Patty Carroll

With Halloween just a week away, people are on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin to carve into a Jack-O-Lantern. What type of Jack-O-Lanterns do you like? Do you like the friendly, happy ones ... or do you like the mean, evil ones? Or are you one of those artist types that spends hours carving a black cat silhouette or an even more elaborate scene or design?

Still undecided? Try out this great Pumpkin Simulator. The simulator lets you try out all sorts of faces and designs without touching a knife, a pumpkin or any of the nasty, slimey seeds and stuff inside them.

Kind of cool, huh? Let us know what type of pumpkin you draw and feel free to pass this along to others that may enjoy it.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Patty & Scott - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA

There are all sorts of window coverings. There are vinyl blinds, metal blinds, wood blinds, and vertical blinds. There are paper shades, roller shades, honeycomb shades, bamboo shades and Roman shades. There are interior shutters, exterior shutters and plantation shutters. There are cafe curtains, sheers, standard length panels, full length panels, extra long panels. There are valances and swags. There are standard pocket, wide pocket and tab top options. There are lace curtains, velvet curtains and insulated curtains. And the list keeps going!

This can make choosing the right window covering difficult for people. Then there's cleaning. It seems like any choice you make is going to collect dust. How and how often will you need to clean them? How difficult are they to clean? Can you do it yourself or are you going to have to pay a professional? How much will it cost?

We have found what just may be the ultimate window covering. It's called Artscape Decorative Window Film and it's available at Home Depot for $19.97 per panel. Each panel is 24" x 36" (2' x 3'). They can be easily trimmed to smaller sizes ... they can even be combined to cover larger areas. Installation is pretty easy and can usually be done in just a few minutes. When done, the film creates the look of stained or leaded glass.

We have used Artscape Decorative Window Film in bathrooms, in a hard-to-reach window area that would otherwise remain uncovered and, most recently and as the primary window coverings for the whole upper level of our recently remodeled "church home". The panels that we used in our church home looks like stained glass. Everyone thinks that it is real stained glass and then when we tell them that it isn't, they have to touch it!

Some of the good things about Artscape Decorative Window Film is that it is relatively inexpensive compared to other window covering options ... you don't have to open or close them throughout the day ... you don't have to launder them or pay to have them drycleaned ... the film allows light during daylight hours and, depending on the pattern you choose, can cast a beautiful glow into the room ... the film offers privacy that people are looking for with window coverings and even provides some insulating value.

Artscape Decorative Window Film is available at Home Depot for $19.97 per panel. Be sure to order a coupon from our website and save 10% off your purchase (up to a maximum discount of $200!).

Patty & Scott Carroll - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA

Fluorescent lights have small amounts of mercury in them. Because of this, they should be recycled rather than thrown in the garbage. In Clark County, people can recycle their fluorescent lamps at any of the Clark PUD offices. As an incentive, customers of Clark Public Utilities can recycle old compact fluorescents and receive a new CFL for every burned-out one that's brought in!

Compact fluorescent lamps and fluorescent tubes can also be recycled, at no charge, at these sites:

Central Transfer and Recovery Center
11034 NE 117th Avenue
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

West Van Materials Recovery Center
6601 N. W. Old Lower River Road
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Philip Services Corporation in Washougal
625 South 32nd Street
10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. First Tuesday of the month

For more information about proper disposal of fluorescent lights, visit the website of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Patty & Scott Carroll - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA

We have heard and read about the benefits of changing to fluorescent lighting, but just never really bought into it. We thought that fluorescent lights were expensive to buy, put out an ugly white light, and probably wouldn't make a big enough differ in the monthly electric bill to warrant the cost. What DID catch our interest, though was that they last longer. With 14 foot ceilings in the living/dining area of our recently renovated "church home", the idea of going 5-7 years without changing bulbs was attractive!

With that in mind, we chose to change the lights in our living/dining area to compact fluorescents (a total of 26 bulbs). It was right about the same time that we had electric central air conditioning added to our home. As we got into summer and temperatures climbed, we expected our electric bill to climb, too. As it turned out, we used 5 - 26% less for each of the last 5 months as compared to the same months last year. We actually saved more than what it cost us to run air conditioning!

We have since changed all of our home lighting to fluorescent. The best overall prices that we could find in our area were at Costco. Costco's regular price for the compact fluorescents (60 watt equivalents) is currently $13.99 in our area for a pack of 10 ($1.40 each). We have also found ‘specialty' fluorescents on sale at Fred Meyer recently for $1.99 per bulb instead of $4.99. IKEA also offers a pretty good selection of specialty fluorescents.

A couple things that we have noticed are some bulbs have a delay in turning on ... others come on right away, but take a couple minutes to get to full brightness (especially the fluorescent flood lights). Minor inconveniences, really. But it's funny ... we're kind of looking forward to our next electric bill!

Patty & Scott Carroll - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA

Six more homes in the Rose Village Neighborhood will get fresh paint on Saturday, October 11, as part of the 4^th Plain Corridor Revitalization Task Force Housing Coalition Paint-a-Thon.

The Rose Village Paint-a-Thon is the brainchild of Mark & Patti Maggiora. Inspired by a southeast Portland Paint-athon that gets hundreds of volunteers each year to help improve the homes of area senior citizens, the Rose Village Paint-a-Thon is expected to yield some 20+ freshly painted homes in just 4 weeks.

"In addition to the obvious benefit of making the area look nicer," says Patty Carroll, "The Paint-a-Thon is getting neighbors to interact with each other and unite in achieving a common goal that will benefit us all."

Once a popular neighborhood where many of the city's long-term residents were raised, Rosemere / Rose Village had more recently been perceived as a highly transient area with an elevated crime rate. The increase in property values seen in recent years, though, has drawn the attention of investors and value seeking home owners and many of the vintage and historic homes are benefiting from a renewed pride of ownership. The team of volunteers who support the Rose Village Paint-a-Thon have the vision of increasing these positive trends and restoring the neighborhood to its former splendor.

This weekend, activities will be focused on a 3 block section of L St in Vancouver between 33^rd Street and 37^th Street. Volunteers will start assembling at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday in front of Patty & Scott Carroll's recently renovated "church home" at 3409 L St, where they will get donuts and coffee before picking up their brushes and starting work on the 6 homes. Lunch will also be provided by Patty & Scott Carroll.

If you would like to have your home considered as a candidate for painting or if you would like to volunteer to help with the Paint-a-Thon project, please call Mark & Patti Maggiora at (360) 992-9969 or email mark@groupnw.net or patty@groupnw.net.

Patty & Scott Carroll - RE/MAX Equity Group, Vancouver WA