Your Home - Your Castle http://www.stagingprince.com Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:59:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 Home Staging: Is Clean Good Enough? http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-clean/ http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-clean/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:05:02 +0000 The Quill http://www.stagingprince.com/?p=491 Continue reading →]]> It isn’t easy being clean Buyers want clean closets and ultra-clean kitchen cabinets. They want bathrooms that look like they have never been used. Spotless  carpets and bright cheery rooms free of cobwebs. It’s a tall order but it is essential if you want to get top price and sell fast. Some homeowners are obsessive about maintaining the cleanliness of their homes. But even if you haven’t been especially diligent about keeping the house clean, all is not lost. Hire a top-notch commercial cleaning service to clean the house thoroughly prior to listing for sale. A thorough housecleaning includes steam-cleaning of carpets and tile grout, washing of air conditioning and heating vents and overhead fan blades, cleaning around faucets and stove-top control knobs — with a toothbrush if necessary — and drycleaning of draperies. Windows must sparkle because clean windows let in more light. The house can and should be immaculate for its first open house. And after the special cleaning, the cleanliness has to be maintained. Kids and pets present a real challenge to keeping your house clean. Toys should be kept out of sight in cabinets, chests or even duffel bags. If you have pets, vacuum your furniture and carpets daily. Is it enough to be immaculate? Stagers are quizzical when they hear an agent at an open house claim that “this house is immaculate,” implying that one should buy it for that reason alone. Of course it’s immaculate. It’s expected. Why would anyone pay good money for a dirty or poorly maintained house? While being clean and neat is essential to get top price, it isn’t enough. To prepare a house for sale means more than cleaning. It also means repairing, updating, and staging. It means keeping all the rooms organized and uncluttered. Putting everything in its place. Every day until the house is sold. The house must also look appealing to a buyer. Clean and neat isn’t enough if a buyer can’t connect with the house because the big-screen tv (thoroughly dusted though it may be) dominates the living room or because the kitchen looks to prospective buyers like their parents’ rather than their friends’. Making rooms look appealing means using furniture placement, paint colors and window treatments to highlight a room’s best features. It isn’t easy being clean, and it’s just a part of making a house appealing to a buyer.
]]> http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-clean/feed/ 0 Home Staging: How to Make a Huge Room Feel Cozy http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-huge-room-feel-cozy/ http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-huge-room-feel-cozy/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:21:58 +0000 The Quill http://www.stagingprince.com/?p=488 Continue reading →]]> The big challenge of a Great Room Perhaps the biggest challenge is a very large Great Room. It is very difficult to connect emotionally with a huge room. How does one make it intimate while keeping it looking grand? Some homeowners have chosen to fill their Great Room with large-sized furniture, such as an overstuffed sofa and loveseat or a large sectional, theater chairs, an oversized dining room set, and so forth. Because large pieces must be placed further apart than what would be considered intimate, this design strategy will help take up the space but will not make the room feel cozy. Staging a room decorated in this way will require removing furniture and either substituting normal-sized furniture or leaving fewer pieces.

A better way to decorate a large room

There is a better way to decorate a huge space than with oversized furniture, and a stager will go for this look. That is to divide the large space into smaller sections, each with its own clear purpose. This can be done by function. Create an eating area, TV watching area, reading area and so forth, as appropriate, defining each section with its furniture or with area rugs. A professional home stager would arrange the main pieces of furniture to be functional in each area. For example, in a seating area, he would place them close enough together to promote conversation. This will make each area look cozy and comfortable, while keeping the room looking grand.
]]> http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-huge-room-feel-cozy/feed/ 0 Home Seller Privacy: Are Nosy Home Buyers in your Drawers? http://www.stagingprince.com/home-seller-privacy/ http://www.stagingprince.com/home-seller-privacy/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:01:18 +0000 The Quill http://www.stagingprince.com/?p=485 Continue reading →]]> Expectations of privacy As a home seller, what are your reasonable expectations of privacy? 1. Is it ok for a visitor to read documents you have put on the wall, such as diplomas and awards? How about personal photos that show family and friends? 2. Is it ok for a visitor to look in your refrigerator, pantry, clothes closets, or dresser drawers? How about in your medicine cabinet? 3. Is it ok for a visitor to read your personal notes on the fridge or bulletin board, look through your mail, look at the papers on your desk, open your file cabinet, check your email?

The interest of the buyer

You should be aware that there are nosy people who will intrusively seek to learn about the homeowners, either because they are merely curious or because they hope to gain an advantage in negotiating a price for your house. On the other hand, prospective buyers need to know how spacious your house is and how well maintained it is. This justifies their checking the size of closets, and checking out kitchen appliances, built-in cabinets and drawers. Do you leave your mail around? Is one of those letters from your friendly tax department, a collecton agency, or your mortgage holder — something that might indicate your motivation to sell? How about the comparative market analysis prepared by your listing agent to help price your house? It would be particularly unhelpful to you if a prospective buyer were to read such material.

How to protect your privacy

Here are some suggestions relating to your privacy: 1. Those sellers most concerned about maintaining their privacy should remove and pack away all personal photos and documents on the walls. They are distractions in any case. 2. If your dresser is built in, then opening the drawers is reasonable. With just a small stretch, the same could be said for your medicine cabinet. Clean your refrigerator, pantry and closets to make them look more spacious and to eliminate odors that will turn a buyer off. Put away, lock up or pack anything you don’t want a visitor to see. 3. It is unreasonable for a visitor to read your notes or your mail or to open your desk, file cabinets or computer. But that doesn’t mean they won’t do it. Lock away personal and business papers and turn off your computer. Clean all surfaces of clutter. Selling a house is never convenient. Maintaining your privacy makes sense, to protect your property, your identity and your ability to negotiate. A professional stager will point out potential privacy issues during his evaluation — another reason that it’s smart to hire a staging expert before you list your house for sale and open it to strangers.
]]> http://www.stagingprince.com/home-seller-privacy/feed/ 0 Philips Halogena Light Bulbs Replace Incandescents: Review http://www.stagingprince.com/philips-halogen-review/ http://www.stagingprince.com/philips-halogen-review/#comments Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:15:19 +0000 The Quill http://www.stagingprince.com/?p=440 Continue reading →]]> Review With the phase-out of 100-watt incandescent light bulbs well underway in the U.S., saving energy does not mean that you are restricted to a curlicue CFL or a $40 LED light bulb when replacing a burned out standard incandescent. Thanks to innovative ways that manufacturers have found to use tungsten-halogen lamps inside a light-bulb shaped luminaire, you can save energy and still achieve the brightness, light color, light spread, convenience, and general comfort you want in lighting your home’s interior spaces. One such innovation is the Halogená® range of light bulbs from Philips, available in several bulb shapes including A types for lamps, and reflector floods. These have medium screw-in bases and fit standard fixtures. Decorative bulbs with candelabra bases are also available.

Available Shapes

Halogená Energy Advantage light bulbs for lamps and ceiling mounted fixtures include replacements for the following standard A19 incandescents with a somewhat square-shaped A-type bulb. (Lumens is a measure of a bulb’s brightness, while watts is a measure of the power used by the bulb). Old incandescent Lumens Halogená T60 bulbs 100 watt                1600                70 watt 75 watt                  1100                50 watt 60 watt                   800                 40 watt Halogená reflector floodlight bulbs are available in R20, BR30 and BR40 shapes. There is also a 53-watt daylight bulb (830 lumens) available in a standard A19 shape.

Characteristics of Philips Halogen Light Bulbs

What these halogen bulbs have in common are instant-on, warm color-temperature (2900K, except for the daylight bulb), no mercury, no flickering, and about 30% energy savings compared to the incandescent bulbs they replace. They also work smoothly with dimmers down to a glow and can be mounted in any position. Their rated life is 3000 hours (1250 hours for the daylight bulb), which is 4 times the rated life of a standard incandescent. Their color rendering index value is 100.

Review and Recommendation

Philips Halogená Energy Advantage light bulbs are superior to CFL’s for ambient home lighting and for reading. Their light is comfortable, clear and bright. They work in all positions, with dimmers, and in recessed fixtures where CFL’s do not. They come on instantly with no flickering, and they contain no mercury. Unlike CFL’s, they maintain their initial brightness through their rated life. However, they are not cool to the touch like CFLs and LEDs or as energy efficent, though they meet the efficacy requirements of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. That means they are legal in California. With a cost of about $6 – 9 a bulb, they avoid the sticker shock common with LED light bulbs. Rather than compromise on your lighting with CFL’s, try a few of these new Philips Halogená light bulbs and achieve a 30% energy savings.
]]> http://www.stagingprince.com/philips-halogen-review/feed/ 0 Green Lighting: What are the Best Bulbs to Replace Incandescents? http://www.stagingprince.com/green-lighting-replace-incandescents/ http://www.stagingprince.com/green-lighting-replace-incandescents/#comments Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:54:01 +0000 The Quill http://www.stagingprince.com/?p=430 Continue reading →]]> How is energy efficiency measured? Power consumed by a bulb is measured in watts, while light produced is measured in lumens. For energy efficiency you want a bulb that produces the highest number of lumens per watt – called efficacy – provided that the bulb meets your needs in terms of brightness, light spread, light color, heat dissipation, convenience, and general comfort. Lights have different power and brightness ratings. In addition, in your home actual power consumed and resulting brightness will vary with your line voltage, which may be closer to 115V than to the 120V used in the ratings, so lightbulbs will be less bright. To enable you to compare an energy-saving light with an incandescent, here is a list of typical efficacies of standard incandescents by wattage for reference  (efficacy = lumens per watt): Watts Lumens Efficacy 150                  2680                18 100                  1600                16 75                   1125                 15 60                    800                  13 40                    470                  12 What you should look for in a replacement bulb is not just lower power consumption in watts, but higher efficacy for the brightness you need. After all, you could replace all your 100-watt incandescents with 40-watt incandescents and save 60% on your electricity bill.  But you need a certain amount of brightness – a number of lumens – for your application. So, for example, if you need 1600 lumens of light to read by, you will want to find a 1600-lumen replacement bulb that uses less than 100 watts of power – a bulb that has an efficacy higher than 1600/100, or 16. Higher efficacy is the goal of consumers and bulb manufacturers alike.

What types of bulbs save energy over incandescents?

  • A typical 12-watt LED light bulb might produce 800 lumens for an efficacy of 67, but some luminaires have been measured at 10-30% less due to inefficiencies in heat dissipation and lens quality, resulting in efficacy of 47-60.
  • A typical 24-watt CFL might produce 1600 lumens, but with its ballast and power management it may use 10% more than its rated power, for efficacy of 61, declining to 43-48 as the bulb loses brightness over time.
  • A typical 70-watt halogen luminaire might produce 1600 lumens for an efficacy of 23. It does not contain a ballast.
  • A typical 100-watt incandescent produces 1600 lumens for an efficacy of 16 (our reference bulb). It does not contain a ballast.
So you replace your burned-out 100-watt incandescents with 24-watt CFLs or 12-watt LEDs, right?  Perhaps.  But you need more information. Here are some considerations beyond efficacy:
  • Not all consumers like the light produced by CFLs, and they contain mercury, which can contaminate clothing and carpeting if the bulb breaks. Some CFLs have been found to produce high levels of UV light when tested. Some users complain of skin rashes and migraine. (UV-filtered CFLs and electronically-ballasted CFLs that eliminate flickering are available.)
  • A 24-watt CFL will cost about $2.50 and may last for 8000 hours if mounted right side up in a well-ventilated location and lit for 4 hours per day. Most CFL’s do not work well upside down, in enclosed spaces, or with dimmers, reducing their useful life considerably. They take a few minutes to reach full brightness and even longer to warm up fully. Turning them on and off frequently during the day and turning them off before they are fully warmed up will shorten their life. About.com reported that turning a CFL off after one hour will reduce its life by 20-50% and cycling a CFL like an incandescent — for 5 to 30 minutes at a time — will reduce its useful life by 70-85%. So an 8000-hour-rated CFL would last, on average, for around 1800 hours. In fact, some users complain that CFLs do not last any longer than incandescents.
  • A LED bulb is directional and has a light-spread of around 140 degrees compared to the 360 degrees of an incandescent, so it may not be satisfactory in a table lamp. But LED light bulbs are great in open recessed and track light fixtures, though not all LEDs work with dimmers.
  • LEDs don’t work very well in enclosed spaces. Efficacy of some enclosed LED luminaires has been measured at 25-30.
  • A 12-watt LED bulb will cost around $40 and last for 50,000 hours if used in a well-ventilated location.
  • Instead of replacing a 1600-lumen incandescent bulb with an 800-lumen 12-watt LED bulb, why not use a 24-watt LED bulb that produces 1600 lumens for the same nominal efficacy of 67? Answer: Because it doesn’t exist commercially yet. In high-power applications LED bulbs produce too much heat; they would need to be cooled with an internal fan, which would eat up much of the power saving. And the initial cost might be higher than $40 too. So you can try the 800-lumen LED bulb. It might be a satisfactory replacement for the incandescent as a downlight.

Energy savings is one of several considerations

Two conclusions are apparent from our research:
  1. Efficacy and useful life of CFL and LED bulbs in practice are not as high as found in manufacturers’ testing and labeling.
  2. Efficacy (energy savings) is just one consideration in deciding what replacement bulb to buy. There are costs and tradeoffs and suitability issues that you need to take into account.
It might well be that for your particular need a 50-watt or 70-watt halogen bulb with an efficacy of 23, a cost of $6, and a useful life of 3000 hours is the most energy-efficient bulb you can buy right now.  You might prefer such a bulb simply because it contains no mercury and warms up almost immediately, and you might attach a greater weight to those considerations than to the potential energy savings.

Expected life

An important cost issue is the expected life of the bulb, measured in hours. The number of hours printed on a bulb package as its rated life – say 3000 hours – is not a guarantee of how long the bulbs in that package will last, but more like an expectation. It represents the median life of a large quantity of bulbs of that type based on testing in ideal conditions.  For incandescent bulbs, it’s the expected time before the bulb burns out. For CFLs and LEDs, it’s the expected time before the bulb has lost 30% of its brightness (in lumens) or otherwise fails when lit for 4 hours per day. What is median life? If you were to take a large number of identical incandescent bulbs – say 1000 – and measure how many hours each one lasted till it burned out, 500 of them will have burned out within 3000 hours (125 days of continuous use). The first bulb to burn out might actually have lasted only an hour, while the last one to burn out might last for a year or more. You might be willing to pay more for a bulb with a longer useful life if it’s used in a place that’s hard to reach. But because the rated hours are just an expectation of its useful life, a particular bulb might not last nearly as long. So, what are the best light bulbs to replace incandescents and save power? It all depends. Choosing a suitable green lighting replacemnt bulb is more than looking at watts or even efficacy for some uses. For replacement bulbs for lamps and ceiling fixtures, see our review of Philips halogen light bulbs.
]]> http://www.stagingprince.com/green-lighting-replace-incandescents/feed/ 0 Kiss the 100-Watt Light Bulb Goodbye http://www.stagingprince.com/100-watt-light-bulb/ http://www.stagingprince.com/100-watt-light-bulb/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2011 05:07:46 +0000 The Quill http://www.stagingprince.com/?p=404 Continue reading →]]> Brightness and power Consumers think of the brightness of light bulbs in terms of watts. Clearly a 100-watt bulb is brighter than a 75, and each has a role to play in your home. But watts are a measure of the power used by the bulb to give you some light, while how much light it produces is measured in lumens. You can look on the light bulb package to see how many lumens a bulb produces. A standard incandescent light bulb that uses 100 watts of electricity produces about 1600 lumens of light. Long-life incandescents produce less light, about 1500 lumens — though some produce quite a bit less. What if a light bulb manufacturer could make a bulb that gave off 1600 lumens of light but used only 75 watts of electricity? Would that be a 75-watt bulb? Well, yes. But less confusing in terms of our bright, new future, it’s a 1600-lumen bulb that will save you 25% on your electric bill.  All good.

The Outlaw

OK, so what is happening to our old 100-watt light bulb? The Federal Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires general purpose incandescent light bulbs to use 25-30% less electricity than today’s. It is effective January 1, 2011 in California and January 1, 2012 everywhere else in the U.S., starting with 100-watt bulbs — then all the rest, down to 40-watt bulbs by January 2014. Bulbs of less than 40 watts and greater than 150 watts are exempt, as are specialty bulbs like appliance lamps, rough service lamps, 3-ways, colored bulbs and plant lights. A 100-watt bulb that produces 1600 lumens of light has an efficacy of 1600/100 = 16 lumens per watt.  In the second phase of the law, by 2020 all general purpose bulbs must produce 45 lumens per watt of power, with a few exemptions. This is about three times the efficacy of standard incandescents and twice the efficacy of the new halogens. So incandescent bulbs will still be able to be sold provided they are more efficient than the old ones. Let’s see what our choices are to replace the historic 100-watt incandescent light bulb.

Choices in 1600-lumen bulbs

Note: Price comparisons are based on an informal survey of prices for major brands on the web in January 2011. Let’s define some terms related to a 100-watt incandescent bulb: Our standard 100-watt incandescent has an A19 pear shape with a medium E26 screw base. It is designed for 120V, with either initial brightness of 1600 lumens and expected life of 750 hours (16 lumens per watt), or initial brightness of 1500 lumens and expected life of 1100 hours (15 lumens per watt). It may be clear or frosted. Its color temperature is a warm-white, about 2700-2800K. CFLs Compact fluorescent lamps are those curlicue bulbs that have been touted as the saviors of the planet. Indeed, fluorescents use less energy (typically 70% less than standard incandescents) and in practice can be expected to last 2-3 times longer than incandescents (not 10 times as suggested by their rated lifetime). Not everyone likes CFLs, however.  Health hazards are one problem. They are made with small quantities of mercury, which can contaminate clothing, carpeting and landfills if the bulbs break; they emit small amounts of UV rays (enough to affect some susceptible people); and their flickering may cause migraines. New electronically ballasted CFL’s don’t flicker, though not all migraineurs are convinced, and UV-filtered CFLs are available. A 1992 article published in the American Journal of Epidemiology warns that “fluorescent light exposure remains a potential risk factor for melanoma. “ Am J Epidemiol 1992; 135:749-62. While early CFLs were cool white, with a bluish cast, they are now available in warm white, though some people still don’t like the quality of light they produce. CFLs are more expensive, take several minutes to warm up, and most are life-shortened when used with dimmers. Some consumers complain that they don’t last any longer than incandescents. Indeed, switching them off before they have fully warmed up (which takes up to 15 minutes) and regularly cycling them on and off in 5 to 30 minutes, like incandescents, will drastically shorten their life — up to 85% — and there is no electricity savings to offset their higher price if they are used in closets, cellars and attics that are seldom lit. Some CFLs are labeled “instant-on”, which means that the one- or two-second delay or “blinking on” typical of fluorescents before they light has been eliminated.  But they still take several minutes to reach full brightness. CFL lamp quality is highly variable, especially between one brand and another but also between bulbs. They are inefficient in enclosed spaces where heat builds up, though specially-designed recessed housings are available for reflector-type CFLs (R-CFLs). Light output declines by 20-30% over their life, meaning that a 1600-lumen CFL becomes an 1120- to 1280-lumen CFL, eating into efficacy (1200 lumens per 25 watts = efficacy of 48 rather than 64). The decline in output is not linear. The highest rate of decline comes early in a CFL’s life. ENERGY STAR requires a CFL to maintain 90% of its initial lumen rating at 1000 hours and 80% at 3200 hours for an 8000-hour bulb (80% at 4000 hours for a 10,000-hour bulb). So check for ENERGY STAR certification when you buy a CFL. A 1600-lumen CFL uses 23-30 watts of power, typically lasts 8000 hours (at 20-30% reduced light output), and costs about $2.50 per bulb. LEDs LED light bulbs of good quality are now available as replacements for standard screw-in incandescent light bulbs, but only up to 800 lumens. Some manufacturers label their LED bulbs as “replacements for 100-watt incandescents”, but they exaggerate. A 100-watt incandescent bulb outputs about 1600 lumens of light, and so should its replacement. LED light bulbs are actually luminaires that contain an array of bright white LEDs. They are highly energy efficient, turn on instantly, don’t use mercury and are more rugged than incandescents and CFLs. But they are not yet suitable for higher-power applications because they generate heat, which reduces their efficacy. Osram Sylvania’s and Philips’ brightest LED bulbs produce about 800 lumens, equivalent to a 60-watt incandescent, and use 12 watts of power, for an efficacy of about 67 lumens per watt. Rated life is 25,000 hours (but with 30% loss in brightness and a color shift toward blue). They are available at retail outlets for around $40. If  a 1600-lumen LED light bulb becomes available, it may not be suitable for many household applications. LED light bulbs tend to be highly directional. As a result they make excellent PAR reflector-type bulbs (floods and spots) and work well in recessed downlight fixtures and tracks. But LED light bulbs have a light spread of about 140 degrees rather than 360-degrees of incandescents, so they are less useful in table lamps. Halogens Halogen lamps are a type of incandescent. Depending on the shape of the lamp and reflector, a halogen lamp can provide more light for a given amount of power consumption than a standard incandescent. New halogen designs have recently been introduced to replace 100-watt incandescent bulbs, using the thin halogen capsules fitted inside a luminaire. Halogens are dimmable, contain no mercury, and can be manufactured inexpensively, so expect their prices to fall in the future. Like CFL and LED package labels, halogen labels and advertising can be confusing, sometimes using the phrase “replaces a 100-watt bulb”. This is meaningless. Of course, if you buy the bulb and use it to replace a 100-watt bulb, it will have replaced a 100-watt bulb. That doesn’t mean that it will be as bright.  So check the lumen rating on the package, the measure of brightness. A normal 100-watt incandescent produces about 1600 lumens. Here are several major-brand screw-in halogen bulbs that you can find online and in stores. All but one specialty bulb produce at least 1490 lumens, the brightness of a typical long-life incandescent. “A19” is the shape of a traditional pear-shaped light bulb.
  • Philips T60 Halogena:  somewhat square-sided; 1600 lumens, 70W, 3000 hr, color 2900K. $6 A good value. See our review of this Philips halogen bulb.
  • Philips 75W A19 EcoVantage: 1500 lumens, 75W, 1250 hr. $3.60
  • Sylvania Soft White Halogen: A19; 1490 lumens, 72W, 1000 hr. $7  This is expensive.
  • GE Edison Halogen 95: A-line; 1490 lumens, 95W, 3000 hr. $3.95  A lower price than the Philips T60, but it uses more power.
  • GE 72-Watt Halogen Clear or Soft White: A19; 1490 lumens, 72W, 1000 hr. $4.63
  • GE 90-Watt Halogen Frosted: TB19 somewhat square-sided, 1580 lumens, 90W, 2000 hr, color 2930K. $4.98.
  • GE Reveal 100-Watt Halogen: A19, 1275 lumens, 100W, 3000 hr, color: 2800K  (neodymium glass). $5.49  This specialty bulb uses 100-watts of power to produce just 80% of normal brightness.
  • Philips B15 Halogena:  decorative bulb B15; 1670 lumens, 100W, 3000 hr, color 2900K. $5.43
  • GE Edison Halogen 100: decorative bulb BT14.5; 1600 lumens, 100W, 3000 hr, soft white. $5.49
ESLs (Trademark of Vu1 Corporation) While an A19 shape is promised for 2011, it is not yet available. Electron stimulated luminescence lamps use a proprietary technology to emit light by firing electrons at a luminescent phosphor (similar to a CRT monitor or tv screen). Their light is of similar quality to incandescents, with the advantages that the bulb uses 70% less energy than incandescents while producing 50% less heat, can be made in the shape of a standard A19 light bulb, warms up instantly, doesn’t use mercury, is dimmable, and can last up to 6000 hours.  While promising, the bulbs are not yet commercially available. The bulbs are expected to cost about $20. Hybrid CFL-halogen GE announced this bulb as the solution, when it is available, to the slow ramp-up in brightness of a CFL. They created a CFL wrapped around a halogen lamp. Once the CFL warms up, the halogen lamp turns off. It still contains mercury; turning it off before warm-up still shortens its life. While no price was announced, it would likely cost more than either a CFL or halogen alone, so its cost-savings breakeven time would be longer than a CFL’s.  Will there be a market for it? This is not the lighting breakthrough we have been waiting for. Stockpiling 100-watt incandescents Incandescents are inefficient at producing light from electricity. Something like 90% of their output is in the form of heat rather than light. Yet, their color is warm and comfortable for home living. Our fixtures and lamps are designed for them. And in some applications, the heat they produce is a benefit. (It adds to the warming of our homes in winter, relieving the furnace from running quite as much as will be required when we have rid our homes of these bulbs.) The good news: If you like your current light bulbs, you can keep them — as long as they last. But you will have to buy your lifetime supply before they disappear from supermarket and home-improvement store shelves. (IKEA has already announced that they will no longer sell incandescents.) Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb has been used safely for well over 100 years and will be used for many years more by those who stockpile them. A 1600-lumen incandescent uses 100 watts of power, lasts 750 hours, and costs as little as $.30 – .50 per bulb. Quality is fairly uniform from bulb to bulb. Long-life bulbs are available that will last longer, though they produce only 1500 lumens of light, or less. What have we learned about our replacement choices?
  • A CFL costs about $2.50 and is rated to use 70-75% less power, so it is the greenest choice. It has several negatives, including its mercury content, unattractive light quality, fall-off in light output, and susceptibility to early burnout due to frequent on-off switching.
  • There are no LED bulbs that produce 1600 lumens yet available (and LEDs may never be able to overcome their heat problem at a reasonable cost). While they will last 25,000 – 50,000 hours, they cost about $40 and because of their directionality and narrow spread are not suitable for many applications. Demand for LED light bulbs will increase when their cost has fallen to a level competitive with halogens.
  • Halogens are available that consume about 30% less power and may last up to 4 times longer than an incandescent. They cost about $6 to achieve this. This is a compromise for those who wish to save some energy but do not like the light quality or mercury content of a CFL or the high cost of a LED light bulb.
  • ESL’s are promising but not yet available. They will cost about $20.
  • Incandescents can be purchased and stockpiled for around $.40 or .50 each or even less by the case. They will burn out after 750 hours, but are ideal in areas that are seldom lit, like closets and cellars that don’t justify the initial expense of another type of bulb because energy savings will be miniscule. They might also be worthwhile to stockpile if you like their light quality better than the alternatives while you wait for a new technology to come along that has the advantages of incandescents while using much less power.
The Federal law that has made us kiss the 100-watt light bulb goodbye is based on the notion that legislation rather than making a profit will lead manufacturers to develop more efficient bulbs. Meanwhile consumers have been buying CFL’s to save money on electricity, not recognizing that they may be getting less than they bargained for due to decreased light output and early burnout. See our article on energy-saving replacement bulbs. Will the bright minds ban cows next?
]]> http://www.stagingprince.com/100-watt-light-bulb/feed/ 0 Home Staging: Curb Appeal Makes a Difference http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-curb-appeal/ http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-curb-appeal/#comments Mon, 03 Jan 2011 04:36:58 +0000 The Quill http://www.stagingprince.com/?p=351 Continue reading →]]> If prospective buyers are turned off when they see your front yard, they may not even get out of their cars to come inside. All your interior prep work is useless if your yard says “This house has not been well-maintained. Better go elsewhere.” Here are some tips to help you make a good first impression when buyers drive up: * Straighten the mailbox post and repair/paint/replace the mailbox if it’s not in good shape. * Keep the lawn mowed and put away toys, bikes, old pots and other debris. * Weed and mulch the garden beds, and replace any dead shrubs. * Repair the cracks in your front walk and use Roundup on weeds or grass coming up between bricks or stones.

Does it make a difference?

Our staging consultant friend was hired by the owner of a high-end house to remove barriers to sale — without spending a fortune. It had been on the market for 3½ months and had neighborhood competition. It was not in good condition. The owner’s kids had caused moderate damage to the family room walls; primitive murals covered one whole wall in each of two large bedrooms; there had been a minor fire in the kitchen which marred the ceiling; and the kitchen appliances were in bad condition. Our stager repainted the interior, installed new kitchen appliances fitting the target market, and cleaned up the front walk and its beds. The exterior cleanup, with its modest cost, boosted the curb appeal and made the most dramatic change of anything he did. The house sold in 12 days. Before the cleanup, prospective buyers were not keen even to look inside the house. Those who came in were already convinced that the house would disappoint them, so they were unable to see anything but faults. The large, bright rooms, fieldstone fireplace, and great views were not sufficient to erase the first, bad impression. On the other hand, when a prospective buyer has a favorable first impression, he or she may excuse even obvious faults. “I can live with that.” In home staging, curb appeal makes a difference. Why? Because you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Here are 25 more tips from a home stager to help you sell your house.
]]> http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-curb-appeal/feed/ 0 Home Staging: Prepare your House for Sale or Cut its Price http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-prepare-house/ http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-prepare-house/#comments Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:22:49 +0000 The Quill http://www.stagingprince.com/?p=346 Continue reading →]]> 6 Essential Steps to Prepare a House for Sale 1. Repair: To get top dollar, your house must be in tip-top condition – outside and inside.  Important components that should be in good repair include the roof, gutters, exterior siding/paint, foundation, deck, front door, windows, weatherstripping and insulation, floors, woodwork, ceilings, and the heating, plumbing and electrical systems.  If defects are known, you will have to disclose them; and if they are not known, they will likely be discovered in a home inspection. Why bother to do the repairs?  Because relatively few buyers today are looking for a fixer-upper, and because repairs will generally cost you less to fix than the buyer will demand in compensation.  Most of today’s buyers are looking for a house in move-in condition.  They neither want to do a lot of work, nor finance the cost of repairs.  So, to appeal to the broadest market, your house must be in good repair when you show it. 2. Update: To get top dollar, your home must be appealing to younger buyers, typically in their 30’s.  Most want a modern home with an open plan that they can show off to their friends.  Homes with dated wallpaper, dark wood kitchen cabinets, colored bathroom fixtures, poor lighting or dark and claustraphobic rooms, heavy draperies, worn carpeting or paneled family room should be updated.  Updates don’t need to be expensive.  There are many cost-effective solutions that will pay off in a higher price and faster sale. 3. Declutter: “Clutter eats equity.” Buyers want spacious rooms, spacious closets and lots of storage space.  Clutter makes rooms look small and also distracts a buyer from seeing the attractive features of a house.  So pick up and pack up. What is clutter?
  • Too much furniture, making moving through a room difficult – in fact, more than a minimal amount of furniture in any room constitutes clutter when you sell because the excess will make the room feel smaller.
  • Collections of all types are clutter, even though they may be valuable and unique.  They are distractions that should be packed up for your new place.
  • Anything that makes a room look crowded or messy is clutter, including things on the floor rather than being put away in their places: toys, clothes, pet bowls, boxes, and so on; stickies and magnets on the fridge; and fake greenery over windows, to name a few.
A buyer wants to know the purpose for each room and also wants to be able to visualize his own belongings in the room.  It is essential to pack up, throw out or sell off all the excess things that interfere with the buyer’s ability to think of himself or herself living in your house. 4. Clean: When you have sold your house and are ready to find a new house or apartment, will you be happy with a place that’s dirty and looks like it hasn’t been well cared for?  Nor will your buyer.  Every room of your house must be thoroughly cleaned.  The kitchen must be spotless, and baths must look like they’ve never been used.  Clean your driveway; sweep your walkway; pick up laundry; vacuum pet hairs from furniture – every day while your home is on the market.  Eliminate smells by cleaning, washing, airing – and sometimes by repainting.  Selling a house is without a doubt inconvenient for you, but a dirty house is a real turnoff for a buyer. 5. Stage: Staging is an art that highlights the best features of your house, minimizes its problems, and helps a buyer see your house as his own.  It typically involves rearranging furniture to highlight a focal point or making a room seem more spacious, and adding accessories to make a room harmonious.  In addition to staging, a professional stager will also review all the elements in a house to identify barriers to a sale, including items visibly in need of repair, updating, decluttering and cleaning (yes, steps 1-4).  Stagers identify other issues, too, like lack of curb appeal, walls that should be repainted, poorly lit rooms, crowded closets, even dirty switchplates; and they make recommendations to improve the likelihood of a sale.  Stagers act as advisors to sellers, telling them tactfully but straightforwardly just what they need to do to sell their house.  They also can accomplish any of the tasks in steps 1-6. 6. Take photos: When the staging is done, when every room looks great, when the house is ready to show and entice buyers to make offers, it should be photographed and the photos posted on the web so potential buyers will want to visit.  A house that hasn’t been updated, decluttered and staged will turn buyers off when they search, and they will never visit and never make an offer.  See our article on photographing a house for sale: “On-Line Photos Sell Your House”. You can sell you house quickly, even in a buyers’ market, if you prepare it properly for sale, price it right and market it well.  A house that hasn’t been well prepared will get less traffic and will wait much longer for an offer. You will have no choice but to sharply cut its price and sacrifice equity.
]]> http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-prepare-house/feed/ 0 When Should You Call a Home Stager? http://www.stagingprince.com/when-call-stager/ http://www.stagingprince.com/when-call-stager/#comments Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:13:41 +0000 The Quill http://www.stagingprince.com/?p=331 Continue reading →]]> The benefits of home staging
  • Buyers weed out houses on the web Before they even drive by your house, buyers will view your home on the web. If they like what they see, they will arrange to see it in person. Only after it is staged have it photographed for the web so it shows its best in online photos.
  • Home staging encourages agents to bring buyers to your house Real estate agents know that a staged house shows well, so they will bring buyers to your house. With more buyers coming to your house, you can expect offers sooner and have the best chance of a bidding war.
  • Staged houses sell faster Many surveys have compared time to contract (days on market) for staged and unstaged houses. The benefit has been found to be as much as 80% less time on the market for professionally staged homes. This can save you a substantial amount in mortgage payments, property taxes and other expenses.
  • Staged houses sell for more money It is not unusual for several potential buyers to make offers for a staged house after seeing it at an open house. This can lead to a bidding war and a selling price above the listing price. While there are no guarantees in life, many surveys have compared sales price to listing price for staged and unstaged houses. The benefit is typically 5 to 10% for staged houses. It’s your money. Why risk leaving it on the table?

Why should you hire a professional staging advisor before you list?

You want your house to be 100% ready when you list because more potential buyers will see it in the first 3 weeks than any other time. You won’t get another chance to make a great impression on so many potential buyers in so short a time. Take time to prepare your house properly by hiring a professional to review and stage it before you put it on the market. Then price it right, and you will sell it quickly because it will compare favorably to competing houses that are not staged. If you have followed your stager’s recommendations for upgrades and repairs, decluttering, cleaning and professional home staging, you will get a good return on your investment and the most for your house that a free market of Internet-active buyers will pay. You should select your real estate agent based on his or her skills at getting buyers to visit, not because he or she suggests an unrealistically high price.

If your home is already on the market, is it too late to hire a professional home stager?

If your home is already on the market and is priced comparably to other houses in the area but isn’t drawing buyers to make offers, you should seek a professional home evaluation from a local professional home stager as soon as possible. While many agents will be candid with you about problems that may become obstacles to selling, there may be some things about your house that an agent may be reluctant to mention because he or she doesn’t want to offend you. When faced with a house that doesn’t compare well, many agents will simply suggest cutting the price. But maybe the issues can be solved with a bit of effort. A professional staging advisor doesn’t want to offend you either, of course, but she will be up-front with you. She will not be critical of your taste or your style. She will tell you tactfully about problems that can and should be fixed so your house doesn’t sit on the market waiting for the agent’s recommendation that you cut the price by 10 percent. Cutting the price is sometimes the only arrow in a real estate agent’s quiver. But a 10% price cut on a $500,000 house will take a whopping $50,000 off the asking price and make agents and buyers wary to boot. They will wonder what was wrong with the house that it didn’t sell. Putting a small fraction of that into painting, repairs, small upgrades and home staging services, and pricing your home appropriately can make a large price cut unnecessary and can save you a lot of money through a faster sale. So when is the right time to call a home stager for a staging evaluation? The best time is when you are planning to put your house on the market — before you engage a listing agent. A stager works for you as your advisor and will do her best to get your house ready for its first open house when interest will be highest.
]]> http://www.stagingprince.com/when-call-stager/feed/ 0 What does a Professional Home Stager Cost? http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-cost/ http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-cost/#comments Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:28:50 +0000 The Quill http://www.stagingprince.com/?p=320 Continue reading →]]> The evaluation recommendations The recommendations are invaluable to any homeseller because they tell you what you should do to your house so that it will likely sell quickly — assuming it is priced competitively to comparable houses. These recommendations may prescribe organizing, packing, decluttering, repairs, painting, updates, purchase of accessories, renting of furniture if the house is vacant, cleaning services, new window treatments, and any of a number of similar services. Most home stagers will provide an estimate to implement the recommendations, but the homesellers can choose not to do them, do them themselves, or hire their own contractors to do them. A home stager can suggest inexpensive updates that will breathe excitement into a dated interior while staying within a constraining budget. A stager can often find a creative solution to any problem. What will you do with these recommendations? You may want them just for planning purposes, to understand what changes you should make to your home before you list it for sale sometime in the future. Or you may want to make the changes immediately and then list the home for sale. Either way, the evaluation and recommendations are essential for you to know and use in order to maximize your equity on sale, and since the costs of the evaluation and report are quite modest, there should be no reason why you would not engage a stager to provide them. No risk, modest cost, and likely a substantial benefit. If your house is already on the market but not generating much interest, then hire a professional stager to tell you why.  It may well be that your online photos are poor or there is some specific problem in the house that your agent doesn’t want to tell you for fear of losing your listing. A stager will be tactfully honest with you — and help you fix the problem and get your house sold.

Upgrades and repairs

Let’s say you want some or all of the recommended upgrades and repairs made. Who will make them? You may want to do some or all of them yourself. Or, the stager can advise you on hiring contractors for repairs, lighting and kitchen upgrades, painting and landscaping. Some will handle the bidding for you and coordinate the work to get it done without delay so you can get your home on the market quickly. Some sellers, especially those who have been in their homes for many years, believe that they can save money by putting the house on the market without doing the repairs. They will leave it to the buyer to make the repairs and are willing to give the buyers a discount from the asking price if they have to. The problem with this approach is that today’s buyers don’t want to make repairs; they expect the house they buy to be move-in ready. If yours needs work, they will pass on it and buy someone else’s. Also, it is almost always less expensive for the seller to make repairs. This is because the buyer will assume that repairs are more expensive than they actually cost and because the seller can control the repair costs through astute selection of materials and labor.

Decluttering and cleaning

Stagers will advise you on what constitutes “clutter”, and most will then arrange for the decluttering and cleaning, help you pack, organize your closets, arrange to sell your antiques, manage a tag sale, and/or give your unwanted things to a charity — or give you referrals to reliable local people who will get these things done.

Staging

After your home is decluttered and cleaned, a stager will professionally stage the rooms to highlight your home’s best features. This may entail supplying accessories and artwork, even furniture rental if your house is vacant, all based on your budget.. Rearranging furniture properly to highlight your home’s architectural features may take a day or two to accomplish.

Is it worthwhile?

Finally, you may wonder whether the services of a professional staging advisor are necessary. You should compare the investment in making your home ready to show to the costs of a house languishing on the market: the extra mortgage payments, property tax cost, living expenses, frustration and inconvenience — and an eventual price cut. The bottom line on the cost of home staging: For a modest cost a professional home stager will advise you on changes you should make to present your house in the best light, arrange to hire contractors if necessary, and declutter, clean, stage and photograph your house so that a prospective buyer will see it as his dream house. Every seller should at least have a home evaluation done and then decide how to get the recommendations implemented.
]]> http://www.stagingprince.com/home-staging-cost/feed/ 0