Stay cool at the house this Summer
Have you been sweltering in your Colorado home throughout the summertime because you simply can’t bear the cost of turning on your air conditioner? If so, swelter no more. There are many cost-efficient and power-conscious ways of making your home cooler when the weather outside is blistering hot. Use these tips to keep your home cool in the summer heat inexpensively.
Ceiling Fans
A ceiling fan is one way in which your house will stay cool and comfortable even with a limited budget. Using a ceiling fan for 12 hours each day will only cost you about $10 extra and bring down room temperatures by several degrees. That is a pretty good bargain!
Close the drapes.
Keep the residence cool and shady by using your blinds or the drapes to keep out the sun in the daytime. Curtains, blinds and shades help to reflect the sun’s heat away from the inside of your house. This can make your house a few degrees cooler without running the air conditioner or the fans.
Turn Off the Lights
You only have to stand next to a naked lightbulb or a running appliance to appreciate the heat that they can generate. Heat is also given off by large appliances. While you can’t turn off all your illumination and appliances, you can keep them to a minimum. Also, don’t put them near your air conditioner’s thermostat as that may “fool” it into thinking the room is hotter than what it actually is, causing it to run more and increase your power bill at the end of the month.
Don’t Cook
You may not realize this, but whenever you cook or bake, you are generating heat that increases the temperature inside the house. With the stove or oven on, you can bring your residence’s temperature up at least three degrees, You don’t have to cook if cold food is around. Salads, cold meat and fruit are refreshing to eat in the summer.
Create shade with trees and shrubs
Identify the windows where the maximum amount of sun comes in and plant vegetation or plants so that the windows are shaded. When they are fully grown, you are sure to be pleasantly surprised at how cool they keep the home. You will not need your air-conditioning or fans that much when your windows are well shaded by bushes and vegetation.
Use Good Insulation
If your house is not properly insulated, you will feel the the heat that much more. If your attic is well insulated, your residence will stay cool in the hottest weather. A simple upgrade from three inches of insulation to 12 inches can cut your energy costs by about 10 percent.
In hot weather, you should try and stay cool. Being hot makes you listless and lethargic. Allowing yourself to get hot in summer is bad for your health and can cause long-term problems. Stay cool this hot weather with the help of these pointers.
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About Broomfield Colorado
If you are considering buying a Boulder home, but find that prices in Boulder itself don’t suit you, it is worth considering in Broomfield Colorado. Broomfield is only 20 minutes southeast of Boulder and a mere 10 minutes Northwest of Westminster CO.
Broomfield, founded in 1961, is aptly named for large quantities of broomcorn that were grown in that locale. It used to be the South easternmost part of Boulder County, but, in 2001, it became Broomfield County. Broomfield has a population of about 45,000 natives.
The biggest employers in Broomfield are Sun Microsystems, Level 3, Corporate Express. Semi-pro hockey and semi pro basketball was brought to the area in 2004 with the establishment of The Broomfield Event Center. A short trip down main street Broomfield, or 120th and you can take your pick of food ranging from mom-and-pop restaurants to major chain restaurants..
Other areas close to Broomfield:
Boulder Colorado
Longmont Colorado
Louisville Colorado
Your House Insulation & R Values
The “R” value on home insulation became trendy because of the electricity crisis in the 1990s to give us some measurement of house insulation. Resistance to heat loss is denoted by “R” . Theoretically, the higher the “R” value, the better the quality of insulation. The main point here is that the “R” value is derived from the amount of heat loss by conduction but a house can lose heat in other ways such as convection and radiation.
Though materials such as cellulose prevent heat loss in all four situations, the most popular material is Fiberglass which is only effective in preventing heat loss by conduction. Some newer insulating materials have better performance when it comes to controlling the spread of fire and of mold and insects and providing soundproofing. In analyzing the insulation, you must keep in mind that the actual performance may not be in line with the “R” values because of the heat loss caused by gaps and seams. This is why many homeowners looking for the maximum energy efficiency use spray insulation and carry out air-sealing tests.
The Recommended “R” or resistance values applicable will depend on the area of the residence which is being insulated and the temperature zone of your location. To give you an example,Recommended “R” or resistance values for attics in the United States can range from the southernmost areas(where it is R 22) to a range of R39 to R49 for new construction in most of the country. When you consider walls, the recommended values will differ from a value of R. 28 for cold climates to R 11 in the South. In the case of basements, the range is R 4 to R 15 for the exterior and R 11 for the interior. Existing houses may not be able to accommodate these insulation thicknesses but you would get a general idea of the range of R. Values for different parts of the house and what standards new home construction is now using.
You should definitely consider getting the highest R. value insulation that you can afford because this would mean that you will save considerably on your electricity bills. Besides “R” value, you need to consider air sealing, especially if you live in windy areas like mountainous and hilly terrain or open water areas. The maximum heat loss occurs in your attic and hot air rises in the home and you should concentrate your expenditure on the highest R. value insulation for your attic. This is definitely the case withBoulder Colorado or Louisville Colorado real estate. Longmont Homes too! If you live in Conifer Colorado, it’s even more important. You may want to look at cellulose insulation products that of a much better insulating qualities while the walls in an existing residence can be given a higher R. Value by insulation blown in from the attic. Even houses in warm climates need high-quality insulation to keep out the heat. Insulation loses R. Value over a period of time in a number of ways especially when it gets damp so, as part of your efforts to make your house electricity efficient, attend to rules and foundation leaks.
If you feel you need professional advice, don’t hesitate to call in the professionals to advise you on our values in your home and the possibilities of air sealing. You may possibly get tax credits for your expenditure in addition to the asset on your electricity bills.
This article was provided by AHF – your Colorado real estate experts.
Cheap Kitchen remodel ideas
If you want to sell your Conifer home, the kitchen and the bathroom are the best way is to appeal to potential customers and make your house sell quickly. A kitchen refurbishment can cost you anything from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, but an expenditure of over $10,000 would probably not give you a proportionate return.
Things to keep in mind when you are doing a kitchen remodel is that appliances can make a big difference, but not if you are planning to take them with you. For instance, customers may not appreciate your investment in stainless steel appliances and many try and negotiate the purchase price downwards. Mind your expenditure and don’t splash out on popular new appliances. Concentrate on items like cabinets, faucets, counters and flooring that would be permanent additions to the house.You can however consider putting in appliances like dishwashers or range tops. If you have built-ins that are going to stay with the residence, make sure that they are updated or upgraded. Putting in a dishwasher will improve the possibilites of a house sale. You should add a garbage disposal in case you do not have one because customers will want one.
Consider using stone or granite when it comes to countertops, because these are the most popular today. Flooring and cabinets should form an important part of any kitchen update. If your existing cabinetry frames are in good shape, you might want to consider re-staining them or painting and putting new doors on for a modern look. People will often refit plain cabinet doors by adding trim to simulate panels or using glass fronts.
The basic things that are easy to change can update the appearance of a kitchen if it is in good shape otherwise, such as new faucets or sink. Leaky faucets are guaranteed to make a bad impression on anyone and it will only cost you about $100 to replace them. Stainless steel and black are the current favorites for new appliances. Because of the appliance tax credits now available, many appliance makers are offering appliances at rock bottom prices.
For a basic, cheap improvement, keep countertops cleared of clutter and small appliances. Maybe you could try a corner pantry. Attend to leaky faucets and clean up the contents of your cabinets. Make sure that the appliances in the kitchen are gleaming and the floor covering are spotless. Make sure that your cabinets appearance good and that your replacement countertop appeals to all buyers (such as Corian or granite resin ones ).You can end up with a far more attractive kitchen on a tight budget by following these improvements.
Other areas of interest:
Broomfield real estate, Louisville real estate, or Erie Colorado real estate
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Hardwood, Tile, or Carpet? What’s best for you?
Whether you are doing up your old residence in readiness for sale, or looking at what you want in your next home, new flooring would be on top of the agenda.The condition of the floor covering in the residence that you are setting influences the selling price because if a buyer spots stained and dirty carpets or scratched wooden floor covering, he is almost certainly going to adjust this additional expense to him against the selling price.
Many people are opting for tile and wood floor covering when it comes time to replace flooring because maintenance is easier and allergies are easier to control. Many sellers may think about new carpeting when they are preparing their homes for sale but they would probably be better off using tile or wood which have more appeal.. The other thing about carpet is that color is a thing that can always be controversial. This color problem can affect the sale of the home and it is safer to stay with natural wood or neutral colored stone which are unlikely to be offensive to many people.
In the flooring hierarchy, carpets are the least expensive followed by wood flooring and finally by tile. When you bear in mind that flooring can turn out to be expensive because wood flooring cost twice as much as carpet and tile flooring cost twice as much as wooden ones, you can understand why buyers and sellers are reluctant to undertake these large expenses.If you are a buyer looking at a residence that has flooring that needs to be replaced, it is important to consider what you can live with until you get exactly what you want, especially if a seller just installed new flooring. The seller is unlikely to revisit the price because of your personal tastes.
How much you spend on your floors has a major effect on what you will spend on maintenance. Carpets need a lot more time and money to stay clean and stain free, wood and tile floor covering need a lot less. Wood flooring can get easily scratched by the claws of your pets so tile would have to rank as the most durable choice.
Some buyers still shows prefer carpet because of the warmth and aesthetic look it lends to a room. Putting area rugs down on wood and tile floors will enable you to combine the aesthetics of carpet with the durability of wood or tile. Room sized area rugs can be used in large rooms (such as the living room) both for appeal and to protect the floor. You can choose from popular natural material, Oriental and Indian rugs are just a a solid color that complements the colors in the room.
In the final outcome, there could be insignificant cost differences between expensive carpets and cheaper wood especially if you factor in maintenance upkeep and the necessity to avoid allergies. In the final analysis, it all depends on what you personally prefer because you may like carpet despite the maintenance costs and the allergy problem instead of wood or tile. It doesn’t matter what kind of floor covering you have in the house if you make sure that it is in acceptable condition so that the sale is quick.
Whether selling Boulder CO real estate, Louisville CO real estate, or your Conifer home for sale, make sure your carpets are in tip-top shape to sell your home as quickly as possible.
Before you buy, be sure to get your home appraised
As a part of the closing procedure, most banks will ask you to get a CO real estate appraisal to establish how much they can lend. If you are looking to borrow 90% of the price, keep in mind that any finance company will only go up to 90% of appraised value regardless of the price you may have agreed with the owner.
The residence must appraise out at the price agreed between purchaser and seller for most real estate contracts to be valid in law. Sure the home not appraise out at the agreed price, you may have to revisit the price with the seller. The purchaser and the seller are under no compulsion to go through with the sale. The buyer does not have to buy while the seller does not have to sell.
In the current state of the housing market, the appraisal is key to determining the true value of a residence. Earlier, if you bought a residence for the price of the advance, you could safely conclude that you were getting a bargain because the owner was writing off his residence equity. And nowadays, it probably means that he owes his lender a lot more than the home is worth, maybe twice as much in some cases. It is important that everybody knows the appraised value, even if you are paying cash and don’t have a lender involved. You never know when you may need to sell quickly or take out equity for an emergency.
Several different factors are taken into consideration in conducting an appraisal. If a current market analysis, or CMA is available, it would be used in the appraisal. “Comp sales” or comparable sales are often used in appraisals way the current market value is estimated on the basis of the prices that similar residences in similar areas have fetched in the recent past.
Appraisals will also normally use the replacement cost method in which the appraiser will attempt to establish what it would cost to build the residence today. Values for positive features such as improvements or refurbishments are adjusted upwards and downward adjustments are made for negative features to arrive at a final appraised value.
Everybody benefits from an appraisal. Even if the value of a residence is not fully supported by the appraisal, some purchasers may wish to proceed. Since the finance company will only lend an agreed percentage of the appraised value, buyers must recognize that they would have pay the entire difference between the mortgage value and the agreed price out of their own resources.
Market conditions can cause the value of your house decline months after the purchase because the appraisal value is based on conditions at the time of appraisal. It is important to note that appraisals are usually a guideline that can be used for six months, but not much longer, so if you plan to refinance or get a residence equity mortgage, you might be subject to another appraisal that won’t turn out the same, depending on the comp sales and market. It is still the best way to ascertain a home’s value accurately.
More Information:
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How to sell your home fast
Many homeowners seem to spend no time at all in getting their house ready before putting Boulder home on the market. Misplaced priorities mean that these people would spend more time trading their car than in preparing a residence for sale thus forfeiting the higher rewards that they could get from their biggest investment.
Your pets may turn off prospective purchasers who do not particularly care for them. Things can get worse if a part of a home is off limits because you have locked in your dog or cat there. Pets may be treated like family members but a prospective purchaser who dislikes them may call off the sale or at the very least reduce the price because he would have to replace carpets and clean up the residence.
Another negative for many purchasers is an overgrown yard which has not been tended or your children’s toys scattered all over it and the living room. These may seem like minor points to you but for a buyer without kids, it may seem that you do not care for the residence based on the living conditions that they see.
If your stuff is strewn all over the residence, the buyer may not be able to spot the favorable features or visualize the interior done up with his own stuff. Once your house is listed, keep the interior clean and as bare as possible, by removing some of your furniture to storage if necessary. In any case if you are selling, you should be sorting out your things and putting away your items of sentimental value.
Make sure that your garden is well tended and that the entrance to your house is attractive so that it has curbside appeal. If you look at the house from streetside the way a potential customer would, you will probably see small things that don’t cost much money but help make your residence look better.
The home is hardly going to sell itself and you as a seller have to present it in the best possible light. If you spend a few hundred dollars on a fresh paint job, you would probably be adding thousands of dollars to the price. This might be the easiest money you ever made. Even if nothing happens immediately, you would end up with a well-kept residence in better shape than your competition and therefore easier to sell.
Pets and toys are not uncommon but surely the buyer doesn’t have to look at them all the time when he is inspecting the home. If you have a pet that can stay in a fenced yard, that is a better place. You can keep your inside pet of of sight in a large dog kennel so that the customer is not distracted. The residence should be tidied up by putting away children’s toys and other items that clutter up the residence. You will get a better price more quickly for a residence that is appealing from the curbside and neat and tidy inside.
Longmont real estate
Louisville Colorado
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Finding Black Mold & Its Secret Hiding Places
Excessive moisture in the residence is a good place for molds to start growing and you should be worrying about black mold. You may consider that Colorado is a very dry climate, but areas like Boulder, Louisville CO, and Longmont can still suffer from mold issues. There are a few favorite places that black mold will hide and they aren’t always the most obvious. A potential purchaser could be turned off if he finds them because he does not want a problem on his hands. Besides being a health concern to your family, you need to find the root of these problems before purchasers do.
The obvious candidates for molds to hide would be your tub and your shower where there is plenty of moisture. Molds flourish in bathrooms that have inadequate ventilation. Fans that operate on a separate switch may not be adequate enough to keep your bathroom ventilated all the time. Especially if there are small kids in the home, the best way to prevent mold is to ensure that the fan and the light come on together. You can easily have this done by an electrician.
Keep an eye on the caulking around the tub surround or at the seams where the enclosures are fixed to the walls. If the caulking is cracked, moisture can accumulate and provide a place for mold to breed. A good rule of thumb is that bathroom caulking should be refreshed annually. Not only does this improve the appearance of your bathroom but it also cuts off air circulation to the mold and inhibits the growth.
Basements are the next place to look for black mold. Moisture coming in through cracks in the foundation of a finished basement can cause black mold to grow behind drywall. By the time you can spot the mold on the front of the wall, you would probably have a leak and a damp smelling poorly ventilated basement.
There is usually no cheap fix if it is cracks in the foundation but clogged guttering and downspouts that have fallen off can cause rainwater to become diverted to the foundation, causing it to seep through. Building up the dirt around the foundation on the outside can cause rainwater to the drain away from the residence and this might fix the problem.
Moisture affected drywall disintegrates when it dries out so you have no choice but to replace it. Poorly ventilated basements encourage the growth of mold and mildew and the use of a dehumidifier can help fix this.
The kitchen sink and the bathroom vanity are also favorite places for mold to breed because of moisture leakages. A leaky roof or cracks in the caulking around rooftop ventilators can even cause black mold to grow in your attic. Ideal conditions for black mold to grow can be created in any part of the residence which suffers from poor ventilation and damp .
Sometimes you can kill mold with the help of bleach water but there are many specially formulated cleaning products that work well. You can use swimming pool cleaners that are effective in killing molds but be careful that you do not end up inhaling the black mold by accident. You may need to call in an expert on black mold to help you if your problem is acute.
Visit AutomatedHomefinder.com for all of your Colorado Real Estate needs.
How a Homeowner’s Warranty Protects future home buyers
Though market conditions can vary widely, if you have in mind the sale of Longmont real estate, or Louisville CO real estate, you are going to need every possible advantage.
One such advantage can be created by offering a homeowners warranty on your residence. Providing a homeowners warranty gives your prospective customers the confidence that major items like furnaces or central air-conditioning are operating properly and will continue to do so in the future. Potential buyers like these warranties because they would like peace of mind and the avoidance of unnecessary expenditure at the time they are settling into the home.
The fixed term of the homeowners warranty policies are fixed on the basis of the premium and the findings of the inspection of your major components and it is an expense that you will have to pay. If customers don’t have to worry about the possibility of expenditure on used major equipment, they may even decide to skip the time and expense involved in a formal inspection and he house will sell that much faster.
Homeowners warranty coverage will generally cover all the major systems in the residence as well as many appliances. Potential buyers will be far more inclined to look at older house because they will have the insurance that they need not spend money on repairing or refitting major systems and appliances. It also saves the sellers the expense of replacing or repairing items out of their own pocket. It can also protect the seller while their residence is on the market and protect them from after sale liability because if a system breaks down the day after closing, it is covered and it can’t come back on the seller that they knew it ahead of time.
Buyers when, under the homeowners warranty, get a toll-free number that will provide 24/7 assistance if systems or appliances have to be fixed. Without a homeowners warranty, a home customer cannot expect to find this peace of mind. A service contractor may have to be paid a small fee but the homeowner warranty will cover the cost of repairs or replacement as well as the cost of any components.
Homeowner warranties can be renewed after closing, when the policy expires, so it is a great way for a homebuyer to continue coverage, with low monthly payments that are easy to resources after the expiration period on the policy that the seller purchases. Home owner warranties are an easy way to ensure peace of mind by protecting against unexpected breakdowns in the house systems. Premia are generally in the range of $1-$2 a day in many places, but you will need to get a quote from an insurance provider in your area to get a fix on the exact cost.
Whether you are buying or selling, you may find it useful to cover older systems and appliances especially those where the warranty has expired. Because of a reduced risk, a customer would be more inclined to buy a home that has coverage against a residence that has none. As long as your appliances and your systems are in good condition, a homeowner warranty should be easily available at affordable prices.
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