RE/MAX - Fit To Sell - Turning Family Home into Model Home

Photos of the most popular Property Brothers' renovations

Photos of the most popular Property Brothers' renovations

Here's how to make the Big Move Better

jennifer phelps

Whether you’re relocating across the country or just across town, moving can be stressful even given the best circumstances. Without a clear plan, packing up a household, getting a family prepared and orchestrating myriad services at both ends of a move can be a nightmare.

You can avoid the pitfalls with a little preparation. I put my head together with the great minds at Tucson Professional Organizers, and we came up with these tried and true tips for planning and executing a seamless move. 

Create a moving file. As soon as you even start thinking about moving, create a moving file on your computer or in a binder. Gather all related papers in one place, such as:

• Notes on potential moving companies
• Random lists
• A calendar and a timeline for doing things
• Your master packing list
• Contact information for utilities, Realtors, veterinarian etc.

Your moving file will be your indispensable ally; keep it with you at all times.

Starline Cabinets

Centralize your operation. Designate one spot as packing central, where you will keep boxes, packing materials, scissors, tape, markers, labels and a box cutter.

Purge before packing. Avoid the temptation to dump an entire drawer of stuff into a box. This is the perfect time to declutter, purge, sift, sort, thin out … whatever you call it, just do it! Every item being moved should be moved for a reason — either you use it or you love it. Be brave and ruthless so you don’t have to move more stuff than necessary. Remember, you pay movers based on the amount of stuff you have, and the more you move, the more you’ll have to unpack later.

Keep a master packing list. Number each box as you pack it and write the number visibly on all four sides. Don’t list the contents on the box. Instead, keep a master packing list in your moving file. List the contents of each numbered box; be specific, so you’ll waste less time searching for things later.

Use masking tape and a marker to tag electronics cables for easy setup later.

Karlson Kitchens

Secure your valuables. Pack your jewelry and legal documents yourself in an unmarked (or misleadingly marked) box and carry it with you personally. While I’ve never had an issue with a mover, it is unwise to label a box “Lots of valuable gold in here!” before putting it in other people’s hands.

Farrell Design Assoc Inc,

Plan for moving day. Put together a moving-day box with essentials that you will keep in your car. Moving is kind of like camping, so pack accordingly. Include:

Your moving file

Supplies from packing central

Toilet paper, soap, toiletries, medications, chargers and batteries for electronics (invest in chargers that plug into your car’s lighter), paper towels, bath towels and bedsheets, so you can settle in quickly

Basic cleaning supplies

A small tool kit

Healthy snacks, paper plates, cups, utensils and a coffeemaker

Pet food, bowls, leash, pet bed

First aid kit

The Moving-Day Survival Kit: Lifesaving Items and Niceties

Jennifer Bishop Design

Involve the kids. Get kids involved by helping them pack their own travel bag with toiletries, pajamas and a few days’ worth of clothes. If your child has a favorite, comforting toy, bring it with you rather than packing it out of sight and out of reach.

decordemon

Care for pets. Moving is hectic with pets, especially if there will be several pit stops along the way. And moving day will be chaotic, with lots of open doors. Before moving day have ID tags made for your pets with your new address and be sure they wear their collar and new tags every moment of the move.

Coates Design Architects Seattle

By mastering the logistics, you can focus on your family and the emotions surrounding a big change or simply make moving day go off without a hitch. Hopefully, your process will be smooth, your trip a great adventure and your new home a place you will love for a long time to come.

So you bought a new house and you want to remodel

Laura Gaskill

If you bought your house with an eye to remodeling it, you may be tempted to make big changes right away — but there are some surprising benefits to waiting before you leap. While there is no reason to live with features that make you cringe (icky carpeting in the bathroom) or make daily life difficult (a nonfunctional stove), you also don't need to feel rushed or pressured into a costly and time-consuming remodeling project before you've had a chance to live in and experience your home. When you take the time to listen to your house, it could offer some creative solutions that you would never have come up with if you had dived right in.

Ben Herzog

Living with your space allows you to get a better sense of your real priorities. Perhaps when you initially saw your house, you thought the dated kitchen would be the most important room to renovate first. But after living there, you might realize it's more important to add French doors to lighten up the dark living room where you spend a lot of time. Remember, it's your home, so try to push aside what you think you "should" update and focus instead on what will improve the quality of your daily life.

Brennan + Company Architects

Living in your house for a full year can give you a fuller picture of your needs in every season. If you move into your home in midsummer, you may not be thinking about all of the mucky boots and jackets dripping snow that will fill your hall come winter. Likewise, if you move in during the cooler months, you may not realize there is a major mosquito problem in the area, making a screen porch much more appealing than the open design you were first considering. Simply by experiencing your house in all seasons, you can make smarter choices — and avoid costly mistakes.

Corynne Pless

Temporary fixes can help you visualize a bigger change. Removing a medicine cabinet and installing a cool mirror will help bring your bathroom up to date right away — and it can help stretch your imagination so you can better plan further changes.

Having one piece in play (like the mirror) will give you more to go on as you choose paint colors, new fixtures and so on. Use this strategy elsewhere in the home by painting dated kitchen cabinets, applying peel-and-stick floor tiles or swapping out light fixtures.

Brennan + Company Architects

You may like your "temporary" changes so much, you make them permanent — and save lots of money. After cleaning up your guest bath, giving the walls a coat of crisp white paint and putting in new towel racks, mirrors and window treatments, you may like the results so much that you decide a full remodel is unnecessary. Score!

CM Glover

Waiting to remodel lets you experience the flow of your home firsthand. Living in your home, moving furniture around, testing layouts and simply going about your daily routines will give you a better idea of changes that will have the biggest positive impact. Something as simple as reorienting the furniture in your living room can completely alter the flow of your space. So many times we (consciously or not) copy the furniture layout as it was during the open house, even if it isn't right for the room or our furniture.

Bosworth Hoedemaker

Waiting to remodel can give you better ideas. It may not occur to you at first that removing a smallcloset or repositioning a door could make a huge difference in the working space of your kitchen ... until you've lived there for a while, that is. Pay special attention to the traffic patterns (where you walk) in your home, as this can offer you a clue about which doors or walls to consider moving or removing.

Making do allows you to test out a new space before committing. Thinking of transforming a garage or shed into extra living space? Consider what you can do to make it usable beforespending big bucks on a full remodel. Even if you can't turn your garage into an overnight guest room the DIY way, you may be able to transform it into a functional office or studio, which would allow you to experience the space and learn more about what it might need before committing to a major project.

Hardwood Flooring and the right questions to ask

Mitchell Parker

So you’ve decided to get hardwood floors. Easy enough, right? Pick a wood and be done with it.

Not so fast. There are a lot of factors that will determine what kind of hardwood floor your home can accommodate, and what will look best with your existing or planned furnishings and decor.

You have some basic options: solid wood and engineered wood. Solid wood is what you generally think of as a hardwood floor: thick, solid planks of wood. Engineered wood is made of a veneer layer that sits atop a core of plywood. This construction deals with moisture a bit better and is recommended for concrete slab subfloors. Which brings up another point. The construction of the floor you're working with pretty much will dictate what kind of wood you can use.

Here's how to prepare yourself for choosing a hardwood floor for your home.

Magnus Anderson Hardwood Floors

1. Where will the wood be going?

Installing hardwood floors on a second story is much different than doing so in a basement. A space beneath ground level is what’s known as below grade. A floor that’s even with the outside ground level is on grade, and any floors above this are above grade. Where you're installing the wood will limit your recommended options.

“For example, you’re not supposed to put solid wood below grade, because the moisture coming up through the ground can cause problems,” says Bob Hagen, who owns Magnus Anderson Hardwood. “So an engineered wood is recommended."

Magnus Anderson Hardwood Floors

2. What is the subfloor made of? 

Find out what kind of subfloor you have. The three most common types are concrete slab, plywood and particleboard. This will help you determine whether you can install solid wood floors, or if an engineered wood would be best.

Concrete. “If you have a concrete slab floor, you’re pretty much limited to engineered wood,” says Andrew Zheng, manager of Unique Wood Floors, which specializes in and ships prefinished hardwood. But don’t fret. You can still get any type of wood in an engineered format. And the thickness of the veneer on engineered wood varies. Higher-end engineered woods "are no less than solid woods in performance and price,” Zheng says.

(Note: Even the hardest woods, such as Brazilian cherry and hard maple, will ding on an engineered floor if the plywood onto which they are veneered is soft, like lauan, which is a commonly used base.)

Another option is to install plywood over the concrete, but you’ll have to pay for the additional plywood, insulation and labor. “Most people just choose to stick with what they have,” Zheng says.

If you’re still not sold on the engineered product, Hagen says there's a way to still have solid wood on a concrete slab (as long as it's on grade). It just needs to be glued down, preferably by an experienced professional.

The downsides are that you need completely flat boards (hard to come by in longer lengths), and the glue is so strong that there’s a permanency to it. “If you have a leak or a flood, getting the material up is incredibly difficult,” Hagen says. “You’ll also want to check the VOCs [volatile organic compounds, which are toxic] in the product. And we ask clients about any chemical sensitivities.”

EcoSafe Spaces, LLC

Plywood. This is probably the most common subfloor and allows for the most versatility with hardwood floors. You can nail solid wood on top or use engineered wood.

Particleboard. This material was commonly used under carpet in homes built in the 1970s. It’s basically a cheaper version of plywood. For hardwood floors, you'll need to replace the particleboard with plywood. Then you can add engineered or solid wood. 

FLO Design Studio

3. What are your living habits?

Think about how much abuse your floors will take and learn about specific wood species and their durability. Do you have kids and pets? Have large parties often? Or are you a single person who travels a lot?

If you have a high-traffic house, you’ll want to go with a harder wood. The Janka scale measures how strong a wood is; basically a BB is fired into a plank and the size of the dent it leaves is measured. “Red oak is considered the bell curve,” Hagen says. “It’s pretty hard and medium priced.”

You can also play with grain patterns as well as with stains and finishes that will hide dents and scratches.

Hugh Jefferson Randolph Architects

4. What style is your home?

You might love the look of hickory but then think differently when you see it covering a floor in a kitchen with modern cabinets. That's because some woods lend themselves better to certain styles.

When choosing a wood, consider cabinets, trimwork and door casings to make sure the wood won’t clash with other design elements. And coordinate with the colors of the walls and the amount of natural light. This will affect color choice. If you have a lot of windows and skylights, then you probably have enough light to balance out really dark floors. If you have a dark house already, a lighter floor choice will help brighten things.

If your style is modern: Natural maple lends itself well to modern styles. “It’s more of a Norwegian-looking design with a clean look and not a lot of variation,” Zheng says. Gray-stained oak and boards without knots create a clean aesthetic that also works in modern settings.

If your style is traditional: Go with something like hickory. "It mixes lighter and darker pieces, and it’s more like a traditional cabin feel," Zheng says. Also, boards with knots and wider planks fit a more traditional style.

Of course, designers do incredibly creative things with mixing old and new, so don’t discount a wood just because it’s considered more appropriate for a certain style. Playing with grain pattern and stains can yield all sorts of interesting results.

Plantation Hardwood Floors

5. What’s important to you? 

Is budget the biggest factor? Or is the appearance all you care about? Determining what’s most important to you will help you determine the right wood for your floor.

Cost. Engineered wood isn’t always the cheapest route, so don’t think you can’t have solid wood floors on a budget. Zheng says you can purchase generic oak flooring in various stains for $3.50 to $4 per square foot, while lower-end engineered floors start at $2.50 to $3 per square foot. Beautiful hardwood like the popular acacia species can be as high as $6 per square foot.

Maintenance. If you want something that will hold up over time, you'll want to look at the harder woods (with higher Janka ratings). Also pay attention to the stain.

The traditional method for staining wood uses a polyurethane finish, which produces a higher sheen. If the floor gets dinged or scratched, light bouncing off the semigloss finish can exacerbate the appearance of those flaws.

Oil finishes are increasingly becoming more popular these days. They soak into the wood and provide a more matte finish. This can help hide wear and tear; plus, they last longer. While the up-front cost is higher, you won’t need to restain the floor as often, saving you money in the long run.

You can play around with finishes too. Hand-scraped or wire-brushed treatments rough up the appearance, creating a worn look so that if something does scuff it, the mark is not as noticeable. Note that the thickness of the veneer on an engineered floor affects how often it can be sanded down and finished.

Unique Wood Floors

Appearance. Everyone's preference is different. Some people are attracted to oak more thanwalnut, and vice versa.

Acacia, shown here, is an exotic wood from Asia that Zheng says is a hot seller right now, because of its mix of lighter and darker tones; plus, it’s harder than hickory. The cost ranges from about $4 to $6 per square foot at his warehouse. The unique look is worth the higher cost for some.

Pay attention to knots and grain pattern. Patterns in hickory and maple are different than in oak. You might want to spend the extra money for a unique grain pattern, or you may want to save money and go with a less-expensive wood with a better stain.

Consider plank width, too, which alters the appearance of your hardwood floors. Wide-plank walnut and 7-inch European oak are popular in traditional homes at the moment.

The best thing you can do is see and feel the wood in person. “Wood is a living species. You need to feel what you’re attracted to. You’re the one living in the house, not the designer pushing you,” says Ilan Zamir, CEO ofAmber Flooring.

Magnus Anderson Hardwood Floors

Asian Walnut 

6. How will you stain and finish it? 

A stain adds color to the wood. The finish protects the floors from getting dirty. Any stain or finish can be applied to almost any wood. Some people like the color of oak but want the grain pattern of walnut. That's where staining can come into play.

Some people can’t tell the difference between unstained black walnut and white oak that's been stained espresso. Others can look at those woods and their grain patterns and immediately know the difference. It all depends on what's important to you.

A finish affects the maintenance. A solid wood that’s been hand scraped for a lower-sheen matte finish is easier to maintain, because you won’t see as much wear and tear. But maybe you want a semigloss look.

Also, purchasing wood that's been prefinished will give you a good idea of what it will look like and will save you the time and effort of finishing the floors onsite. Engineered wood is usually prefinished.

Unique Wood Floors

7. How will you test it? 

This step is incredibly important. The last thing you want to do is install 800 square feet of black walnut based on a photo or tiny sample you saw in a showroom only to find it's overpoweringly dark and contrasts poorly with your furnishings.

Always ask for a 2- by 2-foot sample of what the floor will look like with a stain and finish on it. Use this to test it with your paint colors and decor to make sure it's exactly what you want.

RE/MAX Fit To Sell - Top 5 Issues in Preparing Your Home for Sale

Too much stuff in your kitchen?

Think you might have too much stuff in your kitchen cabinets? If you even hesitated answering that question, you do.

The Kitchen Studio of Glen Ellyn

News flash: To cook great meals and entertain like a champ, you don’t need five spatulas or more frying pans than you have burners. A professional chef can tell you in short bullet points what it takes to run an orderly kitchen that produces great food. It’s not much!

Below you'll find a step-by-step game plan, based on sage advice from kitchen designer Susan Klimala of The Kitchen Studio of Glen Ellyn, along with some supremely tidy kitchens to inspire you.

Synergy Design & Construction

Phase 1: The Purge
1. Remove everything from your kitchen and put it on a large table or island.

2. Categorize every item: spices, baking, pantry, pots and pans, storage supplies like Tupperware and plastic wrap, glassware, silverware, serveware and so on.

Emerick Architects

3. Remove multiples, broken items and pieces you simply don't like or use. Donate, regift or toss them. "You don't need six mixing bowls," Klimala emphasizes. "You just don't."

Neuhaus Design Architecture, P.C.

4. Toss any food that's expired. "You will be amazed by the amount of space this one act alone will clear up," Klimala says.

5. Remove items you use less than twice a year and store them in another area. This includes cookbooks. "Pick your top five to 10 favorite cookbooks," she suggests. "Then store the rest elsewhere or donate."

Tip: If you're holding on to a cookbook for a single go-to recipe, photocopy the page and then pass the book along to someone else.

Bonnie Sachs, ASID

6. Call in the professionals for a thorough cabinet cleaning inside and out. Of course, you can do the scrubbing yourself if you prefer. Klimala advises using this opportunity to bring in a painter to touch up as needed or give stained cabinets fresh paint.

Crisp Architects

Phase 2: Putting Stuff Back

Once you've completed the steps above, take a hard look at what's left. Think about how and when you use each object in your kitchen as you follow Klimala's next set of steps, putting everything back in a better way than before.

Sally Wheat Interiors

1. Store items used daily in the most accessible shelves, cabinets and drawers.

2. Consider frequency of use of every item before finding a spot for it.

For example, store everyday cups, dishes and stemware in a cabinet near the dishwasher to facilitate a productive workflow. Pots and pans should be close to the stovetop.

Synergy Design & Construction

Only store the amount of dishware you realistically use between dishwasher cycles. "There's no need to store all two dozen coffee cups together if you use only a maximum of four to six every day or two," Klimala says.

Tip: Store extra dishes and stemware in the upper or lower recesses of your newly purged cupboards so they're safe and still nearby for large gatherings.

Dura Supreme Cabinetry

3. Think about how to streamline your storage with aids such as cutlery dividers, tray dividers, caddies and more.

www.teambluesky.ca

THE UPPER-END MARKET TREND Burlington-Hamilton

Local buyers, in conjunction with an influx of

purchasers from the Greater Toronto

Area (GTA), propelled sales of luxury homes

to new heights in Hamilton-Burlington’s

residential real estate market in 2013.

The number of properties sold over the

$750,000 price point rose a substantial 31

per cent year-over-year, with 436 high-end

homes changing hands in 2013, up from

334 units one year earlier. Many priced

under $1 million were sold in competitive

situations. 

Sales were most pronounced in

the $800,000 to $899,999 category, representing

approximately one-third of overall

activity in the top end in both Hamilton

and Burlington. Affordability continues to

be a major driver in the Hamilton area,

where 35 per cent of high-end sales occurred.

Large lot sizes and established neighbourhoods

were the draw, with properties in

Ancaster, Aldershot, and the Hamilton

Mountain area most popular with valueconscious

consumers. Average price in Hamilton’s

top end hovered at $931,000 last year.

The highest priced sale in 2013 was a Frenchinspired

bungalow on an expansive lot in

Ancaster, moving for $1.6 million. 

Communities in Burlington have also experienced

strong demand, particularly those

bordering neighbouring Oakville. The

average price of an upper-end home in

Burlington was just over $1.05 million in

2013. Burlington’s most expensive sale—a

$5.95 million waterfront estate—was situated

on a double lot overlooking the Toronto

skyline. 

The move to higher-density housing within both 

areas has solidified the value of single-detached

homes with the purchasing public. Many buyers 

are viewing older homes, aged 20 years plus, 

with good bones and a workable layout as an

opportunity. Investment in terms of renovation

and additions are par for the course, given
the value that lies within these communities.

Upscale condominiums are in demand,
yet product continues to be in short
supply in both Hamilton and Burlington.
At present, there are approximately 120
active high-end listings in Burlington and
100 in Hamilton, yet only a handful are
condominiums. Burlington’s most expensive
condo sale in 2013 moved in just over
a week. The waterfront unit fetched $1.36
million and boasted more than 2,000 sq.
ft. of living space. A 2,165 sq. ft. unit in
the Creekside development in Dundas
was Hamilton’s most expensive condominium
sale in 2013, netting $850,000.

Solid demand and tight inventory levels
should continue to fuel upper-end sales—
both single-family and condominium—
in Hamilton-Burlington throughout 2014.
Hamilton’s increasingly diversified economic
base, in particular, is expected to draw
purchasers to the area. Last year, buyers
from the GTA represented an estimated
25 per cent of market activity at the top
end. The trend is likely to continue in the
year ahead.