housing project in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

But whatever future endeavors Reynolds and his team undertake, one goal will remain paramount to them: finding ways to make earthships even more efficient and accessible.

"This vessel has to continue to be tailored and streamlined to make it into the uncertain seas of the future," he says.

Also see:
Teenager Builds 130-Square-Foot House for College
Realtors' Latest Challenge: A Surge of Squatters
Is Your House Making You Fat?

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
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]]>earthshipEarthship BiotectureHeavens GateHeavens Gate earthshiptaosTaos New MexicoThe Greater World Earthship CommunityTeke Wiggin2011-08-30T14:45:00+00:00Top 10 Hidden Costs When You Can't Sell Your Homehttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/17/top-10-hidden-costs-when-you-cant-sell-your-home/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/17/top-10-hidden-costs-when-you-cant-sell-your-home/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/08/17/top-10-hidden-costs-when-you-cant-sell-your-home/#commentsFiled under: ,

The U.S. housing recession is so deep that an average home takes nearly a year to sell. In the hardest hit areas, it can take several years. Just ask residents of Detroit, Nevada and parts of Florida, Arizona and southern California. As if that were not enough, there are hidden costs associated with an unsold home in which the owner still lives, including upkeep and repair costs incurred while the house is on the market. 24/7 Wall St. looked at the ten most expensive repairs and what they cost. Some frequently needed repairs can cost over $10,000 to fix.

The costs of the ownership of an unsold home are already at historic highs. Research firms that track home trends say that over 11 million U.S. homes have underwater mortgages. Owners have no equity in these homes to tap to pay for upkeep, so damage to a home has to be paid out of pocket unless the event that caused the damage is covered by insurance. Homes on the market for several years obviously have an increased risk of eventually incurring some repair problem.

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Owners of unsold homes face two financial problems. The first is that many of the repairs are essential to simply have a livable home. These cannot be put off. The second is that a home with substantial problems that are not repaired becomes more difficult to sell. Buyers have enough alternatives as it is in this over-supplied housing market.

In order to identify the most expensive costs homeowners have to incur, 24/7 Wall St. consulted a number of contractors, contracting associations, the National Homeowners Association and several other organizations to come up with repairs and replacements that generally cost the most. Because these costs can vary widely depending on the region of the country, the extent of the damage and the size of the home, we provided approximate estimates on the range of these costs. --Michael B. Sauter, Charles B. Stockdale, Douglas A. McIntyre

 

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]]>bed bugshome costshome repairshome sale costsnarNational Homeowners Associationunderwater mortgages24/7 Wall St.2011-08-17T12:00:00+00:00Selling Your House? Get Out the Paint Rollerhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/06/07/selling-your-house-get-out-the-paint-roller/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/06/07/selling-your-house-get-out-the-paint-roller/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/06/07/selling-your-house-get-out-the-paint-roller/#commentsFiled under: , ,

If you're trying to sell your house, the first thing a Realtor will tell you is to break out the paint roller. A fresh coat of paint is the quickest and least expensive way to lighten, brighten and perk up a home's interior. It's also a job you can tackle yourself--if you do it right. In today's "DIY Diagnosis," our friend Brie Dyas at DIYLife tells you how to paint a room for great results.


The arrival of a new season always triggers a need to change up the wall colors in my home. And when I want a change, I want one now. But when it comes to painting a room, it's easy to get swept up in getting the job done instead of getting the job done right. Here's a handy list of common problems that can come up, why they did and how you can stop 'em.

- A dark hue looks faded. This happens when you paint over a light color with darker one. To prevent this from happening, apply a gray-tinted primer coat in between. This will stop the lighter hue from bleeding through the bolder one, and will create a neutral base that'll let bold hues look their best.

- A random shiny spot appears a week after painting. When a flat paint is applied to a high-traffic area, a glossy spot can appear where hands (or a sponge) frequently comes in contact with the painted surface, rubbing off the matte finish. So, when it comes to high-traffic areas where you know you'll have to do some cleaning, go for a semi-gloss.

For the rest of the tips, read the full story at DIYLife.

Want more interior painting advice? These AOL Real Estate guides can help:

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]]>DiyLifehome improvementinterior paintingpainting a roompainting to sellAOL Real Estate Editors2011-06-07T11:30:00+00:00Boost Your Home's Value on Your Day Offhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/05/27/boost-your-homes-value-on-your-day-off/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/05/27/boost-your-homes-value-on-your-day-off/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/05/27/boost-your-homes-value-on-your-day-off/#commentsFiled under: ,


Have some time on your hands this Memorial Day? Consider tackling a few home improvements. Your goal may simply be to freshen your home's appearance, but you also want your hard work to increase your home's value. Kiplinger offers these eight easy home improvements that will pay you back. Each costs less than $500 and should require less than a day's work. Take a look.

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Thinking about adding value with home improvements? Here are some AOL Real Estate guides to help you, whether you're selling or staying.

 

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]]>do-it-yourselfhome improvementKiplingerKiplingersmemorial dayMemorial Day WeekendAOL Real Estate Editors2011-05-27T17:30:00+00:00Home Builder Turns Trash into $10,000 Green Homeshttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/25/home-builder-turns-trash-into-green-homes-for-10-000/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/25/home-builder-turns-trash-into-green-homes-for-10-000/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/25/home-builder-turns-trash-into-green-homes-for-10-000/#commentsFiled under: ,

dan phillipsDan Phillips is one of the most unconventional home builders you'll ever find. In fact, he's more an ecological social messiah than a home builder (see video below). For $10,000, he builds affordable homes for low-income people that are attractive, energy-efficient and save landfills. Most builders purchase building materials -- piles of wood, sheet rock, nails, bricks, and tiles -- that are used in construction and then, when the house is finished, the waste is discarded to the dump. Phillips, 66, salvages those materials, hauling them from the trash or even picking them up on the road, to build or remodel homes for low-income buyers.

He says he's just doing what people have been doing for years -- using whatever they can scrounge up to to build shelter.

"And if you ponder what could be used," says the Huntsville, Tex., resident, "then building materials are everywhere."

Phillips himself has been "everywhere": He worked as an intelligence officer in the Army, then as a dance instructor, an antiques dealer and a puzzle maker. Fourteen years ago he started a new career: Creating affordable homes for low-income families out of trash. He is a self-taught carpenter, electrician and plumber. His motivation came from the disparity he saw between
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landfills overflowing with discarded building materials and a lack of affordable housing. He started Phoenix Commotion, a for-profit company that hopes to solve the world's social problems associated with housing.

Phillips builds homes for as little as $10,000, making them energy-efficient with tight insulation, solar hot water and even a rainwater catchment system. He hires unskilled workers, teaches them marketable construction skills and then helps them find jobs when the project is complete. He keeps the landfills shallow by using truckfuls of leftover building materials such as lumber, tile and granite. Locals even hand off their old fixtures and doors to Phillips when they remodel, which he keeps in a warehouse and distributes free to low-income and needy people and organizations.

Huntsville officials say he is saving costs as well as Mother Earth. In fact, his materials warehouse has inspired a spin-off in Houston, the nation's third largest metropolitan area. The Houston warehouse opened in October, 2009 and within the first six months diverted 200 tons of building materials.

So far, Phillips has built 13 homes that are highly unusual, especially in Huntsville, a town of 35,000 north of Houston whose main industry is the huge high security prison that houses Texas death row inmates.

There's the "Bone House," which features a stairway made of bones, floors covered in wine corks and beer bottle caps, and a skylight made from -- are you ready? -- a Pyrex baking dish.

There's the Storybook House that has that medieval Hansel and Gretel feel. There's the Budweiser House with an exterior of red, white and blue. There's the 600-square-foot Doll House, built for Gloria Rivera, a doughnut-shop cashier who put her own thumbprints in the bright yellow stucco walls, which was constructed of almost 100 percent salvaged, donated or recycled materials.

To Phillips's dismay, about half the homes he has built in Huntsville have been lost to foreclosure. As he told the New York Times in 2009, "You can put someone in a new home, but you cannot give them a new mindset."

Undaunted, he is continuing to spread the story of what he does to others and preach his philosophy: You may not save the world anytime soon, but you can help tidy up your own backyard.

See photos of other amazing green homes here.

%Gallery-120434%


For more green coverage, visit the Huffington Post Green section.


Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.


 

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]]>$10000+green+home$10000greenhomeDan Phillipshuntsville texas real estatemaking homes from scraprecycling home buildingtexas real estateCandy Evans2011-04-25T11:59:00+00:00Baby Boomers Launch Remodeling Boomhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/18/baby-boomers-begin-remodeling-boom/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/18/baby-boomers-begin-remodeling-boom/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/04/18/baby-boomers-begin-remodeling-boom/#commentsFiled under: , ,

baby boomersThe first wave of Baby Boomers turned 65 last year, which will have a significant impact on real estate and the nation's housing market. Not only should home sales increase, but hammers and nails will be flying as homes change hands from older to younger owners, while the home remodeling industry strikes it rich.

In fact, home remodels could be in for their best years ever. According to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, home owners over age 55 comprised a third of all home sellers between 1997 and 2007. That is a trend that experts say will only increase over the next 20 years as more Boomers retire.

And home remodelers have it made in the shade because if the Boomers sell their homes and move, younger buyers are extremely likely to remodel. If Boomers decide prices are too soft to sell and stay put, they are likely to adapt their home for old age, adding in more lighting, elevators, and principles of universal design. So the home remodelers win either way.



Looking at recent housing turnover data between the years 1997 and 2007, buyers of existing homes tend to be younger, the sellers, older. Of the 24.5 million owner-occupied sellers between 1997 and 2007, about 7.6 million, or almost one-third, were over age 55 when they sold their
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home.

And who buys these homes? People under age 45, who purchased 57 percent of the homes the old folks sold off. In fact, the median age buyer was about 33. With the median age seller almost 68 years old, we see that buyers tend to be about 35 years younger than the owners of the homes they purchase. And old people tend not to buy other old people's homes: Fewer than 25 percent of homes sold between 1997 and 2007 by sellers who were age 55 or older were swooped up by contemporaries.

Which means, of course, that the housing stock these Boomers are shedding is at least as old as they are.

In fact, the age of owner-occupied housing stock has been trending upwards over the last ten years. In 1997, the median age of the average American home was 29 years, but crept to 32 by 2007.

You know what we Boomers used to say: Never trust anyone over age 30.

With housing stock that old, the likelihood for a buyer coming in and remodeling is huge. The age and condition of these units makes them more affordable to younger buyers, and they tend to be located in the suburbs. On average, 80 to 90 percent of homes sold by older sellers to spring chicken buyers are single family detached units.

"The new owners of baby boomer suburban housing," the report said, "will likely be concentrated in the 35-44 and 45-54 age groups and higher income categories that have historically spent the most on remodeling."

But here's a new headache for buyers: Thanks to the financial crisis, many seniors who planned to downsize and free up some home inventory are staying put, because the financial melt down took a toll on both the equity in their homes and their retirement accounts. Mobility rates among older homeowners posted sharp drops between 2005 and 2009. But fewer "senior" seniors have had home equity wiped out, because most of these folks have owned their home for years and paid down mortgages. Still, many Boomers may postpone moving out of their homes because they simply cannot afford to move.

Which means that when they do finally vacate those homes, the places are going to need a lot of work. The study also showed something we real estate reporters have always known: recent home buyers spend buckets of money when they first buy a home. There's a reason why Lowe's caters to the 45 to 54 year old age group: home buyer expenditures peak in the 45-54 age group because these are the wonder years when families, home equity and incomes grow and flourish. And goodbye Formica: what rooms do buyers who buy from older sellers focus on? Kitchens and baths. Which is why Lowe's very best customer is the new homeowner. Home buyers age 35 to 44 spend more on average for home improvements than any other age group.

But then, the Boomers are the generation who did things "their way." Don't expect them to follow their parents' retirement patterns. As this study notes, they have made different housing decisions the whole way. Boomers are more likely to live in newer, suburban homes, and continue to spend a lot on home improvements once the housing market stabilizes and mortgage lending loosens. Remodeling, says Dallas architect Gary Gene Olp, is in their DNA.

"I see more Boomers moving back into the city from the suburbs, to older homes they are remodeling because they love urban social fabric and cultural amenities," says Olp, who specializes in LEED certified green architecture and building. "They are re-populating the inner city, ditching cars and walking, even in Dallas and Houston."

San Antonio developer Leobardo Trevino of Ricchi Dallas Investments, LLC, who is undergoing three ambitious Dallas commercial projects, has begun building what he calls "Smart Mansions" outside of San Antonio, TX. His buyer: downsizing baby boomers who want it all but in 2500 square feet or less.

"These people want all the bells and whistles, " he says, " but not necessarily all the space."

Trevino's Smart Mansions have a main living room, dining room and Euro-kitchens, decked out marbled masters and secondary bedrooms. They have high ceilings and top energy efficiency but less lawn to tend, and zero wasted space.

"Boomers no longer want to overspend or overbuild," says Trevino, "Been there, done that. But at the same time, there is absolutely no lowering of their standards."

Candy is an award-winning, Dallas-based real estate reporter, blogger, and consultant. She's the gal who brought House Porn to the Bible Belt! Read more at SecondShelters.com. and send story ideas and tips to CandyEvans@secondshelters.com.


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]]>baby boomers retiringBoomer moving trendsGary Gene OlpJoint Center for Housing StudiesLeobardo TrevinoSuburban home buyersUniversal DesignsCandy Evans2011-04-18T16:49:00+00:00Home Security Tech Takes a Leap Forwardhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/21/high-tech-home-security/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/21/high-tech-home-security/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/21/high-tech-home-security/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Home securityHome security technologies are keeping pace with the other gadgets in our connected, on-demand lives. Unlike the cumbersome systems of the recent past, new home security components are discreet, easily controlled from afar, and smart enough to screen out don't-need-to-know info, like your pet's indoor traffic patterns.

If you're shopping for trustworthy home security support and flexible system options, you have plenty of choices. New-and-improved technologies are also far more affordable than you might guess, whether they're designed for DIY home security or professional installation.


Smarter surveillance
Motion sensors are standard in home security, and now, high-tech cameras can also be part of
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the plan. A new generation of camera-driven surveillance systems like Cernium's Archerfish removes concerns about cost and time-consuming screening by having the smarts to actually focus on what's important: your home's safety. You can program for expected events and types of motion, such as the kids coming home from school, and will be notified when there's an unexpected event, whether it be a package you forgot you'd ordered or an actual intruder.

"The key change is this degree of intelligence," says Craig Chambers, Cernium president and CEO. "Instead of having to think about when you want to check the video camera--and most of the time, find out nothing's happening--you can very easily configure Archerfish to look for certain kinds of activities in the field of view. Once they're detected, you'll get an e-mail notification with a video clip attached. You have the convenience of knowing what's going on without having to constantly look in on what's happening."

Wireless components
Thanks to the flexibility of wireless technology, you can station critical components in tight spaces or places where wiring would usually be a challenge (as with a partially finished attic or basement). Their comprehensive coverage can be put to work wherever you need them, making it easy to steer clear of interference from other appliances or in-home wireless networks.

More intuitive controls
Gone are keypads with tiny screens and hard-to-decipher displays. Today's home security controls offer touch-screen capabilities in living color, with intuitive system designs that look more like your favorite smartphone app than the complicated monitors they are. Smart security control panels don't even have to be mounted on a wall--many are meant to conveniently travel with you from room to room. Mission control can also extend to your laptop or smartphone, allowing you to check in and receive important alerts during daily routines or extended travel.

Portability
With the exception of professionally installed and hard-wired home security systems, just about every contemporary component is designed to travel to a new home or other site with security concerns. That portability also plays into changing needs within your current living space: compact surveillance cameras, motion sensors and control panels can easily move from one position to another.

Multitasking home management
Home security can also be integrated with other critical monitoring streams for a one-stop solution to home management. Fire and carbon monoxide alarms, temperature regulation, HVAC component status, home lighting, and even freeze and flood alerts can be accessed from the same set of controls. ADT's Pulse system is one example of full-service home automation, easy to monitor and manage remotely via interactive touchscreen, your laptop or smartphone.

High-tech hubs, otherwise known as security companies
Ever-advancing technology means your home security company has even more sophisticated means of supporting your needs. Cutting-edge computer systems, stellar backup measures and strict systems redundancies make it possible to respond immediately and provide customers with critical data records. The ability to customize systems has also increased by leaps and bounds through the integration of wireless components, mobile apps and surveillance technologies smart enough to distinguish between real threats and false alarms.

Even as home security continues to evolve and change, the points to consider while shopping remain the same. Check out the costs involved, including installation charges and any monthly fees and deposits associated with a long-term service contract. Compare component options and make sure you understand how various systems would--or wouldn't--work for your home and lifestyle. Also think about features and whole-system integrations that can make your life easier, offering one-touch control and the level of communication you need to keep your home secure, wherever you are.

Tom Kraeutler is a home improvement expert for AOL Real Estate and host of "The Money Pit," a nationally syndicated home improvement radio program offering home improvement tips and ideas, including tips on home security.

For more on home security and related topics, see these AOL Real Estate guides:


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]]>home improvementhome securityhome security technologyhome security tipshome surveillanceThe Money PitTom KraeutlerTomKraeutlerwireless home securityTom Kraeutler2011-03-21T13:00:00+00:00Is Your Home Earthquake Proof?http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/18/is-your-home-earthquake-proof/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/18/is-your-home-earthquake-proof/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/18/is-your-home-earthquake-proof/#commentsFiled under: ,

In the wake of last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, prospective home buyers may be asking themselves what about a house makes it more able to weather a natural disaster.

There isn't a huge difference in the way residential homes are built in Japan compared to in the U.S., although the Japanese are more likely to invest in special earthquake engineering, particularly in commercial and higher-end residential buildings.

Home builders in both Japan and the U.S. use a lot of wood-frame construction, which is flexible and tends to ride out a quake fairly well, said Heidi Faison, outreach director at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center in Berkeley, Calif. But wood frame structures do have potential vulnerabilities in two key areas: the foundation and the wall that supports a crawl space, which is called a cripple wall.
She recommends home buyers hire an engineer to make sure the wood frame is bolted to the foundation. If a house has a crawl space underneath it or you need to climb a few steps to get up to the first floor, it likely is supported by a cripple wall, which can buckle in an earthquake. If you're in an earthquake-prone location, that space needs to be filled in with a solid material.

Gary Ehrlick, a structural engineer and program manager for Structural Codes & Standards at the National Association of Home Builders, outlines some other house features to consider:

o. Look at the garage, if the house has one. A large garage door opening or a lot of big windows on the first floor, that can create a soft story -- an open space without enough support to withstand violent shaking.
o. Brick veneer can present a major hazard if it's not attached well. Brick was a problem in the 6.3 magnitude temblor that struck New Zealand last month. "It doesn't create as much of a hazard inside, but outside it can injure or kill,'' he said.
o. Houses built on a slope are often an issue. They need to be tied back well with footings. Also make sure the slope is stable. Liquefaction -- where saturated soil becomes liquid -- can be a problem and can occur when a building is located near a lake or river. In an earthquake, liquefaction can cause the ground to behave like quicksand, as seen in New Zealand and in the 1989 earthquake in Loma Prieta in the mountains of Santa Cruz, Calif.

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These are all important things to look for in a house. But they only address hazards caused by the shaking of the earth.

In Japan, most of the damage was actually inflicted by the subsequent tsunami, just as most of the destruction in the San Francisco quake of 1906 was caused by fires that ripped through the city after gas lines were ruptured.

A disaster's chain of events makes the preparation scenario a bit more complicated.

There is a growing interest in designing homes better able to survive a tsunami. The basic idea in tsunami design, as in flood-resistant construction is to get some of your structure up above the expected level of water, said Gary Ehrlick.

"In commercial structures they talk about vertical evacuation zones.'' Under this theory, the first floor, built out of concrete or steel, is strong enough to withstand the pressure of the water. The "zone of refuge'' occupies the upper floors.

Another concept that came out of the earthquake/tsunami that leveled Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on Boxing Check out our gallery of Day in 2004 is a house where the first floor allows the wave to wash through it, destroying the walls but preserving the foundation. This would be a concrete frame with columns or wall segments in each corner of the house. The walls are panels made out of something light, like bamboo or wood. After a disaster, such panels would be easy to replace.

Check out our photo gallery of a tsunami-resistant home designed by Kazunori Fujimoto Architect & Associates:

%Gallery-119289%

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]]>california real estateearthquake of 2011earthquake proof homesearthquakesjapanjapan earthquakejapan tsunamiNational Association of Home Buildersnuclear crisistemblortremorsBarbara Correa2011-03-18T11:14:00+00:00Renters: Home Improvements That Move With Youhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/16/renters-make-home-improvements-that-can-move-with-you/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/16/renters-make-home-improvements-that-can-move-with-you/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/16/renters-make-home-improvements-that-can-move-with-you/#commentsFiled under: ,

home improvements that move with youEven if you're just renting a place for a short time, it's important to personalize it with the style and conveniences that make you feel at home. If you'd like to make home improvements but hesitate because of longer-term living plans, consider projects that can move with you.

"I'm a big proponent of 'make it yours,' even if you're only going to be in a place for six months," says Paige Rien, a designer for HGTV's "Hidden Potential" with her own practice outside of New York City. "Always think about a change in terms of what it's like to undo it...If it's not hard to install, it won't be hard to uninstall."

Here are top tips for home improvements that travel with you.

Wall décor options: Wall décor easily makes a personal style statement and sets the tone for a room. But if you're afraid to hang the kinds of large pieces that leave major anchoring holes behind, Rien recommends creating a "gallery wall" with a collection of favorite family photos in smaller, lighter frames. Such an exhibit moves easily to your next destination, and the minimal damage left behind will be easy to repair with a bit of spackle and sandpaper.

Another way those with wall hanging hang-ups can add interest is with picture ledges and other easy-to-install shelves. Use these instant display pieces to hold art or small collections, or get creative to form architectural elements. "I actually have some shelves we used as a mantel in our last apartment, because the fireplace didn't have one," says Rien. "Now we're in a place that has a mantel, so the shelves are being used for something else."


Light fixtures: If you're not thrilled with the builder-grade fixture that presides over your dining area or illuminates another major space, replace it. Most major home improvement retailers have lighting departments with an array of DIY-friendly fixtures. A ceiling fan is more complicated to install, but it's worth the investment in an electrician's help when you consider the dollars a fan can trim from year-round utility bills. Whatever kind of fixture you choose, make sure to carefully pack and store all parts of the original for easy reinstallation when it's time to move.

Flooring enhancements: Area rugs work wonders in defining a space and lending a pop of color or needed texture. Roll out an eye-catching area rug over existing carpeting, tile or hardwood, then roll it up again later for a new look in a new place. One of Rien's favorite temporary flooring tricks is to install FLOR modular carpet tiles as runners, area rugs or room-filling solutions. The FLOR tiles can be quickly applied over most existing flooring surfaces, are easy to clean and replace, and can be pulled up and placed elsewhere in a completely different configuration.

Portable security systems: Smart, streamlined technologies in today's home security options make them flexible and portable enough to move with you. DIY wireless systems like the Archerfish Solo can be installed to protect your current abode, offering video surveillance that's configured to notify you by smartphone or e-mail when threats or unexpected events occur.

Outdoor enhancements: The accessories you choose to create curb appeal in one place can do the same elsewhere, so consider portability as you invest in your exterior home improvements. A beautiful mailbox, for example, can just as easily collect mail at a new address, and high-quality ceramic pots can be planted with a new array of garden color on your next porch.

What you can't take with you
"Not everything is portable, even though you think it will be," advises Rien. "You have to be able to part with the things that don't work--either sell them or put them in the basement."

Window treatments form one category of poor travelers. You may think that your blinds or shutters are sized to a standard window, but their dimensions only have to be off by a fraction of an inch to be unusable in your new home. Instead, offer or even sell them to the new occupant of the home you're leaving, and start fresh when you do windows in your new place.

Other fixtures can also prove to be basement-bound if they don't suit the scale or style of your new home. For example, a huge heirloom chandelier may overtake a scaled-down dining room, dwarfing diners rather than enhancing the space. And most outdoor accessories may be more weathered than you realize, so leave the porch lights on for the new resident and build a new welcome at your next house.

Tom Kraeutler is a home improvement expert for AOL Real Estate and host of "The Money Pit," a nationally syndicated home improvement radio program offering home improvement and remodeling tips and ideas, as well as help tips for buying or selling a home.


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]]>decordecoratingflooringflooring designhome improvementhome improvementshome securitylightingorganizationrentersrentingStorageSolutionsThe Money PitTom KraeutlerTom Kraeutler2011-03-16T12:30:00+00:00Home Improvement: Finding the Best Contractorhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/07/home-improvement-finding-the-best-contractor/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/07/home-improvement-finding-the-best-contractor/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/03/07/home-improvement-finding-the-best-contractor/#commentsFiled under: , ,

home improvementHome improvement contractors play a key role in many home sales. Sellers may need to do some significant repairs to ready their home for market; buyers oftentimes want to customize or renovate their new purchase as soon as they close. Jorgen Wouters of our sister site, WalletPop, offers some valuable advice when hiring the contractor you plan to trust with your home improvement wishes and dreams.

As Spring finally approaches and homeowners around the nation begin to contemplate home improvement projects, the Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to choose contractors with care to avoid getting scammed.

According to the BBB, the home improvement industry regularly ranks among the top five sources of complaints year after year. Construction and home improvement scams also placed third among the top 10 consumer complaints reported to the Illinois Consumer Protection Division in 2010.

To avoid hiring a sub-standard contractor, the BBB advises consumers to be suspicious of handymen who show up at your door, advertise in local newspapers, or put fliers in your mailbox offering a variety of services at bargain-basement prices.

Read more at WalletPop.com.

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]]>better business bureauconsumer complaintscontractorshome improvementhome improvementsrenovateAol Real Estate Staff2011-03-07T16:39:00+00:00Serena and Venus Williams' Home Addition Revealedhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/01/07/serena-and-venus-williams-home-addition-revealed/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/01/07/serena-and-venus-williams-home-addition-revealed/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/01/07/serena-and-venus-williams-home-addition-revealed/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

serena venus williamsSerena and Venus Williams have recently completed a two-story addition to replace a one-story wing on their massive Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., estate that they share. The 4,000-square-foot structure, which sits to the left of their circular drive by the gated entry, houses their training facility, says area real estate agent Jeff Lichtenstein, who commissioned an aerial photo of the home (pictured below).

"The sisters applied for permits to do an addition to their home in March of 2010 and just completed it," he says. In fact, several construction projects were conducted on their property over the past year. (A Bing aerial shot before the remodel is also below).

Serena also remodeled her bathroom, which cost her about $180,000, according to county records, and probably has an elegant vanity with mirrors and drawers for her beauty products since Serena once wrote in her official Women's Tennis Association bio that her favorite place to visit was "the mirror in my house."

Considering her bathroom before the remodel was described by one Vogue writer as "an over-the-top affair of white marble, gold fixtures, a tub that could fit four," we really can only imagine all of the new upgrades for showcasing her cosmetics.

"I'm addicted to hair products," she told Vogue. And lotions and scrubs and perfumes. "I got so much stuff I could sell it on the street."

The 11,000-square-foot home, which the tennis champions finished building in 2000 after purchasing a home there in 1998 for $525,000, is on the BallenIsles Country Club grounds, a gated golf community of 1,562 homes. This is the same community, where Bernie Madoff's sister Sondra Wiener lived before selling her home in 2009, says Lichtenstein of Illustrated Properties.

The Williams sisters did not put an outdoor tennis court
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on their property, but the BallenIsles put one on its grounds for them when it spent $26 million redoing its 22 courts. The other residents and country club paid to put in two blue Har-Tru courts, which are the type of hard courts the professionals use, says Lichtenstein, who has a picture of the courts on his blog.

Most residents have to be paying members of the country club to use its facilities, but apparently not the sisters. "They tried to charge me $85,000 to be a member. Uh-huh. Knowing I could bring in a lot of people if they give me a membership for free," Serena told Vogue. And the sisters have done tournaments there, which is about an hour's drive from the Miami Dolphins' stadium. The Williamses are part owners of the franchise.

"We're South Florida girls. When we get off the road ... we come home to Dolphins games," Venus told ESPN.

But they also go to relax in their V-shaped home, with two master wings, one for each sister. The home has a circular theme throughout, from a circular foyer, breakfast room, dining room, library and two-story glass enclosed sitting rooms off each master bedroom with its own double walk-in closets with built-ins.

"Suffice it to say you have not lived until you've been in Serena Williams's closet. The size of a studio apartment in New York, it is an explosion of color and fur, organized by Serena herself, who 'hates mess' and therefore spends her downtime rearranging racks and racks of her on- and off-court wardrobe and accessories," Vogue reported.

Her closet has sections that keeps her fur-coats separate from another coat section, and there is a handbag section, a sneaker section separate from her other shoes, and one for gowns too.

"It is a very specific house," Lichtenstein tells AOL Real Estate. "It is a giant house for the community." And he says it will be a tough sell should ever the sisters decide to live separate lives.

"There are not a lot of homes with double master suites like that. There are couples who want their own master suite, but these are mirrored wings." In order to sell the home, he says buyers will have to be relatives in a similar situation as the Williams' sisters, or, he jokes, "be a husband and wife who argue with each other a lot."

The palatial home, with 30-foot ceilings and white marble floors, is about 15 miles away from the home Venus and Serena once shared with their parents, who are now divorced. In 1991, the family moved to Palm Beach Gardens from their home state California so that Venus and Serena could train with Rick Macci, who had also trained Jennifer Capriati.

"I could not wait to move out," Serena told O magazine. "I was ready...to go to bed when I wanted, ready to watch what I wanted on television when I wanted to, ready to hang out with friends and not be asked, "Serena, where are you going?" So when Serena was 18 and Venus was 19, they moved out of their parents home and into one together.

Serena told O that she finally felt like an adult when her first electric bill arrived.

"[It was] $1,500! I couldn't believe it. Suddenly I understood why Daddy was always telling me to turn out the lights. Another time I came home from a tournament and -- click! No lights. Our power had been turned off because I hadn't paid the bill on time. I was constantly running out of groceries, toiletries, and little things I needed. That's when you realize what it means to be an adult: when you're on your own and you run out of toilet paper."






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]]>BallenIslescelebrity real estateCelebrityRealEstatefloridamiamimiami dolphinsMiamiDolphinspalm beachpalm beach gardensPalmBeachPalmBeachGardensremodelingserena williamsSerenaWilliamstennisvenus williamsVenusWilliamsSheree R. Curry2011-01-07T14:07:00+00:00Home Demolished by Accidenthttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/01/06/home-demolished-by-accident/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/01/06/home-demolished-by-accident/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/01/06/home-demolished-by-accident/#commentsFiled under: ,

Updated Jan. 7: Andre Hall came back from the holidays to continue repairing a 4-bedroom, 1-bath home he had acquired from a friend facing foreclosure in the West End area of Pittsburgh in November only to find that a city contractor had demolished the 1916-built house that had been vacant for five years.

"When I came back I saw a guy with a backhoe tearing the house down," Hall told AOL Real Estate.

City records show Hall had six months from the November acquisition date to make repairs on the once-condemned Sheraden neighborhood home that had previously sustained water damage, reported the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Hall, 40, who works in home repairs, said he was about three weeks away from being able to
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move into the 1,613-square-foot home that had an assessed value of $31,000. He planned to live there with his girlfriend, her three children, and his three daughters when they would come visit in the summers from Kansas City, Kan. The couple currently lives in a one-bedroom apartment.

"I wasn't even able to do Christmas for my girls because everything I had I was putting into the house. This was my gift to them," he said.

"My dream is done now," he said. "Someone needs to man up and take responsibility for this."

P.J. Deller Excavating & Hauling was hired to tear down the home immediately next door, and although it did so, it is accused of also demolishing Hall's home.

"We have stopped any contracting from going to P.J. Deller until further notice," a spokeswoman for Mayor Luke Ravenstahl told competing publication the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. "They will not be doing any demolition for the city until our Law Department has appraised the matter."

home demolishedThe Bureau of Building Inspection wrote to and called Deller in early November, telling the firm that Hall's home was no longer scheduled for demolition, according to John Jennings, acting chief of Pittsburgh's Bureau of Building Inspection, who added that the city did not have record of Hall obtaining a building permit to do work on the house.

Still, that doesn't change that Hall's house, a pool table, furniture and even his tools inside are now gone. "One of the [demolition] workers even had my lumber in the back of his truck."

Hall said the workers said they were also to tear down the house next door, but they had started on his first. They had not gotten to the other home by time Hall arrived. If only they had done the other one first.

Hall's girlfriend, Shawna Jones, told AOL Real Estate that they have not heard from the city at all. "The city has not contacted us and the contractor is missing in action. No one has called us but the news media."

Hall, who said he was still finalizing homeowner's insurance for the home at the time of the demolition, said he has contacted a couple of attorneys, but all he wants is a house to live in. He went on a month-to-month lease ever since the previous owner of the home, Lorraine Nichols, began working with him to help him obtain the home. "Everytime I had a court date [about the foreclosure] Lorraine was with me. She gave me the home and didn't want me to pay her anything. She just wanted me to take care of the $15,000 in back taxes that were owed." He says there was no mortgage on the home and he would've owned it free and clear after the taxes were paid.

"I just need some help getting this resolved, that's all. I just hope it don't take three years because I was planning on being in there in three weeks."

In April, a 69-year-old Denton, Texas woman was also the victim of a wrongful demolition after a crew wrongly tore down most of her house, instead of one across the street, reported the Denton Record-Chronicle.

home demolishedhome demolished


Thinking about adding value with home improvements? Here are some AOL Real Estate guides to help you, whether you're selling or staying.

 

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]]>andre hallAndreHallhome demolitionhome repairsHomeDemolitionhomeowner tipsHomeownerTipsHomeRepairsmistaken demolitionMistakenDemolitionpittsburgh real estatePittsburghRealEstateSheree R. Curry2011-01-06T09:15:00+00:00Curb Appeal Is Still Kinghttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/12/15/curb-appeal-is-still-king/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/12/15/curb-appeal-is-still-king/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/12/15/curb-appeal-is-still-king/#commentsFiled under: ,

house exterior showing curb appealCurb appeal counts: If you're looking to invest some money in your house, look no further than the front door. For the second year in a row, curb appeal projects remain at the top of the list of high-value home improvements, according to just-released data from Remodeling's 2010-2011 Cost vs. Value Report.

In fact, an entry door upgrade is the curb appeal project that returns the most at resale -- and the only one surveyed to recoup its entire cost, at 102 percent payback. Other big returners are a replacement garage door, an upgrade to fiber-cement siding and a wood deck addition.
This year's edition of the annual survey covers 35 exterior and interior improvements, with data on project costs and resale value nationally and by region. As you might expect, home improvement returns overall have taken a hit in recent years, with project costs escalating while home prices have stagnated. This year, for the first time since 2006, the cost of remodeling projects started to come down--but resale values declined even more precipitously.

To read the full survey, visit Cost vs. Value's official site.

For help making smart home improvements, check out these AOL Real Estate guides:

Improvements That Get Your House Sold
Top 10 Home Improvements That Pay You Back
Home Improvements Sellers Should Avoid

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Get property tax help from our experts.

 

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]]>cost versus valueCostVersusValuecurb appealCurbAppealhome improvementhome valuesHomeImprovementHomeValuesLaura Goldstein2010-12-15T16:07:00+00:00Superstar real estate agent plots comebackhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/12/09/superstar-real-estate-agent-plots-comeback-02/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/12/09/superstar-real-estate-agent-plots-comeback-02/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/12/09/superstar-real-estate-agent-plots-comeback-02/#commentsFiled under:

MIAMI - It's the perfect Miami morning at Carlos Justo's penthouse -- warm and bright, with luxury yachts powering through the sparkling blue Atlantic Ocean some 30 stories below.
Justo, a 53-year-old real estate agent, has been awake since 3:30 a.m. but he shows no sign of fatigue. His eyes scan back and forth, from the high rise condos, to the water, and back to the condos.
An assistant, sitting at

MIAMI - It's the perfect Miami morning at Carlos Justo's penthouse -- warm and bright, with luxury yachts powering through the sparkling blue Atlantic Ocean some 30 stories below.

Justo, a 53-year-old real estate agent, has been awake since 3:30 a.m. but he shows no sign of fatigue. His eyes scan back and forth, from the high rise condos, to the water, and back to the condos.

Carlos Justo, who once appeared on shows such as TLC's 'Million Dollar Agents,' has filed for bankruptcy and has roughly $50 in his checking account.

An assistant, sitting at a glass table with her back to the stunning view, is talking business. She wants to know whether he will receive any commissions or checks anytime soon.

"Right now, we don't have any money," Justo says. He continues talking. Fast. Pacing back and forth, he gazes out the window.

"There's money to be made," he says, grinning. "I'm creating the team. I'm creating the billion-dollar real estate team."

In fact, Justo is $20 million in debt. He is five months into a massive bankruptcy filing. The IRS is after him for $6 million.

And yet, he dreams.

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A Cuban immigrant who came to the United States with nothing, Justo's is a rags-to-riches-to-rags story, a peculiarly American dream.

Carlos Justo meditates at his Miami penthouse. "I knew the market was going to crash," he says. "It was irresponsible what we did, what all of us did in the United States."

Once, he starred on the TLC network program "Million Dollar Agents." There was a time he appeared in social columns for brokering real estate deals for one-named celebrities like J-Lo, Shaq, Versace, and two-named notables like Gloria Estefan, Sylvester Stallone, Rosie O'Donnell.

Like so many of our modern titans -- like Donald Trump -- he inspires both admiration and contempt. Greed, he acknowledges, fueled his rise. Hubris ensured his fall.

Next time, he says, it will all be different.

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A Star in the high-end market

Living among the wealthy didn't come naturally to Justo; he was born in Cuba, and as a child lived without electricity, running water or plumbing.

His family came to Miami in 1967 when Justo was 11. He got his GED at night school but by the time he was 19, Justo had learned English and bought his first home -- a modest, stucco triplex -- for $20,000 with money he made as a janitor.

For the man who grew up with so little, talking about homes came easily. So he got his real estate license. Early on, he targeted the top end of Miami's real estate market, the places most folks see on TV: mansions accessorized with palm trees, sugar-sand beaches and turquoise waters.

In 2000, he brokered the $19 million sale of the area's most famous home, the Ocean Drive mansion where fashion designer Gianni Versace was killed.

Justo's success was astronomical, the product of his aggressive enthusiasm, uncanny knowledge of the ultra-rich and a phenomenal real estate market.

In 2005, Justo was worth $20 million. He and the agents who worked for him sold $200 million in real estate in a single year. He was also the owner of 12 multimillion dollar estates in the county's most exclusive enclaves; he intended to eventually flip them and make a profit. Justo and his business partner, Irving Padron, were awarded a prestigious Sotheby's franchise and opened its offices in one of the few historic mansions in downtown Miami.

His strategy seemed like a sure thing in a city filled with speculation.

Unlike most other brokers in Miami at the time, Justo never dealt in new condominiums -- he thought they were too risky. In 2005, he was quoted in the Miami Herald as saying, "I refuse to sell condos; I think it's irresponsible. They will end up falling on their asses."

Continued on Page Two: Motivated by Greed ...

 

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]]>Aol Real Estate Contributor2010-12-09T13:43:00+00:00Superstar real estate agent plots comebackhttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/12/09/superstar-real-estate-agent-plots-comeback/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/12/09/superstar-real-estate-agent-plots-comeback/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/12/09/superstar-real-estate-agent-plots-comeback/#commentsFiled under:

Motivated by greed and ego
Those were the days when Americans were addicted to real estate. It seemed like on every cable channel, there was a different program featuring the nation's collective obsession. Justo was in the middle of it all; a promo for "Million Dollar Agents" described him as "the biggest fish in Miami's shark-infested pool of real estate."
Crews filmed him racing maniacally around Miami, showing luxury homes by

Motivated by greed and ego

Those were the days when Americans were addicted to real estate. It seemed like on every cable channel, there was a different program featuring the nation's collective obsession. Justo was in the middle of it all; a promo for "Million Dollar Agents" described him as "the biggest fish in Miami's shark-infested pool of real estate."

Crews filmed him racing maniacally around Miami, showing luxury homes by day (from a helicopter) and going to parties at night (in a chauffeured Rolls Royce). Cameras captured his unorthodox methods of doing business: using a lunar calendar to plan deals, going barefoot during meetings, meditating with his sales team.

Justo was a natural on TV, with his amber eyes, bald head and perpetual tan. His custom-made, silk suits -- white or black or occasionally red -- looked suspiciously like pajamas, which he wore to closings and clubs alike.

"We get paid for having fun!" Justo roared in one episode.

Justo spent $1,000 on sushi lunches. $3,000 a month on life coaching. He didn't accumulate many things -- he enjoyed sparsely decorated, all-white furniture and rooms -- and freely let his friends stay in the various homes he owned.

Justo says that during those years, he "wasn't operating out of integrity" -- and that many of the people surrounding him weren't, either. Greed and ego were his motivation. He took advice, he says, from the wrong people and didn't pay attention to details.

He also didn't make many friends, says Kevin Tomlinson, a real estate blogger and Miami Beach agent who says Justo stole on of his clients in the late '90s.

"When I got into the business, he was the king. He was the legend that everybody looked and aspired to be," Tomlinson said. "But over the years, his reputation within the broker industry is a mixture of people being afraid or intimidated by him and his success or downright loathing."

Justo took out mortgages he couldn't afford, tapped into equity, splurged with credit cards. He didn't diversify his portfolio and didn't save a penny.

"I knew the market was going to crash," he said. "It was irresponsible what we did, what all of us did in the United States. We took out huge loans, we bought things that people had no business buying."

Checking account balance: $49.73

Friday, Feb. 13, 2009. A clerk at the federal court in Miami stamped "RECEIVED" on Justo's bankruptcy filing.

For three years, Justo had tried to avoid filing Chapter 7, even borrowing $15,000 from his 85-year-old mother and $75,000 from his 83-year-old aunt to pay his monthly debts. But he was underwater on too many mortgages. There were other creditors, too, including the IRS, which claimed that he should have filed his taxes in the United States, not in the Virgin Islands, which Justo says is his principal residence.

He was named in two lawsuits, one filed by a former real estate agent who worked for his team, and another by Padron, his former business partner. Both sought hundreds of thousands of dollars, alleging that Justo didn't pay commissions on various deals.

Justo had no savings, no stocks, no bonds.

His checking account hit bottom at $49.73. His financial picture was summed up in one dry sentence in the bankruptcy filing: "At the current time, the debtor has no income due to the state of the real estate market."

That week, at the urging of a friend, Justo had offered his penthouse as a crash pad to a group of traveling Buddhist monks from Tibet. As the monks chanted in an even baritone, Justo's mind reeled in turmoil.

"What happens if everything is gone?" he thought.

He wrote a $3,000 check as a donation to the Buddhist monks. It bounced.

'A world with all possibilities'

Sparked by a former co-worker, Justo had studied New Age and Buddhist philosophy for years, visiting meditation retreats, spiritual centers and monasteries. But somehow, he said, the concepts of attachment and greed never really sank in until he went bankrupt.

It was the scariest thing he had ever done; scarier than meeting Fidel Castro twice in the mid 1990s, more daunting than coming out as a gay man to his parents.

"Fear is not something I'm familiar with," he says.

It was scary, he said, because it forced him to confront the truth: He had failed. He had come close to bankruptcy before, always somehow pulling himself back from the brink by selling a property or getting a loan. There was no safety net this time, not in this economy.

When he first realized he was about to lose everything, Justo wondered whether it was better not to exist at all. It was the first time, he says, that he had ever considered suicide.

"Then I thought, I'm alive, I love my life. I have my health. I don't have cancer," he says. "I started to realize how little I need to really live."

As he sheds mansions (five have already been taken by the bank, and it seems like the penthouse will be gone soon, as well) and possessions (he only owns about $6,000 worth of stuff, including furniture, clothing and, some Buddhist art), Justo insists that material possessions mean nothing to him.

And if he manages to make money again, he insists he won't be foolish with it.

"I'm creating a real estate empire based on love," he says, adding that he plans to give large chunks of his cash away to charity -- once he puts a million dollars each in the bank accounts of his mother and aunt.

"In the past, I created my own hell. I needed to be brought to my knees," he says. "Whatever you believe, you create. Today, I live in a world with all possibilities."

But for Justo, those possibilities still include luxury. "I've been rich and I've been poor, and I like being rich a lot better," he says.

He says that after he pays his family back, he wants a yacht. And maybe a personal chef.

Which begs the question: Has he really learned from his mistakes?

He's back and ready to sell

It's 8:30 a.m. on a bright Miami morning and Justo has assembled a dozen people in his penthouse. They sit in a circle facing the boss and drinking coffee.

Four of Justo's "Billion-Dollar Team" are in attendance. One of his lawyers is there. So is Justo's masseuse. And a banker who is foreclosing on the penthouse. There's also an interior designer, a former client who owns a $12 million estate and the architect who is designing Michael Jordan's Florida home.

Justo talks, nonstop, for nearly two hours. The message: He's back and ready to sell. If he is afraid of the future -- one in which he has to borrow money to pay his bankruptcy attorney, his cell phone bill and food -- he's not showing it. It seems as though Justo is actually having fun talking about his troubles.

"That Bernie Madoff guy, the day he came clean and said he stole all those millions, that's the day he was freed," Justo says.

It's Justo's acceptance of his failure that will propel him back to the top, his friends say.

"I fully expect him to land on his feet," says Jeffrey Rubenstein, one of Justo's lawyers. "He owns what has happened to him. In this day and age and particularly in Miami, that's a very unusual thing."

But his brother, Alex Justo, is worried.

"To me, I don't think my brother needs what he's trying to build again," said Alex, who thinks his brother should focus on what he's good at -- selling -- and not involve others in his success. "Forget about making this billion dollar whatever. There's no other Realtor in town that does what my brother does. He's a genius."

Justo and two of his agents descend from the penthouse and hop in a Range Rover -- the Rolls Royce is long gone -- and they begin a daylong frenzy of appointments and meetings. First, a cup of turbocharged Cuban coffee with his mother. Then, a powwow with his bankruptcy attorney. In the lobby, a flat-screen TV broadcasts a CNN headline: "Good Borrowers Go Bust!"

When Justo emerges from the hour-long meeting, an agent tells him that a Saudi Arabian sheik wants to know if there are any estate rentals in Miami for $20,000 a month. Justo orders the agent to follow up, immediately.

In the car, there are calls to clients, showings arranged, listings discussed. Then, a break for lunch.

There are no more three-hour lunches. Justo and a few of his agents go to South Beach to eat on lounge chairs on the sand. His sales manager -- a man from Macedonia who started as his chauffeur three years ago -- totes a small bottle of sake in a lunch pail for Justo. Another agent brings a plastic bag filled with plastic foam cartons of ceviche.

Justo kicks off his loafers and strips his white pajama-suit off. He's down to his black Speedo.

Finally, he's stopped talking. He runs on the sand alone, toward the turquoise ocean. Wading into the water, he dives, head first, into a wave.

Return to Page One: Superstar Agent Plots a Comeback

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

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]]>Aol Real Estate Contributor2010-12-09T13:43:00+00:00Kitchen Remodels to Add Value, Whether You're Selling or Stayinghttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/10/15/kitchen-upgrades-to-add-value-whether-youre-selling-or-staying/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/10/15/kitchen-upgrades-to-add-value-whether-youre-selling-or-staying/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/10/15/kitchen-upgrades-to-add-value-whether-youre-selling-or-staying/#commentsFiled under:

kitchen remodelNo matter the style or vintage of your house, a workable, up-to-date kitchen is a must. A kitchen remodel will make everyday routines more efficient and enjoyable. And if you're thinking of selling your home anytime soon, it will be a focal point for potential buyers and a big factor in their perception of your home's overall value.

It's true that a kitchen remodel can cost a pretty penny, but there's a lot that you can do to spruce up a kitchen on a limited budget. Choose a few of the following kitchen elements as targets for change and an upgrade in home value, whether you plan to sell or stay for a while.

Creative countertops: Change the view and upgrade kitchen workspaces by replacing the countertops. If you have a small kitchen, enjoy one of the benefits of its scale: By shopping for natural stone remnants, you can get a high-end look at a fraction of the usual cost. Natural stone tile makes for another appealing, cost-effective countertop option, and there are also several green countertop materials with both the sustainability and style to appeal to potential buyers.

A better backsplash: Don't stop at the countertop! Continue or complement your countertop look behind the sink in the backsplash zone. Tile is not only a beautiful choice, it's also now easier than ever to install -- thanks to advances in sheet adhesives like Bondera, which allow you to tile and grout in the same day, without the use of messy mastic.

Cabinet camouflage: Cabinetry can be a huge kitchen cost, so don't yank your cabinets down just because they look a little dated and tired. Instead, refresh the cabinets you have by refinishing or repainting them.

Accessorize: Also consider re-accessorizing cabinetry. "Add crown molding to your cabinets, if you don't have any already," advises Matt Hedstrom of LPI Kitchen & Bath in Kenosha, Wisc. "For added visual interest, use crown molding in a finish that contrasts with that of the existing cabinets. That'll accentuate the architectural detailing and give your kitchen a fresher look. And upgrade or add cabinet hardware. New hardware can change the whole look of the kitchen if you do it right."

Fresh faucet: Another easy, affordable way to update your kitchen is by switching in a stylish new faucet with the kinds of conveniences cooks love. One innovative example is Delta Faucet's Pilar Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with Touch20 Technology. It has the sleek, high-arc swivel spout that's so popular in contemporary kitchens, and to start or stop the flow of water, you simply tap anywhere on the faucet's spout or handle. The Pilar design also incorporates a two-function pull-down spray that switches from stream to spray with the click of a button, for faster food prep and kitchen cleanup.

Star-worthy appliances: Dated appliances can bring down a kitchen's overall look while keeping energy bills higher than they need to be. So shop for replacements bearing the Energy Star seal, which tells both you and potential homebuyers that an appliance exceeds Department of Energy guidelines for energy efficiency by at least 10 percent. According to a recent survey by the National Kitchen & Bath Association, energy-efficient products are among the top trends in kitchen upgrades that deliver long-term value to consumers, so follow the crowd to enjoy savings and style in your kitchen space.

Better lighting: Improve function and highlight architectural form in your kitchen with a better lighting scheme. Continue the theme of energy efficiency with the latest in compact fluorescent and LED light fixtures, and integrate dimmer switches to manage lighting use and create kitchen drama.

New flooring: Kitchen flooring that's worn (or way out there, color-wise) can blind buyers to the rest of your kitchen's features, so look for a solution that will stand up to moisture and household traffic. Vinyl flooring comes in more styles and colors than ever, and laminate systems are simple for even the novice DIYer to install. Also check out striking tile styles: Daltile offers Franciscan Slate with Reveal Imaging, which is a ceramic tile that looks identical to real slate without the maintenance issues. It also combats the growth of stain- and odor-causing bacteria thanks to integrated Microban technology, and keeps things green with the highest recycled material content of any tile in the industry.

Updating the look of your kitchen isn't always a project that requires a second mortgage. Take small steps with high value updates like these and enjoy a big impacts thorough every stage of the project.

Tom Kraeutler is a home improvement expert for AOL Real Estate and host of "The Money Pit," a nationally syndicated home improvement radio program offering cost effective home improvement tips and ideas.

Thinking about a kitchen upgrade? Here are AOL Real Estate Guides to help:

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
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Find foreclosures in your area.
Get property tax help from our experts.

 

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]]>BonderaDeltaEnergy StarEnergyStarkitchenkitchen faucetkitchen remodelingKitchenFaucetKitchenRemodelingThe Money PitTheMoneyPitTom KraeutlerTomKraeutlerTom Kraeutler2010-10-15T09:26:00+00:00Make Your Lawn Eco-Friendly and Low-Maintenancehttp://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/09/03/make-your-lawn-eco-friendly-and-low-maintenance/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/09/03/make-your-lawn-eco-friendly-and-low-maintenance/http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2010/09/03/make-your-lawn-eco-friendly-and-low-maintenance/#commentsFiled under: ,

eco-sensitive lawnThe prospect of weekly vacuuming and annual steam cleaning is enough to turn off many people to carpet. Dishwashers have gotten so powerful that "pre-rinsing" is becoming as outmoded as vinyl records. Even toilets are self-cleaning. What does this have to do with landscaping? Well, it's a paradox: American homeowners are willing to hunt down every time-saving device for their home interiors, but they continue to spend dozens, if not hundreds, of hours maintaining their lawn each year. Moreover, the maintenance of your lawn is, if anything, worse for the local ecosystem than many of the low-maintenance alternatives.

Learn alternative landscaping techniques for your lawn and the myths about tending it by which you should no longer abide!



The Sanctity of the American Lawn

Arguably, natural grass landscaping is a generational thing. The vision of our dream home was conceived of early on in life: Our parents had natural grass lawns, so our dream house typically includes a natural grass lawn. But the 21st century has seen a growing concern for water conservation, while "grassless" landscaping design has improved by leaps and bounds. Green doesn't always mean natural, and many lawn grasses aren't even indigenous. It doesn't have to be a moral thing: Almost nobody will judge you for maintaining a perfectly manicured St. Augustine grass lawn. But at the same time you shouldn't base your choice of ground cover on the idea that natural grass is an inherently superior way to go. (Find highly rated professional landscapers in your area.)


Alternative Landscaping Ideas, Tips, and Benefits

  • Ground covers. Mother Nature has a much larger catalog of botanical beauties than just grass. Juniper, clover, periwinkle and mosses are just a few alternative ground covers. For something more inside-the-box, "low-mow" grass species or ornamental grasses can at least reduce your lawn maintenance load.

  • Conserving water. If you're less concerned with reducing maintenance and more concerned with eco-friendly landscaping, you should focus on water conservation. Reportedly, landscaping accounts for more than 50 percent of water consumption in some municipalities.

  • Reducing lawn area. Don't fall into the trap of all-or-nothing thinking. By adding decorative rocks, installing a concrete patio or walkway, and planting a well-placed tree or two, you can significantly reduce your lawn area (and maintenance) without completely losing the appeal of natural grasses. (Find highly rated professional walkway-installers in this area.)


Leaf-Raking: The Great Landscaping Myth

Hand-in-hand with the sanctity of conventional landscaping are a handful of myths that lead to further missed opportunities to lower your maintenance chores. Perhaps no myth is bigger than the one that you must rake and dispose of leaves before they're buried under the first heavy snowfall. It's true that you can't leave a layer of fall foliage to slowly decompose on your lawn, while blocking sunlight and moisture. But if you get the lawn mower out and churn those leaves up into fertilizing mulch, your lawn may actually be better for it. You don't even have to wait for a dry spell. Assuming your mower blades can avoid getting snagged, slightly damp leaves actually shred more readily.

Now, there is one caveat: A thick layer of mowed leaves can contribute to excessive thatch, the layer of organic material between grass blades and the soil. Ironically, the dead leaves that improve the soil quality can cause grass to grow too fast the following spring, the ostensible cause of thatch. That said, so long as you don't treat your lawn with conventional fertilizer and don't overwater, your lawn should be fine. To truly ease your mind, you can periodically (maybe once every one to three years) aerate your lawn, a wise step whether you rake your leaves or not. (Find highly rated professional landscapers in your area.)


Other Landscaping Myths

  • It's better to have long grass or it's better to have short grass. Different grasses have different optimal lengths, but more important, by far, is the willingness to mow your lawn often. Taking long grass and mowing it short will leave mostly bare stock, leaving your grass less able to produce new grass shoots. If you're unwilling to make this commitment, it's another reason to consider the alternatives. (Find highly rated lawn care professionals in your area.)

  • Hedges are the best way to improve my home's curb appeal. Hedges or shrubs are beautiful landscaping additions, but they can also be dangerous disguises. Hedges can trap moisture to the side of your home for extended periods. If you're trying to cover up siding that's already in decline, hedges can become the coup de grace. (Find highly rated professionals to remove trees or shrubs.)

  • It's best to water my lawn in the evening, when I won't need as much water. Yes, the midday sun will cause a certain amount of your lawn irrigation to evaporate, but your grass is still in greatest need during this time. By watering later in the day, you may be creating enough moisture for fungus to take hold. (Find highly rated sprinkler-system professionals in your area.)

Still wondering what you should do with your lawn or exterior spaces? See AOL Real Estate's Home Improvement Guides for more tips:

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Get property tax help from our experts.

 

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]]>eco-sensitivelandscapinglawnlawn careLawnCareService Magic for AOL Real Estate2010-09-03T11:54:00+00:00