• ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- Better Judgements eZine Terria Judge, Realtor CRS, ABR, GRI, Broker Associate Better Judgements is a newsletter on home matters, from Terria Judge, your Garden City, KS real estate agent! Contact Terria Judge at 620-271-2129! Terria Judge Coldwell Banker, The Real Estate Shoppe, Inc. John P. Judge, Broker 1135 College Dr. Suite E Garden City, KS 67846 1-877-275-7497 x 223 620-275-7421 x 223 http://terriajudge.com http://gardencityksrealestate.com http://gardencityrentals.com Terria@TerriaJudge.com --NEW EMAIL ADDRESS!! Subscription Management at end of newsletter. Thanks for your subscription to Better Judgements, the newsletter from your Garden City Kansas Realtor, Terria Judge. ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- In this Issue ============= 1. Article: Wintering the Rose Garden 2. New Features at TerriaJudge.com 3. Featured & New Listings 4. Article: What is a Habitat for Humanity home? 5. Article: Home Building and Katrina ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- Preparing For The End Of Season by Angie Noack The months of November and December can be an awkward time for many rosarians. While the growing season is coming to and end, the winter hibernation season has not yet begun. Some of us just don't know what to do with ourselves or our rose bushes during this period of time. Because your bushes are not yet in hibernation they still require some attention from you. Water continues to be a prime need, so make sure that the soil around their roots continues to remain moist. Give them a good soaking as need be, but, as always, don't over-water. Water is an important part of your roses' winter survival requirements and properly hydrated roots will help them stay protected when the cold weather arrives. Stop all pruning and deadheading activity so you do not encourage new growth. You should have stopped applying organics last month, and you don't want to apply any more fertilizer now either. Your goal is to keep your roses healthy while, at the same time, encouraging them to begin the process of going into dormancy. Continue spraying at least once each month to combat black spot. Spider mites are still active during late autumn so keep your eye out for them. Spritz your blooms and foliage with water whenever you see signs of infestation. Aphids are also active now, so have a bottle of soapy water ready to send them packing. Pick off any diseased leaves and rake away any fallen leaves from your rose beds. This not only improves the appearance of your garden, it also removes any disease residue which may be still on the leaves. This is also a good time to prepare your new rose holes and rose beds for next year's growing season. They will have time to "mellow" over the winter season and will be ready to accept new bushes in spring. Begin the process of piling mulch around your more delicate varieties such as "St. Patrick", "Color Magic", "Oklahoma" and "Signature". Your hardier varieties can wait until next month. See our "Winter Gardening" article for mulching tips. You worked hard all season to keep your roses healthy and beautiful. If you did everything right, you were probably rewarded with waves and waves of beautiful blooms. Your hard work is almost over for the year, but don't neglect your roses during these important final months. About the Author Angie Noack is a home and garden strategist with a sharp edge for technology. With her unique ability to combine these two skills, she's able to help gardeners save time and increase productivity. You can find her online at http://www.rosecowboy.com. ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- New Features at TerriaJudge.com ==================================== MORTGAGE CALCULATOR: http://terriajudge.com/calculator.html OPEN HOUSES: http://terriajudge.com/calendar.html ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- FEATURED & NEW LISTINGS ======================== If you're interested in listing your house with Terria, you might be able to have your own website like www.123yourstreet.com! Just visit Terria at http://terriajudge.com/marketevaluation.html to fill out an interest form! ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- A Decent and Simple Home by LINDA IMMEDIATO What makes a house a home? "A family," says Habitat for Humanity's Joedy Isert. "Before that it's just bricks and sticks, mortar and nails." Of course, there are too many American families - thousands more since Hurricane Katrina - in need of bricks and mortar, shelter. Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has responded to this need by building more than 200,000 houses for low-income families in nearly 100 countries, using volunteer labor, including the "sweat equity" of the family buying the home, as well as materials and land paid for with donations and no-profit, no-interest loans. "They aren't mansions to anybody except to the people who live in them," says Isert. Habitat's conventional North American house is roughly 1,100 to 1,300 square feet, has one bathroom, a covered entrance, and costs around $59,000 - about the cost of a luxury SUV. (In some areas, the cost can rise to $150,000.) But within those guidelines there is room for the house to be more than "shelter and sanctuary." They are, Isert says, "decent and simple" homes - "the heart of a family." The designs take into account that family time is valuable. The shared living spaces - the kitchen and the living room - are the largest rooms because they're considered to be the most important. These are rooms for families to gather - every day for meals, homework time, TV and simply hanging out, and on holidays and other special occasions when extended family members come to re-connect with one another. Climate and culture are taken into consideration as well. Houses in warm climates are often made with adobe or straw bale. In Africa, homes are built with clay bricks and tile roofs, and are designed with an outdoor kitchen, since that's where many Africans traditionally cook their meals. In the Philippines, Habitat has incorporated a small outdoor utility porch, where laundry is customarily done. And in Glendale, the San Gabriel Valley chapter is building a suburban home that looks nothing like the stereotype of affordable housing. Habitat's main design goal is to have the dwellings fit into their surroundings. So in New Orleans and all along the Gulf, where Habitat is gearing up for Operation Home Delivery in response to Katrina, the houses will be painted in colors that reflect the area, and will most likely feature planking on the sides and other elements to give the homes a historical look. Any new post-Katrina building codes will be incorporated into the structures as well. Once the design phase is complete, a volunteer work force, with the efficiency of an IKEA assembly line, will build the house frames, tack them together to check for stability, then disassemble them and pack them in a box container with all the other materials needed to build a complete home. When the container, or "house in a box," arrives at its destination, another team of volunteers will "blitz build" the home - this time for good. These concepts are nothing new for Habitat for Humanity. Even so, it's an enormous endeavor. Habitat estimates that $100 million will build 1,500 homes. To raise the money, the group will not only collaborate with banks and lending institutions, but work with local governments to address the larger issue of affordable housing. And, of course, the group will be reaching out to individual volunteers and donors - to encourage the giving, singer and New Orleans native Harry Connick Jr., who emerged as a hero figure in the wake of the disaster, has become the project's spokesperson; former President Jimmy Carter, who has been a supporter of the organization for 20 years, has already been lending his name to the effort; and jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis is onboard too. Operation Home Delivery is expected to begin this month in Jackson, Mississippi, but Habitat has several current projects closer to home as well. For more information or to volunteer, visit Habitat's international Web site, www.habitat.org, or one of the local chapters: www.habitatla.org, www.hollywoodforhabitat.com or www.sgvhabitat.org. Article seen at: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/43/features-sidebar.php ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- Houses go up for Katrina's displaced BY ERIC LIPTON New York Times SLIDELL, La. - One team of men is bent over drills, driving mobile-home anchors deep into the moist earth. Others are lifting cinder blocks that will be used to hold up the next set of identical beige homes that trucks are bringing here. A building boom is under way in this city at the edge of Lake Pontchartrain, where one-third of the houses have been damaged or destroyed. But this is just the start. The government is beginning what urban planners are calling the single biggest burst of federal housing development in U.S. history. Last year in Florida, the Federal Emergency Management Agency set a record by installing 15,000 homes in the aftermath of four hurricanes there. In the wake of Katrina, they hope to open 30,000 homes every two weeks, reaching 300,000 within months. The numbers might drop if the demand does not meet expectations. But more than 140,000 people are now packed into emergency shelters, while hundreds of thousands of others fill hotels, homes of friends or relatives or are temporarily relocated across the United States. The building blitz is intended to bring as many people as possible back to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. "It is like pushing a big rock down a hill," Brad Gair, head of FEMA's Katrina housing task force, said of the project. "It takes a little time to get it moving, but once it gets moving it moves very fast. And that is where we are getting right now." At four giant staging areas across the region, FEMA is assembling tens of thousands of mobile homes and trailers. In Baton Rouge alone, at a former Defense Department logistics center, thousands of them are already lined up as far as the eye can see. More than 25 so-called strike teams are deployed across Louisiana, scouting out possible sites for these new boomtowns, negotiating with local officials and attempting to draft leases or sales agreements for farmland or campsites. To meet FEMA's needs, factories are churning out the trailers and mobile homes at capacity. The agency is also buying up homes from sales lots and warehouses across the country. As seen in the Wichita Eagle: http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/special_packages/hurricane_katrina/12630484.htm ---------BETTER JUDGEMENTS--------- This newsletter is compiled and published by Mitone Griffith, http://brightideagraphicdesign.com

  September 15th, 2005 at 12:11 am

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