5 Home Upgrades That Don’t Pay Off (I’m guilty of #1): Real Simple.
7 Simple Ways to Welcome Spring: HoH Classic.
French and Moroccan Styles Influence Los Gatos Designer: Lookiloos.
Abandoned Mansions are Luxury Real Estate’s New Headache: Forbes.
Mike Tyson’s Long-Empty Estate in Ohio for Sale: ReMax.
5 of the Creepiest Abandoned Mansions in the U.S.: Yahoo! RE.
A Look at Levittown, the First American Suburb, Then and Now: Curbed.
I Like the Before AND After of this Reading Room: The Lettered Cottage.
Jennifer Lopez Named Most Beautiful Woman by People: Her Beautiful House.
Want to Live in the White House? A Lookalike is For Sale: Wash Post.
Have a Wonderful Weekend, Everybody!
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Looking at the “abandoned” tyson property, I am appalled at the images the realtor took and is using to market that property.
SURE it needs some updates, but bad lighting and horrid angles aren’t making him any money either.
Wow.
Ouch, indeed, that’s really bad!
I know! I thought the same thing. Looks like scenes from a horror movie, doesn’t it?
Love that little redo at The Lettered Cottage.
Best,
Susan
Oh, I simply love Layla’s blog (The Lettered Cottage). She’s not only so talented, but also a sweet person. I admire her talent so much.
Have a great weekend, Julia!
xo
Luciane at HomeBunch.com
Great links, Julia! I want to read about the updgrades that don’t pay off and also the abandoned mansions! Thanks for sharing.
Love the Lettered Cottage before and after! What a sweet little room!
Hi Julia, That is quite a bit of info to take in! Well we are guilty of turning one of the bedrooms into a home office/lounge for the adults and to add insult to injury we put in broadloom to add a little soundproofing. The fact is, it can easily revert back to a bedroom if need be. I will be writing a post about it this weekend. Now I am off to read about all the mansions that are available…and then I will go out and buy a lottery ticket. Have a wonderful weekend.
Hi Julia!
Thanks for including our reading room in your round up! My heart just aches for that abandoned mansion, but that yellow door makes me so HAPPY!
loved layla’s nook…too sweet. and jlo as the most beautiful woman in the world-absolutely. she seems to be as beautiful on the inside as out. gotta love that.
I love what Layla and Kevin did to their little guest room. Trip was @ Southern Accents just yesterday buying me some wicked-cool picture frames. I will be blogging about it later on today!
Great Friday post, Julia!!! Thanks so much!
I couldn’t get past the first link, and just had to laugh. I wrote about home offices today, and I’m currently planning my own home office design.
Oh well…
Off to look at some abandoned mansions now.
I disagree with the Real Simple suggestion that turning a bedroom into an office is a bad idea. Who writes these articles? They know nothing about real estate. Assuming the bedroom is above grade, as long as it has a closet it will still be counted as a bedroom by any tax assessor or appraiser. Just don’t get crazy with built-ins so it can always be transformed back into a bedroom. You can rest easy.
The Levittown article proves that the community is just as un-aspiring now as it was when it was built, only now it come with hefty price tags.
Ohhh – there is some good stuff here! I better get reading
Regarding that Real Simple article, I’ll be sure to scratch my plans for those Wimbledon regulation tennis courts I was going to add to the backyard. Geez! I’m with some of the others – who comes up with this stuff?
Great list, Julia. Can’t wait to go through all the links. Happy Friday!
I completely disagree with the comment about wall-to-wall carpeting in the Real Simple article. That’s a matter of taste and preference. It’s a design choice, not a renovation. I’m with them on the concrete patio, but stamped and dyed concrete can eliminate the glare issue and be cheaper then blocks. Just a thought, though.
Great links! There’s actually a white house that was built in Georgia. It’s located at: 3687 Briarcliff Rd, Atlanta, GA, and you can see the house plans, plus the interior on eplans.com here: http://www.eplans.com/greek_revival_house-plans/HWEPL09500.hwx/Referer.EmailAPlan
I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both of these houses was used in tv shows or movies.
Have a great weekend Julia!
Kim, I KNEW I had seen the plans for a White House replica somewhere, and that’s just the one I was thinking of. I wonder how many “stock” plans they’ve sold of that?
Too bad about those homes. Such a waste.
Love that pic from the lettered cottage. I want a sitting area like that. TOO beautiful.
Eeek – definitely guilty of one mistake: our third bedroom is an office, we even removed the closet fittings to make room for a filing cabinet, etc. I have a pretty office (yay) but definitely not a bedroom anymore . . . Ah well. Thanks for the great links!
I’ve never understood the whole office/bedroom thing. I don’t think people are so stupid that they’ll walk into an office that was once a bedroom and go “Duhhhh, how will we ever be able to turn this into a bedroom again?” I hate how real estate “experts” talk down to us.
On the 5 Homegrades: I’ve always been told that putting in new windows is a bad choice too. The carpet one I totally agree with. I never want someone elses carpet for one. Give me the allowance to do something else! Just clean it.
Mike Tysons place. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? First, is that in foreclosure? It looks like it. Is that spilled dog food on the maroon carpet? Don’t even get me started on the bathroom decor. I think the power is turned off in that house to boot. Wow! If I was the listing agent I’d toss out the fake plants, vacuum, and perhaps open the windows to let light in. Again I feel like this has to be a foreclosure. Even the grass needs to be mowed.
My Dad was one of the WWII GI’s who purchased a house in Levittown, Pa. in 1956. They were so excited to buy a BRAND NEW home. My parents grew up in old neighborhoods in North Philadelphia. Our house cost $11,000 new and they put down a $50.00 down payment. They lived there for 25 years. I moved out in 1971 when I got married. It was a wonderful place to grow up. People took pride in their homes and individualized them to suit their taste. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. I look back on my years there as comforting, secure, cozy and a happy time of life. I’m lucky…I have great memories of many happy years. I feel proud that Levittown is a famous place. Someday it’ll be on the National Register of Historic Places. Mark my words.
I love that list of don’ts. Great thoughts.
Well, Land’s End (the columned home in the pic above) is no longer a “scary” abandoned house. It was torn down yesterday, soon to be replaced by a bunch of shiny, new, overpriced McMansions.
Lightening and windows make a huge difference in home improvements. Last upgrade I did made the room pop. And the selling point of going green was great.
By looking at the entrance,I can say that it’s an amazing and beautiful place.Places like that is impressive.
San Francisco Real Estate Seminar
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