Anna Glebova

Tornado in Massachusetts today! it was not only a tornado watch, it was a tornado warning. Closer to Westerns / Central Mass, Stirbridge, Springfield area - there were flipped cars and broken trees.

Here in Boston Metro West area we only had a heavy thunderstorm, with lots of lightening, and heavy rain for about an hour.

I've lived in Iowa for 2 years, luckily it happened to be a two year period with little tornado activity, and it is supposed to by a 6 year cycle, as I was told - 2 years of lots of tornados, 2 years of medium, and 2 years of low.

Safety rules were drilled into us, especially since there were many international students coming from all over the world, were there are no tornado sin the area.

Basic rules for everyone here in MA: if you are inside the building, get away from the windows and resist the urge to watch. Windows break easily, especially if tornado is passing by and tearing down tree branches or even whole trees. Trees in a tornado are like sticks in hands of a toddler, they might break your windows, and fly into the room. It's safer to be in the basement, if you have one, or even in a closet, if there is no basement.

When I was driving home, radio stations kept telling the latest tornado updates, and one dj said: don't stop to take pictures, get to a safe place.

I really liked that comment. Sure, there are already videos in the Internet with latest tornado watch footage, and the authors were not hiding in the basement, that's obvious. But let them have their fame. Besides, AFTER the tornado the sky is really beautiful, with interesting clouds (if it's not too dark and you can still see them). Take the pics AFTER the fact!

Wish everybody to stay safe.

Home search in Massachusetts: Would you buy a house with a swimming pool?

If you are a buyer, now on a market for a home here in MA, you have come across these listings: a house with a swimming pool. Is this a good deal or not?

If you always wanted a pool, or were planning to put one in, it will be more cost effective for you to buy a property with an existing swimming pool. Putting an inground pool can cost roughly between 20 000 and 40 000, depending on the size and complexity of the project. A house with a swimming pool tends to sell for about the same (or slightly less) as comparable properties without a pool, so that's a saving right there.

Major concern about swimming pools is the upkeep (cost and time involved), and relatively short swimming season. Both valid points.

Usually, home owners in MA open up their pools around Memorial Day weekend, and close them up again around Labor Day, give or take a couple of weeks, so yes, the pool season is short. But think bout this: Even if you hire a company to do EVERYTHING for the pool, it will come to about the same you would spend renting a place on a Cape for a week. If you don't have vacation property, if you have demanding job with unpredictable schedule, if you don't like to drive to take a swim (and especially drive back after the swim) - your own pool might be a good solution for you.

If you don't know anything about caring for pools when buying a house, you can negotiate with the seller, that they will pay a company to come and teach you, that the seller pays for say a year of pool upkeep, or make other arrangements. Talk to your agent about this.

There are 3 parts to keeping up the pool: opening up, keeping it clean, and closing it up for the winter. There are service companies, who will do this for you, they offer full or partial closing and opening. If you choose "partial" it means you will have to deal with the pool cover on your own - taking it off, cleaning, drying, folding neatly for storage, and respectively putting it back on and secure tightly (a task for 2 strong people).

During your swimming season, you need to clean the pool regularly, and adjust the chemicals in the water. Many specialty stores selling pool supplies provide you free water testing (Central Pools store, for example). You bring a sample in a plastic bottle, they check it and print out what you need to add to adjust the levels of each lacking chemical. You can also buy a testing kit for under $20 and test the water yourself.

Chemicals needed for a pool are often sold at discount stores, the local favorite being Ocean State Job Lots (several locations all over New England). Some chemicals are nothing fancy, just plain old "baking soda" for example, that is cheaper to buy at a discount grocery store anyway (Think Big Lots). Once you know what you need, it's easy to look for a deal. There are plenty of online suppliers as well.

All in all, if you happen to like a house that comes with a swimming pool in the backyard - it might be an option worth considering. And check back for more posts about pools - this week is a "pool" week!

Save gas, save money, save planet, save on your gym membership - get on a bike!

I wish roads were designed in a more bicycle friendly way. There is seldom a separate bike path, and some roads here in Boston Metro West are really narrow, at times a car can hardly pass a bicyclist (I'm thinking Old Connecticut Path in Weston and Framingham, for example).

Still - getting on a bike is a great way of transportation when we are talking shorter distances.

I came across an ad in front of a coffee shop. The sign was quite informative.

It says:

• Just 3 hours of bicycling per week can reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke by 50%
• If you bike 4 miles round trip each day instead of driving, you will save about 66 gallons of fuel per year
• That same daily trip will burn 36,000 calories in a year - the equivalent of over 10 lbs. of fat
• 40% of all trips are within two miles of the home
• You can park 14 bikes in the same space you can park one car
• The US could save 462 million gallons of gasoline a year by increasing cycling from 1% to 1.5% of all trips

Do not paint your porch white, it will get dingy looking in a couple of years here in Massachusetts. Rain, snow, sun, then rain again, ice melting and building up and melting again - it all takes its toll, especially since we are talking about horizontal surfaces.

Now, a house painted white is a different story. It stays looking good much longer than the porch...

Better thing to do is staining the porch with a dark stain of your choice. If you really prefer the paint, you can do so, but use a dark color as well. Dark paint is more forgiving when showing wear and tear, it also seems to be easier to repaint.

Here are pictures of a porch painted white, after 2 years in MA weather:

Where to live in MA with good schools?

That is one of the most frequent questions people ask themselves or their agents when starting the search process for their new home. And rightfully so. If you have children, or are planning to have them in the near future qualty of schools becomes a focal point in your search.

There are yearly test scores for different schools, parent online reviews, and even tell tales that are often taken into consideration. But before you look at them ask yourself these questions:

- do I buy a smaller house, maybe a condo, so that I can afford to get into a better school district?

- do I search for a town with decent schools, maybe not the highest on the chart, but have a big house and plenty of backyard space?

- Do I look for great public school system, or will I consider private schools as well?

- Maybe I can homeschool, at least during elementary and middle school years, and look for the best high school? Will I consider moving later to a town with better high school, if need be?

- Do I want a strong emphasis on certain subjects? Say, sports, arts, math, languages... Which school provides that?

- Would I consider for my children to take supplemental classes privately if I think one subject is lacking, but overall school system is fine?

- Can I teach one subject myself? Here's my own example: I'm good at math, but I have no experience and honestly no patience explaining it to a child, I wouldn't want to teach it. But with my background in linguistics I can easily teach my daughter beginning and intermediate Spanish, German and French, if need be. My husband is musician and is teaching her to play piano. Overall, I'm not concerned if arts are lacking in a certain school. We will more than make up for that. But I do want strong math classes, and am willing to go to a private teacher.

Here's my recipe for the choice of the best school in YOUR OPINION:

• Ask yourself and your significant other these questions
• Talk to other parents about their experience.
• Combine your school wish list with your property wish list.
• Cut it up according to your budget (that's what you will talk about with a mortgage professional).

You want your child to get the best education, as well as learn good studying habits, that will help him or her later on in college. You also want a thriving environment for your child, that will nurture his or her talents. You can make that happen!