Ameublement Resources and Information

Archive for May, 2011

How Low Can We Go?

It was recently reported that San Diego County has more renters than homeowners. That’s right, more people choose to rent than choose to own their own home. What can be inferred from this one statistic? Let me take a closer look.

While there has never been a situation in our recent history where 100% of the county owned their own home, I am writing strictly about the percentage that can afford to own a home but chooses not to plus the percentage who could have owned a home but no longer can for various reasons.

The cost of owning a home in San Diego is still too high for the majority of San Diegans and I predict that values will continue to decline in the region. While a strong economy and attractive financing options ultimately drive values there are many economical-reasons that make up the cost of owning a home that are not entirely related to the purchase price. The purchase price gets all the glory but many other factors come into play

1. The tax advantage is does not offset the continued decline in values. Hopefully, the talk within the administration to remove this tax advantage does not materialize driving home prices down further.

2. Cost of paying for your own utilities.

3. Cost of paying for your own repairs.

4. Cost of insurance.

5. Cost of less space for more money.

6. Cost of living in the area you can afford versus the area you desire.

If anyone thinks these variables are not a factor, you’ve never owned a home.

How much of your life to you spend in bed?

Most of us don’t realise that we spend about 40% of our lives in bed. Not all of that time is spent sleeping of course! So if we spend more than a third of our lives in the bedroom then surely we should spend some time and money to make it as beautiful and comfortable as the living room. Even though not every guest may visit the bedroom, it still deserves a good personal investment. So what are some things that we can do to liven up our bedrooms look and feel?

The first change that you can make is in the sheets. There are two main factors that go into a great sheet, thread count and fibre. Usually, the higher the thread count, the softer the sheet. However, you can still some across 1000 thread count sheets that feel like cardboard because they are made cheaply. A 300 tread count is the recommended minimum because it is great for summer. Then you can move up to 1000. The other very important factor is the sheets fibre. Ensure that you don’t chose anything synthetic as it won’t breathe. Egyptian cotton is the softest cotton by far as well as cotton bamboo blends. Linen also looks great and breathes, but the negative with cotton is that takes lots of washes to really soften up. Anything marked “sateen” will have a silky feeling to the surface of the sheets.

After you have your sheets covered move onto a new a blanket. It is highly recommend to have a lightweight blanket in between the sheet and comforter. This provides extra warmth in winter and is great in summer when the comforter is too hot. Some good things to look out for here are waffle weave or lightweight merino wool.