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10 Home Resolutions to Tackle This Year
It’s easy to remember to tackle things like exercise, diet and business goals, but what about resolutions for your home?By Erica Reitman, HGTV.comWe’re a few weeks into the new year, and you’re likely pretty committed to your personal resolutions. But why not think through some design and project-based resolutions that you can work toward in your home this year, too? Here are 10 of our faves. (No treadmill required.)More From HGTV.com:25 Biggest Decorating Mistakes and Solutions37 Design Trends We’re Over for 201625 Remodeling Projects You Can Do in a Weekend
- HGTV on Yahoo
11 Twists on a Subway Tile Backsplash
Stylish and classic, the gorgeous subway tile backsplash trend is here to stay. But we have just the thing to set your kitchen apart.By Keri Sanders, HGTV.comMore From HGTV.com:15 Creative Kitchen Backsplashes You Haven’t Considered20 Dreamy Kitchen IslandsBefore + After: 20 Incredible Small Bathroom Makeovers
- HGTV on Yahoo
7 Curb Appeal Mistakes to Avoid
Don’t sabotage your home sale with outdoor decor that turns buyers off before they’ve even walked through the door.By Gretchen Roberts, HGTV.comMore From HGTV.com:15 Before-and-After Curb Appeal Makeovers10 Curb Appeal Tips From the ProsQUIZ: What Color Should You Paint Your Front Door?
- Jennifer Karmon
Kendrick Lamar’s Childhood Home in Compton Is for Rent
Kendrick Lamar, deemed “arguably the most talented rapper of his generation” by Rolling Stone last year when he was 27, has written and spoken often of growing up in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, which just this past weekend awarded him the Key to the City. Last night his trenchant Grammy performance burned up the stage (almost literally), closing with Lamar silhouetted against the African continent under the word “Compton.” “Everything that I do is a reflection of how I felt when I was younger,” he said in accepting the Key to the City. And this is the place he has in mind: the house where he grew up, at 1612 West 137th Street in Compton. It’s six blocks from Tam’s Burgers — “where I seen my second murder, actually,” he told Rolling Stone. “Eight years old, walking home from McNair Elementary. Dude was in the drive-thru ordering his food, and homey ran up, boom boom — smoked him.” (Tam’s is the same restaurant where Suge Knight is said to have run over two men in the parking lot.) The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,200 square feet, and it’s up for rent at $1,895 a month. “It’s a hell of a neighborhood,” one old-timer told Rolling Stone. Josh Eells’ whole profile is excellent, but here are some sections relevant to Kendrick Lamar’s childhood home: “On his breakthrough album, 2012’s ‘good kid, m.A.A.d City,’ Lamar made his name by chronicling this neighborhood, vividly evoking a specific place (this same stretch of Rosecrans) and a specific time (in the summer of 2004, between 10th and 11th grade). It was a concept album about adolescence, told with cinematic precision through the eyes of someone young enough to recall every detail. … "Lamar has a lot of good memories of Compton as a kid: riding bikes, doing back flips off friends’ roofs, sneaking into the living room during his parents’ house parties. ('I’d catch him in the middle of the dance floor with his shirt off,’ his mom says. 'Like, "What the … ? Get back in that room!”’) … “He was so precocious his parents nicknamed him Man-Man. 'I grew up fast as [expletive],’ he says. 'My moms used to walk me home from school — we didn’t have no car — and we’d talk from the county building to the welfare office.’ 'He would ask me questions about Section 8 and the Housing Authority, so I’d explain it to him,’ his mom says. 'I was keeping it real.’ … ”'I’m going to be 100 percent real with you,’ Lamar says. 'In all my days of schooling, from preschool all the way up to 12th grade, there was not one white person in my class. Literally zero.’ Before he started touring, he had barely left Compton; when he finally did, the culture shock threw him. 'Imagine only discovering that when you’re 25,’ Lamar says. 'You’re around people you don’t know how to communicate with. You don’t speak the same lingo. It brings confusion and insecurity. Questioning how did I get here, what am I doing? That was a cycle I had to break quick. But at the same time, you’re excited, because you’re in a different environment. The world keeps going outside the neighborhood.’ … “He still hasn’t splurged on much: So far his biggest purchase is a relatively modest house in the suburbs east of L.A., which he bought for his parents more than a year ago. Top Dawg [Anthony Tiffith, CEO of Lamar’s label] says that at first his mom didn’t want to take it, because it meant giving up their Section 8 status. Kendrick had to reassure her: 'It’s OK, Mom. We’re good.’ ('It was hard times, and we’ve been through a lot,’ says Kenny [Duckworth, Lamar’s father]. 'But like Drake said: "We started from the bottom, now we’re here.”’)“ Click here to read Rolling Stone’s full 2015 cover profile of Kendrick Lamar. More on Yahoo Real Estate: • Single Mom Builds a Tiny House, Rebuilds a Family (1 video, 45 photos)• Bit of Cursed Mike Tyson Estate Asks $150,000 (42 photos)• Sarah Palin’s Sporty Arizona Home Hits Market (64 photos)
- Michelle Huffman
Former Workingman's Cottage In Brooklyn Now Rents for $5K
In a textbook example of look-how-expensive-NYC-keeps-getting, a former workingman’s cottage is now renting for $5,000 per month. A similar unit sold last year for $1.45 million.The two-bedroom cottage is part of the Warren Place Mews, a block of 34 small homes threaded together in Cobble Hill. They were originally established as workingman’s homes, or the equivalent of today’s affordable housing. But unlike today’s affordable housing, these were built in the late 1800s by businessman Alfred Tredway White, so these beautiful gothic homes have a little style.White was also a philanthropist and pioneer in housing reform who fought for better low-income housing for Brooklyn’s working class. As a developer, he advocated for the “philanthropy plus 5 percent model,” accepting comparatively modest 5 percent returns on his housing projects in order to make them affordable.Nowadays the little cottages aren’t exactly affordable. This 1,100-square-foot unit is renting for $4,900 per month. But with its charming interiors, brick walls and exposed wood beams, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, backyard garden and front facing an English courtyard, it’s hard to say the place should go for any less. Especially in Brooklyn.More on Yahoo Real Estate: • A-Frames Under $50,000 (66 photos) • Groovy Apartment Stuck in the 1970s Hits the Market for $158K (16 photos) • Agent Lists ‘Filthiest Home in Houston’ (1 video, 26 photos)h/t 6sqft
- Michelle Huffman
Own Your Own Castle and Play Life-Size Chess On The Roof, As Royalty Does
This $1.2 million California house is a castle, and the listing makes no qualms about it.The listing boasts a turret with a flag representing the castle, a dungeon with fireplace, a full bar to “entertain the realm" and a balcony “fit for a princess.” The listing agent encourages you to “bring your bannermen and coat of arms and take over the throne at Howden’s Castle.” There’s even a life-size chess board on the roof.The four-bedroom, five-bathroom home’s exterior certainly looks like a castle, and the San Lorenzo River wraps around it almost like a moat. Inside, many of the rooms look downright Medieval–except for the strikingly bland, modern kitchen–and many include a few castle props like swords, statues and coats of arms.The home was built in 1927 by its owner Robert Howden, hence its name, and has been a local tourist attraction ever since. Former owners expanded the property over the years. One would offer tours of the property, and another more recently converted it into a vacation rental for some time.The property was put on the market last year for $1.6 million and, failing to fetch a buyer, was reduced this month to $1.2 million.The castle is located in Ben Lomond, a small town in Santa Cruz, California. The home is represented by The Madani Real Estate Team.More on Yahoo Real Estate: • For $525K, Perfectly Preserved Historic Mansion Comes With Ghostly Cleaning Staff (24 photos) • Aging Playboy Mansion Asks $200M; Some Call It a ‘Teardown’ (68 photos) • Best of 2015: Abandoned Mystery Behemoth in Texas (46 photos)
TruliaSurprise! Your Credit Score Matters More Than Ever In 2016
If you entered into adulthood after 2008, you probably became accustomed to thinking your cash savings are more likely to grow when safely tucked under your mattress than in most bank accounts, and that interest rates on auto loans and other loans are set in the single digits. While the interest rate hike was certainly on the low end, it signals a shift for consumers — one that makes maintaining a high credit score even more of a priority going forward. While interest rates on auto loans didn’t see an immediate jump with the Federal Reserve’s announcement, future increases will eventually hit consumers in noticeable ways.
DornobLow-Budget House in Japan Inspired by Animal Nests
When budget is the most important consideration in designing and building a home, economy tends to outweigh aesthetics and even usability. But with ‘MYZ Nest’, a house inspired by animal nests, Japanese architecture firm no.555 has proven that even small and humble residences can be thoughtful and visually interesting.
Michelle HuffmanTake a Peek Inside Maya Angelou’s $5.1M Harlem Brownstone
Maya Angelou’s Harlem brownstone has hit the market for $5.1 million, a record for the new New York City neighborhood.
CurbedThere's a Bedroom Hidden in a Berlin Subway Tunnel, and No One Knows Where It Came From
Bad news: workers found that bedroom you made for yourself in an abandoned tunnel in the Berlin subway system during a routine fire inspection and took a bunch of pictures and sent them them to the Berliner Zeitung. While...
Realtor.comSwipe Right? Tinder Co-Founder Justin Mateen Renting Out His Beverly Hills Home
Justin Mateen, co-founder of Tinder, is hoping someone will be willing to splurge on a $15,000-per-month relationship with his house in Beverly Hills, CA. The post Swipe Right? Tinder Co-Founder Justin Mateen Renting Out His Beverly Hills Home appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.
Realtor.comThis Week’s Most Popular Home Is a Party Pad in New Orleans
Turn down for what? Put on your best party hat, as we examine the week's most popular homes on realtor.com®, topped by a luxe remodel in the Big Easy. The post This Week’s Most Popular Home Is a Party Pad in New Orleans appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.
Jennifer KarmonThe Nation’s Emptiest Cities
Numbers just released by RealtyTrac indicate that for most challenged housing markets, the problem is tight supply. But in a few metro areas, the vacancy rate is still far above the overall nation’s — almost five times worse in Flint, Michigan, for example.
Jennifer KarmonU.S. Cities That Are Running Out of Homes
For all the talk of “zombie foreclosures” and abandoned homes that have so recently plagued the nation, “the challenge facing most U.S. real estate markets is not too many vacant homes but too few,” says RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist.
- Jennifer Karmon
Water-Softening Plant With Concrete Beds Asks $2M+
In typically understated British fashion, the listing describes this Kentish home — created from two towers of a former water-softening plant, with amenities that include “hand-crafted concrete beds and baths” — as “highly individual.” It’s asking 1.5 million pounds, or more than $2 million at current exchange rates. The home’s four levels are linked by spiral staircases, with six bedrooms and six “bath/shwer rooms” — the master suite occupying the full top floor. There’s a heated rooftop pool as well as a “gym suite” with a sauna and plunge pool. The property surrounding the home encompasses 8 acres of lawns and pastures. The Lime Works, as the property is known, was built in the 1930s and served as a water-softening plant until 1942; the current owners acquired it in 2005 and “sympathetically converted, restored and refurbished the building,” the listing says. They’re still working on it. They intend to nearly complete the home but leave about 10 percent of the work to let the buyer specify the finishing touches. More on Yahoo Real Estate: • Boring Suburban Facade Hides Outrageous Interior – to Fool the Tax Man (47 photos)• Comedian Steve Martin’s Utterly Unfunny Concrete Home (27 photos)• Bunker-Like Underground Mansion Is One Way to Dodge Zoning Rules (51 photos)
Consumer ReportsWhirlpool Settles Dishwasher Fire Lawsuit With Offer of Rebates and Repairs
It took six years but Steve Chambers finally got justice for a dishwasher fire that destroyed his KitchenAid model. When Whirlpool, which made the dishwasher, refused to investigate or to refund ...
CurbedGuy Who Moved the Rams to L.A. Buys $725M Ranch
What do you do after you move a football team to Los Angeles, becoming the most hated man in your home state of Missouri in the process? Apparently, you buy a $725 million ranch in a different state. That...
- Jennifer Karmon
3 Octagons for $3 Million
Built in 1989, this Cape Cod hilltop property is hard to miss: The home comprises three octagons, or, as Curbed puts it, a “giant upside down Mickey Mouse head” when viewed from above. Just shy of an acre on the waterfront in Eastham, Massachusetts, the octagons enclose about 4,600 square feet of living space, including four bedrooms and five bathrooms. The great room earns its name, with soaring ceilings and wide views of “ocean, marsh and cove,” the listing says — and “retained perpetual view easements over abutting properties ensure enjoyment of the dramatic panorama for generations to come.” More on Yahoo Real Estate: • A-Frames Under $50,000 (66 photos)• Boring Suburban Facade Hides Outrageous Interior – to Fool the Tax Man (47 photos)• Tiny Private Paradise of an Island Eases You Into Off-Grid Living (54 photos)
The Fiscal TimesWhy So Many Renters Aren’t Buying Homes Yet
There is a simple reason why so many renters aren’t buying into the proverbial American Dream of owning a home: They don’t want to.
- Jennifer Karmon
Better Than a Murphy Bed? Loft Beds for Grown-Ups
Brooklyn-based woodworker Roberto Gil has been designing space-saving furniture for more than 20 years now. He’s perhaps best known for his stylish children’s beds, sold under the brand Casa Kids. Now he’s offering a loft bed under his line for grown-ups, Casa Collection, inspired by New York City’s first micro-apartment building. Called Urbano, the loft beds come in queen and king sizes. No pricing information is available on his website yet, but similar systems for kids have starting prices that range from about $3,400 to $5,900, depending on whether you opt for a ladder or stairs to access the sleep space. (The stairs are a separate unit of drawers, so they add about $1,000 to the cost.) We do wonder a bit about the durability of the loft beds for adults’ … erm, noctural activities. But presumably the children’s furniture is subjected to more than its fair share of vigor, too, so perhaps our concern is misplaced.(h/t Curbed) More tiny living on Yahoo Real Estate: • A-Frames Under $50,000 (66 photos)• ‘Bad-Ass Single Mom’ Builds a Tiny House, Rebuilds a Family (1 video, 45 photos)• The Family That Lives in a School Bus (37 photos)
- Michelle Huffman
For $10, You Can Stay In Van Gogh’s Room
For $10 per night, you can stay in artist Vincent Van Gogh’s room. We don’t mean the physical room he slept in, we mean the room he painted.Van Gogh is renting out his “Bedroom in Arles” in Chicago this month. It’s a completely real bedroom, with working bathroom, designed to look exactly like the artist’s painting of his bedroom at 2, Place Lamartine in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, France (also known as his Yellow House).Posing as Van Gogh, the Art Institute of Chicago is behind the rental, which is promoting an upcoming exhibit where all three versions of Van Gogh’s “Bedroom in Arles” paintings will be displayed together for the first time, along with 30 other works by the artist.Mr. Van Gogh requests just $10 “for no other reason than I need to buy paint,” but offers tickets to the exhibit in exchange.Naturally the experience is completely sold out for February, though the Art Institute says it hopes to extend the experience a few months (luckily, if you’re dead-set on living in a famous artist’s home you can buy Michelangelo’s Italian pad for $8.4 million).The exhibit, “Van Gogh’s Bedrooms” opens Feb. 14 in Chicago. (Photos via Airbnb listing/The Art Institute of Chicago)More on Yahoo Real Estate: • Seriously Cheap, Seriously Cool: Refrigerator Tycoon’s Home is WSJ House of the Year (66 photos, 1 video) • PETA Wants ‘Silence of the Lambs’ House for an ‘Empathy Museum’ (64 photos) • For $525K, Perfectly Preserved Historic Mansion Comes With Ghostly Cleaning Staff (24 photos)
CurbedBeyoncé's 'Formation': How a Historic Pasadena Home Went Southern Gothic for This Year's Biggest Video
Calling the video shoot fast would be an understatement.
Business InsiderSee whether your local Sears or Kmart is shutting down
Sears is closing 50 stores. Sears is struggling.
Consumer ReportsSave money with home office tax deductions
Small-business owners bedeviled by expense calculations for their home office tax deductions can take advantage of an IRS rule that offers a potentially less time-consuming way to figure out some...
“He’s not a radical. But he is running on the most liberal policy platform of any Democratic candidate in modern history.”
“Public opinion has been shifting leftward, and Biden’s thinking has shifted with it.”
“Biden shows that he’s more moderate than some in his party.”
“Biden has always been a creature of his time, and the COVID-19 crisis could force him to veer further left.”
“Liberal activists have lauded the campaign’s outreach to progressives.”