The Blueprint Blog

Photograph by zharth on Flickr

Summer is a great season—beaches, vacations, BBQs on your patios…  But as we enter the dog-days of summer, you home may feel more like a sauna than a refuge.  If you have air conditioning, your utility bills are skyrocketing.  It doesn’t have to be this way.

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In today’s competitive real estate market, home builders and seller are doing everything they can to lure potential buyers. Selling a house based on three bedrooms, two baths and a big back-yard is no longer adequate. Buyers are looking for something extra. This is particularly true among women.

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A new home brochure or an MLS listing will provide you with a good deal of information about a new home but sometimes it’s beneficial (and fun) to experience a view of the property from space i.e., a satellite image. Where is your home in relation to the nearby school, highway or shopping centre? If you are relocating to another city and don’t have the luxury of researching the surroundings in person, then viewing a satellite image is a very worthwhile task.

One of the most popular means to view satellite imagery is Google Earth which allows visitors to travel over and zoom in on stitched together satellite photos of the world. In addition to viewing a home, Google Earth can be used to find driving directions, local restaurants and other points of interest, determine the distance between two locations and research various destinations around the world. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured searches and share the information with others.

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Is it strange to be comforted by the fact that even home sellers with properties approaching or over $100 million are experiencing some degree of difficulty in this tough financial market? Three of the properties which appeared on last year’s Forbes Magazine list of the world’s most expensive homes have been de-listed and one sold with a $25 million price reduction (this happened to be Donald Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida). Although, you must contain your grin as the property still sold for $100 million and earned him close to a $60 million profit in four years.

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Have you ever thought of owning a luxurious, wooden home? The desire may be the result of wanting to own an attractive, superbly crafted log home but may also have something to do with the locale many of us attribute to log homes – sitting mountainside with snow-covered rooftops. Here are some facts about wooden homes:

- wooden homes are eco-friendly and healthy to live in
- wood is one of the most durable building materials
- wood is naturally warm in the winter and cool in the summer
- wood homes are fast to build and low on maintenance

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Fleas – the thought of them makes you itch but may also make you cringe as you consider the nasty problem of ridding your home of these tiny invaders. With some patience, persistence and the following steps, you should be on the right track:

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Whether you are currently involved with buying or selling a home or a homeowner with a healthy dose of curiosity, finding out what homes are selling for in your area can be a very worthwhile process. There are a few ways you can accomplish this task and some involve a little more digging than others.

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