Preparing your home for the Spring... market.

I don’t want to jinx it so I’ll cross my fingers when I say it feels like spring has sprung!  For some homeowners the warmer weather stirs up up the desire to rake the front lawn of winter grime, clean out the linen closet and open the windows to let fresh air flow.  For others, longer days and sunshine means working double time to begin the process of getting their home prepped for sale.

Looking to list?  Maximize your property’s potential value by creating an environment in your home that any buyer can envision themselves living.  Sound easy?  Well, it can be easier said than done if you look around at the personal clutter and collection that has made its way into your life over the years.  It’s that very clutter than can be distracting for potential buyers, so priority must be given to removing things that represent the property as your home.  Often the thought of stripping away our most personal treasures and homogenizing our home into being merely a house, can be difficult.

You can make the process easier by breaking the mental and physical work down into three stages: 1) De-clutter, 2) Repair, and 3) Set the Stage.

For our purposes, let’s focus on what for many can be the most daunting part of the process:  Stage 1 – De-cluttering.  If the thought of a thorough clean out makes your head spin, start with a priority list and these helpful tips:

1.      Give yourself PLENTY of time.  Don’t leave the clutter clearing until the last minute.  If you start now, there’s still time to prepare your home for the spring market. 

2.      Divide your home into sections and attack one at a time.  There’s nothing more daunting then being faced with an entire house that needs help.  Divide the work up one room at a time to help make the task more manageable.  When you start clearing out a room, don’t stop until it’s done.  DO NOT under any circumstances move items from one room to another.  You’re just delaying the inevitable.

3.      Be merciless.  We ALL get caught up in the “It-meant-a-lot-to-me-15-years-ago” line of thinking.  If it’s something you haven’t seen or used in a year (or dare I say, since you moved into your home) get rid of it.   

4.      Give things a new home.  You’d be surprised at the items people will pay good money for.  If you’re cupboard and bookcases are jammed with things your kids no longer want, its great fodder for sale!  Better yet, consider donating some of the larger items to organizations that will put them to good use, like your local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. 

5.      Enlist help.  Recruit your kids and you’ll find that weeding through the clutter can also be a great way to stroll down memory lane.  You’ll be able to reminisce about life in your home as you sort through items that bring back wonderful memories.

6.      Follow the ABCs (Always Be Clearing).  Establish a new rule of not leaving things around and vow at least for the time being, to not toss things into the spare room, spare closet or spare drawer.

7.      Pitch it now or later?  Not sure if you should hold onto a larger item until you get into your new space?  Think about the properties of the item:  is it multi-functional?  Could it be used differently and effectively in your new home?  If so, it might be something worth storing until you get into your new space and can see it in a new light.  

8.      No more!  Commit to not purchasing anything new (especially larger items) until after you’ve sold your home.  The less you have to store, the better.

9.      Keep only what’s necessary.  Remember that space sells, stuff doesn’t.  It might be uncomfortable to think about, but when buyers are looking through your home, they will likely open cabinet doors and kitchen drawers.  Filling these places with “hide-it” stuff will take away from how spacious your home is. 

10.  It’ll all be worth it!  Remember the more you do now to prepare your home for sale, the better position you’ll be in when it comes time to move.  You’ll be moving less stuff, will pay for less storage, and can move into your new space with only the items you really cherish.

Watch for my next column on tackling the repairs often needed around the house to ensure potential buyers see your property as a true gem!

Cheers!

Janice

Colour Confidence

Well, it seems like a simple concept. You’ve heard from all the experts that a fresh coat of paint is the most economical and quickest solution to revitalizing any room. How complicated can choosing a paint colour be, right? No big deal.

Consider for a moment that Benjamin Moore alone has in excess of 3400 colours to select from! Add in the colour palettes of Para, Farrow & Ball, Behr, and Pittsburgh to name just a few, and suddenly, finding a colour is kind of a big deal.

Like choosing baby names, colours can elicit strong reactions and emotions from people, potentially making the process of colour selection a painful endeavor. Moreover, research shows the psychological responses to colour are numerous, from bringing up childhood memories (good or bad) or having an impact on one’s appetite, to affecting a person’s ability to sleep soundly.

From personal experience in helping clients select colours, I have learned over the years to avoid reference to the word “pink” when dealing particularly with males simply because the mere mention of this perceived feminine colour results in cringes more often associated with sucking lemons. I worked for a newly married couple who ultimately chose a paint called “Maid of the Mist” because that was the place of their engagement. Each of us has a distinct relationship with colour, but most do not approach it with much confidence.

So how do you improve your colour confidence?
Keep in mind that our eyes only recognize colour because it reflects light, so increase your chance of successfully selecting something appropriate by looking at colour options several times: in the morning, at midday, in the evening, on a bright day and on a day that’s overcast. Each time, the appearance of the colours will change. Be sure to make your selection while looking at the colour only on the surfaces on which it will be painted; do not make a final choice in another room or worse, at the paint store! It can be difficult to make these choices in a room that is already painted, so open the blinds, turn on the lights and cover a small section of the walls with a couple of sheets of white printer paper. Then place your paint chips on top of that paper so you can get an accurate view of the new colour options.

Emotions and lighting aside, most people do not consider is that colour is relative. A colour only looks a certain way when it is placed next to another colour. Put a pale blue paint chip beside a white one and the colour intensifies. Place the same colour next to one more violet in tone and the blue may appear greener than when it is beside the white. Colour comparisons are an important part of selecting colour and will help you eliminate what doesn’t work. Knowing what doesn’t work is as important as knowing what does.

Of course, in making your selection, you want to get inspiration from other elements of your room, so look to a favorite sofa fabric or a much-loved piece of art and pull from them a colour you already love to get the ball rolling. Remember if you think you will keep it simple by choosing white, whites also have subtle colour – some are cooler (bluer), some are warmer (yellower). Be sure to compare them so you know what you’re getting. Ask your paint supplier about the most popular whites available as they often work well with many colours.

While wall colour can be the one element that gives a room that wow factor, don’t feel it is your only option for establishing colour. You can create a ‘blue’ room without putting a drop of blue paint on the walls, by introducing blue accessories and fabrics. The paint colour you select can be more neutral in tone, creating a wonderful backdrop on which to highlight your fabrics, accessories and furniture.

I’m a firm believer that there is a right and wrong colour selection to be made, but colour preference is as individual as you are and is nothing if not subjective. Your walls are likely the largest easel you will ever have to work with, so go ahead and have fun! And remember, it’s just paint.

Cheers!

Janice

Age and the Oscars

I am guilty of planning my evening so I can sit in front of the television, bowl of icecream in hand to watch the annual Oscars show.  I'm likely more known in my house for 'shusshing' my children in an effort to catch every detail of the annual festivities.

In the past, I had an emotional connection to this show.  I tuned in faithfully with my mother and would weep while a shaky first time winner delivered a speech that made the hair on my arms stand on end.  The historic win of Halle Berry and emotional speeches by the likes of Jamie Foxx, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would take my breath away in relief that times were changing.  Seeing the "In Memorium" segment gave me pause to think about how time has passed so quickly and with it has taken some of my favorite artists.

Admittedly this year, there were brief moments where I took pride in seeing a Canadian Octogenarian claim a golden statue and an African American woman claim control over her races' history.  However, over the past couple of years I have become increasingly jaded about what I perceive as a show produced so that the top 1% can gather to celebrate themselves.  We are all keenly aware of the names of the A-list stars of the big screen, and heaven knows we're innundated (and at times fascinated) with news of celebrities, the lives they live and the lengths to which they go to appear to keep themselves young and relevant.  This year in particular, these efforts seem to be getting longer in-the-tooth, so to speak. 

Billy Crystal, while talented and funny in his time, simply seemed to be an out-of-place, botoxed host forced into reliving the old days.  Unfortunately he seemed to be caught in the whirlwind attempt to drag from the vaults the once formal, classy event in an effort to breathe gracious life into the show in it's current format, where sadly the artists and the audience are both increasingly jaded.  Cut to the image of a rakish Angelina Jolie all but flashing the audience as she walked across the stage.  What I perceived as a frightening and vanity-filled appearance by this otherwise talented woman made me wonder how members of this influential community focus on body image and scene stealing before seeking to be dignified while aging gracefully.  If the producers of this years show were looking recapture some of the glamour and grandeur of Oscars past, they failed miserably.

Never before have I experienced an Oscar show were the canvas of aging seemed to have such a broad brush stroke, exposing a huge divergence in the manners in which celebrities deal with the inevitabilities of the passing of time.  For me, grace seems to be the element which separates the "Greats" from those merely "Talked About".

Sadly, the Academy producers can't seem to figure out the balance between honouring the past, while not stretching too far back in an effort to drag it into the future.  The show's producers would do well to look to publications like the annual Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue to see how to see how it's done. Perhaps they should look to the iconic images of Annie Leibovitz as inspiration when creating a formula by which they can meld the old and new with class, dignity and style.  Simply making 'old' look 'new' for the sake of television just isn't working anymore.


Cheers!  Janice

The Orphan Master's Son

From the reviews this looks like a heavy book, but I think I might pick it up anyways.  Sounds like it might shed some light on a very mysterious region of the world.

Cheers!

Janice

No you can't pick my brain.

Love this article from Forbes.com - it should be read by EVERY self employed person.
Knowing your value is just as important as providing it to your customers.

No you can't pick my brain!

Cheers!
Janice

Beef and Black Bean Enchilada Bake recipe - Canadian Living

Haven't tried it yet, but I intend to.  Looks delish!
Beef and Black Bean Enchilada Bake recipe - Canadian Living

One Man's Trash...

I'm struck by an article I found in Canadian Interiors Magazine.

Upon first read, I was impressed by the ingenuity and sheer strength of intent that InterfaceFLOR demonstrates in the pursuit of recycling post consumer waste or in their words "trash-industrial sludge" into a building material that is functional, aesthetically pleasing and best of all, eco-friendly.  My read on the article was initially purely from a designers perspective, and I gave kudos to any company who could recycle waste to make it useful.

As mentioned in my recent column in The Auroran, most of today's consumers are at least moderately concerned about knowingly adding to the problems facing our community landfills, and to that end are generally supportive of any efforts to recycle and reuse any material possible. 

To InterfaceFLOR's credit, they appear to be making every effort to meet their mission of reaching "a zero environmental footprint by 2020."  Moreover, they are "...a great example of how ingeniously this refuse can be reinvented into something highly functional, deceptively luxurious and beautiful..."

What I find interesting and perhaps ironic about all efforts made to recycle and reuse post consumer goods is that we find ourselves in 2012 trying to clean up the environmental mess we've created by processing and sanitizing our waste, making it somehow palatable to our sensitive constitutions while many countries (third world or otherwise) are reusing, let's just call it what it is, garbage in ways that most first world countries cannot even imagine.  Around the world and indeed right here in our own backyard, there are communities of people living in it, building their shacks with it, putting their underpaid children to work on piles of it and dare I say, eating it if necessary.

Consider for a moment the often controversial 'dumpster divers.'  According to reports, it's a growing trend in the United States and has for many become an acceptable and economically feasible way to procure food, whether for reasons of necessity or just because the habit of dumping perfectly good food is unreasonable.  By all accounts 'dumpster diving' points a decidedly judgemental finger at our propensity to waste what many find to be food suitable for consumption.  Can you imagine if an educated, gainfully employed but habitual dumpster diver born and raised in our society finds the food we waste palatable, the impact that same "waste" might have in affecting the lives of those in our world who are less fortunate?    

What particularly fascinates me is the wide range of acceptability within communities and across borders regarding product and food quality.  Perhaps if we North American's would widen our quality tolerance for the food, goods and services we purchase, we would find our landfills a little less crowded.

For me, and probably for the movers and shakers at InterfaceFLOR, the phrase "One man's trash is another man's treasure" has never been so telling.

Cheers!

Janice