I’m curious about houses. Wherever I go, I wonder why they are built the way they are. I can’t turn off my inner house-nerd, even when I go on vacation. You can call this post: “House nerd on vacation.” Roofs Almost as soon as I arrived in Key West, I noticed that all the roofs
Snow season! Here we go. As a real estate agent, I get asked about who is responsible to shovel -- the landlord or the tenant? Since that's a legal question, I depend on Attorney Richard Vetstein for accurate legal answers to general legal questions. He keeps an eye on legal changes that affect homeowners. Here
What projects should you take on, and which are better done by someone else? It's a personal choice. That choice changes, depending on your time and your health and flexibility. Jim Vogel from ElderAction.org has this advice: With all of the pressures of modern life, it’s easy to forget about your house. That’s too bad
If you have an unheated attic that is not insulated, the house heat will rise through the top floor ceiling into the cold attic. (Meanwhile, the heavier, cooler attic air will make its way down, if you have an open or uninsulated stairway.) If you have a finished attic, with no heat, the household heat
Guest writer Jim Vogel writes today about what people can do to make their forever home a place to stay forever: If you’re like nine out of 10 seniors, you want to stay in your home as you age. However, getting around and completing daily tasks is becoming difficult, and you know you’ll need to modify
My recent posts about radon prompted PropertECO to send me this great information to pass on to you: Home About Radon Testing Radon Mitigation Other Services Shop Contact Us The Dangers of Radon and its Health Effects Radon is a gas that occurs naturally in the ground, but if it enters a property and is
What do you do if you have radon above the action level of 4.0 pci/l? What does it cost to make your house safe? There are tried and true cures for that problem. To mitigate for Radon, a system is installed that creates a slight vacuum under the basement slab. This keeps the radioactive gas from
What is Radon and why should you care? According to the EPA Radon is a naturally-occurring, invisible and odorless radioactive gas. One in 15 American homes contains high levels of radon. Radon gas is not isolated to certain geographical areas or home types. Radon problems have been detected in homes in every county of the U.S.
It is impossible to judge the value of a house without calculating a rough cost of repair. The properties around here are frequently 100 years old. When a problem begins, it is much cheaper to repair than the same problem left for years to get worse. Tip one: deferred maintenance costs roughly five times more to
A dead hot water heater led me to DIY hell. Here’s how it happened. Last winter, our tenant’s hot water heater gave up the ghost. The thing had a twelve-year warranty, but it spilled its guts all over the basement seven years into its life. Oh joy! There is a silver lining! At least we