At Home With Valerie

With the New Year almost upon us I want to take this opportunity to wish you the very best for the coming year.  I'm looking forward to sleeping in late and kicking back in the easy chair after lunch to enjoy a football game.   Of course I'll be sleeping in late because, just like you, I'll start off the New Year at exactly midnight on New Year's Eve by singing Auld Lang Syne.  We'll all be singing it and most of us won't have a clue what the title actually means!  So, just for fun, I looked up the song online to find out its history.  I learned that Auld Lang Syne is a traditional Scottish song.  The version we know today was written (in part at least) by Robert Burns in the 1700s.  The title refers to “old long ago,” or the good old days, as we would say today. I don't want you to stumble around when it comes time to sing it, so I'm passing along to you the lyrics.  Have a great New Year's Day and don't forget to break a resolution

Do you really care about building community? Want to promote economic growth and support neighborhood jobs? Then shop locally. Here’s why. As a real estate agent, one of my biggest concerns is ensuring that local real estate values continue to appreciate as neighborhoods improve, businesses grow, and people are able to sustain safe, prosperous relationships with their neighbors.  There are many factors which contribute to this, but one of the most important steady investments you can make in your community is by shopping local, independent businesses. Whether it’s the holiday season pushing you to peruse a downtown district, or simply picking up a few things for your everyday needs, making the choice to shop locally and independently can contribute hugely. Consider these economic statistics gathered from a range of credible sources by “Independent We Stand” ( www.independentwestand.org ), a website dedicated to helping small, local, and independent businesses thrive:

Love Christmas Day? Love to cook turkey? Wish your dinner could be like those you see on television cooking shows?  Follow my tips and you can have a turkey dinner you will be proud to serve your family or your guests. Whether it is a small family gathering or a huge party, cooking the perfect turkey for the holidays is every chef's goal.  Here are a few foolproof tips to cooking the perfect turkey! Get The Right Equipment The first step to the perfect bird is having all the right tools.  You will need: Heavy duty roasting pan Rack to keep turkey from resting on the bottom of the pan Foil to cover turkey Basting brush to brush turkey with melted butter Baster for basting with pan juices Fine sieve for straining the pan juices for gravy Wire whisk for making lump-free gravy Good quality carving set Meat thermometer Follow These Simple Instructions: A small, fresh turkey that weighs less than 14 pounds will usually be a more delicious bi

Staging can be a great way to boost your home’s appeal to prospective buyers... but it can depend on the type of buyers in your market. Here’s one perspective on the right way to stage. Staging a home to sell is the process of redecorating or cost-effectively renovating aspects of your home to present it in the best light. Much like cleaning up a home’s curb appeal to appeal to buyers, staging can position your house to sell faster and for a higher price than it might otherwise. It’s important to remember with staging that you’re not decorating the home to appeal to you, the seller, but to the prospective buyer. When working with a stager, you have to learn to set aside your own aesthetic preferences and ask yourself how a buyer might see the home. Imagining who those buyers might be can help your stager make decisions about which direction to take the interior design. So who are the buyers? Can you know? It depends on local market conditions and trends. A common scenari

Christmas is almost upon us and if you and your family haven't put up a tree yet, you may be wondering, should you get a real tree or an artificial one? If you want a real live tree, keep the following facts in mind before you buy that Christmas tree. There is nothing quite like the smell of fresh pine filling your home during the holiday season, and a real Christmas tree can do that better than any candle or air freshener.  Having a real tree is a tradition for many families, but if you haven't had one before and are considering it, there are a few things you should know before you take it on. Real Trees, Real Mess A real tree can make a bit of a mess in your home-you will have to vacuum up the dropped needles regularly.  You will also have to keep fresh water in the tree stand and watch out for leaks or spills.  There can also be other natural surprises in a real tree such as insects and spiders!  While this is rarely a serious problem, it is something to k

Do you have an old tree on your property that you love? You might want to make sure you do everything possible to preserve that tree... for the right buyer, old growth trees can add tremendous value to your property. Landscaping plays a major part in your home’s curb appeal. When preparing a home for sale, it’s common practice to spruce up lawns by planting fresh flowers,  bushes, weeding, trimming back trees, and staying on top of the overall condition of the lawn. But there is one major contributor to your property’s value which you can’t just drop in when you’re getting ready to sell: old growth trees. It turns out that the number and quality of established, mature trees on your property can have a direct impact on the value of your home. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Leafy Luxury: Mansions With a Tree Premium” ( http://online.wsj.com/articles/leafy-luxury-mansions-with-a-tree-premium-1417015300 ), reporter Amy Gamerman took a look at several real-l

Christmas is probably one of the easiest times of the year to use environmentally friendly decorating ideas, and given the more traditional decorating trends for the season and the ever increasing need for all of us to contribute to making the planet a greener place, it's never been easier.   Here a few great ways to decorate your home for the holidays and be greener at the same time! Green Tree Ideas Replace your old Christmas lights with new LED lights.  They use less electricity and last longer than the older ones. If you put up a real tree for the holidays consider using a live tree that you can plant after the holidays, or be sure you recycle your tree after the season is over. Only purchase your real tree from a Christmas tree farm or retailer who purchases from farms.  Never cut down a tree in a conservation area or in a public park. Consider using an artificial tree; be sure that it is recyclable and not made using any harmful materials or chemica

Along with the Christmas festivities comes the desire to decorate your home with twinkling lights, wreaths, trees and even yard ornaments featuring the theme of the holidays.   If you want to make your next Christmas decorating venture a real holiday treat, consider the following ideas. Homemade Wreath Decorations Create your own lighted wreath by taking a short strand of mini-lights and wrapping them around a plain wreath.  You can use either multi-color or clear lights, and this approach can easily be used for both indoor wreaths and garland decorations. Creating A Modern Centerpiece With Classic Holiday Style Use a clear glass vase or bowl as a centerpiece and fill it with round glass ornaments.  For Christmas, the combination of silver and gold or red and green will be ideal.  When paired with the beauty of a simplistic glass holder, the ornaments will add a very modern twist to a very traditional color combination. Holiday Decorating Scents A nice bowl

Interested in a home, but not 100% sure the floor plan will work with your furniture? Try using these free floor planning tools to help you decide. When marketing a listing, lots and lots of photographs help give buyers an idea of what the home is like before they tour the property. Professional photos online increase the amount of qualified interest in a home. But one often overlooked piece of information you can provide to help buyers is an accurate floor plan. Up-to-date, detailed floor plans give buyers context for all those photos presented with your listing. While photos tell buyers how the rooms look, the floor plan can help them understand a bit more about the flow of the home, the relative location of the home’s amenities, and (most importantly) give them an idea if their furniture will fit. If a buyer has an heirloom piece of furniture they’re unwilling to part with, a floor plan can save everyone involved a lot of time and energy. There’s no sense in going down t

Have you ever noticed how some people seem to have a knack for creating inviting rooms?   One of the joys of owning your own home is having the freedom to decorate a room to please yourself.  The only problem is, most of us don't even know where to start!   Today I am sharing with you some simple tips on re-arranging a room that can make the difference between “okay” and “wow!” Before you start your room re-arrangement, first empty the room completely.  Take down all the wall décor and remove any rugs.  Now, look at the room as if you are seeing it for the first time.  Consider what activities you want to take place in the room.  Let form follow function. The number one mistake people make is to push all the furniture back against the walls of a den or living room.  This makes conversation difficult and creates a walkway through the middle of the conversation area.  Try pulling your furniture out into the room into a cozy grouping for conversation.  Experiment wi

Routine home inspections can save you a lot of money. While you don’t have to have a top-to-bottom walk-through to spot problems, there are four areas you’ll want to regularly keep an eye on. A home doesn’t have to be a repair time bomb waiting to go off. In fact, one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to prevent major repair bills is a simple schedule of inspection. Not having basic systems in your home inspected from time to time because you’re afraid of having to make a minor repair is like avoiding going to the doctor because you don’t want to know about a lurking health problem. Which is better: A wake-up call from your physician, or a major heart attack? A home inspection for routine maintenance doesn’t have to involve the thorough inspection conducted during a home sale. In fact, if you keep an eye on four fundamental areas of your home, you’ll head-off big repair or reconstruction bills in the future. 1. Pest Evaluation (Every Spring) Depending on w

LED lights have come a long way. Did you know that modern advances in manufacturing and design have made these lights even more useful and efficient? See why LEDs are a great choice for your home. Do you want to make your home as energy efficient as possible, but you find the light from CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lights) unappealing? It’s time to take a new look at modern LED lighting. Advancements in LED lighting have completely changed the face of energy efficient lighting. When they were initially developed, LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) were solid bulbs first limited to single-bulb use. Gradually manufacturers began to cluster these bulbs to create more powerful light sources for flashlights and directional lighting. Now, however, advancements in clustering, lens design, and positioning have made these bulbs suitable replacements for almost any home lighting scenario. While they used to be very expensive, research breakthroughs as recent as 2009 made the manufacture of

If you are in the market for a new home, or looking to refinance your existing mortgage, then you will want to consider the option of hiring a mortgage broker rather than an individual lender or lending institution.   With times being as tough as they are for so many people, and the instability of the financial markets, shopping around for the best deal in a mortgage is of vital importance.  A mortgage broker is a one-stop mortgage option that can save you time, and most importantly, money.  Here are just a few reasons you should consider a mortgage broker. Who Are Mortgage Brokers? Mortgage brokers are financial professionals who are paid a commission to match lenders and borrowers.  They usually work with dozens of lenders as freelance agents and can match you with a lender than offers the best mortgage for your financial situation and personal needs.  They are qualified to evaluate your credit situation, offer you a variety of loans from different lenders, and can sub

The kitchen is the hub of most homes, but it can also be a dangerous place where fires start and burns are common. Check out these tips for a safer kitchen from the National Fire Prevention Association. The kitchen is the hub of many happy homes. We gather family, entertain guests, and cook special meals for loved ones.  Unlike the basic kitchens of even thirty years ago, today’s kitchens feature double-ovens, deluxe, multiple burner stove tops, warming drawers, and even indoor grilling stations.  But the kitchen can also be a dangerous place.  Did you know that most cooking fires in the home involve the stovetop? The leading cause of fires in the kitchen is unattended cooking. Any number of simple mistakes or lapses in attention can turn a festive time into a disaster. To prevent this from happening, keep these handy kitchen fire (and burn!) prevention tips handy, courtesy of the National Fire Prevention Association Be alert: If you’re exhausted or have been c

A home is one of the biggest purchases many people will make in their lifetime. Which is why planning and preparation are critical when it comes to paving your path to home ownership. Ask yourself the following questions and answer them honestly to determine if now is the right time for you to buy. Can you afford to own a home? Whether it’s a sellers market or a buyers market, knowing what and IF you can afford a home is critical. The National Association of REALTORS® notes correctly that homes and financing are closely intertwined and describes financing as the difference between the purchase price and the down payment, commonly referred to as debt or the mortgage. The best case scenario is to have some money saved for a down payment and additional money set aside for closing costs. In some cases, though, closing costs can be worked into the price of the home. Here’s another great exercise: roughly determine how much a monthly mortgage payment you can afford. In add

Now’s a good time to start thinking about how you’re going to protect your home’s plants this winter. Here are some simple tips for keeping them alive! When the colder months settle in, there’s no reason to sacrifice all of your plants. Depending on the type of plants you have and the severity of your winter, there are ways to help ensure your favorite decorative greenery sees another spring. Before it’s too late, take the time now to plan your plant protection strategy. These tips selected from gardening experts from around the web should help many of your most beloved shrubs, bushes, trees, and potted wonders make it through the harsh weather. Move potted plants off concrete and onto the earth. Protecting the roots of a plant can be key to its survival. The top of a plant can often endure more trauma than the roots. Concrete can warm considerably in the sun, and then become very cold at night. This heat/cool cycle and the rapid swings in temperature it brings can dama

With Halloween just a few days away, I thought it might be fun to tell you about some really creepy places here in Alberta.  All of these locations are real and they really are haunted! You just might want to visit some of them to see for yourself. In the meantime, keep your lights on when you are alone in the house! Banff Springs Hotel in Banff  is an alleged paranormal site. An anonymous young bride, who died of a broken neck on her wedding day in 1932, has also reportedly been seen by patrons within these grounds. Dressed in her wedding gown, she was descending a staircase. She tripped on her gown and fell down the stairs. Her ghost can reportedly be seen dancing alone in the dining room, only to burst into flames. The apparitional resident is reportedly a former employee of the hotel. A bellhop who died after announcing his retirement in 1976, Sam Macauley, has lived on in the eyes of some guests and hotel staff members who claim to have seen visions of th

Play up the fall feel of your home starting with the outside of your home. Make sure all leaves are raked and flower beds cleaned up. Let beautiful fall colors be shown by the trees around your home, not by the dead ones laying on the lawn. Since we are talking about the outside your home, make sure the back yard is picked up and summer free. So put away all pool toys, tiki torches and beach balls. Have fun taking out warm colored cushions for your patio furniture and a fire pit to sit around. Finally place pumpkins by the front door and a beautiful fall wreath. But do not carve your pumpkins it will cause them to rot faster. Move inside Start with fresh fall florals. There are so many options but a few are; marigolds, Mexican sunflowers, and strawflowers. Place in entry way, master bedrooms, and florals are a great add to any mantel. To make your home feel warm and welcoming invest in some throws and pillows to match your floral arrangements. The colors sh