Salt Lake City Real Estate

October 10, 2008

New Trends For The Garage

So often we hear about the new trends in home efficiency and design. But, we never hear about the garage. Many homeowners tend to neglect this space and take it off their to-do list completely. For those in the market to sell their home, there are some garage trends that you should get familiar with. It’s what buyer’s are looking for these days.

Garages are finally making a comeback. At one time, many homeowners converted their garage space into an office, studio, bedroom, great room or home gym. Now, homebuyers are looking for true garage space.

Many people believe that the garage is for car storage and, in today’s market, most buyers have 3 or more cars per family. So now, new homebuilders are making garages bigger. They are making them big enough to accommodate more cars and bigger cars.

For those who don’t have the option of bigger garages to fit all your cars, there is still hope with new trends. One of the most popular new trends is an auto elevator. They are inexpensive; less than a used car, and are very helpful when you live in a community that doesn’t allow parking on the streets. The auto elevator works like this:  When you get out of the car, simply push a button and the car rises, leaving room for another car to park beneath it. If that sounds too grand for you, there are other ways to make the space more appealing to buyers.

~ Finish it. This means finish all the walls, floors, and ceiling. It will give the room a fresher, cleaner look.

~ Redecorate. Paint can and will go a long way in redecoration. Also, don’t forget the flooring. You can stain the concrete, paint it, add sealed polypropylene tiling and more. This makes the room look like an extension of the home instead of a separate space.

~ Get organized. There are several organizational systems that are available which include closets, workbenches, cabinets, wall hooks, shelves and more. A few simple changes in the garage will look much better to buyers. It may even help you sell your home easier.

October 3, 2008

Women’s Empowerment Festival In Utah

Wow, this is interesting. It is said that many unmarried women in Utah are considered old maids. It seems that children are taught, from an early age, that a woman’s happiness depends on marrying and staying at home to raise the children. But, now there are several unmarried female business owners that want to change this stigma. They want to get the word out to Utah’s women that it’s okay to be a strong women, and that they should take that strength into their own hands.

In hopes of empowering young girls and women in Utah, the festival, Girls Gone Radical 2008, will be held in Salt Lake City this weekend on Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. at the Salt Lake City Main Library. The festival is free and will last all day. The festival will be filled with performances and workshops by women, for women.

The Female Empowerment Movement members are excited about the festival, but there are few that worry if it can be pulled off because the group was just recently formed in Salt Lake City. A Utah native, Courtney Maguire, is the founder of the group, which she started after moving back to Utah. She couldn’t find any groups in the area that were passionate about empowering women, sexism, feminism, or ending domestic violence.  So, she decided to start the group herself. Her first group meeting was a two hour meeting made up of twenty men and women, all in their 20s.

The purpose of this festival is to get information to people about the reality of domestic and sexual abuse as well as how women can empower themselves by speaking their minds. Courtney wants to bring it to the attention of everyone that sexism and violence are big problems in many states. And she wants Utah to be one less state on that list.

The festival’s workshops will be about being a single mom, self-defense, and domestic violence prevention. Women and men will get to enjoy dance and music performances. There will also be a candlelight vigil for people who have lost their lives to domestic or sexual violence.

This will be a great step forward for Utah’s women. I hope to see all Salt Lake City’s women and more there.

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