By our favorite South Austin contributor, Patti P.
Lofts are rising all over Austin overnight like a newly planted bean seed-pushing up clumps of earth in the "clubby" warehouse district, trailing up in the refreshing work/live East side, winding tendrils on vibrant South & North Lamar, reaching for the sun in the heart of SOCO, and promising to become some beautiful "beans" on swanky West 5th.
These lofty plans have names covering the alphabet from Alloya, Avenue Lofts, Austin City Lofts, Bel Air, Brazos Lofts, Bridges on the Park, Brown Building, Caswell Lofts, Guadalupe 31, Milago, Nokonah, Plaza Lofts, Satillo Lofts, The Rail Yard, Village on Congress, Waterstreet...(these are just a few). Some have innocuous identifiers: 1305 Lofts, Twentyone24 Lofts; but at least one is very direct: "6th & Brushy Lofts" ...easy address for a dinner party...
The mayor of Austin reports that in the next 10 years over 25,000 people will move into our lovely downtown area-most likely in one of these fresh lofts. How about you? Ready for loft living?
I know there are at least 22 reasons why a person would thrive in an Austin loft...and here they come from the top of my bean pole:
1. You'll be nicely positioned to jump on a bike spinning off any cobwebs to & from Zilker Park for the entire ACL Festival weekend. And you'll be toned when you make it there for the tunes. Then in the spring you'll be totally giddy with all the SXSW happenings on your doorstep. Nirvana.
2. Your grin will widen, and your endorphins will rise from more frequent attendance at area theatres. You'll laugh more and extend your life.
3. You can send out-of-town visitors out (operative word: out) club hopping comfy with knowledge they are within crawling distance of your elevator... or doorstep in the case of a street side loft.
4. Your horizon will broaden-get a view already...seen any spectacular Texas sunsets in your suburb lately?
5. Your brain will expand, your dendrites will grow as you slip out your door and into the world of art show openings, CD release parties, edgy fashion shows, museum mixers, not to mention marveling at modern dance gracefully dangling from building frames-stunning.
6. The Saturday downtown farmers' market will provide fresh food & flowers to last your entire week-you can hop right down there and oh yeah, no need for one of those wobbly wheeled shopping carts that always pulls to the right. And you won't lose your car in a parking lot. And you'll be supporting local farmers. And eating wisely with the seasons. Sweet.
7. You can easily fulfill our lofty Austin goal of attending a live music performance at least twice a week-Austin can only keep the title of "live music capital of the world" if we all do our part to support the musicians (who reportedly haven't had a raise in 20 years). Go to a show. Now. Even before you move into your loft. Thanks!
8. Parades. Parades. Parades. Always wanted to watch the Aggies march down Congress Ave to the Capitol the day after Thanksgiving but didn't have the "drive"? Step lively out of your loft and join the parade. But always Hook ‘em-grin.
9. First Night Festivities. Oh my. Your head will spin with the multitude of great venue choices within skipping distance...and Austin weather is mild so you won't have to put on 3 layers of long johns like I used to when attending First Night in the north. Yeah, I was a little stiff.
10. No more need/pressure to deck your exterior with extensive holiday decorations; no more ladders and lights-save energy. Go spin under the Zilker Tree and make wishes.
11. Limited need for trick-or-treat candy...no more suburban sized candy budgets. The party is on 6th street-you can walk right over (or hop if you're a mummy). Austinites consistently come up with fantastic costumes. I love techies letting their hair down...
12. No more yard chores-major woohoo! No need to water or rake leaves (that fall all year from our diversity of trees in Austin) and no power washing.
13. The sun won't beat on your roof, unless you scored a penthouse loft in which case you can afford the energy bill. (Hopefully these new lofts are being built green & wise and extra insulated). Or, perhaps your builder consulted the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Research Center and got the scoop on tried & true water wise plants for rooftop gardening. In which case the concrete around your building-and you in your penthouse-will be cooled. And cool.
14. Your dog (if you have one or two) will lose weight and be happier. We moved our dogs from suburbia to a chi chi apartment home without a yard, and now we're back to suburbia again. The dogs were much happier having a million walks a day and Austin as their backyard. There's at least one leash-less park right downtown if your dog is not an escape artist. I briefly watched a gleeful dog meet, greet & sniff this morning in a lakeside downtown park.
15. No more neighbor cats spraying your front bushes with their rank musk and sharpening their claws (and fangs) on your new cedar fence. Sorry cat lovers. They're furry stink bombs.
16. No more vendors taping and rubber banding menus and service flyers to your front door (and making your animals go wacky). Our Irish wolfhound pushed out a brand new transom window when a telephone book company unwisely delivered their new books at 2 am.
17. No more pollsters, religious mean-wellers, and eager "save the environment" college students pressing their noses on your front door during dinner (and making said dogs go bonkers again). Sheesh, we just got our DO NOT CALL telephone request kicking in...
18. No more high school kids sitting out in their car next to your driveway smooching away with the bass cranked up. OK, yeah, I was younger once but I lived in a rural area with plenty of "parking places" far away from my own driveway-duh.
19. No more fear that your home will lose value because your neighbor's house looks like a garage sale (every day).
20. No more cricks in your neck from pivoting around constantly when backing out of your drive to ensure you're not running over the neighbor's toy trikes...or (gulp) tyke.
21. You'll expand your language skills by learning Morse code to flash communications to your lofty neighbor across the street.
22. You'll have more time to become the person you want to be. Or maybe you're already complete in which case dance around your loft with pure abandon.
There you have it. 22 mostly good reasons for ditching the suburbs and getting thyself into a downtown Austin loft. And we haven't even discussed the interior options... or all the gas money you'll save by luckily living/working downtown. Or at least spending your weekends on the hoof.
Happy lofting. Patti P.
Top 10 Most Promising Housing Markets
Housing Predictor, which provides housing forecasts in 250 markets, has identified 10 markets where the regional economies are healthy and have strong potential for increasing prosperity.
These housing markets have bucked the national trend in 2008 and avoided the subprime crisis, the consultancy says.
Whatever the future holds for the housing market as a whole, Housing Predictor forecasts that these cities will continue to see steady, dependable growth.
Top cities and the percentage sales prices have increased so far in 2008.
Source: Housing Predictor (11/15/08)
Repair Chronicle # 3: Refinishing Wood Floors
Q1. What was the scope of your project?
The carpet in our home was getting old and worn out so we decided to tear it up and replace it with new carpet. When we ripped the carpet up we discovered that the original floors were hard wood floors. It didn't take long to know why the carpet was put down because the original flooring was worn, stained and scratched up pretty bad. Still the thought of having hard wood floors was very appealing so we decided to refinish the wood floors.
Q2. What was the general budget (initial)?
Since our original plan was to re-carpet our home we had about $5,000.00 put back for this project.
Q3. How close did you land on budget?
The money we had put back for carpet was enough to cover the expense of refinishing the wood floors with a little to spare.
Q4. $ for $, what was the best money spent?
The wood floor sander was our best investment. We would have never been able to complete this project without it. They rent for approximately $100 and can be found at most any equipment rental shop. We rented the traditional drum sander which worked very well.
When using one of these sanders you have to remember to keep it moving at all times. If they are left in one spot they will put a groove in the floor so deep you will never be able to remove it. If you have never used a hardwood floor sander before, make sure you get a demonstration on how they work to avoid having problems later and always keep the sander moving in the direction of the grain of the wood.
Never, ever sand across the grain! Go over the floor first with heavy-grit sandpaper until all the scratches and stains are removed. After this you need to go over it again with light-grit sandpaper to achieve a smoother finish.
Q5. $ for $, what was money not well spent?
We started out with a liquid floor stripper because we were told that this would strip off the finish fast and easy but we soon found that this was not true. It may be good for a small spot but not for a whole floor. It was very hard to use and made a big mess. It was not worth the money we spent on it and we still ended up renting a floor sander.
Q6. If you had it to do over, what would you do differently?
Hire a professional. It was more work than I would have liked to put into it.
Q7. Advice for the rest of us?
It's harder than you think.
It takes time and patience. You will need to start by taking all the furniture out of the room. Next, make sure there are no nails or carpet tacks left in the flooring; inspect it well.
Get your supplies before you get started so that you don't have to run out in the middle of working to buy sandpaper or more stain. Don't forget the dust masks.
Once the sanding has been completed you have to decide if you want to stain the floor or use a clear coat to protect it while maintaining the natural color tone of the wood. We chose the clear coat. Whichever you choose to use make sure that the floors are completely clear of debris before you begin this process. Any dust or debris in the floor will dry in the stain or clear coat and cannot be removed without repeating the process.
Don't forget about ventilation because these products can be really strong and breathing in the fumes is bad for your health. With stains you may need to apply more than one coat to get the desired color you are after.
Q8. Was there a contractor, plumber, electrician, innocent bystander who deserves an oscar for best performance?
Our two children deserve an Oscar for convincingly encouraging us that we could complete this project with excellent results and for supplying us with something cold to drink.
Q9. What's next on your list?
I want to replace my old windows with new energy saving ones.
Q10. Your name or alias? Your neighborhood?
Lisa, Copperas Cove
I wanted to share an educational moment with some general information and advice on online social networking and promoting your business online.
You may have heard of yelp.com but some other sites you may be familiar with (or not) may include Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, yahoo groups and meetup.com. For example, in yahoo groups, I am a member of a national Keller Williams group, a member of a Keller Williams faculty group; on meetup.com, I am a member of a labrador retriever group, a kayak group and a wordpress blog group.
Did you know the average age of a user on Facebook is 35 while the average age on MySpace is 25?
Here are some tips for you to keep in mind as you explore or assess your online options:
· If you have children, you probably want to explore MySpace and Facebook on a somewhat regular basis to see what they and their friends are up to, who their friends are and what photos they are posting. Snooping? Absolutely.
· Most of these sites have industry-specific groups or interest groups or forums and there may be a few that would make sense for you to network with.
· A note on participation: most of these sites are effective if you actually participate on a regular basis. If you only set up your profile then never visit the site again, it's no use. Many of these sites "rank" their members so the more features you use (such as forums, sending emails or responding to postings) ... basically the more you engage, the higher your ranking and this is the type of activity that can actually drive people to you and your business.
· A note on self-promotion, especially with yelp.com: self-promotion is a no-no and the regulars on yelp will flag your profile if they think you are "staging" your reviews ... reviews are intended to be "organic"
· What is "organic?" It means it happens naturally and by involved members. For example, if the only reviews you have on your business yelp is from 4 customers who have never yelped on any other business, it looks bad because it looks like you have specifically driven those reviews to your page. It needs to build up naturally and it looks better if they are not all 5-star (a 4-star and a 3-star would actually give it more legitimacy)
And a few links:
· yelp business: http://www.yelp.com/business
Enjoy and set an online goal for yourself and your business for 2009. Our plan is to increase our online leads to represent 10% of our business.
When out looking to buy a new house both buyers and agents express feelings of apprehension to homes that are close to major roads or railroad tracks. When looking at the data for homes that back to or are near a train track, they take longer to sell than others of the same size and interior finish-out further away. This is real estate 101 ... location, location, locomotion. The same can be said for houses that face or back to a major road. Most of these homes will be priced below market and will take longer to sell. But what about the impact of airplanes?
The potential of living under an airport's flight path is a possibility in most cities, but do buyers have the same apprehension to living under a flight path as they do to living near train tracks or major thoroughfares? When looking at property, the time that most people spend at a single house is somewhere in the ballpark of 5 to 30 minutes, and most of that time is spent indoors. The chance that you would even notice a plane flying overhead is slim. Of course if you were there just a few minutes and at least 3 planes flew overhead that were close enough to see its windows and that the engines interrupted your conversation you might find it annoying, but would you consider finding out what the flight paths are for that neighborhood or just move forward with you conversation as the plane passed overhead, not thinking that is part of your decision to buy that house. This is an important point ... you should spend a fair amount of time at the house and we recommend more than one visit at different times or days so that you do not miss important traffic or noise patterns that may (or may not) impact your opinion of the house. Be well-informed.
As an agent, resale is always at the top of my list when looking for a home for my clients and my recommendation is usually to pass on a home that is near a major road or railroad track, unless the house itself is a perfect fit for my client's needs and wants. I realize that numerous people live near trains and highways, and talking with the residents in those homes, the answer "you don't even notice after awhile" is common. Is it the out of sight / out of mind philosophy that causes most buyers and their agents to not even consider flight paths in relation to a particular property and its list price?
In Austin with the relocation of our airport, our flight paths changed. Before with the airport located central, many of Austin's higher-priced and trendy central neighborhoods (Hyde Park, French Place) had significant air traffic. But with the change of the airport's location those neighborhoods are much quieter and have experienced some significant appreciation.
A house with a little or a lot of flight path activity may suit you just fine especially if you purchased it at a nice discount. But keep in mind that when it comes time to sell, your house will have a handicap that will most likely turn away the majority of buyers which is what keeps these homes on the market longer than average ... and the longer on the market, the lower the price.
Contributor: the lovely and talented The Nelson Project Buyer Specialist, Rachael Nelson
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Smart real estate in Austin, Texas. A top-10 agent in the largest office in Austin, KW faculty, Agent Leadership Council, GRI, EcoBroker.
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