Home Buying

Homes Generally Appreciates

Let’s keep it simple, homes generally appreciates. Home buying is the biggest purchase of your life. Living in your home for years raising your family then selling is the norm and you will make a profit when it’s time to sell.

Smaller is bigger right now. Homes with 1200 square feet have appreciated by 7.5% and homes larger than 2400 square feet appreciated by 3.8%. This demand is caused by first-time home buyers with limited borrowing capacity and smaller families.

The number of bedrooms is a factor in valuations. 3 bedroom home appreciates 6.3% and five bedrooms appreciate by 4.3%. If you convert a bedroom into an office or study, this offsets the lower appreciation.

Two-car attached garages are what people look for. If the garage is separate, enclose it to the home with a breezeway. This would give you a sunroom if designed properly. Since most homeowners have 1.9 cars along with a lot of “toys”, 3 car garages are the gold standard.

Open-concept homes are on trend for watching the kids while you cook, entertaining guests, or for older people with mobility issues. Homes with curb appeal have a 6.9% appreciation and a nice fenced-in backyard have an 8.9% appreciation. To bridge the home to the backyard, a patio is a good investment.

Surprisingly whether you have stainless steel appliances or granite countertops does not make a difference in appreciation because people have their own opinions on these matters.

Of course, keeping your home maintained over the years with some remodeling keeps your interest in your home and will make it more contemporary when you do go to sell it.

Vegetables

Hard to Grow Vegetables

If you are a first-time gardener, these are some hard to grow vegetables to think twice about.

Celery takes up a lot of water compared to other crops. Also, it likes cooler spring temperatures to properly mature. Some people blanch celery by hilling with dirt or wooden shingles to reduce bitter flavor. If you want to try, get young transplants for seeds that take over 120 days to grow. It is a perfect crop for winter temperate climates.

Sweet corn especially in rural areas has one main problem, raccoons! Use an electric fence. Also, corn is cross-pollinated which requires planting a block so the ears can get the pollen to make the ears. If you have a large enough space, try growing pumpkins or squash around the border to help keep the varmints out and the plants can grow into the corn rows.

Head lettuce needs uniform cool temperatures to produce a head. Out temperature fluctuates where the lettuce will bolt (go to seed) and not form a head. Longer day lengths also contribute to the bolting process. Grow leaf lettuce which is much easier to grow.

Sweet potatoes take a long time to set tubers, up to 120 days of warm temperatures. If the slips are planted too early in cold soil, they become stunted. Growing in raised beds or old tractor tires helps.

Carrots are hard because they can take up to a couple of weeks to germinate and the soil needs to be kept moist (not wet) through this process. High clay soil makes them stunted and twisted, so amend the soil before planting with peat or sand. You can grow the shorter, stubby varieties in this type of soil.

If cauliflower is unhappy due to temperature fluctuations or a dry, wet pattern, it will button. This means you have a little three-inch head, and that’s it. Also, even with self-blanching varieties, the leaves need to be tied up to assure a white head. It is best if they are grown to mature in the fall when it is cooler.

Artichokes grow in the Pacific Northwest, there is a reason that is the only place in this country they reliably grow in this country. You will see them in some seed catalogs and notice they can take two years to grow.

Home Improvement

Murphy Beds

Murphy Beds are beds that fold up against a wall or in a cabinet when not in use. It is a great idea for a small room like an office or a bedroom that you want multiple uses out off.

They are usually fixed to the wall so make sure you have enough wall height before ordering the bed. There are beds that fold horizontally which require much less wall height. Some beds come with springs or pistons to make the lifting easier. The beds come in single, double, queen, and king sizes.

Some beds come with desks and cabinets that fold down when you fold the bed up. You can also hide the bed behind sliding doors or sliding cabinets.

To keep the bed from weighing too much, select a memory foam mattress. This type of mattress does not bunch up when stored vertically.