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JOIN US MAY 10th at the Shrewsbury Civic Center, 5200 Shrewsbury Road, 6:30 pm.  Make the best use of your money and energy when it comes to finding leads and learn to maximize profits on promising leads.  HomesForRehab will be presenting at the SouthSide Investment Club!

CLICK HERE TO RSVP

The world of foreclosures and rehabs can be very scary but if you have vision and experience you can give a space new life and a chance to make a new family happy.  For cost efficiency consider keeping the plumbing in the same place and if that is impossible try to keep it along the original wall.  Anytime you can avoid moving utilities it will save you money and sometimes headaches when rehabbing.  Details like granite counter tops and sophisticated lighting update this modest 1960′s kitchen. Try using accent furniture pieces for interest and storage.

You’re invited to attend the ASID Aging in Place and Universal Design Expo, Saturday March 10, 2012.  Enjoy dynamic speakers, discover great products and earn CEU’s  www.asidmoe.com

Courtesy Design Sponge

I’ve seen walls of artfully arranged mirrors before, but they’re usually in public spaces as a form of pure display. Seeing such a dramatic presentation of mirrors in a home bathroom is unexpected, but stunning. I love it! California-based designer Faith Blakeney also had the brilliant idea to attach some of the mirrors with velcro so they could be mixed, matched and pulled down for quick use any time, making this display both elegant and practical. The addition of these mirrors, modern light fixtures and a cleaner, brighter neutral palette has completely transformed this bathroom on a low budget. I love the varied shapes of those old hand mirrors; I’m tempted to start seeking some out right now! — Kate

Read the full post after the jump!

Time: The hunt for just the right mirrors took about 3 trips to the flea market, plus about an hour to mount the mirrors on the wall and countless hours admiring the mirror wall.

Cost: $10 velcro, around $15 a piece for the hand-held mirrors, $100 for the big ones. Grand Total: $295

Basic Steps: I created a wall of mirrors in the bathroom using an old collection of inherited hand-held mirrors and some thrift store finds. I figured out where I wanted to place each mirror, marked it and put a 2″ velcro strip, vertically, on the wall at each mark. I then put a piece of the other side of the velcro on the back side of each hand-held mirror, again vertically. Lastly, I mounted the mirrors on the wall so they can be taken off and rearranged.

Make sure the surface you are mounting on is very clean and that you use high-quality industrial-strength velcro tape — a broken mirror is a lot of bad luck! I am happy to report that these mirrors have been up for many months without a single problem. — Faith

Dark paint does not necessarily make spaces look smaller.  In this case the intense color makes the room inviting and peaceful.  A run of duct work that was added along the top of this wall was also painted chocolate, the duct visually vanished into the wall because the intense color is less reflective than a lighter shade would have been.

The Multiple Listing Service or MLS begins counting the cumulative days on market (CDOM) as soon as a listing is entered.  When an investor or rehabber purchases an “AS IS” property that has been listed it already has amassed an amount of CDOM.  Once the improvements have been done and the rehabber needs to get the completed project marketed unless 90 days has passed from the last MLS listing the count continues adding days to the previous listings CDOM.  The history of that property on the MLS will indicate a price increase, because the improvements have hopefully increased the property’s value and an inaccurate number of cumulative days on market.  At quick glance this fresh listing can look stale.  When a rehabber purchases a property that has not been listed on the MLS, the day the improvements have been made the property can then be listed with a Realtor and appear as a new listing with the CDOM count begining at one.

Photo Courtesy Haute Nature

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This vanity photo courtesy of Haute Nature is a lesson in up-cycling and reuse.  As rehabbers we should examine articles already found in a property to see if they can be utilized in the new design of the space.  All too often furnishings are replaced with newly purchased items that don’t necessarily add value to  a property visually or from a resale perspective.  Consider offering a bespoke rehab instead of another big box look.  Try reusing found objects,  not only will you save rehab dollars but you’ll increase the appeal of your project.

Check out Haute Nature:

http://hautenature.com/design-architecture/

“This is the Panel of the Year” according to Nick Baur of Southside Investment Club.  Join us on April 14, 2011 at the Southside Investment Club at Crestwood Mall.  This is an outstanding organization to join if you are interested in learning more about investing in Real Estate in the Metro St. Louis Area.

This article is also published in Improve Your Home and Garden

My mother deliberated endlessly between harvest gold and avocado green when selecting the color for the appliances for our new home.  They were the current color trends, burnt orange was all the rage as well, but it had already been eliminated by my father.  He hated the other two less, but equally, that is why my mother got to choose.  My father was an artist and matters of color were usually decided by him.  This decision put a lot of pressure on my mother.

I encouraged her to go with the harvest gold.  I knew that it would look great with this sunflower pendant fixture I saw at the lighting store.  Convincing my father to buy that sunflower light fixture remains one of the toughest sales of my life.  My father never appreciated the qualities of the smaller matching sunflower fixture I wanted for over the sink.  My mother and I didn’t stop there; canister set, spoon rest, towels, etc. If it was in that kitchen for more than 5 minutes it was harvest gold.

Now when I go to homes that have embraced trends like items in an “Oprah’s Favorite Things” show I wonder two things; how much fun this must have been at the time and how much time did it take for the fun to wear off.   Trends exist for two reasons; we like to refresh and upgrade our surroundings and advertisers entice us to purchase the latest and greatest.

There are a few examples when trends have become classics, but more frequently trends have become trash.  Color trends are perennial; some linger, while others lose their bloom faster than a spring tulip.  Since color is the easiest and least expensive way to transform your room, color trends are the most frequently played with.  A few years ago the brown and blue combo hit the scene and has perhaps worn out its welcome.

Last year, Pantone and others were declaring that yellow was the color to conquer the palette, the Color Marketing Group went so far to say that mauve would make a comeback.  This year Pantone’s Color of the Year is Turquoise, number #15-5519 to be exact.  Pantone feels that Turquoise has earned this honor in part because it “inspires thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a comforting escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of well being. “ But I believe that not all colors conjure the same feelings in everyone.

How can you know the best way to use trends to refresh your interior without looking like you got stuck in a time warp?   Determine the color palette that works for you.  A color consultation with a designer is a great place to start and will leave you with a practical tool for selecting color for your spaces: a customized color palette.  Armed with your custom palette as a shopping tool you can begin to transform your surroundings.

Having a tool that fits in a purse or glove compartment allows you the ability to easily compare your palette with possible purchases and quickly eliminate costly mistakes.   The infusion of trends then becomes deliberate.  If during your color consultation you discovered your preferred palette is warm neutral, rather than incorporating turquoise #15-5519 you would choose colors from Sherwin Williams paint strip #32 or #33.  The trend color then slips comfortably into your space like a friend rather than an intruder.   Long after the turquoise trend has been sent packing, your interpretation of the trend is still welcome because you have made it a part of your authentic style.

Designer fabric manufacturer Robert Allen/Beacon Hill has collaborated with Sherwin Williams for the past two years by coordinating; fabrics, trims, and paint colors in their Colormix collections.  Colormix 2010 has four new offerings; Treasured, Rooted, Inspired and Refreshed.  Your customized color palette will steer you to make the appropriate adjustments to these sets.  Robert Allen/Beacon Hill products can be purchased through professional designers.

Everyone knows that grocery shopping without a list can have disastrous results, by shopping for your home with a list and a color palette not only will you save money  because of the mistakes you won’t make, you won’t believe how comforting your home feels once your surroundings are in harmony.

Cary Baumann, ASID, is an interior designer and owner of Cary and Company

Before you purchase property at the courthouse steps make sure you have done your homework. Join us December 10, 2009 at the SouthSide Investment Club and we’ll share the “ins” and “outs” of buying foreclosures in St. Louis.  Also, learn how to make your rehab projects more attractive to buyers. Presented by Darren Buttram and Cary Baumann, ASID