All Things Real Estate, April 2020

April 2020

allREAL thingsESTATE

REAL ESTATE

View more photos and information of this month’s featured home on page 8

The Timberlake Estate

Serving Gibson, Knox, Pike, Vanderburgh and Warrick Counties in Indiana and Wabash County in Illinois.

CLARION REGISTER PRINCETON DAILY

MOUNT CARMEL

2 ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE

Friday, April 10, 2020

Putting your best place forward for sale

BY WENDY A. JORDAN WASHINGTON POST FEATURES

WASHINGTON — When Geoffrey Barrett inherited a 1942 brick duplex from a relative, it was a diamond in the rough. Diamond because of its location.

Rough because of its deteriorated condition.

Barrett wanted to bring back the shine and sell the property quickly for top dollar. As a mortgage finance professional, he said, he knew that to achieve the most bang for the buck meant making only the right improvements to the house and spending enough - but no more - on the work. That is, “not overimproving it,” he says.

Spoiler alert: He did it. Barrett’s relative bought the 1,140-square-foot house for $159,000 in 2000. When Barrett became owner in fall 2017, the cost basis (the value assigned to the property for tax purposes) had risen to $400,000. Over about six weeks Barrett invested $65,000 on fix-ups to make the house appealing to buyers, and that increased the cost basis

to $465,000. Listed at an attractive price of $515,000 in November 2017, the house drew many offers and sold for $520,000 in December 2017. After subtracting costs and accounting for the stepped-up value, Barrett realized a profit of about $90,000. But subtracting the $65,000 in presale improvements yielded a taxable capital gain of just $25,000.

Reaching such a happy ending when selling a house is not just good luck. It involves careful planning and control, and a team of well-chosen experts.

Knowing some of the rules of how to upgrade and sell a home for a profit is especially important now that the market is in turmoil from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Most buyer’s agents are showing vacant homes and using hand sanitizer/wipes upon entering and exiting the home,” said Jane Morrison, an agent with Geva and Jane Real Estate. “Occupied homes have different protocols based on the homeowners’ desires.”

Step one is choosing the right real

estate agent. That knowledge informs all the decisions as the house is prepared for sale.

Real estate agents say that while a good agent can turn around a house quickly for market, optimally owners should come to them a year or six months ahead of a planned home sale for help in identifying necessary repairs, choosing improvements that will add sales appeal and boost the asking price.

An agent helped Barrett decide whether to consider an offer to buy the house as-is for $325,000 before it was listed. She advised against it, as a fixedup house could command a higher sales price and better profit. (As Barrett points out, since the $25,000 taxable profit is based on the $400,000 stepped-up value rather than what was offered for the unrenovated property, “the real profit was actually $75,000 higher than that $25,000 - when you account for the difference between $400,000 and $325,000.”)

Morrison says the three-bedroom, two-bath house was dilapidated but had a

lot to offer, including a main-level master bedroom and bath in a rear addition, a finished basement, “a great location, a yard, a driveway, and hardwood floors.”

Barrett refinished the floors, replaced the carpeting, repainted the entire interior, made simple improvements to the second-floor bathroom, and added new carpeting and recessed lighting in the basement.

A good exterior presentation is key.

Sellers will get a 100 percent rate of return on what they spend on a painted front door, good hardware, clean windows and a mowed lawn.

Barrett spent most of his $65,000 fixup budget on modernizing the kitchen and baths. Bright, new-looking kitchens and master baths can be buyer magnets.

Smart updates to these rooms are likely to yield a healthy return on investment, by raising the asking price and reducing the time to find a buyer, thus shaving the seller’s ownership costs.

SEE PLACE/PAGE 5

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ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE 3

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Friday, April 10, 2020

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Friday, April 10, 2020

PLACE FROM PAGE 2

The first r ule of presale home improvements is to do the minimal amount that it would take to make the buyer want the home. Make a list of changes that will maximize the return.

The second rule? Create a clean, new look but keep it neutral. Sellers need to keep their personal taste out of the picture. Instead, they should aim for an environment with broad appeal, where many buyers can see themselves living.

While kitchens and baths must be spiffed up before listing a home for sale, one bathroom - the master bath - takes priority over other bathrooms.

Barrett paid $1,600 to clear ever ything out of the house, from worn furniture to the accumulated clutter in every room.

Once the house was empty, Morrison scheduled and paid for a professional stager to lightly furnish and accessorize it. As with construction contractors, many real estate agents have stagers, plus professionals they use regularly to help with the decluttering and moving process. The agents may cover the

cost of staging or share it with the seller because they see the important role of staging in realizing a quick sale at the best price. Generally, the staging budget may be up to 1 percent of the listing price.

A stager assesses the space and factors in the buyer profile, then recommends which items to keep, which to remove (owners choose whether to store or discard them), and which items to add from the stager’s inventory.

Not every room needs to be staged.

Morrison’s stager furnished the original, second-floor master bedroom as such; she gave the first-floor master bedroom more versatile treatment so that buyers could envision it as a family room, office or guest room.

The aim is for home shoppers to see themselves living there.

A residential property may command a sales price considerably higher than what the owners paid, especially if they bought the place many years ago. While the profit, or capital gain, is welcome news for the seller, paying taxes on that gain is not.

The federal capital gain tax rate on sale of a primar y residence, says Chuck W ight, a cer tified public accountant, is currently up to 15 or 20

percent of the profit.

To avoid a big tax hit on the gain, sellers used to have to reinvest it without delay in another home. If they didn’t buy another home, they were stuck with the gain. That is not the case now. And the taxable capital gain on sale of a primary residence - meaning a house the sellers have occupied full-time for at least two of the past five years - can be reduced in several ways.

First, $250,000 of the gain is tax free for the seller; this amount is per person, so for a couple, $500,000 of the gain is tax free. Second, the cost basis of the house - the dollar value assigned to the original price when calculating capital gain - can be increased to more than the purchase price itself. Original closing expenses, major improvements the owner made while living in the house (not general maintenance), the cost of fix-ups in the last 90 days before the property is listed for sale and the cost to carry and sell the property, all can be added to the tax basis of the house at the time of sale. In other words, the profit number, or taxable gain, may be reduced significantly.

Wight offers this advice to homeowners: • Walk through the house and know

ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE 5

what improvements you have made over the years.

• Keep receipts for major improvements and presale fix-ups. If receipts are lost, photos and cost estimates may be sufficient even in a tax audit.

• Though you may want your children to inherit your house after you die, don’t give it to them now. If you own the house when you pass away, the fair market value will be used as the tax basis (tax step-up), even if that value is much higher than what you paid for the house.

But if you have given the house to your children, that step-up in tax basis will not occur when your beneficiaries sell, and the capital gain may be high.

• The same advice holds for joint owners, such as couples. It’s best to retain shared ownership. For example, when a husband dies, his share of the house gets a step-up in tax basis to fair market value. And when the wife sells the house, she still can exclude the first $250,000 of gain on her share. By applying these two factors, the capital gain may be reduced considerably.

• Bottom line? Wight says, “If you sell your house and there’s a capital gain, consult an experienced tax preparer for that tax year. They deal with this a lot.”

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6 ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE

Friday, April 10, 2020

How I bought a tiny home; one woman's story

BY VALERIE LAI NERDWALLET

GTV shows have popularized tiny homes — typically those smaller than 400 square feet — in a big way. Many people are drawn to this alternative path to homeownership as a way to save before committing to a more expensive piece of property.

However, getting a tiny home is different from the typical homebuying process in several ways (e.g., you’re unlikely to find a real estate agent who can show you a dozen options). The process can be complex logistically and financially, so it’s important to know what you’re signing up for.

Annie Colpitts, a 30-year-old marketing coordinator, has spent more than a year in an 8 1/2-by-20-foot home that she designed and helped build. She parks the home on a small piece of private property that she rents for $350 a month. Colpitts left a spacious downtown apartment — and paused

H

like I was renting space that wasn’t mine, and I wanted a space of my own that I could modify if I wanted to.

that offered a more affordable process — which they don’t do anymore — by taking my floor plan and letting me build parts of the home. They handled things like CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE ordering windows and setting up PROCESS AND TIMELINE? electrical and plumbing and then The whole process took about a WHY DID YOU BECOME year. I first had the idea in November let me do some of the more laborintensive, less-skilled work.

INTERESTED IN A TINY HOME? of 2017. I knew I wanted to come up During that “build week,” my dad I had been thinking about buying with my own floor plan and design it a house in Richmond, but one friend myself, so I spent the first few months and sister went out with me to their facility in Tennessee. We worked had a really terrible home-buying researching floor plans. About six experience involving major hidden months into the process, around May 10-hour days for six days straight issues, like mold and termite damage, 2018, I contacted the bank for a loan. on siding, interior paneling and more. The final home was delivered which made me reconsider. The scale I moved into the home in December to me two months later. Because of a tiny house seemed so much more 2018. of this process, I feel like I have a manageable to me. better understanding of my house in I was already living pretty minimalWHY DID YOU DECIDE general. istically.

TO BUILD YOUR HOME? A lot of people will piecemeal WHAT’S YOUR OVERALL WHAT WAS YOUR LIVING design a tiny home in their backyard APPROACH TO FINANCE? SITUATION LIKE BEFORE? or buy from builders who do I became a minimalist by I had always rented and bounced ever ything from beginning to end, circumstance and not by choice. For a around a couple of different places but my finances weren’t set up to long time, I was in the nonprofit since I graduated from college. I support that. I needed to swap my didn’t really have a reason to leave rent payments for loan payments SEE HOME/PAGE 7 that living situation except that it felt pretty immediately. I found a builder plans to buy a conventional home — to embrace this new way of living.

Here, Colpitts shares why she chose a tiny home, how she financed it and what she would have done differently.

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$35,000. I went the tiny home loan route and got one for $28,000, which covered about 80% of the building costs. I wanted to build FROM PAGE 6 the tiny home imminently but didn’t have upfront cash savings world, so I was working long to do so. My family has a great hours and barely getting paid. I’m relationship with a local bank grateful to be in a job now where the amount of money I make is not we’ve used for the past 30 years. an issue, but I continue to only buy The bank had not done tiny home what I need. I am ver y grateful that loans before, but they knew it was becoming more of a thing and were I haven’t had student loans — my open to tr ying it with me. We did parents set up a college fund for an unsecured consumer loan and me — and I decided not to do a my parents were co-signers. I am postgrad degree. probably paying slightly more in interest than if I had gone with a HOW DID YOU secured loan or mor tgage, but I FINANCE THE TINY HOME? didn’t have to jump through hoops This is notoriously one of the to get the loan because there was hardest par ts of the process. Tiny already trust on both sides. houses were created to live in the gray area between mobile homes HOW FAR ALONG ARE YOU and actual houses, which makes IN PAYING BACK THE LOAN? funding them hard. Inspection I am around one-third of the processes for tiny homes are still way through paying back the loan. so new compared to mobile and I had hoped to pay it of f more traditional homes, so lenders can be hesitant to provide funding for a aggressively, but last year I was home that is unsafe or one that can underemployed. I had a steady job, but they had dialed down my hours fall apar t. so I did some side hustle work to My initial all-in budget was pay my bills. I was breaking even

HOME

ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE 7

ever y month and didn’t have a whole lot of extra money to pay down more than the principal.

But now that I star ted a new job this year, I would like to pay it of f sometime in 2021.

WERE THERE ANY SURPRISES? WOULD YOU HAVE DONE ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY? I initially had a vivid image of lying in the loft and looking up at the stars through a skylight, but skylights in tiny houses are a bad idea. I paid the upgrade to have a skylight, and it leaked the first day I moved in. It wasn’t installed correctly and I woke up that first night with my feet wet. They tried to patch it up, but I ended up taking it out and have slept so much better since then.

WHAT ARE YOUR LONG-TERM GOALS FOR THE TINY HOME? I’ll live this way until it doesn’t work for me. Some people move into tiny homes until they pay of f all their debt and then they can buy a house, but I don’t have that kind of philosophy. I love it right now. I’d like to buy some land

and move my tiny house there and have more ownership and privacy.

But who knows? It’s possible that life circumstances will dictate a change. I don’t have to get anyone on board with this lifestyle because I don’t currently have a pet or boyfriend. If there’s someone I need to accommodate in the future, I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE INTERESTED IN A TINY HOME? You don’t have to wait for a tiny home to start living tiny. If you’re waiting for the physical new place to start making those changes, it’s going to be such a culture shock.

While I was living in my apartment, I spent a year getting rid of stuff and growing comfortable with living with less.

I also stayed in a tiny home that was the same size as the house I wanted to build, and that was so crucial. You can do floor plans until the cows come home, but you need to tr y out the space to know how you’ll feel.

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8 ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE

Friday, April 10, 2020

The Tim Mason Team Tim Mason

Jan Mason

(812) 664-0845 timmason@remax.net

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308 S. White Church Rd., Princeton • $234,900

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3 BR, 2BA home on 4.243 acres just outside of town.

1816 Cottonwood Dr., Princeton • $234,700 Very nice totally remodeled 2-story 3BR, 2.5 BA home

Nice sunroom, spacious kitchen & dining area and large

in Northbrook Hills. Huge great room w/ fireplace. Large

family room. Attached 2 car garage, nice pole building & lot. 3 car attached garage.

second detached garage.

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501 S. Cathy Drive, Princeton • $259,950

2477 W. 50 North, Princeton • Nice 3BR, 2BA brick home • 21 acres • Additional 1 bedroom home and 2 Buildings in great condition • Part of property used for established turn-key paintball business also available for purchase

• Brand new 4BR, 2.5 BA home • Lg. bonus room • 2 car attached garage • Buyer can choose colors, exterior, upgrades, etc.

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MLS# 202005675 603 E. Broadway, Princeton • $123,900

MLS# 201834855 NEW LISTING!

WOW! Totally remodeled 2BR, 2BA home

Nice 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home on a large lot. Large eat-in kitchen, spacious living room, bedrooms are a nice size. There is a carport and also a separate building with a lean-to in the backyard. MLS# 202010182

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MLS# 201948997 1133 S. 250 West, Princeton • $165,000 Great location right off White Church Road! 3BR, 2BA brick home features an office, spacious great room, large kitchen/ dining area, large attached garage and yard barn. MLS# 201930687

318 S. Seminary, Princeton • $84,900

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9065 S. SR 165, Poseyville • $179,700 Nice 4BR, 2BA home w/ det grg on 2.3 acres.

Kitchen, dining rm and family rm are an open floor plan. Kitchen has plenty of storage, a pantry & an island. Family rm is spacious & has a fireplace. Nice master suite w/ large walk-in closet, 2 vanities, tub & separate shower. Sunroom is just off the kitchen and living room. MLS# 201944551

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Friday, April 10, 2020

ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE 9

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10 ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE

Friday, April 10, 2020

The right way to clean, disinfect household surfaces

BY ELIZABETH MAYHEW WASHINGTON POST FEATURES

y this point in the coronavirus pandemic, most of us know how to properly wash our hands - wet, lather, scrub, rinse, dr y - but we may be less clear on the proper way to sanitize the various surfaces in our home.

And like many aspects of our current situation, there is a lot of misinformation and hype about which areas of our home need vigilant attention. To get the hard facts on what to worr y about at home, and what not to, I turned to three exper ts.

To begin, we need to understand that most of us will not contract covid-19 by staying at home. Joseph Vinetz, a Yale Medicine infectious disease specialist, says, “We have no evidence whatsoever that people can get this virus at home. Period.” Unless, of course, somebody who has been exposed enters your house and coughs, sneezes or is in close proximity to you for more than 15 minutes. The real risk of contracting the disease is going out in public.

Vinetz says that people need to think logically; if you are quarantined at home and no one in your house is infected or showing symptoms, then regular good household hygiene should be suf ficient.

B

SEE CLEAN/PAGE 12

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ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE 11

The Timberlake Estate

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12 ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE

Friday, April 10, 2020

(isopropyl) alcohol. If you purchase any over-over-the-counter products that say “disinfectant” on the label, Sansoni says, they are required to FROM PAGE 10 meet government specifications.

But to be sure the product has Good household hygiene means met all government requirements cleaning and disinfecting the for effectiveness, look for an EPA same areas you tackle in normal Registration Number on the label. times. Brian Sansoni, senior vice He also says you must follow the president at the American Cleaning product label instructions exactly for Institute, says to pay attention to the disinfectant to be effective. Vinetz food preparation surfaces and other says to look for any product that has high-touch surfaces, including light an alcohol content of 60 percent or switches, faucets, remote controls, higher. doorknobs, refrigerator door and When using any type of microwave handles, and your disinfectant, both Vinetz and Sansoni computer keyboard. Sansoni echoes emphasize the importance of waiting Vinetz’s advice: “You don’t need to panic-clean. Smart, targeted hygiene 30 seconds to several minutes (check the label for timing) for the product throughout the day and week is the to effectively kill a germ or virus. best way to go.”

Vinetz also says it’s a myth that Before disinfecting, remove any wiping surfaces in circles spreads visible dirt and grime; this will help the virus around; no matter how you the disinfectant do its job. Vinetz apply a disinfectant - spraying or and Sansoni recommend using wiping - as long as you wait for the tried-and-true disinfectants such area to dry, the germs will be killed. as bleach (sodium hypochlorite), Sansoni says bleach is one of hydrogen peroxide (hydrogen the most economical disinfecting peroxide expires six months after opening but can last up to three years agents. He says to create a bleach/ water solution per the label unopened), grain alcohol (ethanol, instructions, or follow the Centers found in beverages), and rubbing

CLEAN

for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended recipe of a third-cup bleach per gallon of water or four teaspoons bleach per quart of water.

But when using bleach, Sansoni and Vinetz stress one thing: Never mix bleach and ammonia together, as it creates a dangerous and potentially deadly chlorine gas.

Kurt Zilm, chair of the Yale University Chemistry Department, cautions against mixing any products together because the outcome could be dangerous (or one product could simply neutralize another, causing it to be ineffective).

For hard, durable surfaces that are meant to be chemically resistant, such as metals, granite or tile, use any disinfectant you have on hand. For porous surfaces including marble, consult the surface manufacturers’ recommendations for the best ways to clean them to avoid damage. Don’t use any cleaners that are acidic on a porous material; it will ruin the surface. And last, if disinfecting any surfaces that come into contact with food (like counters or cutting boards), rinse them with water after the disinfectant dries.

Zilm says that just about any

disinfectant and cleaner is safe to use on glass because glass is chemically inert. “But,” he cautions, “you need to be careful particularly with other clear plastic materials like polycarbonate and Plexiglass, because a lot of cleaners can cloud those by breaking up their surfaces.”

In those cases, use a specially formulated product (check with the manufacturer) or use soap and water, which Vinetz and Zilm say, in most cases, will render the virus less effective or kill it.

When you bring mail or boxes into your house, washing your hands after handling is sufficient, but Vinetz says you should spray the outside of reusable shopping and grocery bags with a disinfectant, because they have been in a highly public place.

And when it comes to protecting yourself and your family, Vinetz says to ditch the gloves. “Unless you are wearing gloves to protect your hands from drying and cracking while washing the dishes, then you should forget them. They are harmful, because they will just give you a false sense of protection.” Better to just wash your hands and not touch your face.

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ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE 13

The recipe for a dream kitchen

the mark visually, emotionally and functionally. Unless you take the time to put it all together and make it truly s co-founder and senior vice president of design for the luxur y personal, it’s never going to live up to your expectations. fittings brand Water works, Q: If you know exactly what you Barbara Sallick is responsible for want, should you work with a general some of the most beautiful faucets contractor, or do you need to hire a in the business. For her latest kitchen designer? book, “The Perfect Kitchen,” she A: It’s tough to achieve the studied hundreds of photos from top designers to pinpoint that quality that results you’re dreaming of unless makes a kitchen design resonate. She you hire a pro. Contractors have found that the best cookspaces aren’t a lot of practical experience, but an interior designer will make you the ones with an enviable range or think about what you want in a way a massive pantr y; they’re the ones that a contractor might not. It’s a that feel the most personal. Here, Sallick talks about how to bring more designer’s job to ask questions about character to this hard-working room. your lifestyle, family and preferences.

The benefit to a kitchen designer is Hint: It’s not by going all-white.

This inter view has been edited for that they know how to draw plans to within an eighth of an inch of their length and clarity. life. The most important thing is to Q: What should you keep in mind have a conversation with someone when planning your dream kitchen? who truly understands interiors.

A: A good design needs to hit

BY MICHELLE BRUNNER WASHINGTON POST FEATURES

A

Sokeland

Q: How has kitchen design changed over the years?

A: After looking at about 700 kitchens for this book project, I realized I barely saw any that didn’t have an island. I think the work triangle has evolved into the racetrack oval because you are no longer in a direct line from the sink to the refrigerator to the oven and back again. The popularity of the island has truly changed the way traffic patterns work in the kitchen.

Q: Let’s talk money: High-end appliances or custom cabinets can be budget-busters. If you have one splurge in the kitchen, where should it be?

A: Hardware can be transformative. There are so many options for knobs and pulls; having beautiful hardware is like putting on your favorite piece of jewelr y.

You can change the feel of your

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kitchen from something that is rather ordinar y to something ver y special.

Q: But most people probably choose hardware at the end of the process, almost as an afterthought.

A: Exactly, and that’s the problem.

I think the second you choose your door style, you need to think about the hardware. It can be a significant investment, but it offers the biggest bang for your buck.

Q: You must have a lot of opinions about faucets. What should people look for?

A: Clearly, you want to love how it looks and how it feels in your hand. Turning on the faucet is a humanistic, tactile thing. If the parts aren’t great, it can feel like it jerks in place when you turn the lever. You want a kitchen faucet that works so intuitively that you never have to SEE KITCHEN/PAGE 14

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Friday, April 10, 2020

members of your family, and it needs to last a long time.

Q: What should homeowners look for when choosing a kitchen sink?

FROM PAGE 13 A: Consider the size and depth.

Think of your biggest pot: Is it a See think about which way the lobster stock pot? Then you’ll need a handle turns. Then ask if the scale is fairly deep sink. If you’re going with right for the size of the sink. Make stainless steel, look at the quality. sure the faucet or fitting that you Twenty-gauge stainless steel makes choose is big enough to swing from one sink to another. If it’s a gooseneck, a lot of noise because it’s very thin. it should be tall enough that it won’t hit Sixteen-gauge stainless steel is quieter because it has a backing that muffles your pots every time you clean them. the noise from the water. It’s also Q: You could spend $60 or $6,000 stronger and doesn’t dent as easily on a faucet. Why is there such a wide over time. range of pricing, besides the obvious Q: Is there a particular finish that’s variations in finishes and design better at hiding fingerprints? quality?

A: I have a matte nickel finish, and A: It’s hard to know what’s it’s really easy to care for. Generally, happening inside a faucet unless any finish that’s shiny, such as chrome, you slice it in half, so it helps to needs to be wiped down regularly. have questions ready when you go shopping. Ask where the valve is made All water has some minerals; once the minerals get on the faucet, they and how you can get replacement interact with the finish, and you get parts. Above all, you want to make spots. If you have a nickel finish, you sure that your faucet is made of can apply a coat of carnauba car wax, high-quality brass. You don’t want which puts a light coating over the plastic parts inside your faucet. My advice is to always buy the best-quality finish and maintains it for a longer kitchen faucet you can afford. It’s used period of time. Doing so every six months, or even once a year, helps. hundreds of times a week by various Q: What factors should homeowners

KITCHEN

consider when choosing a cabinet style?

A: Your cabinet style should have some relationship to the period of your house. If you are someone who has a traditional-style home, you’re going to want some kind of paneled door that nods to that, but the same kind of door might look silly in a more modern house. Thinking about the era of your home, even the style of your furniture, ensures that the cabinetry doesn’t become this jarring element that looks like it landed in your kitchen out of nowhere.

Q: How do you feel about the darker trend for cabinet colors?

A: All-white kitchens have had their moment and then some, so I love the idea that kitchens can be moody and dramatic. Also, it’s hard to distinguish one white kitchen from another. Once you introduce a color, it begins to feel much more personal.

Q: Any guidelines for coordinating the countertop with the cabinets?

A: Cabinets always have tops and bottoms, and the counter is the connector. The process of layering both the countertop and backsplash, which can be two completely different materials (and I often prefer them

to be), is all about the way they talk to each other. It doesn’t matter if the countertop is an active marble or the backsplash is a tile with a crackle glaze. They should have a connection and a conversation with each other.

Q: Colorful encaustic-style tiles have been popular for a while. Is there a downside to going so bold with pattern?

A: If you love pattern and you want to bring multiple colors into your kitchen design, have at it. Personally, I love pattern, but I like it on someone else or in their kitchen. Your kitchen is a long-term investment, and there are ways of injecting pattern that are far less permanent. For instance, you can wallpaper a small corner of a breakfast nook.

Q: How do you hope this book will help people?

A: There are enough kitchen styles, materials and ideas represented that if you are thinking about remodeling, the images in the book might help to cement your vision. There’s even a bright red kitchen from Bunny Williams. If you’ve ever entertained the idea of having a red kitchen, I hope this book gives you the confidence to go for it.

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Friday, April 10, 2020

ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE 15

Custom home-buying tips for first timers

BY METRO CREATIVE

ven considering being able to design your own custom home is an exciting prospect. Whether you’re ready to take the plunge or just exploring your options, here are tips to keep in mind.

E

KNOW WHAT YOU’RE SIGNING UP FOR

Building a custom home is a significant under taking and a major life decision. It’s a big commitment in terms of time, money and energy.

While this shouldn’t scare you away from your dream home, it’s impor tant to know what you’re getting into. If you’re feeling over whelmed with the kids or busy caring for an ailing parent, it may be best to star t this later.

HIRE THE RIGHT PROFESSIONALS You may be a DIY pro, but this isn’t

innovative building materials like insulated custom forms (ICFs) from Nudura. This alternative to wood framing can withstand fire and high winds and provides superior insulation, leading to significant savings on your energy bills year after year.

a project you want to take on yourself, even partly. Key professionals you’ll need to work with include an architect, plumber, electrician and more.

Consider also working with a designer who can help with the interiors to make sure the space is as functional as it is beautiful. Do your research to find quality pros — this isn’t the time to skimp on labor.

PREPARE FOR THE UNEXPECTED

Building a new home is a process, and you can minimize stress by embracing that it will While it may seem a bit be unpredictable and can change premature to star t decorating your KNOW WHERE TO throughout the journey. Plan for living room before the foundation SAVE AND SPEND things like weather delays and is laid, knowing how you’ll want Costs can quickly add up, so it’s higher costs. The unexpected can to use and lay out each room can impor tant for you to decide early also lead to positive changes in your help you during the building and on what matters most to you, and plans. For example, you might come design process. For example, you what’s wor th investing in. You can across a new flooring material that’s can save time and money down always upgrade your flooring or more eco-friendly, or a smar t home the line when you know from the cabinetr y, but you can never change automation system might hit the get-go you’ll want a window seat the foundation. Build your home to market and you’ll want to integrate and two large couches to face the last longer and perform better with it into the design. Be flexible. fireplace.

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Friday, April 10, 2020

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