His goal:

To put a wine cellar in the laundry room on the main floor and move the laundry up to the master bath.   He wanted my opinion regarding the importance of the tub.  I put the question out on this blog and on Facebook.  On Facebook, people said the tub was a dust collector.  Personally, I agree with that.  My tub is a dust collector, too.

My answer:

But is the eastside of Seattle ready for homes of a certain caliber to not have a master bath tub?  Looking at it from a professional point of view,  the master bath in homes newer than 1980 and more expensive than $500,000 should have some pizazz.  The master bath is considered the hallmark of peace and privacy, a retreat if you will.  It should make a statement.  Buyers are going to expect that.   When evaluating homes they’ll take the difference in a master bath seriously.

So if the wine cellar becomes a “gotta have” feature and the tub ultimately goes away, then the homeowner should install a terrific shower in its place.  A good sized shower with a spa-like feel could be the ticket to overcoming any objections regarding the lack of the master bath tub.  In fact, given all the feedback I’ve gotten on and off line about the unimportance of the tub, it would not surprise me at all if the sumptuous shower becomes the “gotta have” piece of the master bath.  Will there be some people who object to the lack of the tub even if they don’t use it?  Yes, there will be people who feel they must have the tub either to use or for resale value.

What do you think?

(Photo from Flickr, Golom Designs)

On one of this year’s home tours,  I got to see a home built in 2007 from a true mid-century design.  The home was designed in 1955 by California architect, William Krisel, but was built with today’s energy standards and features in mind.  It’s a really cool combination of midcentury design matched with eco-friendly energy standards.

The article was first posted on Windermere’s blog where you can read it in its entirety.  Hey, if you love midcentury modern.  Check out Palm Springs, California sometime and try to make it to Modernism Week.  By the way, William Krisel also designed the House of Tomorrow, which became the honeymoon hideaway of Elvis and Priscilla Presley.

Palm Springs Mid-Century Modern Meets Todays Energy Standards

Keep loving it by taking good care of it.  Become a fan of my Facebook Fan Page which is dedicated to home ownership.  I post about energy savings, green living, housing trends, and all things that are “house” related.

Looking for a last minute Valentine’s Day gift for your honey?  Make it something for you, your honey and your home.  Check out the lipstick sofa, the heart shaped lamps, and the satin sheets!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

But also think like builders. Builders do the research to check out what’s new and hot.

The real estate buzz words for new construction in 2011 :

• functionality
• practicality
• smaller
• greener
• value

Think smaller homes. Make the” Old Woman in The Shoe” proud.   Look at homes with smaller footprints.   Think  “green.”  Think front porches.  Get our your rocking chair.

Homes with Front Porches

Think one level homes. Think getting a smaller package with green, functional features wrapped up in a good value.

Buy a home you love, but also buy a home that’s a good investment.  Think about what people are looking for today, so you have a good home to sell tomorrow.

But if you’re Rapunzel looking to hang down your hair  from your castle’s turret, you may be out of luck in the future. Simpler, less fussy styles are in.

You may not do everything, but if you read all the posts, you’ll have a good idea of what home updates will get you more money. You can decide how best to spend your money and what works for your budget.  Read Parts 1-4, planting some “green,” when to set the sales price, yard clean up, and dressing up a front door and the rest of the series (coming soon), to pick what your home needs to get it “dressed up” to sell in the competitive Seattle real estate market.

Spending some money updating your home will help you make more money selling your home.  In the Seattle real estate market, particularly on the eastside, most buyers are looking for homes updated and ready to go. There’s a very small pool of buyers looking to fix up a home on Seattle’s eastside.

Today’s topic:  moldings and doors. Clean, fresh white moldings and doors.  Some homes will have a theme and look better with wood doors and moldings, but many homes will look great with white woodwork.  If you’re starting from scratch, you can pick from many different door styles.  In today’s home market, doors can be anywhere from two to 6 panel, with the two panel doors growing in popularity.

New Doors Dress Up a Home for Sale

Before you pick the style of door, think about the type of neighborhood where your home is located. If it’s an upscale, high-end neighborhood, buyers will expect top quality.  You’ll throw your money out if you go with inexpensive finishes.  If the home is situated in a starter neighborhood, then go with hollow core doors, so you’ll save money.  Solid doors are far more expensive.   Pick something simple that matches your decor.  Be practical and spend the least amount of money, while getting something that looks good and is the quality to fit your neighborhood and style of your home.

Moldings:  Does your home have those skinny, outdated flat moldings from the 60′s or the 70′s?  If so, it’s time for a change.  Go with thicker baseboard moldings to dress up a room.  Moldings finish a room off, making the overall finished look richer and better. Again, keep it simple and buy pre-painted moldings, if available.

Thick Baseboards Add A Quality Look to a Home

For the high-end neighborhood, maybe it’s repainting existing moldings so they look fresh and clean.  Maybe it’s adding more crown moldings or chair rails in different parts of the house.

Dressing Up a Room By Adding Chair Rails

Don’t have the money to replace all the doors and moldings? Then paint them white, so they look fresh and clean.    Make sure to use the right painting tools and paint. If you’ve never painted doors and moldings, then find out how to paint them so the surfaces will be smooth.  Use a semi-gloss paint and it will help make the moldings pop.  It will also help keep the moldings clean when done.

If painting is not your thing,  it’s probably better to hire someone who knows how to paint these surfaces.  Again, don’t throw your time and money out by doing a poor paint job.

Whatever your budget allows, the doors and moldings should be fresh and clean when you sell your home.  If they’re not, it will cost you time and money in the sale of your home.

Do you have any other ideas about making doors and moldings look good?

A big part of my job as a Realtor is to help home sellers prepare their homes for the market by giving people ways to add value to their home so they’ll get the highest sales price. I’m constantly looking for different and cost effective ways to give sellers options for updating a home. I also encourage past clients to contact me when thinking of remodeling, so I like to keep up with the latest home remodeling ideas.

The Styled, Staged, and Sold blog discusses “hot home products for 2010.” Their list of favorite new home products had great ideas for remodeling, safety, energy savings tips, and locks that can’t be bumped.

Did you know most locks on the doors to your home can be “bumped”open?

Not something you want to have happen with your home.   I first heard about locks that can’t be bumped open when a client of mine told me about changing the locks on her home.   Her  home security alarm had gone off 4 times.   She thought it was time to upgrade her home’s door locks to the bump proof variety.

After hearing about this situation from my client and reading about unbumpable locks online, I thought I’d pass this information on.   In reading about unbumpable locks, I also learned the brand of “bump-proof” lock you buy for your home should be checked out to make sure it’s truly “bump proof.”

The blog post also talls about some other interesting home products. I really like the metal tiles that could be used as a kitchen backsplash. The tiles come in brushed nickel, bronze, and copper finishes. They looked really cool and could dress up a kitchen for not a lot of money.

The inexpensive crown moldings sounded like they could be a great way to dress up a room.

Stainless steel paint? It sounds like it could be a terrific way to go, but I’m having trouble picturing  paint looking like smooth, cool stainless steel.  I’d love to know if this really works.

Has anyone tried it?  If it does work, it would be a great thing.

Check these home products and remodeling tips out.  Let me know if you try any of the items. I’d love to be able to tell people about experiences you’ve had with these products or other cost effective remodeling ideas.

And while you are at it, change your locks!

When I talk with my boomer friends these days, we commiserate about our elderly parents.  I’ve gone through all the stages involved with a changing parent-child relationship.  I became the parent and had to move my parents out of their long time Connecticut home of 50 + years to a safer, easier to navigate environment.   It would have been much better to leave them in their home because they had been so comfortable there.  However, with two stories, steps to the front door, and inaccessible sinks, counters, etc, it would have been impossible for them to stay in their home.

Traditional home designs don’t easily accommodate changes in people’s lives and abilities as they age. Sometimes people have to move, a costly choice, because their home no longer supports these changes. Wouldn’t it be less expensive to have home design that can be easily modified and adapted to many different needs?

We have more advanced materials and amenities in our homes, but our floor plans are very similar to homes built 100 years ago, when the average life expectancy was less than 50 years old. Today the average life expectancy is 80 years of age.

Consider this:

1/3 of all Boomers are more than 50+ years old.

People who are age 50+ are more than a third of the population.

The population of 50+ people is going to double in the next 35 years.

We have a housing crisis coming up on our hands. Today we talk about affordable housing. Tomorrow we’ll talk about accessible housing, only tomorrow will be too late.

Universal design is intended to be user friendly and provide easy access for people of any age and ability. Universal design has been called other things: aging in place, design for all ages, basic access, and barrier-free design.

Enter Seattle architect, Emory Baldwin of ZAI, Inc., who built a home for his young family using Universal Design principles. It’s a beautiful Craftsman style home located not far from Seattle’ s Greenlake.   His home is recognized in the most recent issue of Seattle Metropolitan magazine.   His home has been selected by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to receive an award in the 2009 small project category for “Accessible Residential Design.”

It’s a light filled, sunny, happy home with lively colors, big windows, and high ceilings.

If you didn’t know he used Universal Design principles in his plans for the home, you wouldn’t notice much that is different. Universal Design done right is very comfortable, livable, and practical. When a home is built from scratch with Universal Design principles, it can be more cost effective over the long run.

What are some of the universal design features?

All the hallways are 42 inches wide and the doorways are all 3 feet wide.

The closets are ready and waiting for a future elevator. Emory incorporated a stacked closet area on each floor, with the space retrofitted for an elevator. The cost to incorporate into the original plan? About $21,000. The cost to retrofit the home with no dedicated spot for an elevator? $100,000.

The first thing you notice when walking up to the front door is the completely level entry into the home. The entry walk is actually sloped slightly toward the home. It’s 17 feet long and rises 1 foot along its length. A wheelchair would have an easy time of entering the home.

Universal Design-Level Entry

The thresholds throughout the house are level.

All flooring is level with no thresholds

Instead of door knobs, you see door handles.

The open airy kitchen has several useful features, the island is surrounded by wide access ways.

wide access around the kitchen island

Kitchen cabinets have pull out shelving.

Pull out kitchen shelving

The master bath is a Universal Design dream. The vanity is built on wheels, so in the future, if you’re using a wheelchair, you could remove the vanity and scoot under the sink.

Master bath vanity-now you see it.

Master bath vanity-now you don't see it

Showers have completely level entries. The shower entry is completely level with the bathroom flooring and would accommodate a wheelchair, if necessary.

Here’s some links to builders using Universal Design principles in other parts of the country. Some builders are beginning to consider Universal Design in their construction, building homes that work for everyone.

Homeowners are becoming increasingly more aware of affordability, accessibility, and sustainability when buying real estate.  Homes that meet more of these criteria will become increasingly more desirable. Green and accessible features will help increase the value and saleability of a home.

Congratulations to Emory for his AIA award and designing this beautiful, practical home.

]]> http://eastsiderealestatebuzz.com/architecture/seattle-architect-emory-baldwin-recognized-for-universally-designed-home/feed/ 0 http://eastsiderealestatebuzz.com/for-buyers/top-ten-questions-to-ask-about-remodeling-where-can-you-get-the-most-bang-for-your-buck/ http://eastsiderealestatebuzz.com/for-buyers/top-ten-questions-to-ask-about-remodeling-where-can-you-get-the-most-bang-for-your-buck/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:50:40 +0000 debrasinick http://eastsiderealestatebuzz.wordpress.com/?p=1283 Read More »]]> I’ll never forget the time sellers contacted me to sell their home and they were pretty excited because they had done some updating before they called me.  When I arrived at their home and took a look, my heart just sank.  They had spent a lot of money on updating the carpet and many of the fixtures in the house.  However, the carpet was a different color in every room!  Teal was the main color throughout most of the house, but some of the bedrooms had pink carpet and others had blue.  If this home had been in New England, it would have been fine.  In New England, I’ve seen a lot of the homes with different carpet in each room, but not in the Seattle area.  Carpet is usually one neutral tone throughout the house.

Every year The National Association of Realtors publishes a list comparing cost vs. value of different remodeling.  The list breaks down different remodeling projects and the value of the remodel in each part of the country.  Remodeling projects which “sell in Peoria” do not necessarily “sell in the Seattle” area.

According to the NAR report, the big “six” remodels in the West/Pacific region are :

” a wood deck addition, a minor kitchen remodel, fiber-cement siding replacement, wood window replacement, and an upscale wood and vinyl window replacement.”

“Similarly, the cost recouped on a given remodeling project depends on a wide variety of factors. These include the condition of the rest of a house, the value of similar homes nearby, and the rate at which property values are changing in the surrounding area. A home’s urban, suburban, or rural setting also affects its value, as does the availability and cost of new and existing homes in the immediate vicinity.”

The most important questions to ask yourself first:

1. Is this a remodel that will fit my lifestyle and pocket book?

2. Will I enjoy the changes I make to my home?

Then seek the advice of a Realtor you trust before you start any remodel. Contact a Realtor who is market savvy, knows your neighborhood, and will be willing to spend the time with you, even though you are not selling. Your Realtor should be able to give you solid advice about where you should spend, and not spend, your money.  Get the answers to these questions:

1. What are the homes worth in your neighborhood?
2. How does your home compare to the others in the neighborhood?
3. Will your remodel add value to your home in your neighborhood?
4. How does the remodeling project fit with the rest of your home?
5. Will you price yourself out of the neighborhood?
6. What are the popular colors and materials in the area that will help maintain the value of your home?
7. Is your home located close to economic and transportation hubs which will help maintain its value in the future?
8. Will a remodel help balance any negative factors in your home?

Remodeling is a balancing act in which you as the homeowner have to measure how much the remodel means to you, your lifestyle, and your pocketbook as it compares to the future resale value of your home.  It can also help to balance and counteract other features of a home. For example, if your home backs to a busy road, not only should your home be priced to accommodate the road noise when you go to sell, your home should be updated and upgraded to be more of a value to a potential buyer.  A home in a noisy location will often be dismissed by buyers.  But, if it is beautifully remodeled, it may help to counteract the negative location.

But please, do yourself a favor and get all the facts clear in your mind before you begin a project.  Check out the link to the cost vs. value list above, spend time evaluating your wants and needs, talk to some contractors and to a trusted Realtor before you proceed.

Want to learn about it? This weekend there’s a cohousing fair in South Seattle where you can learn more about the communities and the cohousing lifestyle.  I wrote about the cohousing fair on the Seattle PI Real Estate Professionals Blog. If you click on the link you’ll find out more information about the fair and the communities that exist around Puget Sound. 

There are several cohousing communities on the eastside.  Clearwater Commons, New Earth Song Cohousing, which is right next door to Songaia Cohousing are all located in Bothell, Washington.  New Earth Song has a focus on seniors and helping them to stay in their homes, age-in-place, and not move to  communities that are just for seniors.

Cohousing may or may not be for you, but it’s good to know about alternative real estate and living choices.  Things are no longer the same, as we all know, and many people are curious about more affordable, greener ways of living.  Check it out!

The Terry Thomas:   An Elegant, Environmentally-Correct Approach to Design

When:  Friday, October 17
Group 1: 10:00am
Group 2: 11:30am
Cost:  $15 advance registration required.  No walk-ups accepted.  Register online or call the SAF office at
 206.667.9184.
Where:  Weber Thompson offices in The Terry Thomas. 225 Terry Ave., N., second floor Joseph Vance Building:  Historic Building, Modern Green Design

“Seattle Architecture Foundation is partnering with Weber Thompson to present The Terry Thomas:   An Elegant, Environmentally-Correct Approach to Design, a one-hour guided tour.  The Terry Thomas is a highly sustainable, commercial building located in the South Lake Union neighborhood. Wrapped in windows, it is a building designed along a modern aesthetic with a combination of time-tested strategies from the pre-HVAC era and complimentary new technologies. 

…this tour explains how the project reduces its carbon footprint, the workings of the passive cooling system, strategies employed to reduce water usage by 50% and energy usage by 30% and how the building has met its original vision of thoughtful sustainable design and a workplace that contributes to the occupant’s well-being, satisfaction and productivity. ”

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When:  Tuesday, November 11
Group 10:00am
Group 11:30am
Cost:  $15 advance registration required.  No walk-ups accepted.  Register online or call the SAF office at206.667.9184.
Where:  Joseph Vance Building lobby, 1402 Third Avenue

“Elements of the project include restoring the building’s terra cotta façade, original ceilings, terrazzo floors, and operable windows, and updating the facility using sustainable materials, systems, and fixtures. Custom window shades and light shelves help preserve energy and maximize natural light while controlling heat gain and glare.”

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I’m really excited to see The Terry Thomas.  This is one of the first buildings to be built in years with no air conditioning!  The building is designed to maximize air flow/cooling through the use of sun shades, louvers, light colored roofing, and an interior courtyard.  This tour ought to be interesting and filled with valuable information regarding “green building.”