Susan Hilton College Station Real Estate
Realtor & Vice President of Sales of Bryan College Station Real Estate
Read my blog below
Home Improvement & Design Category
Lawn and Garden
October 31st, 2012 Categories: Home Improvement & Design, Parks & Recreation
Nowadays, lush green front yards in Aggieland are few and far between, but when I do, I remember when I was a kid and really enjoyed the lush grass. Despite the changing times, healthy lawns and gardens will never go out of style. Maintaining a healthy lawn is a key part of taking care of your home. Here are some tips on how to keep your grass and flower beds in tip top shape.
Mow high and mow less. When mowing your yard, keep in mind that the shorter you mow your lawn, the harder it will be to keep it looking green. Try cutting your grass at a height of about three to three and a half inches. If you cut your grass too short, it is likely to suffer from a weak, root system and will not be healthy enough to obtain the water and nutrients it needs from the soil.
Leave the clippings in your yard. The myth that these will create thatch is not true. Grass blades consist mainly of water but also contain many nutrients. Eventually, you will be able to use less Read the rest of this entry »
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Fall Decorating Part 2
October 19th, 2012 Categories: Home Improvement & Design, Restaurants & Fun
Make a fall harvest wreath that you can hang over a mirror with ribbon or secure on a door with tacks or sticky strips. To make this beautiful wreath, you will need an 18-inch straw wreath form, four to five bags of dried cornhusks (8 ounces each) and U-pins. You can pick up the husks at any craft store or Mexican food shop. Soak the corn husks in water for about ten minutes or until they are pliable. Tear into strips that are about two inches wide and bend each strip in half. Stick a U-pin into the ends of the strip and attach it to the wreath. It is best to work from the inside of the wreath out, and you will need to make rows of four or five strips. Work in a circular direction so the husks overlap each other neatly and lie flat over the U-pins.
Making an oak leaf cornucopia is another classic fall decoration. For this project you will need white spray primer, an 18-inch cornucopia basket, gold floral Read the rest of this entry »
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Fall Decorating in Bryan College Station Texas – Part 1
October 17th, 2012 Categories: Home Improvement & Design, Restaurants & Fun
Fall is in the air, and Halloween and Thanksgiving are fast approaching. Some trees in Bryan and College Station decorate themselves with crisp yellow and orange leaves, and even the wind smells festive. I don’t know about you, but when I see nature begin to display its fall decorations, I want to pull out my own to spruce up my home. There are many different ways to save on decorating, and it is too easy to create your own fall crafts.
Fall garland is seasonal and perfect for draping around your doorway. Use multicolored decorative dried corn and space out the cobs six to eight inches apart on a string of raffia. Tie the raffia around each piece of dried corn where the husk meets the kernels. Doing it this way will make the cobs hang off of the garland vertically. If you want them to sit horizontally, you can tie the tip of one cob to the husk of the next with something sturdier, such as floral wire.
A pinecone lamp finial is an excellent way to bring a tiny bit of the festivity
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Good Relationship with Contractors
October 3rd, 2012 Categories: Home Improvement & Design, Investment Real Estate
There are some projects in your College Station home that you deem too valuable to figure out on your own.You may not even want a handyman coming in and attempting them without an official license and professional training. No, certain projects, like installing a hot water heater and high voltage outlets and replacing zone valves for hot water heating are too serious to skimp out on. You may have a faucet that has been leaking constantly and cannot seem to be fixed by the traditional methods. You may be interested in large scale renovations – remodeling part or large portions of your home.
Professional contractors are perfect for ensuring quality work. With an unlicensed handyman, you are risking encountering additional problems in the future. You are even risking a job-not-so-well-done that might result in a large scale disaster later on – a flood or even a fire. The additional cost for the professional seems to fade away in the face of recovering from one of these large scale disasters.
With all electricians, plumbers and HVAC guys, it is crucial to maintain a strong professional relationship. You do not necessarily have to be best friends. It is essential to be respectful and to
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Tax Deductions for Rental Properties
September 19th, 2012 Categories: Home Improvement & Design, Investment Real Estate
Depreciation
This is one of the biggest ways to save on your taxes. Depreciation allows owners to deduct a portion of the cost of their property over several years. The actual cost of the rental property is not able to be fully deducted in the same year you pay for it.
By the IRS’s standards, if you depreciate the entire building with its contents, it must take 27 ½ years for a residential property, or 39 years for a commercial property. Each year, you can have an income of up to your depreciation value without having to pay any income taxes on it. There are strategies that speed this process up such as segregation, dividing up appliances and furniture which depreciate in about five years.
Improvements and repairs
Making improvements and repairs to a rental property is inevitable. However, the full cost of any
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