Seismecaces: pool

Chris and I bought our first home this year, and so far we love being homeowners. We know that one day we will need room to grow, so when we start looking for our next home in 5 - 7 years, we are going to want to sell our home at a great price. We have already been researching the best investments to make in your current home to increase it's value. Here are some tips from realty pro Kathy Doyle to help get us started:

Use trends that fit the style of your house.
If you have a Cape Cod beach house, do not remove the beautiful wooden floors and cabinetry for stainless steel and radiant heated cement. Take all trends in mind with your home’s style and unique footprint on the real estate landscape.

Cape Cod Beach House via Picklee

Have an updated home.
Buyers of luxury and high end properties are looking for a house that is move-in-ready, in line with the investment they are making. The last thing any buyer wants is to envision a major remodel in their future, after spending millions on the home itself. The most important wonderful impression that must be made is a modern, updated kitchen. Top of the line fixtures and appliances are key. The top must-haves for appliances for today’s luxury buyers are a sub-zero refrigerator, excellent water filtration system, center island and second sink, dishwashers, trash compactor, and plenty of storage space. Beautiful bathrooms with tasteful design are also very important to the discerning buyer. (Me: Our home is very, very far from a luxury or million dollar property, but these principles can be applied still, just with a lower price point.)

Transitional Dining Room by Los Angeles Architects & Designers Studio William Hefner

Top Kitchen Trend: Warm and Inviting.
Forget the trendy kitchens of years past which came across as cold and utilitarian. Today’s top trend in kitchens is to embrace the space as the center of family and entertaining life. The color schemes for today’s top kitchens are warm and inviting to all the guests in the home. It is common for the kitchen to open into other entertaining spaces so that guests can mingle while hors d’oeuvre and drinks are being prepared. No more stuffy chef’s kitchens of years past, modern luxury is comfortable, warm, and casual. (Me: One of the first projects we have in mind for our home is either opening up the dividing wall between our kitchen and living room as a breakfast bar, or removing the wall entirely.)

This is pretty darn close to my dream kitchen.
Warm and Inviting Kitchen via My Random Inspiration

Eco Friendly can be chic via Ozvip

Be Eco-Friendly
Today’s buyers want to purchase a property that is friendly to the environment and on their wallets. When they purchase a home with large square footage, buyers must take into account long term energy and utility costs. So build savings into the home. Buyers love homes with double paned windows, lots of natural light, low-energy appliances, low-flow toilets, excellent insulation, and solar panels. Eco friendly is wallet friendly, and maintaining a luxury property is much nicer if you save money on utility
costs at every turn.

Luxury Pool via Luxist

Got a lot of lot space? Add a pool or guest house.

Luxury buyers want Guest Space for friends and family to enjoy the benefits of their good fortune. Guest space is key for almost every buyer I work with to find their dream home. Many want pool and spa for their guests to enjoy, and any property with one or both of these amenities goes up in value tremendously. Be clever and combine them both. Build a pool, and have the pool house double as guest quarters. One client in Beverly Hills built a gorgeous indoor/outdoor pool house with a daybed which served both as a seat for evening cocktails and as quarters for overnight guests to sleep in the open air. Sauna, Gym, Home Theatre and Massage Space are also high-end upgrades that add value to today’s luxury homes.

Luxury living room via La Dolce Vita

Stage for Success

If you are selling your home it is key that you stage for success. You want your home to feel personable, but not personal (as though only your family can live in it). So remove personal family photos, clutter, tchotchkes and the like. The right buyer will imagine their life in this beautiful space. Have style which is welcoming, tasteful, and leaves room for the imagination to play!

Find the Right Realtor

Kathy Doyle is a luxury real estate broker in Southern California. She is a leader in Beverly Hills and Malibu luxury real estate. With a keen eye for design, she loves to help her sellers make key remodels to make the most of their gorgeous properties so that they can get the highest purchase price on the market today. Buyers are looking for high end and beautifully updated homes, so to get the best price for your luxury property it is important to have the qualities today’s buyers are looking for.

this post is in partnership with Kathy Doyle Estates

Today was a total bust - ugh. Got up this morning at a reasonable hour and made the huge mistake of sitting on my sofa for "just a minute."

HUGE mistake.

Out like a light... for 5 HOURS

Unfortunately I'm having more and more of these "crash" days.

It's not like my to-do list is that unreasonable right?

• Plan a wedding for 130 people under $10,000.00 (That means a lot of DIY and searching, searching, searching.)

• Buy a home this winter (we're still awaiting our preapproval letter) for under $300,000 in the DC metro area so future hubby can get to work in the city for under an hour, has good public schools for future baby, is safe, has some sort of yard)

• Complete training to make Remi a therapy dog with Pet Partners - then volunteer with him as a therapy dog handler within the next six months.

• Build a barn on my parent's farm for future horse. Within the next year, fingers crossed.

• Launch redesign of Decorology (that's right - it's going to look WAY better soon) and hopefully grow Decorology. Within six months.

• Launch redesign of ashleywhitedesign.com (it's always one's own projects that come last) and continue to grow my web design business. Within six months.

These are just my priority items.

Okay, so maybe I take on more than I can chew, but who doesn't really? Everyone is insanely busy, and I don't have children yet, so I don't really feel like I have the right to complain yet... sigh. Luckily, everything on my to do list are things I am excited about and looking forward too, I just need waaayyy more hours in each day...

Serenity now.