Emmanuel Fonte | Music | Art | Leadership
If music be the food of love, play on. Emmanuel Fonte website is about music, art, real estate, architecture, design and decor. Occasionally, I talk about my other passion, hockey.
Close to 40 million Americans move from one home to another every year. Click anywhere on the map below: blue counties send more migrants to the selected county than they take; red counties take more than they send. Published on November 16, 2011 | By Jon Bruner | More about the map >
Making a memorable first impression is tough if your front door has ho-hum hardware. Even worse is a tarnished, pitted entry set with a peeling lacquer finish, like the one below.
To give the door more polish, we shopped around for a shiny brass replacement. But rather than get a set from a specialty hardware shop, where they can easily top $1,000, we chose a Baldwin one-piece handle and tubular lock set with a handsome escutcheon for $179 from the home center (The Home Depot). Hardware manufacturers’ home-center lines, which range from $100 to $350, are also easier to retrofit because they’re designed for DIYers.
Completing the door’s makeover is a shapely new knocker for $41 and a gleaming kick plate for $66 (Cape Cod Brass), for a total project cost of $286.
Read more here at ThisOldHouse.com
With home sales in the gutter, anyone thinking of selling a home today can use all the help they can get, starting with what day of the week to debut.
Serious sellers know that it is important to make repairs, stage well, and showcase their home online with professional photos, but there hasn’t been a consensus about which day of the week you should list your home for the best results. This is evidenced by the fact that new listings on the market are spread pretty evenly between Monday and Friday, with each day getting between seventeen and nineteen percent of the total share of listings (Saturday and Sunday are much lower at five to seven percent).
Since you only get one chance to make a first impression with your listing, let’s dig into data to find out whether putting your home on the market on a certain day of the week is correlated with sales success. We pulled the data on over a million listings spread throughout the nation over the last twenty-one months, and here’s what we found:
Alinghi Residence is a modern beach house in the town of Rocky Point, which is only three miles from the popular tourist destination of Queensland, Australia. The house was designed by Grose Bradley BNV, their task was to create a space suitable for contemplation and enjoyment of nature. All rooms are oriented toward the ocean, which guarantees a magnificent view of the Pacific ocean.
At 500 square feet, it is not a huge retreat but it serves its purpose perfectly: fold-up sides keep it secure when not in use, while doubling as privacy screens, light blocks and thermal barriers as desired.
Essentially a glass house on the inside, folding down three of the four exterior walls gives the occupant a nearly 360-degree connection to the surrounding context .
These wall sections in turn become exterior decks when lowered, and are easily raised via “Â a hydraulic system of wires, rope, pivoting sheaves and lead blocks, that serves as shutters.”
The steeply-sloped roof simply drains water toward the back, and extends out on the other three sides to provide cantilevered cover and shade, with minimalist (lack of) detailing that fits with the rest of the structure.
Inside, a 180-degree rotating fireplace likewise accommodates directional decisions about where one wants to face – into distant views or into the nearby wildlife-populated brush. The primarily single-space strategy also accommodates a kitchenette and small bathroom.
The Franciscan Polar Plaza pop-up in Tacoma is the only covered, open-air rink in that town, and it has killer theme nights. On December 5, skate with the Thunderbirds Hockey Team, or enjoy live music on December 16 starting at 6pm. Wear your most hideous cardigan for Ugly Sweater Night on December 23 to receive $1 off admission. Open November 25–January 2.
Highland Ice Arena in Shoreline is a traditional indoor skating rink—open year-round—with a staff of professional figure skaters. Sign up for a seven week course of lessons that starts in early January.Sundays are Family Days, with a $15 rate covering the immediate clan from 1:30pm–close (rentals are $3 each).
Winterfest Ice Rink in Seattle Center is another temporary skate spot. Maybe we’re just suckers for twinkly lights, but this indoor venue is the ideal date spot for an old-fashioned couples skate. Open November 25–January 1.
Magic Season Ice Arena in Bellevue is another outdoor covered, open-air skating rink (chilly!). It hosts Free Skate Mondays and Stroller Skate on Thursdays (yep, you can bring the Bugaboo on the ice). Our personal favorite is the heated hut where you can warm up and sip hot cocoa. For an extra dash of holiday cheer, catch the Nutcracker on Ice performance on December 15. Open November 25–January 8.
Capitol Hill Ice Rink won’t open until December, kicking off what is expected to be an annual pop-up tradition. Located in Cal Anderson Park (over the basketball courts in the southwest corner), the rink will be open-air but under a tent. Open December 6–24.
