You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February, 2008.
Source: AJC.com By: Stacy Shelton
Summer’s not sunk after all. The governor wants to give swimmers and backyard gardeners water.
Gov. Sonny Perdue on Wednesday offered a reprieve from the near-total ban on outdoor watering to the landscape industry, gardeners and thousands of neighborhood swimming pool associations, swim teams and private pool owners.
“Swim, kids, swim,” Perdue exhorted at an afternoon news conference in his office.
If local governments agree, pool-filling will be allowed and home and business owners will be able to hand-water landscaping and flower gardens for 25 minutes a day, between midnight and 10 am, on a three-day-week schedule. Watering with sprinklers would still be banned, except for watering newly installed landscapes.
A start date has not been set, and local governments could decide to keep the restrictions in place. They may need to: cities and counties still will have to meet the state-mandated 10 percent reduction in water use, although it will be seasonally adjusted.
Starting April 1, the new baseline will be the average amount of water used from April to September, when usage can be twice as high as in the winter months, mostly due to sprinkling lawns. Read the rest of this entry »
(Source: MSN Real Estate)
The right phrasing in real-estate listings can speed a sale and even boost the final price, a Canadian study says. And here’s a tip: if you must sell, don’t put “must sell” in your ad.
In real-estate listings, what’s the difference between describing your home as “beautiful” versus “move-in condition”? About $12,500 on a $250,000 home.
Professor Paul Anglin, a real-estate economist in Guelph, Ontario, says that homes described as “beautiful” in real-estate listings sell for 5% more while “move-in condition” has no effect on sale price.
Anglin and his colleagues from the University of Windsor and researchers from Canada Mortgage and Housing examined about 20,000 real-estate listings and sales data in Windsor and Essex counties, Ontario, from between 1997 and early 2000. Among other things, they studied how listings’ phrasing affected sale prices and the length of time it took for the listings to close.
When speed is of the essence
Listings with the words “beautiful” or “gorgeous” sold 15% faster. “Landscaping” in a listing hastened a sale by 20%. Describing a property as in “move-in condition” quickened the sale by 12%. Calling a home a “handyman special” cut sale time by half (researchers excluded listings that used the term to describe a workshop or hobby area).
Other familiar jargon, such as “must see” or “vacant,” or including the information that a seller was moving, had virtually no effect on the time before a sale.
The kiss of death appears to be language that reeks of desperation — words such as “motivated” and “must sell.” These slowed sales by 30%. The term “ranch” house slowed sales by 10%. Properties described as rentals (income-producing) took 60% longer to sell. Read the rest of this entry »
If exceptionally cold weather is forecast, provide protection to early flowering or tender plants by covering them with some type of cloth material. Remove the covering as soon as the weather moderates again.
Shrubs and Trees
Deciduous shrubs and tree are sill dormant enough to transplant this month, once the buds have begun to swell, it will be to late. Trees that weren’t fed last fall should be deep fed by punching a series of 1-2 inch holes two feet apart around the drip line and filled with an appropriate food. A mulch of well composted manure is also an excellent treat for your tree.
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Mid to late February is the time to fertilize shrubs and evergreens. Use an acid type rhododendron fertilizer to feed evergreens, conifers, broad leaf evergreens, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. Use an all-purpose fertilizer to feed roses and other deciduous trees and shrubs. If you use dry type fertilizers, be sure to water it thoroughly.
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Prune your summer flowering shrubs now but be aware that spring bloomers have already produced their buds last fall, and pruning them now will result in the loss of flowers. Forsythia, quince, spirea and other early spring flowering shrubs should be pruned a little later, after they have finished flowering. Pruning to improve the shape of the plant, as well as to open up the center of the plant to good air circulation and sun exposure. Always start your pruning by removing all dead, decayed or broken branches.
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Trim back any branches that were damaged by the ravages of winter.
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Apply dormant oil fruit spray. Read the rest of this entry »
Source: Big Time Listings.com
Talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey has very quietly sold a 4,806-square-foot, 39th-floor penthouse in Atlanta’s Buckhead area for $1,800,000.
The sale of the five-bedroom penthouse by Oprah, took place in June. Records show that on June 4, Winfrey’s Overground Railroad LLC company sold the unit, at 2660 Peachtree Road in the 40-story Park Place on Peachtree condominium building in Atlanta. The deal was recorded by Fulton County on June 15.
Oprah paid $1,515,000 in mid-2003 through her Overground Railroad LLC company for he eight-room unity, according to public records.
It’s unclear what Oprah’s use was for the unit during the years she owned it. She also owns a five-bedroom, 5,994-square-foot house on a 1.62-acre parcel at 4555 Stratford Drive in Douglasville, Ga. since buying it in 2005 for $825,000, according to public records.
Oprah isn’t the only well-known person who has owned a unit in the Park Place on Peachtree building. Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun has owned a sixth-floor unit in the building since buying it in 2001 for $467,500, according to public records.
Lou Manfredini shows how a new floor could be yours in just a weekend
Source: The Today Show By: Lou Manfredini
One of the best ways to change the look of a room in your home is to install a new floor. Twenty years ago it took quite a bit of skill to accomplish this task, and was best left to professionals. While many floor surfaces still need a pro to pull off, there are countless do-it-yourself materials out there, and in most cases you can transform your floor in as little as one weekend.
Here are some recommendations to get you started:
Let’s start with a bamboo floor – which will make your home look great, and also is less harmful to the environment. Although bamboo floors have been in the U.S. since the early 1990s, it’s important to remember that not all bamboo floors are alike. Teragren Fine Bamboo Flooring, Panels & Veneer was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Washington state. They manufacture many different bamboo products for both residential and commercial applications. But their focus is not only in creating great products, but being responsible to the environment. Their studio line of pre-finished wide plank flooring uses environmentally safe adhesives during the manufacturing process and comes in different colors, finishes and graining. This flooring option clicks together and can be installed by just about anyone. The product itself sells for $6-$8 a square foot and installed the price is about $11-$13 a foot. Read the rest of this entry »
