The latest Case Shiller data has been released, and it is positive news for Seattle. Home prices are up .5% in May and 1.2% since January of 2010. Does this mean that we are on an upward trend? The data seems to suggest this. If you look at the data from the last decade of [...]
I was reading the Seattle Times, and found a few activities you might like to pursue this weekend: **Seafair Activities My interest being the milk carton race at Green Lake Saturday! **Fire Festival in Pioneer Square A bunch of historic fire engines on display, could be fun for the kiddos. **Ballard Seafood Festival Fish and [...]
In Seattle, many of our homes are quite old, and it’s fun to see what they looked like when originally built! You can find many archived photos of your home at the Office of the Secretary of State — Division of Archives and Records Management. The archives are located at Bellevue College in the Pritchard-Fleming Building. The Address: [...]
Keep in mind that rates are headed to historical lows. First time home buyers: low interest rates can help you with the resale of your home! Home buyers that use an FHA insured loan for their purchase may sell their mortgage along with the property. This is a process called assumption. After approval [...]
One thing you might want to consider is making your own household cleaners! I have to admit I initially balked at the idea — but I am now a believer. Take this mold I found in my spare Jeep. Initially I thought of purchasing a caustic chemical, but after research I discovered that borax (the [...]
Sheeps Wool Have you ever thought about using sheep’s wool for your home insulation? Here’s a few pros/cons: –Sheeps wool will retain it’s insulating properties when wet! Traditional fiberglass insulation loses it’s capacity to insulate when exposed to moisture. Obviously we don’t want to have leaks in our attics or through the siding, but this [...]
I thought I would share an incredibly obvious way to save on your water bill — buy a front loading washer! Did you know that you can reduce your water consumption by up to 75% That’s a pretty big deal. You can also put larger loads of laundry in a front loading machine, making it [...]
I stumbled across two tools to help you analyze your home’s energy consumption! One is Microsoft’s Hohm project, and the other being Google’s Powermeter project. Tonight I started with the Hohm project. Colorful homepage, simple looking interface, and all you need is a Windows Live ID or a Hotmail address. All free info, which I [...]
Here’s a few examples of how a whole house fan could work for your Seattle home: 1) Install a direct-vent whole house fan such as the HV1000 from Tamarack Technologies. To install these units, you will cut a hole in the ceiling of a central hallway/staircase (in this example about 14×22 inches). After hole is [...]
Hello Friends- I wanted to share with you a cost effective upgrade for your house! First thing you may think during this time of the year is that it never gets that hot in Seattle……….but for those people that have a decent exposure we have a few warm months here. Add to that the fact [...]