6 Kitchens, 6 DIY Updates

August 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Get inspired to give your own kitchen a fresh look with ideas from these affordable, do-it-yourself fixes

 While an incredible kitchen remodel is impressive, sometimes a quick fix is all a kitchen needs — or all you can afford. These Houzz users got creative with their spaces, sticking to the basics but still creating a fresh new look. From new paint colors to clever countertop solutions to a smart layout fix, these six Houzzers managed to update their kitchens on tight budgets.
tsemdkel before
1. Cabinetry refresh in New HampshireBEFORE: Although the existing cabinets in tsemdkel‘s 1975 ranch were well built, they darkened the already poorly lit space. With a quick coat of paint and a new hardwood floor, the style changed dramatically.
traditional kitchen Small Kitchen Before/Afters
AFTER: The owner kept the original backsplash for its classic look and installed new countertops. By taking down a wall that separated the kitchen from the den, she was also able to let more light into the space. “I now have a wonderful, sunny great room where there were two small, dark spaces before,” she says.New kitchen size: 13 by 12 feet
Budget: $10,000. The owner designed the space with the help of her mother, who’s an interior designer.
Location: Durham, New Hampshire
sarah gayle carter before
2. Bachelor’s barn in MaineWhen designer Sarah Carter moved to Maine to live in a converted barn with a new boyfriend, she found herself having to cook in a chaotic kitchen.”My South-African, ex-Rugby-playing guy was cute, but clearly oblivious to his surroundings,” she says.
kitchen Small Kitchen Before/Afters
AFTER: Most of her budget went toward infrastructure changes — rewiring, putting in new outlets and track lighting, and installing on-demand hot water were musts. The flooring is simple DIY self-stick vinyl tiles, and the countertop was updated with a simple, stainless steel substrate. Ikea cabinetry and shelves and salvaged furniture provided the final — and affordable — touches.New kitchen size: 20 by 15 feet
Budget: $12,000, work done entirely on her own
Location: Bristol, Maine
capucine28 before
traditional kitchen Small Kitchen Before/Afters
3. New paint and counter finishes in QuebecAFTER: The bones of capucine28‘s kitchen were pretty good, so she knew that she could do the cosmetic work on her own. Sanding and varnishing the cabinets and painting the knobs refreshed the space, as did a fresh coat of soft yellow paint. Scrubbing the floor tiles and cleaning the grout revealed a decent kitchen floor. But the biggest change was on the countertop, which she refinished using the Encore Countertop system for a natural cement look.New kitchen size: 11 1/2 by 14 1/2 feet
Budget: $600 CAN, work done entirely on her own
Location: Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
malena before
traditional kitchen Small Kitchen Before/Afters
4. Simple floorplan fix in MassachusettsAFTER: Houzz user malena933 knew her kitchen needed an upgrade but she was on a tight budget. Instead of knocking everything out, she had her father carefully remove some of the cabinetry so she could turn the floorplan from a C to a more of a U shape. She repurposed almost all her cabinetry and hired a college student to help her install it in the new configuration.New paint and trim to match the original house gave the kitchen consistency.New kitchen size: 9 by 9 feet
Budget: about $10,000. The owner did all the work except electrical and plumbing.
Location: Monument Beach, Massachusetts
mizzyc before
traditional kitchen Small Kitchen Before/Afters
5. Empty nest revamp in TexasAFTER: As the mother of three boys and the manager of a miniature donkey ranch, Houzz usermizzyc didn’t have the time to update her kitchen until her boys were out of the house. Although she had built it in 1994 with materials meant to withstand three sons, it now felt outdated and inefficient. She got creative with materials and installation to cut down on costs. Granite was the major splurge, but tile from Home Depot and Lowe’s and a sink and faucet found online saved some serious cash.New kitchen size: 14 by 20 feet
Budget: $4,000, owner made the changes herself
Location: Lufkin, Texas
pfmorgan1416 before
traditional kitchen Small Kitchen Before/Afters
6. Countertop Changes in AlabamaAFTER: Houzz user pfmorgan1416 set out to redo her kitchen on her own. A DIY subway backsplash, minor carpentry changes and new hardware dressed up the space dramatically — but she was still plagued with a dark green, ’80s style laminate countertop. In the end, she decided to splurge and contract out for a new granite countertop that made a world of difference. Next up: A new, dark hardwood floor.New kitchen size: 12 by 12 feet
Budget: Done on her own over many years. The $1,500 granite countertop was biggest splurge.
Location: Alabama 

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT
Filed Under: Make Over Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

15 Ways To Keep Cool When it’s Hot

August 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Keeping cool when temperatures reach record highs isn’t just about comfort. Dangerously high temperatures can result in heat-related illnesses ranging from heat cramps to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The following tips can help you keep cool all summer long.

  1. Alter your pattern of outdoor exercise to take advantage of cooler times (early morning or late evening). If you can’t change the time of your workout, scale it down by doing fewer minutes, walking instead orrunning, or decreasing your level of exertion.
  2. Wear loose-fitting clothing, preferably of a light color.
  3. Cotton clothing will keep you cooler than many synthetics.
  4. Fill a spray bottle with water and keep it in the refrigerator for a quick refreshing spray to your face after being outdoors.
  5. Fans can help circulate air and make you feel cooler even in an air-conditioned house.
  6. Try storing lotions or cosmetic toners in the refrigerator to use on hot, overtired feet.
  7. Keep plastic bottles of water in the freezer; grab one when you’re ready to go outside. As the ice melts, you’ll have a supply of cold water with you.
  8. Take frequent baths or showers with cool or tepid water.
  9. Combat dehydration by drinking plenty of water along with sports drinks or other sources of electrolytes.
  10. Some people swear by small, portable, battery-powered fans. At an outdoor event I even saw a version that attaches to a water bottle that sprays a cooling mist.
  11. I learned this trick from a tennis pro: if you’re wearing a cap or hat, remove it and pour a bit of ice cold water into the hat, then quickly invert it and place on your head.
  12. Avoid caffeine and alcohol as these will promote dehydration.
  13. Instead of hot foods, try lighter summer fare including frequent small meals or snacks containing cold fruit or low fat dairy products. As an added benefit, you won’t have to cook next to a hot stove.
  14. If you don’t have air-conditioning, arrange to spend at least parts of the day in a shopping mall, public library, movie theater, or other public space that is cool. Many cities have cooling centers that are open to the public on sweltering days.
  15. Finally, use common sense. If the heat is intolerable, stay indoors when you can and avoid activities in direct sunlight or on hot asphalt surfaces. Pay special attention to the elderly, infants, and anyone with a chronic illness, as they may dehydrate easily and be more susceptible to heat-related illnesses. Don’t forget that pets also need protection from dehydration and heat-related illnesses too.

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Buying beats renting in most U.S. cities

August 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

By Les Christie @CNNMoney August 2, 2012: 11:10 AM

Buying a home in most major markets will end up being cheaper than renting one.
Buying a home in most major markets will end up being cheaper than renting one.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — For people who are willing to stay put for a few years, buying a home has become a much better deal than renting in almost every major housing market in the nation.

In more than 75% of the 200 metro areas analyzed by real estate listing web site Zillow, homeowners would reach a “breakeven point” – where owning the home makes better financial sense than renting it — in three years or less.

“Historic levels of affordability make buying a home a better decision than ever, especially considering rents have risen more than 5% over the past year,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow.

The survey was Zillow’s first buy-versus-rent analysis, incorporating all homeownership costs, including down payments, closing costs, mortgage payments, property taxes, utilities and maintenance costs, and compared them to rental costs. It also took into account projected home price appreciation and rent increases, as well as tax deductions and inflation.

Zillow’s findings support other reports that show that rising rents, record-low mortgage rates and falling home prices have made homeownership a more attractive option.

In some of the metro areas Zillow looked at, home buyers would break even in less than two years.

In Miami, for example, a homebuyer would only have to stay in their home for about 1.6 years for the purchase to pay off, Zillow said.

Homes in the metro area are selling for about 45% less than they were five years ago. Meanwhile, over the past three years, rents have climbed 20%, according to RentJungle.

Miami’s metro area, along with Tampa, Fla., Memphis, Tenn., and several smaller cities, have the shortest break-even times of the markets Zillow analyzed.

Renters still have the upper hand in some cities. It would take home buyers in San Jose, Calif., 8.3 years to break even on their homes — the longest period of time of any of the metro areas Zillow surveyed. Other big cities where buying was not such a good a deal were Honolulu, at a six-year break-even point, and San Francisco at 5.9 years. To top of page

Buy vs. rent in 30 major cities
City State Breakeven time in years
New York N.Y. 5.1
Los Angeles Calif. 4.3
Chicago Ill. 2.8
Dallas Texas 2.1
Philadelphia Pa. 3
Washington D.C. 3.5
Miami Fla. 1.6
Atlanta Ga. 2.5
Boston Mass. 4.3
San Francisco Calif. 5.9
Detroit Mich. 1.7
Riverside Calif. 2
Phoenix Ariz 1.7
Seattle Wash. 4
Minneapolis Minn. 2.7
San Diego Calif. 3.6
Tampa Fla. 1.6
St. Louis Mo. 2.5
Baltimore Md. 2.8
Denver Colo. 2.5
Pittsburgh Pa. 2.1
Portland Ore. 3.5
Sacramento Calif. 3.1
Orlando Fla. 1.7
Cincinnati Ohio 2.1
Cleveland Ohio 2.4
Las Vegas Nev. 1.7
San Jose Calif. 8.3
Columbus Ohio 2.4
Charlotte N.C. 2.7
Source: Zillow

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Market Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Olympic Medal Count 2012: Early Day 5 Standings and Bold End-of-Play Predictions

August 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Hi-res-6436026_crop_exact

Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY

The London Olympics are going strong, and Day 5 looks to continue the fun and excitement.

After the crowing of Michael Phelps’ Olympic record on Tuesday, we turn our heads to some different action.

Medals will be handed out in 11 different sports on Wednesday. From kayaking to weightlifting, athletes will rise to the occasion for their countries or falter and return home without realizing their Olympic dreams.

Most of the medals being earned today are not in the high-profile events, but they add to to the overall medal count all the same.

London Olympics Medal Count as of Aug. 1, 8 a.m. ET.

Olympic Medal Tracker Gold Silver Bronze
China Total: 23 13 6 4
United States Total: 23 9 8 6
Japan Total: 13 1 4 8
France Total: 11 4 3 4
South Korea Total: 8 3 2 3
For full medal results, check out Bleacher Report’s official leaderboard.

 

Quiet Day for Americans

Wednesday won’t be a day filled with medal upon medal for the USA. There are opportunities here and there to snag a few, most notably in the men’s individual all-around gymnastics finals and women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay, but overall it should be fairly quiet on the American front.

The American contingent will be focused on preliminary action. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings look to continue their Olympic set and match records in beach volleyball, and Team USA attempts to continue their domination in women’s basketball.

Don’t look for a big influx in gold on Wednesday.

Gymnastics Redemption

After a disappointment in the team competition, the men will go their separate ways and look for individual gold. This will be their chance to some sort of redemption after not claiming a medal as a group.

The men are talented and can come away with some individual hardware. Supposedly they have the best talent since the 1984 squad, but they have yet to live up to that potential in London.

It will be interesting to see what their mindset is entering the competition after their previous performances. As much as they were celebrated entering the Games, it is time for the men to step up. Maybe they can be inspired by what the women did on Tuesday.

China Will Extend Gold Lead

With the Americans only having a select few opportunities to close the gap on gold, look for the Chinese to extend their lead.

They already have one gold guaranteed as the gold-medal match in women’s table tennis features Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia.

Their early grasp on gold may be difficult to overcome, but it’s still early in the Games, and the Americans have plenty of opportunities to close the gap as the days pass. But for today, it looks as if they will extend the lead and continue their firm grasp over the rest of the world.

I hope you enjoyed the article! -

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Arcadia News, Brettany Harrison, Olympic Games, Olympic Games 2012, Pasadena News, Trending Topics, Worldwide Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Growing Panes: Homeowners Go Big on Glass Walls

August 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Anita and Bob Dethlefs wanted the new Portland, Ore. home they were building to really let the sunshine in. So, the couple installed 2,700 square feet of Marvin windows—about $300,000 worth—on nearly every wall of the property.

Giant spans of glass,once seen mainly in commercial construction, are now more common in residential homes. Wendy Bounds explains how technology has enabled glass makers to make these more affordable, safe (if tempered) and energy efficient.

And then they put up 12 security cameras.

“We’re getting about as much light as you can in the Northwest but with so many windows, safety was the No. 1 concern for me as a mommy with kids running around the house,” says 43-year-old Ms. Dethlefs, who has five children. Her husband started a leadership conference business, Evanta Inc., in 2003 and later sold it. Their 13,000-square-foot, $5 million Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired home even has a glass front door, letting visitors on the front stoop see through the family’s living room out to Mount Hood.

Forget about a room with a view. Today, homeowners want views from every room. As large expanses of glass have become architecturally acceptable for modern and traditional homes, new technology is making living in a fishbowl more practical—albeit sometimes challenging.

Homes That Let the Sun Shine In

Leah Nash for The Wall Street Journal

Anita and Bob Dethlefs moved into their new Portland 13,000-square-foot home in November. The Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired home has about $300,000 worth of windows to let in as much light as possible and help with the ‘gray sky’ malaise Ms. Dethlefs says she gets living in the Pacific Northwest.

Homeowners’ desire for more open floor plans with combined kitchen and living-room spaces has paved the way structurally for bigger spreads of glass. A growing appetite for more energy-efficient windows and associated tax incentives and rebates have also supported the trend.

“The open floor plan is predominant in almost everyone’s design now,” says builder Tim Wilkinson of Great Falls, Mont. “They want more light and bigger windows to take advantage of views.”

Today, thanks to technological advances, nearly all windows installed in new homes have special, invisible coatings that block heat and keep ultraviolet rays from fading furniture. Many also use double or triple-panes with argon or krypton gas sandwiched in between, which helps insulate in cold climates. Now standard on Andersen Windows glass: a titanium dioxide coating the company says sheds dirt and virtually eliminates water spots. Some glass makers are even marketing windows for residences that can tint and untint with the push of a button.

And for those put off by the prospect of raising and lowering so many blinds, companies such as Lutron Electronics sell window shades that can be controlled with an iPhone app.

“Across the board, people want more light,” says Mike Rogers, senior vice president of GreenHomes America Inc., a company specializing in energy-efficient home renovations, which has been incorporating more glass in its projects.

Beyond privacy and safety—Ms. Dethlefs’s chief worries—there are maintenance issues, such as how to keep so much glass spotless. (The couple pay $850 to $950 for professional cleaning at least three times a year.) And despite technological improvements, glass still doesn’t typically insulate as well as a wall packed with insulation.

Then there is the bird problem: Anywhere from 100 million to 1 billion are killed in window collisions every year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

While manufacturers such as Andersen Corp. and Marvin Windows and Doors say overall window sales have slowed amid a sluggish new-house market, the companies say they are seeing more and larger windows going into new homes.

In modern homes, “they are filling space between floor and ceiling with as much glass as they can,” says Jay Sandgren, an architectural representative for Andersen. He says builders are being “a lot smarter” about positioning a home and the roof overhang to capture the most sunlight in winter and to block much of the heat from the sun in summer.

Building with glass isn’t cheap. Mr. Wilkinson the Montana builder estimates the price is about double the cost of installing regular walls packed with insulation. His own 4,800-square-foot home that he completed last year has $85,000 worth of Andersen glass, giving him a 240-degree view of three mountain ranges and the Missouri River. Even the deck railings are glass panels.

Tempered safety glass is installed according to local building codes in areas of homes where breakage might be of particular concern, such as windows and doors close to the floor or near a stairway or landing. Glass can sometimes attract vandals in the construction phase, a headache for builders, Mr. Wilkinson says. But breakage for homeowners “is rarely a problem,” he says, although he cautions that people mowing the lawn should look out for rocks that the mower can kick out to crack a pane.

Architect Thomas Roszak took the fishbowl aesthetic to the extreme in his own Northfield, Ill. home, which features commercial curtain-wall glass around the entire building.The walls are constructed from two argon-filled glass panes covered with what’s called low-emissivity, or “low-e,” metallic coating to block heat flow through the window, keeping the home cooler in the summer and warmer in winter.

With little traditional wall space, art is suspended in front of windows from a floor-to-ceiling, museum-type wire hanging system, Mr. Roszak says. For privacy, he planted trees around his one-acre property and installed $60,000 worth of electronically operated blinds.

One low point of glass-house design: The day his 8-year-old son spied a dead bird that had hit home’s glass siding, likely mistaking the trees’ reflection for safe habitat. “He said, ‘Daddy, I don’t think that bird is sleeping, I think it’s broken,’” Mr. Roszak says.

Glass homeowners must be mindful of clutter, since the view goes both ways. When Beata and Brad Peters built their 3,900-square-foot brick home in Hawthorn Woods, Ill., they incorporated large panels of glass symmetrically throughout. While most windows have wood blinds, the family tends to leave them open for aesthetics.

“I don’t put a lot of stuff in front of the windows,” Ms. Peters says. In the kitchen, appliances like toasters get packed along a wall with no glass.

Window-treatment companies are pushing to make shade operation less of a chore. Rotterdam-based Hunter Douglas this spring added a “Solar Energy Sensor” that raises and lowers blinds based on the amount of sun detected. Despite the slump in the housing market, the company’s North American sales rose almost 5% last year. An electronically controlled Lutron shade sells for about $900 more than manual ones and can be controlled via remote control or an app for Apple Inc. or Android devices.

Some glass companies now make windows that reduce the need for blinds altogether. One is Sage Electrochromics Inc. of Faribault, Minn., whose product consists of clear panes that morph to a grayish-blue tint when a user flips a switch to send a low-voltage current across the window. The tint reduces glare and heat but not visibility. Sage began selling the glass for residential applications around 2005, though they are typically found in high-end homes due to cost. An installed window costs between one-and-a-half to two times as much as one with typical low-e glass.

“If you’re on the West Coast facing the ocean when the sun is beating on the glass, what people do is pull their blinds and shades to block the glare,” says Helen Sanders, Sage’s vice president of technical business development. “What that means is you’ve just lost your view you paid a huge amount of money for.”

I hope you enjoyed the article! -

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Design, Market Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Joel Schumacher Lists California Estate for $9.5 Million

July 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

Filmmaker Joel Schumacher has listed his Carpinteria, Calif., home for $9.5 million. Candace Jackson has details on The News Hub. Photo: Jim Bartsch.

Filmmaker Joel Schumacher has listed his 7-acre Carpinteria, Calif., estate for $9.5 million.

Photos

Jim BartschFilmmaker Joel Schumacher has listed his 7-acre Carpinteria, Calif., estate for $9.5 million.

Just outside of Santa Barbara, the compound was built by Mr. Schumacher on four separate parcels and includes a 6,500-square-foot main house with three bedrooms. Built in 2000, it has both mountain and ocean views and was built in a modern-rustic style with reclaimed barn wood. The home’s large living room has vaulted ceilings, two fireplaces and a loft currently configured as an office. A rotunda-shaped dining room has large windows overlooking a swimming pool. The master suite has a fireplace and a terrace.

The property also includes a guesthouse and a home for a property manager, each of which has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and a pool house.

Known for such movies as “Batman Forever” and “A Time to Kill,” Mr. Schumacher is selling because he’s no longer using the property as much as he used to, according to a listing agent.

Rebecca Riskin & Associates is handling the listing.

A Miami, Fla., home has re-listed for $19 million, up from an original list price of $16.5 million. The seller is Dean Ziff, a private investor whose family founded and owned SunglassHut retail stores. Candace Jackson has details on The News Hub. Photo: Sotheby’s International Realty.

Miami Home Relists and Ups Its Price by 15% to $19 Million

A Miami home has relisted for $19 million, up from an original list price of $16.5 million. The seller is Dean Ziff, a private investor whose family founded and owned Sunglass Hut retail stores.

Built in 1990, the home is on 2½ acres of waterfront along Biscayne Bay. Located in a neighborhood with 24-hour security, the property is surrounded by tropical landscaping. The 14,400-square-foot main house, with Colonial Colombian architectural influences, has eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. The home is built around a central atrium, and includes a large master suite and a second-story loggia overlooking the water.

Outside, there’s a swimming pool with an island in the middle and a tennis court. There are also two one-bedroom casitas and a guesthouse with its own kitchen and living room.

The home’s listing agent, Mayi de la Vega of Sotheby’s International Realty, says the listing price was raised because home underwent restorations and updates when it was taken off the market. She shares the listing with Jorge Uribe, also of Sotheby’s.

A Southampton, N.Y. home has listed for $30 million. On more than five acres, the property is directly on the beach with about 200 feet of oceanfront. It includes a two-story, 5,000-square-foot contemporary home with five bedrooms and six bathrooms. Candace Jackson has details on The News Hub. Photo: Philip M. Stamm.

A Home in the Hamptons Lists for $30 Million

A Southampton, N.Y., home has listed for $30 million.

On more than 5 acres, the property is directly on the beach with about 200 feet of oceanfront. It includes a two-story, 5,000-square-foot contemporary home with five bedrooms and six bathrooms. The two-story home has two kitchens, one on each level. There’s a swimming pool surrounded by a glass atrium. It also has a gated entry and a tennis court.

Philip Stamm, an attorney for the owner, whom he described as an 83-year-old relative, says the owner is selling because he has had the property for more than 25 years and is looking to move on. Mr. Stamm is handling the listing; Ryan Podskoch and Matt Podskoch of Global Real Estate Network are also marketing the property.

—Candace Jackson—Email: privateproperties@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared July 27, 2012, on page D8 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Private Properties.

I hope you enjoyed the article! -

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Buyers, For Sale, Market, Worldwide Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

For Olympic Winners, Losing Track of a Medal Is a Personal Bust

July 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Michael Phelps, Shaun White Had Prizes Go Missing; When an eBay Knockoff Will Do

By STU WOO and GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

Chicago White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez won gold for Cuba’s baseball team in 2004. But he lost the medal when he moved to Chicago. Losing an Olympic medal is more common than you might think, but getting a replacement can be an Olympian task.

When Dutch rower Diederik Simon arrived at an Athens beach party during the 2004 Olympics, he noticed something missing from his pocket: the silver medal he had just won. “I was panicking, and I didn’t tell anybody,” he says.

Mr. Simon spent the celebration quietly searching for his medal. Before midnight, though, he gave up and went to the police station. Filling out a lost-property report, the officer asked him, “What color was the lost item? Ah, yes, silver.”

In the coming days, Olympians at the London Games will win about 3,000 medals, each the culmination of years of hard work. And in a moment’s carelessness, a few of those medals will be lost, perhaps as soon as the medal celebration itself.

image

Chicago White SoxAlexei Ramirez’s gold medal replica.

After winning gold in the 1988 Seoul Games, Italian rower Davide Tizzano made the traditional leap into the water. Then a teammate jumped on him, jarring the medal from his hand. It sank to the muddy bottom of the Han River.

“I feel exactly like it was yesterday, the feeling of the medal going down, going down,” he says. For the team picture, he borrowed a medal from another Italian rowing team that won gold. A security guard who was also a diver eventually recovered the hardware.

It is up to the Olympic host countries to make the medals, which are typically alloys. Organizers of the London Games say their gold medals, which weigh just under a pound, are actually 92.5% silver and just 1.34% gold. The remainder is copper.

Journal Report

Read the complete Olympics Preview report.

Losing a medal happens more often than one might think. Snowboarder Shaun White once found one of his gold medals, which he has admitted to misplacing a few times, in a seat pocket of his mother’s car. Another time, his mom had taken the medal to the dry cleaner—the ribbon was dirty—and had forgotten about it.

It can be harder to keep track of multiple medals. Swimmer Michael Phelps recently admitted that he was a little foggy about where one of his 16 medals was located. “There are a couple of options of where it could be, but I think when we were traveling—uh, somebody was holding on to it,” he said in an interview on “60 Minutes.”

The police can sometimes solve medal mysteries. Tristan Gale, a skeleton-racing champion at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, had her gold stolen by burglars last year. She recalls visiting San Diego-area pawn shops and asking, “Hi, I’m looking for an Olympic gold medal.” It took police a week to recover the medal. They busted three thieves, who pleaded guilty.

Mr. Simon, the Dutch rower, grew nervous with each passing day about a planned photo-op with Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. “I didn’t want to be standing there without a medal,” he says.

A taxi driver found the award in his cab and, after taking photos with it, turned it in. Athens officials gave him his own medal ceremony with Mr. Simon, as well as a set of commemorative stamps.

It is hard for thieves to pawn a medal since it is easy to identify the award’s rightful owner. Athletes can sell their own medals, but Olympic officials frown on the idea. In a 2010 sale from Heritage Auctions, of Dallas, a gold medal from the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hockey team fetched $310,700.

For athletes who don’t find their missing awards, the International Olympic Committee does offer replicas.

image

BEIJING GAMES GOLD MEDAL

The IOC keeps medal molds from modern Games in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, a spokeswoman says. She adds the organization, which has 34,237 medalists in its database, gets one or two replacement requests every year. The replacements have the word replica on them, usually in tiny print on the bottom edge.

The U.S. Olympic Committee says replicas generally cost the athlete between $500 and $1,200, depending on the intricacy of the design.

Getting an Olympic replica takes months. Alexei Ramirez, a Chicago White Sox shortstop who won gold for Cuba’s baseball team in 2004, says someone stole his medal as he and his wife relocated to the U.S. The White Sox sent the IOC a police report and payment this past spring. Two months later, the team received the new medal—without a strap, since the IOC doesn’t supply replica ribbons—via DHL and surprised Mr. Ramirez with an on-field presentation.

Mr. Ramirez says he keeps his replica in a safe place, but he won’t say exactly where. “That’s a secret,” he says. “I’m not going to tell anybody to make sure it doesn’t get stolen again.”

Some Olympians don’t like talking about their absent-minded moment. Glenn Eller, a shotgun shooter who won gold in Beijing, says only that someone took it while he was out with colleagues in Fort Worth, Texas, in late 2008. “I put myself in a situation that I probably shouldn’t have been in, and someone stole it out of my pocket,” he says. “I’m trying to forget it and go ahead.” He has since received a replica.

Olympic officials warn it can be tough to replicate certain medals if they contain materials other than metal. U.S. water polo goalie Merrill Moses, who had his silver from the 2008 Beijing Games stolen in a burglary of his parents’ house, says his replica medal contained jade that looked painted on, rather than a piece embedded in the back.

Mr. Moses returned that replica to Olympic officials, who told him they found a way to make a better one. In the meantime, he is toting around something else: a $75 knockoff silver medal he bought on eBay. “I do a lot of camps and clinics…and the kids want to see a medal,” Mr. Moses says, adding that he tells them it isn’t the real thing.

Before there was an official process for getting replacement medals, athletes made do with makeshift ones. Olympics historian David Wallechinsky says Canadian high jumper Duncan McNaughton lost his 1932 gold medal. So his friend Bob Van Osdel—the high-jump runner-up who happened to be a dentist—made a mold from his silver medal, filled it with gold and sent the replica to Mr. McNaughton, the historian says.

Corey Codgell, a shotgun shooter who won bronze in Beijing, doesn’t take any chances. She usually keeps her nicked-up medal in her front pocket when she travels. Before letting an audience at an event handle it, she warns everybody: “No one leaves this room until I get my medal back.”

[image]

Streaming Coverage: Get the latest Journal coverage of the 2012 Games right here – every story, video, photo or tweet related to the competition and all news off the field.

Plus, watch video, see photos and view a schedule of events at WSJ.com/Olympics.

Write to Stu Woo at Stu.Woo@wsj.com and Geoffrey A. Fowler atgeoffrey.fowler@wsj.com

Enjoy the Games! -

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Olympic Games 2012, Trending Topics, Worldwide Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Olympics social media: Get as connected as the rings for 2012 Games

July 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Olympic FacesThe International Olympic Committee is enhancing its social media hub to include Instagram photos from the Olympic Village (IOC / July 19, 2012)
By Michelle MaltaisJuly 19, 2012, 1:20 p.m.

This summer’s Olympics will be more connected than the five rings of its emblem. It’s on Twitter,Facebook, Google+, Instagram (@Olympics) and foursquare.

And the International Olympic Committee is building up an Olympic Village online by integrating these social media to help connect a worldwide audience with the athletes in the London 2012 Games.

“When I went to the Games for the first time it was back in Barcelona in 1992—those games had an internal email system, and it was groundbreaking,” six-time Olympic British archer Allison Williamson told a press conference unveiling the hub. “In London, I will be sharing photos of the Athletes’ Village and other fun things.”

Through the IOC’s Olympic Athletes’ Hub, you can virtually enter the exclusive Olympic Village to connect with your favorite competitor’s Facebook and Twitter profiles, get Instagram portraits of the athletes and chat directly with a featured athlete in a Twitter #asknathlete Q&A.

“Social media has been a great way to connect with fans and share not just my stories but the stories of other amazing people and athletes,” said South African Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius at the press conference. “I am truly blessed and thrilled to be participating in the 2012 London Olympics and look forward to sharing my Olympic experiences with the social media community and inspiring young athletes to do amazing things.”

Since we all like to pretend we are as informed as the judges, the IOC will soon launch the Olympic Challenge in the Athletes’ Hub, a social game that lets fans compete to predict the outcome of various Olympic events and see how they rank on the leaderboard against their friends and fans around the world.

Photos from various angles of the events will be available on Tumblr: an aggregation of existing social feeds, live from inside the Village with the Instagram portraits, Getty Images shots as well as shots and commentary on the fashion scene.

Enjoy the Games! -

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

 

Filed Under: Athletes, Brettany Harrison, Community, Olympic Games 2012, Trending Topics, Uncategorized, Worldwide Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How the West is winning on home prices: Clear Capital

July 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
REAL ESTATE
How the West is winning on home prices: Clear Capital
By Jessica Huseman

• July 10, 2012 • 8:14am

Quarterly home values in June improved nationally, continuing a positive trend from the spring. National prices rebounded with quarterly and yearly gains of 1.7%, according to Clear Capital, which forecast continued growth through the remainder of the year.

National home prices picked up notable momentum over last month’s marginal gains of 0.1%, the Trukee, Calif.-based data and valuation company said. It predicted additional growth of 2.5% forecasted through the end of the year.

“June home price trends provided further evidence that housing has turned the corner, with the momentum of the recovery picking up speed,” said  Alex Villacorta, director of research and analytics at Clear Capital.

Clear Capital uses a rolling quarter measure, which compares the most recent four months to the previous three months. The rolling quarters have no fixed start date and can be used to generate indices as data flows in to reduce multimonth lag time.

The West came in with the highest gains, showing quarter-over-quarter growth of 3.5% — an increase of 0.8% over May and annual price gains of 4.1%. Clear Capital expects the trend to continue through 2012 with an additional 5.75% growth over the next two quarters.

While the recovery generally began in the lower-priced segments, growth spread across all price tiers in the West, which the report calls an “important step in the progression of this recovery.”

In the quarter, low-tier gains in the West hit 3.6% (sales less than $140,000), mid-tier gains reached 3.1% (homes selling between $140,000 and $347,000) and top-tier gains climbed to 3.2%. This led the West to push ahead of the South, the next closest region, by 2%.

The South continued to grow in June, pushing up 1.5% over the rolling quarter, slightly above May’s 1.2% gain.

The Midwest saw the largest increase over last month in quarterly home prices, rising 1.2% compared to May’s quarterly losses of 2%. It was the only region not posting year-over-year gains, with a loss of 0.6%.

Home prices in the Northeast rose 2.3% over the last year. The South experienced a smaller price hike of 1.5% over the last year and during the quarter, an improvement over the annual growth of 0.9% shown in last month’s report.

The top 50 metro markets also posted gains in June, with the large majority of markets seeing quarterly gains and only seven seeing slides. Of those markets that posted losses, only four saw declines larger than 1%.

The report indicates more good news out of Phoenix, which has been showing consistent signs of strength for the past 10 months. Clear Capital reported quarterly growth of 8.7% in Phoenix with annual gains of 20.4%.

Seattle, where prices rose 8.4% over the quarter, could see prices rise 14.4% annually once final numbers of 2012 are in, while Phoenix prices could rise by 10.4% annually.

Atlanta is not positioned to do as well. It sustained the largest declines of all the MSAs. However, the anticipated losses of 3.2% seem mild in comparison to Atlanta’s total declines of 53.5% from peak prices in 2006.

jhuseman@housingwire.com
@JessicaHuseman

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Arcadia News, Lending, Market, Mortgage, Pasadena News, Trending Topics, Worldwide Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Buffett Extends Real-Estate Bet With ResCap Pursuit: Mortgages

June 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

By Noah Buhayar and Dakin Campbell - Jun 18, 2012 11:26 AM PM

Buffett Bets Big on Housing with $3.8B ResCap Bid

Warren Buffett, whose prediction last year of a housing recovery was premature, is raising his bet on a rebound with his $3.85 billion bid for a mortgage business and loan portfolio from bankrupt Residential Capital LLC.

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The offer “certainly indicates that he thinks the worst is behind us,” Jeff Matthews, author of “Secrets in Plain Sight: Business & Investing Secrets of Warren Buffett,” said in a phone interview. “Yes, he’s been wrong about housing before. But if you look at any credit metric, if you look at any of the banks and what’s happening in their loan portfolios, it’s getting better.”

Foreclosure filings in the U.S. have fallen on an annual basis for 20 straight months, according to RealtyTrac Inc., and home prices jumped 1.8 percent in March, the biggest monthly increase in at least two decades, as record-low mortgage ratesand a dwindling inventory of properties available for sale strengthened demand.

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) has prepared for a turnaround by buying a brickmaker, expanding its real estate brokerage and wagering on commercial property through a company jointly owned with Leucadia National Corp. (LUK) The venture, called Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC, was formed from a loan- servicing and mortgage business purchased out of bankruptcy in 2009 and once owned by ResCap’s parent.

Berkshire was little changed today at $123,656 as of 2:15 p.m. in New York trading. It’s risen 7.8 percent this year.

Auction Approval

Ally Financial Inc. (ALLY), a Detroit-based auto lender majority owned by U.S. taxpayers, put its ResCap unit into bankruptcy last month to distance itself from the mortgage lenders’ losses and help repay its 2008 bailout following the U.S. housing crash and subsequent credit crisis.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Martin Glenn is considering approving auctions for the assets at a hearing today in Manhattan. Berkshire said in a June 11 court filing that it’s seeking to replaceFortress Investment Group LLC (FIG)’s Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. as the stalking-horse, or initial, bidder at an auction for ResCap’s mortgage business. Berkshire has also proposed replacing Ally as the first bidder for the lender’s loan portfolio.

The billionaire’s Omaha, Nebraska-based firm, which is a ResCap bondholder, offered to match Fortress’s price of about $2.4 billion for the mortgage operations. It’s also proposing fees that are about $60 million lower than Nationstar’s if it’s outbid. Berkshire said it’s prepared to pay $1.45 billion for the loan portfolio, compared with Ally’s $1.4 billion for a sale outside the bankruptcy plan backed by the car lender.

‘Real Offer’

At the hearing today, Glenn asked ResCap’s lawyers to explain why an affiliate of Fortress deserves to be the lead bidder when Berkshire’s offer has a lower breakup fee. ResCap, Berkshire and Nationstar will return to court later today to argue about who should be named the first bidder for a court- supervised auction of ResCap’s mortgage-servicing unit.

The judge can either accept Nationstar as the stalking horse for the mortgage unit, name Berkshire in its place, or refuse to grant any company the protections, such as the breakup fee, that come with being the initial bidder.

Buffett has “come out with what appears to be a very real offer to buy the assets,” said John McKenna, a managing director at Miller Buckfire & Co., a New York-based financial advisory firm. “The court will ferret out whether it is a tactic or a legitimate interest in acquiring the assets.” A buyer can’t “just show up and feign interest in order to generate a better return.”

Stalking Horse

Nationstar said Berkshire’s request shouldn’t be granted because it may discourage potential investors in future bankruptcies from devoting the time and money required to be a stalking-horse, according to a June 14 court document. Susan Fitzpatrick, a ResCap spokeswoman, Fortress’s Gordon Runte and Ally’s Gina Proia declined to comment. Buffett didn’t respond to a request for comment sent to an assistant.

ResCap rejected Buffett’s offer to be the initial bidder and asked the court to approve the Nationstar and Ally proposal on June 14. Should Glenn approve ResCap’s plan, Berkshire still could bid in the auctions. It wouldn’t have the advantages given to the stalking horse, including any breakup fee.

The court will probably affirm Nationstar as the initial bidder for the mortgage assets, beginning a three-month auction process, Douglas Harter, a Credit Suisse Group AG analyst, wrote in a June 13 note after meeting with the firm’s management. He said he expects other bidders to emerge.

Funding Advantage

Acquiring ResCap’s mortgage business would give Berkshire contracts to service loans, a function Berkadia provides for commercial real-estate investors. It would also give Buffett another platform to originate mortgages, which his firm already does for buyers of its Clayton unit’s pre-fabricated homes.

Berkshire, which holds the second-highest credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, can access funding cheaper than almost any company in the U.S. It sold $750 million of five-year bonds paying a 1.6 percent coupon last month.

ResCap, once among the largest subprime mortgage originators, reduced its assets to $15.7 billion in the first quarter from more than $130 billion in 2006. The firm is the fifth-largest U.S. mortgage servicer, handling the billing and collections on about $369 billion mortgages in the first quarter, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade journal.

Lenders Retreat

Some of the largest home lenders including Bank of America Corp. (BAC) have retreated from servicing and underwriting loans as new international rules designed to avert another financial crisis force banks to raise capital. That’s creating an opportunity for investors like Buffett to scoop up assets at discounted prices and benefit from the rebound in housing, said David Lykken, the managing partner of consultant Mortgage Banking Solutions.

Since the collapse of the housing market, investors have been asking, “When’s the time to catch this falling knife?” he said. If Berkshire wins the auction for the loan portfolio, the firm may be able to increase the assets’ value by modifying some of the mortgages, he said.

Buffett has said the real-estate market will rebound because a growing number of households will need properties while supply has dropped after builders retreated following the collapse. U.S. housing starts have plunged about two-thirds since 2006 and property prices are more than 35 percent below their peak that year.

Market Rebound

“Housing will come back — you can be sure of that,” Buffett wrote in a February letter to Berkshire shareholders. “Every day we are creating more households than housing units. People may postpone hitching up during uncertain times, but eventually hormones take over. And while ‘doubling-up’ may be the initial reaction of some during a recession, living with in- laws can quickly lose its allure.”

Berkshire is the largest investor in Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), the biggest U.S. home-loan originator, and has a preferred stake in Bank of America, the fourth-largest U.S. mortgage lender. Buffett’s firm also has subsidiaries that make carpet, building insulation and roofing materials. Its subsidiary Acme Brick Co. last year bought Montgomery, Alabama-based Jenkins Brick Co.

The HomeServices of America Inc. unit has struck deals to acquire real-estate brokerages inConnecticut, Oregon and the state of Washington this year on the expectation that home sales will rebound as banks liquidate seized properties after settling foreclosure-misconduct claims. The housing market is “starting to show a pulse,” HomeServices Chief Executive Officer Ron Peltier said in an April interview.

$1 Offer

Berkshire attempted to buy ResCap for $1 before the bankruptcy last month, the mortgage lender said in a June 14 court document. “Neither ResCap entering into bankruptcy nor a sale of ResCap’s mortgage production platform is in the best interests of Ally, the U.S. Treasury, Berkshire and other significant stakeholders in both Ally and ResCap,” Berkshire said in a May 3 letter, according to the filing.

Buffett’s firm proposed taking on ResCap’s potential liabilities, such as mounting litigation costs, according to three people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because talks were private. Berkshire wanted to avoid a ResCap bankruptcy because it held unsecured debt, the people said. Ally rejected the proposal after deciding that a bankruptcy filing and sale better protected the company from future liabilities, the people said.

Debt Investments

Buffett’s firm invested in ResCap’s secured and unsecured bonds more than two years ago, according to a June 4 court filing, in which Berkshire called for a probe of the mortgage lender’s pre-bankruptcy deals. Prices for three of ResCap’s unsecured bonds climbed after the document was filed, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Two days later, Berkshire had sold its unsecured debt, which had a face value of more than $500 million, according to court documents. Berkshire said in a court filing it holds more than $900 million in ResCap’s junior secured bonds. ResCap’s 9.625 percent junior secured notes, which Berkshire’s General Re unit owned as of Dec. 31, added 0.3 cent to 95.3 cents on the dollar at 1:48 p.m. in New York, according to Trace. They’ve risen from 56.9 cents in November.

To contact the reporters on this story: Noah Buhayar in New York at nbuhayar@bloomberg.net; Dakin Campbell in San Francisco at dcampbell27@bloomberg.net

Filed Under: Lending, Market, Mortgage, Trending Topics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
«Previous Page
Next Page»