Ice Melting Alternatives for a Safer Driveway

It is that time of year again. With the beautiful snow we experience here in Utah comes the not so beautiful chores associated. 

      Keeping your driveways and sidewalks as snow and ice free as possible can be quite the task. With many traditional salt ice melts there is the worry of damage to concrete, excess salt running off into your yard and the associated potential damage to your plants and flower beds, irritation to your pets feet, or an excess nutrient load in waterways during spring runoff. 

Ok most people probably aren't as concerned about the last part, but it is a legitimate issue.

Greener Cleaning Recipes

Hello Everyone! Today I wanted to share a couple of easy to make green cleaning recipes. These recipes use ingredients most of us already have around the house. 

Many people want to limit the use of harsh chemicals in their households. Homemade cleaners are a way to easily accomplish this. There are additional benefits to making your own cleaning products; reduced cost, reusing what you already have etc. 

So, whether you want to reduce the number of chemicals your family is being exposed to, or just want to reduce the packaging from buying commercial products you might consider giving these recipes a try.  

Nichole Gets Green Reviews Rust-Oleum Garage Floor Coating Kit

Hi Everyone! This week I decided to do something a little different. I'm going to share my experience using the Rust-Oleum Garage Floor Coating Kit. I purchased this garage floor coating kit on a whim a few weeks ago and just decided to go for it. I am no stranger to painting but this was a new adventure for me. I love the look of a finished garage all nice and perfect...which up until this point has been a grand illusion for me, something I've only seen in other people's homes and never achieved myself. With this little box kit I bought at Lowes I set out to change that.  

Here is how it turned out.....

Great Neighborhoods I Have Been Loving Lately

Hello everyone. Today I'm feeling like showing some love to some areas I've been enjoying showing houses lately. 

I will say one thing...I love Utah. I also love traveling, but there isn't really anything quite like home. I am lucky to sell homes in Utah and I genuinely believe it is one of the greatest places to live. Hiking, water sports, skiing/ snowboarding, snow shoeing, biking, fishing...you get the point there is a lot to do in Utah. 

There may or may not be some air quality issues in many counties and I'm not discounting that...but overall this is a great place to live your life. 

Get Your Home Fall Ready

Hello Everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful week. It is sad to say but with the chill in the air it is becoming apparent fall is around the corner. Fall is my favorite time of year (so maybe it is not so sad). 

There are a lot of similarities between fall and spring in my opinion. There are so many opportunities to get a head start on next years planting and get necessary maintenance on your home done before the snow flies. This week I wanted to share with you some basic tips on how to get your home fall ready inside and out. 

Making the most of the 2013-2014 Cost vs. Value Report

So your house is feeling a little outdated, you want something new and you have saved some money to get those projects done!! 

We all want to know our hard earned, hard saved money is going to a project that will add value to our home and give us a good return on our money if we sell. 

The Cost vs. Value report published annually can help you decide which projects are going to give you the most bang for your buck, and the projects you might want to take a pass on unless you absolutely love them....

Did You Know? Green Features Your REALTOR® Can Help You Find In A Home

Did you know it is possible to search for homes with very specific green features? Features like Geothermal heating and cooling, active or passive solar systems just to name a few! Well...your REALTOR® can do just that for you. Perhaps you are looking to buy a home and one of your main criteria is solar panels or a geothermal heating/cooling system.

Of course you can invest and upgrade many features to optimize efficiency after your purchase, but some buyers want a home move-in ready with these features. A newer feature to most multiple listing services is the ability to highlight a home with these valuable features. This will ideally fetch a better price for sellers who have made the investment. It is also a great idea for buyers as well. Often times severely reduced recurring utility bills which is a fantastic bonus when looking for a new home. 

Is a Reel Lawn Mower Right For You?

Hello Everyone! This week (lets be real it has been a few weeks) I want to talk about my reel lawn mower experience. I have contemplated purchasing a reel lawn mower...you know Grandad era, no motor, just blades spinning with your own power style lawn mower. Now I will be honest I have a lot of lawn...I know, not so 'green' but it is what it is for the time being. Due to the large amount of lawn I was more than a little scared of purchasing a reel mower only too find out I was too lazy or that it wasn't appropriate for MY yard. Well I decided to buck up and buy one. After reading reviews I settled on Fiskars StaySharp Max ..... it arrived and here we go...I will outline my experience so keep on reading.

4 Tips on Saving Money Cooling Your Home This Summer

In the EnergyGuide post I mentioned I may or may not be a little cheap at times. This led me to only turning on the central air at my house once so far this year. I'm certain this is about to change as we roll into July. Nevertheless I wanted to talk about some things we can do to hopefully lower our power bill without turning our home into a sauna... 

What Is This Yellow Tag?

Hi Everyone!

This week I wanted to talk about something I'm sure most of us have seen out and about at many stores and on many products. The bright yellow EnergyGuide Label. 

I know I easily recognized it but I could not say I had ever paid particularly close attention to the message it was conveying or thought very much about what it should mean to me...

Nichole Thoughts

Hi everyone!

This past week I have been working on my house. I plan on renting it out and I have been a little preoccupied with that along with a few other good real estate things I have going on. So while I may not have anything too exciting for you I wanted to share a little bit of what has been going on and some things going through the old brain bank the past week or so....

Some Things You May Find Helpful-Paint Disposal

Hello there! 

As promised I'm back to talk about paint disposal options. If you are anything like me you may or may not have 15-20 half used gallons of paint hanging around your garage. Hanging around the garage is exactly where they would stay until they are virtually worthless...Unless we can find something useful to do with them!

There are some alternatives to keeping them around until the end of time, and you can usually find them through your local city or county landfill....

Low VOC Paint

This past week I have had paint on the brain, and on my hands, in my hair, on my clothes, I will stop myself the list goes on and on. I am repainting several rooms in my house and it has consumed my thoughts and time as of late. In honor of my new found hobby I decided to talk a little about paint this week.  

Many of you may already be familiar with Low or Zero VOC paints. If you fall into this category you may want to just move on with your day. If not, however, maybe you've heard VOCs talked of when looking at new homes, shopping at a home improvement store, or at a home expo but aren't quite sure what the heck a VOC is well this MIGHT help you....I'm not promising anything here. 

I Want Trails

Hiking is an activity many people enjoy

Utah has hundreds...thousands.. (I didn't actually count) of trails and access to outdoor recreation is a top reason many enjoy living in Utah 

Easy access to hiking trail heads or developed walking trails is very appealing to potential home buyers, and results in a more appealing and marketable product when a seller is selling a home with these qualities.

Rebates and Incentives to Save you Some Green

Sometimes it seems like a little incentive is all the push we need to make a change we might otherwise put off. When it comes to money we could all use a little more green. Today I’m going to talk about some financial incentives. If you are not in need of a little extra money in your pocket feel free to let me know and I will arrange for pick up…I kid I kid!

Water & Wallet Wise Plants

Many people are interested in using water wise or more native plants in residential landscaping for various reasons. Water wise and native plants, or as I'm calling them here, “water sippers” save money for homeowners and should be great for water conservation ...that is if we actually use less water maintaining them. Ideally we are looking at a win, win!

Coming Next Week

What I plan on doing on this blog is highlighting some things I’m doing to live even just a little more sustainably. A lot of my posts will be based around the home, and I hope they will be useful for homeowners or anyone looking to make some changes where they live.

I personally don’t think “getting green” or living more sustainably is an all or nothing prospect. I admire people who ride their bike or walk to work and live in the most sustainable of homes. I strive to be more like them! However, some people feel this is just not realistic or anything they feel they can achieve.

To me green is a color with many shades

So maybe if we all can make some modifications that we want to make that fit into what we feel we can do then we can make an impact on the environment, our wallets, or even just our happiness.

In the upcoming week I will be working on a post highlighting some of my favorite plants that use less water and in my eyes are every bit as attractive in the landscape as some of our favorite water guzzlers.

I would never want to leave without a picture so in anticipation of the upcoming post here you go.

Until the next time…

My Journey…What is Motivating Me?

Prepare yourself this might get a little random

The short answer to what motivates me is, Home. Home is what motivates me the most in life.  I love home! I love real estate (pretty connected with home typically) and almost everything else about home. Seeing people find their dream in a home, building their life in a home.  I love my home! Ok I’m sure you get the point.