Burnett Blog

Have you ever clipped home decorating ideas from magazines or books? If you have, your going to love Pinterest, in fact, millions of people have fell in love with this online pinboard. Pinterest is a virtual file cabinet for all your favorite things!

Users are finding fun, easy decorating ideas and saving them. You can also save patterns, furniture, and accessories that catch your eye.

Pinterest isn’t just for home decorating, many followers are finding recipes, fashion tips and things to do. How do you get started? Request an invitation here.

We found this to be a cool tip that not many people are aware of. The ISU Extension Answer Line provides information and resources for Iowa consumers with home and family questions. A FREE RESOURCE.

Professional consumer and family scientists answer questions about child development, cleaning, consumer management, food preparation, food preservation, food safety, home environment, household equipment, nutrition, textiles and laundry.

Find an answer to your questions at this Web site.

• Search by keyword
• Browse our keyword index
• Select a topic area

Or, call them toll-free Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. – noon and 1 – 4 p.m.

* 1-800-262-3804 (in Iowa)
* 1-800-854-1678 (in Minnesota)
* 1-800-735-2942 (Relay Iowa phone linkage for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals)

They’ve been answering consumers’ questions for more than 30 years!!

In January 2002 Jan began her Real Estate career. Prior to Real Estate Jan worked in the Judicial Court System for Polk County for many years always hoping to someday have her own business.

Jan is a Graduate of the Realtor Institute and a Certified Buyer Representative. She is also Certified in New Home Sales. Jan enjoys working with both Sellers and Buyers at all price points.

In Jan’s spare time she enjoys watching and attending sporting events with her husband. She also enjoys helping Iowa Homeless Youth Center participants by providing transportation, references and other special needs they may desire.

Jan is thrilled to be a part of an office that is on point with current trends in Real Estate and enthusiastic to share with Sellers and Buyers.

Licensed to sell Real Estate in the State of Iowa

Jan can be reached at 515-681-7293 or by email.

This post was provided by Jensen Group, specializing in Ames, Iowa apartments.

For most, the holidays are the time for vacationing, visiting family and attending parties. Unfortunately, it is also “Christmas time” for burglars who reap the rewards of vacant homes and unguarded valuables. Don’t be the victim of a holiday home invasion. Follow these simple tips for preparing your home for the holidays to ensure a safe and secure home this season.

1. Create the Illusion That You Are Home
Although leaving a couple lights on while you’re out might sound like the oldest trick in the book, the reasoning behind it makes sense — burglars look for signs of inactivity when deciding which homes to rob. So take the extra steps of investing in a timer for lights, asking a neighbor to collect your mail and newspaper, and paying someone to maintain your yard when you’re away. The idea is to create the appearance of activity.

2. Inform Your Local Police Department of Your Departure
In many small to medium cities, police will keep an eye on your home if you provide them with your travel dates. Call the police station a couple of weeks beforehand to let them know when you will be out of town so they can assign someone to patrol your area.

3. Don’t Broadcast Your Whereabouts
We live in an age of over sharing and it is only natural to want to update your Facebook status, Twitter feed, and other social media channels with exciting news of your Christmas vacation. Resist the urge, if possible. The fewer people that know your home is empty, the less likely that it will be burglarized.

4. Keep Valuables Out of Sight
Who doesn’t want to show off a beautiful Christmas tree? Window displays are a great idea for those who are home for the holidays — but otherwise, they just attract unnecessary attention. Where there are Christmas trees there are usually gifts, so keep your trees and wrapped gifts out of sight if you plan to be away.

5. Destroy the Evidence
Some of us may be fortunate enough to receive fancy electronics, appliances, and other high-dollar items as gifts this year. Just be sure to keep the “evidence” under wraps. Break down and conceal product packaging in the trash. Even better, dispose of these items in a public dumpster, away from your home. Don’t give the crooks a reason to break in to your home!

Taking just a few precautionary measures can help you ensure your home is not a target for burglars this Christmas. Follow these tips each time you leave your home unoccupied and you’ll remain a step ahead of the thieves.

Holiday gingerbread houses need maintenance and improvement, too. We’ve collected some fix-up tips from chefs who bake fantastic gingerbread houses for a living. Below are photos of actual houses sold this year by Burnett Realty and the gingerbread house the new homeowners made for the holidays.

If you’ve ever built a gingerbread house, you know that walls crack, icing flakes, and roofs sag — if they don’t collapse altogether. And once you’ve got your gingerbread house up, you’ve got to maintain and protect it against sticky humidity and sticky fingers.

In the spirit of the holidays, we recently talked with a handful of chefs who spend at least a couple of months each year constructing gingerbread houses — even cities — for private and corporate clients.

Here are their tips on how to improve and maintain the value of your gingerbread home:

Chef Dana Herbert, winner of TLC’s “Next Great Baker” show, owner of Desserts by Dana in New Castle, Del.

Chef Herbert, who has created gingerbread homes 6 feet tall, reveals the secrets of producing sturdy and straight gingerbread walls that can hold up to candy and pounds of icing.

• Bake gingerbread until it is dark brown and cracker-like – 35 to 40 minutes.

• Air-dry it for two days before assembly in a low-moisture room. If you live in a humid climate, run a dehumidifier while drying.

• If you’re not planning on eating the house, first make a foam board model and attach the gingerbread walls to that.

• To achieve straight walls that make assembly easier, cut gingerbread with a pizza wheel.

• To preserve the house for three years, coat the finished product with shellac and store in a plastic box with a tight seal.

Chef John Hart, executive chef at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel

With the help of architectural firms around Seattle, Chef John Hart creates structurally sound gingerbread houses that have weighed up to 500 pounds. Mostly, Chef Hart uses gingerbread as siding on his wood or foam board houses. Here are some of his gingerbread house tips.

• Margarine makes gingerbread batter stronger than butter.

• For smaller houses, assemble your house model from foam board, then take it apart and use pieces as templates for baked gingerbread squares. Cut the squares to fit with a utility knife.

• Bake extra gingerbread squares, and cut them into long triangles to make angled supports you can glue to the inside of your house.

• To hide wall cracks, mix a little royal icing with brown food coloring, and then rub into cracks. Smooth with a fine grain sandpaper.

• Flat roofs need center supports because they eventually bow.

• Allow several days for assembly. Bake and let dry for two days. Attach walls with royal icing and let dry overnight, then attach the roof.

Janet D’Orsi, owner of the Gingerbread Construction Company in Wakefield, Mass.

Janet D’Orsi’s Gingerbread Construction Company ships more than 10,000 gingerbread houses around the country each year. The trick to building a sturdy house? “Let it dry completely between stages.”

Here are more tricks of the gingerbread trade.

• Attach roof peaks with a toothpick when drying.

• Overlapping Necco wafers resemble a tile roof: Shredded wheat makes a good thatched roof.

• Roll gingerbread dough to 1/16-inch thick, which will bake hard but not brittle.

• Melted Lifesavers candy simulates stained glass windows.

Chef David Diffendorfer, instructor at the The Art Institute of Portland, Ore.

Chef Diffendorfer has constructed medieval gingerbread cities consisting of a castle and 16 buildings. The gingerbread acts as framing, which he covers with marzipan.

Diffendorfer offers other gingerbread construction tips.

• Gelatin sheets, sold at baking supply stores, make colorful windows that look like antique leaded glass.

• To strengthen walls, paint gingerbread with molten white chocolate, which bonds with the bread to create a solid mass. Also, pipe chocolate onto the display board to create a strong and quick-drying foundation.

• Fill cracks with royal icing, but attach chipped pieces with white chocolate.

• To make sure gingerbread joints fit tightly, miter edges.

My own gingerbread house creations feature molten sugar windows that save imaginary energy, gingerbread spruces for curb appeal, and even Twizzler rain gutters to handle runoff.

• © Copyright 2011 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^®

Read more: http://members.houselogic.com/articles/?theme=&search=gingerbread#filter#ixzz1h754QjRb

Rochelle Burnett has owned her own business for nine years and opened Creative Leap, Inc. six years ago with a focus on relationship marketing and internet communications.

Rochelle started her career as a graphic designer with the largest real estate company in central Iowa. This job allowed her to gain marketing and real estate experience and it’s also where she met her husband, Doug, almost 15 years ago! Since then, Doug became the Broker/Owner of Burnett Realty and Rochelle has assisted Burnett Realty with their marketing through her business, Creative Leap.

After watching Realtors® successfully help clients buy and sell homes, she found it time to get her own license as well. She now looks forward to being able to help home buyers and home owners with their real estate needs, while also continuing to work with the amazing group of people that she has grown to love at Burnett Realty. Go team!!!

Rochelle can be reached at 515.635.LEAP or by visiting www.RochelleBurnett.com.

Homeownership should make you feel safe and secure, and that includes financially. Be sure you can afford your home by calculating how much of a mortgage you can safely fit into your budget.

Instead of just taking out the biggest mortgage a lender qualifies you to borrow, consider how much you want to pay each month for housing based on your financial and personal goals.

Think ahead to major life events and consider how those might influence your budget. Do you want to return to school for an advanced degree? Will a new child add day care to your monthly expenses? Does a relative plan to eventually live with you and contribute to the mortgage?

Still not sure how much you can afford? You can use the same formulas that most lenders use, or try another of these traditional methods for estimating the amount of mortgage you can afford.

1. The general rule of mortgage affordability

As a rule of thumb, you can typically afford a home priced two to three times your gross income. If you earn $100,000, you can typically afford a home between $200,000 and $300,000.

To understand how that rule applies to your particular financial situation, prepare a family budget and list all the costs of homeownership, like property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, and community association fees, if applicable, as well as costs specific to your family, such as day care costs.

2. Factor in your downpayment

How much money do you have for a downpayment? The higher your downpayment, the lower your monthly payments will be. If you put down at least 20% of the home’s cost, you may not have to get private mortgage insurance, which costs hundreds each month. That leaves more money for your mortgage payment.

The lower your downpayment, the higher the loan amount you’ll need to qualify for and the higher your monthly mortgage payment.

3. Consider your overall debt

Lenders generally follow the 28/41 rule. Your monthly mortgage payments covering your home loan principal, interest, taxes, and insurance shouldn’t total more than 28% of your gross annual income. Your overall monthly payments for your mortgage plus all your other bills, like car loans, utilities, and credit cards, shouldn’t exceed 41% of your gross annual income.

Here’s how that works. If your gross annual income is $100,000, multiply by 28% and then divide by 12 months to arrive at a monthly mortgage payment of $2,333 or less. Next, check the total of all your monthly bills including your potential mortgage and make sure they don’t top 41%, or $3,416 in our example.

4. Use your rent as a mortgage guide

The tax benefits of homeownership generally allow you to afford a mortgage payment—including taxes and insurance—of about one-third more than your current rent payment without changing your lifestyle. So you can multiply your current rent by 1.33 to arrive at a rough estimate of a mortgage payment.

Here’s an example. If you currently pay $1,500 per month in rent, you should be able to comfortably afford a $2,000 monthly mortgage payment after factoring in the tax benefits of homeownership.

However, if you’re struggling to keep up with your rent, consider what amount would be comfortable and use that for the calcuation instead.

Also consider whether or not you’ll itemize your deductions. If you take the standard deduction, you can’t also deduct mortgage interest payments. Talking to a tax adviser, or using a tax software program to do a “what if” tax return, can help you see your tax situation more clearly.

These are the “Bras” that Doug and Rochelle Burnett have designed for a great cause, Bras for the Cause. This is their 3rd year participating as artists in the event. Marcia Munger, breast cancer survivor and 2011 Chair, has been a part of the organization since inception.

Bras for the Cause is a volunteer-based organization raising funds to eradicate breast and cervical cancer – especially through early intervention mammograms and cervical screenings.

Doug’s “bra” creation earned him “Artists Choice” for the 3rd year in a row. On November 5th the bras were auctioned off at the annual formal gala. Doug’s bra was one of the top earning bras, selling for $1000. Rochelle’s bra earned $375. Doug and Rochelle raised $10,000 for the charity by designing bras and helping raise funds.

Doug’s bra is named “Iron Maiden” and made out of rusted metal pieces and parts that he found on a farm he purchased last year. Many of the little pieces are quite old and nostalgic. Doug’s bras have always been dedicated to his mother who fought and won the fight against breast cancer many years ago. He also dedicates his bras to Marcia Munger, a true hero for the cause.  Go Marcia!