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DIY Projects to Improve Your Home
As we near spring it is a good time to get a head start on projects you want to complete. You also might be bored with your house after sitting inside all winter. DIY projects are a great way to spice up your house and add character. They are also a fun way to add personal touches to your home and show your creativity. Keep reading to learn about five DIY projects to improve your home!
Add an accent ceiling
You have seen a million different accent walls, but have you ever seen an accent ceiling? This is a wonderful way to spice up your home and make it more unique. By painting the ceiling, you will add a pop of color making the room look more sophisticated. If you go with darker tones this can make the room seem a bit more spacious.
Put a picture frame around the TV
Tired of the same old boring black box on your wall? Want to make your TV look fancier? Add a picture frame around your TV, yes that is right, a picture frame around your TV. Bet you have not seen that ever? This will give your house a fresh look and add character to your walls.
Paint fake windows on your garage door
If you are moving into a finished home instead of building, then you probably got stuck with a boring, ugly garage door. You can add fake windows to make your door look fancier. Just place scotch tape in the frames you want to look like windows and paint over them then remove when dry. From the road, no one will be able to tell the difference.
Upgrade countertops
There are plenty of fun ways to upgrade your countertops these days. You can pour cement over them to give your kitchen an industrial look. You can use epoxy to pour fun designs. In addition, you can take recycled material like wood and place it over the old countertops to give it a new rustic look.
Painting cabinets
Painting your cabinets is an easy way to give any room in your house a fresh look. This is a quite easy DIY project that makes an enormous difference in a house. You can paint your kitchen cabinets, bathroom, garage, or storage cabinets. Most materials cabinets are made from, are easy and relatively cheap to paint over. Just make sure you buy the right type of paint for that material.
Financial Infidelity and Relationships
(Family Features) Infidelity and deception can take many forms in a relationship, including some that have nothing to do with romance at all. One example is financial infidelity, where deceptions are reported in nearly half of relationships where finances are combined.
Among people who have combined finances with a partner, 2 in 5 (43%) confessed to committing an act of financial deception in a current or past relationship, according to a survey conducted by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE). What’s more, 85% of those who reported a financial deception acknowledged the indiscretion affected the relationship in some way.
“When you commingle finances in a relationship, you’re consenting to cooperation and transparency in your money management,” said Billy Hensley, Ph.D., president and CEO of NEFE. “Regardless of the severity of the act, financial deception can cause tremendous strain on couples – it leads to arguments, a breakdown of trust and, in some cases, separation or even divorce.”
Understanding Financial Infidelity
Financial infidelity is an act of deception by one partner in a relationship where finances are combined. Examples include hiding purchases, money or accounts, or lying about the amount of income earned and debt owed.
More than one-third (39%) of U.S. adults who have combined finances in a current or past relationship admitted to hiding a purchase, bank account, statement, bill or cash from their partner, and about 1 in 5 (21%) admitted to lying to a partner or spouse about finances, the amount of debt they owe or the amount of money they earn.
Reasons for Financial Deception
A lack of communication and conflicting life or financial values may often be the root causes of financial deception, but U.S. adults also revealed other reasons for deceit with money. More than one-third (38%) said even though they are in a committed relationship, they believe some aspects of their finances should remain private. Meanwhile, another 33% were embarrassed or fearful about their finances and didn’t want their partner to know.
Fear of disapproval by a partner is also a powerful force, regardless of whether financial discussions are happening in the relationship. For example, 34% of U.S. adults who admitted to financial deception in a relationship with combined finances said they feared disapproval by their partner given discussions of finances had already occurred while 27% feared disapproval by a partner in a relationship where discussions about finances had not yet occurred.
How Financial Deception Affects Couples
Like other forms of infidelity, financial cheating can wreak havoc on a relationship, including arguments, loss of trust, less privacy, separating combined finances and even divorce. However, those who have been there offered some insight into positive repercussions, too, such as growing closer together and learning to communicate proactively.
Signs of Financial Infidelity
You may discover your partner is cheating financially when you come across a receipt or piece of paper indicating a purchase you don’t recognize or find your partner defensive or withdrawn in conversations about money. A deceptive partner may attempt to intercept bills via mail or email before you see them or remove the itemization of purchases on bills.
Learn more and find the full poll on financial deception at nefe.org.
Coming Clean: How to recover from financial deception
Whether you’ve caught your partner cheating when it comes to money, or you’re the one in the spotlight after making some financial transgressions, there are some steps you can take together to rebuild trust.
1. Be realistic in your expectations. Successfully rebuilding trust will take time, sustained transparency and commitment to shared goals and increased communication.
2. Commit to open communication. While the conversations may be stressful, the key is to focus on understanding why the financial deception occurred and what you can do, together, moving forward.
“When 2 in 5 people admit to committing financial deception in a relationship where money is combined, it highlights the need for greater communication and a deeper understanding of who your partner is financially,” Hensley said.
3. Create goals and ground rules together. Finding areas of compromise can help you get on the path toward rebuilding trust. That might mean having separate personal accounts while maintaining a joint account for household expenses, or you might create separate accounts completely with each of you paying an equitable share of household expenses.
You could also establish guidelines you can both abide by, such as agreeing that neither will make a large purchase, such as items over $100, without discussing it together.
Reprinted with permission from RISMedia. ©2022. All rights reserved.
Should You Ask a Seller to Pay Closing Costs?
Should You Ask the Seller to Pay Your Closing Costs?
Closing costs are typically 2 to 5 percent of the sale price of a house. If you struggled to come up with money for a down payment, having to find thousands of dollars more may seem impossible. With some types of mortgages, the buyer must pay the closing costs, or at least a percentage. In many cases, however, the lender doesn’t care who pays those fees. Sometimes a seller is willing to pay some or all of the closing costs.
Why Would a Seller Agree to Pay Closing Costs?
A seller and real estate agent set an asking price anticipating that a buyer will want to negotiate a lower sale price. If you offered to pay the full list price and asked the seller to cover the closing costs, the seller could still come out ahead financially in the end.
Sometimes sellers are in no rush to move, but in other cases they have a strict deadline; for example, if they need to start a new job. A seller may have already bought a new house and may be eager to sell the old one to avoid having to pay two mortgages at once. A homeowner who is motivated to sell quickly may be willing to negotiate to speed the process along. If you have been pre-approved for a mortgage and you offered to close quickly, the seller might agree to pay your closing costs.
An inspection is a routine part of a home sale. When an inspector notices a number of problems, a buyer often demands that the seller have them fixed before proceeding with a purchase. A seller may be willing to cover your closing costs if you don’t require a lot of repairs. Just don’t let problems that pose a safety hazard slide. Require the seller to fix those before you agree to buy the house.
Will the Seller Cover All Your Closing Costs?
Your mortgage lender may limit how much the seller gives you as a closing cost credit. The lender won’t allow the seller to give you a credit greater than the actual amount of the closing costs.
If the seller can’t or won’t pay all your closing costs, you might be able to work out a split or a reduction in the down payment or earnest money. Another option is to ask the seller to lower the sales price, which would in turn lower the closing costs.
Explore Your Options
Many people, especially first-time homebuyers, struggle to find money for closing costs and are unaware that having the seller cover some or all of those costs is even a possibility. Not all sellers are willing or able to pay closing costs, but many are. You won’t know unless you ask. Discuss the issue with your real estate agent.
Make Summer a Breeze with Summer Maintenance
Now that we’re officially into summer, it’s time to think about summer maintenance for your home. Summer is a great time to get projects completed that you can’t work on during colder months. It’s also an important time to inspect areas of your home for safety and efficiency. By following these simple tasks to the best season of the year, you’ll have a healthy and happy home environment.
1. Check your windows and doors for leaks and re-caulk around any areas that need it.
Not only does this increase your home’s energy efficiency, but ultimately it saves you money since worn-out caulk contributes to significant spikes in your energy bill if you’re running an air conditioner.
2. Replace your furnace filter for the summer.
Your furnace and air conditioning system use the exact same filter. Clean filters keep your air fresh by not recirculating allergens back into the air.
3. Inspect your home’s exterior.
It was a long winter, and it’s time to inspect your home’s exterior for areas that could put your budget at risk in the future. This would include your roof, loose siding, mold/mildew, and moss growth. If you find any weak spots in the siding, you’ll want to get that fixed as soon as you can. Wash off any mold, mildew, or moss with a power washer. As for your roof, there are professionals who can examine your roof and give you a good idea of how soon you’ll need to replace it. This is especially important if you’re at all thinking of selling your home.
4. If you haven’t done this already, clean out your gutters and downspouts.
Fall leaves and debris from trees can pile up in your gutters and make it difficult for them to direct moisture away from your home. This can cause issues in the winter as ice could freeze in the gutters and back up water into your roof causing leaks and damage. To help reduce summer cleaning, consider purchasing gutter screens that prevent debris from piling up in your gutters.
5. Prevent bug breeding grounds.
Since warmer weather wakes up all the tiny crawly and swarming insects, you’ll want to consider spraying around the perimeter of your home. You may even need to put up barriers indoors for ants by spraying along the exterior walls. This will help stop bugs and ants from infiltrating your home and eating your watermelon!
6. Reverse Ceiling Fans
It’s a good idea to reverse the direction of your ceiling fans during summer so that they spin counter-clockwise. This pushes the air straight down and creates an excellent breeze. It’s also a good time to dust your fan blades as well so that you’re not sending dust particles flying every time you use your fan.
For more helpful tips, contact a CENTURY 21 Affiliated Agent near you! https://www.c21affiliated.com/find-an-agent/office
