The Raleigh Relocation Guide has all the ammunition you need (and more) to get your friends and family to start packing boxes!

Here are just a few of the awesome facts about life in Raleigh:

• Considered a top place to live/work/play by residents as well as national magazine surveys
• Diverse economy, affordable housing, and low unemployment rate
• One of the top public school systems in the country
• Thriving arts and music scene
• Nearby Research Triangle Park, world-renowned for work in biotechnology, telecommunications, and computer hardware/software
• Home to one of the finest research universities in the country (and adjacent to two more)

As the guide says, “There is no better place to live and work than Raleigh. And the friendly people of this Southern town with an international touch will welcome you with open arms.”

(Psssst… Don’t forget to hook your friends up with Breeze Realty when it’s time to buy a home!)

Varied ceiling heights create a sense of shelter over the bed and the window seat — details that make a house more personal.

Are there rooms in your home that you hardly ever use? Would more vertical storage and less total floor space give you that cozy cottage feeling you’ve been craving? Are you spending way too much on utilities during these hot summer months? Then maybe you should consider scaling back to a smaller home–an increasingly popular trend during a rocky economy.

Benefits of a smaller, downsized home can include:

• lower mortgage payments
• lower property taxes and utility bills
• spending less money on decorating
• spending less time on housekeeping, yard work, and other household chores
• reducing some of the stress that comes with maintaining a larger home

Two women ahead of this trend are Deryl Patterson, owner of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based architecture and planning firm BSB Design, and Raleigh’s own Sarah Susanka, FAIA, owner of Susanka Studios and author of “The Not So Big House” book series and “The Not So Big Life.”

Patterson takes an individualized approach to designing the right home, taking a home-buyer’s lifestyle into consideration. “To effectively downsize,” she says, “you must furnish the floor plan so the buyer can understand how it lives and performs. Women often get this better than men. Women also understand what not to downsize — like kitchens and storage.”

Susanka’s right-sizing approach to house design is as applicable to remodeling as it is to new construction, and it can be applied to homes of any price and size. “A not-so-big house is also a sustainably and energy efficiently designed home,” she says. “That is one of the core principles behind ‘Not So Big.’ In the long run, that somewhat smaller but better designed house of your dreams will become the best investment for the future.”

If this is something you’re ready to get serious about, call me so we can look for the right home to remodel or hook you up with the right builder to design your dream right-sized home!

Adapted/excerpted from National Association of Home Builders online, 
“A House ‘Built for Me’ — Consumers Beginning to Drive Right-Sizing Trend”

(image from Slow Food USA)

After Earth Day last month, a lot of us are feeling newly motivated to do our part to help the environment. You could plant tomatoes in your backyard, grow herbs in your kitchen, or join a community garden. You could also try “eating local.”

You’ve probably heard about it in the media–organic farming, locally sourced foods, slow food (a global movement linking the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment).

So what are the benefits of eating organic, locally sourced food, and why should you care?

1. Heavily processed food is not healthy, neither for the people who consume it nor for the environment.
2. Eating local helps the local economy. Buying food grown locally (within a 100-mile radius) keeps $0.80-$0.90 of every dollar in our community.
3. Add more variety to your diet while sampling new cuisine. Try creatively prepared local organic foods at restaurants, including Zely and Ritz just a block from my office. (Stay tuned for news about an upcoming Breeze Realty event at Zely and Ritz!)
4. The fresher the food, the better it tastes. Lettuce picked fresh this morning for sale at a local farmers market (or grown in your own garden) hasn’t been treated with chemicals to help it survive a long journey across the country or around the world.
5. Local farmers love to share what they know. You can learn everything there is to know about where your food comes from, and how to grow some of it in your own backyard, by asking questions at the farmers market.

(Adapted from EatLocalTriangle.org)

Interested in learning more? You can find a bunch of great info about slow and local foods at Slow Food Triangle.

Mary Dionne (left) and kitchen designer Ruth Ann Taylor in Mary's new kitchen

Breeze Realty client Mary Dionne was looking for her perfect home, but what she found was a great mid-century house that needed a few changes to fully suit her needs. While some might find a home renovation project daunting, especially when it involves hiring contractors, Mary was inspired to build her dream kitchen. The results are beautiful and functional, plus they add value to her home. Here’s Mary, in her own words.

Breeze Realty (BR): Why did you decide to renovate your kitchen?

Mary: I bought a 1957 ranch in a lovely inside-the-Beltline neighborhood. I am the same age as the house, and we both needed a renovation. The kitchen was tiny, positioned incorrectly in the space, and tired-looking.

BR: How did the kitchen designer aid in the process, and would you recommend using one?

Mary: I had a talented, reasonably priced, well-credentialed, and PATIENT kitchen designer. Ruth Ann Taylor, CKD, CBD, is with Cassedy and Fahrbach Design Partners. Ruth Ann helped me with creating better placement for the kitchen by relocating it to an adjacent room. This unified the kitchen with the living and casual dining space to create a great open area for entertaining. The kitchen itself is also beautiful and functional. There is appropriate and plentiful storage in all the right places.

BR: What was the biggest lesson you learned about choosing a contractor?

Mary: Ask a lot of questions, and use all the resources available to you. Even though the local municipality inspects the work, hire a home inspector to ensure that the work is to code and according to the architect’s or engineer’s building specifications. Also, do not order the kitchen cabinetry until the door openings, framing, and windows are placed. When checking the contractor’s references, be sure to ask the following questions:

• Did the contractor meet deadlines and stay on budget?
• Was the contractor prompt and courteous?
• How did the contractor handle stress on the job site?
• Who were the subcontractors, and were you satisfied with their work?
• How much time did the contractor spend onsite, and what was the contractor’s role in monitoring work quality?
• Did the contractor provide lien waivers from the contractor and all subcontractors?
• If you decided to hire the contractor for time and materials, how did the contractor handle unexpected expenses related to building errors by the subcontractors?

BR: How have you used your new space?

Mary: PARTY, PARTY, PARTY! Since I am new to Raleigh, the kitchen has been the perfect backdrop to entertain my new friends and neighbors. I had a large potluck with 70 neighbors, bunco, and lots of other impromptu dinner parties.

BR: Tell us about your favorite feature and the best outcome.

Mary: That is hard to pick just one. So I’ll give you two. (1) I have an 8-foot Carrara marble island that is the focal point and gathering place whether it is just me or a houseful of guests. (2) Before I made an offer on this house, I almost bought a home in Five Points, and it had a gorgeous butler’s pantry. With the existing open bookcase, we were able to modify it to be an almost perfect replica of the one at the Five Points house.

BR: Is there anything unexpected you learned in the process?

Mary: Always keep your mind open to alternative uses for what is there already. The open bookcase is an example of that. Additionally I reused brick from where we enlarged the windows to build a table out of the brick steps that were no longer needed.

BR Postscript: Look for a follow-up conversation with Mary soon… One of her dinner parties was featured in a News & Observer article!

• What do you love most about your neighborhood?
• Was it love at first sight?
• When did you know it was truly “home sweet home”?
• Home is where the heart is, but where is the heart of your home?
• Any quirks in your home that make you smile?

These are all great questions to ask yourself before launching a new home search. Here’s some of what one of the magazine’s interviewees had to say about her home in Five Points:

“I chose Five Points because it’s a close walk to town with a friendly commercial district and smaller eco-friendly homes… I love my neighbors who frequently offer random acts of kindness and share my support for a sustainable lifestyle… The dining room is the heart of our house. Sit-down meals are important, and it happens to be the most beautiful room in the house… I’m into ‘wabi-sabi’ design, which means ‘beauty of the imperfect.’ [In my 1920s house,] there is beauty in the uneven doors, old door mantles and door knobs.”   
—Wanda Urbanska, TV personality, author, sustainbility expert, and Breeze Realty client

Finding the right home is about so much more than paint colors, square footage, and the number of bathrooms. The neighborhood, the layout of the home, the way you feel when you step into your favorite room, even the little details that aren’t quite perfect–all of the stars align when you find the home that fits you best.

Sometimes the quirky parts of a house are what make you fall in love with it. Or maybe the history of your home is what makes you smile every time you show off some little historical detail to a houseguest–like a porch roof specially designed to open up for a religious holiday.

For some homeowners, it’s the view through the windows that makes them feel at home. For others, it’s the proximity to a vibrant downtown scene. Feeling like you’ve chosen the right home can be when the local librarian remembers your name after just one meeting, or when you can close your eyes and imagine yourself living there the moment you arrive. Urban, suburban, country… No matter where it is, if your home fits you, then you’ve followed your heart.

This is the intangible essence of what finding a home for someone should be, and it’s my pleasure to be part of your quest!

P.S. Check out Triangle Style magazine on Facebook.

From personal experience, the one area that tends to get full is the pantry.  After all that stocking up and squirreling away over winter, it might be time to can some of those cans… or, if they aren’t expired, donate them to a food bank.

If you’re preparing to sell your home, you should know that there is not a buyer in the world that won’t look in your pantry.  Now, if your pantry only has peanut butter (and the fridge some PBR and Coke), that might just give prospective buyers some insights into your lifestyle…  But if your pantry is overflowing with boxes and rolled-up grocery bags, buyers will assume the house does not have enough space. 

Professional Organizer Allison Perkins, of reclaim organizing in Raleigh, gives these tips to start your pantry’s new life as an open and appealing space.

Remove everything from your pantry so you can see what you have, and then start sorting. Separate items into the following four categories:

• Items you use every day
• Items you use less frequently
• Unopened items that can be donated to a food bank
• Expired items to trash

After you’ve done the inventory, rest assured, we’ll all feel more relaxed when we look into your pantry! For more details, check out the reclaim blog.

DID YOU KNOW…

• Our region could experience a drought this year?
• More than 1 trillion gallons of water are wasted in U.S. homes each year due to leaks?
• A leaky toilet can waste more than 200 gallons per day?
• In one year, the water leaks at an average home could fill an entire swimming pool?
• Most leaks are easy to detect and fix?

To help stop leaks where they start–which is always a good idea for homeowners–the City of Raleigh is teaming with Home Depot to promote the 2011 Fix-a-Leak Week, an annual EPA WaterSense conservation event. 

Residents are encouraged to perform a water efficiency checkup on fixtures and irrigation systems, test toilets for leaks, and attend a “Water Conservation in the Bathroom” workshop at one of three area Home Depots on March 19.

Check out the official Fix-a-Leak Week website for more details.

*Citizens who attend and participate in any of the Fix-a-Leak Week workshops may be entered into a drawing to win a free EPA WaterSense labeled high-efficiency toilet.

It might still be chilly outside, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start composting your organic waste in preparation for feeding your garden in the spring.

(Hint: A lovely garden adds a lot of curb appeal if you’re thinking about selling your house!)

Check out this quick video from the Sierra Club to find out how easy it is to get started with composting. Note: The guy in the video is using a closed bin, which you can keep indoors while it’s cold outside.

Refrigerator: Clean the air vents and coils once a year (or twice a year if you have pets). All that dust piles up and can make your fridge overheat.

Freezer: Fill up those shelves. A full freezer is more efficient than an empty one, and that will prolong the life of your condenser (the part that keeps things cold).

Washing Machine: Empty your pockets before doing laundry. Metal objects (like coins) can dent and damage the drum, which can lead to torn clothes and eventually a leaky washer.

Clothes Dryer: Always clean out the removable lint filter with every load. Also clean out the exhaust hose, which should have a straight path to the outside of your home. Once a year, get under and around that dryer with the vacuum hose. (Balls of lint and dust have a tendency to travel.)

Dishwasher: Hand wash anything with sharp edges, and don’t pack too many glass or other breakable items too closely. Load your knives blade down, and use a lime remover and/or rinsing aid regularly.

Stovetop: Ceramic and glass stovetops are delicate things, susceptible to cracking and scratching. Always use cleaning products and utensils recommended by the manufacturer, and remove food spillages as soon as they occur. Flat-bottomed pots and pans are best, and the pan should be the same size as the burner.

Get more details here:  Make Your House FHA Friendly

Be sure to give me a call when you’re ready to put your house on the market!