Colorado Springs Real Estate Facts & Fun

The great thing about a brand-new home in a brand-new subdivision, is the brand-newness of it all. The not so great thing is the lack of privacy and shade. While Colorado is rather temperate, the sun is hot, the elevation is high, and our likelihood to burn sitting outside for more than 15 minutes is higher yet. Especially that left arm hanging out of our car window as we race around doing errands!

To be able to completely enjoy your outdoor space, here are some privacy and shade-y tips for you to consider. After all, now is the time to start planning and organizing your spring projects!

Privacy

In new subdivisions you sometimes wonder why the developer didn't leave more than 10 feet inbetween each house, and why on earth they designed the subdivision to allow 4 other houses look in on your dining room while your family, for once, is sitting down together eating.

*Before digging in your new yard, please call the utilities company to spray for you where your power and gas lines lay.*

To create privacy it sometimes meaning creating borders. Fencing is common, and if you bake your neighbors some cookies and propose a plan to put up a nice wooden fence, they too may want to go in on the expenses with you to have it match. Some HOA's (Home Owners Associations) only allow certain types of fences, at certain heights, colors, and more. Please verify with your board before building.

Want to go green? You could buy green materials for your fencing, or you could plant green.  Tall shrubs which grow quickly can provide a natural barrier between you and your neighbors, while also providing a little shade and a nice wind block.

Trees are another great green and natural privacy blocker. Trees also provide a lot of filtered shade. Conifers grow exceptionally well in Colorado, although as I've seen in older neighborhoods, if you give them time, deciduous (leaf bearing) trees also thrive.

Bamboo is an overlooked plant that grows very fast, spreads fast, and makes a great fence. If you feel industrious, you can also cut some and weave baskets, burn it for kindling, or make furniture out of it.

Swings attached to pergolas don't necessarily create a large privacy barrier, but they do set a tone for, "This is where your eye needs to stop looking."

Large pots of varying sizes placed near patios can create a more private setting for those sitting on the patio, but won't necessarily block your neighbor's yard. These can be really nice features to add to your space by bringing in colors, tall grasses, and colorful flowers.

Shade

We already covered trees, as an obvious solution to producing or creating some shade in your yard. One thing I haven't mentioned yet, is your grass will thank you for some relief during the afternoon. So many new homes put down sod. The sod undoubtedly fries in the hot sun and the new yard looks bad. By planting trees in your yard you are providing some shelter for your grass as the sun passes over it. The shade provided by trees, especially as they get taller, can help you reduce energy costs in your house. During the winter months, the trees can act as wind barriers, and in the summer, the trees provide shade helping keep your house a few degrees cooler.

Arbors and trellises can make a lovely addition to any backyard or patio. If you are a gardening buff and want a nice place to sit amongst your plants, an arbor can be a great touch. Place a bench under and allow roses or other climbing vines to grow on it. Placing a trellis above a deck can provide nice shade, and if it is a lower deck, growing vines on it can help provide more wind breaks and shade. Some people have grown grape vines and used the grapes to create their wine! Imagine sitting in the shade on your patio sipping wine that came from the very vines amongst you! I've also seen hops grown and the hops used in home brewing. A win-win!

Pergolas are just like arbors only they are comprised of wooden beams instead of trellising. These can be very nice for a eastern or northern facing deck that doesn't see much sunshine, but you are looking for an architectural feature.

For the past couple of months, most of my DIY projects around the house have been outdoors. Given the heavy afternoon rains, and general time of year, it is time to start to think about some indoor projects. This is a quick and inexpensive DIY project that will leave extra time for you and sweetie at the end to enjoy.

A majority of rooms in a house that appear on the DIY shows are the master bedroom. See the next blog for decorating tips in this area. This post is about the mood lighting. Say it with a sultry voice, mood lighting.

Many new homes are built with the one very bright, center of the ceiling light. Why is this not a great choice for a bedroom? Well, either it’s on or it’s off, there is no in between. Much like no one likes to see themselves in a 5-way mirror, the bright light doesn’t do much for getting us in the mood. Too saucy? Another reason we don’t like the light is it’s brightness when reading. Often times if you want to read in bed, this light is at such an angle making you scrunch your eyes together, bend the book in an odd way, and in the end giving you a headache. (Yup, this is a real excuse, and here’s the problem.)

There are a few solutions to this problem.

1. Get a chandelier (not the big glass ones), a more modern one, as pictured here:  What’s neat about this particular design are the candle-looking lights, adding  warmth and romanticism to the space.

2. Wall sconces. Sconces aren’t just for outdoor lighting by the doors. By hanging sconces on either side of the headboard, you can draw the eyes to the bed. This is particularly neat if you have a really beautiful headboard you would like to accent. A sconce that allows light out of the top and bottom can make the room feel taller creating long lit lines. Sconces can also be wired to a dimmer, thereby allowing you even more flexibility with the amount of light in your room.

3. Table lamps are great for a traditional bedroom. Many lamps come with three or five light settings, check before purchasing. These will require special light bulbs as well, but here again you have the flexibility of chosing your light brightness.

You can find more home lighting ideas at any local home improvement store, which is where I found the photo above. Places like Target and Walmart have great deals on lamps right now, particularly for those kids heading off to college.

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Side, side, side, side makes a box, and siding is found on the outside of our box/house. What is the exterior of your house made of? Stucco, vinyl siding, rock, wood, logs, or mud? Ok, I hope you aren't selling a mud hut, but if you are I don't think this post will help you.

Series Part 8: SIDING

Whatever your house exterior is made of will require some time and attention. Keeping the exterior in a clean condition, especially when trying to sell your house can be tough. If you have vinyl siding, rock, or brick, power washing is the fastest way to clean your house from the outside. Start from the top, and work your way down.

With stucco, wood, and log, it can be a little more difficult as power washing sometimes causes bigger problems. Stucco can chip off creating the new problem of repainting. Wood can be the same, especially on older homes which typically need new painting every 10 years. Log homes can withstand the pressure, but maybe create rot in the wood if it hasn't been properly sealed or a resealant hasn't been added in some time.

The outside of your house says a lot about you as the homeowner and how well you've cared for the house. In Colorado where hail is common, vinyl siding can take a real beating. Check over the sides of the house where hail is common, and replace siding as needed.

In many homes carpeting is placed onto stairs. For anyone who lives in a house with carpeting on stairs, you know how tough it can be to keep those vacumed and cleaned. Do yourself a favor and rip out the carpeting! In many home decorating, design, and remodel magazines, carpeting is coming off of stairs, and paints, wall paper, and stains are going down instead.

For about $95 you can tear out your old carpet, refinish the treads (where your feet land on the stairs), and paint the risers (the perpendicular “face” of stairs) white. 1 gallon of white paint, sandpaper, wood putty to fill tack holes, 1 quart of stain, and 1 gallon of clear polyurethane is all that you will need. If this seems a bit expensive, or you want to take it a notch further on the trendy scale, find a unique wall paper design. Measure the risers and scour wall paper sections at your home improvement or interior design stores. Put the wall paper up instead of buying the 1 gallon of white paint, or don’t buy the stain, and paint white. The sky is the limit when it comes to creativity. To clean the stairs, you can sweep or Swifter.

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Sometimes a bookshelf, especially a built-in bookshelf, needs to hold or store more than just books.

It is easy to go out shopping for just the perfect piece of furniture or bookshelf.  However, another option is to create cubbies in a bookcase of your own making & creativity.  

To do this project, start by cutting vertical dividers to the depth of the unit minus 3/4 inch, and secure them in place with glue and finish nails. Face dividers with 1×1 trim flush with the shelf fronts. One sheet of 3/4-inch plywood and three 1×1 strips. You can find all of these materials at your local home improvement store, and shouldn’t cost you more than $30 for this quick fix.

To bring style to the new cubbies, pick up a few collapsible boxes of the same color (or different colors) to hide the toys, multiple remotes, or other items you don’t need to showcase in the bookshelf.

Want to take your bookcase to the next level? Consider putting in leftover wallpaper, or paint the back a different color. Pictured here, a bookshelf with orange background and a white swirl tree. Similar colors to that of Dr. Seuss, and perfect for a child’s room. Cubbies were created with the boxes in mind to store countless smaller toys to keep the space organized and picked up.

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Applying mulch is one of the best things you can do for your flower and plant beds, trees and vegetable garden. Mulch is a layer of organic or inorganic material that is spread out on top of the soil to protect against erosion and conserve moisture. Both organic and inorganic mulches have many benefits, although organic mulch actually enriches the soil. Mulch helps plants maintain a more even soil temperature and prevents weed growth to reduce garden maintenance. In addition, mulch gives your garden beds a neat, landscaped appearance. Before you buy mulch, consider the following questions:

Are you looking for a way to reduce weed growth? Does your garden need mulch that will improve the soil? When is it appropriate to use landscape fabric as mulch? How much wood mulch should you apply for best results? How long do you want your mulch to last?

Organic Mulch, Inorganic Mulch and Application

There are two basic types of mulch, organic and inorganic. Both act as ground cover and offer the benefits of insulating and retaining soil. Organic mulches break down after a season or two and need to be reapplied. In this way, they actually enhance the soil by adding organic material. Inorganic mulches are more permanent, but they do not improve the soil structure. Other types of mulch vary according to their appearance and longevity. Before you add mulch to your garden, you’ll want to take a few minutes to learn about how much you should apply, both for the benefit of your plants and to prevent yourself from buying too much or too little material.

Organic Mulch: Many organic mulch materials can be found in your own yard, such as grass clippings, leaves and pine needles. Newspaper is excellent mulch for vegetable gardens, as it keeps weed growth down and protects low-hanging vegetables. Composted manure is also excellent for vegetable gardens but will not work for front yard gardens for obvious reasons. Hay and straw work well, especially when you need mulch that is light and airy, such as a lawn cover after applying grass seed. There are also several attractive wood mulches that can be purchased.

Organic mulch fertilizes sandy soil and helps hold water and nutrients Bark mulch lasts for one to three years, then may require reapplication Smaller wood chips are easier to spread around smaller plants Be aware that hay and straw mulch may harbor weed seeds Pine needles increase soil acidity, making them ideal for use around acid-loving plants

Inorganic Mulch: Inorganic mulch includes stone, landscape fabric and plastic. Though these materials are not as beneficial to the soil as organic mulch, they last much longer. Black plastic does not work well in landscaping but may be useful in a vegetable garden. Landscape fabric is applied to the surface of soil before planting and is porous so it allows water in but keeps weeds out. Stone is used on paths, around walkways and around permanent plantings, such as shrubs and trees. Stone does not work well for vegetable or flower gardens.

When to Apply Mulch

Time of application depends on what you hope to achieve by mulching. Mulches, by providing an insulating barrier between the soil and the air, moderate the soil temperature. This means that a mulched soil in the summer will be cooler than an adjacent unmulched soil; while in the winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply. However, since mulch acts as an insulating layer, mulched soils tend to warm up more slowly in the spring and cool down more slowly in the fall than unmulched soils.

If you are using mulches in your vegetable garden or flower garden, it is best to apply them after the soil has warmed up in the spring. Cool, wet soils tend to slow seed germination and increase the decay of seeds and seedlings.

If adding additional layers of mulch to existing perennial beds, wait until the soil has warmed completely.

Mulches used to help moderate winter temperatures can be applied late in the fall after the ground has frozen but before the coldest temperatures arrive. Applying mulches before the ground has frozen may attract rodents looking for a warm over-wintering site. Delayed applications of mulch should prevent this problem as, hopefully, the creatures would already have found some other place to nest!

Mulches used to protect plants over winter should be loose material such as straw, hay, or pine boughs that will help insulate the plants without compacting under the weight of snow and ice. One of the benefits from winter applications of mulch is the reduction in the freezing and thawing of the soil in the late winter and early spring. These repeated cycles of freezing at night and then thawing in the warmth of the sun cause many small or shallow rooted plants to be heaved out of the soil. This leaves their root systems exposed and results in injury or death. Mulching helps prevent the rapid fluctuations in soil temperature and reduces the chances of heaving.

Resources by NRCS.USDA.gov and the Home Depot

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Colorado Homes often have what is commonly here referred to as a "mud room".  Not that we have a lot of rain (unless it is May 2011) but more symbolic of the fact that people who live here tend to love the outdoors and enjoy various activities year round.  They also love their homes and having a place that you can come in and unload  your "outdoor gear" is helpful in keeping your home clean while not losing out on all the outdoor fun as well.

Is your family tracking muddy shoes and paws all over your house? A few years ago I discovered a floor mat that is perfect for wood floors.

Chilewich woven vinyl mats, available in a multitude of colors, protect the finish on wood floors. What’s so neat about these, and perfect for these muddy days, is the mats wash out in the sink! The mats don’t need any drying time, though you could hang them up to dry if you wanted. What’s more, Chilewich mats can be custom-sized to fit your flooring needs.

If you are interested in learning more about these mats, you can view Chilewich website, or visit your local Crate and Barrel which carries standard sizes in stock. Most mats start at $50 making this a great value for an often overlooked area of your house.

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Last week I discovered an interesting company here in Colorado Springs that specializes in helping home owners understand their home's energy use.  A tune-up report is generated that provides a list of recommendations for energy improvement.  Even better, it comes with savings and cost estimates for each item listed.  

Whether you are buying or selling a home or just looking to save money this is a great option.  For sellers you can show potential buyers your report and what you have done or are doing for improvements.  Or, price the house with improvements needed in mind and show that.  For buyers, being able to distinguish between one home vs. another when they are close can help with a final decision.

For homeowners who are happy in their house and looking to find out how their home is doing from an energy usage standpoint here is a great way to get a baseline and a plan for moving forward.  

Go to Colorado Energy Audits website for more information.  Ed & Phil Anthony are the owners and bring a lot of experience, knowledge and honesty to their customers.

As one of our Spring snow storms passed through and has almost completely melted it reminds me that Springtime in the Rockies is quickly upon us.  With all the attention on the economy, jobs, the stock market, etc. I thought something about gardening with a twist would be fun and of interest.

Planting and gardening are two hobbies that many people enjoy and get a lot of satisfaction out of.  The interesting question becomes, where do you get the plant?  In this particular case I am talking about trees.  Whether you are looking for an interesting closing gift, sprucing up your yard, being Green or looking for something for a hard to buy "someone" the gift of a tree is unusual and gives back in many different ways.

There is a small tree farm located 1 hour South of Colorado Springs called Rancho San Carlos Tree Farm.  They grow deciduous trees that are happy in a Colorado climate and specialze in a pot - n - pot system.  This means that the trees grow in their own pots and can be harvested year round.  Grown locally they are acclimated to Colorado's climate and tend to do very well once planted, watered and cared for in a yard. 

The trip down is a beautiful drive and the ranch itself is worth the trip.  The savings on trees is great being able to buy directly from a tree farm.  You have to call first because they are available by appointment.   Call 719-485-7476 and talk to Jarrod or DeAnna.  

The Rancho San Carlos Tree Farm website also has a lot of information about trees and helpful tips if you are looking but not sure what for.  Click here for more information http://www.rsctreefarm.com/