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Found 35 blog entries tagged as home tips.

When you imagine your ideal home full of joy and contentment, there are likely features that are part of this dreamy scene. Today, we’re digging down into the specific steps you can take to make your home a happier place in the coming year. Choose from the list below to create New Year’s resolutions for your home or tackle the entire list to overhaul your whole environment! No matter your goals for 2025, we wish for you to have the happiest holiday season.

1.) Maintain a Clean Walkway to Your Home

First impressions matter, both for anyone who will visit your home, and for yourself when you leave and arrive back home each day. To create a welcoming atmosphere around your home’s entrance, be sure to keep your walkways and porch swept clean. Once…

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We’re all familiar with accessibility in design, which we are most likely to encounter in public spaces and commercial buildings. Accessibility features make it easier for wheelchair users and mobility limitations to approach and enter buildings, as well as navigate once inside.

Did you know, though, that over 90% of people with disabilities are not wheelchair users? Add in anyone who is experiencing limitations due to aging, and the number of people who could benefit from design that includes their needs only grows.

As we return to multi-generational living arrangements and simultaneously gain more insight into the challenges faced by the neurodivergent members of our families, inclusive design is more pertinent than at any time within the last…

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Fall will be here before we know it, bringing with it cozy sweater weather, crisp autumn leaves, comforting spice blends, and beloved holidays. For homeowners, though, fall also means it’s time to go over your fall home maintenance checklist to make sure your home is prepared for the depths of winter.

We recommend tackling two or more tasks per weekend. That way, you won’t be spending all your time working on your home, but you will have time to complete your entire list before winter arrives.

Check Your Detectors

Before you crank up the heat and start your fireplace, make sure you test your smoke detectors and CO2 detectors. Install fresh batteries as well. Safety is key, and this coming season is the most dangerous when it comes to fires,…

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If you're like most modern homeowners, you work at least one full-time job outside of the home. Factor in your commute, social calendar, meal preparation, tidying, laundry, potential childcare and pet care, and you’re no doubt running yourself ragged. To take a major responsibility off your plate, you may wish to consider hiring a housekeeper or even a team of cleaners.

If you’re ready to consider hiring a house cleaner, we have created a complete guide that will take you from the vetting process to the etiquette around your ongoing working relationship with them.

If you’re feeling a bit anxious about someone entering your home and seeing your home in a raw state, don’t be. Remember that professional cleaners have seen it all before, and…

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Home renovations are a common undertaking for homeowners who wish to expand, update, customize, or change the floor plan of their home. Have you been considering launching a home renovation in 2025? If so, it’s time to start planning in earnest. You have a lot to decide on: your general plans, the contractors from whom you want to secure bids, how you will fund the project, where you plan to stay (if you cannot remain at home), and what you’ll do when the work takes longer than you and your contractor planned.

Take a deep breath. You’ve got this! Remember that more than half of all homeowners in the US will complete home renovation plans this year, and you are just as capable of doing the same. Middle Tennessee is home to incredible contractors,…

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If your plans for 2024 include moving into a smaller space, you can’t wait until next spring to do some serious decluttering. As daunting as it may seem to sort through your belongings, weighing out what to keep, what to toss, and what to donate, the results are well worth investing your time and effort.

To help you jump into the process, we have selected seven downsizing tips our realtors have given their clients and used themselves over the years. Let’s get started!

1.) Envision Your Desired Lifestyle

Downsizing is an ideal time to examine your lifestyle as it currently exists; then envision how you plan for it to be this same time next year. For example, if you plan to entertain frequently, you may wish to hang on to kitchen items that…

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Fixer-uppers are DIY projects by nature. Elegant mid-century homes require plenty of TLC; even once-new homes require maintenance and upgrades over time. No matter which type of property your home may be, you likely feel a sense of accomplishment and even pride when you tackle and complete a repair, upgrade, or full section of a renovation.

The key to successful DIY is threefold: research, preparation, and follow-through. The kiss of death? Eyeballing a project, assuming you have the knowledge and technique figured out just by doing so, and diving straight in. The results will range from catastrophic (in the case of water or structural damage) to merely ugly (like an eyesore wall patch.)

The cost of repairing a catastrophic outcome will be far…

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Are you a homeowner who plans to purchase your second home in 2024? If so, you will be applying for a mortgage under different circumstances than those under which you bought your first home. Securing a loan for a second home is more complicated, more difficult, and even includes two separate sets of rules - one for vacation homes and another for investment properties. 

Let’s examine these two types of homes, the rules that govern them, and the pros and cons of each approach when it comes to your finances. 

What Qualifies as a Vacation Home?

Your primary residence is where you’ll spend most of your time, of course, but you are permitted to have one or more vacation homes as well, or even a residence that you use as your office. Either way,…

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HGTV’s “Love it or List It” showcases an all-too-familiar conundrum for homeowners throughout Middle Tennessee and beyond. If you’ve seen the show, you know featured guests ask for help deciding whether to remodel and relist or remodel and stay put in their refreshed home. 

As much as you may feel like this show could feature you and your current predicament, the reality is that very few Americans have enough expendable cash, a team of professionals, and a hotel voucher to cover our time away from home. Still, you have a decision to make: should you stay, or should you go? 

Let’s break down the factors that are most likely to help you determine the answer to this question. 

You Should Stay If:

You Have Poor Credit

Life can throw up…

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Full-on renovations are the most powerful method for transforming your home, but don’t be fooled into believing that you have to take on significant debt to make your home a better place in which to live. Strategic, thoughtful, small upgrades to enhance your space can create an impact on both your comfort level and your interior style. Choose just a few affordable luxuries, implement them as you are able, and prepare to fall in love with your home all over again. 

Add Richly Textured Plants

It’s no secret that houseplants are an excellent way to beautify your living spaces. Plants are available in a dazzling array of colors, scents, and sizes; they cleanse the air you breathe. Lastly, they can be matched with complementing vessels of nearly…

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