Congrats Louisville

For the second time Louisville in Colorado, tops Money Magazine's list of the 100 best small towns, followed by Milton, Massachusetts and Solon in Ohio. They all have populations of 50,000 or less and offer the optimal combination of jobs, schools, safety, health care, cultural activities and even weather.

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Understanding Closing Cost

As we spring forward into the active homebuying season, there are plenty of good deals to be found, thanks to continued low interest rates and slipping home prices. But do you have saved enough in your bank account to cover closing fees? We'll examine who pays for what at the closing table and how buyers can cover these costs. What's the average closing costs you can expect to pay?


Who pays for what?
You have picked the perfect place to live, you've saved up a nice down payment, you're pre-approved for a loan and you're inching ever closer to finding the right house.


But how much do you know about the closing process itself? There's more than just price to consider. There are a slew of associated expenses to pay, plus taxes, insurance, appraisals and inspections. Whether buying or selling, you will undoubtedly see a bunch of little charges that collectively start to equal a big, four-digit number.


In general, the seller normally pays for most of the closing costs. But it can vary alot depending on the market conditions, location and the seller's motivation. In today's buyers market, many transactions are subject to negotiation.


Here's a common outline of what buyers and sellers are expected to pay:


Typical Buyer Expenses

• One half of escrow fees.
• Home inspection and any other inspections such as sewer line, roofing or structural.
• Survey to identify boundardies and easements.
• Appraisal for the lender to determine value for a good loan.
• Hazard insurance premium for the first year.
• Recording fees and notary fees for documents.

Typical Seller Expenses

• One half of escrow fees.
• Title insurance, to assure the lender that the property has a free and clear title.
• Repairs or remediation of any harzard or damage.
• Real-estate commission for seller's and buyer's agent.
• City and county transfer fees.
• Homeowners association transfer fees and any unpaid balance.
• One year home warranty to ease the buyer's doubts.
• Payoff for any bonds, special assessments and existing liens.

The tab for closing expenses can vary widely, from about 1% of the purchase price to 3% for Federal Housing Administration loans that require a mortgage-insurance premium and additional lender fees.


Many buyers are now requesting sellers to help assist them with covering these steeper FHA fees, in essence lowering the purchase price of the home.


However, there isn't as much room for expense negotiation with short sale or bank-owned properties. In fact, most don't provide a home warranty, and many won't cover any repair work unless it's a hazard to the buyer. Of course, the tradeoff is that these homes are often priced at a significant discount compared to normal listings.

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Expand your living space into the outdoors

Choosing Between A Deck Or Patio

What's the greenest way to build a deck? Would it be okay to utilize pressure-treated lumber? What's the simplest way to add on to your house? What type of decking is regarded as being sustainable, and what is the best way for attaching boards to the framing? Should the surfaces be finished? What product should I select? These are a few of the questions I hear about when designing outdoor living spaces.

Generally, the greenest deck is often a patio. Sure, wooden decks or balconies will be the only options should they have to be significantly above ground level, although there are masonry- and petroleum-based options that can be used in place of true lumber.

Outdoor living is a great way to expand our living space without increasing the level of conditioned space: it gets us out into the open air, to the nature we’re looking to preserve using the green building movement. But asking any “green” material to face up to the environmental exposure a deck is meant to is asking a lot. When the outdoor living area is going to be at or near grade, a patio-the masonry equal to a deck-can be a greener choice.

 When the word “patio” conjures images of dirty concrete with weeds sprouting up  through cracks, there are better options. Harvesting “urbanite” for reuse by breaking apart that old concrete into manageable pieces is one example; overlaying a drainage layer and topping it with permeable surface material. An intricate recessed patio can be assembled using salvaged granite stones from an old  foundation.

 Commercially ready, cement-based, interlocking modular paving blocks is definitely an affordable choice, although I'm partial to square concrete pavers occur a bed of crushed stone for any more formal look, or flagstones (flat, natural “cleft” surface fieldstone) for a rustic feeling. A designer I know built an extremely interesting patio using a mix of broken stone countertops, tiles, and glass. Slate roofing could be recycled into patio paving, but, like tile, the little, thin pieces would not be stable underfoot unless set into a bed of mortar. Stacked closely together on edge, though, the thin edges would create a unique, usable surface.
Brick, an old time patio surface, is hard to beat because of its combination of warm color and texture. Bricks could be locally made in most parts of the country or recycled from fine old buildings. Durability is definitely an issue in areas that freeze, though; search for “hard” bricks, tempered to be used as paving, or perhaps be prepared for them to disintegrate with time to their original type of clay particles.

Drainage options will be different based on several factors. If the patio sits over a well-draining site, it will likely be best and easiest to use a permeable base layer for instance crushed stone and leave gaps within the paving material to allow stormwater to drain through. The gaps could be filled with exactly the same material, or planted with moss (if it’s shady) or thyme (if it’s sunny). Weeds can be simply killed having a 50% solution of vinegar, or scraped out having a brush created for the purpose. Personally, I would not make use of a chemical for example Round-Up or burn the weeds having a flame, but those are other options, probably forget about harmful than standard deck maintenance techniques. If the site doesn't drain well, start with a well-compacted base of gravel with graduated particle size so the particles lock together. On top of that, construct a drainage layer using crushed stone, with a drain tile (4-in. perforated pipe is effective) to direct water to another the main site if necessary.

 Keep the size to roomlike dimensions, and when in doubt, make the length 1.6 times the width for any pleasing proportion. Patios require a sense of enclosure to feel inviting; masonry walls or shrubs and plantings produce a sense of containment. Whenever a tall wall looms over an abutting patio, bring the scale down with a trellis or pergola, or pull the patio from the house a little and plant a tall shrub or small tree between it and also the house. Full sun can make a patio (or deck) uncomfortably hot; a patio umbrella or perhaps a trellis engrossed in vines provides respite.

Consider low-level lighting and a source for cooking fuel-wood or gas-in the look stages. Outdoor cooking appliances keep heat out of the house (look for Energy Star models) and may be connected to gas or large propane tanks, if on site. Or, develop a fire pit or an outdoor barbecue. Your kitchen has had over the indoors as the heart of the house, the main gathering spot; duplicating kitchen functions outdoors will guarantee the patio is well-used.

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What Is A Walk Score

Walkable neighborhoods offer surprising benefits to the environment, our health, our finances, and our communities.

• Environment: Cars are a leading cause of climate change. Your feet are zero-pollution transportation machines.
• Health: The average resident of a walkable neighborhood weighs 7 pounds less than someone who lives in a sprawling neighborhood.
• Finances: One point of Walk Score is worth up to $3,000 of value for your property.
• Communities: Studies show that for every 10 minutes a person spends in a daily car commute, time spent in community activities falls by 10%.

Find A Walkable Place To Live

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Increase Your Energy Efficiency

Unless your home was specially constructed for energy efficiency, you can usually reduce your energy bills by adding more insulation. Many older homes have less insulation than homes built today, but adding insulation to a newer home may also pay for itself within a few years.

Heat flows naturally from a warmer to a cooler space. In the winter, this heat flow moves directly from all heated living spaces to adjacent unheated attics, garages, basements, and even to the outdoors. Heat flow can also move indirectly through interior ceilings, walls, and floors—wherever there is a difference in temperature. During the cooling season, heat flows from the outdoors to the interior of a house.

To maintain comfort, the heat lost in the winter must be replaced by your heating system and the heat gained in the summer must be removed by your cooling system. Properly insulating your home will decrease this heat flow by providing an effective resistance to the flow of heat.

To determine whether you should add insulation, you first need to find out how much insulation you already have in your home and where.

A qualified home energy auditor will include an insulation check as a routine part of a whole-house energy assessment. An energy assessment, also known as a home energy audit, will also help identify areas of your home that are in need of air sealing. (Before you insulate, you should make sure that your home is properly air sealed.)

When insulating your home, you can choose from many types of insulation. To choose the best type of insulation, you should first determine the following:

• Where you want or need to add insulation
• The recommended R-values for areas you want to insulate.

Understanding R-Value

The R-value is a measure of thermal resistance used in the building and construction industry. The higher the R-value, the greater the insulating effectiveness. Under uniform conditions it is the ratio of the temperature difference across an insulator and the heat flux (heat transfer per unit area). Heat transfer through an insulating layer is analogous to electrical resistance. R-value is the reciprocal of U-value. The U-value (or U-factor), more correctly called the overall heat transfer coefficient, describes how well a building element conducts heat.

The US Department of Energy has recommended R-values for given areas of the USA based on the general local energy costs for heating and cooling, as well as the climate of an area. There are four types of insulation: Rolls and batts, Loose-fill, Rigid foam, and Foam-in-place. Rolls and batts are typically flexible insulators that come in fibers, like fiberglass. Loose-fill insulation comes in loose fibers or pellets and should be blown into a space. Rigid foam is more expensive than fiber, but has a higher R-value. Foam-in-place can be blown into small areas to control air leaks, like those around windows. Increasing the thickness of an insulating layer increases the thermal resistance. For example, doubling the thickness of fibreglass batting will double its R-value,

The R-value is a measure of insulation's heat loss retardation under specified test conditions. The primary mode of heat transfer impeded by insulation is convection but unavoidably it also impedes heat loss by all three heat transfer modes: conduction, convection, and radiation. The primary means of heat loss across an uninsulated air-filled space is natural convection, which occurs because of changes in air density with temperature.

The amount of insulation or R-value you'll need depends on your climate, type of heating and cooling system, and the section of the house you plan to insulate.
Properly insulating your home will not only help reduce your heating and cooling costs but also make your home more comfortable.

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