Make your House Store More

I live in what I consider to be a very nice home.  Just under 2400 square feet.  It's just me and my husband, so we don't use two of the 3 guest rooms.  One room is a home office/kid's hangout room/sewing room. (Ths will be featured in a future post). The other two are truly reserved for guests.

Check out more pictures below!

I hate it when the whole house is junked up with stuff and there is no room for guests.  So, we have made a conscious effort to leave open space in the closets in the guest rooms and to keep the dressers empty.

With that said, we had become busy in our jobs and a little disorganized.  My house was built in 1999. In all closets, the builder had the top-most shelf at 29" from the ceiling. That is an incredible amount of wasted space! My husband is a gem!  He added shelving for me in all the closets.

The coat closet (located in the kitchen area) now has room above the coats for seldom used serving items, the bread maker, the electric griddle and other sundry kitchen items.

The linen closet now has room for all the linens plus other items that need a home and don't get used much. Those have been relegated to the top shelf or two.

The first guest room's closet has lots of open hanging space for guests and holds the few board games we keep for the grandchildren and it houses wrapping supplies and artificial flowers that I change out seasonally.

The second guest room closet has now been maximized and is now the best (second only to my closet - will be featured in another story)!

Over 18" of space inside the closet on either side of the door

add a 16" support - made out of  a 2x3 cut to size

2 x 3 supports on each side, painted the same color as the walls

add melamine covered 16" deep shelving

Top shelf - placques we want to keep and not hang. Other shelves to store items for gifting
andstored for swapping out seasonally.

Added top shelf - some dead storage, seasonal items, linens for this room;Lower shelf haolds craft supplies

Lots of open hanging space for guests

Right side has hanging space for shower curtains, table cloths....

So, this whole project was done for $42 plus about 4 hours of cutting, painting, screwing into the wall.

If someone was "living" in this room, the side shelves could hold sweaters, hats, purses.  And, if this was the case, I would change up the middle section to have one ventilated shelf (where the top melamine shelf is) and have half for long hanging clothes (dresses) and half for for short-hanging clothes (shirts/pants) and would add a lower ventilated shelf at the appropriate height for this purpose.

I guess the whole point is - you have to re-think what the builder gives you and tailor the storage for your needs!

What 9 year old boy wouldn't want a party like this?

Last weekend, my grandson had a tree climbing party.  Yep, he, his friends and cousins all learned how to climb a tree.  A representative of the Tree Climber's International, came to Blackburn Park in Atlanta and rigged a 40+ year old Willow Oak with ropes so they could all climb.

Each child was fitted with a saddle, gloves and a helmet, and after watching the instructor, each climbed up the ropes, up into the tree canopy.  What a wonderful day for this, low 70's slightly overcast and breezy. 

They had a blast - the youngest was 5 and the oldest was 12.  No one cried and they all got up to the top of their ropes without incident. 

I know they all slept well!

For more information go to: http://www.treeclimbing.com/. 

A day at Cubihatcha

The Cubihatcha Outdoor Education Center is a nature preserve located almost directly across from the Noah's Ark animal park.


Working with the children



Every fall, area third graders visit the Center. Their visits are organized through the Henry County Outdoor Education Partnership in collaboration with the Henry County Water and Sewer Authority, the Henry County Board of Education and many other local and regional sponsors.



Moving into a Seller's Market

We have had our share of difficult times trying to sell real estate in Henry County.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at the following picture:

Months of Invwentory for Henry County, all prices

The graph above shows the Henry County Trends over the past 15 months. It sure wasn't fun between November 2010 and March 2011.  But thankfully, we are now in an even market for the most part.

Contrast the County as a whole with homes priced below $100,000.

Months of Invwentory for Henry County, $100,000 and below

The above chart shows the trend for homes priced below $100,000.  Although, the stats were not as bad for sellers from November 2010 to February 2011 in this price point as they were for the County, overall, it was still a buyer's market. 

Starting in March of last year, we have definitely been in a seller's market.  That means that buyers are going to have to act quickly and decisively when they see a house they like.

Is the market turning around overall?  Hard to say.  A lot will depend on forces beyond our control, such as, how much of the shadow inventory will be released into the market; whether interest rates remain low; whether more banks fail, etc.

Want to see information about your area? Contact us and we'll run a report for you!