Friday, July 25, 2014

A towing company does more than just tow your car

Many people don't look kindly on towing companies - the ones that come and take their cars away if they park on the wrong side of the street, or if they're parked on the street after a snowstorm and they're towed so a snowplow can go through.

But a Seattle towing company or a Lakewood towing company do more than that - as you'd appreciate if you ever broke down on the side of the road.

Such a towing company can not only come and tow you - but if you've just run out of gas, they will bring you gas! If you have a flat tire they will come and change it, if you have locked your keys in your car they have little tools that can get it unlocked for you.

So a Seattle towing company actually provides a wide range of services that you can take advantage of. Obviously no one ever wants to lock their keys in their car, but if you do, it's comforting to know that you can call someone other than a locksmith to help you out!

No smoking in your dream home?

When you've got a brand new home, the last thing you want is for someone to come and smoke in itt - and you certainly don't want to smoke in it yourself!

The solution is a hookah - or more specifically a hookah pen. Although you can smoke nicotine using these portable vaporizers, they are more popularly, and safely, used to smoke - or rather vaporize and inhale, fruit flavored liquids, such as banana, mango or peach. There's dozens of flavors.

If you like the smell of the vapor, it's just like cigarette smoke, in that there will be a lingering aroma - but in this case a pleasant one! And of course there's no tobacco particles to get on your skin.

The hookah pen is becoming more and more popular, just because you don't have to use it to smoke tobacco, and it actually helps people wean themselves away from cigarettes.

So as long as you've got a brand new home, and if you're trying to kick the cigarette habit, check out the hookah pen.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Make sure your home is up to code - the electric code

When a home is being built, it has to "meet code." There are actually several codes, all put together by the trade association, the National Fire Protection Association. (I was doing research on this organization - I didn't know *who* created the codes that buildings had to meet...I assumed it was government regulations but it's actually private regulations that cities vote to adopt, or not adopt.  Of course, most do, just because it makes good sense.)

The reason I found out about the NFPA was because I was checking out the website of Mr. Sparky, a West Seattle electrician, and their site specified that "We strictly adhere to, and comply with the local and national electrical codes as spelled out by the National Electrical Code (NEC), and published by the U.S. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 70)."

That got me thinking about "code" and I decided I'd do some research on it.

Some unscrupulous builders don't bother to meet code, and the buyer of the home will pay for it, eventually.

My dream home is going to be up to snuff in all the various codes, as I want it to be around for a long time to come!

I've done a bit of research on electricians in Seattle, just out of curiosity... I wonder how close that Washington state wildfire is to the big cities?

Housewarming party

It's a tradition, whenever someone moves into a new house - whether brand new, or just new to them - to hold a housewarming party, where friends and family bring gifts for the new home.

The new homeowner receives the gifts, but in return has to supply his or her guests with good food to eat, and especially with fine desserts!

I was wandering through the food counters of my local Walmart the other day, thinking of foods I'd like to buy...and then, since my mind is never far away from the home I want to own one day, I was thinking of what I could use a house-warmimg party foodstuffs. I saw some really nice decorated cakes, with edible images on them - such as from the movie Frozen, and from the movie Despicable Me. (You may think such cakes are of interest only to kids, but hey, I love animated films and see no reason why I shouldn't buy a cake so decorated!

Edible cake decorations have been "in" for some time. They are made from edible starch and are perfectly safe to eat They are even kosher! There are certain decorations that I wouldn't eat - hard lumps of sugar in the shapes of bees or trees or whatever have no appeal, but thin sheets of sugar or colored starch placed onto frosting - yum.

Having said that, I'm thinking sugar sculpture would be the way to go. Unique, one of a kind - but expensive.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Storage for your dream home

One of the most important things to consider when you find, or build, your dream home, is that you have enough storage space for all your treasures.

I've never understood why people buy a home suitable for a large family - well, a three or four bedroom house or something, and once kids are gone, just sell it and move into something smaller. No, no.  Think of all that space! Turn one room into an office, another into your own private library, and one into a game room with a model train set set up permanently or something of that nature.

If there's a garage, garages more often than not are always messy, with things stacked higgedly piggedly. But there are ways to solve this problem, by purchasing appropriate types of storage containers.

Storage tubes are great if you've got lots of metal rods - for example from past window curtains, that one day you'll use again, or if you've got lots of posters that you want to put up once every couple of years, for example.

Pac Rite Inc. offers shipping tubes and storage tubes of all sizes, for those awkward things that you don't know where to put, and don't want to lose!

Protecting your dream home

A person's home is his or her single most important investment in life (if you don't include getting married and having kids as an investment... in which case it's the second most important investment!).

Those two are interconnected, as a matter of fact. Your home is part of your estate, but if worse comes to worst and you get a divorce, typically the husband has to move out and let the wife have the house - and if it's not paid for, and the wife can't get sufficient income to pay for the mortgage, she may lose the house, etc.

So it's important to have a lawyer who can handle your estate for you - whether it's your will or living will or whatever, to ensure that your home goes to who you want it to go to should you pass away, or whether you're dealing with a divorce and want a fair settlement between spouses and hopefully an amicable divorce.

There are a variety of lawyers who specialize in one or the other, or even both, as for example Michael Atkins, who heads a group of West Seattle lawyers who deal with estate law, family law, and also personal injury.

Friday, July 18, 2014

The Importance of the Roof

I was doing some research into Nashville roofing companies, and found Premier Roofing.

The roof of a home is extremely important, and the traditional philosophy is that a roof should ast for 20 years. Of course depending on where you live, the roof may last shorter - if there's a constant amount of hail, or very high winds, etc - or longer - if the place has no weather at all!

Many decades ago, when I lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I saw a home off I-35 that I really, really wanted. It had a circular column which I assume housed a spiral staircase, and maybe even a circular bedroom, and the roof was flat.

Every time I drove past that house on my way to work, I'd eye it covetously.

Then, after about 10 years, someone bought it and destroyed its personality entirely. For one thing, they put a pointy roof on it! I suppose because a flat roof didn't do well with the 3-6 feet of snow that would pile on it during your average snow storm!

I doubt if I'll settle in Nashville, but one of my goals is to visit every capitol city of the state. Nashville roofing companies were therefore of interest to me today.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Nutritional therapy, so you can enjoy your dream home!

Well, that title may sound like a reach, but it's true. What's the point of having your dream home - something you've spent decades saving and planning for, if you're not in the good health to enjoy it?

When I was looking at various businesses in Seattle, I came across Thrive Nutrition. It's a business that will only do you good if you actually live in Seattle, although it doesn't matter where you live, really, there will by nutritional therapy businesses near you.

There's an old saying, "We are what we eat."

It's self evident, and common sense, that that's true.

People today are so busy that we don't really eat well - it's quicker to shove a TV dinner into the microwave than to spend hours making a fresh meal.

(The solution, of course, is to make batches of food, and to freeze half of it, in separate, servable portions. Then when you're ready for a snack or a meal, just put *that* healthy food into a microwave.)

If you've got any kind of chronic pain or illness, time to visit someone who deals in nutritional therapy, to see what they can do for you.

It won't be an overnight cure, but after a few months - to cleanse the old, bad stuff out of your system and replace it with new, good stuff - you'll feel a helluva lot better!


Friday, July 4, 2014

Old homes are full of memories

Although my dream home - and many people's dream homes, come to that, are *new* homes, it's always possible that you can find your dream home in one that already exists, one in which someone you respect or admire used to live, for example.

Of course if it's a "big" someone, like Edgar Allan Poe or Walt Disney or someone, any home they lived in has been turned into a museum if it wasn't destroyed in renovation projects over the years, before towns realized that people would pay to see homes in which famous people lived.

But if the past person whose home you find is famous only to you... then it might still exist and you might still be able to buy it.

I'm interested in women's aviation...wouldn't mind seeing the homes of Ruth Law, Phoebe Omlie, etc. Amelia Earhart's home has been turned into a museum, but she's probably the only female aviator whose home has received that distinction.

There are a few companies that are ancestry researchers, and will do your research for you to compile a family tree book. Turtle Trove ancestry is one of these.

If you have them do research back into your family tree, who knows what ancestors you might not uncover...and learn where their homes were and if they're still standing, too.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

The latest design in sinks

Well...I don't know if this is the *latest* design in sinks, but I'd certainly never seen it before.

I was surfing the web looking for Seattle custom home builders, and came across the site for Benton Development.

I'm going to share a portion of a photo from their website - from a bathroom they had designed:


Notice that the sinks in this bathroom are raised, and sit above the countertop instead of being countersunk.

Doesn't that look cool?

Of course it's impossible to see if the top drawers are now usable instead of fake.  (That's one think that irritates me about sink designs, they have what look like two drawers  at the top, but of course they aren't drawers, they're just made to look like drawers - so annoying.)

It's a very oriental look...and I am going for an orientalish/minimalistic look in my dream home.

So, these kinds of sinks are on my list!

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Manifesto

It's practically every American's dream to own their own home.

It's certainly mine.

I'd be happy with *any* home in a nice neighborhood, of course, but that doesn't stop me from planning my "dream home" - the home I could design and build for myself if I had unlimited funds.

That's what this blog is about, and hopefully you'll find stuff in here that you'll like, too.