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Empty Idaho Governor’s Mansion Riles Residents | South Salem Realtor

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It’s a stunning, 7,100-square-foot mansion — ”visible for miles,” some have said — sitting on a grassy hilltop in Boise, ID with views over the scenic Boise Valley. The magnificent, Mediterranean-style structure commands 37 green acres and boasts a library, a boardroom, two kitchens and ample entertainment spaces. A dream home, it seems — so why is it so hard to get someone to take it?

You’d think people would be fighting to lay claim to Idaho’s majestic governor’s mansion, but nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, the state’s governor doesn’t even want it — and never did.

After being elected governor in 2006, Clement Leroy “Butch” Otter politely declined to occupy the State of Idaho’s Executive Residence. Instead, Otter chose to live on a much humbler riverside ranch in western Idaho. So the Idaho governor’s mansion, also known as the Governor’s House and the Idaho House, has remained empty, aside from the occasional state function.

But it sure does cost a lot to let a house like that sit vacant. Keeping up with the maintenance of the home continues to cost Idaho taxpayers at least $125,000 a year. And just this year, the maintenance price tag was even higher: $177,400.

Public outrage

Angry residents have demanded that the empty, 32-year-old home be returned to the Simplot family, the founders of a potato-farming empire who donated the hilltop mansion to the state in 2004 for the sole purpose of it being the governor’s residence — something that didn’t become official until 2009. Yet Gov. Otter, whose marriage to a Simplot ended in divorce in 1993, has never moved in.

“It’s inappropriate to continue funding this mansion on the hill,” Boise resident Barbara Kemp said during a public hearing held by the Governor’s Housing Committee on Oct. 2. Kemp told the committee that potato magnate J.R. Simplot himself, who is now dead, would have seen the mansion as a “waste of money” and financial drain on a state that’s already “tapped out.”

Kemp’s thoughts are echoed by former Boise legislator John Gannon, who said at the hearing that Idaho’s governor’s mansion program (which includes a maintenance fund that has plummeted from $1.5 million in 2005 to $900,000 in 2012) is both costly and outdated.

“There is nostalgia for a governor’s mansion, probably based upon the beautiful century-old homes that many other states have. But I think many Idahoans are frustrated that the idea just hasn’t worked in Idaho,” Gannon told AOL Real Estate. “After 25 years, many expensive plans, and a costly, empty mansion for six years, the governor’s mansion program has failed.”

Despite pressure from Boise residents to hand the keys back to the Simplot family, the heirs to the Simplot estate have said that they have no intention of taking it back.

“It’s a special piece of property that the Simplot family intended to be used for a special purpose, and being utilized as the official residence of the governor would fulfill that intent,” Simplot spokesman David Cuoio said in a statement to AOL Real Estate. “We are satisfied with the agreement we made with the state.”

A proposal was made in February to sell the mansion in order to save Idaho’s drowning state parks system, but it was rejected by lawmakers.

An ‘outdated’ program?

According to Gannon, the very idea of having a governor’s mansion is becoming “obsolete.” The traditional, hierarchical ideal of having a governor “watching over” his or her people and the necessity of designated housing for the chief executive (conventionally meant to symbolize the “grandeur of government”) is backward and does not cater to a “modern-day” governor with his own family, tastes and preferences.

“This is fundamentally why the modern Simplot mansion has been empty,” Gannon told AOL Real Estate. “No person should live in a home chosen by others.”

And it’s not just Idaho’s Gov. Otter who thinks so.

Governors from several other states have also declined to move into official residences or only occupy them part-time, including Colorado’s John Hickenlooper, Michigan‘s Rick Snyder, Indiana‘s Mitch Daniels, New Jersey‘s Chris Christie, New Hampshire‘s John Lynch, New York‘s Andrew Cuomo and Ohio’s John R. Kasich. In some cases, governor’s mansions have been transformed into museums or wedding mills just “to make ends meet.”

The future of the Idaho House is now being questioned in a series of public hearings taking a look at how to fend off some of the state’s fiscal problems. Though there is a case to be made for preserving historic structures and landmarks, “I can’t believe we would let this symbol of Idaho go to some developer,” Boise resident Michael Costanecki said at one public hearing.

But the costs involved in maintaining a governor’s mansion is hard to justify and “not worth the expense,” according to governors from Arizona, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont, which don’t have governor’s mansions, as well as California — where the governor’s mansion long ago was turned into a state park.

“A governor has the right to choose a residence and receive a housing allowance as part of the compensation package,” Gannon told AOL Real Estate. “In Idaho, it’s time to end a program that has failed.”

.

via zillow.com

6 Practices to Overcome Your Fears of Playing Bigger | South Salem NY Homes for Sale

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Playing bigger. Putting yourself out there. What others will think? Not being good enough.

Most bloggers have had to face those fears at same point. Dreams and goals tend to bring up our ugly stories after all.

Being a life coach who works primarily with women looking to overcome fears, blocks, beliefs, and barriers is what I do. So of course I have an opinion on why it is our fears come up one step behind our dreams.

Because they need to.

They need to seen, heard, and dealt with. They need to be examined and released. Life will hear our desire to step up to the plate as a desire to step away from the dugout. “You want to play bigger? Good! Here’s the first thing you get to examine and let go of in order to do so.”

Our fear is not meant to be our saboteur. It’s just an emotion we’ve attached to the thoughts that go swirling through our head on overtime we go to hit that Publish button, or send out a tweet.

Digging deep to overcome that fear can be both a long, mindful process, or as fast and life-changing as a simple Aha! moment that forever changes the lens through which we see the world.

But if a client were to ask me which steps they most likely needed to take, here’s what I would say.

1. Surround yourself with the right systems of support

A big reason so many of us get freaked out at the perspective of blogging is because it’s new and probably mostly unheard of in our intimate circles.

Now I’m not knocking those intimate circles. We need those like we need water. But they serve a purpose of their own, and encouraging you to do something big and in a completely new arena is not likely the role they need to serve in your life.

By surrounding yourself with other bloggers (local meetups, online groups, tele-conferences circles with accountability partners), you’ll find more encouragement to match your fear and what looks a little crazy from the outside will begin to look natural and “what-was-there-to-be-afraid-of-again?”.

Get a coach, get a group, get a friend. Get support.

2. Don’t “push through fear.” Process through it

I loathe when I hear that term. It’s not that it’s always a big thing. I pushed through fear when I went cliff jumping. But this whole “Fear of Playing Bigger” thing isn’t over as soon as you hit the water.

Pushing through fear is like pushing a car through your first marathon. Exhausting, distracting, ridiculous. Stop pushing through it. Stop and address the damn car, so you can get on without it. Yes, it might come up again, but if you keep giving it the space to be heard and the space to process through the fear, you give it the space to heal.

How do you process through it?

Here are a few beginning tips.

3. Know what it is you’re really afraid of

It’s not “playing bigger” that you’re actually afraid of. It’s what “playing bigger” will mean: what you fear will happen, what you think someone might say or do, who you think that someone might be, and what all that might mean?

Right here I’m talking about our deepest core beliefs or fears—the stories we tell ourselves about Who We (or others) Are and what we’re capable of. The stories that keep us playing small in order to play it safe.

The best way to find your deepest core fear is to start with the scenario that’s freaking you out, and question it. Ask yourself why you’re really afraid of it, what you’re afraid might happen, and what that says or means.

This can take some time, and sometimes even support, so go back to #3), then you’ll need to create a scenario that tests it.

For instance, maybe you find you’re really afraid of ridicule from friends. One way to test that fear is to openly and authentically share your concerns and ask for feedback from those friends.

Or if you’re afraid of looking stupid, maybe you can purposefully go out and do something that makes you look ridiculous (think: giant rooster costume) and realize that the world neither crashes down around you, nor do most people even notice.

This isn’t about being rational. Because your fear likely isn’t very rational. This is about speaking to that irrational brain of yours, in terms it can understand: hard-core experiences to the contrary.

5. See those fears (or feedback) with compassion

This one is a hard practice, and I’m not gonna tell you it’s always one to practice. There are times when we don’t need to see the other side; times when we need to ignore the other side because it’s bi-polar and toxic and it’s probably a better bet to change our phone number than to try to empathize. (I’m talking about people who might not support you, but I’m also talking about those bipolar and toxic thoughts of yours too.)

Seeing the other side is about looking with empathy at what’s happening and trying to understand with compassion how it came to be this way, and the deeper needs that are trying to be heard and validated.

For example, a fear of “not being good enough” might be just an attempt to receive acceptance, something that we all need and deserve. Or for another example, the recent criticism of a parent for your career choice might actually be a need to know you will be secure.

I recommend this practice because it can be easy to get washed up in the fear, the drama, the criticism, the he-said/she-said, the messy stories and can we just say drama again? It’s easy to lose sight of what’s really happening beneath the crazy of what we’re thinking, saying, or doing.

But any time we drop beneath that, our path becomes clearer. Pretty soon we’re not wracked with self-doubt because our best friend said she didn’t think we could hack it; we have empathy for the fear or the hurt or the self-consciousness she may be experiencing.

Remember, seeing the other side is not about psycho-analyzing the other person, or even yourself. It’s about looking for love, with love. It’s about seeking understanding, instead of stoking the inferno of self-doubt.

6. Say what you need to say

This is a modified version of an exercise in Digging Deep, to help you have that conversation you’ve been needing to have in order to finally lay to bed the fear you’ve been experiencing.

This might be a letter to a hurtful loved one, to your younger self, or even to your own fear. Imagine yourself having a peaceful but firm conversation.

This likely also means you’ll need to see those fears (or the fears of someone else, perhaps) as in the last step. Send gratitude for the the good intentions of your fear, or the attempt to care for you from a loved one, then describe how it is that you’re okay, capable, ready for this.

You may give the fear your proof in the form of what you’ve been able to do, or how you’ll handle anything that comes up. You may even answer that nagging question of “Who the hell am I?” with an answer that starts something like, “I’ll tell you who I am…”

Take your time with this. Each time I’ve done this I’ve essentially had a four- or five-page “conversation” with my fear, letting it say everything it needed to say and calmly answering it with clear and confident choices. It sounds slightly ridiculous until you really let yourself fall into the exercise. Then you experience that weight lift off your shoulders.

Again, in all these exercises you’re looking to create mindfulness and understanding through acknowledgment and compassion.

Because understanding creates clarity in your choices or next steps, and clarity creates confidence. And confidence creates a wildly authentic, wildly unique, wildly successful blogger.

Tara Wagner offers lots more tools for overcoming self-doubt, fear, and other barriers to creating your own unconventional, authentic, and thriving lifestyle. You can find her and signup for her free e-course/toolkit to start thriving in your life and family (without the fear) at TheOrganicSister.com.

via problogger.net

NAR likely to cede social media listings policy to MLSs | South Salem NY Real Estate

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The National Association of Realtors is one step closer to adopting a policy that would leave it up to individual multiple listings services whether or not to allow member brokers and agents to display for-sale listings represented by other consenting members on social media sites.

An MLS policy statement approved Saturday by NAR’s Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee would, for the most part, let MLSs that choose to allow the display of shared listings on social media sites write their own rules.

But the policy statement — to be voted on Monday by NAR’s board of directors — would prohibit MLSs from requiring that their member brokers and agents allow their listings to be distributed through social media, or other non-traditional  channels such as text messaging.

NAR had considered adopting a blanket policy for the display of shared listings on social media sites that would have applied to all MLSs affiliated with the trade association– in effect, taking away from MLSs the decision on whether to allow the practice or not.

But NAR leaders backed down after a number of MLSs raised objections about the difficulty of policing social media sites for compliance with rules that govern the display of shared Internet data exchange (IDX) listings on websites operated by MLSs, brokers and agents.

Instead of amending its policies governing the display of IDX listings so that those rules also governed the display of IDX listings on social media sites, NAR is creating another avenue for the display of a different set of shared listings, outside the context of IDX policy.

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“We’re taking a different approach here — give the MLSs that want to go down this road the authority to do it,” said Cliff Niersbach, the NAR staff executive who serves as liaison to the committee. “We’re basically saying OK, we want to participate — we’ll identify issues (as they) come up. We tried to be all knowing, and that approach didn’t work.”

It’s an important distinction, because the high rate of participation in IDX allows MLS, broker and agent sites to display all, or nearly all, of the homes for sale in a given market.

Third-party sites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com cannot display IDX listings — the companies that operate those sites must obtain listings directly from MLSs, listing syndicators, or brokers (thanks to its ties to NAR, Realtor.com receives listings from nearly all of the nation’s 900 MLSs).
Brokers have the option of “opting out” of distributing listings they represent to third-party sites, so listing coverage on those sites can be spotty.

Brokers who want to participate in IDX, however, are either “all in” or “all out.” They can’t choose whether or not to display listings represented by other participating brokers on their own websites, or prevent listings that they contribute to the IDX pool from being displayed on the websites of other participating MLS members.

Broker participation in IDX is nearly universal in many markets. Consumers are drawn to websites that provide access to a nearly comprehensive set of listings, and not offering access to IDX listings in markets where IDX participation is high could put a brokerage at a competitive disadvantage.

If the only option for brokers with strong objections to their listings appearing on social media sites was to withdraw from IDX altogether, the system might begin to fall apart. If IDX participation dropped, MLS, broker and agent websites might no longer be able to offer consumers a comprehensive set of listings, and lose an important advantage they hold over many third-party sites in some markets.

While NAR’s decision to separate the display of shared listings from IDX policy could protect the IDX system from controversy, it also leaves brokers who want to display shared listings on social media channels at the mercy of their MLS.

The policy statement approved by the committee Saturday, and scheduled to be considered by NAR’s board of directors on Monday, reads, in part:

“MLSs may but are not required to give participants the ability to authorize electronic display of their listings by other participants outside the context of the (IDX) policy and the Virtual Office Website (VOW) policy and rules.

“Participants may not be required to consent to display or distribution of their listing through non-IDX and non-VOW channels as a condition of participation in MLS or as a condition of participation in IDX.”

In other words, while MLSs can’t force their members to allow listings they represent to be displayed on social media sites, they can refuse to put a system in place that would facilitate the display of members’ shared listings outside of the approved IDX channels.

Brokers and agents are always free to publicize their own listings on Facebook and other social media sites, but some social media and marketing experts say that’s the wrong way to go about using such sites.

NAR’s former director of social media and online engagement, Todd Carpenter, ran down a long list of companies he said had tried and failed to use Facebook to make sales: Starbucks, Sears, Ikea, Wells Fargo, Delta Airlines.

“People use Google to find things,” Carpenter — now Trulia’s senior manager of industry engagement — told members of the Multiple Listing and Issues and Policies Committee. “People go to Facebook or other social media sites to find people.”

There are many successful real estate professionals using Facebook and social media, Carpenter said, “but it’s because they are connecting with people.”

Before voting to approve the MLS policy statement on social media, a few committee members expressed reservations about leaving the matter in the hands of MLSs. Some  doubted that MLSs would be able to solve some of the knotty problems that came up when the committee tried to amend IDX policy to accommodate display of shared listings on social media sites.

But the policy statement passed in a nearly unanimous voice vote.

The proposal does “exactly the right thing, to allow local associations to move forward,” said committee member Bill Lublin, CEO of Century 21 Advantage Gold. “Every time you hear (a problem raised) it drills down to the local level,” he said.

In some respects, NAR is merely putting an official stamp of approval on events that are already transpiring — many MLSs currently allow members to display IDX listings on social media sites.

Real estate app developer N-Play reports that 40 MLSs representing 300,000 Realtors have signed up in the last 90 days to offer members the company’s IDX listings search application for agent and broker Facebook pages.

If approved by the full board on Monday, NAR’s policy statement would guarantee the right of brokers that belong to those MLSs to opt out of having listings they contribute to IDX feeds appear on social media sites, while remaining in the IDX program.

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Copyright 2012 Inman News

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Fix for a sinking fireplace hearth | South Salem NY Real Estate

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Q: I live in a Craftsman cottage in Davis, Calif. Like many Craftsman homes, it has a fireplace in the living room with a handsome mantel, a tile surround around the firebox, and a tiled hearth. All appear to be original. My problem: The hearth is sinking.

Currently the hearth sits about 1/2 inch below the hardwood floor. I’ve been under the house to take a look from that angle. The tile appears to be laid on a cement slab, which is supported by 4-by-4-inch posts resting on a couple of concrete piers. I’m not quite sure how to get the hearth back to level with the hardwood floor. I don’t want to break any of the tiles.

What is the best way to elevate the slab to be level with the floor and have the least chance of cracking any of the tiles?

A: We think you may be able to gently ease the hearth back into place using house jacks and two 5-foot lengths of 2-by-12 framing lumber. Then you’ll need to pour new concrete footings and add new posts.

We caution you that this is not a job for the casual do-it-yourselfer. It requires B or B-plus carpenter skills. Also, this type of structural work often requires a building permit and inspections so make sure to check with the city before you get started.

Your first job is to lift the hearth back into place.

House jacks are large screw-type jacks used by house movers to raise houses in order to place large beams under a house for transport via truck and trailer. You’ll need to rent two or three of these. Place one of the 2-by-12s on the ground near the existing piers. The wood base will prevent the jacks from sinking into the ground when lifting the slab.

Next, place one jack at each end of the board and use the jacks to snug the second 2-by-12 against the concrete substrate of the hearth. Make sure the jacks and the 2-by-12s overlap the slab. The upper 2-by-12 will distribute the load evenly across the substrate, lessening the chance of cracked tiles.

Gently turn the screws on the jacks about a quarter turn at a time, alternating jacks in the same order to lift the slab evenly. If the lift is uneven, a third jack should be used to ensure the slab rises evenly. If a third jack is needed, make sure to support it top and bottom with wooden blocks. (A second pair of 2-by-12s isn’t necessary.)

This is a delicate, two-person job — one turning the jacks, the other in the living room monitoring the progress of the lift. If all goes well the substrate will move into level with the floor.

Once the substrate is in place and supported by the jacks, remove the old posts and piers and replace them with new ones. Use the old excavations, but widen and deepen them so they measure 12 by 12 inches square and 12 inches deep. Pour fresh concrete to fill the holes and set new precast piers in the wet concrete, making sure to level the piers side to side and front to back. Let the concrete dry for a couple of days.

Then place a 4-by-4 beam against the slab and support it at each end with 4-by-4 pressure-treated posts nailed to the wooden blocks on the top of each pier with four 16d nails. The finished product will look like an upside-down “U.” Make sure this structure fits tight to the slab by using shims between the slab and the beam.

An alternative to precast piers is to imbed metal anchors into the concrete to accept pressure-treated posts. Pressure-treated material is required for this application because the wood is too close to the ground and is more susceptible to termite or carpenter ant infestation.

Let the new concrete cure for a week. Remove the jacks and the hearth should be level once again for a long time.

A final word: No matter how careful you are, there’s no guarantee that you won’t crack a tile or two, and it’s possible that you’ll end up searching the salvage yards for pieces that match your fine old hearth. Good luck.

via inman.com

Stiglitz: Obama, Romney still need to address housing market | South Salem Realtor

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Stiglitz: Obama, Romney still need to address housing market

Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz speaks during The Economist's Buttonwood Gathering in New York October 24, 2012. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz speaks during The Economist’s Buttonwood Gathering in New York October 24, 2012.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz chided U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for not seriously addressing the troubled U.S. housing market during the recent series of presidential debates.

The Columbia University economics professor said in an interview with Reuters TV that the two men have shied away from discussing the uneven U.S. housing market recovery because neither has concrete solutions for helping financially strapped homeowners and both are wary of offending the banks.

“I find that shocking” that neither has talked about housing market issues, Stiglitz told Reuters. “It is one of the things that precipitated the crisis. In some sense, they don’t want to offend the banks … . The banks have been a major problem to doing something about the problem.”

Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001, spoke less than two weeks before what could be one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history.

Romney was 1 percentage point ahead of Obama in Wednesday’s Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll in a race that is effectively a dead heat ahead of the November 6 vote.

The biggest weak spot in the domestic economy continues to be the housing market, despite signs of life in cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami – some of the hardest-hit areas during the financial crisis.

Miami home prices rose again in September, marking 10 consecutive months of appreciation, according to the 26,000-member MIAMI Association of REALTORS.

But there are many skeptics about how solid the recovery is and whether some uptick in home building has been the result of the Federal Reserve’s recent action to buy mortgage securities to reduce borrowing costs.

On Wednesday the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that last week, applications for new mortgages in the United States registered their biggest percentage decline in a year as rates for a 30-year mortgage rose 6 basis points to an average of 3.63 percent, the highest in a month.

SHRINKING MORTGAGE DEBT

The country is still way off from its long-term average rates in construction, housing sales and foreclosures.

About 3.8 million homes have been foreclosed on since the financial crisis began in 2008, according to CoreLogic, which also reports another 1.3 million homes are in some stage of foreclosure.

Stiglitz said any meaningful discussion about housing must include a plan for reducing the level of mortgage debt held by U.S. homeowners, given how far property values dropped during the crisis.

“As soon as you start talking about mortgages and the housing problem, both sides feel uncomfortable,” Stiglitz said.

“Obama hasn’t done enough and Romney has no real proposals,” and yet both candidates have raked in millions of dollars from the banks in campaign contributions, he said.

Stiglitz is not the only economist who argues that reducing mortgage debt is the surest way to boost the economy by providing financial relief to struggling homeowners.

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that if Obama is re-elected, he will push to oust Edward DeMarco, the acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who has opposed using principal reductions to reduce debt obligations on mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The FHFA is the chief regulator of the two government-sponsored mortgage finance firms.

Others have promoted even more controversial measures to fix the housing market, like giving local governments the power to seize distressed mortgages through eminent domain so they can be restructured to enable homeowners to remain in their residences.

The idea of using eminent domain, which has been vigorously opposed by Wall Street bond investors, is being considered by San Bernardino County in California and a handful of other communities across the country.

Stiglitz said there are some good ideas about the restructuring of mortgages but neither candidate is addressing them.

One way or the other, the candidates could consider reduction in mortgage principal but “the banks don’t want to do it because they would be forced to recognize losses.”

via reuters.com

10 essentials when buying, storing firewood | South Salem NY Real Estate

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With rising fuel costs and wildfires in a lot of forested areas, whether you buy firewood or cut your own, you’re almost sure to see an increase in the cost of the wood you burn this year. So whether that firewood is your primary source of heat or just cheery ambiance on a cold night, it pays to invest wisely and then protect your investment.

Buying firewood

If you buy firewood, there are a number of different sources where you can locate it. Many people turn to their local newspaper, Craigslist or maybe a community bulletin board. Other — and sometimes more reliable — sources of firewood include local tree-trimming services, fireplace shops, and retailers that sell and service chainsaws and related cutting equipment.

Firewood is sold by the cord, which is a stack of wood 4 feet high, 4 feet deep and 8 feet long (128 cubic feet). Firewood is obviously irregular in shape, so the stack also includes the air spaces between the pieces.

That’s what a cord should look like in a perfect world. Ideally, the dealer you’re buying the wood from will deliver it in a truck that makes verification of the load easy, such as a 4-by-8-foot truck bed, with wood stacked 4 feet high. That doesn’t always happen, and you need to be careful when you see a truck roll up with wood tossed in the back: A sloping pile of firewood in a standard pickup truck may contain only 3/4 of a cord.

The other thing you’ll be looking for when you buy your wood is whether it’s dry, also sometimes called “seasoned,” or whether it’s “green.” Dry firewood has been out in the air for a while since it was cut, allowing a significant amount of the wood’s moisture to evaporate, typically down to a moisture content of around 20 percent or less. Green wood still has a lot of the moisture in it — as much as 40 percent — so when you burn it, the fire has to first evaporate that moisture. Therefore the wood burns cooler, and you get less heat energy per cord.

Visually inspect the wood that you buy. Dry wood feels light, has loose bark and darkened ends with clearly visible splits, and makes a very definite “thunking” noise when you hit two pieces together. Wet wood is just the opposite, and will sound dull and heavy when knocked together.

You’ll typically pay a little more for dry wood, but it’s worth the cost if you plan to burn it right away. If you’re going to store the wood for burning next season, then you can save some money by buying green wood and letting it dry.

There are a couple of other ways to save some money when you buy your wood. If you have a truck or a trailer, you might be able to pick the wood up yourself at the dealer’s lot and save delivery charges, and also verify your full cord at the same time. If you have wood delivered, there’ll be an extra charge for stacking, so do that chore yourself if you can. Also, you can usually get firewood in full rounds, or pre-split. If you’re ambitious, consider getting rounds — they’re cheaper, and you can get some great outdoor exercise by doing your own splitting.

Storing and seasoning the wood

Most people store a good portion of their wood supply outside where it can continue to dry and season, and keep a small portion nearby where it’s accessible and ready for use.

Long-term storage areas should be located outside where wind and sun can help with the drying. However, to minimize danger in the event of a wildfire, and also to protect your home’s siding in case the firewood contains any insects, the wood shouldn’t be stacked directly against your house. Also, wood that’s left out in the elements, even if it’s dry, will reabsorb water from rain and snow, as well as from the ground. This will cause it to become too wet to burn efficiently, and eventually it will rot.

Ideally, consider creating an outdoor storage shed for your firewood, with a raised floor, a sloped roof for runoff, and open sides for easy access and unimpeded air circulation. Make it large enough to hold a year’s worth of wood — typically two to four cords, depending on your burning habits.

After the wood is dry, most people create a smaller storage area inside the house, such as in the garage or basement. Depending on your habits and the accessibility of your outside supply, the inside supply could be as small as two or three days’ worth, or large enough to accommodate several weeks of wood.

Finally, create some storage right at the fireplace or wood stove. One very nice solution is a canvas carrying bag with enclosed ends and sides. The wood is stacked in the bag for carrying, then the bag hooks over a decorative metal frame near the fireplace for storage, containing the wood inside the bag to minimize the mess.

You might also consider a decorative metal tub or other container to hold one or two nights’ worth of wood while keeping the dirt and chips contained. While not quite as neat, there are also a number of very attractive open metal storage racks offered by various manufacturers.

Any wood that you store inside needs to be far enough away from the fireplace that it can’t combust. And most importantly, never store newspapers, kindling, pinecones or other easily combustible fire-starting materials next to your fireplace. They can and do start house fires!

via inman.com

30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Holds Steady | South Salem NY Real Estate

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Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages remained flat this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 3.26 percent, unchanged from this same time last week.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovered between 3.18 and 3.28 percent for the majority of the week, dropping to the current rate this morning.

“Last week, rates moved down slightly after the weak jobs report but remained essentially flat after Monday’s stronger-than-expected retail sales figures,” said Erin Lantz, director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. “Although this is a fairly busy week for U.S. economic data, we expect rates to remain in this low range as the market awaits the European Union Summit on Thursday and looks for positive news that might offset renewed uncertainty about the health of the European economy.”

Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 2.64 percent, and for 5/1 ARMs, the rate was 2.59 percent.

What are the rates right now? Check Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for up-to-the-minute mortgage rates for your state.

*The weekly rate chart illustrates the average 30-year fixed interest rate in six-hour intervals.

via zillow.com