miscellaneous

  • Strictly Wood Furniture: a warning to consumers

    Several times in the past we mentioned Strictly Wood Furniture, their excellent prices and the seemingly high quality Mission Revival reproduction items they sold. However – and I have to admit I'm definitely behind the times on this since the complaints date back four years – I found this thread on Gardenweb detailing dozens of people's very serious problems with the company. Some have waited years for furniture or refunds that never came, others took delivery of obviously broken or incomplete orders; all had one thing in common: that they were unable to get any kind of honest answer from the seemingly friendly folks who worked for Strictly Wood. SWF went so far as to give completely fabricated fedex confirmation numbers – meant to maintain the illusion that a refund check was on its way to the customer – on multiple occasions. What a scam! And, as of last year, their flagship showroom in New York City is shuttered.

    The good luck is that they have closed down; the bad news is that they've only closed down under that name, and keep reappearing under others: watch out for their other fronts (they are apparently still selling, or rather promising to deliver, via constantly-changing Yahoo stores and various auction sites, too).

    Ralph Jones helped them go into receivership and writes that most of the customers who never got their money back or the furniture they ordered were eventually given something; however, after contacting a half dozen people who had posted in the Gardenweb thread, only one had received any communication at the time Strictly Wood closed down. The Turkish company that made the furniture, however, was never guilty of any wrongdoing, and still makes excellent furniture and sells via other vendors – these problems were completely the fault of the American vendor, Strictly Wood. Furniture.

  • special homes in unspecial places

    I got this from the folks at Preservation Directory and thought some Hewn & Hammered readers might be able to help. My own home is the opposite: a very plain, unfortunately much-"improved" Mission Revival bungalow in a neighborhood full of beautiful Victorians, Craftsman highwaters and Mission cottages.

    Please contact New York Times reporter Sarah Maslin Nir directly to participate or to receive additional information about the article. Her deadline is Thursday, May 14, 2009.

    I am looking for homeowners who love their historic or stunning house, even though it is in a neighborhood that you wouldn't usually find this type of home in. Perhaps the neighborhood has changed from what it was like when the house was built, and now it doesn't really fit it. The house might be next to something unusual like an airport or power plant. Or they are in a neighborhood that was once residential and is now a mall or an urban center etc.

    Two caveats: 1) the neighborhood should not be "up and coming", rather a place that is going to stay as it is, but the home buyers love the house anyway. 2) The house is NOT for sale.  These can be recently moved-in residents or long time owners, but no one who is selling the house currently.

    I'm looking for people who love their home where others might not give the same house a second glance.  Thanks so much I look forward to your e-mails."

  • selling your home when you have small children

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    Our friend, real estate professional Joel Macdonald, passes along this good advice for those of you with small kids who may be selling – or getting ready to sell – your home:

    When you are selling your home, having the property in the best showing
    condition it can be has got to be your highest priority. Being able to
    get that feat done when you have kids can be a tough assignment at
    best, let alone to keep it in that condition all the time your home is
    on the market. There are a few easy actions you can take to keep your
    home showable even with little ones living their regular lives.

    Organization is the Key Thing

    Children of all ages
    tend to stockpile toys of all kinds. They like variety. As a parent you
    might have gotten used to the sight of clutter, but someone who is not
    used to being around small children can notice it. The first step to
    take, then, in getting your home ready to go on the market is to
    organize your children's belongings so they can easily be put away and
    mostly out of sight. This can be approached by getting and using toy
    chests or storage boxes. Find storage that fits into the space without
    being too obvious.

    Clean up the Exterior of the House

    Putting
    things away on the outside of your home is important as well. Try
    finding ways to set up, or store, the children's outdoor toys in a neat
    and tidy way to present the outside of your house well. Toys that
    cannot be stored in a garage or outdoor storage do not have to be all
    put away but they must not present a cluttered appearance.

    Of course, the regular practice of clearing out things that are not
    needed in a systematic manner is just as pertinent to the young family
    members' things as it is to all the other old treasures. This is an
    excellent skill even if you are not going to move. Children as well as
    adults have to learn to make decisions. Learning the process of letting
    things go and moving on is a necessary part of life. This process can
    be a growth opportunity for the children, though it will be important
    to get their participation and not force their decisions. That would
    only interfere with the lesson to be gained.

    Keeping It Up
    Some discipline will be required to keep everything in order after you
    are all organized. Trying to keep everything reasonably neat after it
    is sorted can be difficult, but it is not impossible. Once you have
    your storage set up, keeping everything in order will be much easier.
    Limit the number of different things your children are playing with.
    You can even make the goal of keeping the house straight an adventure
    or challenge for your kids. They in turn may even remind you to keep
    other things in the house organized as well.

    Don't try and keep your children from all their regular play while
    you are selling your home. There is no need to turn your home into a
    sterile clean home where it would seem no children would be allowed.
    Many people in the market for a family home are happy to see a house
    that is inviting to live in, with toys in use. Just be aware that it
    should be kept on the neater side of normal.

    If you have children who are messy painters it might be a step-saver
    to put down a rug for them to play on that can be put away when
    potential buyers come to see the home. That way you can prevent any
    cleanup needed to pop back into the neat appearance of a newly cleaned
    home. Keeping the finger paints put away and out of sight during the
    time the home is offered for sale might be a good approach too.

    It's
    not too impossible, is it, to allow the children to continue with their
    normal lives while you are offering your home in the good condition
    that a real estate sale demands. A little patience and attention,
    together with organization and daily attention to clearing up clutter,
    will make the sale of your home with young children much more
    manageable.

    Article provided through Automated Homefinder, the Boulder home specialists of Colorado.

  • Home Depot to Close all 34 Expo Stores

    I'll shed tears for the innocent people who are losing their jobs for shareholders’ vacation homes – since it seems that big business forgot the entire point of growing a business is to employ people, and that making a profit is simply a related function. I won't, however, shed any tears for the misguided, ridiculous idea – and poor taste – that was Expo:

    Home Depot Inc. announced Monday that it was closing its 34 upscale Expo and other home specialty centers and laying off 7,000 people as a result of the crumbling US housing market and worldwide economic downturn.

    The company said it would close its 34 sprawling Expo Design Center stores by April, including eight in Southern California, and 14 smaller stores.

    Some employees were stunned. “Shock. It was shock. It's just 7,000 of us, just gone,” said Chris Toliver, who works in the appliance section at the company's Expo store in Westwood.

    “I’m young. I'm 22,” he said. “But what hurt the most is the people in their 40s or older, people with families, who are losing their jobs here. Unemployment is nowhere near enough to feed a family.”

     
    You might also be interested in reading an informative guide on the Home Depot return policy.

  • recycling materials “being dumped as landfill”

    Here’s something that really chaps my hide, and which gives yet more credence to so much criticism of new recycling & "environmentally-friendly" industries as being guilty of greenwashing but not really improving anything:

    Thousands of tons of material put out to be recycled by environmentally
    conscious Britons secretly ends up at landfill, it has emerged.

    Around 240,000 tons of paper, glass and plastic is either dumped or
    burned after being collected in green bins and bags by local council
    staff, according to the Local Government Association, which represents
    town halls across the country.

    However, the true amount could be much higher as only around half of local authorities submitted their data.

             

    The article goes on to detail that this is a result of recycling efforts not being well-funded rather than one of private contractors pocketing public money and then simply trashing collected refuse, but it’s still sad to read.

  • contest: let’s see your holiday-decorated home & win a gift card!

    Heather Ferguson writes:

    I love seeing old homes decorated for Christmas. This year Schoolhouse Electric Co is sponsoring a contest on 1912bungalow.com. Enter a photo of your home decorated for the holidays for a chance to win a Schoolhouse Electric Co. light fixture and shade. Second prize is a $75 Home Depot gift card, third prize is a $50 Home Depot gift card. Contest runs from today to December 24th. Enter a photo of your home for a chance to win!

  • ethical home sales: the hunger house

    Over at cnn.com, Rusty Dornin has this wonderful story of a house sale where the needs of the many truly were put ahead those of the individual:

    One day while driving with her father, Hannah Salwen noticed a Mercedes stopped next to a homeless man sitting on the curb.

    "I said to my dad, ‘If that guy didn’t have such a nice car, then
    that guy could have a nice meal,’ " the 15-year-old from Atlanta,
    Georgia, recalled.   And so began the tale of what the Salwen family calls "Hannah’s Lunchbox."

    It started as family discussions about what they needed versus what was enough. Hannah’s father Kevin, an entrepreneur, is
    on the board of the Atlanta Habitat for Humanity and is no stranger to
    community work, but he said this family conversation was life-changing.

    "We stopped and paused and thought about what are the things in
    the world that could really make a difference, a little bit of
    difference in the world," he said.

    They talked about selling
    their cars or other things, but it was Hannah’s mother, Joan, who came
    up with selling their 6,500-square-foot house, donating half the
    proceeds and then moving into a house half the size.

    I guess it takes kids, sometimes, to get us to put our greed and preoccupation with wealth into perspective! read the whole story