New York Renovator

OMG!! I found a really cool gadget website– specifically, a site with some extraordinary Alessi-design gadgets. Totally cool! Look at this floss holder! I think I love it!

Here’s a banana boat Salt & Pepper shaker set! Read more…

Hey, looking for that extra-special decorative vase, jar, or statue or other ethnic gifts for your home? Take a peek at CulturalElements.com. Free shipping in the continental U.S.! The items are beautiful! These products are actually made in their country of origin, and then shipped to the United States for sale, so what you get is a real item true to the country of origin. I’ve seen those tacky Dollar Store vases and clocks and they may say they are Bulgarian tea pots or Italian jugs, but flip them over and they all say “Made in China.” And they don’t even look like the real thing, either. CulturalElements.com offers beautiful items from the real McCoy, and the prices are very reasonable. They make great gifts!

This house was built in 1855, and it has seen very little renovation since then (except for a horrifying kitchen redo in 1970 and a tsunami of wall paneling from the 1960s). I like to open up the walls and ceilings, here and there, to see what’s behind. (Any excuse to ditch that lousy wall paneling)

A few summers ago, I took down the sagging, water-laden drop-ceiling panels from my garage (we’d sprung a leak in our garage roof that year), and found an old tin ceiling above. Wow! It was beautiful!

Unfortunately, very little is salvageable. It has a lot of rust and water damage. I peeled off a few panels but they cracked when doing so. So far, most of the old tin ceiling remains in place; I’ll probably take it all down when I renovate the garage into a family room or something.

The garage used to be a kitchen, way back when– before they had cars, lol. There are still remains of the very old wallpaper from the late 1800s behind the 1960s paneling. It’s like stepping back in time! There are several layers, and some of the old wallpaper is flocked, or has gilded, hand-painted flecks, and such.

I like the tin ceiling effect. I was disappointed that I couldn’t reuse the pressed tin from the garage. I have a very large dining room, and I wanted to “do up” the ceiling with tin. But the tin is way beyond my budget. I got this bright idea to use textured wallpaper on the ceiling, to simulate pressed tin.

I did this several years ago (WHAT A JOB that was! You think it’s hard hanging wallpaper on walls, lol! Try a ceiling! It will burn fat faster than you can say “Leptovox.” Thankfully, ithe job was made easier when I got some helpers involved). So several years later, the wallpaper is holding up remarkably well!

My dining room is a beautiful, warm ruby red. The deep dark color helps to stabilize the room, because this room has four windows and six doors. It’s a busy room. I painted the wallpapered ceiling with just a whisper of pink paint. The room glows.

That green garland you see is my makeshift crown moulding (which is on my To Do List yet). The garland is wrapped around the perimeter of the room to hide the ugly wallpaper seams against the top of the wall. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing. And it’s cheap!

So if you have a hankering for those nice old pressed tin ceilings but can’t afford to cough up the big bucks, try textured wallpaper. I just love the effect, and everyone comments how nice it is.

I have to say, I just love those interactive websites where you can choose various styles, shapes, and colors for things for your home, and test them with your own photo or an automated version. Home design and construction has come such a long way. How about a fancy online Door Designer? This is a cool site, hosted by Masonite, one of the premier door manufacturers in the business. I have several Masonite doors in the house, and I LOVE them.

You can see from the photo above that the online door designer helps choose the perfect door. You first choose your door design. There are just so many options that this took a while for me to do. There are interior, entry, and patio doors to choose from– dozens of styles! Once you manage to harness that option, you progress to door style and loads of other options, like color, height of the door, glass design, finish, and more. The neatest tool of all is the ability for you to upload your own photo of your home and view the different types of doors and how they would look in your home. It’s pretty impressive software. And it’s all free to use! Who’d have thought we could come to this point in design, where you can mix and match and preview such components of your home from the comfort of your home? Pretty cool.

Keep this site bookmarked!

Now that real estate seems to be the hot topic these days (what with the mortgage bust and the major shift in the real estate market), more people are thinking about selling their homes. Now everyone knows that you can’t put your house on the market, fling the doors open, and expect interested buyers to come streaming in and handing you cash. It requires a little more effort than that. The market is a little shaky right now, and the competition is pretty fierce. You want your property to shine above the others. So everyone knows that much. The real question is HOW DO YOU DO THAT?

Have you ever heard of the book, Dress Your House for Success? It was written 20 years ago, a groundbreaking book, way before its time. It’s a book about the art of “home staging,” which is preparing your home to look, smell, and feel attractive to prospective buyers. It was written by Martha Webb, author and home staging expert. I got the chance to ask Ms. Webb a few questions about home staging, especially for the renovator who has an older home. Her answers are very insightful; some surprised me. Here’s the interview:

Mrs. Mecomber: What are the worst things you’ve seen some homeowners do when trying to sell their house?

Martha Webb: Do nothing, or believe that lived in is good enough for selling. Fail to pay attention to the basics – clean, clutter and odor free, in good repair.

Mrs. Mecomber: When I was looking for a house, over decade ago, it seemed that people were not averse to buying a “fixer-upper.” Does this hold true today?

Martha Webb: No, there are so many properties on the market that are phenomenal deals, there isn’t the reason to buy a fixer upper to get sweat equity. Also, today’s buyers (average age 39) have less time and money to fix up a property. With all the competition for buyers, they need only look around the corner for a house that won’t require time, work or money.

Mrs. Mecomber: Do perennial gardens add much to the emotional value of a home? In your opinion, about how much emotional value would a garden (or gardens) have, overall?

Martha Webb: A garden (perennial or well-landscaped) tells buyers that the house has been well cared for. The garden can add to the “homey” feel of a property and may be an added benefit to some; to others, they may not want the work to maintain it. If the gardens exist, sellers should make sure they are well-manicured to add to the charm of the house, not elicit the response of work. If there are not gardens, I would not recommend spending money to install them.

Mrs. Mecomber: What are most prospective buyers looking for the most when walking through a prospective home?

Martha Webb: Research has shown that buyers’ first impression have to do with the basics of cleanliness, clutter and repair, which translate to “well cared for,” “spacious,” and “no work.” They also want the “homey” feel, but are less likely to be able to describe that; they recognize it when they feel it – and that where staging comes in.

Mrs. Mecomber: What are some inexpensive “props” or techniques for staging a home?

Martha Webb: Entry: make sure that you show some elegance or style – possible a half-round table, artwork, a mirror, flowers
Kitchen: show more than an organized space, include a hint of entertaining or family gathering: a cookbook, serving dish, fruit arrangement
Bath: counter the cold of tile with a fabric shower curtain and matching rug, stacked or rolled towels and a packaged spa-like soap or bath product
Bedrooms: add comfort and relation with pillows and throws, a book on a nightstand

I really appreciate Martha Webb taking the time to answer my questions. Someday I hope to sell my own house, and I’ll come back to these tips and the ones in her books.

I’ve been through a lot of homes, and the one thing that strikes me just as much as the appearance of the home is the smell. I have a very sensitive nose (more women than men do, too). If I smell stale cigarettes or mildew or dog, that’s a REAL turn off. You can count on me turning down the house. So I recommend eradicating the sourest smells from the home before showing the home. For other smells, like cooking oil (another smell that makes me wretch), burning toast, or an oddball stinky sneaker that one of the kids left in the front entry, I recommend the new Febreze candle. I have used the Apple & Spice and I am nuts about it. I have four kids, a cat, and a bird in the house. I NEED these candles. They have a special core that freshens the air while the colored section fills the house with frangrance. The Apple & Spice is sooo good, and I love to burn them during the winter months. It just makes the house feel warmer.

I hope these tips help you! And really, even if you aren’t selling your home, you can always do yourself a favor by staging your home for yourself! The holidays are coming up, so this is actually a terrific time to pamper the family and spruce up the place for them.

I don’t know why I am so focused on air fresheners lately; perhaps it is due to the cold weather settling in, and we are indoors all the time? If there’s one thing about old houses, they do tend to smell. I have a very sensitive nose, so the smells of old lathe-and-plaster, 150-year old mouse nests in the walls, and the wet basement smells drive me near crazy every winter. I’m always trying out new fresheners. I can’t bake apple pies and zucchini breads every day, now can I? On really cold days, besides baking, I sometimes simmer orange peels and cinnamon bark on the stove. There is something really wonderful about oranges and cinnamon on cold, snowy days; but I don’t always have a fresh supply of either.

I saw this hilarious video at Dine-o-meter blog. Oh my word, this is terrific! It’s all a funny spoof, but making the air freshener is for real. The video is done by Jolene Sugarbaker, and it’s great! LOL. I checked out Jolene’s site (is it just me, or is Jolene really a GUY??) and “she’s” been doing this since 1993! How could I have possibly missed this?! This is really fun. My son watched the video, and this looks like a really fun craft project.

I haven’t seen any of those scented oils at the Dollar Store; but then again, I haven’t ever looked. This look like a frugal, fun way to make your own scented air freshener! LOL. I also like Jolene’s suggestion of prettying up the jars with baubles, kind of like how kids decorate hoto digital frames with sequins and such. Maybe I’ll have the kids make a video of them doing the craft, and I’ll post about how our version runs. I am curious as to how well this sceneted freshener would work– my house is pretty big and pretty smelly…

If you are like me, you do a lot of sewing this time of year. Now that the hefty summer chores are over, and the rainy season has set in, I spend much more time indoors. We are inthe process of preparing for winter, yet. I know, I’m late this year! I have several sets of drapes to sew, a few pillows, some blankets to finish (and begin) and various other odds and ends around here. My local fabric store recently closed its doors so I’ve been prowling around the Internet looking for fabric stores with good deals.

Here’s a place to go: Robert Allen Fabrics. They have loads and loads of GORGEOUS material, including name brands like Waverly, Laura Ashley, Kravat, Hunter, Burch, and more. The great thing about Robert Allen Fabrics is that they list the country of origin for the fabric. I am becoming more and more aware of what country my products are coming from– and of course I prefer the United States to China. I really like this feature.

The fabrics are beautiful. I think they have a fine selection for anything and everything, including trimmings, stuff for kids’ rooms, and furniture. You can order swatches, too, to make sure your fabric choice is a perfect match for your home decor. Oh my my, and what’s this? I can have drapes custom made for me? Pillows, too? I like this store more and more! They are based in New York City, too, so they’re practically local!

A few months ago, I blogged about a free magazine subscription offer, for Home magazine. I have received three magazines so far, and they are terrific! They are very well done, a lot like the Better Homes and Gardens or Traditional Home magazine, with tips for home design and small home repair, and beautiful photos. I have not been billed and have not gotten spam or junk mail asking for money. So, this magazine deal gets the New York Renovator stamp of approval.

The magazine is offered free to eligible participants by Mercury magazines, and you have to fill out a form. The link for the magazine offer is here. When I filled out the form, I left my phone number blank, and I was still accepted. Here are a few FAQs from their website:

When will my subscription arrive?

Your first issue of your subscription should arrive in 10-12 weeks from the time you completed your survey, provided you are qualified by the publisher. Please keep in mind that delivery time may vary from publisher to publisher.

What’s required to qualify for the subscription?

Publishers have a variety of criteria they use to determine qualification for their publications, and are solely responsible for determining the specific requirements needed for qualification. Unfortunately, Mercury Magazines does not have any influence over this process.

So I am happy with the magazine and I am looking forward to the next one.