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It’s closing time on that new home! It’s a joyous occasion, but did you realize that different states of different processes when it comes to closing on a home?
Diann Patton of Coldwell Banker Grass Roots Realty gives you the lowdown on what to expect when it comes time to close on that first home.
Making an offer on a home is both exciting and frightening at the same time so it’s important to understand just what goes on after you make an offer on that home of your dreams.
Diann Patton of Coldwell Banker Grass Roots Realty explains just what happens after that offers is made.
Home inspections might be the most significant milestone in your road to buying your first home. What happens during a home inspection can often times make or break a purchase of a home.
In this video, Diann Patton of Coldwell Banker Grass Roots Realty gives you the lowdown on what a home inspection exactly is and why you want to make sure you have a good partner to help
Chris and Jennifer Marron had found the home they were looking for. It was a fixer upper that they planned to make their own over time as they tackled projects one at a time. They fell in love not just with the home, but with the neighborhood as well.
Then the unexpected happened. Chris worked on the construction of the Freedom Tower in New York City and sustained an injury to his spine while on the job. The injuries left Chris in a position where he could no longer do the physical labor that was not just required for his job, but also to turn that house into the home they dreamed of.
That’s where contractor and designer extraordinaire, George Oliphant, comes in as he and his crew from NBC’s George to the Rescue came to help the Marron’s finish what they started by completing the renovations they hoped to do themselves in their fixer upper home.
Home is a safe place, surrounded by love.
You can watch the full segment of the show on the George to the Rescue site, but the video above gives you some insight into just how much the idea of home means to the Marrons. What I love is how Chris talks about being at the closing table and just itching to get home so he can mow the lawn. Why? Because to him that was the thing that made the home his.
Watch the video of the Marrons above talking about home and notice how Jennifer describes what home means to her: “Home is a safe place, surrounded by love.”
Welcome home Marrons.
Color plays a huge role in any home. It can make a room feel warm and inviting or cold and stale depending the shade. While each homeowners personal tastes will effect the color scheme of any home, there are some psychological influences that should cause us to think about that next room painting project.
Did you know blue is the best color for a study? Why? Because psychologically it’s the color that makes us the most productive. The infographic below from Painters of Louisville is really interesting. It breaks down the best colors for your state of mind in each room at home, but also gives you some background into how each color makes our minds react.
Click here to see the full size infographic and find out which rooms you’ll soon need to repaint because they’re causing psychological problems…or not.
This quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson is a telling one. We may describe our house as being of a certain architectural style or having a certain type of decor to it, but the truth of the matter is a home is defined by those who pass through its doorways.
While the primary residents have the most to say about how a home is described, it also gets meaning from the ones who we continually invite in. I think this is especially true as a child. Remember how exciting it was when you found out company was coming over? All of my boys go rushing to the door even when it’s just the FedEx guy. Our home becomes a little more joyous at the prospect of friends being invited in.
Then of course there’s the sleepovers and parties and who’s home is the one that friends want to hang out in. As you enter the junior high and high school days, a home can be further defined by the frequent additions at the dinner table and the post school event social gatherings.
When you breakaway from your parents’ home and start creating one of your own, you take some of that influence and add to it. Some of those same friends who found themselves at home in your parents’ place may carry over now into yours. While many may gather for your special parties and fun, it’s those that enter your home at the most unusual of hours that will truly define your home.
I love this quote from a book called Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist about how each of us has a “home team.” Here’s what she says:
Everybody has a home team: It’s the people you call when you get a flat tire or when something terrible happens. It’s the people who, near or far, know everything that’s wrong with you and love you anyways. These are the ones who tell you their secrets, who get themselves a glass of water without asking when they’re at your house. These are the people who cry when you cry. These are your people, your middle-of-the-night, no-matter-what people.
My home is decorated with ornaments of friends and family from across the years. Young and old. New and vintage. They are the ones that will help influence the definition of my home over the course of time.
Make note of yours and appreciate how they help make your house a home.
Lord Byron’s quote from Don Juan about without hearts a home not being real is actually rooted in the very fabric of the word “home.” The concept of home is universal, however, we all define home differently. There might be some similarities, but home means something different to each of us.
I wanted to uncover what was the root meaning of home from an etymology perspective. Turns out this idea of hearts and home being connected is a foundation in the history of the word “home.”
The English word “home” is from the Old English word hām (not the pig) which actually refers to a village or estate where many “souls” are gathered. It implies there’s a physical dwelling involved, but the main idea is that it’s a gathering of people. One dictionary I came across online had an interpretation of the modern definition of home that I really like. It states that home is “the abiding place of the affections.” To me, that sums it up like nothing else. It’s not a building or a room, but a place where your love dwells.
Home is the abiding place of the affections.
The Latin root word for home is actually the same word we use for human being, person and people. At it’s very core home is where not just your heart is, but the hearts of those you love and trust. This is why most of our homes are adorned with photos on the wall. It’s a custom that dates back a thousand years and has to do with the fact that people hung portraits on the wall to show to visitors who their ancestors and loved ones were that once lived in that home. Today, we continue this tradition but more so to show the hearts and faces of the people that are welcome in our homes.
My current home started with three hearts and has grown to six that now consistently abide under my roof. While the dwelling itself has changed becoming more crowded and significantly noisier, these are things I would consider to be the best home improvement I could have ever asked for. The walls remain the same but the people inside is what defines my home.
Whether your home is a ranch or colonial, majestic or modest, an apartment or a townhouse, the fact still remains that the hearts that enter it’s doorway or what truly defines it as home.
Plato’s quote about a home with a library in it having a soul begs the question, are we on the verge of soulless homes? Think about it. In 10 years will home libraries become irrelevant? My entire reading list from the last 4 years is now stored on my iPad.
But a home with a library should not be looked at as a room to merely store books, but rather a space dedicated to escaping the noise of life. I think it’s time we considered Plato’s quote and redefined what it means to have a library.
Think about it. A library is not the greatest of terms. I spent 4 years in college and never stepped foot in the library. True story. It was a place for bookworms and studious types.A building that had its own smell and density in the air. The library is a place that must be quiet. Silence is expected and no one really enjoys being shushed.
So a home with a library could be conceived as being for the snobbish or the classe supérieure, but a library in a home should be so much more than that. It can be a room for children to study and do their homework in. It should be a place you can relax, grab a cup of Cocounut Mocha coffee from the Keurig and dive into a novel on your iPad. A library does not even require a book or reading to be at it score. It can be filled with music or art.
It can also literally be a place to escape as It was for Batman. The library in Wayne Manor was the place Bruce Wayne dedicated for access to the Batcave.
We often think of the soul of a home being the kitchen as its the gathering place for most households. I think the kitchen is the heart, but the library is really the soul. Don’t think of a library as a room set aside for strictly books and shelves, but rather the space that is dedicated to the enjoyment that life has to offer.
With ’42′ officially hitting theaters today, many across the country are taking this opportunity to reflect on the groundbreaking accomplishments of Jackie Robinson – who changed baseball and a nation when he became the first African American to sign a contract with a Major League Baseball team.
When most people think of ‘home’ and Jackie Robinson, they usually recall his epic steal of home against the Yankees (and Yogi Berra) in the ’55 World Series. While he certainly had a penchant for “stealing home”, we think ‘home’ meant a lot more to Jackie than the one on the baseball diamond.
Born in Georgia in 1919 but raised in Pasadena, California, Jackie Robinson unequivocally had an affinity for ‘home’. You see, while many athletes in New York might opt for the luxury and prestige of Manhattan, Jackie placed real deep roots within the community of Brooklyn, making it his ‘home’ in every sense of the word.
Shortly after he signed his contract with the Dodgers, he bought a charming home on a small block in the tight knit community of East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Located at 5224 Tilden Avenue, his home was a two-story brick house with a large bay window that looked a whole lot like every other home in the neighborhood.
In a story told by his daughter Sharon, after Jackie moved into the Tilden Ave house, he bought an extra Christmas tree and gave it to his next door neighbor because he noticed they didn’t have one up for the holidays. It turned out that the family was Jewish but they were so touched by his thoughtful act that they kept the tree anyway!
It is in these random acts of kindness and generosity that we see the beauty of Jackie Robinson’s character, and what makes placing roots in a community so powerful. Your neighbors become more than just neighbors, they become parts of your extended family. Jackie and his wife lived in the quaint and cozy home through some of his greatest baseball related accomplishments; including a Rookie of the Year and a Most Valuable Player of the Year award. Jackie Robinson loved home, and so do we.
With Major League Baseball celebrating the 10th annual “Jackie Robinson Day” on April 15th, and with ’42′ hitting theaters this weekend, we’re happy to take time to remember one of the most genuinely important people in American history.
*Header Image of Jackie Robinson’s House Courtesy of: Wikipedia
*Header Image of Jackie Robinson in Uniform Courtesy of: New York Daily News
*Image of Jackie Robin and family in Header Courtesy of: New York Daily News
What do tape decks, doorbells and flip phones have in common? Over time they’ve become completely irrelevant. They all were at one time another a necessity of our daily lives or at least appeared to be. At least tape decks and flip phones possess some utility. You can listen to music on tapes and you can still call someone on a flip phone. But there’s really absolutely no reason to have a doorbell.
At one time, doorbells were actually considered to be a luxury item reserved for those possessing a substantial estate that required a musical chime that permeated the house and notified servants of a visitor. Think Downton Abbey era of homes.
The first electrical doorbell was invented by Joseph Henry way back in 1831 where it was originally just a buzzer sound. Over time inventors tweaked the doorbell to make it more of a melodic ding-dong type of tone. According to DoorbellFAQ.com (yes, that’s a real site) by the 1920′s, doorbells were being advertised as the perfect wedding gift and even a necessity for housewives so they wouldn’t be startled by banging on the door.
Today you can buy wireless doorbells and even customize the tone that is played when someone rings it, but I would venture this is an unnecessary device.
When I bought my home the doorbell was already a wireless one that simply required you to change the batteries every once in a while. At some point in the last two years, the batteries died and I just didn’t replace them. And you know what? An amazing thing happened. People still found a way to let me know they were at the front door. If they didn’t hear the doorbell ring, they just knocked. If I didn’t hear the knock, they called my cell from their cell.
Why do we need doorbells? If you’re in an apartment building or living in a place in the city that requires you to buzz people in, I can fully understand the necessity of having one. But for single home owners, doorbells are just a thing that will eventually break and require you to replace.
There is something to be said about the fact that as a kid when you heard the doorbell ring, it sparked a little joy in your childish heart. You would run to the door with anticipation of who might be on the other side. But as we grow older, we become more jaded and the ding dong of the doorbell makes us wonder who’s bothering us now.
Maybe doorbells are for kids. What used to be a luxury item is now simply a means of childlike entertainment.
In any case, I’m sticking with the idea that doorbells are no longer relevant. Let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments.
Image courtesy of Flickr user wharman
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