Today we’re with Josephine Stoltzfus of Sprama Design to talk about getting into décor in your home or apartment. Josephine is an experienced Lancaster PA home designer and talks about layering techniques and using color & patterns to pull things together.

While some aspects of design and decoration are best left to a professional in the field, Josephine was enthusiastic about the possibilities that can be explored even on a tight budget using relatively inexpensive pieces. Creative groupings, offsetting pattern sizes and color schemes that can be replaced as your taste changes are some of the ways she lays out in this video episode.

If you are interested in professional home design services (from décor choices to actual CAD layouts and working with your contractor) reach out to Josephine or her partner Harmony Boore at http://www.Sprama.com or 717-238-1001 anytime.

For tips on desgning for small spaces, check out this episode filmed in Lancaster City:http://www.youtube.com/user/yourlancasterhome#p/f/65/wFbE4TYK7jw
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(c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan

Nestled in a hollow near the historic borough of Lititz runs Knightsbridge Way.  Lined with stately homes, this quiet Lancaster County street is home to 323 Knightsbridge Way and this wonderful property.

Enjoy a light & bright floorplan with all the conveniences you’d expect from a modern generation of home – large family room with skylights, screened porch and a great fireplace.  This is a “dual master suite” home, with the cathedral ceilings of the larger suite inviting you to spend the time relaxing there… The smaller suite is at the other end of the second floor, making a nice quarters for inlaws or an older child.  At almost 2,500 square feet, this home is large enough for the biggest of families!

Downstairs, the living room is also large and connects to a formal dining room with hardwood floor.  The nerve center of the home, however, is the great eat-in kitchen with gobs of room and a nice island to eat/chat/work at.  A large mud/laundry room is nearby leading to the oversized two-car garage.  The whole floorplan flows into the cathedral ceilinged family room at the back, making large gatherings and entertaining a snap.

Indoors, outdoors…this Lititz home has everything, including easy access to the excellent shopping at Kissel Hill Commons and the Lancaster Airport.  Of course, downtown Lititz and the library are also only minutes away.  Enjoy walking in this out-of-the-way community with little or no through traffic.  In fact, peace and serenity do well to describe this home.

To see more about this home visit www.323Knightsbridge.com.

You may not know it, but if you are still in the PP&L electric generation program after deregulation, you have a good option to potentially discount your bill. It’s called the “Time Of Use” option and you can see it at the PP&L website here: http://www.pplelectric.com/time-of-use/option/

The way it works is by breaking up the day into “peak” and “off-peak” time brackets. This is obviously not a new concept but can be effective if your usage is primarily outside of peak times, which are 1-6pm this summer. How do you find out? Great Question!

PP&L also has a VERY handy “Energy Analyzer” available to users once you create a login profile on their site. You can view and download your hourly usage for any time period. I did this and created a spreadsheet to compare the two programs and found I would have saved an average of 16% over my current “flat” rate of 9.205 cents per KWH.

Switching to the “Time Of Use” rate plan was one click and an “enroll” click to do. I would suggest that if you are with PP&L it may be worth looking at your bill – you may see a way to “find” energy cost savings right at your fingertips!

Any questions – love to hear them at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com.

Thanks for watching! Please take a moment to subscribe here athttp://tv.yourlancasterhome.com and pop over to our facebook page to “like” it at http://www.facebook.com/lancasterhomes

Choose Jeff Geoghan for your next home sale or purchase in Lancaster PA! Thanks.

(c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan

The pre-cut slab yard consists of a large number of granite and marble stone pieces in a veritable rainbow of shades, in size ranging from a sink-size to even nearly full slab sections (approximately 5 by 8 foot). I have fallen in love with this because:

a) You’re re-using stone that would otherwise be cast off.
b) The shipping costs have already been incurred, so you aren’t using the embodied energy to ship it from overseas.
c) It’s cheap.

Frank explained how the pieces get there and how customers can set up time to tour the yard with him. If you’re interested give Frank at call at (717) 393-3931. As always, you can find me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com

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(c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan

Today I give a few pointers about the need to control dampness in and around homes in Lancaster City. Was at a home inspection where dampness from a common alleyway had apparently infiltrated into the living room and the finished basement.

Given the fact that there isn’t much green space (none in some locations) to route rain runoff to, and uneven concrete surfaces in the older urban environment, it’s critical to be aware of where the water is going to around your Lancaster City PA home.

Especially important areas to watch are the common walkways between city homes. Some are at the main level and some actually step down to the basement level and back up again to the backyard. These areas don’t get much sunlight and can stay damp or even puddled long after a rain. These areas and poor downspout routing are the major troublemakers,

So, if you have a Lancaster City home be sure to watch your water runoff and try to avoid damp areas or water up against your foundation.

Questions? Email me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com.
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(c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan

Some homes in the springtime could be the movie-set for a film entitled, “Invasion of the Termite Swarmers”. An unsuspecting homeowner may respond with fear or disgust, with desperate shouts of “Where are they all coming from?”, or “Why do we have all these bugs?”. “All these bugs”, are termite swarmers, exiting from an existing colony.

When it is the right combination of atmospheric conditions, especially temperature and humidity, the swarmers leave the colony with the sole purpose of reproduction. Their flight is short and weak, because the reproductive termites lose their wings very quickly. The majority die on their own, never getting the opportunity to mate and successfully find a new home in the soil to establish a new colony.

The body of a termite swarmer is only about half the length of its wings, and there is no noticeable segments or separations of the body, which is very visible and obvious with ants. Also, an ant has a bent antenna, as opposed to the straight antenna of a termite. As interesting as you may find all this information, you may be thinking, “So what’s the big deal?”

The “big deal”, is where there is a termite colony, there are worker termites. Workers termites eat wood, without care or concern that this wood is in your house. They are about the size of a grain of rice, no wings, and similar in color to that of a maggot.(light tan or creme color). These little guys are the real “nemesis” in this story of home invasion, and threaten the safety and stability of any wooden structure. The ” hero” who appears on the scene, is the professional Lancaster pest control company with personnel trained in the identification, treatment, and eradication of termites. With technicians using the latest technology and materials, your epic story could conclude with a happy ending.

Barry Bradley
Pest Control Technician

LHOP’s core program is the Financial Literacy course taught by experienced staff members. This course exposes the prospective homebuyer to all aspects of the home buying process and ownership. In concert with this is a income-qualified financial incentive of $5,000 issued to the course graduate as a non-interest bearing 2nd mortgage that doesn’t need to be repaid until the house is sold. This program has been very successful — the 2011 LHOP class schedule is posted here: http://www.lhop.org/buying-a-home/class-schedule.asp . In addition LHOP recently contracted with the county to offer a Fair Housing program that will interact with renters,owners, industry professionals and beyond (this will be the subject of another video in the near future — stay tuned!).

Of immediate note is that LHOP is sponsoring a Home Ownership Fair on Saturday, April 9th at Liberty Place in Lancaster City from 10-3. Read the full flyer here: http://yourlancasterhome.com/2011LHOPHousingFairFlyer.pdf . The Fair will feature a number of local housing process vendors (lenders, realtors, insurance, builders, housing counselors) and a comprehensive set of 30 minute seminars covering important Lancaster County PA homes information (see the itinerary below). There’s no cost for this event and any prospective buyers whether first-time or otherwise are encouraged to attend. Of course, Coldwell Banker will be there…

If you would like more information on the Homebuyer Assistance program or other programs offered by the Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership, or more info on the Home Ownership Fair in April, feel free to call them at 717-291-9945 or on the web at http://www.LHOP.org . As always, you can find me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com.

2011 LHOP Home Ownership Fair SEMINAR SCHEDULE:
10:30am — 10:45am
What’s Happening in the Lancaster County Real Estate Market?

11:00am — 11:30am
The Benefits of Home Ownership

11:45am — 12:15pm
Financing Options for Homebuyers Learn how to Purchase/Renovate at the same time!

12:30pm — 1:00pm
Life as a Homeowner…

1:15pm — 1:45pm
10 Secrets Homebuyers SHOULD Know!

2:00pm — 3:00pm
Aging in Place (practical home modifications, care programs, reverse mortgages)

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(c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan

One of the things that may bite you as a homebuyer is missing a deadline set in the contract, and one of the most troublesome deadlines is the inspection contingency deadline. Most buyers don’t realize the urgency of getting everything done in time to meet that deadline, and the loss of rights that results when it’s missed.

In Pennsylvania, real estate contracts stipulate a time period for the buyer to do their “due diligence” and inform the seller of any issues that need to be addressed arising from those inspections. Just about every type of inspection is provided for in this contract clause, and the default deadline is 10 days (although the buyer can change that to any time frame – typically changed to 15 or maybe 20 days). Many times the settlement period is too short to allow many more days than 10 to be inserted here. Keep in mind that the addendum may ask for a combination of:

1) Actual repairs made to the property
2) Seller credit to the buyer at settlement ($)
3) Reduction in the purchase price

If monetary concessions are asked for, then the estimates by contractors become very important as the basis for the money in question.

Now, the buyer has to get EVERYTHING done within that 10 days – choose inspectors, schedule the visits, get the write-ups, synthesize the findings into an addendum to the contract, get that addendum into the hands of the seller. Believe me, this can make for some hectic days (especially if the contingency period covers a couple of weekends, when contractors like to take off).

My advice is to know the inspectors/contractors upfront, start thinking about what things you want looked at very early on, and plan for time to meet at the house and with your buyer agent a couple of times during the first 10 days.

Now, once the buyer has marshalled their addendum they submit it to the seller, hopefully within the 10 (or 15, etc) days. According to the contract for real estate in PA, the seller has until 5 days from the end of the time period to respond. So if for example (in a 10 day contingency) the buyer submits his estimate on day 8, the seller still has until the 15th day to respond. But, once the seller responds to the addendum the buyer has 2 DAYS only to accept or counter the terms. Basically, things wrap up real quick and the buyer needs to know what they will and won’t accept at the end of the day…

So, inspection contingency periods are very, very important and the home buyer and agent need to be on top of it as much as possible, and plan ahead. And whatever you do, don’t blow your inspection contingency period!

If you have any questions about inspections or Lancaster PA real estate I’d be happy to answer them at jeff@yourlancasterhome.com.

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(c) 2011 Jeff Geoghan

Today I was in downtown Lancaster City, PA with a local interior designer named Heather Hough. We talked about designing for small spaces and rooms, something quite common in urban settings and in townhome communities.

Heather shared Three tips of hers for getting started with small spaces:

1) Think functionality – take the time to look at your spaces from a living perspective. What activities will be performed here, or there in a room? Breaking up a large open space into smaller workable spaces may be necessary.

2) Choose furnishings that complement the design idea – look for multipurpose items that can perform different tasks while looking good. An example would be using an ottoman with storage inside rather than a coffee table in the living space.

3) Don’t be afraid to decorate – use color (Heather’s a big fan of color as a style cue) and natural light in addition to textures to set off each space. Beware differing sheens, however as they tend to distract the eye. Have fun!

Heather is passionate about design and would love your comments here or at hdesignr@gmail.com to schedule a consultation. If you like our show please subscribe…as always comments welcome.

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