TGJones Real Estate Services

Adriann Weymouth of Serendipity Home Decor

In six years, I’ve painted each room in my home twice and I never was happy with the results.  And I was going to do it again – crazy you say.  This time I was going to get it right because I was working with an interior designer. 

I’m sure you’ve thought about it but fearing it would be too expensive, or that you’d get stuck with a room you wouldn’t like, you may have given up on the idea altogether.   However, using a design professional can, and should, be a good experience.  It can give your home continuity, function, and beauty.  And it doesn’t have to go over your budget.  Working with a designer can save you money in many situations by allocating resources wisely, eliminating decorating mistakes, and increasing creative thinking about your project. Interior designers work out optimal room size, traffic flow and lighting.  When it comes to choosing and coordinating the color schemes, paint finishes, cabinet styles and light fixtures that go into that room, that’s where an interior decorator comes in.

An interior designer will save you months of hunting down product samples and other research and prevent some potentially messy missteps. What’s more, the designer can do everything from simply acting as a sounding board for your ideas to undertaking more involved work, like buying paint and fabric, scheduling an installation and even supervising the job.

In my search for the “right neutral” to pull my art work and eclectic furniture together, I hired Adriann Weymount at Serendipity Home Décor, 1326 5th St., Marysville, WA, 360-659-5600, www.serendipityhomedecor.com to help me with my color choices.  Unlike decorators, she has a design degree from Washington State University.  She came to my home loaded with paint samples and from every known and unknown supplier.  After a quick tour and consultation, she started pulling out paint chips – I decided to leave her alone while I did some desk work.  In less than 30 minutes, she choose a new neutral for my kitchen, dining area, living room and hall, a plum accent color to create some drama for the dining area and to connect the fireplace wall to the dining area and new modern office color.  Total cost for her home consultation $85.00 – peace of mind is priceless.

Last week when I was looking at composite deck colors, I called her and she met me at Dunn Lumber, with my new exterior paint colors in hand, and she coordinated the deck and handrails for me. It’s going to look fantastic!

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The National Association of Realtor’s (NAR) eighth annual Housing Opportunity Pulse Survey reveals that nearly 8 out of 10  adults surveyed believe buying a home is a good financial decision, despite ongoing challenges with the economy and housing market. 

The survey, which measures how affordable housing issues affect consumers, also found job security concerns to be the highest in 8 years of sampling, with seventy percent of Americans saying that job layoffs and unemployment are a big problem in their area; 8 in 10 cite these issues as a barrier to homeownership.  The telephone survey of 1,209 urban and suburban adults in the top 25 metropolitan statistical areas was conducted for NAR by American Strategies and Myers Research & Strategic Services for NAR’s Housing Opportunity Program.

Some key results:

• Americans continue to believe that buying a home is a good financial decision (77 % believe total strongly or not so strongly; 68% strongly so). 
• More than two-thirds of respondents (68%) say that now is a good time to buy a home.
• Job insecurity and the lack of jobs continue to be the primary obstacle to home ownership and market recovery. 
• They see the recession and job losses as the main reason for the foreclosure problem, a shift from last year when they more likely to blame homeowners who bought homes they could not afford.
• A majority of renters say that owning a home at some point in the future is either one of their highest priorities (39%) or a moderate priority (24%).   Just 21% of renters say that owning a home is not a priority at all.
• Frustration with banks is up:  now a majority worry that banks have made it too hard to qualify for a home mortgage loan. 
• Fifty-one percent say foreclosures remain a big or moderate problem in their area.  While there has been a significant drop in the percentage of those surveyed who say foreclosures have increased, 51% say that the rate of foreclosures is about the same as it was last year. 
• Most of those surveyed say that it is harder to sell a home in their neighborhood than it was a year ago. 
• Looking forward, 70% expect real estate sales in their neighborhood to remain about the same over the next few months.  A nearly identical number (69%), also expect home values to remain the same.
• Nearly one-quarter (23%) are now very concerned about the number of homes and condos for sale in their area—a number that is up 7 points from last year.
• Most are more concerned about the drop in home values than they are about home costs being too high.  Still, cost remains the significant barrier to many who would otherwise like to buy a home.

As always, your comments and questions are greatly appreciated.  Let me know if I can help with any of your real estate needs.

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The Everett Philharmonic Orchestra led by Dr. Paul-Elliott Cobbs performs a Valentine’s Eve concert

Who:     The Everett Philharmonic Orchestra

Soloist:  Susan Telford, Flutist & Juliet Stratton, Harpist

When:   Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 3 p.m.

Where:  First Presbyterian Church

             2936 Rockefeller Ave.

             Everett, WA 98201

Start your Valentine’s Eve with a concert of humor, romance, passion and virtuosity. Spoil that someone with a special concert performed by the Everett Philharmic Orchestra and Conductor Dr. Paul-Elliott Cobbs. They will share the intimacy of Mozart in their third concert of the season, That Magnifcent Mozart!

The performance boasts a tempting program featuring Mozart’s virtuosic Concerto for Flute and Harp. This demanding work will showcase soloists Susan Telford on the flute and Juliet Stratton on harp. Clearly a taxing work of facility and skill, this concerto will fill the evening with passion and romance.

Tickets are $25 each – Seniors and students are $20. Add a romantic dinner and you have the perfect Valentine gift. Festival seating, so come early. Doors open at 2:15. Tickets are available on line at EverettPhil.org or call 206-270-9729

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