Tune up your home with these simple maintenance tasks. Here’s a checklist of 15 things you should keep on top of, and the best part is that each one takes 10 minutes or less.

1. Vacuum the condenser coils at the back of your fridge annually.

2. Replace your furnace filters seasonally.

3. Polish your natural wood front door. If painted, surface wash it.

4. Clean the air conditioner grill and register. Cover the top with a plank of wood and hold in place with a brick for the winter. Using a typical air conditioner cover blocks all air flow, which will lead to moisture build up and actually harm the unit.

5. Dust and test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors (twice a year).

6. Replace the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors (annually).

7. Self-clean the oven (Okay, technically this takes hours, but it only takes a few minutes to set it up).

8. Clean your coffeemaker. Technically this takes more than 10 minutes, but each step itself takes only a minute or two. Tackle each step during commercial breaks in your favourite show.

1: Fill up the coffeemaker reservoir with one-part white vinegar to two parts cold water and “brew.”

4: Discard used rinse water and repeat with fresh water.

9. Clean your kitchen exhaust hood. Clean or replace the filter.

10. Check your water heater for signs of leakage or rust.

11. Plug in and inspect all of your small appliances, ensure they are in good working order and the cords are not damaged.

12. Inspect your furnace. Any signs of rust or scale? Any weird noises? If so, book a professional inspection.

13. Pick a ground fault circuit interrupter outlet (GFCI) and test it. Push the Test button, check that this has popped out the Reset button and that anything hooked up to the outlet will no longer power on. Push Reset and you’re good to go. Test a different GFCI outlet next time.

14. Conduct a garage door safety check.

- Put it into manual mode and lift it: it should glide smoothly and stay open on its own three feet from the ground: if not, have a pro counterbalance it.

-Put a pet- or child-size object on the ground (a small cardboard box or lightweight plastic laundry hamper, for example) and close the door. It should pop up as soon as it meets the obstacle. If not, call a pro.

15. Check your emergency flashlight. Do the batteries work? If not, replace them, or consider upgrading to a non-battery powered, manual wind-up model.

Staging Spaces
The first stage to selling your house.

In today’s market it is more important than ever to have your home stand out above the rest. For example, recently a CMA was done on a house that came in at $380,000.00. I was called in and the owners spent approximately $1600.00 on some minor work like wallpaper removal, painting and staging the house. Then a new price was attached and the house sold for $405,000.00 in just 11 days! That’s a full $25,000.00 more than what they originally thought the house would sell for! The homeowners were so happy they’ve asked me to help them arrange their new house once they move.

Who wouldn’t want this kind of return on their investment?

Another recent house was listed previously with two different top agents in the area but wasn’t selling. It was a newer very large, higher end home which was devoid of furniture and lacking any accessories or personality. The homeowners weren’t using half of the home which tells potential buyers that the home is just too large, and this was exactly the feedback that they were getting. The third listing agent called me in and the house was staged showing tru e use of the spaces, adding much needed interest and warmth. This ‘hard to sell’ house had a solid offer after 45 days and was sold firm! The clients were ecstatic!

Both of these examples happened within the last month, in this supposedly slow market.

Will you be my next success story? Contact Staging Spaces today to sell your house tomorrow.

Many of you have heard of the two most popular terms that are associated with preparing your home for sale, ‘de-personalize’ and ‘de-clutter’. You may have heard these terms from watching television programs, or reading articles in your favourite magazine. The more houses I go into, the more I see that these two things are being done to the extreme.

When homeowners tell me with excitement that they have already ‘de-cluttered’ and ‘de-personalized’, I usually stand there, looking at a house that looks burglarized rather than de-personalized. The home is devoid of any sort of warmth and personality at all and actually feels cold and unwelcoming, this is not what we want potential buyers to feel when walking into your home. This is why I decided to define these two terms a little more in detail for you ‘do it yourselfers’ out there who want to get a start on things prior to the actual staging.

De-personalize: This doesn’t mean you get rid of every personal item you own. In general we are talking about packing away any personal collections and memorabilia. This can be anything from your Royal Dalton figurines, to your husbands beloved Nascar and mounted fish collections. Any items of a religious nature, or your collection of travel artifacts. These items are very precious and personal to you, but they may actually offend potential purchasers, or they may actually like them so much that they spend more time looking at your collection than they do your house…..that’s not where we want their focus to be.

De-clutter: The areas of the home I find that are the most cluttered are closets, kitchen cupboards and areas of the home that are rarely used. Potential buyers want to see a lot of space in closets, and if they are jam packed with every piece of clothing you own, or just stuff in general, they probably don’t look very spacious. Same with kitchen cupboards, it seems that the more cupboards a house has, the more the owner feels they need to fill them. Pack away the non-essentials, off-season clothing and footwear, extra bedding and linens, the crock-pot and juicer that you haven’t used in a year. Every little bit helps when showing spaciousness in these areas. If you have a spare bedroom or basement that you seem to throw everything in, clear it out and pack it up. Have a garage sale or donate the items you never use to a charity organization, they would be more than happy to turn your trash into someone else’s treasure.

Remember, not every thing you own needs to be packed away and sent off to storage. This is why I believe that every house should have at least a consultation prior to anything being done. You will have the benefit and peace of mind that you are doing the right thing, and it will save you from revisiting your storage bin to dig through your boxes to recollect some of your accessories.

Stacey Haluka
Staging Spaces

I thought I would pass along some information regarding grants available to you by making your home more eco-Friendly.

Example: For each energy star window installed? you can get $30 from the Federal government and $30 from Provincial government. For 10 windows, that would be $600.00. It costs approximately $300-$350 for the first visit? you get $150 back from provincial government and then $150 for the return visit after the work is done. You could get more money by following their other minor recommendations like insulating or caulking etc.

Navigate through the links on the left hand side of the page for more detailed information.
http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/personal/home-improvement.cfm?attr=4

January 28, 2009

An expanded coENERGY Retrofit- Homes program was announced in Budget 2009 and Natural Resources Canada is working to finalize the details. The new expanded program includes a $300 million increase over 2 years for support to property owners looking to make their homes more energy efficient. It is estimated that additional funds will extend the reach of the current program to an additional 200,000 homeowners.
The Government of Canada is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the energy efficiency of our homes. In these economic times, it?s especially important that we take steps like this to help Canadians control their energy costs while generating new jobs. This builds on the success of this initiative that has helped over 52,500 Canadian homeowners to complete home retrofits.
Natural Resources Canada will be providing the new program details at a later date.
We encourage you to continue to check back to the web site for updates.
http://www.ecoaction.gc.ca/ecoenergy-ecoenergie/retrofithomes-renovationmaisons-20080128-eng.cfm

Stacey Haluka
Staging Spaces
The First Stage to Selling Your House

In a hot real estate market, even homes that don’t give the greatest first impression will still sell. However, as the market cools off, the listings that show well will be the ones that sell faster and for a better price.

“Recent economic uncertainty has led to more of a buyers’ market,” says Dianne Usher, vice president, Royal Lepage Real Estate Services, Johnston and Daniel Division. “In this market, a house that isn’t properly prepared may struggle to sell. Staging and preparing a home for sale is more critical now than ever before.”

While interior decorating concentrates on making people feel more at home in their interior space, the objective of staging is to make the home more marketable inside and outside. Staging usually involves getting rid of clutter and ‘depersonalizing’ a home. “Most people can’t envision themselves in someone else’s home,” says Usher. “Things like clutter or an imbalance of furnishings or colours that are out of sync with the home can throw them off.” As part of their service, REALTORS® need to educate clients about how staging a home for sale can make a huge difference in the outcome of the deal. For some clients, it can be a tough sell to get them to pack away the family photos and bowling trophies.

When faced with a sellers’ home that’s cluttered, outrageously decorated or in need of a major clean-up, many REALTORS® suggest enlisting the services of a professional home stager. Just as a home inspector investigates and reports on a home’s structural and mechanical fitness, a home stager will evaluate a home’s curb appeal and saleability. Usher, a REALTOR® with more than 30 years of experience, says there is an increased awareness among REALTORS® of the importance of staging. “More REALTORS® are advising their clients to use this service and some even offer to pay for a stager as part of their value-added service.”

Although the cost to hire a professional home stager varies widely depending on the scope of the project, Usher says it’s a service that is worth the investment. “In my experience, a minimal investment in the cost of staging can achieve a much higher selling price, even if the property is priced properly,” she says. Many REALTORS® have increased their knowledge of staging and can help clients stage their homes for little or no cost. “While it’s beneficial for REALTOR® to learn about staging, they should not become a stager,” says Usher. “As REALTORS® we need to know when to call in the experts.”

An accredited home stager will follow a set of standards and professional guidelines to prepare a home for sale. Staging services range from simply rearranging furniture to emptying a house out and filling it with rented furniture. The cost for staging can range from $50 to $150 an hour with the majority of jobs taking less than a day to complete.

Contact Staging Spaces for a consultation today!

With so much negativity surrounding us, from our peers, family members and friends, to the newspapers and television, many people today are wondering, “How can I stay positive in today’s market?” To stay positive, you must realize the value of a positive mental attitude. Here are 7 ways that can help you to create and maintain a positive mental attitude.

1. Avoid toxic people

What does this mean? Who are the toxic people? Toxic people can be well-meaning people but when they talk to you, they are coming from a negative attitude about money, finances, and especially about the current real estate situation.

They may be fellow co-workers who want to gather around the water cooler, they may be relatives who are just trying to protect you; they may even be friends and family.

You will know if you’ve been around a toxic person, because you will begin to feel deflated.

Here’s your job: either change the subject or walk away. Better yet, speak up for yourself and mention that you want to think positively about yourself and about your circumstances. If you see one of them coming your way find a way to avoid the interaction because it does not serve your highest good (or theirs).

2. If you’ve tried everything and exhausted ways to avoid toxic people, then you may have to set an internal boundary.

You can do this very simply by having your own inner conversation if someone is saying something negative to you on the outside.

A great example of an inner conversation when someone is complaining about their business or about the marketplace is to say to yourself, “That may be true for you but it’s not true for me.” This can become your inner mantra.

3. Avoid the media

Why? Remember that the intention of the media is to sell newspapers and magazines. The more they can paint a negative and fearful picture, the more their sales go up.

In fact there is a saying in the newspaper business, “If it bleeds, it reads.” That may seem harsh, but pick up any newspaper and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Why subject yourself to slanted, negative spins on the economy when you can find just as much information to point to the positive?

4. Look for the opportunity in today’s marketplace

There are many opportunities in today’s market and successful real estate professionals are taking advantage of them.

Did you know that some people are buying up as much property as they can? Why do you think that is? They are smart businesspeople, to say the least, and know that this is the best time to buy.

Let your prospective clients know this and then say to them, “Let’s get you a deal.” Few could resist this invitation.

5. Remember that your success depends on your mindset, not on the outer conditions of the market.

“If you believe you can or you can’t, either way you are right,” Henry Ford.

What mindset do you choose to nurture inside yourself? Do you want to believe, “I can “or “I can’t.” Your beliefs create your reality so whatever you choose to believe will become true for you.

6. Remember to engage the Law of Attraction as one of your most powerful tools

The law of attraction states that you get what you focus your attention on. Furthermore, your beliefs create your reality so choose your beliefs carefully.

Here’s a tip: instead of saying “I can’t possibly succeed in today’s market,” choose instead to focus one of these beliefs: “I achieve whatever I set my mind to.” “I am a money magnet in any situation.” “My success depends on my attitude, not on any outer circumstances.”

7. Conquer your fear

The fear of the unknown strengthens uncertainty, makes you feel trapped, and increases your stress level. When you have negative fear, fright overcomes desire.

Re-establish trust in yourself, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Stabilize and understand yourself, all positive energy flows from self trust.
Continue to reach for your dream. Expect good things to happen. Look for the positive. Design your life to have a bounce in your step. Turn your imagination loose. Be willing to take risks. Don?t sit on the park bench waiting for good things to happen while others are passing you by.

Strengthen each other!!

Stacey Haluka
Staging Spaces
The First Stage to Selling Your House.

Some of our earliest memories are set in our childhood homes, our families’ homes and vacation spots. These early mental pictures form a sense of our most base comforts and values. They provide a measure by which we look to establish our grown up homes so as to provide the same memories for our children.
As the seller, the decision to sell your home may prove more difficult than you considered. After all, you can’t pack up the spot your daughter took her first steps or your son threw his first baseball. Our memories aren’t complete without the emotional ties that we form around them. However sensible our reasons may be for selling, we also have our sentiments to consider. You will be moving into a new house full of potential for new memories and opportunities.
Regardless of the stage we are at in our lives, fundamentally we will only buy a home we can picture ourselves living in. Emotions are an integral part in selecting a home as well. We believe ourselves to be shopping with a list of practical necessities however once we walk through the front door of our dream home, the list is “chucked” and we begin thinking of it as “MINE!” or “SOLD!”.
How did that happen?
It goes back to those childhood memories. Your ideals stem from where and how you grew up. Perhaps your parents were of modest means and had a small little family home that was quaint and simple or were doctors who hired decorators and never let you sit on the “good” furniture. Everyone’s tastes vary as much as their reasons for liking or disliking a property when attending open houses. Not sitting on the furniture may have you looking for a children friendly home or not having much privacy growing up may leave you craving a larger house.
How we choose to decorate or furnish our home is effected in the same way. A parents’ professionally decorated home may have set the standards for your own or perhaps now you prefer simplicity and the bare essentials. If you grew up with standard white walls, colour may be very intimidating and a big change.
If we only pay attention to the financial aspects of purchasing a house, then you may overlook some of the important aspects that turn it into a home. You may think, “Oh, I’ll be ok with that shag carpeting and I can clean to get rid of that smell.” Unless you are prepared to renovate and update the house as soon as you move in, you had better be prepared to live it the way it is when you move in.
Emotions also tend to determine how much you are willing to pay for a home. If you’ve always wanted a little reading nook complete with window seating and the house you are viewing has that plus a great view of a beautiful yard, you are going to be more strongly attracted to it than one that doesn’t. And you will be willing to pay more. If the house is exactly what you are looking for however it means that your children would attend less than ideal school, you may choose to walk away or offer less.
We often try to ignore our emotional response during major financial transactions, seeing it as a weakness and impulsive. Impulse purchases are made using only our emotions, insecurities or subconscious motivations, however if we measure how we are feeling about a purchase along with the practical necessities and facts you will make a more comprehensive decision.
Whether we are selling or buying a house, our emotional attachments to what defines a “home” will determine perceived value in asking price, offers and selling price.

Staging Spaces

A Healthy House is bright, open, energy efficient and welcoming. It can be new or renovated, in downtown or suburbia. Wherever you find it, the Healthy House is characterized by five key elements.

1. Occupant Health – The Healthy Housing concept promotes superior quality of indoor air, water and lighting.

2. Energy Efficiency – The Healthy House reduces energy use all year long. It minimizes heat loss in winter and gain in summer. It relies on efficient heating and ventilation systems, reduces the consumption of electricity and other fuels, and encourages the use of renewable energy. It also reduces the energy used in the manufacture of building materials and in house construction.

3. Resource Efficiency – The Healthy House makes efficient use of resources. It is also affordable and adaptable to changing needs. Efficient use is made of building materials, and construction waste is well managed. Durability of building components is essential. The Healthy House conserves resources, especially water and energy.

4. Environmental Responsibility – The Healthy House uses alternative water and wastewater systems, encourages site planning that reduces land requirements, promotes resource-efficient landscaping and considers broader community planning issues such as transportation.

5. Affordability – For the Healthy House to succeed in the marketplace, it must be good for the owner, the builder and future generations. Many features of the Healthy House make it affordable, and its design makes it easily adaptable to its occupants’ changing needs.

Source: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)

Staging Spaces was featured in The Standard on Tuesday, July 28th. Below is the on-line version of the article, written by Cheryl Clock, editor Brian Collins.

Setting the Stage
Every detail counts for home stagers who create attractive living spaces from rooms that may have been neglected, full of clutter or just the end-product of bad taste

Dated doors that scream ’70s. Poofy floral valances. Shocking yellow paint. Ugly rugs that cover beautiful hardwood floors. And big, chunky furniture that sucks space from a room.

Niagara-based home stager Stacey Haluka has seen all of it.

Her job is to make a house look good for sale. To bring homes that haven’t been touched by a paint roller since avocado toilets were the rage into the current real estate market. And to make even the nicely decorated home appealing to the target buyer.

Home staging is about much more than telling sellers to make their beds and put fresh flowers on the table.

Home stagers also stage homes for people who aren’t selling. It’s called staging for living.

Different than decorating, it often involves using a homeowner’s own furniture and accessories, just rearranging and using them in different ways. Often the two overlap.

Whether you’re staying or selling, one of the biggest issues is this: people put the wrong furniture, in the wrong rooms, in the wrong places, says Haluka.

In one house, she walked in the front door, up a few steps and was greeted by the back of a sofa that blocked her way into the livingroom.

Nothing wrong with the sofa. Everything wrong with its location.

“You want a house to feel warm and flowing,” she says.

To improve the traffic flow, she simply eliminated clutter and rearranged the homeowner’s own furniture. She put the sofa in a space that opened up into the diningroom and kitchen. It helped to make the spaces seem more separate and defined. Two chairs were relocated beside a big window.

She also moved a smaller area rug from the dining room to replace a bigger carpet that was covering most of the hardwood floors.

Even though most of the main furniture is still there, the room is cleaner and seems bigger, she says.

And that’s the name of the game. “We’re selling space,” she says.

And when you’re thinking space, every little detail counts. Clean up your closets, fold and neatly stack towels and linens and consider storing offseason clothing elsewhere.

If you want your kitchen to appear bigger, take a look at what’s on your counter, says Devin Khuu, a home stager from St. Catharines.

Remove trinkets. Edit equipment you use only occasionally. And if you’re selling, edit even more. Take baking sheets and other items out of cupboards to create more room.

“If you have too much stuff, they think it’s small,” she says.

If you’re a little shy about pitching stuff out, consider recycling or donating. Khuu suggests reading the Niagara Region¡s Enviro Guide for lists of places that will take used items for recycling or resale.

Often if people know their treasured possessions aren’t ending up in the trash, they’re more willing to let go of clutter in their home, she says.

If I can say to them, I have somewhere for it to go, it makes it easier, she says.

Remember that you’re competing against new homes with spotless, up-todate kitchens, she says.

If you’re looking for an economical way to spice up a tired kitchen, think paint, says Haluka.

Fresh paint on any wall will add life to a room. But don’t stop there. White paint on outdated brown cupboards and doors can have high impact for little money, she says.

Haluka turned a dark and drab ’70s kitchen into a space that was light and airy with paint. Simply sand and prime (she likes Bulls Eye 123 primer), then add a fresh coat of white. She even painted the mismatched laminate and wood countertop with Melamine. It’s durable, makes an impact and will buy you time to save up for a new countertop or your dream kitchen reno, she says.

Add new door pulls, taps, even a sink if you’re handy. Maybe buy a more modern light for over your table. They don¡¯t cost much but have maximum impact, says Haluka.

Same goes for the bathroom cupboards. In one bathroom, Haluka made a large, rectangular mirror that spanned the length of the vanity more classy simply by making a frame to go around it.

And while you’re painting, you may as well lighten up all that trim (baseboard, door and window) stained so dark it chops up a room, says Khuu. Instead of having a flow, your eye is drawn to the outlines, she says. Just remember, if you do one room, you do them all.

And when you go to buy furniture, think about where it¡¯s going. Big, chunky furniture can steal valuable living space from a room, says Khuu.

In a dining room of a home currently on the market, she found a wooden table and hutch so big it ate up most of the space. She brought in a smaller, round glass-top table and four Parsons chairs and got rid of the hutch.

The end result ¡s a cleaner, streamlined look. And more living space. In the adjoining livingroom, she got rid of two large sofas and yet another massive wooden display case that devoured an entire wall.

It’s a large room but shrinks with too much furniture, she says. If you need a place for your TV, consider a floating shelf.

If you’re living in the house, you want space. If you’re selling, you don’t want all your stuff to block the imagination of a potential buyer, says Christine Rae, author of Home Staging for Dummies and founder of Certified Staging Professionals. If all your collections, photographs and personal items are on display, ¡°they get wrapped up into how you’re living, she says.

Lots of furniture creates a message in their memory bank small room. These days, many buyers don’t have time to view loads of houses. They eliminate many based on online photographs and a quick drive-by. Buyers are looking for move-in ready homes. They want to move in on Saturday and have a barbecue on Sunday, she says.

…

For more information on Canadian Staging Professionals, visit www.canadianstagingprofessionals.com or call 905-984-6955. Home stagers Devin Khuu and Stacey Haluka are both CSP members. They can also be reached at:
Devin Khuu, 289-688-4348 or www.dkdesignstudio.ca
Stacey Haluka, 289-820-9460 or www.staging-spaces.ca

Just what colours should you consider when staging a home for the selling market?
Choosing the right paint colours can make all the difference to how the property feels to the buying market. If colour schemes leave you confused then you’ve found the solution with Staging Spaces.

Colour can dramatically alter any space in a property. Through my work as a home stager I have encountered many occasions when properties failed to sell for their highest potential figure or else languished on the real estate agents books for months because the colour schemes in the properties were putting off the buyers.

Colour in our environment has a dramatic effect on everyone. According to colour psychologists everyone has both a conscious and subconscious response to the colour of their environment.
Colour can make buyers feel ‘Welcomed’, ‘Excited’, ‘Relaxed’, ‘Comfortable’ but it can also make them feel ‘Unwelcome’, ‘Uncomfortable’, ‘Cold’, ‘Anxious’.

For this reason it is vitally important to get your choice of colours right when staging a property to sell. Choosing a colour to repaint a single room or potentially the whole house can be tough.

Unlike furniture, lamps, art and accessories, which can be positioned and then repositioned until things look right, painting a room in the wrong color is both expensive and time consuming.

That’s why I’ve realized the benefit of using the CSP® Staging Safe Colour Palette. When staging a house I really can’t go wrong with these colours that easily fit into any décor and flow seamlessly from room to room. They help the potential buyer envision their ‘stuff’ in the space without being distracted by the current wall colours. I can’t stress enough just how important colour and a fresh coat of paint is, especially when selling a house. Don’t have your next potential buyer walk away, call Staging Spaces today!

Stacey Haluka
Staging Spaces
The first stage to selling your house.
289-820-9460