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Tips for Buying the Perfect Family Home

February 14, 2020 by Rhonda Gales Leave a Comment

Today, I’m sharing shopping tips on buying the perfect family home can be exciting, but it can also be daunting task. It’s a huge investment, so you will want to get right. Searching for the right home for you and your family requires research and a lot of compromises. Be prepared for your budget not to fulfill all of your hopes and dreams.

You should spend some time with your husband or significant other and decide what’s a deal-breaker for your family when viewing properties. You can eliminate wasting time on visiting properties that aren’t the right fit for your family. Maybe you’re a family that enjoys the outdoors instead of a large living room area. Or, perhaps you enjoy watching your children play while cooking. So, you would like to have an open floor plan. Put your thoughts down on paper. You can check off your priority checklist when buying the perfect family home.

Buying the perfect family home:

Location

Location is one of the first things you need to decide on when buying any home. A family home should not only be close to high standard schools, but also be in an area where you can access local amenities.

Shops, doctors, dentists, hairdressers, and family activities should all be on the top of your location scout. If you’re a family that enjoys the outdoors, then a compromise needs to be made to find the perfect location near open spaces. But, one that’s also accessible to local amenities.

Do a quick internet search about the local area you’re interested in moving to. The majority of real estate agents in the area will produce a rundown of what the area has to offer for potential buyers. For example, Msyorkville.com mentions the importance of properties that are only 45 minutes from downtown Toronto and 20 minutes from the airport.

Size and Layout

The next step to finding your perfect property is deciding what size is suitable for your family. The number of bedrooms will be determined by how many children you have or plan to have and if you have frequent visitors. Whereas the size of your kitchen will depend on how much time you spend in there cooking.

The layout is also another crucial aspect to decide on. A closed plan property gives your rooms privacy and allows you to shut doors on mess and keep pets out of certain areas of the home. On the other hand, a popular option for families is an open plan concept where you can see different areas of the house from the kitchen or living room, for example.

An open plan allows you to keep an eye on your children as they play, and you can easily communicate between spaces. The concept you choose may depend greatly on the age of your children.

Outdoor Space

Outdoor space is often a budget breaker. For most, it’s crucial to have some outdoor space attached to your property. It gives your children a secure area to play in. Your garden is an extension of your property. And, it’s a great place to spend time with your family and friends.

How much outdoor space you need is your preference. A large grass lawn, for example, is perfect for hours of endless fun and space for all sorts of play equipment but is a nightmare to maintain. In comparison, a smaller paved yard is simple to keep tidy, but it can be challenging to spend time with young children in a tight area.

The perfect garden for the average family is often one that’s comprised of sections. A sectioned garden gives children a place to play, but also an area for adult relaxation.

Security

Security should also be considered. Your potential home should have secure windows and doors. A fenced-in outdoor space is desirable as well as a safe neighborhood.

Make sure when you view any property that you check the locking systems and bonus points if it already has an alarm or CCTV system in place. Remember, once you have bought the property change the locks for added peace of mind.

Find a House You Can Call a Home

By following these tips you will be on your way to buying the perfect home. Most importantly, you will cut down on the worries and stress during your home buying experience. Don’t be disheartened if you view a property and it isn’t right for you. So, try not to rush the process and make the wrong decision. Doing so will lead you to the house that fits your family!

You may also like How to Make Your House a Home.

6 Benefits of Automating Your Home

March 27, 2019 by Rhonda Gales Leave a Comment

With modern technology, things that seemed impossible things are becoming possible. Given that we lead a very fast paced life, we tend to miss out on many important things. This is when technology dives in to help. Recently human have thought of taking the technology a little further and improve our lives by making our homes a bit more “tech savvy”. Today we’re going to discuss the benefits of automating your home.

First, technology helps the home owner to control his or her home from a smartphone. They are able to use the technology no matter how far he or she is, says home automation experts. Thus, these homes are labelled as “smart homes” due to their unique trait of thinking on their own. These automated homes help the owners in many ways. Lets take a look:

Appliance Safety and Lighting Control

Through home automation, you can actually take care of the safety of your family from your fingertips. No more worrying about leaving the oven on or did the kids leave the shower running. Through home automation, you can recheck appliances and turn them off if you forgot. Home automation bring peach of mind, and saves your home from a disaster striking. Also, the lighting can be switched on and off at your convenience in order to save on your electricity bills.

Automated Door Locks

Maybe the most beneficial trait of home automation is automated door locks. While you are rushing to the office or your children rushing to school you or they may forget to lock the doors. This leads to many security concerns and safety of your belongings. Through home automation, you can check the door locks and make amends if you do leave the door open. It also allows you to monitor who enters your home, and at what time. That’s a big advantage.

Security Cameras

You cannot be everywhere at once. But with technology, you can have eyes all over. If your home is automated, you can keep a track of who and what is around your home.

Automated Temperature Control

Controlling temperature at home is essential these days. Extreme weather conditions affect our health. Additionally, being able to control the temperature when we leave or get ready to return home is quite savvy and convenient. Being able to control the temperature is a priority in many homes.

Saves Money and Contributes to Economy

Smart homes are smart because it can be regulated and are efficient. Using resources like electricity, heating or cooling our home and proper usage of water efficiently is beneficial to the nation’s economy overall. Home automation systems helps cut down the misuse or resources. Furthermore, it provides you with full access to the resources needed and contributes to the economy as a whole.

Comfort

Last, these are a few benefits of automating your home. Home automation provides you with the ultimate comfort one used to only dream about. Now, it allows you to set your home’s temperature, have intelligent lighting, sync music, secure and monitor your house, and much more.

Filed Under: Life-Thoughts, Shopping Tips Tagged With: home automation, home renovations, home security, home upgrades

Tips for Home Security

October 1, 2016 by Rhonda Gales 2 Comments

It’s mo surprise that more people are wondering how to secure their home. With things like burglary on the rise, you need to be able to protect your assets. However, not everyone has a fortune sitting in the bank for a state of the art security system. Which is why I thought I would share some of the budget friendly options for home security without breaking the home. Check out these tips:

Fencing

One of the biggest ways to deter anyone is catching them at the first hurdle. A great way to do this is by adding a fence. Thankfully, with things like chain link fencing you don’t have to worry about it costing you a small fortune. Fencing is one of the best ways to deter anyone from entering your property. Don’t make it easy on them.

Plants and Shrubs

If updating your fencing isn’t an option then you can still create a boundary to your home. You can do this by planting new bushes and shrubbery in your garden. These can be difficult to climb over or get around when planted strategically. You could consider high vertical hedges and bushes for the boundary, and then some smaller ones for your pathway and driveway.

Adding Your Own Security Cameras

A state of the art camera and alarm system could be quite pricey, but that doesn’t mean cameras are out of reach. You can purchase webcams that can link to an app downloaded on your phone on Ebay. Often a cheaper alternative, but still giving you a good level of security. Of course, you won’t have the benefits of an exterior security camera deterring anyone from entering. But it does allow you to keep 24 hour access to the interior of your home.

A Neighborhood Watch

A great way to improve the security of your whole community is to create a neighborhood watch. A cost effective way of keeping your home secure is to have neighbor’s keep an eye on each other’s property. You could even put up signs warning that you have a neighborhood watch in place. Again this can be enough to deter any opportunists from attempting to break into your home.

Using Common Sense

Sometimes we just need to use our own common sense to improve the security in our homes. Many doors and windows are installed with added security features. Windows often have a key lock and doors sometimes have double locks or extra security along the top and bottom. When you leave your home, make sure the windows and doors are locked. Especially for long periods like vacations.

Lighting

Finally, You could add some exterior lighting to your home. Or keeping certain lamps on a timer switch. This is an easy way of making your home look occupied when it might not be. Many attempts of break in happen when the property is empty. So giving the impression that someone is home could help you avoid any nasty issues in the future.

I hope this has provided you with some ideas on home security and the importance. Most importantly, using our tips won’t break the bank.

Filed Under: Life-Thoughts Tagged With: home security, security