Amarillo, TX

If you're like many Amarillo homeowners, your garage stores everything BUT the car. Are you looking for more storage and a covered parking space? Here are a few ideas to get your stuff off the ground and your car back in the garage.

1. Shelves, shelves, shelves. Simple wooden shelves can be bought at your local home improvement store, painted or stained and hung on the walls quickly, easily and affordably.

2. Pegboard; the old standby. Pegboard is quick to put up and easy to use. Adding hooks can help you store small gardening tools, hammers, etc. out of the way but in easy reach for future use. You might want to avoid using regular S-hooks, though, because they have a tendancy to fall out of the holes in the pegboard. If you want to be even more organized, outline each tool with black marker after you hang them up so you know where to put it when you are done.

3. School lockers aren't just for schools anymore. Mounting small school lockers to your walls give you extra space to store power tools or a secure location to put hazardous chemicals when you add a padlock.

4. Peg Racks. Keep large garden tools, such as brooms, rakes and shovels at arm's length by mounting a peg rack on the wall and securing it to the studs for more stability.

5. Clear Jars. Use your old mayonnaise or pickle jars (cleaned out, of course) to organize your nuts, bolts, screws and nails. The see-through glass allows you to see exactly what each jar contains.

Get more information on organizing your Amarillo home by contacting me today at 806-678-1031.

Six year old Karon Silva from Amarillo, Texas needs your help. Karon suffers from Epilepsy that racks her little body. When Karon was just two and half years old, her parents bought Boston, a golden retriever. Boston is a unique dog. He can sense when Karon is going to have a seizure and alerts her mother. Boston never leaves Karon's side.

The Silva family is hoping to get their wonderful Boston certified as a seizure alert dog so he will be able to go with Karon everywhere she goes in public, such as school, stores, restaurants, etc. The need for seizure alert dogs is on the rise, but the cost is still high. It will cost $2,000 for Boston to get certified. The Silva's have half of the money but need help getting the other half.

It is so important for Karon and many other Epilepsy sufferers to have seizure alert dogs. A seizure alert dog can sense the attack minutes to hours before it actually occurs. This gives the person time to take their seizure blocking medication, call for assistance or get to a safe place.

Amarillo residents have always been great at helping out other community members when in need. And this is a time when help is really needed. So let's extend a helping hand to Karon Silva and make sure Boston gets certified. If you would like to help, call the West Texas Epilepsy Foundation at (806) 352-5426.

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Amarillo, Texas Realtor® Connie Taylor

Even with the economic outlook on unsteady terms, sales across the country were up 6.5% in December 2008, with inventory levels falling 12%, creating less than six months' inventory in many large metropolitan areas, including Houston and Dallas. A six month inventory is considered the rate at which supply and demand has evened out. In the western United States, sales increased almost 14% and the south experienced a 7% increase. These statistics seem to indicate that buyers are indeed taking advantage of the lower prices and low mortgage rates. Approximately 45% of the December home sales were attributed to foreclosures and short sales. Could this be the "bottom" the real estate market is so desperately hoping for? It's too early to tell. But, if numbers stay positive for the next two to three months, it would definitely be an indicator of brighter things ahead. Contact me for all your Amarillo real estate needs.

Amarillo's vacant lots were once a dumping ground for trash. And complaining about it soon became a sport. Therefore, the United Way of Amarillo & Canyon's Day of Caring Committee led the community to clean up its neighborhoods.

Last spring hundreds of volunteers banded together and spread out from San Jacinto Christian Academy to vacant lots. Volunteers filled trash bags with trash, mown weeds and overgrowth. They also painted over graffiti. Since the cleanup, the San Jacinto Christian Academy students have vowed to continue their efforts for the rest of the year and on into the summer months.

Generation Next Worship Center has committed to continue and maintain the cleanup effort for the next school year and summer months. San Jacinto Christian students will then carry on the following year. The two will alternate each school year.

The cleanup project was such a huge success that the community wants to get more volunteers in on it. Amarilloans get to see, first-hand, what needs to be done to their neighborhoods and what a difference keeping it clean can make.

The North Amarillo Community Task Force was formed in 2007 by a group of north Amarillo residents who truly care about their community. Each month the task force will go out into the Northern parts of Amarillo and clean up, refurbish, repair and restore parts of the community. The task force is now looking for more volunteers to help around the community. People who live or work in the community are perfect candidates because they care about how the community looks.

The United Way 's annual "Day of Caring" is scheduled for this spring but the area for clean up has not been determined yet. Some of the possible areas are around Travis Middle School and Martin Road Park . The Day of Caring Committee is now looking for volunteers or partners to commit to keeping the area clean for one year.

Sections of Amarillo 's roads are kept pretty clean by a road adoption program. The Air Force Junior ROTC unit from Palo Duro High adopted part of U.S. Highway 60 just east of Loop 335. They have committed one weekend each month to keep that section of the Highway clean. For this, the Palo Duro ROTC unit has received the Distinguished Unit Award for four consecutive years.

We all know it's not an easy commitment of toil and sweat to improve the areas neighborhoods, but great volunteers like the ones in Amarillo are what it takes to keep a community beautiful. And Amarillo will continue to improve with the help of its proud residents.

Amarillo, Texas Community Information

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Amarillo, Texas Realtor® Connie Taylor

Head over to Texas Tech University of Health Sciences Center in Amarillo on Friday, January 23rd from 2-4pm and get a free health screening from student members of the National Community Pharmacist Association. This is a special screening being held during the January Wellness Challenge at the Amarillo university. Pharmacy students will offer free blood-pressure screenings, calculate Body Mass Index (BMI) and Body Fat Percentage and provide diet suggestions as well as nutritional education. All this is open and free to the public. The event takes place on the first floor of the Texas Tech School of Medicine building located at the Amarillo Pharmaceutical Care Center (1400 S Coulter St). If you wish to attend and would like more information, please email Brenda Ojeda at Brenda.Ojeda@ttuhsc.edu. This is a great opportunity to get a free assessment of your health and make any necessary changes to start the new year off right.