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Posted by: ellimanbraun on 02/02/2012 People move everyday due to job relocation, personal reasons, affordability issues, and etc, but it is still a time consuming and costly endeavor. Ideally, you should take a lot of time to really plan everything before you move, but sometimes you will have to move in a relatively short time frame. Here are moving tips to keep in mind when you have relocate.
Get organized:
The first thing you must do is get organized. Go through your entire house and really take ti...
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Posted by: NancyMyMoves on 01/27/2012 I dropped out of college and moved back in with my parents. I mainly did it before I flunked out. Somehow, I missed the equation – waiting tables in a bar + 8:00 a.m. classes = bad grades. I’m grateful that my parents were willing to let me crash there for a while. But it was an adjustment for all of us. They had taken to that empty nest thing really quickly. Although the combination of inter-generational cohabiting and my job at a gas-and-go store reignited my educational passion and I headed ...
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Posted by: michael on 01/26/2012 The mortgage rates had started to lower from 2010. This trend is continuing till now and is supposed to continue for some time after this too. In fact, as per a new record released by Freddie Mac, the mortgage rates are easing to rather new record lows. As a result, the affordability of most of the homebuyers will be high. It will be easier for almost all to take out a mortgage in order to finance the...
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Posted by: NancyMyMoves on 01/09/2012 Sometimes in the excitement (or stress) of moving, we don’t have time to pay much attention to the emotional components of the move. I recently wrote a post on “making meaning” when you’re leaving your old house for the new digs. It’s a way to say goodbye and preserve memories to mark the e...
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Posted by: NancyMyMoves on 01/04/2012 Lately I’ve had this urge to go look at condo models. You know, the ones that are impeccably decorated and dust bunny-free? Maybe it’s because my friends just bought a gorgeous Chicago condo on Lake Michigan and will move in soon. But it might be that the maintenance of a home that’s too big for me (and an eight pound cat) on a rural property with acreage can feel overwhelming. Or could it could be that I had to go out to my shed yesterday in 40 mph winds and put an additive in the gas tank of ...
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Posted by: NancyMyMoves on 11/09/2011 How to Stay Married While House-Hunting
Admittedly, I watch quite a few DIY/house-hunting/decorating channels on TV and get a little too involved. After a recent international house-hunting show, I decided that I need to move to a bungalow on the beach in Costa Rica. Right now. Oh, and I also need a lanai, even though I’m in Ohio…But I have to say my viewing pleasure has diminished recently and the house-hunting shows in particular make me cranky. Maybe I’ve slipped into a gro...
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Posted by: DarkStar49 on 10/16/2011 Home ownership is not necessarily new to me. My wife and I have owned 2 homes in the past 9 years, and have loved it! The stories of satisfaction, memories and such could fill a small book. Like most things, it seems, sometimes we get caught up in our daily grind and responsibilities and we tend to let the gratification take a back seat and, at least in my eyes, makes this short story all the more meaningful.
Fall has come and gone here as it usually does each year and has made ...
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Posted by: NancyMyMoves on 12/13/2011 There are all kinds of feelings that are kicked up around the word “home” and moving can be an emotional experience. When you’re moving to a new home, it’s easy to get caught up in the activity, stress and deadlines, which doesn’t leave much time or space for introspection. But, think of all the memories you’ve created in this home! Take the time to honor those while in the midst of your move.
In my la...
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Posted by: NancyMyMoves on 12/05/2011 The last time I moved was in mid-March several years ago. In Ohio, that can mean 79 or 20 degrees - it’s a toss-up. In our case, a “rare winter storm” was predicted for the week of the move. I didn’t choose that particular moving date. After being in contract with three different buyers - the first one shaky, the second one psychotic, and the third one was just right and the sale actually went through. By then, w...
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Posted by: Karl on 05/09/2011 StageofLife.com sponsor, Mint.com, has some great tips and articles about personal finance. Here's one I found very helpful about advice for investing in real estate...
Start with your own home.
For some people, stocks and bonds don’t feel as tangible as land, houses or apartments. But before you decide to become a landlord or a house flipper (both of which are riskier than you’d think, especially in this market), your first step shoul...
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Posted by: thiegsr on 07/21/2011 Things fall apart. Relationships dissolve. Children fall on uneven cracks in the sidewalk and scrape their knees. The stress of work buries us without apology. In my world, the “things” falling apart right now are pieces of my home.
We LOVE our old home, and actually, I don’t know if we would ever want to buy new construction. Even with the allure of brand new pipes, walk in closets in every room, finished and waterproof basements, no hidden knob and tube wiring tucked in the i...
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Posted by: Bob on 05/17/2011 I came across a great article that talks about the effects of electronic media on our ability to get a good night's sleep (which is important to every stage of life).
I think you'll all find this helpful...
Once upon a time, before humans gained the ability to harness electricity (can you imagine such a time?), our internal body clocks kept to a strict schedule. When it was dark, we slept. When it was light, we were awake. People in pre-electrical times got an average o...
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Posted by: DarkStar49 on 02/20/2011 There is something about this time of year. I can't put a finger on it exactly, but it is a feeling of bittersweet deep rooted emotion. Let me explain myself a little more clearly in hopes of knowing someone out there can relate the same.
I love the winter time! I love the cold, the snow, the peaceful feeling of winter, long nights in front of a warm fire. Life slows down significantly, and this is very visible all around me. To the absence of birds and water fowl who have migra...
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Posted by: Bob on 02/10/2011 I came across this article the other day and after reading David's post (below in the Questions and Stories category for the home ownership stage), I went looking for it again.
I think you'll benefit from this information:
To buy or rent? What is the best choice for you?
You may lean one way or the other, but when you look at the economics of it, among the main factors to consider are how fast home prices and rent rises and how long you will stay in the home....
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Posted by: Bob on 12/29/2010 I wanted to share Stage of Life's free, universal goal setting worksheet for Home Owners.
Whether you use it as your "New Year's Resolution To-Do" list or as a tool to kick off fresh start with your life, this 10-step worksheet will help get you proactively thinking about the goals, possibilities and opportunities ahead.
View and print the Goal Setting Works...
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Posted by: DarkStar49 on 12/03/2010 I can remember the many Christmas mornings as the family began to rise, with peaked curiosities of whether or not Santa had come. As we all started to slowly flow into the main room, the most excited members of the Christmas morning celebration were the dogs! Well, I am sure that could be debated. However, wagging tails, excited smiles with dancing tongues, and the tapping of excited paws certainly could tell a story of Christmas cheer! As selfish as it may seem, the dogs were not doing show...
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Posted by: DarkStar49 on 09/27/2010 I recently discovered the latest in many issues we have had with our home since we purchased it a little over 3 years ago. I say ‘the latest in many’, because throughout the past 3 years we have stumbled upon or found small repair and mechanical issues. Take for instance a leak somewhere in the roof that caused moisture damage in a wall, and not anything recent but rather ongoing since before we closed the deal. Or, rot that was overlooked in the home inspection and as well as a myriad of ot...
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Posted by: shamaker on 09/02/2010 We're at the tail end of a lovely, two-week vacation in Downeast Maine, a spot we visited three years ago. Because we love it here (at least in August:), we enjoy looking online at the houses for sale. The real estate market here is dismal. Almost every where you turn, for sale signs greet you. This means there are lots of great properties to be had for a lot less money than you would expect.
That's part of the fun on vacation, playing the what-if game. What if we moved to Maine? Wha...
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Posted by: Bob on 08/31/2010 I worked with Stage of Life to answer this question.
We polled local contractors and homeowners, asking them this simple question, "How does a homeowner find a trustworthy contractor for a home remodeling project?"
As you can imagine, we received a lot of different responses. But after all of the feedback was collected, I found 10 common themes that came up among both sides.
This is the collective checklist, complied from conversations with both contrac...
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Posted by: DarkStar49 on 08/22/2010 One of my favorite seasons has always been Fall. Something about the world around you winding down and the onset of a seasonal hibernation. We have been blessed to live in areas that are very defined and present when it comes to seasonal changes. Fall has always been a very visual and tangible experience for me.
I noticed yesterday that there is a slight change in the colors in the trees and fauna around me. The wildflowers are losing their petals which bear the life sewing seeds...
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Posted by: DarkStar49 on 08/17/2010 I have often found it hilarious to sometimes try to see life through a dogs eyes. In fact, we usually see them as, "our dogs". The reality of it is that we are "their humans"! This is a very present philosophy here at our home. We have three dogs. All three are Alaskan Malamutes, with one being a female husky/malamute mix with a hint of lab in her, one being a male wolf /malamute mix, and the third being a female pure bread malamute. If you Google the word 'stubborn', surely 'malamute' wi...
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Posted by: shamaker on 08/04/2010 If you're like my husband and me, you find house projects daunting. We can hang a picture straight--most of the time--and can jiggle a toilet handle enough to make it stop running--some of the time. But we're pretty intimidated with bigger projects. Not that we don't know what needs to be done to fix things. It's the execution of the project, not the problem itself. Our brains are not wired to improve our home, that's for sure.
So we muddle through on the small projects and call in t...
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Posted by: MichaelNYC on 07/28/2010 Over the July 4th weekend, with temperatures in the high 90s, I found myself hankering for a refreshing ice-cold beverage. I made my way to the kitchen and the 20-year old Magic Chef refrigerator that came with my home when I purchased it. I poured myself a glass of iced tea and took that first exciting swig...but something was amiss. The tea wasn't so much "iced" as "colder than room temperature". I quickly did a spot check of other items in the old 'fridge and discovered this "lack of ful...
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Posted by: kjb2052 on 07/13/2010 If there's one thing I've learned about owning a home, it's that there's always something to be done to it... in it... around it...for it...
Before my husband and I bought our house, we lived in a small apartment. Ahh, the carefree days of the landlord having your garbage disposal replaced when it starts making that strange gargling noise. Having the building manager send out a plumber to fix a clogged tub. Telling the management company you need your carpets steam cleaned, si...
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Posted by: shamaker on 07/06/2010 The other week, I contacted poison ivy from, I suspect, vines I was pulling along the fence that separates our backyard from two of our neighbors'. The poison ivy most likely was hiding among the other vines that grew alongside and under and over and, well, you get the picture. It was a mass of green weeds that had to go and my arms and legs paid the price of my weeding activity.
As I was pulling the vines, I was thinking of how long we had waited before addressing the rock garden al...
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