Maintaining home security is a top priority for any homeowner. Your home is often your most valuable asset, and keeping it safe protects your property and ensures peace of mind for you and your loved ones. Fortunately, securing your home doesn’t have to be complicated or costly. Here are four easy ways to improve your home’s security.

Upgrade Your Door Locks

Your doors are your first line of defense, and installing high-quality locks can drastically improve your home’s security. Replace outdated locks with modern high-security deadbolts, which are more resistant to picking and tampering. For even better protection, consider smart locks with keyless entry options. These advanced locks allow you to control access remotely, monitor activity, and even grant temporary access codes to trusted guests. By upgrading your door locks, you’re taking a simple yet impactful step in safeguarding your home.

Install a Home Security System

A comprehensive home security system adds another essential layer of protection. Modern systems go far beyond basic alarms; they often include motion detectors, glass-break sensors, and 24/7 monitoring services. Having a security system deters potential intruders and allows for rapid response in the event of a break-in. Many systems now integrate with your smartphone, allowing you to monitor your home in real time, no matter where you are. Investing in a reliable security system is one of the most effective ways to protect your home.

Use Smart Lighting

Smart lighting is an ingenious way to ward off potential intruders by simulating an occupied home. Install smart bulbs that you can schedule or control remotely to turn on and off throughout the day, mimicking typical household activity. Some systems even integrate motion sensors to illuminate areas like your driveway or backyard when someone approaches. A well-lit exterior makes it much harder for an intruder to approach unnoticed, and the appearance of someone being home can serve as a powerful deterrent.

Maintain Your Garage Door

A secure garage is another easy way to improve your home security. Outdated or poorly maintained garage doors can serve as an easy entry point for intruders. Hiring a professional to install a sturdy door with advanced locking mechanisms can significantly reduce this vulnerability. Regular maintenance is equally important to make sure the door operates smoothly and securely. Professionals can also install motion-sensitive or Wi-Fi-enabled garage door openers for enhanced control and monitoring.

Improving your home’s security doesn’t require overwhelming changes. With these simple strategies, you can create a safer environment for your household. Start today and take these proactive steps to protect what matters most.

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In a time when many families are foregoing formal dining rooms, a traditional dining room can feel stuffy or boring. Update your dining room and make it one of your favorite places to gather. Read on to find out how to make your traditional dining room more interesting.

1. Mix and Match the Chairs

Homeowners who love casual dining spaces often add carefree charm with colorful, mismatched chairs. But this creative approach to seating isn’t only for a dine-in kitchen or breakfast nook.

One important thing to consider when mixing and matching dining room chairs is to have cohesive elements for a more put-together look. For example, rather than having each chair in a different color and style, consider keeping most of the chairs in a neutral color and having a few in an accent color. If you mix seating types, such as benches and chairs, keep the colors similar and choose pieces in the same design style.

Mixing up seating options in this way makes your traditional dining space look more modern and fun. But by limiting how much you vary, you hold onto the feeling of familiarity that people love about traditional spaces.

2. Painted Walls and Furniture

Another way to make your traditional dining room more interesting is to freshen it up with paint. The Pantone color system includes over a thousand options that standardize colors in printing industries. But the Pantone Color Matching System is also a great tool for homeowners who want to understand trends, find inspiration, and understand how to combine colors to create the ideal mood.

Painting the walls or furniture is one of the best ways to transform the room. If you have dark furniture or mismatched shades of wood between furniture pieces, painting one piece can brighten the room and make it feel more put-together.

3. Change the Lighting

Replacing the lighting fixture above your dining room table is one of the fastest switches you can make. But you can create a more dynamic experience with other lighting styles that add drama and give you diverse ways to showcase the room.

The central light fixture should evenly light the whole table, so hang the fixture at the correct height for an optimal glow, generally 30–36 inches above the table.

Additional light sources throughout the room add ambience and depth. Consider lighting up a decorative display, such as your china cabinet, or using LED tealight candles on sideboards.

The post How To Make Your Traditional Dining Room More Interesting appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

5 Awesome Kitchen Renovation Ideas to Design Your Dream Kitchen

Are you planning a kitchen remodel? If yes, you may know that it is a time-consuming process and may prove challenging if you are running short on ideas. Here are 5 practical ideas to inspire you to design your dream kitchen. You don’t have to shell out a lot of money for a kitchen renovation – all you need is some creativity. 

However, make sure you call a pest and cockroach exterminator before you start the kitchen remodel, as one pest can start a nuisance. 

5 Ideas to Transform Your Kitchen

• Cabinet Magic 

Cabinets take the most amount of kitchen space, so make sure they add a ton of personality and drama. You can consider two-tone cabinets where you have complementary colors for walls and cabinets.

If you are interested in a sophisticated look, opt for high-gloss cabinets. Their smoothness and shine will add a factor of classiness in the kitchen. 

Before you install the cabinets, make sure you call residential pest control to get a cockroach control done. Pests like cockroaches multiply quickly and can infest the entire kitchen in no time. Buy cabinets whose doors close tightly because cabinets are one of the first places pests like to hide. This is an ideal time to improve upon cabinet functionality during your kitchen remodel–and should not add much to your total cost.

• Creative ‘Sink’ing

Think you have to stick to the regular, boring sink in the kitchen? Not anymore. The common farmhouse sinks are becoming history as unique sinks are making a loud statement. 

You can now select sinks that have intricate designs and are made from unexpected materials. Some sinks even boast beautiful ornate fixtures to add style to your kitchen remodel. 

Covered kitchen sinks are also gaining popularity. You can slide and cover the sinks and add more prep and counter space instantly. They can make your kitchen look clean even if you have a sink full of dirty dishes because the covered sink conceals the dishes. 

• Light the‘Wow’Up

The right kind of lighting can completely change the way your kitchen can look and feel. You can experiment with the brightness of the bulb or use an interesting lighting fixture to elevate the wow factor of the kitchen.

Pieces like pendant lights add ample light to the space while creating a bold statement. The right lighting can tie the whole room together or stand out amazingly.

• Add Personalities of the Wallpapers 

Wallpapers are a simple way to give your kitchen a brand new look. You can choose a floral print, vintage-inspired or an abstract-print, depending on what you prefer. Look for patterns that will blend in with the existing interiors. If you want to choose a colored wallpaper with no print, choose a color that is a contrast to the rest of the kitchen.

• Touch of Green

A bit of greenery will be like a breath of fresh air in the kitchen. Just place some potted plants on the floor or put some flowers on the countertops or the kitchen island. You can even have a small vertical herb garden in the kitchen. The greenery and pop of colors of the flowers will liven up the place. 

Before you start renovating the kitchen, you must get pest control done and check for cockroach infestations. Renovating a kitchen is not an easy task and it may all go to waste if there is a pest infestation. Consult an experienced pest management company to inspect your house. 

Author Bio:

When people find their homes and offices infested with pests, it is not uncommon for them to panic. Raymond Web has taken the task to educate people on pest prevention and control strategies helping them keep their surroundings healthy, safe and pest-free. Being the digital marketing manager for Take Care Termite and Pest Control, in Tracy, CA, he has in-depth understanding of people and their pain points due to pests, which he efficiently uses in his content to educate people and add value to their lives.

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In Praise of Black Appliances

Several years ago, we sold a luxurious oceanfront condo in San Diego. The buyer, from Palm Springs,  loved the views, the spaciousness of the remodeled unit and the highly upgraded kitchen. The only thing she couldn’t stand was the stainless refrigerator (which the seller was happy to take with him).  In fact, she wanted to replace everything with black appliances.

I asked why she was so averse to stainless.

She replied that with three sons, she couldn’t stand seeing their fingerprints on stainless surfaces day in and day out. A black refrigerator was to be one of her first purchases.  I saw the condo after they moved in and the stainless kitchen had turned into a seriously sexy one. The black appliances perfectly contrasted with the warm wood cabinets with black trim. I was impressed.

Fast forward a few years and after seeing countless more stainless kitchens (including my own), we’ve become restless for change. The cherry cabinets have darkened over the years, and during the last few months I’ve found myself holding black objects up to the cabinets. Black for sure was more appealing than stainless. My hardware is also black and beckons for company.  A noir kitchen was on the horizon, for sure!

Appliances, fortunately, eventually wear out–or wear on patience. I have long pined for the induction cooktop I once had–and decided this last week that life is just too short. And our stainless refrigerator was a senior citizen at the ripe old age of 12.  Today, we headed over to Pacific Sales and ordered black appliances, which includes a lovely 6-burner Bosch induction cooktop and the JD Powers premier 3-door Samsung–all in black.

I asked the sales people if there had been an uptick in black, white and colored appliances and they said this is the case. Many people are tiring of the stainless kithens and are generally opting for the newer black or white appliances–and very often go for more colorful washers and dryers sitting in a laundry room that could use a big spark of color.

Taylor Murphy, a vocal landscape designer and tasteful designer, is also a fan of black appliances. She feels stainless is just passe and love the warmth of black with rich woods.

And in Europe, there seems to be a definite trend toward black and white appliances–perhaps though, because of higher costs for stainless, according to The Improvemente Center site. Will the glossy Noir or Apple White kitchens catch on more broadly in the United States?  Will stainless remain number one?

Nothing is permanent but change.

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I’ve loved the idea of a treehouse since a young kid. Never had one, but imagined how I might climb up to my hideaway and maybe stay there forever.

Am still fascinated with ideas of small homes and a treehouse, but not quite ready to actually live in such a primitive abode. Until now.

Check out this Italian treehouse, appropriately called 25 Verde–and discovered on Australia’s Outdoor Design.

And though I wonder what the building might look like 25 years from now, it is currently a very interesting and green experiment in living. Supported by industrial steel girders, the curved building supports 150 trees which not only help moderate apartment temperatures, but also filter sunlight on hot days and provide insulation on the cooler ones. The trees and greenery are supported and diversified with very large planters situated along terraces, walls and a green-roofed courtyard.

The building’s architect estimates that the 150 trees produce a whopping 150,000 liters of oxygen each hour and simultaneously absorb 200,000 liters of carbon dioxide each hour at night.

This ultra-green building also uses geithermal energy for heating and cooling and rainwater (scarce in San Diego) is recycled to water the greenery.

Would love lto see this building (and more) replicated in San Diego!

The post One Luxurious Treehouse appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

by Roberta Murphy

We’ve written about luxury closets in the past, but these days some are spending up  to $500,000 for a luxe master closet that might include a champagne refrigerator, sound system, glass-enclosed display cabinets, wet bar or even a breakfast area.

Gone are the simpler days of a luxurious dressing room. The master closet area has become a destination room.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday on four luxurious closet areas, ranging in size from a modest 600 square feet to a dressing suite with 1300 square feet.  What are the trends with luxury closets?

Luxury home owners today want closets that invite lounging–with prized clothing and accessories on display behind lighted display cabinets. Materials used may include exotic woods, crystal chandeliers and windows that allow for natural lighting. These dressing lounges might also have a sound system, television, jewelry vaults, exercise equipment and even an office nook. Clothing is easily compartmentalized, with large and organized spaces for shoes, hanging clothes, accessory storage and vaults for jewelry and valuables.

There will also likely be a secure safe of some sort for storage of jewelry and valuables. And frequently, these safes are cleverly disguised. Another security feature might be a security camera to protect against theft and pilferage.

These master dressing areas have become trophy rooms of sorts–and are a key selling feature in luxury homes we show in our own San Diego real estate practice. Frequently, properties are crossed off luxury home buyers’ lists if  a master closet is not large enough or appointed to their standards. Rejection might also occur if there are not equally and finely appointed dual closets for couples.

What are your demands when it comes to closets? Please share your list or photos!

For additional reading:

 The Luxurious Closet
The Luxury Pantry

The post The Luxury of a $500,000 Closet appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

We once lived in Big Bear Lake and had a redwood-stained deck that meandered as a set of platforms through the pines.

During the warm summer months, we would dine outdoors and savor the quiet setting.

The only problem with those decks and the harsh winters that buried them in snow is that we had to have them refinished every couple of years. It was no easy task.

Today, we would use a product like Trex that doesn’t rot and doesn’t require bi-annual refinishing.  When browsing for deck ideas, I ran across this Trex photo and couldn’t resist sharing. It reminded me of summer dinners and laughter with friends in the mountains.

Equally enticing is that Trex is a green solution, in that it manufactures its product from recycyled wood and plastic that requires cleaning, but not the staining and refinishing we endured with our wood decks.

The post The Luxury of a Warm Wood Deck appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

Soak the Rich?

Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that millionaires are fleeing their luxury homes in New York to establish residency in less-taxing states. As a result, New York is receiving far less revenue than was expected from the wealthy since these wealth taxes were enacted last April.

Call it the law of unintended consequences.

To be fair, many of these losses come from scaled-back salaries and layoffs on Wall Street, but more than a few may be packing up and moving to more tax-friendly states such as Florida, Nevada and elsewhere–and are taking jobs with them. It is reported that billionaire Buffalo Sabres owner Tom Golisano who was paying $13000 a day in New York income taxes has moved to Florida. With him go 5000 jobs from Paychex, the Rochester, NY payroll processing company he owns. Rush Limbaugh has also given up his Manhattan home to escape excessive taxation.

Donald Trump tells Fox News that a number of his millionaire friends are also thinking of bailing from New York because of excessive taxation. Says AP:

“States also realized that having a higher tax rate than their neighbors would cost them talent, lose jobs and hinder economic growth, the foundation reported in May after Hawaii joined Maryland, New Jersey, California and New York to adopt a “millionaire’s tax.” New York, for example, has been careful not to raise its highest rates above New Jersey‘s, according to the foundation.”

In California, millionaires and job producers are already being heavily courted by Nevada, a state that is seeking to grow its employment base and fortunes with its minimal taxation and business-friendly environment: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pDKoX0uTwM[/youtube]

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If I could be  President Obama’s Mortgage Czar for just one week, the first thing I would mandate is that all existing mortgages become assumable.

When starting my real estate career in Houston, Texas during the last century, it was not uncommon for buyers to assume or take over  existing  financing. In fact, it was a perfect way for the self-employed or those with dinged credit to buy a home.  And because there were no loan origination fees or points,  buyers were often willing to pay a slight premium for homes with assumable loans.

To implement this today would create an immediately available financing alternative for the real estate market–and might even be a way for banks to deal with some of those famously-toxic assets. As Mortgage Czar, I would create two tiers for Assumable Loans:

1. Non-Distressed Loans. Owners of these home have equity and would likely need concessions from neither the lender nor the government, other than permission for the mortgage(s) to be assumed. For example, Seller Smith has an outstanding mortgage of $200,000 and is selling his home for $250,000. Buyer Jones would pay $50,000 plus minimal closing fees and would assume esisting financing. All future payments would now be made by Buyer Jones.  It is a simple transfer of title and mortgagor with no change in terms.

2. Distressed Sales. Sellers of these homes have no equity; in fact, they generally owe more than the home is worth.  Using a blend of short sale and loan modification procedures, loan balances and interest rates on these homes would be adjusted to current market value and rates.  Because buyers would no longer be “buying equity” and would have no equity stake in the properties, lenders could now require that prospective buyers deposit at least three months’ payments with the lender as insurance against potential future default.The Buyer would also be responsible for applicable closing fees.

Implementation of this mandate would allow both the existing borrower and the lender to avoid the costs and damages of the foreclosure process–and would help protect neighborhoods from further decay and decline.

By allowing mortgages to become assumable, we would also be offering a second chance to many whose credit ratings have been demolished by short sales and foreclosures.

Under this plan, lenders would fare much better vis-à-vis short sales and foreclosures–and more homeowners would be able to save their credit and exit their situations with dignity.  Most lenders now force homeowners to be in default with their mortgage before they will even consider a short sale or modification of terms.

It just makes sense to get the mortgage debt seamlessly transferred before it ever goes default.

And with strangled liquidity in financial markets, it makes more sense than ever for this Mortgage Czar to transfer debt rather than forcing buyers to secure new financing–which may or may not be available.

The post All Mortgages Are Now Assumable appeared first on Luxury Home Digest.

Earlier today, a client emailed my husband Mike about a great deal on a red Mercedes 500 SL convertible available on eBay. It was a 2004 model with only 7000 miles and offered a three-year warranty to boot. Located in Florida, this two-seater beckoned with a red price tag of around $28,000.

Ever the bargain hunter, Mike grabbed the San Diego Union Tribune’s Sunday classified section for cars, expecting to search through at least three pages for comparable sales.

It turned out be to a very short search because there was less than a quarter-page for all used cars in San Diego.

I am not particularly interested in red convertibles, but the slim number of classified ads in San Diego’s daily newspaper DID catch my attention.

We have all heard that the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and other august print publications are on the ropes. The cause could only be financial, and financial resources are provided primarily by (1) Advertisers and (2) Subscribers (the number of which determine what advertisers pay for advertising).

I’ve been following these stories because I have a natural interest (because of background and training) in journalistic business–and also have a keen and active interest in how information (and advertising) is transmitted via the internet.

And it seems the latter may have overtaken the former. E-Bay and Craigslist are trampling traditional media.

Yesterday morning, I had a call from a Nevada broker asking if we had an agent fluent in Chinese who could help some Chinese investors seeking property in La Jolla.  Hmmm….we have agents who speak Spanish, Polish, Russian and Farsi, but none who were fluent in Chinese.

The solution was simple.

I clicked to Craigslist, immediately placed and paid for an ad for a Chinese-fluent real estate agent–and serendipity took over. Within hours, we had a perfect response.

This morning Shumei Tao, a very bright and talented real estate agent, joined our company, San Diego Previews Real Estate.  She is fluent in not only Mandarin, but Taiwanese, Cantonese–and the Internet. She too thought it serendipitous to find an internet ad that addressed her specific qualifications.

And it was only this evening as I looked at the sparse classified ads in the newspaper that I realized yesterday morning’s  instinctive reaction to a need: Head over to Craigslist and have the ad online within minutes. And then today, a Florida client sends not a classified ad, but an eBay listing for an automobile.

And then I stop to wonder: When was the last time I scanned the newspaper classified ads for…anything?

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