Blog Posts by John Morell

  • Sure about your home insurance?

    By John Morell | Spaces – Fri, Aug 31, 2012 9:54 PM EDT

    Around the first anniversary in your new house, you'll probably get a notice from the warranty company offering you the opportunity to renew the service contract for another year or longer. Should you bite? Warranties can also be purchased by existing homeowners, and if you don't like the current company you're with you can switch to a competitor. But are these service contracts, which can run $300 to $600 or more annually plus co-pays, which can be $0 to $100, worth the expense? Here are six tips from the experts before you sign on dotted line.

    Get your copy. "If a company is asking you to renew or soliciting you to buy a new service contract, ask for a copy first," says Stephen McDaniel, assistant executive director of the Service Contract Industry Council in Tallahassee, Florida. "A reputable firm isn't going to pressure you to buy a contract if you want to read over the details on your own time. If they don't want you to see it before you buy, assume there's a problem."

    Don't

    Read More »

  • 7 wise ways to ‘elder proof’ your home

    By John Morell | Spaces – Tue, May 15, 2012 3:50 PM EDT

    Through improving medical services and healthier lifestyles seniors are living longer than ever. Yet the longer seniors reside in homes that aren't properly suited to their particular safety requirements, the greater is their risk of suffering a personal injury.

    Savvy homeowners with seniors as residents are embracing the practice of "elder proofing" a home. While in some cases this may require extensive remodeling, there are many things homeowners can do with just a toolbox, some smart ideas and a weekend.

    Here are seven handy tips to pursue:

    Let There Be Light    --As we age our eyesight tends to deteriorate, which means that a home with dark shadows and gloomy hallways can become a safety hazard. If the problem can occur night or day, install low voltage track or recessed lighting that can remain on. You can also illuminate the path from the bedroom to the bathroom with nightlights. Connect them to outlets with timers so they'll turn on at sunset, or consider a motion-activated

    Read More »

  • Avoid these 5 home improvement scams

    By John Morell | Spaces – Tue, May 15, 2012 1:47 PM EDT

    That magical season is here. No, not Christmas. But that special time when the weather is nice and some lucky homeowners with tax refunds jingling in their checking accounts may be thinking about splurging on some long-delayed home-improvement projects.

    And of course, the scammers who want that money are buzzing around as well. The Better Business Bureau says they fielded nearly 30,000 consumer complaints against various home contractors in 2011, just a drop considering many people who get scammed either contact the police or are too embarrassed to report the incident. Here are five of the most common scams hitting our neighborhoods today:

    1. The Cash Deal: He might say it's because of taxes or he's got a special arrangement with his paint wholesaler, but one day you may have a painter in your kitchen telling you he'll cut 35 percent off his estimate if you pay in cash. "It might sound like a great deal, because we all want to believe we should get a discount if we're paying for

    Read More »

RSS Subscribe

[X]

How to subscribe

Roll over each section to subscribe using Add to My Yahoo! or RSS Feed feeds.

Yahoo! News offers dozens of RSS feeds you can read in My Yahoo! or using third-party RSS news reader software. Click here to find out more about RSS and how you can use it with Yahoo! News.

TIP SPACES OFF

Spaces is the Yahoo! Homes blog that is all about connecting with you and your interests in real estate news, home improvement, design & decor plus other fun pieces including celebrity homes, unusual homes and much more.


Spaces wants to hear from you about your home improvement projects, your design & decor ideas, and your questions about the complicated world of real estate and mortgages, too. If you'd like to share photos of a cool project or an unusual home - try us here or in our Flickr group.


Email the details to Yahoo! Homes@yahoo-inc.com, and we'll look it over.

The Spaces Team

Jennifer Karmon

Senior editor, Yahoo! Homes. Former Los Angeles Times editor. Clever, pretty designs and sharp writing make her swoon.