Need More Info on Going Solar? Start Here!

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Jeremy Leake

Saving money is something that everyone likes doing. Going solar in order to save money is a big step though. In order to help you out in determining if it’s the best decision for you and your family we found this article with more information. We hope it helps you make the best decision possible!

————
If you need Apartment complex dryer vent cleaning services, then Dryer Vents Plus is your #1 choice! Call Jeremy Leake today at 225-612-7752 to schedule your 100% Free, No Obligation Quote!
————

From the article:

It’s becoming cheaper and easier to power your home with energy from the sun.
It???s a good time to invest in solar energy for your home. The cost of a home solar system has dropped dramatically, and there are even more options available to pay for one. Here???s what you need to know.

Number 1: Solar Systems Are Getting Cheaper. The cost to buy a solar power system has fallen by about 50% since 2007, to an average upfront cost of $4,590 per kilowatt. It???ll likely take you between seven and 15 years to recoup your upfront cost. The higher the electric rate you currently pay, the more sunshine your location receives, and the financial incentives that are available to you can all positively affect your return on solar.

Number 2: You???ll Need Shade-Free Space. For each kilowatt of capacity, you???ll need 100 square feet of mostly unshaded, south-facing space. Solar panels may be mounted on a flat or sloped roof or in your yard. Besides the panels, you???ll need an inverter to convert a direct current to an alternating current, a tie-in to the local utility grid and, possibly, a monitoring system that tells the installer how much power you???re producing.

————–
Looking for ways to cut your electric bill? Then checkout this article about cut electric bill that could be of interest to you.
————–

Read the entire article here: http://www.kiplinger.com/printstory.php?pid=12942

Thinking About Having a Tiny House? Checkout These Ideas!

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Jeremy Leake

Having a tiny home is something that appeals to some people. If you are one of those people then you’ve come to the right place. We found this article for you on different tiny house ideas. We hope it helps!

————
If you need Lafayette dryer vent cleaning services, then Dryer Vents Plus is your #1 choice! Call Jeremy Leake today at 225-612-7752 to schedule your 100% Free, No Obligation Quote!
————

From the article:

What these small houses lack in square footage they make up for in clever design and savings.

Think you could live in a house that???s not much bigger than an SUV? Tiny homes are becoming a practical and affordable option for buyers ranging from young singles looking for a starter home to empty-nesters and retirees looking to downsize.

Typical tiny homes are well under 500 square feet and range in price from as little as $20,000 to more than $150,000, excluding land costs. Most homes are prefab, so there might be an additional charge for delivery.

————–
Interested in tiny homes? Then checkout this article about tiny home idea that could be of interest to you.
————–

Read the entire article here: http://www.kiplinger.com/printstory.php?pid=12843

Want to Estimate How Much Your Home Is Worth? Find Out How Here!

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Jeremy Leake

As a home owner it’s natural to want to know how much your home is worth. Unless you do that kind of thing for a living it can be difficult to know how to estimate a home’s worth. In order to help you out we found this article that helps you estimate the value of your home in 3 easy steps. We hope it helps!

————
If you need Denham springs vent cleaning services, then Dryer Vents Plus is your #1 choice! Call Jeremy Leake today at 225-612-7752 to schedule your 100% Free, No Obligation Quote!
————

From the article:

Thinking about selling? Here’s how to tell if your home’s price has gone up or down.

Step 1
At www.zillow.com, click on ???Zestimate??? and plug your address into the search box. You???ll get an estimate of your home???s market value???what you might reasonably expect a buyer to pay for it. Zillow collects data from public records and recent comparable home sales and runs the information through a computer model.

Step 2
Zillow says the accuracy of its data depends on what???s available in your area. Nationally, Zestimates have a median error rate of 6.9%, which means half are within the error percentage and half are less accurate. You can check error rates for top metro areas and by state in the Help Center. Also check the information for your home, such as the number of bedrooms and the total square feet of living space.

————–
Looking to design your home? Then checkout this article about interior design principles that could be of interest to you.
————–

Read the entire article here: http://www.kiplinger.com/printstory.php?pid=12711

Want to Design Your Home to Prepare for Whatever? Start Here!

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Jeremy Leake

Being prepared for whatever comes is important. Knowing what to do in order to be prepared is important. In order to help you out we found this article with some helpful information on what to focus on. We hope it helps!

From the article:

People are prepping in various ways for Armageddon, whether it’s a religious end of days, a pandemic, a solar storm, an asteroid, a nuclear war, global warming or a zombie apocalypse.

One way to prep is to make your home a fortress and safe haven from doomsday. But who’s to say prepping for humanity’s grand finale can’t also be elegant and stylish?

Water, water not everywhere
The water could all dry up, get poisoned or become contaminated with radioactivity. Of course, preppers will want their own naturally gathered water supply. This environmentally conscious home by Feldman Architecture, Inc. has large cisterns that capture rainwater. In this case the water is used for landscaping irrigation, but in a water emergency, well, it’s there.

Food shortage storage
When talking about gearing up for the big finish, one of the first things people think of is stockpiling food. Multiple types of disasters would cause transportation to cease and food to go undelivered. For warehousing food you need a great pantry like this one. Anyway, everyone needs nine large jars of peanut butter and six bags of Starbucks coffee squirreled away, right? Better get it before the hoarders do.

Guns and ammo
No proper prepper would be without an impressive set of guns. Unfortunately, we’re not talking about Chris Hemsworth’s biceps. Sigh. Of course, who wouldn’t arm themselves for an alien invasion by making sure the gun lair is fully stocked with weapons and ammo?

————–
Ever heard of universal home design? Then checkout this article about universal home design that could be of interest to you.
————–

Read the entire article here: http://www.sheknows.com/home-and-gardening/articles/1053663/hardcore-doomsday-preppers

Know What Gaps Are Most Common in Home Insurance? Find Out Here!

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Jeremy Leake

As a homeowner it’s important to do everything that we can to protect ourselves and our home. One thing that we do for protection is have homeowner’s insurance. But what if the worst happens and you find out that your insurance won’t pay? What then? In order to help you avoid that situation we found this article with the most common gaps in homeowner’s insurance. We hope it helps!

————
If you need Baton Rouge dryer vent cleaning services, then Dryer Vents Plus is your #1 choice! Call Jeremy Leake today at 225-612-7752 to schedule your 100% Free, No Obligation Quote!
————

From the article:

Make sure your policy provides enough coverage to protect your home and belongings.

You may already know that homeowners insurance doesn???t cover flood damage or sewage backup (see Insurance Coverage for Summer Storm Damage). But what about things your policy covers, but might not cover sufficiently?

Replacing your home. In the event of a disaster that leads to a total loss, your policy pays up to the dwelling limit. If that???s less than the cost to rebuild your home, you have to make up the difference. Your insurer estimates the cost to rebuild, but to make sure its estimate is accurate, use an online calculator, available at sites such as www.hmfacts.com ($7) and www.accucoverage.com ($8). To get full replacement coverage for partial losses, most insurers require you to have a policy with a dwelling limit of 80% or more of the insurer-estimated cost to rebuild, notes Bill Wilson, associate vice-president of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America.

Your policy should include an inflation guard clause keyed to regional costs that adjusts your coverage every year. Also, make sure your policy has extended replacement cost — ideally, for 20% to 25% above the dwelling limit; you can add it as an endorsement for about $50. If you have to rebuild your home to bring it up to current code, you???ll need ordinance and law coverage. You should be able to bump up your coverage to 25% of the dwelling limit for about $50 a year.

————–
Looking for ways to cut your electric bill? Then checkout this article about cut electric bill that could be of interest to you.
————–

Read the entire article here: http://www.kiplinger.com/printstory.php?pid=12814

Looking to Remote Control Your Home? Checkout These Ideas!

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Jeremy Leake

With so many advances in technology it’s no wonder that that technology has found it’s way into our homes. In order to help you discover what’s available for your home we found this article with five different ways to remote control your home. We hope it helps you better control your home!

————
If you need South Louisiana dryer vent cleaning services, then Dryer Vents Plus is your #1 choice! Call Jeremy Leake today at 225-612-7752 to schedule your 100% Free, No Obligation Quote!
————

From the article:

You could call it the march of progress. First, technology allowed you to preset your VCR, and later it let you program your TiVo. Now you can watch videos on demand on your phone or tablet. Next up: devices and apps that let you set and reset your home???s systems and appliances, no matter where you are. Some can even learn your habits. Take a look.

Lock Up Without a Key

Copying a key and handing it to anyone who needs to get into your house isn???t wise. August Smart Lock (www.august.com; $250) is an innovative alternative: It???s a deadbolt that unlocks via a smartphone app. The Bluetooth-enabled Smart Lock replaces the latch on the inside of your door; the outside hardware remains the same. Using your iPhone or Android phone???s contacts, you send a ???virtual key??? that allows the recipient to unlock the door wirelessly.

Bonus: Smart Lock, which runs on four AA batteries, works with a real key if the juice runs out.

Communicate With Major Home Appliances
Competition is heating up (and cooling down) for ranges and refrigerators that can be controlled from your smartphone. For example, GE Brillion double wall ovens ($3,100 to $3,800) and freestanding ranges ($1,600 to $2,100) let you turn on the oven and control the temperature with a mobile app for Apple or Android when you???re out. You can monitor the self-cleaning progress of LG Electronics??? Smart ThinQ range ($1,400) from your phone. Samsung has a high-end, smart refrigerator ($3,600), which comes with an 8-inch Wi-Fi-enabled LCD that connects wirelessly to a home network.

Our take: You may want to hold off until you have even more choices and prices come down.

————–
Looking for information on smart thermostats? Then checkout this article about smart thermostats that could be of interest to you.
————–

Read the entire article here: http://www.kiplinger.com/printslideshow.php?pid=12852

Need a Home Office? Get Ideas Here!

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Jeremy Leake

If you are in need of a home office but not sure how to design it then you’ve come to the right place. We found this article that we hope will help you design a home office that will meet all of your needs!

From the article:

Home offices are becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity with more people telecommuting or running their own businesses from their homes. It is estimated that one in five Americans work from home. And with the fluctuating cost of gas and increased traffic causing longer commutes, that number is likely to grow even more every year.

Work space is no longer relegated just to the kitchen table or a corner of the guest bedroom; it has been promoted to a room of its own in the home. If you are looking to create a home office, or revamp an existing one, keep the following points in mind:

Separate Your Space
Although you are physically working in the house, it is important to set up your home office so that the lines between your home life and your work life do not get blurred. By creating a barrier, you will be less tempted to take a television break in the middle of your work day or work on spreadsheets when you are supposed to be ???home from the office.???

Design Your Office to Match Your Work Style
When choosing the furniture and layout of your office, make sure if fits the way you choose to work. For example, if you believe in ???a place for everything and everything in its place,??? be sure to allot enough space for adequate storage and file cabinets. If you work on several different projects, set up separate, smaller work stations dedicated to each task.

————–
Looking for more ideas for a home office? Then checkout this article about home office design that could be of interest to you.
————–

Read the entire article here: http://www.nahb.org/generic.aspx?genericContentID=237652

Know That Baby Boomers Aren’t Moving Out Of Their Homes? Learn Why Here!

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Jeremy Leake

Did you know that most baby boomers are choosing not to move out of their homes? In order to help you understand why we found this article from CNN. We hope you find it as informative as we did!

From the article:

Instead of flocking to sunny beach havens or downsizing to a condo in the city during their retirement years, a majority of Baby Boomers say they’re just going to stay put in their old home.

In a survey of 4,000 Baby Boomer households conducted by the non-profit Demand Institute, 63% of Boomers plan to stay in their current home once they retire.

Much of that has to do with the recession. The financial crisis put an end to years of rapid wealth accumulation, causing the typical Boomer household’s net worth to fall to $143,000 in 2013 from just over $200,000 in 2007, according to Federal Reserve data.

Not only that, but this generation is also carrying a lot more mortgage debt. The survey found that the median outstanding mortgage balance for 50- to 69-year-olds was $118,000 in 2013, up from $48,743 in 1992.

“Boomers’ nest eggs have shrunk dramatically in recent years,” said Jeremy Burbank, vice president at The Demand Institute, the non-profit think tank run by the Conference Board and Nielsen. “Financially, this generation is not necessarily ready for retirement, and half of their assets are tied up in their homes.”

————–
Want to live in your home forever? Then checkout this article about design ideas to never move that could be of interest to you.
————–

Read the entire article here: http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/30/real_estate/baby-boomers-homes/index.html