Trends in Landscaping Design to Try This Year

Here’s a list of this years most up and coming popular trends to modernize your landscaping and add a touch of refreshing curb appeal.

Whether you’re trying to sell your home or update the one you recently bought, there are plenty of ways to modernize your landscaping and add a touch of refreshing curb appeal. The latest trends include homeowners stepping outside the box with landscaping designs that have Mother Nature’s best interest at heart. Here’s a list of this years most up and coming popular trends.

Growing Produce

If you’re going to add plants to the garden, you might as well also grow something to eat. Planting edible options, like fruits and vegetables, is a great way to add interest and beauty to your landscaping that also offers plenty of health benefits. Growing food in your yard is a trending design that allows you and your guests to appreciate how food is grown. It’s also great for the environment and helps cut down on the weekly grocery budget. Choose fruits and vegetables that thrive in your community for an easier way to manage your garden.

Privacy

Speaking of privacy, you don’t have to install an ugly wooden fence. Plant a quick growing hedge or shrub to provide an extra barrier between your outdoor living space and your neighbors. Even a low growing shrub, like a boxwood, can create a semi-private feel to an area without hindering the view. Planting trees is another excellent way to add privacy and natural beauty to compliment a house.

Asymmetry

Shapes found in nature are rarely perfectly straight lines. Many homeowners now prefer the creativity of nature by reflecting curved or slanted lines in their landscaping. Slight curves on the outside edge of a garden bed and curved walkways are trending right now. These asymmetrical lines not only make your home more appealing, but they also create a softer overall look that embraces nature’s shapes. You can also include a free formed garden bed in the middle of a large lawn space that will add value to your home as well.  Be sure to use a weed eater to properly trim all edges for the best look possible. 

Xeriscaping

So you want a beautiful lawn and garden, but what if you don’t have time to keep it maintained? Xeriscaping is both a popular landscaping technique and design that incorporates plants acclimated to a specific region and decreases the amount of maintenance by using less turf. These plants are typically locally native plants that require little to no added water. They do well in the current climate conditions of the area and can be left alone for the most part.

Xeriscaping also encourages homeowners to replace lawn areas with non-organic mulching options, like stone, to create a truly unique look. While xeriscapes are more common in arid regions of the country, some homeowners use this type of landscaping in smaller portions of their yard that are either hard to access or have trouble growing other plants.

Adding any one of these landscaping techniques to your yard will help raise the overall curb appeal of your home. Consider changing a problem spot in the yard to a xeriscape or adding plants that provide nutritious food options. Creating privacy with quick growing plants as well as incorporating curved lines into your yard are other trends in landscaping design to try this year.

Cat Murphy is a gardening and landscaping writer, and outdoor extraordinaire.

Originally posted by Coldwell Banker Burnet Blue Matter Blog

Weekly Market Activity Report For Week Ending February 2, 2019

Despite weather events that have brought frigid temperatures and heavy snow to large swaths of the U.S., residential real estate markets have performed better than anticipated so far this year. While a complete downturn in sales and prices was not at all expected, some softening was anticipated. Instead, pending sales are performing well in many markets, while new listings are not experiencing any negative swings of concern.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending February 2:
 • New Listings decreased 9.2% to 912
 • Pending Sales increased 4.4% to 834
 • Inventory increased 2.6% to 8,023

For the month of December:
 • Median Sales Price increased 4.0% to $258,000
 • Days on Market decreased 6.6% to 57
 • Percent of Original List Price Received decreased 0.2% to 96.9%
 • Months Supply of Homes For Sale increased 13.3% to 1.7

Publish Date: February 11, 2019 • All comparisons are to 2018 All data from NorthstarMLS. Provided by Minneapolis Area REALTORS®. Report © 2019 ShowingTime.

4 Tips to Making Your Home More Energy Efficient in 2019

Check out these four tips to make your home more energy efficient this year.

The following is a guest post by James Witts.

If your resolution for 2019 includes cutting back on household expenses, making your home more energy efficient should be at the top of your list. You’ll find a wide range of products to help decrease your home’s energy consumption. Check out these four tips to make your home more energy efficient this year.

Go Solar

Harnessing the power of the sun is an easy way to incorporate energy efficiency into your home this year. Rooftop solar panels are becoming more popular and less expensive. Tax incentives can drastically reduce the cost of these systems.

Other solar powered options include outdoor lighting. You can choose a variety of lighting options that won’t consume any electricity. Solar powered flood lights, pathway lights, garden and porch lights are just a few of the many options available. Many of these lights are also motion censored, making them even more energy efficient. Consider installing a few of these around the outside of your home.

Auto-Renew Filters

The heating and cooling systems of your home are the primary source of energy consumption. Replacing older furnaces with newer energy efficient models is an excellent way to instantly cut down on energy costs. Can’t afford the newer options? Consider ordering your furnace filters online with an auto-renewal option. You’ll receive a new filter every few months making it easy to change. Doing so can help reduce energy costs as the heating and cooling systems won’t have to work as hard to force air through a clogged filter. Having the filters sent directly to your home also makes it more likely that you’ll replace them more often.

Plant Trees

If you live in the city of trees or an area with plenty of shade you may already be living more efficiently than you think. If not so much, an excellent way to add prolonged energy savings to your home is to plant shade trees in the yard. Not only do trees cut down on the amount of heat that hits your home, but they can also raise your home’s overall value. Trees help the environment by providing more air filtering qualities to the neighborhood. They also provide homes for pollinators and area wildlife. An Auburn University study concluded that your home’s energy costs will be reduced up to 11% by just having a mere 17% of your home shaded by a tree. Planting a few shade trees around your house today is a great investment that will make your home energy efficient for years to come.

Install A Tankless Water Heater

Many homeowners are choosing to ditch the large water heaters that can take up a good chunk of energy by continuously heating many gallons of water. A Tankless water heater only heats up the water that you immediately use. These smaller water heating systems cut down on the amount of space needed for heating water and cut down on the wasted energy of heating water that will need to be reheated later. Both gas and electric powered tankless heaters are available in these on-demand applications.

Any of these four tips will save you money and make your home more energy efficient in the new year. Upgrading to a tankless water heater and solar powered lights may cost you up front, but think of the savings you’ll see in 2019 and for years to come.

James Witts is an eco-conscious home improvement writer.

Reposted from Coldwell Banker Burnet Bambu Blog

Protect Your Home From the Extreme Cold

Many parts of the U.S. have been struck with a snap of subzero temperatures. While keeping themselves warm during the bitter cold, homeowners also need to take precautions to keep their home safe, too.

In Wisconsin's capital, the Madison Water Utility posted a photo on Twitter to show homeowners how a burst pipe can damage a home. The photo was taken at a vacant home in Madison. “They shut the heat off, so then the water burst up in the top level, maybe a toilet or a bathtub, and it obviously just kept leaking and leaking and leaking,” Matt Grauvogl, Madison’s Water Utility Field supervisor, said about the photo to WKOW.com.

View image on Twitter

Madison Water@MadWaterUtility

Extreme cold is on the way! If you haven't protected your home's #water pipes, now is the time. Here are some tips: http://www.cityofmadison.com/water/news/before-temps-plunge-be-sure-to-protect-your-pipes …

5

9:07 AM - Jan 25, 2019 · Wisconsin, USA

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Here are a few tips from the experts to protect a home from the extreme cold:

Open cabinet doors. This may seem unusual, but HouseLogic, a home maintenance and remodeling website operated by the National Association of REALTORS®, suggests opening any cabinet doors covering plumbing in the kitchen and bathroom during cold weather. “This allows the home’s warm air to better circulate, which can help prevent the exposed piping from freezing,” the site notes. “While this won’t help much in pipes hidden in walls, ceilings, or under the home, it can keep water moving and limit the dangerous effects of freezing weather.”

Insulate. Keep drapes and blinds closed except when windows are in direct sunlight. Also, cover window air conditioners and insulate electrical outlets and switches on exterior walls with foam seals, which are available at home centers. Run paddle ceiling fans on low in reverse (clockwise when looking up) to help circulate more warm air, recommends “Today’s Homeowner With Danny Lipford.”

Turn the faucets on inside. Turn the faucets on occasionally to keep water moving through your system and slow down the freezing process. Aim for about five drips per minute, suggests HouseLogic.

Change filters on heaters. A heater needs to be checked annually to help prevent issues later on. But until you can schedule a checkup, change your filters, especially if you haven’t done so in a while. A clogged filter can prevent heat from getting into the home. “It’s no different than our vehicles that require preventative maintenance,” Steve Kistner, general manager at Kalins Indoor Comfort, told KTIV.com. “Our heating and cooling systems need the exact same things so they can work when we all count on them in this extreme cold. Eighty to 90 percent of the calls we go on right now are maintenance-related.” 

Check outdoor connections. Make sure any outdoor spigots on all hoses have been disconnected and the spigots have been turned off and drained, advises the Madison Water Utility.

Shut off water immediately if pipes are frozen. If your pipes are already frozen, turn off the water immediately. Close off any external water sources, such as garden hose hookups. “This will prevent more water from filling the system, adding more ice to the pile, and eventually bursting your pipes—the worst-case scenario,” HouseLogic.com notes. “This will also help when the water thaws; the last thing you want after finally fixing your frozen pipes is for water to flood the system—and thus, your home.”

Originally posted by the National Association of Realtors - Realtor Magazine

Weekly Market Activity Report For Week Ending January 26, 2019

The unemployment rate rose to 4.0 percent last month, a seven-month high. This may prove to be a forgettable blip, as other economic indicators are showing continued strength in the job force, including 100 straight months of employment gains punctuated by the most hiring in 11 months. The construction sector had its best month of employment since last February. With the Fed holding off on further interest rate increases, 2019 is beginning favorably for residential real estate.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending January 26:
 • New Listings increased 6.1% to 938
 • Pending Sales increased 5.5% to 783
 • Inventory increased 2.9% to 8,100

For the month of December:
 • Median Sales Price increased 4.0% to $258,000
 • Days on Market decreased 6.6% to 57
 • Percent of Original List Price Received decreased 0.2% to 96.9%
 • Months Supply of Homes For Sale increased 13.3% to 1.7

Publish Date: February 4, 2019 • All comparisons are to 2018 All data from NorthstarMLS. Provided by Minneapolis Area REALTORS®. Report © 2019 ShowingTime.