Open Home Inspection Times for Saturday June 2nd

10:00am – 7 Astaire Place, McDowall

10:45am – 12 Farrow Street, McDowall

11:30am – 5 Rigg Place, McDowall

12:15pm – 5 Eastwood Place, McDowall

1:15pm – 2 Spielberg Street, McDowall

1:15pm – 12 Myron Street, Chermside

2:15pm – 1 Walpole Street, McDowall

3:30pm – 4 Manigfera Close, Wights Mountain

Carbon neutral means that the net greenhouse gas emissions associated with a product or activity are zero. Zilch. Nada. To achieve this, extensive audits would need to be conducted on your business to calculate its exact emissions profile, and then you’d need to purchase the equivalent number of carbon offsets. This can be an expensive and complicated process. But if you do want to be carbon neutral, awesome! Contact us to find out how to go about it properly.

But what does it mean?

Carbon neutrality, or having a net zero carbon footprint, refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset, or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference.

On average every Australian generates two tonnes of carbon each month, but each individual or business needs to examine their carbon output and, to be classed as neutral, offset that same amount.

Carbon offsetting is a way for people and business to invest in projects that prevent or reduce greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the atmosphere.

How does it work?

If, for every one tonne of carbon dioxide emitted you save another tonne from being emitted, through supporting programs like tree planting, you’ve offset one tonne of your emissions. It’s simple but brilliant.

By becoming carbon neutral through purchasing enough credits to match your emissions, you can make a difference to the sustainability of the environment.

To find out more information on becoming carbon neutral, visit www.yonderr.com.au

Choose your flooring wisely, as a new study has found phthalates from PVC flooring in the urine of young children.

Phthalates have long been a health concern, particularly with children, with many countries banning their use in products that go into a child’s mouth, such as teethers, baby bottles, teats and toys.

Used as chemical ‘softeners’ by manufacturers, they are suspected of causing chronic diseases in children, asthma and allergies and hormone disruption.

The new study, conducted at Karlstad University Sweden, indicates that phthalates can be taken up by the body in ways other than orally, for instance through breathing and through the skin.

Urine samples were taken from 83 randomly selected children in western Sweden and the prevalence of four types of phthalates in the urine was measured.  The levels of certain phthalates proved to be higher in the urine of babies that had PVC materials on their bedroom floor, and showed that the uptake of phthalates in infants can be related to flooring material.

“With this study as a basis, we can establish that there are other sources that should be taken into consideration in regard to the uptake of banned chemicals and that we do not only ingest them in our food,” says Carl-Gustaf Bornehag, professor of public health at Karlstad University and leader of the study.

So now don’t just think ‘what colour’, ‘what texture’, ‘how easy is it to clean’ and ‘will it stand up to our wear-and-tear’…  you should delve deeper and find out if your flooring is phthalate free.

Phthalate-free options are available and will meet all your other criteria too!

Why take a risk with PVC flooring when other natural alternatives can be used.

References:

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=120485&CultureCode=en

http://scienceblog.com/54605/infant-bodies-absorb-phthalates-in-floors/

Open For Inspection Times Saturday May 26th

10:00am – 7 Astaire Place, McDowall

10:45am – 12 Farrow Street, McDowall

11:30am – 5 Rigg Place, McDowall

12:15pm – 5 Eastwood Place, McDowall

1:15pm – 12 Myron Street, Chermside

2:15om – 1 Walpole Street, McDowall

Native plants bring colour and wildlife to banish winter woes.

Winter’s big chill doesn’t mean the garden has to be drab and lifeless. Some of our fabulous natives work their magic at this time of year. They also work their magic on nectar-eating birds that flock to their flowers, so you’ll be bringing life into your garden.

Planting bird-attracting plants makes a positive contribution to the environment. A single garden might seem only a small part of the overall environment, but it can affect the neighbourhood. The birds, animals and insects it attracts find their way into other gardens.

Which flowers appeal to birds and gardeners during the cool months? One of my favourites, grevilleas, are popular with nectar-eating birds. More than 250 species are found growing naturally from sea level to mountainous regions. There are numerous cultivars.

Grevilleas love a sunny position, free-draining soil and a light prune after flowering to keep them bushy and encourage flowers for the following winter. They can be used as screening plants, feature shrubs or groundcovers. Low-growing grevilleas can be grown in pots.

Banksias are also a hit with birds and there is a great selection. Two hardy winter flowering varieties for sunny spots are the heath banksia (Banksia ericifolia) and the coast banksia (B. integrifolia). The stunning orange-red flower spikes of the heath banksia appear among needle-like leaves. It grows equally well in cold climates and near the sea.

The coastal banksia is just as versatile and is commonly used for beach reclamation and erosion control. It forms a medium-sized tree with pale yellow flowers and its green leaves have a silvery underside. There is also a prostrate cultivar for cascading down banks.

Two small banksias that work well in large pots are ‘Cherry Candles’, with large deep cherry and golden candles, and ‘Tucker Time Birthday Candles’, whose golden-orange flowers start appearing in late summer. Feed banksias and grevilleas with a low-phosphorous native plant food.

Little honey-eating birds love native fuchsias (Correa). White correa (Correa alba) has white, star-like flowers and grey-green leaves. It makes a good small shrub.

There are some great Correa cultivars, including ‘Pink Frost’, whose tubular rose-pink flowers appear from autumn until spring. This low-growing (40-centimetre-high) plant loves semi-shade and can be grown in pots.

Correa ‘Dusky Bells’ works its magic in large pots and likes full sun or semi-shade. Its reddish-pink bells appear among dark green foliage. Clip it regularly to ensure a bushy habit and more flowers.

Depending on the cultivar, you can choose purple-, white- or pink-flowering climbing hardenbergia. This evergreen climber is great for metal fences and also can be grown as a groundcover.

Sow seeds of native everlasting daisies this month in sunny beds and well-drained soil. Check out Yates everlasting daisy ‘Mixed Hybrids’ seed, a blend of red, white and pink semi-double flowers.

• Check out more native plants at austraflora.com. The website also has a store locator that makes it easy to find its plants. You can buy plants online from nativesplus.com.au and koalanativeplants.com.au. For more information on native plants, see anpsa.org.au.
• Bring some colour indoors. Florist’s cyclamens are available in nurseries with blooms in red, white, salmon, mauve and purple. Avoid over-watering and these will flower for many weeks in a well-lit position.

Story by Cheryl Maddocks;  Story Source: www.domain.com.au

Cushions are like shoes and handbags for the home – they are the perfect accessory. While a girl can’t have too many shoes and handbags, a home can’t have too many cushions.

So if you have (or have recently purchased) the perfect lounge you will be looking for the perfect accessories – the cushions and throws that will make your room come together.

Coming into winter the trend at the moment is soft and cosy, which means more cushions on the lounge. A room (and indeed a lounge) can look more inviting with a generous quantity and range of cushions. Don’t be afraid to be daring by combining different textures, colours and patterns.  By changing your cushions every three or six months you can completely transform the look and feel of your room – for very little expense.

Here are some of our tips to help you accessorize your lounge with cushions:

1. When selecting your cushions go for either tones or a strong contrast.  Take a good look at your lounge and the other colours in your room (curtains, rug, carpet etc) and work out which colours you want to accentuate and then look for cushions which tone with those colours.  Alternatively look for contrasting colours and patterns that will brighten the room.  Just a word of warning, there’s a fine line between being too matchy-matchy and too loud and in your face.

2. A general rule of thumb is that if the cushions are the same buy them in pairs (or even numbers) and if they’re different (either in shape, size, colour, etc) go for an odd number of cushions.  And don’t forget you can match the same pairs with the odd numbers – so you could have two the same and three different but not three the same and two different! Tricky to explain but it works!

3.Complete the look of any combination of cushions with a throw rug carefully placed on the lounge which will help to tie all the textures and colours of the cushions together.

Once all the cushions are in place then all that’s missing is 30 spare minutes, a cup of coffee, a good book and feet up on the ottoman!

Source: Nick Scali Reviews

Open Home Inspection Times for Saturday 19th May

10:00am – 7 Astaire Place, McDowall

10:45am – 12 Farrow Street, McDowall

11:30am – 5 Rigg Place, McDowall

12:15pm – 5 Eastwood Place, McDowall

1:15pm – 12 Myron Street, Chermside

2:15pm – 1 Walpole Street, McDowall

Oh to live in Darwin at this time of the year! Temperatures in that city this week are expected to average 32 degrees, with overnight lows of 21.

For the rest of us, the pre-winter chill is certainly starting to bite. As we move into the colder months, here are 10 ways to warm up your home.

1. Prune those sun-suckers

Shady plants are great in summer, especially on the north and western sides of your property. But at this time of the year you want to get as much sun into your house as you can. Now is the time to prune plants blocking out your sunlight, if possible.

2. Let the sun in

When the sun is shining, remember to open curtains and blinds during the day, especially on the northern side of your home, but also the east (in the morning) and the west (in the afternoon).

However, you might consider leaving south-facing blinds and curtains closed on days when it is colder outside than in as the sun won’t hit those windows.

It’s very common to see homes shut up all day long with the curtains drawn. But before you head off to work or out for the day, opening the blinds and curtains on windows that get the sun can mean coming home to a much warmer property.

3. Block the cold out

Overnight you want to stop the warm air from inside your home being lost through the glass of your windows. It’s important to cover the windows to do this.

Either use thick curtains and a pelmet overhead to stop the air from getting to the window, or consider good-quality honeycomb (also known as cellular) blinds, which pull up almost out of sight during the day to let maximum sunlight in, but do a fantastic job of blocking the windows overnight, or on colder days when there is a lot of cloud cover.

The great thing about honeycomb blinds is you don’t end up with the heavy look of thick curtains but still get the insulating effect. They do look a bit like they belong in an office and not a home though, and if that bothers you, you can layer them behind a very light sheer curtain to soften their impact. Or of course, for even more insulation, a heavier curtain.

4. Fan-tastic

If you have ceiling fans, now is the time to switch them over to winter mode so that they run backwards. Put them on their lowest speed and they will direct the warm air from across the ceilings where it sits high up, and down the walls.

If you get condensation on your windows overnight, you’ll probably notice that leaving a fan on in winter mode during the day can help to dry the windows out faster.

5. Draughts be gone

Gaps around doors and windows can let in a lot of draughts. Block them up with an appropriate draught-sealer. Your local hardware store will have plenty of options.

Consider also a good old-fashioned door snake if you find it hard to seal the bottom of doors, which is often the case in older houses where steps may have worn, or doors are not quite square.

If you have particularly cold rooms in the home – the spare bedroom or laundry, for example, consider draught-sealing the door that separate that room or rooms from the rest of the home.

However, it is important to note that if you use unflued gas heating or an open fire, you will need to ensure you have adequate ventilation at home.

6. Monitor it

If you happen to be someone who is at home during the day, you’ll have the opportunity to throw open the windows and let the warmth in on the days when it becomes hotter inside than out, which can often happen at this time of year.

It can be helpful to have a thermometer with an outdoor sensor set up in a prominent spot in the home to let you know when it is warmer outside than in. Hardware stores often stock them – I have one a bit like this.

It will also come in handy in summer when you’ve got the opposite problem and you want to know when it has cooled enough to open the windows in the evening.

7. Go passive

A few months ago we installed a solar heater, which draws the warm air from the roof cavity into the home. You can read about it here.

I’m pleased to say it seems to working well at this time of year (when we hoped it would) helping to raise the home’s temperature by a critical three-four degrees, meaning the heater has pretty much stayed off so far, even on cooler nights.

Because our home is well-insulated, draught-sealed and has honeycomb blinds on almost all windows, when it warms up during the day it manages to hold the temperature overnight.

8. They mightn’t be pretty but…

Okay, I’ll admit that old-style aluminium roller shutters are butt-ugly.

When we inherited two shutters on the ’50s brick box we bought a year or so back, I was tempted to rip them off. But instead we gave them a paint job (a marginal improvement) and now find in winter, we wouldn’t be without them.

When the shutter goes down about the same time as the sun it’s like instant double-glazing, you can feel the difference because the shutter helps to provide an air pocket between our old single-pane glass windows and the cold night air.

They work so well I’m even tempted to put them on a few more windows.

9. Cook up a storm

It really is a time of year for baking and slow cooking. The house will definitely warm up, but will you be able to resist all that yummy food?

10. Control the thermostat

Running your heater at 18-21 degrees will keep you comfortable without toasting, and will also keep your winter heating bills down. Just one degree more in temperature can increase your heating costs by 15 per cent.

Story by Carolyn Boyd is a property journalist and keen follower of Australia’s housing market.

Source: www.domain.com.au

Many small businesses operate from the owner’s home. This could mean the factory is a shed in the backyard and the office a corner of the kitchen or dining room table.

For others the business can have a separate section of the home or permanent structure on the property used exclusively by the business. The facts of each case will determine what costs can be claimed as a tax deduction.

Business owners are often keen to claim a percentage of the interest on a loan where a mortgage has been taken out to purchase the property. The ability to claim property related expenses will depend on two tests being passed.

The first requires part of the home or the property to be set aside exclusively as a place of business. This would mean the part of the home used for business purposes could not have a dual private usage component. Setting up half of a large rumpus room as an office, with the rest being used for private purposes, would not satisfy this test.

In addition to the exclusive use test the section used for business purposes must be clearly identifiable. This can often mean that there is an entrance for the part used as a home and a separate entrance for the section relating to the business.

Building a shed that is used exclusively by a business for manufacturing or storage purposes would result in part of a property being classed as business premises.

If these tests are passed a portion of the property related expenses can be claimed including interest on the loan to purchase the property and rates. The method used to apportion the expenses must be able to stand up to the scrutiny of the ATO. An accepted method is calculating the area used for business purposes as percentage of the total area of the home.

In addition to the property related costs a tax deduction can also be claimed for the occupancy costs such as electricity, gas, telephone and internet usage. For these costs the owners must again be able to prove how they apportioned them between business and private usage.

Where the business property tests cannot be passed a business can still claim a portion of occupancy costs.

The ability to claim property related expenses does however come at a cost. By establishing a home or property is used for business results in a loss of the main residence capital gains tax exemption for that part of the home or property.

This will mean the owners of the business need to have the home valued at the time it starts to be used for business purposes. When the property is sold a portion of the difference between the net sale proceeds and the value when the business was started will be taxable as a capital gain.

Thankfully in this situation if a business owner passes the small business capital gains tax exemption tests income tax may still not be payable.

Tax for small business, a survival guide, by Max Newnham is available in bookstores.

Story source: www.domain.com.au