Ron at PopFi found a story about the sad state of Philadelphia’s Lynnewood Hall.  Once a beautiful, majestic mansion, today it has fallen into a state of disrepair.

Originally it was a 70,000 square-foot, 110-room mansion sitting on 480 acres (220 of which were working farmland to feed the family).  Sold by the Widener family in 1956, Lynnewood Hall is now a shell of its former self, picked clean by various purchasing religious groups to raise funds.  What was once the lap of luxury is now as empty and sad as Detroit.

I like Ron’s plan of restoring beautiful old mansions once winning a “super-epic” lottery.  I can paint, Ron.  And I like it.

We are in the process of updating our kitchen.  We have new light fixtures - I particularly love the one over the arm of the L-shaped counter which was a spot that was always dark.  I don’t plan to buy new cabinets, but they could definitely be spruced up.

Instead, I’m going to use some good old-fashioned elbow grease to scrub them down.  Then I will rub in the wood restoration to make the cabinets pop again.  For example, Liquid Gold or Murphy’s OIl will finish any cleaning, but also make them look new again.

I’d like to buy some newer brushed nickel handles and knobs as well to really make the kitchen look new.  Eventually new counter-tops are in my future.

Photo by HousecleaningTips.com.

Just like you should interview real estate agents before choosing one to list your house, you should also get second opinions on other services related to your house.

Let me take you back a few years.  There was an inspector in our area who was an alarmist.  Anytime even a minor problem was found (replacing light fixtures, installing a GFCI outlet, etc.), he would cry that the sky was falling and would convince buyers that the problems were so serious that they would all die if they bought the house.  Many agents lost many contracts because of this inspector and we eventually took his name off our referral list.

In cases like that, it is always good to get a second opinion.  Get a structural engineer in to look at the problem.  Hire a roofer to make the repair.

Yesterday I got a call from my buyer whose water heater had shut off.  It was covered under the home warranty, so the warranty company sent a plumber.  When he arrived, he said my buyer was lucky she wasn’t dead from carbon monoxide poisoning, it wasn’t covered under the warranty because it was an installation issue, and she would have to pay him $1200 to repair it.

The family before her had lived with the water heater for three years with no problems.  Her home inspector is really good and he saw no problems.  It doesn’t add up to what the Chicken Little Plumber described, so before anything else, I suggested she get a second opinion from another qualified, trained plumber.

She does not plan to let him know what the original plumber from the warranty company said when he arrives later today until after she hears his input.  I’ll be anxious to hear the verdict.

Photo by Ben Lucier via Flickr Creative Commons.

I remember three times in my life where my heart literally yearned for something.  One was before I met my husband - I so wanted to meet someone to spend the rest of my life with.  The second was before I had children - it actually hurt to see other pregnant people when I so badly wanted a child of my own.  The third was when we would drive through neighborhoods and see people in their own yards, their own homes and knowing that we had to go back to our apartment to deal with noisy neighbors, hauling laundry to the laundromat, and not being able to own cats or dogs.

With years of saving and a bit of bad luck (a job loss with quick re-employment meant severance pay was available to use for down payment ), we finally realized the dream of home ownership.  We’ve owned two houses in our almost 25 years of marriage.  At this point, I’m thinking that renting sounds pretty sweet when you can walk away from the responsibilities of mowing, painting, insurance, and maintenance issues!

Steve at bripblap has a somwhat similar conclusion,

I know the common perception is that if you own instead of renting there will come a blissful moment when you burn the mortgage documents and skip off into sunset worry-free. In my mind, two things will be happening in 30 years when my mortgage is paid off that will throw a big monkey wrench in those plans.

Steve is talking about property taxes and shoddy construction - two potential long-term hazards of home ownership. It’s the maintenance issues that are killing us!  Painting the soffits and wood rot on our porch columns are the big boo-boo’s of our house right now.  And once repaired, the same problems will be back in 10 years.

I’m thinking owning real estate should be like having kids - it’s meant for the younger generation!

I have shown numerous homes where the seller promises a carpet allowance at the closing.  When they do this, they acknowledge even before a buyer walks in the door that the flooring is bad and that’s not a good first impression to make!

When the carpet is frayed at the thresholds, if it has stains, if it’s worn out, if it’s an ugly color… go ahead and replace it if you can rather than promising an allowance.  Buyers fear the carpet allowance won’t be enough to replace the entire flooring (including costs of moving furniture, disposing of the old carpet pad and rug, the nail strips, etc.) so they are less likely to consider viewing the home much less making an offer!

There are carpet stores that offer six months same as cash for sellers who don’t have the money to pay up front.  There are builder-grade carpets that won’t cost as much as what the rest of us prefer, but they wouldn’t necessarily be the buyer’s choice of carpet.  And that’s the exact rationale so many sellers use, “The buyers should be able to pick their own carpet.”

While that’s true, you have to get them in the house to begin with and that’s very difficult if there are pet stains present, spilled koolaid from the kiddos, or - again - frayed edges.

Don’t wait.  Replace the flooring if you can BEFORE the home goes on the market.  It will be a huge help in reducing the number of days the home sits on the real estate market.

Since the great flooding in Nashville and surrounding areas a little more than a month ago, I’ve spent quite a bit of time at the house of one of my friends helping to move furniture and now - finally - painting!

My friend’s husband had removed the old drywall and molded insulation, put in new insulation and replaced the drywall, but when it came down to taping, mudding, sanding, mudding, sanding, etc. the time factor grew to be too huge.  It took him a full three weeks to figure out that drywall repair is a gigantic pain in the rear.  He finally broke down and hired his neighbor’s family who used to be construction helpers before the housing marked almost completely died in 2007.

What have we learned?  Drywall repair is a pain.  What else have we learned?  From spending yesterday  CLEANING the drywall dust before we could paint, cleaning drywall dust is also a pain!  But it’s all worth it. Her home will be better than new and I’ll be so glad when they can move back in.

Shakadoo queen of awesome Kathy H. linked to this article on her Facebook account about how a seller can increase the property value.  It’s the little things that will help and most can be easily done.  For example,

Cosmetics are important.

• Fresh paint will always add more value than it costs.
• Clean or new carpet/flooring adds more value than it costs.
• Landscaping adds more value than it costs. At the very minimum, make the entrance area neat.
• If you can, add some colorful flowers and new sod.

To paint? It costs about $20 per gallon of paint, plus brushes and tape. You can likely paint the entire house for less than $300 if you do it yourself. A carpet clean can rent for about $75 p/weekend. Landscaping may be done for about $100. We’re looking at less than $500 to freshen up the entire house and that’s if you’re not too frugal! Make the investment if you want to impress!

I love the advice given by Emily of Simple Mom to simplify your home life because none of us need to leave the chaos of the outside world for chaos at home.  My guilty conscience is not going through all the junk mail we receive and how it tends to pile up on my kitchen counter.

Paper seems to multiply like bunnies in my house. Between stuff sent home from school and mail, it sometimes feels more like an office than a home. Make a system so you can find what you need and get rid of what you don’t.

Using notebooks to save things like household bills, school papers, insurance documents, and more does seem to make good sense.  Ironically I have a daughter who is a notebook fiend so I could probably nab a couple without her ever noticing.

What tips do you have for simplifying your home life and chaotic house?

Photo by Muffet via flickr creative commons.

By simply making a couple of changes around your own house, it will feel like you live in a bigger space.  From The Sun’s Financial Diary, here’s one tip:

Use paint to make rooms seem larger. Lighter colors often make spaces look larger. If you want to lighten up your rooms but still wish to have some pizzazz, use bright or dark colors to create accent walls.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that every room in my house except the kitchen/dining room have white walls.  Maybe it’s time to just get rid of some junk!

I hope that this weekend we can start going through our garage.  I think it’s time my daughter’s new Girl Scout leader inherits the troop’s camping supplies!

I just had a home inspected for termites and other wood destroying insects.  That there had been evidence of termites in the past was clear due to the holes drilled in the porch and garage floor every 12 inches.  The holes were there because the home had been treated.

What I learned today - even after nearly 7 years of selling real estate - is that inspectors have a code they use to show whether termite evidence is old or recent.  When treatment is done, they “knock” the tunnel down so that only a brown line remains. This shows future inspectors that there HAD been a problem but it has been resolved.

Something new for the day!