The Perfect Gift: even if you have zero artistic talent

Let me give you a great idea for a house-warming gift... or possibly even more appropriate, a gift for someone leaving a beloved home. This photo was taken of a gorgeous Fab 40s home.

To get a great gift for the people living in the house or moving out of it I would run the photo I took through an app called Waterlogue that costs just $1.99 and turn it into a "watercolor". You don't need to be talented or even the slightest bit artsy. The app will do everything for you.

See how much it looks like an actual watercolor? All you have to do now it mat it, frame it and watch them look in awe at their house... and at you for giving such a thoughtful gift. :)

My Hometown

Before I came out to California in 2001 I lived in Hamilton, New York. It's primarily known for being the home of mini-Ivy League school Colgate University... if you're wondering it's no where near New York City. One of my favorite places in town, the Colgate Inn, has been newly redone and the architecture is gorgeous.

I thought that I'd ask for your opinion today: tell me...

Which one of these houses is your favorite? 

As noted by the watermark all of the photos were taken by Jen Migonis of Migonis Home blog.

Weren't they great houses? Some are significantly different from what you'd find in California!

Five Great House-Warming Gifts

You know I love getting people into homes they love and after the closing I like to make sure my clients have a special memento to remember the day they purchased their home. Here are five great house-warming gifts that will be sure to be a hit:

This Pottery Barn personalized door mat would be a fantastic house-warming gift, lower priced options can be found at a number of stores as well:

Birch Lane has gorgeous house-warming gifts ranging in price from this $45 wine caddy to some more inexpensive tokens that are equally charming:

...and while we are on the subject of wine... so let's talk about this fantastic stopper from Mariposa that highlights man's best friend (and does anything say "happy lived in house" more than a lovable dog?).

I know it doesn't get bitterly cold here in California but Restoration Hardware has nailed the throw for chilly nights. Their luxury plush throw wears beautifully... it is a gift people will fight over.

Lastly, and most importantly, the gift I give all the time...
Mark, my fiance, company's products are incredible... their olive oil and flavored balsamic vinegar are to die for! You must check out Wine Country Kitchens.

What are your go to house-warming gifts?

Mortgages Rates at their Lowest Levels

Mortgage rates hovered at their lowest levels of the year for the third straight week this week, according to a survey published by Freddie Mac. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at 4.1 percent for the week according to Freddie’s survey.

One of the bigger surprises of 2014 may be that mortgage rates might end the year lower than they began, at around 4.5 percent, even as the Federal Reserve has gradually pared back its purchases of mortgage-backed securities.

Mortgage refinancing has largely subsided because even though mortgage rates are at their lowest levels of the year, they’re still higher than they were for all of 2012 and the first half of 2013, when the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to as low as 3.3 percent. 

A Happy Ending!

Do you remember the drawing my client's daughter drew of the house they were hoping to find in Davis?

The hope was to find an original Mid-Century Modern home on a great Central Davis street in close proximity to their child's schools, friends and downtown. I have good news to report, we found it! Here is the actual home they purchased... it'll be filled with people parading into their house as their daughter pictured once they get more settled. :)

It has been so much fun to see my clients formulate their ideas for improvements and give serious attention to keeping the integrity of the Mid-Century Modern bones in tack. This photo depicts what the living area looked like during the showing stage:

My clients have added a fantastic dramatic dark gray wall and painted the beams to update the look... and look at that gorgeous hardwood floor! What a difference a few tasteful decisions can make!

I'll be sure to post more updates as they send them along... after all, who doesn't love a good makeover?

Bathroom Progress

Remodeling is difficult and pricey! It's a bit of a roller coaster ride with exciting days with lots of progress and other days with no progress, no workers and miscommunications. We are very happy with how things are looking but have had some issues (isn't this always the way it seems to go with home renovations?).

We love our new Robern medicine cabinets but not the chipped glass in one of the mirrors.

We love the clean look of the shower door but not the puddle on the floor after each shower, we are trying to figure out a solution. Have you ever dealt with this problem?

We love the paint color but not the wall imperfections that were not prepped correctly. We thought a black toilet seat would make a great statement but...not so much. A white one has just been ordered. And blue painters tape "door pulls" gets old, I cannot wait for the glass knobs that I ordered!

We are almost to the finish line and I cannot wait to accessorize and truly enjoy the new space without sharing it with workmen. I'll be sure to post the final photos, with some great before shots.

 

Introducing Justin...

I mentioned in my last post that my son, Justin, has joined the real estate team! I wanted to kick off his time with a proper introduction:

What did you do before real estate and do you think your past career will be helpful as a Realtor?

Before real estate my work was always in a customer service industry and I enjoyed working with many different people and personalities. Mainly my focus was on managing restaurants and working hard everyday to understand what people needed/wanted and then I turned it into a service for them to enjoy. This was great experience to merge into a real estate career! Knowing my client's needs and wants and advocating for them while they are making the biggest purchases of their life is a great experience.

When you are not working what do you enjoy doing? What are your interests?

I think it's so important to know the community you service; experience and enjoy what's around you!  Saying that, I find myself enjoying the great restaurant scene Sacramento/Davis has to offer and always trying to experience new foods and experiences. Always on my mind is looking for a new hike or a new golf course to experience, two of my favorite hobbies. I am also a musician and hearing a new band is always exciting to me.

Why did you decide that real estate was the direction to go in?

To be able to challenge yourself everyday to strive higher. It's always a joy to go out everyday and have no idea what new people you may meet or in what way you may be able to help them achieve their goals.  Real estate is a family business, I am a third generation Realtor, I remember looking at my Grandfather's real estate books in his office and admiring my mother's business as well. Our family is full of people persons!

Are you concerned about working with your Mom?

Never. I love my mother and she is a great and what she does. I am happy to have the best mentor I could ask for!

 

What will your clients likely say about you and your skills as a Realtor?

That's tough to say at this point, but I hope that everyone will enjoy their experience with me.  I will try to help my clients turn this huge purchase into an easy going situation as best I can. I hope we can have a little fun and also succeed in our challenges.

Best Return on Investment Home Projects

This has been a great season in the real estate business; I've had the honor of working with some great first-time home buyers and my son Justin has joined my real estate team! We'll talk about Justin more another day (you really should have a proper introduction to him :)) but today we are going to focus on things that buyers, like these first-time buyers, can do to improve their house but get the biggest bang for their buck.

A great resource for home buyers is Remodeling magazine's Cost vs. Value report. Before deciding on home renovations make sure you check out how much you'll recoup from  your investment. The five smartest improvements you can make to your space (if you are in the Sacramento area) are based on the return on investment (ROI):

If you replacing your entry door with a new steel door you will actually make money off of this investment... 113% of your cost is predicted to be recouped. Consider replacing your current door with one that's more energy-efficient like THIS ONE from Home Depot (it's $550!).

A wood deck addition has an ROI of 109%. I'd believe this based off the amount of satisfaction buyers get when seeing a well presented outdoor living space, especially in an area like Sacramento where buyers are able to be outside enjoying the space for more of the year than they are in many other parts of the country. For example, in Syracuse, NY area where I'm originally from the ROI on a wood deck is only 80%.

via

You'll recover 102% of the cost you put into a basement remodel or a attic bedroom. Why do you think this is? It's because this remodel (if the spaces were unfinished before) is actually adding square footage to your home. Unfinished areas, like attics and basements, are not considered when calculating the livable square footage to your property.

via (where you can see 18 amazing attic remodels!)

Embarking on a minor, and well done, kitchen remodel with net you a profit with 104% ROI. This data is considering around $20,000 put into the remodel (read: don't splurge on Viking appliances if you want 104% back! :)) This couple from the blog Bower Power bought a foreclosure and switched out the appliances, back splash, lighting and painted their cabinets and it made such a difference in attaining their light and bright kitchen (did you know it's easier to sell a house with white cabinets because they are almost universally appealing?).

Before: 

After:

via

Replacing your windows with either wood or vinyl replacements will allow a 100 - 102% return with this investment.

I hope this list helped you narrow down some priorities or dreams for renovating or improving your home in the coming years!

Master Bath Update

Last time we left off with the story of our master bath update you saw the truck hauling away the entire contents of our 1970s bathroom. The destruction has ended and thankfully now the fun part of putting the room back together has begun. All of the choices and decisions made long ago are becoming a reality. Its a small bathroom (and our only full bath...gotta love a 1940's home) so it took a bit of head scratching to make it work but I feel confident it will be a very well-designed upgrade from the original that will certainly add value to our home.

Our two must haves were a double sink and a bit more privacy for the toilet area. You can tell from the photo above that the toilet is tucked away and below we currently have the hookups for our double sink; it's so nice that we can see visible progress towards the bathroom that has been in our mind for months.

We wanted a black and white bathroom but a "tweaked" version of the classic style. The only things that we decided to keep from the previous bathroom were the tub, door and window. It's been great to see the "old" tub get new life with fantastic looking subway tile.

The white subway tile contrasts gorgeously with the black slate floor.

What has been your favorite makeover project in your house? Has there been anything that you've done that's made a real difference with how you live?

Bathroom Reno: Part One

We have been planning and looking forward to a bath remodel since the day we moved into our tudor. Not only was the bath tired but it had a late 1970's, possibly early 1980's vibe to it; on top of that we also suspected that there some moisture and dry rot issues. 

We are working with David Hill Construction for this project. We asked that they start the project while we were back East visiting family and they were game. It was a wise choice since the demo is messy business!

While the bathroom was being disassembled they found very faulty wiring and lots of dry rot, like we suspected... it's a good thing we took this reno down to the studs!

The wiring has been corrected and they are putting the bath back together.  It was so much fun making all of the selections for the bath with the help of my friend and designer Laura Nathan, she has amazing talent! After we brainstormed our dream bathroom I collected estimates on the cost of the project and then did some re-selecting of materials to bring costs in line for what we had budgeted.

This is the last view of our 1970s bathroom and I couldn't be more excited to see it carted away!

5 First Time Home Buyer Tips

Are you in the process of buying a house for the first time? Or do you remember the anxiety you felt while trying to purchase your first home? It really isn't a terrible process if you keep these things in mind and make sure to remember the timeline for buying a house that we talked about last week.

My listing on 3266 Treasure Island Road; N. Sacramento... would be perfect for a first time home buyer!

1. Be accessible and flexible. You must return calls, texts, emails from your Realtor, lender and attorney in a timely manner-even if that is contrary to your normal routine. Make it a priority. You may miss out on a great deal if you delay.  You will quickly realize that you and your Realtor will develop an intense relationship where you are both communicating regularly... hopefully for the sake of getting you into a home, it'll be for a short amount of time.

2. Nothing is certain until the closing happens. It's a great sign when your offer is accepted and even better when the Purchase & Sale is signed but deals can, and have fallen apart, at or even after, the financing deadline. Try to have an unemotional approach as possible to the house as you can (this is, of course, very difficult!).

3. Be definitive and decisive. Your best bet for making sure your deal is completed successfully is to have all your financial paperwork ready to go. Be honest with yourself when you see the home inspection report, for example, if termites or dry rot come up on the wood destroying pest report and the repairs completely overwhelm you, don't try to convince yourself that this house may be a good fit for you.

4. Set your priorities. Know what you can and can't handle and set your priorities for your first home accordingly. For example, don't bother looking at a fixer-upper if you aren't the slightest bit handy or don't want the hassle of someone doing work on your home. It doesn't matter if it in a good section of town or that it's affordable if it's not what you're looking for.

5. Realize that there is NO PERFECT HOUSE. You will most likely not find your dream home that fits every single criteria and has zero problems. Especially not in a starter house. You are setting your search up for failure if you aren't willing to be flexible.

Timeline for First Time Buyers

I love working with first time home buyers... there is a certain excitement, confusion and fear all mixed together and I love helping them walk through all their questions and helping them sort out what their priorities are in their first home (because, let's be honest, many first time buyers aren't able to get into their dream home right away). I'm going to walk you through some essential things for any first time buyer to know within the next couple of weeks and today we'll get started with your order of events.

Some times closings can happen in a month but that's a very quick turn around for the bank and title companies if buyers are obtaining financing (instead of purchasing their home with cash). I've definitely seen turnarounds that quick but it may be a good thing to factor in a month and a half when designing your timeline for getting into your first home.

Tell me, what are your BEST tips for buying your first home?

Kickstarter Project: MidCentury Mailbox

If you live in Davis or Sacramento area you've seen mid-century modern homes. Streng homes are great examples of mid-century modern homes; they were designed by Carter Sparks and built by The Streng Brothers in the 1960s and 70s. They have large windows, low pitched roofs and many have skylights. The Streng brothers were influenced by California real estate developer Joe Eichler who advocated bringing modern design to the masses (instead of just in corporate offices and custom homes). The photo below depicts a Streng home.

Recently I discovered Greg Kelley, an owner of a mid-century modern home in North Carolina. After purchasing his house he searched and searched for a mailbox that would compliment the style of his house but never found a mailbox that did that (Etsy only had two boxes come up the entire time Greg searched). The last company to produce a mailbox similar to those used during the time retired their mid-century design in the early 1990s. Greg had a vision and he took it to the website KickStarter, which can be seen as the web's answer to ABCs Shark Tank. You can check out his site HERE.

As you can see in the screen shot from his KickStarter page Greg did his research on mailbox design from the 50s and 60s. He then took his ideas to a product developer who designed this mailbox. For these mailboxes to become a reality is for Greg to raise $40,000 to fund this project.

I love that Greg designed this mailbox to perfectly complement his home and mid-century moderns like the Streng and Eichler homes I regularly see. These mailboxes would be a fantastic gift for any buyer who purchases a Streng or Eichler home... my only problem would be deciding which color to order!

Selling Quickly

Why do you think half of those houses sold in under six weeks?

The majority of them probably have these five things in common:

1. They were priced right. A home that will go quickly is priced right at or below where comparable homes have just sold. Pricing a home below market value can encourage a bidding war in the sellers favor.

2. The homes were de-personalized. Homes that sell quickly let potential buyers easily picture themselves in that space. When selling remove anything that defines a home as YOURS. As a seller you want the potential buyer to picture the home as THEIRS.

3. They made a good first impression. You probably think I mean that you should have a house with incredible curb appeal; this certainly won't hurt. But what is the very first impression you get of a home? It's the listing you saw online. Make sure the photos represent your house at it's absolute best. Your agent should highlight all the unique features of your house in a way that the potential buyer has the best first impression possible.

4. They were move-in ready. Fix those items on your "Honey To-Do" list; people don't want a long list of items they have to tackle. On top of that, if they see a bunch of little items that weren't cared for subconsciously they may be thinking there are deeper issues.

5. The kitchen sold the house. If you have limited funds to get your house ready to sell focus them on the kitchen; you will get back on average 85% of what you put into it. Make neutral choices in cabinets, counters and backslashes to appeal to the majority of people.

If you have questions about selling your home, or getting it ready to sell, don't hesitate to email me. I would love to work with you on selling your home and getting you the best price possible.

Kim Merrell Lamb: kim@kimmerrell.com

Start Curb Appeal at the Front Door

Hello! I'm Jen from the blog Migonis Home. My husband grew up in the same town in upstate New York as Kim and since she's moved across the country and AJ and I have met, married and settled into Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA where we are fixing up a small Cape.

I have a new favorite inexpensive improvement to our house. This post has been in the works for years. I mean years. My most memorable home design magazine cover is without a doubt Martha Stewart's {now defunct} Blueprint magazine. The cover showed an incredibly sharp door and I decided to recreate it for myself. After receiving paint from Behr for a house makeover I had the front door paint just waiting to go on the door. I knew that would be an easy to tackle project.

To say I'm thrilled would be an understatement. :)

The door is Club Navy by Behr.

Here's how I did it...

Once I painted the door navy I made a stencil for myself. I traced the characters that I taped to the door and then did a little free-handing on the "N" where the closest font in Word didn't match up to the vision I had for the door based off the Blueprint magazine photo.

pardon the huge dot on the photo... something was on my lens. :)

I made sure to press down incredibly hard with my pen so there would be a faint outline that I could use while painting. Once I was done attempting to fill in the outline with Country Chic Paint's Simplicity for the numbers I realized I had to do some touch-ups with my navy paint after it had thoroughly dried. 

Does it look as crisp as vinyl letters would? No. But I love knowing that I did a custom job myself and that it was a $0 update. 

I used plastic garbage bags and painter's tape to tape off the door and I spray painted the door knocker and door knob. They are so sharp and really pop now. 

It's definitely makes our house stand out far more than it did previously. If you are looking for a quick weekend project to bring some character to your home then look no farther... I'd love for  you to follow Migonis Home for new posts and daily inspiration:

Google + | Bloglovin' | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram
Thank you, Kim, for letting me pop by your blog today and chat about a simple upgrade to your home! :)